The Agency: Tale of Agent Salamander

by Draconian Enigma

In a world of espionage and terrorism, the FTA is one of Fiore's few means of defense, capable of swiftly eliminating threats to the Nation and Royal Family from outside the realm of the law. A civilian on the surface, Natsu Dragneel is a carefree street racer with a flirtatious streak, but in the shadows he is the infamous Agent Salamander, a force to be reckoned with. (AU)

29. The Monsters Among Us

Sorry for the wait for this chapter, I've been very busy recently and had been writing this where I had time. Unfortunately, though, I had to completely start from scratch as my main system drive on my pc crashed, my C/ drive, and I had my stories folder on my desktop. That drive won't even show up even with an external hub so I think it has completely fried itself… this caused me to lose 20k words worth of progress towards this chapter, and the work I had done on the other story too. A positive was that I wasn't happy with how the initial draft was heading and had planned on redoing it, but I had intended to use the existing work as a framework for the new one. Two of the biggest changes were Natsu's mentality when exposed to large volumes of negative energy, I didn't like how I handled that, and the other change was the main content and general flow which is significantly improved in this version.

Hopefully this time around I can make things work better, still sucks not having the original piece to reference. (Coming back from 22k words in, it doesn't suck anymore, this is leagues better than what I originally had.)

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23:30 Hours – 30 minutes to Operation Start.

"Listen up!" Captain Black Steel barked through the comm system provided to him by the F.T.A. He was marching alongside Lieutenant Storm who had returned to his side after assisting their ally's infiltration. Behind them walked a dozen commandoes, decked out in full combat gear comprised of composite armour designed to protect against even the most intense combat situation. "We can't let the Fairies have all the fun, and we sure as hell won't be sitting around with our thumbs up our arses waiting for things to kick off. Smith, take two squads and prepare and P.O.W zone for detainees. Fisher, take a squad to the A.T.C Tower and shut it down the RADAR, make sure it stays in our hands. That bastard is currently on his way back from a sortie with his squadron, I want them blinded ASAP. That'll give our fly-boys from Pegasus some room to manoeuvre and allow them to get the jump on him."

""Yes Sir!"" The two commandoes replied in unison, nodding to the gruff soldier leading them in leu of a salute before both split from the two-column formation and go their separate ways.

"Storm, you've confirmed the status of the power plant?"

"Yes, Sir." The blunette nodded her head subtly as she gazed out of the corner of her eye at the studded man. "Agents Salamander and Celeste infiltrated it and he used those powers of his to force the workers to obey his commands."

"So, he has access to them once again… I wasn't certain but something felt off about him." Black Steel glanced back to the soldiers behind him and narrowed his rusty-red eyes cautiously. "All of you, be wary of Salamander. He is no normal Dragon Slayer. If he goes ballistic then give him a wide berth lest you be caught up in his hellish destructive firepower."

"Do you think he'll go berserk again like he did a few years ago, Sir?" Asked a woman three spaces behind Lieutenant Storm, her eyes darting between the two highest ranking commandoes leading the group. She couldn't fully suppress the fear growing within her which leaked into her transmission.

"If he's been allowed to use those unholy powers again, then we can only hope that he has matured enough to not lose control." The captain grumbled something under his breath but it wasn't picked up by the microphone strapped to his neck. He turned his gaze to the stars above as dark clouds started to obscure them and blot out what little natural light they had. "Regardless of his situation, we have a job to do tonight. De Tanois, take two squads to the Motor Pool and hold it down. You'll probably come across some Fairies there so work with them."

"Oui, Sir!"

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Time's ticking down, we should start moving." An armoured woman murmured to her team. She glanced back at the two behind her, one slightly smaller than her and the other a behemoth of a man. They were the Strauss siblings that operated under the callsign 'Chimera' with the eldest, Agent Demon, taking the Squad Leader Position. "Chimera One to Command, we're proceeding with infiltration."

"Acknowledged." Stygian replied instantly, the closer it came to go-time the more his tone became crisp and clinical. The man was preparing himself for the monumental influx of information that was about to come surging into the command centre. "I'd advise keeping a low profile until midnight, stick to the shadows and away from personnel. Agent Beast's bulk is hardly stealthy."

"Who needs stealth when you have manly guns like this?" The large man grunted, his lips curling upward as he flexed his large arms in front of his chest then hefted his rotary machine gun off a nearby stump and brought it in front of him.

"He's flexing again, isn't he…?" Stygian sighed while the two other Strauss siblings held in their giggles with everything they had. "Disregarding Beast's quirks, infiltrate and proceed with your assigned task; cause chaos in general and assist Captain Black Steel's commandoes if they need reinforcements."

"Moving out." Agent Demon turned her attention back to the tall fence blocking their approach and lowered herself into a crouch, priming her legs for a powerful leap. A soft rustle slipped through her helmet's audio system as her siblings copied her movement, and a moment later the trio of Agents were racing through the cold air.

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Wolf Three to Command."

"Go ahead, Wolf Three." Agent Fae glanced over her shoulder at a map digitally displayed on the wall where various blue blips were racing about the expansive military base in groups of two to five with each blip annotated by a small line of text that had the Agents codenames.

"We have rendezvoused with Cinnabar Squad and are preceding to the Motor Pool."

"Understood. If you are unable to secure the vehicles by the start of the operation then get into firing positions and defend the area. We must not allow them to get to their IFVs and tanks and bring them into battle." The blonde quickly locked her eyes onto the blips she was after, Agents Knight and Frost, and saw them dart down a narrow gap between buildings with Agents Black Dog, Boxer, Rodent, and Shinto following hot on their heels.

"We'll try and gain control of the sector as quickly as we can. But if it goes hot then we'll need back-up to take on those armoured vehicles."

Agent Fae's eyes quickly darted to the timer counting down at the far end of the command tent. Her fingers danced across her tactical computer on her left arm with well-practiced ease, she didn't even have to look down at it. Fae had switched from a single outgoing channel to the command channel which broadcasted to all networked units. "All units, fifteen minutes to Mission Start. Ensure that you are in position."

A soft tap on the nape of her neck broke the woman's concentration, followed briefly by the scent of cologne that she adored. Fae couldn't help but smile as she turned and gazed up into the sapphire eyes of the man she loved above all else.

"Fae," Stygian quietly murmured into her ear. He wanted to make sure he didn't disturb the busy command centre with seemingly idle chatter while he held up a glass of water. "Would you like a drink? It's a bit on the cold side."

"You better keep me warmed up then." The blonde whispered, her deep green eyes peering up through her eyelashes while her lips widened into a sly, playful smile.

Before Stygian could fire back at his wife with a retaliatory flirt, they were interrupted by the voice of a member of the command staff cutting through the noise around them.

"Hey, Agent Gale?"

The short blunette glanced up from her terminal and locked eyes with the man who called out to her, boring into the yellow orbs that dared to break her concentration. "What is it? I'm trying to focus here." Like everyone else in the command tent, the woman was decked out in her armour but had her helmet sat on the table next to her terminal, within arm's reach so she could quickly grab it.

"Sorry, Ma'am. Agent Salamander is requesting to talk to you."

"Ah, alright." Gale looked down at her Tac-Com and tapped on it a few times before turning her finally being able to turn her attention back to the terminal. "What can I do for you, Sal?"

"Do you have that Railgun on you? I'm perched up on the ATC Tower and was thinking of using that to pop some heads."

The woman did a quick mental check on her magical storage dimension and bobbed her head rapidly. "Yeah, but I'm at the FOB operating the Data Link between all factions and being on hand in case something fucks up." She knew it was bound to happen at some point during the mission, Murphy doesn't give a damn where you are, after all. He'll always rear his head at the least opportune time.

"Alright, I'll send Celeste back to collect it."

Without responding, Gale requipped the large weapon and leant it against the table she stood at along with a pouch containing the slugs it magnetically shot. She didn't even have much time to properly focus on her work before she saw an armoured figure appear out of thin air beside her out of the corner of her eye. "That was fast."

"While the base is much larger than I originally thought, it doesn't take me all that long to cross from one side to the other if I use Traverse." Celeste replied cheerfully, the smile in her voice was as clear and bright as a sunny day even through her helmet. She looked down between them and tilted her head in surprise. "Is this the weapon?"

"Mhm, it's all there." The blunette spared her friend a quick glance and a brief smile before dragging a window of information across her screen with a fingertip. "I'd love to chat, but I've got a tonne of work to focus on. Sorry."

"It's alright. We're all going to be very busy tonight." The taller woman shook her head slowly at Gale's hurried response and gave her armoured shoulder and light pat. She grabbed the railgun and moved it to her back, snapping it in place with the integrated locks in her armour. Once it was secure, she grabbed the pouch and gave her friend a quick wave 'goodbye' before vanishing from the tent.

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Fisher. Report." Captain Black Steel grunted. He was driving a transport truck and heading across the base with thirty loyal commandoes, spread between his and another following close behind. They were heading out to secure and underground storage bunker that housed one of Phantom Lord's most deadly and dangerous units.

"We're in transit to the detention pit with the people from the RADAR facility, taking a truck. Bumped into Agent Salamander and some woman named Celeste, he was using that explosive bullshit he can do and spreading out a web of it all over the place. So, once they vanished, I decided to evacuate the building and take them over to Smith to look after. Figured it'd be fine since they're disabling it."

"Good call." The captain glanced down at the truck's clock, the time was ticking ever closer to midnight and now there was only a handful of minutes left before the coup would begin. "Nikolev. Status on Block Thirteen Barracks?"

"We're in position and ready to move through the floors, just waiting on the starting gun."

"Be aware that even though those soldiers might not be armed – or at least armed with a handgun – they can still fling magic around. Subjugate them as quickly as possible, and only use lethal force if absolutely necessary. Those aren't fanatics, just people doing their jobs."

"Understood."

The tension in the air slowly thickened and strained against the commandoes' usually steadfast nerves, any moment now the order will come through and they would officially become traitors to the company they had devoted their lives to and for which they had stepped into warzone after warzone and committed clandestine missions which could very easily be classified as acts of domestic terrorism. If this mission failed, it was a certainty that Jose would have them all executed in front of all personnel and be made an example of or even become his scapegoats, thrusted before the kingdom's judiciary and made to take the fall for the crimes. The tension reached a crescendo when a kind, bell-like voice slipped into their ears and made time – and their heartbeats – slow down.

"All units: Operation starts in Three… Two… One… Initiate."

As the small convoy turned the last corner and approached the bunker, the base's power was shut off and the ground quaked from explosives detonating all around the base. Black Steel shut off his truck's lights and powered up the Integrated Vision Enhancement System built into the ballistic protective goggles his commandoes all wore. Within a heartbeat, his vision took on a green tint with green and blue blips appearing on his HUD, courtesy of the Tac-Coms loaned to him by the FTA.

"You know the song, Ladies and Gentlemen! Time to dance! Lock, cock, and prepare for the fight of your lives!" The former head of Phantom Lord's Special Operations Group called out to everyone under his command while stepping down from the truck's cab. He reached back into the cab and withdrew his SCAR 17, holding it at a low ready in front of his chest as he turned to his assembled soldiers. "Davis. I want you and fourteen others to take up defensive positions by the entrance. We can't let these monsters out of their cage. The rest of you are coming with me into the pits of hell, we're going to annihilate these abominations. Set up the HMGs, we'll need the firepower if they blow past us."

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Spark to Command: I have eyes on Black Steel. He is about to enter that underground bunker we were assigned to investigate."

Agent Spark was crouched atop the roof of a nearby three-story building, accompanied by his usual team. The crackle of gunfire echoed through the night alongside the occasional burst of magic-induced light illuminating a far-off area.

"Regroup with the captain and lend them your strength. Revenants aren't something we can allow to live on, they must be eradicated tonight."

"Understood, Stygian. Sprite Squad moving to assist." The man flicked his hand up as he shot a glance back to his squad. Each one rose to their feet and moved back a few meters before taking a running leap from the top of the building. Like ominous shades they flew through the sky and covered the hundred-and-fifty-meter gap, landing loudly within the group of green blips and were met with raised battle rifles. "Easy now."

"Stand down!" Black Steel ordered as he shoved the muzzle of the soldier next to him down to the concrete. "They're Fairies." His eyes darted across the four chests, taking in their names quickly as his soldiers slowly lowered their weapons. "You lot are after those Revenants, right?"

"Yeah." Agent Spark glanced around him then strode calmly over to the reinforced blast door's control panel. "The only one who has come across one was Salamander, considering that was a few years ago and he said that it was 'a fucking bitch to put down', then we can't exactly let them survive this battle."

"Putting aside Agent Salamander's crude manner of speaking, the message was clear… If it gave him trouble, then if another one popped up, it would need to be exterminated." Agent Fairy tacked her input onto the immediate end, before someone else could get their two cents in. She earned a quick nod from Agents Machiavelli and Écriture as the three followed their squad-leader. "And thanks to your information, we knew they were Jose's creations and kept here on the main base."

"I'm not about to bitch about extra back-up, just don't rush ahead. I don't even know how many Revenants there are." The black-haired man shrugged his shoulders and approached the door, he quickly addressed his units with a brief look backwards. "We'll stick to the same plan; half stay here and the other comes inside."

'Huh… I figured they'd at least have some form of back-up power to this bunker.' Spark flicked his gaze back at the leader of the commandoes for a moment before returning his attention to the power grid of the bunker, visible to his eyes only. He had been feeding a slight amount of bio-electricity into the panel and tracking it, unfortunately though, the thick steel reinforced concrete was preventing his electromagnetic vision from penetrating too deeply. The bunker was most likely built with the interception of electromagnetic radiation or the protection from external radiation in mind. Regardless, he was still able to provide power the door's locking mechanism. "Stand back, I'm opening the door."

"You heard the man, take your positions." Black Steel moved back from the door that he had planned on prying open by force and raised his rifle as the heavy thunk of the deadbolts sliding open echoed like a gong in the night.

"Mach, take point. Crit, Fairy, follow him in." The blonde agent shouldered his modified Ultimax 100 and took up the rear position in the diamond formation, following the group while the wedge of commandoes swept in behind them.

"Spark, close the door behind us. If we can't stop them here then we can at least prevent them from running rampant through the battlefield." The captain grasped the agent's shoulder and stopped him in his tracks before they could go too far. After getting a nod from the man, he gave a silent order via gesture to his troops for them to take up defensive positions.

"How many can we expect down here?" Agent Écriture asked quietly as he took a knee with his M1014 aimed down the wide hall. "A dozen, two?"

"I can't say for certain, the most I have seen in one place is six." Black Steel muttered as he moved up next to the green-haired man and crouched down. "But I know there is at least twenty, I keep track of these bastards' missions as best as I can."

"You don't know what they do?"

The rust-eyed man shot a quick glare at the lone woman of the team before letting out an annoyed huff and grunting his reply. "No. We may handle black-ops, but they are even blacker than us. You can practically drown in the amount of black ink that covers their files." His helmet rotated as he looked back at the door which clunked shut and the bolts started slamming home. Once Spark had re-joined them, he slowly rose to his feet and walked forward, weapon raised. "There are likely even more than what we expect. Revenants are made from only the most fanatical of his members. I'm sure you've only seen the final product, and from what the reports say from our end, Salamander practically dropped the sun on it. Wasn't much left of that one once he was done with it."

"You're not wrong…" Spark replied quietly as their diamond took point once more with Black Steel splitting the wedge to form wings to the sides of the agents, with the man himself beside the blonde agent. "I reviewed the footage from that encounter while we were preparing for this mission. Those things are monsters in their own right, going up against that man and giving him a hard time."

"That's not the current model, either."

"Wait, what?!" Agent Fairy tried her best to keep her shout contained but even at the level of a loud whisper it raced down through the silent, still air of the bunker. "Crap, sorry." She quickly muttered as she tapped her armoured fist against her polarised visor, she sighed softly and nodded back at the commando. "Continue."

"Stronger, faster, thicker armour, better tech, the list goes on. Hell, I wouldn't be fucking surprised if that bastard made them more resistant to fire after Salamander took one down. I bet he even decided to make his little pets resistant to electrical attacks."

"You're kidding, right?" Écriture stiffened and looked back in shock. "Even resistant to Agent Spark's attacks?"

"Calm down, Crit. I'm pretty sure it would still go down if you hit it hard enough or with enough ammo."

"Well, put it this way; those guys I left behind to cover the door, they're armed with Heavy Machine Guns with AP ammo. Hopefully, they can score hits on at least a few of them, and that it's enough to put those few down."

"Hey, err… do you mind if I interject?" The commando to Fairy's left asked, timidly. Her eyes darted between the backs of the three male agents and her leader, seeking approval for her question which came in the form of a glance and a wave from the burliest agent. "Mach, Crit, and Spark are peculiar names…"

"Oh, for the love of the gods, please don't bring that up…" Écriture muttered darkly while Machiavelli laughed loudly and Spark covered his polarised visor with his left hand, adding another layer of cover to the very well concealed embarrassment.

"Ugh. Whatever you do, don't ever make a bet with the Agents known as Demon and Salamander… and if you do, then never be so overconfident or underestimate the depths of their cruelty." The blonde grumbled quietly as he whacked his laughing friend across the back of the head to get him to shut up, it wasn't the time nor place to be making such a loud racket. "They like betting codenames, that's why Frost is actually called Frosty, in other words, Frosty the Snowman."

"They had normal names up until about two years ago," Fairy started filling in, a voice so full of mirth that it was like a busted dam trying to hold back a century flood. "But then Demon was in a particularly playful mood and made a bet with those three, adding Salamander as a little bit of flavouring to the pot. As you can see, these three lost. Salamander came up with Sparky, while Demon chose the other two, Mach is short for Machiavelli and Crit for Écriture."

Spark's small grumble came through his helmet's audio system in a distorted buss before his voice picked up like the crack of a whip. "Can the chatter, you lot. In case you've forgotten, we're in a conflict zone right now. Not to mention underground with only one way out, if we come under attack from an overwhelming force when we aren't focused then we'd be wiped out in an instant."

"The big guy is right. We're here." Black Steel jogged past the group of agents and came to a stop near two doors, one significantly sturdier than the other. "Spark, power the door to the control centre, hopefully we can see how many we are dealing with."

"Alright. Do you know if any have been sent on missions?"

"I've had people keep an eye on this place, but things can always slip through the cracks. I can't say for certain but I don't believe there are any away from this base."

"And this is the only storage site?"

"As dangerous as these fuckers are, it wouldn't make sense to store them separately. I'd wanna keep them all together so I know exactly where they are." The leader of the commandoes slipped through the opening door and hurried to the control panel, his hands and eyes skimming across the mechanical interface. "Back-up gens, back-up gens… here."

A faint rumble and whirling slipped through the walls as the lights flickered to life in the chilly room, the breath of the commandoes slipping through their facial armour. The black-haired man started to flick switches and relay power into the adjacent room, bringing the lights to life and revealing an all-white room filled with rows of large boxy metal pods.

"Here are these fuckers…" The man tore his eyes from the pods and turned to the group of agents, raising his voice from a whisper as he addressed them. "I believe this is all of them. This facility seems to be for both storage and manufacturing of Revenants."

The green-haired agent moved past the commando and ran his fingers down a contents list, murmuring quietly to himself before he turned back to his squad. "It seems that while there is a hundred or so of those pods down here, thankfully not all of them are allocated to one of those monstrosities."

"Is there any way to remotely kill them, like a safety built into them?" Agent Spark gazed between the two men stood near one another and the next room through the reinforced window. "Or do we have to go in and check the pods manually?"

"If I knew that was possible, then I'd have killed the fuckers off and destroyed the labs already, wouldn't I?" Black Steel spat as he shot a glare at the blonde man and muttered "Damn dumbass," under his breath on his way to the security door which stood in his way to the pods. With a heavy kick, the door bent across the centre, almost folding in half as it flew out of the frame and landed noisily in the room beyond. "I haven't powered the pods; we'll have to do that manually. I'd rather not have them all open up on accident."

"Is that what would happen if the power comes back online?"

"Worst case assessment is that the power surges due to untrained personnel bringing the base's power back online, causing damage to various facilities and potentially popping the hatches on every single pod in here." The commando leader walked over to the nearest occupied pod and gazed up at the monolithic metal structure. It stood close to three full metres tall and over half as wide and deep, pure black all over with a seam between the two halves sitting a third of the way back from the front. That which was contained within must have been freakishly huge to warrant such a container.

"Damn things must be bigger than I thought. It was hard to get an idea of size with Salamander's speed making things blurry in the recording." Mach muttered softly. He activated his eye magic as he gazed through the metal. "Yeah, there's a living being in there… the soul is rent and tortured, but it's there." He slowly walked down each row, gazing into each one, determining which is occupied and which isn't. "All of them… all the same… tortured souls, screaming in pain, wanting to die, waiting for the end."

"Doesn't surprise me given what that fucker does to them to turn them into this." Black Steel growled. He came to a stop by the first pod and transformed his right arm into a large black sword. "Give it a jump start."

"You sure that thing will put them down?"

"I have a lot of tungsten and titanium in my diet, it toughens my metal body. If I can't kill it, then use me as a lightning rod, we'll fry the mother fuckers from the inside out."

Without any further hesitation, Agent Spark placed a hand on the pod and channelled an electric charge into the opening mechanism. Gas hissed from the seam as the door slowly slid forward until coming to a shunting stop a few inches out and splitting down the middle with the halves going to their respective side.

As the moisture rich cloud dissipated, it revealed a colossal armoured behemoth. Standing two-and-a-half metres tall and with a body almost as wide as the pod itself. All in the room could tell it had once been human even though no flesh was visible thanks to the heavy metal armour covering its entire body, rounded and curved to fit the natural curves of a human body. There was a faint hiss-like breathing emanating from within the behemoth's helmet, past the metal mask designed to resemble a human face.

The spikes of Black Steel's sword whirled to life, creating a massive chainsaw which he aimed at the thick armoured chest of the Revenant. "Die, you bastard." He muttered while driving the sword's tip forward, eliciting the ear-piercing screech of metal-on-metal contact. The commando grit his teeth to ward off his developing migraine and pushed his arm harder into the armour, slowly but surely grinding his way into it until finally breaking through, tearing through the flesh underneath and spraying it from the underside of his saw. "Do it! NOW!"

Spark wrapped a hand around the man's arm – behind the spinning spikes – and channelled a lethal high amp electrical current down the metal appendage and into the Revenant.

The man-made monster's eyes flickered to life, a mechanical red glow coming through the eyes of the mask. Its arms surged forward, reaching for the man shredding its chest. But before it could crush his head with its large hands, the electricity's strength shot up and ruptured its chest like tree struck by lightning. The metal containing the body warped, buckled, cracked, and finally burst apart, showering the two men in blood and guts. The lights in the cybernetic eyes flickered and faded, and all that remained of the torso were a metal spine and ribcage, and various cables running up from the waist.

Agent Fairy slowly let out the breath she had been holding and gradually lowered her rifle halfway. Her gaze darted between the two men and the monstrosity starting to fall forward out of the pod, causing the two dragon slayers to step out of the path. "That's one atrocity dealt with… and it took about five or so minutes to kill it this way. We'll be at this for hours at this rate."

"We can't use any high-level draconic spells down here without the risk of burying us alive. So, unfortunately, we'll be stuck doing this for now." Spark informed his squadmate, quickly, as he moved to the next pod and placed his hand upon it – waiting for his fellow slayer. "Slow and methodical is the best thing we can do anyway. But stay alert, if one of these things comes out of their standby mode autonomously then we'll be in for a fight. And if it damages the other pods, then it could wake up the occupants."

"Enough yapping, we've got work to do." Black Steel growled out his reminder as he revved up his chain-sword and gave the blonde agent a short nod.

0=0=0=0=0=0

Gunfire crackled throughout the expansive motor pool with the occasional muzzle flash lighting up the faces of the numerous Mercenary Soldiers, their unsuppressed weapons sending supersonic lead racing between and over parked armoured vehicles at the rebelling commandoes. While their equipment was inferior, their numbers more than made up for it.

Thick dark clouds blotted out the stars on the moonless night, causing the battlefield to be as black as crude oil. And in the endless shadows prowled two predators, methodically hunting down their prey. A pair of veteran Agents raced through the narrow gaps between parked vehicles, circling the hostiles like lions.

At the rear of the advancing soldiers, brass casings started to get picked up and thrown through the air by an invisible wave of energy. A deep thrum echoing over the din of battle as the wave carried debris into the formation, pelting the soldiers with their own spent cartridges and disorientating them as the shockwave shook the fluid in their ears' canals, rattled their bones, and set off all the nerves in their body at once.

Following closely behind the blast was a gust of light-pink mist, blowing across the battlefield and passing through the soldiers. It snap-froze their weapons' firing mechanisms and removed their capability for ranged combat. An instant after, six shadows shot forth in a pincer formation, coming from the left and right of the troops. Within mere moments the six tore through the soldiers, ripping the weapons from them and forcing them to the ground.

"Push up and regroup with the Agents!" Ordered a rough-voiced woman through the darkness, and soon after two full squads of commandoes emerged and encircled the captured soldiers. "Damn, you lot make my life easy."

"Why aren't they using the comm system we provided?" Frost's helmet snapped up to the surrounding friendlies as he deftly snapped cuffs one soldier after the next. "Giving orders out loud gives our opponents vital intelligence that which they could use against us…"

"De Tanis." Knight cuffed the last soldier she had allocated for herself and crossed the short distance to the commando. "Please refrain from shouting orders into the night, even with the sounds of battle surrounding us, your voice would have carried far." Even though she was quietly reprimanding the commando, she never stopped scanning her surrounds, her helmet panning left to right and back again while she kept her rifle at a low ready.

"Oui, yes… My bad, old habits die hard. We'll take this lot back to the pick-up once you are done. Are you guys right to keep pushing on?"

The redhead gave a brief nod and glanced back at her temporary squad, checking their progress. "One more minute and we'll hand them to you and move on. They seem to be congregating around the maintenance hub, no doubt that's their final stand."

"Try not to damage the equipment in there. I'd bet it'd be a pain to replace it after all this is over."

"We're done here, Knight."

"Regroup on me." Knight glanced behind her once more then returned her attention to De Tanis. "Noted. Take over here, we're moving out. Regroup with us once you're finished. We'll be engaging right away to keep their attention pinned on us."

"Understood. Good luck Ma'am." De Tanis gave the agent a quick salute before the redhead and her five squadmates took off into the night, running quickly yet near silently.

"What's the go, Knight?" Agent Boxer asked the more experienced agent while keeping a few metres behind and off to her left. The two members of Wolf squad were leading the formation side-by-side while the four Cinnabar members formed a staggered column behind the duo. "Should we go in hard and fast?"

"We'll send in some Spyder swarms so we can mark as many hostiles as we can before we enter. Sal is on overwatch and has a clear line of sight to the maintenance hub, if we can show him where they are then he can watch our backs."

"I wonder how outnumbered we'll be in there." Frost remarked, coolly. His helmet turned slightly as he quickly glanced at the woman next to him. "Ten-to-one? More, less? There'd be vehicles in there too, no doubted they'd be planning on using them."

"If we are using the Spyders, then we should also send in smoke grenades to block their vision." Agent Shinto suggested from his spot at the very back. "The power is off, which means so is ventilation. They won't be able to extract the smoke from the interior. We'll see everything while they are completely blinded."

"We'll go with that, just don't get overconfident." Knight replied without taking her eyes off the path ahead of her. She shifted her weight near instantaneously and changed course to dart down the next left, followed closely by the other agents. "A reminder; they have vehicles in there. Those vehicles will have thermals so if they are brought online, either fully or just with auxiliary power, then they are a threat that can't be ignored."

"We'll be fine as long as we avoid taking hits from the one-twenties and thirty mils. Coax would just be fifties and most likely the only other gun would be a seven-six-two, our armour is rated to stop both easily."

"Don't come bitching to me when you get filled with lead then, Dog." Frost muttered sharply, his helmet snapping around to look behind him. "Keep out of fire as much as possible. You aren't Salamander, don't try and match the shit only he and a very select few others can pull off."

"Enough. Get out your swarm pod and smokes, I'll launch them into the building." Knight ordered as she reached into a pouch on her left hip and drew out one pod and two grenades which levitated from her hand and moved to hover over her right shoulder. The devices were quickly joined by a set from the other five agents and were quickly flung ahead of the group, punching through a high window. The six agents stacked up against the back door of the hub and gave the Spyders a few minutes to scutter about and latch onto any being within the building, which caused numerous red outlines to appear on their HUDs. "Sal, do you see them?"

"I see them, Knight. I've adjusted the output on the rifle, it'll punch through the walls with minimal-to-no deviation. Looks like Chimera are entering the AO, they may be able to provide assistance if you run into trouble."

"Copy." The redhead glanced up at the other member of Wolf squad, in position opposite her, and gave him a nod before placing her hand in front of the door. A psionic pulse blasted from her palm and ripped the door free of the frame, sending it careening into the interior.

Capitalising on the smoke obscuring them, Frost took the lead. He brought his rifle up as he swept through the doorway, holding fire as Knight followed him in, with Cinnabar squad bringing up the rear. Once all agents had infiltrated, Frost lined up the first hostile with a rifle and pulled the trigger. "Only target the armed hostiles, if they are unarmed then use less-lethal means to subdue them."

The order required no reply, and none was given as the six agents fanned out while pulling the triggers on their suppressed battle rifles. The rapport was muffled significantly but the supersonic rounds still cracked through the air, filling the cold still air with loud pops. The bullets ripped neat holes in the smoke clouds before tearing through the heads and hearts of their opponents.

It didn't take long before they came under return fire, but it was inaccurate and most rounds past harmlessly by, and those that didn't ended up smashing into their armour and leaving small scrapes and shallow pits on the surface – non-critical damage.

Their helmets let out an inaudible ping every half second, an echolocation pulse that mapped the area around the agents and displayed highlighted outlines on their respective HUDs. Allowing all six to easily navigate the unfamiliar building that was filled with clutter; from tools and parts to vehicles themselves.

"There is an elevated platform to our north-northwest. Seems to have plenty of cover and will provide a good shooting position." Agent Boxer informed the squad. He had already been slowly making his way over to it; bit-by-bit and cover-by-cover. "We should leapfrog to it."

"Acknowledged. Frost, you're the furthest. Cross behind quickly and take position. I'll follow once you are settled in."

"Got it, Knight. Moving out." The raven-haired agent fell back a few metres, dropping the empty mag from his rifle and quickly replacing it before sprinting behind their lines to his next firing position. Unfortunately, to combat the smoke the Phantoms had forced open the large doors, allowing the chilly night air to blow in and push the smoke along the battlefield. It seemed like they would only have one minute at most until it had fully dissipated; they had to move fast.

A heavy machine gun mounted atop a lightly armoured vehicle opened fire, lighting up the agents as they started to become visible. It was manned by a Phantom standing in the centre of the vehicle, flanked by thick bullet resistant glass on all sides bar the front which had a steel shroud around the M2 HMG.

"Damn it!" Frost grunted as he took a .50cal round directly to the side-plate of his torso armour. It didn't pierce it but the kinetic energy rocked his body and made him stumble. He used his momentum to dive behind cover as more rounds dinted off the armoured door he was hiding behind. "I'm fine! Might've slightly cracked a rib, but nothing serious. Will definitely need new armour after this if I take any more of those Raufoss rounds."

The Ma Deuce continued to pound his cover and keep the agent pinned, along with the other agents as when one of them tried to peek around their cover they were near instantly fired upon. After almost ten seconds on continuous fire, the bullets started to walk up and to the right of Agent Frost before the gun finally fell silent.

"Tango down."

Taking a moment to glance through the bullet resistant window of his cover, Frost looked at the vehicle that had been firing upon them. The protective cowl around the turret had been cleanly penetrated through both sides and the rear of the guards had been coated by a fine pink mist. "Kill confirmed, the gun is silent. Thanks, Sal." Now free to move once again, the man took off, the dull pain in his side fading quickly.

"What the hell is he using?" Black Dog asked the two veterans, voice shaking slightly. He had seen the head vanish in a gruesome shower of fine particles, whatever had hit it was no ordinary round.

"Railgun." Knight glanced at Frost who had finally made it to his position and had started laying down return fire. "Moving. Cover me."

By now the smoke had cleared, leaving the six agents completely visible as they moved quickly – hopping from cover to cover. They were open to the elements and it was raining lead. As they moved, waves of psionic energy and gusts of frigid pink mist raced across the battlefield but to avoid killing non-combatants they couldn't unleash a large-scale attack, and targeting individual soldiers would take time and would open them up to counter attacks, so the agents did what they could with the options available to them. They shot back, landing precise and lethal shots upon the soldiers, they hurled spells and their Esper abilities into the fray, threw grenades where there wasn't any chance of hurting vital personnel or equipment, all to thin out the forces as much as possible and force them to surrender.

"Where the hell is that De Tanis chick? What is taking them so long?"

"I don't bloody know, she's a damn Phantom, even if they are rebelling. Who the hell knows what they are up to?"

"Clear comms, motherfuckers." Growled Sal, quietly but coldly cutting into the conversation between agents Shinto and Rodent. "We're in a warzone so keep focused. As for their location, look at your fucking maps and you'd see that they are hurrying to your position."

"What's your damn prob…"

"Rodent, quiet, please." Celeste cut off the other agent. Her calm, quiet tone easily extinguishing the argumentative man's temper. "Sal isn't himself right now, and I'm not surprised given what he has told me."

"Yeah, yeah. Demons, chaos, war, etcetera, etcetera." Rodent continued, rolling his eyes in his helmet albeit in a more controlled fashion. "I don't get why you two get to sit up in your little tower while we're dow…"

Before the man could finish his little complaint, an explosion went off against his chest plate which threw him back caved in his armour, crushing the flesh underneath before the explosion ripped the man to shreds, leaving little intact. On the other end of the Maintenance Hub sat a tank which was running on auxiliary power only, its 120mm barrel pointed directly at the obliterated agent.

"Tank! Watch out for HE rounds!" Knight called out before launching over her cover and moving behind a LAV.

"I did warn him."

"Holy fuck…" Shinto muttered in shock, he had only just been outside of lethal range of the blast but he was still shellshocked by the blast wave that had washed over him and the sight of his squadmate getting blown apart.

"Start moving, or you'll be next." Frost warned as he too began repositioning out of the tank's firing line. "And you better do it now."

"That tank might not be the only vehicle manned, be careful of an IFV's autocannon as it will shred you even in your armour. I can't see them from my position, nor can I see any outlines that are moving like they would in an armoured vehicle. So, I can't take them out with my railgun."

"We need to try and keep in sight of each other to provide support in case one of use gets surrounded!" Boxer kicked his legs out in front of him and slid across the concrete floor, gliding across a gap in cover and sending bullets down the line and into a group of soldiers before digging his foot in and spinning to place his back against cover. "But keep spread out, if we're too close then we would become the two birds with one high explosive stone."

The tank turret whirled quietly as it slowly panned from left to right, the operator was trying to pick up heat signatures on their thermal imaging camera. With the gruesome death of one of the agents, the moral of the soldiers skyrocketed and they started to shout taunts and curses at the agents. It had been obvious by how they moved and attacked that they were the FTA, that they were aiding the commandoes in their coup d'état. Some scrambled to the vehicles, trying to bring them online while others covered them. They were soon successful as the thumping rhythm of an autocannon echoed throughout the building.

A loud boom shook the floor as the tank fired off another round, it had found the heat signature of Black Dog's rifle. The fact that it was being held by a mass of near-ambient temperature armour gave the agent away. The HE shell landed against the top of the cover that Black Dog was using and sent the man flying back, his head collided with a metal beam and ripped it from his shoulders though luckily for him, he had died from the overpressure before he went flying through the air.

"Cinnabar, Wolf, Status!"

"Under fire from tanks and IFVs! Stygian, we need back-up! We've already lost Rodent and Dog." Boxer replied, anger and guilt flooding him voice. He heard a grunt of pain from Shinto who had been shunted along the ground when his cover got caught up in the blast and had taken three 25mm rounds, one to his left leg which was no longer connected beyond two-thirds of his thigh, one to his abdomen, and one to the right side of his chest. He was alive, but wouldn't last long. "Shinto… Shinto's on his way to meet them. I'm the only one left from Cinnabar who is fully capable of fighting."

"Damn it… I'm routing Chimera to your location; they'll be five minutes."

"I think we'll be overrun by then. I suggest we fall back, regroup, and then try again." Knight suggested quietly, gazing at her fallen brethren for just a moment before snapping back into action and unloading the remains of her mag into the encroaching hostiles, managing to drop six of them before she had to get back behind cover and quickly relocate thanks to the autocannon.

"Boxer, move your ass to another position! That tank has a bead on you!"

Agent Boxer's head shot up from his fallen squadmate at the sound of Frost's warning. He quickly turned on the spot and glanced over the cover to see a 120mm cannon aimed right at him, and the blackness within which lie his fate. A light flashed before his eyes, like the Reaper's scythe, and in his final moments his life replayed before his eyes as the large round slowly travelled towards him.

But a flicker saved him, like someone flicking a light on then off right away. A suit of armour had appeared then vanished faster than he could blink. And in the next instant the round exploded… from within the tank. The ammunition within cooked off immediately and blew the turret clean off the tank. A heartbeat, the LAV's turret flew across the maintenance hub accompanied by a cluster of embers trailing behind. Boxer let out the breath he had been holding and sucked in a large gulp of air, his mind clearing and returning to the battlefield.

A trail of embers followed a blur in and around the hostiles, each falling victim to a multitude of slashes faster than they could perceive. Every now and then, the embers would jump from one end of the battlefield to the other in an instant without losing momentum. And yet, even those not caught up by trail of embers seemed to fall victim to a knife, and others; a bullet.

Gunshots rang out from the large doors at the far end of the room, the commandoes had finally made it and joined the fray. They were quickly joined by the trio of agents and began their counterattack.

"What the hell is going on?!" Shouted De Tanis as she dived into cover beside agents Knight and Frost. "What happened to 'make them surrender'?"

"We lost three members of Cinnabar squad and almost lost the last. But Salamander and Celeste came in a nick of time." Frost replied calmly as he rested his rifle on the cover and took careful aim, not that it mattered as he knew neither of his squadmates would let themselves get hit. "Celeste returned a HE round back to sender. And Salamander ripped that turret from the IFV, now they are both wreaking havoc among the hostile ranks."

De Tanis lifted her head just enough to see above her cover and her eyes visibly widened within her goggles. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, or put more correctly; what she couldn't see. "I… I heard reports and stories of those who had seen him in action, those that were there back in that arms deal. But I always thought they were exaggerating…"

"And now?"

The commando slowly turned to look at Agent Knight and let out a shuddering breath. "What the fuck are you guys? Is this why he made the Revenants? To fight that monster?"

"That may have been Jose's intention. We did notice them start to be developed when it came to light what Sal was. Maybe it was supposed to be a solution for the government if he ever went rouge. But when he did lose control, they decided to rob him of all his power by sealing it, leaving barely any accessible. Citing that it endangered everyone around him."

The sounds of guns – rifles and handguns – being tossed to the floor reached their ears, drawing their attention to the soldiers and technicians who stood with their arms raised in surrender. Their heightened moral from minutes ago had been completely shattered by the rampage of the two extremely deadly agents. One after the other, then by groups of threes and fours, each person surrendered and came out of cover.

Sal came to a stop atop the destroyed tank, illuminated from behind by fire and the embers drifting off him as he stood there; knives drawn yet not a drop of blood anywhere on him or his weapons. He was joined in an instant by Celeste who blinked to his side, a Ruger 57 and Gerber knife in hand, equally unblemished. His helmet turned slowly as he scanned the room, reviewing the carnage and finding the dead or dying comrades. He leapt silently off the tank and landed without even a squeak, as he straightened up, he slid his knives into their sheathes and walked through the warzone, between the uncontrollably shaking soldiers. His helmet hissed softly as the light pressure holding it to his head released and he lifted it off, revealing his salmon hair – spikes waving gently due to the substantial heat rising from him.

"Monster," "Demon," and "Rabid Attack Dog" were some of the hushed whispers that floated around him, coming from all directions.

A bloody gurgle greeted the man as he came to a stop beside Agent Shinto who had propped himself up against a large hoist. Near silent footsteps surrounded him as he was quickly joined by the remaining agents, each one removing their helmet out of respect for the dying man. Shinto weakly reached up and struggled with his helmet release for a moment before Boxer knelt down and helped him remove the armour. His eyes were bloodshot and they slowly drifted from one set of eyes to the next before finally coming to rest upon a set of cold red eyes, like frozen pools of blood. "Pl…ea…se…"

Agent Salamander handed his helmet off to the blonde at his side, not once removing his gaze from the dying man's pleading eyes as he drew his pistol. Not a word was spoken among the group as the slide snapped back and Agent Mikuni 'Shinto' Shin's head rocked back then forward, joining Wan 'Black Dog' Chanzi and Krov 'Rodent' Krysa on their journey.

"Take him back." Sal murmured to Celeste as he took his helmet from her and turned his back on the two members of Cinnabar squad and raising his voice to address his team. "Wolf squad will take on their tasks." The man gazed around at the destruction from the battle, his dull red eyes coming to rest upon a crimson stain on the wall and a pair of armoured legs not far from where he stood. "What could have been done differently…?"

At the man's muttered question, Knight turned as Celeste blinked away and followed his gaze. She sighed quietly and rested her hand on his left shoulder. "We did warn them. They just didn't heed it, unfortunately." Scarlet strands wiggled slightly as the agent shook her head lightly. "There is nothing more that could have been done."

"I know we are expecting casualties but damn… If I had left my position sooner then maybe we could have put an end to this battle sooner." Sal ran an armoured hand down his face and grit his teeth, a wisp of smoke escaping from between them. "I won't lose control not this time, so don't worry. But I can't stop being on edge, all the pain and suffering, it's driving me mental. I didn't think it would get this bad."

"You heard us, I take it?"

"Yeah."

"Hang in there, man." Frost offered him a slight smile as he clapped his hand to Sal's other shoulder. "Chances are that things will only get worse from here out."

"How very reassuring." The salmon-haired agent grunted softly. He tore his eyes from his fallen comrades and started walking back to the commandoes, through the captives, with a calm and confident yet borderline violent gate. His demonic eyes scanning the faces around him as he heard Knight and Frost fall in step to his right.

With the identities of the agents in their midst revealed, the building was thick with terror. Three of the most powerful agents in the FTA were boldly striding between them, helmet-less yet certainly no less dangerous. No one dared to even breathe as the trio passed by, even when they were joined by a gorgeous blonde agent who appeared at Salamander's side and instantly met him step-for-step. Not one of them dared to move a muscle under the pressure the presence these four agents held, the fact that the blonde could fight on par with the infamous Salamander instantly earned her recognition and fear near equal to her mentor.

"I gave my report while I was there. Stygian and Fae know of the situation. Chimera is still inbound but they know the situation has fizzled out so they've slowed their pace a little." Celeste informed the squad, her chocolate eyes roamed the faces around her, watching as the soldiers and technicians were restrained and shepherded toward the front of the building where De Tanis stood waiting.

"What's the situation outside?"

The four agents came to a stop in front of the commandoes, Knight taking a step further than the others and closer to De Tanis. The woman gazed at the redhead – who stood in line with her left shoulder – for a moment before turning to fully face the quartet. "We didn't run into any hostiles on the way here, so I'm guessing they had either fallen back here before you engaged or rushed here afterwards to join the battle. I believe this is the last lot in this sector."

"I can vouch for the woman." Sal added as he sat his helmet on the workbench that stood between the two parties and crossed his arms, his eyes slowly moving from one woman to the other. "From our vantage point we could see small groups running toward the front of this building. But I was too busy keeping you guys covered to deal with them."

"Are you right to carry on from here, De Tanis?"

"Yeah, you agents can move on. We won't touch the bodies; you guys can collect them once you are done."

"I think we all will be doing that." Sal murmured and snatched up his helmet, slipping it over his head as he turned to the rear entrance. "Come, we should regroup with Chimera."

0=0=0=0=0=0

In the dark skies above the mountains, among the thick dark clouds lurked four fighter jets. Each sporting a depiction of a flying horse on the twin angled stabilisers faintly visible against the dark geometric camouflage coating. They were tearing through the clouds at supercruise, flying at Mach 2.1 without their afterburners, a feat only achievable thanks to the custom high-performance engines embedded into these top-of-the-line air superiority fighters.

Just a few meters off to the left and right wing of each aircraft sat two drones, just a little smaller than the jets themselves. In all twelve aircraft, manned and otherwise, sat AIM-260 JATM and AIM-11 Peregrine missiles housed inside internal weapons bays. These jets were the new F-3 fighters, created from the FX program, but these weren't the same as the ones in Fiore's Air Force as they were heavily modified by the Blue Pegasus Air Defence Group, designated the F-3X Akuma.

"Visual confirmed, those are our Phantoms. Let's fall back and climb higher. Keep them within the MAR."

The man piloting the leading jet in the formation reached over to his right and flicked a switch, toggling his microphone from the squadron to the greater network. "SL Lates to FTA Command."

"This is Agent Gale in FTA Command; Go ahead Squadron Leader."

"We caught up to the target in a gap in the clouds but didn't make radio contact, as instructed. Confirmed visual on Aria's Super Hornet at the formation's tip, his wingman has the markings of his lieutenant's aircraft. So, we are falling back a few K's and will sitting at their high-six."

"Understood. Fire at will. Ensure that you bring down the leading aircraft. If you see chutes then radio back with their approximate position and we'll send over a team in a Nighthawk to investigate."

"Wilco; Engaging bandits." Hibiki flicked the switch back and glanced through his canopy to his flight. "Orders are in. Ren, you are taking the six on the right of the diamond. Eve, you've got the six on the left. Jenny, take the rear six. I'm taking the leading group. Queue up your targets and ready Fox-3s, fire only on my command."

"""Roger."""

Hibiki used his control interface to select his designated targets; setting Aria and his Lieutenant as his primary targets while splitting the four remaining jets between his two slaved drones. "I'm all set."

"Same here." Ren confirmed, quickly followed by Jenny and Eve.

"All set on my end."

"Ready to launch."

"Fire Fox-3s on my mark. Three… Two… One… Mark." The Squadron Leader hit a button on his stick twice, dropping two missiles from his internal bay which ignited and streaked forward out from under him. Along his sides two more missiles were launched from each of his drones. Further out from them, his wingmen fired off their own missiles, filling the sky with twenty-four trails of smoke.

""""Missiles away. """"

"Hit the burners. We're chasing them in."

The jets pitched down as their nozzles flared wide open, cones of flames bursting forth and rapidly accelerating the F-3Xs to their maximum velocity. The four pilots followed the contrails from their missiles down through the clouds.

"Ready Fox-2s and prepare to merge with the hostile aircraft from their six."

Explosions lit up the clouds ahead of them, and soon after the pilots punched through the lowest cloud layer, regaining visual on the hostile formation. Five Super Hornets managed to defeat the missile when they got the warning from the Fox-3s going Pitbull.

"Tally five hostiles directly twelve o'clock, they are running for the valleys between the mountains." Ren announced calmly over the radio. "We've taken them for dinner and drinks, it's time to dance."

"I've eyes on Aria and his wingman. The missiles were probably intercepted by the other jets themselves. I've got those two, you three grab your dance partner and show them a good time." Hibiki came off afterburners and throttled down, reducing his speed slowly as he dived on his two targets. In the corners of his eyes, he could see his wingmen peel away and being chasing their own targets. He reached over without looking and toggled his radio quickly. "SL Lates to FTA Command; Nineteen bandits shot down in initial engagement. Five bandits remaining. We're merging in the valleys and will down the final five. Among those still flying are Aria and his Lieutenant."

"Copy that. Happy hunting."

"Thanks. It may get a little loud down there but we'll try to keep things from raining down on you lot." The man flicked his radio back and switched his selected payload to his Peregrine Fox-2 missiles. "They seem to be trying to beeline it back to the base. Probably thinking their Air Defence Systems are still operational."

"We should take them out of the sky before they get too close. Otherwise, we'll be endangering the ground forces."

"Jenny is right. Don't prolong your dance." Hibiki quickly locked on the wingman and fired off a missile, but the jet quickly broke off to the right and moved behind a mountain which defeated the incoming missile; it had crashed into the tree-covered mountain. After a few quick taps on his drone controls the UCAV entered Search-and-Destroy mode and took off after the wingman. He quickly programmed the second drone for defence in case the hostile looped back around behind him and tried to get a lock on his F-3X. The blonde pushed his throttle forward and closed the distance with Aria's jet, carefully approaching so he won't overshoot.

"Splash bandit. My target is down, pulling back."

"Mine is doing some dumb shit, I swear they're about to clip the trees."

Ignoring Eve and Jenny, Hibiki kept on the tail of his bandit as the jet swerved and jinked out of his sights, also using the terrain to disrupt the tail. He thumbed his weapon selector and swapped to his guns, causing his HUD to change accordingly – bringing up his gunsight, a funnel that predicted the trajectory of his guns.

A burst of cannon-fire tore past him but none hit him. A warning echoed in the cockpit, one of his drones had been destroyed. It was likely the one defending him and now his rear was open. A second beep rang through, his first drone had completed its task. The man spared a quick glance out the back of his canopy and saw a fireball streaking down to the forest below.

Unfortunately, in the lapse of concentration Aria shot past him. He had closed his throttle and pulled his airbrakes to force Hibiki to overshoot. But, thanks to the F-3X being a completely stealthy fighter, the hostile jet couldn't achieve lock-on, leaving guns as the only option.

For the second time that night, a burst of cannon rounds ripped past the aircraft but thanks to a quick rudder to the left, Hibiki avoided being shot right up the tailpipes. The usually calm, suave man, something he prided himself on being, was gnashing his teeth at his mistake. It had only been a fraction of a second worth of misplaced concentration, but it could nearly cost him the fight. He was down a drone and his remaining one was reporting empty on ammo.

However, his plane had a few tricks up its sleeves, tricks that the standard F-3 doesn't have. The Akuma was fitted with a G-Dampener, a special magic-induced field which allows the pilots to withstand a greater than usual amount of G's for a short period, but that short period was more than enough time to pull a high-G manoeuvre. In modern fighters, the limiting factor in manoeuvring was the pilot's capabilities to withstand gravitational forces without passing out. Thanks to their tech, Blue Pegasus' were capable of withstanding well past the sustained 10 G's that normal fighter pilots would pass-out at. It was because of tech like this that jets like Hibiki's didn't have the standard restrictions placed on the flight control computer.

The pilot pulled back hard on his stick, wrenching the jet into a sharp upward turn. The Super Hornet tried to follow, not wanting to lose the assailant, yet even as he pulled the nose around, the dark-coloured jet continued move within his turning circle. The F-3 was outfitted with three-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles, and the F-3X was no different, this allowed Hibiki's jet to easily outrate the bandit. The man gazed up out of the top of his canopy, a grin rapidly forming on his lips hidden behind is O2 mask. The G counter on his HUD climbed and climbed, cracking twenty G's with ease and continuing higher, yet all the man felt was a sense of weightlessness.

The turn was so impossibly tight that Aria had very little time to react, the losing cues were there right before his eyes. In another second, give or take, that nose would pass right over the centreline of his jet and he would undoubtedly get peppered with 20 mm rounds from the jet's rotary cannon. On instinct, he snapped his jet onto its side and peeled off to the left, putting himself out of the firing line.

A brief jerk of the stick and a kick of the rudder pedal twisted the air superiority fighter about like a UFO. It floated around like a leaf, turning the nose towards the bandit.

"I have you now."

A door opened on the jet's fuselage, and out spewed a half-second burst of cannon-fire. The streaks of light shot across the dark sky between the two jets and started to tear into the front third of the Super Hornet. Little bursts of heat and shockwaves rippled across the surface of the jet as the rounds detonated against it, working their way down the spine of the plane and damaging the internals and engines.

The Super Hornet quickly burst into flames and trailed dark smoke as it careened to the forest below. There was no sign of movement from within the cockpit, no explosive bolts detaching the canopy, nor no seat coming rocketing out.

Hibiki silently circled above, keeping his turn wide while taking care not to drift too close to the mountains bordering the valley that he had fought in. He watched the burning wreck fall all the way down to the trees and explode. Only then did he look away and call in his kills. "Splash two bandits. Aria and his Lieutenant are KIA."

"I'm almost done here; this one is just being a slippery little basta… Oi! He was mine!"

"Orders were to make it quick, not play with them, Jenny."

"Yes, but I was about to shoot him down!"

Jenny's angry outbursts were contrasted by Ren's cool and collected reminder. Three jets crested the mountain and came down to sit in an inverted V formation off Hibiki's wings with their drones in tow.

"Anyway. Hibiki, with that last kill…"

"Hmph."

"…our tally is nineteen on the initial engagement, five on the clean-up. You should call it in."

"Yeah, will do. Time to RTB, make for the Air Carrier Catalina. We'll land, refuel and rearm, and launch with ground attack aircraft to provide support to the troops on the ground." Not needing a reply, Hibiki set his heading to the airborne aircraft carrier and reached over to his radio toggle. "SL Lates to FTA Command."

"FTA Command; Agent Fae here, go ahead Squadron Leader Lates."

"Good evening, Ma'am. We've taken out the encroaching bandits. All twenty-four jets were downed in the mountains around the base. And I can personally confirm that Aria and his Lieutenant were shot down and KIA. I had a gun solution on Aria's jet and a few rounds got into the cockpit, there was no ejection. My drone took out his wingman, the plane completely disintegrated."

"Good work, Mr Lates. Give my regards to your team, and be sure to give my thanks to Ichiya and Bob for lending us support for this operation."

"We're returning to the Catalina to top-up on weapons and fuel, but we'll be back shortly to escort some air-to-ground capable aircraft in case you need some CAS runs."

"Understood. Let me know when you are back in the air, and include the callsign of the CAS planes so I can call them in."

"Will do. SL Lates out."

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Dude, hurry up."

"Calm yourself, Monsieur Totomaru." Replied a gangly man leaning over a control panel. "Unfortunately, the technicians are of no help. If they complied then maybe this could have gone faster."

"You are telling me to calm down, knowing full well that he is out there? Look what he did to these people!" The captain of the infantry division swept his armoured arm across the room, pointing out the numerous bodies surrounding them. They weren't dead, they had been incapacitated, there was no point killing off staff that you needed. And the thought to put a bullet through them or burn them alive didn't even cross the fire mage's mind. "Yeah, the Big Man has a habit of brainwashing people but all that bastard needs to do is to ask you to do something. And if your will isn't strong enough to overpower his own, then you'll do as he commands!"

The two captains were alone in the room, the only ones awake that is. They had troops stationed outside but they didn't they didn't want to be overheard. Sol grunted a curse and slammed his fist down in frustration before letting out a sigh and deciding to take a moment to regain his composure. He stepped back from the panel and faced his fellow mercenary. They were outfitted differently, Sol himself was only in camouflage fatigues – coloured black, dark grey, and dark purple – while Totomaru was decked out in armour but not the kind that the commandoes wore, but a set that you'd usually see on standard infantry. "I thought he had been sealed. But evidence shows otherwise."

"Nah, he had been sealed, no doubt about it. He never felt the same when I crossed paths since then. You know how he had that strange aura around him, it was faint but enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

"Hmm… maybe they removed it in preparation for this? How long has Monsieur Gajeel been plotting against us?"

"Fucked if I know. I mean, I can't exactly blame him myself, he does the Big Man's dirty work. You heard about that shit in Calico, right? That weapons hand-off was to terrorists." Totomaru started pacing from one end of the control room to the other, from left to right, running a hand through his hair then down his face before sitting both in his trouser pockets and facing Sol once more. "It made me think about how many things has Jose been doing behind the scenes to secure contracts. After Calico, my group went in to assist with the clean-up. I didn't realise until after that the Sarin used by those terrorists was sourced by us and Gajeel had been ordered to deliver it. Do you know how many bodies I had to pull out of those buildings?"

"I read the reports. But if it makes Fiore stronger in the long run, it's fine in my eyes." Sol narrowed his eyes slightly at his comrade, tilting his head then leaning to the side slightly in a strange way. "Do you harbour doubts about Monsieur Jose's leadership?"

"Of course, I do, I'm not some braindead fucking fanatic like those directly under his command!"

"I sure hope you don't intent to betray us like Monsieur Gajeel has, Monsieur Totomaru… I'd hate for you to end up like those things in the basement."

"Yeah. I've seen enough of those fanatics go missing, seen the process too. That's one of the things that I question about him." Totomaru sighed and pointed to the console with his chin. "You best get the power back on. Hopefully, it doesn't make those monsters rampage."

"Well, maybe they'll finish of the traitors and it'll go back to being a quiet night. We can have drinks with Monsieur Aria once he lands, he should be here soon." Sol turned back to the console and started fiddling with the controls. "You should wake the plant manager up, we might be able to get her to tell us what to do." He flicked a few more switches before finally getting lucky. The technicians had kept the generator running but diverted the output to charge the battery bank and cut the power leading out of the facility to the greater base.

As soon as the power was rerouted back to the base, an alarm echoed throughout the room. It was loud enough that it started to rouse the technicians. But the blaring noise hid another shorter and sharper noise. A brass casing from a .45cal pistol dropped to the floor as a man left the room. He slipped the P320 into the holster on his right thigh as he pushed open the door and walked casually down the hall.

"Captain Blaze." Came the soft voice of a woman as the man stepped out into the night. She was kitted out in black armour that covered most of her body, not even a millimetre of her pale skin was visible under the commando's armour as she gave a brief salute. "I've come to collect you."

"Lieutenant Storm, I was expecting the Captain." Captain Blaze gazed around at his personal unit, each one at-ease and talking rather informally with the two squads of commandoes accompanying the Lieutenant. "Do you want our weapons, or can we keep them on good faith?"

"You can bring them with you until we reach the holding point, but then I'll have to ask you to leave them in your vehicles." Lieutenant Storm glanced around, her helmet turning ever so slightly and her eyes darting about behind her goggles. "I had reports that Captain Terra was with you?"

"He fell asleep at the control panel for the plant." Blaze replied offhandedly with a few casual pats on his right thigh. "I don't think it'll be all that easy to wake him up."

The armoured woman nodded briefly before turning to a squad on her left, all who instantly broke off their conversation and stood ready for orders. She silently jerked her head to the door before returning her attention to the captain in front of her. "We have to confirm his condition before we move out."

"I understand." Totomaru slowly walked past the woman and rested his rear against one of the trucks he had appropriated. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up once more. "The Fairies, what are they offering?"

"Those who willingly surrender will not be charged, those who fight back and are either killed or captured will be held to trial. Jose is going to be either executed tonight or later if he is taken into custody. They have orders to kill or capture the leaders at their discretion."

"And what about me? I didn't really have much to do with all the shady shit."

"You'll probably be investigated but cleared, I can't say for sure. But since you have willingly surrendered…" She paused for a moment and half turned her body to look back at the entrance to the power plant. "We've confirmed Sol's condition," Storm turned back to the captain and took a few steps towards him. "You just saved us the hassle of dealing with him, thanks."

"The bastard had it coming. Anyway, continue?"

"Since you have turned yourself in, I think you'll get off pretty easily. And you'll have a place in their new division. It'll be more of the same, I believe, but no shady shit. Well, at least not to the degree of arming terrorists and committing war crimes."

"So, I'll still be in the position I'm in, but working for a better company?"

"Mhm. That's the gist of it. They want to take over Phantom Lord and make it their own subbranch that deals in the same above-the-board contracts that we currently do."

"Well, I'm sold. I'll send out a message to my troops and have them stand down. Do what you will to those who disobey, I'm sure the Fairies wouldn't want anything to do with those anyway. You'll still have to deal with those fanatics and his Revenants too."

"My captain is working with Agent Spark's squad to take care of those. I wonder how they are going though…" The doors opened behind the woman but she didn't turn this time, however, the commandoes accompanying her started moving to her trucks. "Have your people mount up and follow us, Captain Blaze. In the middle of the column, if you will."

"Gotcha." Totomaru nodded and smacked his hand against the side of his truck a few times as he raised his voice. "Listen up! We're moving out, so get loaded up and settle in, our fight is over." At the collective reply of "Yes, Sir!", he pushed off of the truck and opened the driver's door. As he entered the cabin, he took the rifle from his back and sat it behind the seat before sitting behind the wheel. The man waited for a short bit, watching as his soldiers filed into the trucks and gave two short blasts of his horn to notify the Lieutenant that he was ready to move.

"You sure this was the right call, Captain?"

"Yeah, it's for the best, Meryl." The man replied to his Lieutenant, quietly. He let out a small sigh through his nose and pulled in behind the lead truck. "This allows us to get out of Jose's thumb, allows us to stop being a part of all the crap he justifies as 'for the betterment of our nation', what a load of shit." His black-and-white hair shook slightly as he quickly glanced at the woman sat in the passenger seat. "And in all honesty; If I had the balls that Black Steel did, I'd probably have done the same thing. But in doing this, I can ensure my troops survive this conflict and that they have better lives after." And it meant he didn't have to face him again. But then again, it was good that he became a turncoat, since to kill monsters who is better to send than another monster.

"I see. Well, I hope they treat us well."

0=0=0=0=0=0

"FALL BACK!" Bellowed Captain Black Steel as he knocked an incoming Revenant back with a giant spiked pole of an arm. The man himself had transformed his skin into metal and was using it to dampen the blows from the horde of man-made monsters. "Move Your Fucking Arses!"

"Command! Emergency Transmission! Some fuckwit must have fiddled with the power and caused it to surge. Every Revenant has come online! We're outnumbered and retreating to the surface!" Yelled Agent Spark, contrary to his volume, he was calm. Lightning was arcing all over his body, making the man a walking tesla coil which shocked Revenants every time they got close, with a charge large enough to stun each one for a few seconds. Due to the inbuilt resistances, he couldn't do much more than that though, and that was slowly aggravating him.

"Damn it!" Stygian cursed loudly and after a few quick breaths to bring his anger down he refocused on the task at hand. "I'll see who I can divert, I can't promise much but I'll try and reroute units to aid you. Get them above ground and out in the open, it would open up a lot of firing angles. And we won't have to worry about people getting buried. We may have CAS on station soon but the weather has turned sour, it might not be available."

Spark switched out his weapons, taking the shotgun from his back and levelling his secondary weapon at the incoming monsters. As he pulled the trigger, he sent a bolt of lightning down the battle of the M1014, accelerating the steel buckshot to even greater velocities. The balls cracked through the air with a deafening boom and collided with the metal faceplate of the nearest Revenant, dinting it and knocking the head back, but the monster kept coming. "Tsk. I'll need more firepower for this…"

"The door is open! Get outside before you get turned to meat paste!"

Heeding the Dragon Slayer's advice, both commandoes and agents high-tailed it out of the bunker and into the pouring rain. The heavy black clouds had finally released their payload on the cold mountaintop. The rain itself was an isolated phenomenon as everything outside of the base's perimeter fencing was becoming covered in even more snow. As soon as the last person was out of the way, Black Steel ripped his mask free of his face and bellowed to his awaiting troops.

"OPEN FIRE!"

In that instant, all hell broke loose.

An orchestra of weapons played their symphony of destruction; M2 machine guns thumped a steady pace, the rhythmic bursts from battle rifles were short and sharp, booming bass echoed through the night from grenades Commandoes and Agents shouted orders, reports, and requests over the din, adding their voices to the deadly melody.

Streaks of light raced along just above the ground, piercing the rain and colliding with the gigantic forms. The tracers pelted the heavily armoured super soldiers but only one-in-five .50cal rounds fired were a tracer, the rest were the standard variant of Mk 221 Raufoss ammunition. Every round bit into the metal and exploded before sending a tungsten carbide penetrator deeper into the monsters.

But even as one Revenant fell to its knees, two more emerged from the underground facility and sprinted towards the defensive line. It wouldn't be long until they were overrun and decimated, they were already starting to suffer loses.

Agent Spark grunted in annoyance, shooting a glare up at the rainclouds as he unleased fire from his accelerated shotgun into the horde swarming from the hole. He couldn't use his lightning like he wanted thanks to the layer of water splashing about under every footstep, if he sent a bolt at the monsters, it would only arc from them to the ground and electrocute anyone in contact with the water.

"This is an emergency broadcast to all allied forces." A calm, bell-like voice rang through the ears of all present. Soft as it may be, it carried the absolute authority of the FTA's Lead Tactician. "A marker will be provided shortly; you are all required to abandon your current assignments and proceed to it at once. Bring all the firepower you can get your hands on. Eliminate every Revenant with extreme prejudice, leave nothing remaining."

"Keep fighting!"

"We must hold out!"

"Help is coming! We can beat them!"

Shouts rang out across the battlefield as the volume of fire increased, accompanied by the battle cries and roars of the allied forces. Hails of bullets careened through the sky from all along the arch-shaped defensive line. Both man and machine slowly edged back, bit-by-bit, keeping the monsters at length and filling the void between with lead.

Slowly, the original emplacements were overrun, long deserted by their personnel in the face of the encroaching wave of metal. Agent Spark had commandeered one such gun and was walking backwards, firing it from the hip while supporting it by the quick-change handle. He was sending pulses of lightning down the barrel to accelerate the copper-jacketed rounds beyond their usual velocity. The results were devastating on the Revenants but it wore out the barrel quickly, so he had to dash like a bolt of lightning to the nearest emplacement with a useable gun once it was no longer operating.

"Baryon Formation!" Mach yelled from somewhere to the left of the blond man and a beam tore across the battlefield. A quick glance showed five metal disks rapidly spinning in a circle over his shoulder. The half-metre diameter beam met with the chest of a Revenant and the metal started to glow and bubble before melting away.

Crackling and popping came from the monster, along with the smell of burning flesh. It held a hand out to block the beam but it was vapourised moments later and the beam started burning through its chest once more before it final came out the other side and the monster fell to its knees, dying. But as it went, two more moved past it.

Hooonnnkk Hoooooooonnk, Hooonk Hooonk Hooonk, Hooooooooooooonnk,

Tyres screeched as a lightly armoured vehicle slid around the corner, its engine roaring and pitching the nose of the M-ATV up as it powered out of the turn and raced towards the battle; horn honking away.

"GET CLEAR!" Roared Captain Black Steel and a path opened quickly for the armoured vehicle, but it didn't once show any sign of coming to a halt, it only got faster…

The M2 HMG roared to life atop the vehicle, manned by an agent who had frost-like scratches coating the top-facing parts of his armour. The rounds ripped up the ground and drew a line toward a Revenant in their path.

A second M-ATV came around the same corner mere moments later, this one with its turret manned but also with a bulky man stood on the roof.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTT

Instead of following the kamikaze M-ATV into the thick of the enemy forces, this armoured vehicle veered off to the left, skirting along the front of the defensive line and providing a high volume of mobile supporting fire from both the mounted HMG and the rotary HMG.

"Calvary's Here, Boys!" Shouted Agent Demon, followed by a loud wicked laughter. She was surely grinning wildly within her helmet.

"We got here as quick as we could." Added Agent Salamander, who was at the helm of the first vehicle. It had slammed headfirst into one of the monsters and was pushing it along while Agent Frost hammered it in the face with his M2. One after the other, Revenants collided with the vehicle, slowing it down.

Agents Knight and Celeste appeared next to Agent Spark, landing on their feet after dropping two metres from the sky. Without trading a word between man and women, a dull light glowed in Knight's hands and she brought an MBT-LAW to her shoulder, firing it with barely a second of aiming. After discarding it, she brought a second, then third and fourth out of thin air. The woman was a walking armoury…

A blast of fire shot from the back of the kamikaze M-ATV, turning it into a rocket as Frost bailed from the top. He was followed shortly by Salamander, clad in his dragon's scale-etched armour. Both men found their footing quickly and sprinted away as the vehicle carried six Revenants in the other direction.

The ground shook violently, not because the vehicle crashed headlong into a building, but because it detonated with the force of a metric-tonne of TNT moments after impact, taking both monsters and building along with it.

The two men were caught by the shockwave and lifted off their feet. As they soared through the sky, they started to trail dark-red embers and light-pink mist. The heat from one evaporated everything within three metres of him, and what passed the other was frozen in an instant.

When Agent Salamander's feet touched the ground once more, he reached across and grabbed his squadmate before sending him flying ahead with an almighty throw. The ground beneath Agent Frost froze solid underfoot, allowing him to slide along its near frictionless surface. A wave of scorching heat passed him as the other man zipped past.

Ahead of the duo, a rocket collided with a Revenant, its anti-tank warhead blowing it apart. Next to the now dead monster, a flicker of armour passed through their dimension and removed a second monster from where it had been running. Only for it to reappear ten seconds later when it came crashing down onto the concrete; headfirst. Yet, in the time it was falling, a third was superheated and then bifurcated and snap frozen by twin ice swords with the quartered chunks shattering like glass on the hard ground. A swarm of .50cal bullets tore through two more, like a voluminous cloud of angry hornets hellbent on stinging their attacker.

But even with the added firepower the two squads bought, it did nothing to quell the monsters flooding from the hole in the ground. They all knew there was a finite amount of them, but thanks do their heavy armour and chemical and mechanical enhancements, these men-turned-monsters wouldn't go down at the drop of a hat. The allied forces were burning through ammo trying to keep them at bay, and even the magicians only had so much magical stamina, the more spells they flung downrange, the more exhausted they became and fatigue in a life-or-death situation could sway the scales towards death very easily. And if a magician got killed, the firepower they brought to the battlefield vanished along with the light in their eyes.

Thanks to the bursts of fire magic given off by Agent Salamander, the water around the Revenants was constantly being evaporated. It brought a grin to Agent Spark's lips; he was free to use his magic now since it wouldn't arc through the puddles. Like a bolt of lightning from the blue, he appeared out of nowhere next to one of the monsters, hovering just over its right shoulder with a literal fistful of lightning. The charged attack drove into the right side of the metal helm, with all the force and weight the man could muster, blasting the armour free of the head and revealing a mutilated head underneath, the results of crude experiments and operations.

Scars littered it, seemingly from operations and grafts, of which most look haphazardly mended. In the wide-open eye sockets sat optical sensors which span to look at the hostile agent. A mechanical mask had been grafted onto the lower half of the face, covering the mouth and nose, a raspy, hissing and borderline mechanical breath emanating from it. A faint whirl came from its arm and it sent the man flying a few dozen metres back.

"FUCK! Those bastards hit like a truck!" Spark grunted loudly as he landed on his feet and slid back a few more metres, holding a hand to his rattled ribcage.

"Why the fuck do you think I've covered myself in metal?" Black Steel replied, roaring loudly over the gunfire. He too had charged into the pack with both arms turned into chain-swords and was clashing one-on-one with a Revenant. As he severed the hands off the monster he was fighting, a beam of demonic power tore over his shoulder and took its head clean off. "What the fuck?"

"You're taking too long!" Yelled Agent Demon as she rocketed past, carried by demonic wings sprouting from her back. "What's the total at, Sparky?"

The blonde grumbled and bolted toward the monster he had been fighting. "Currently twenty-five to thirty! It was slow work down there! Expect three or four times as much as what is up here, that's how much I think is left!"

Now that there were allies mixed in with the monsters, the commandoes and agents focused their fire on targets that weren't currently engaged by them. Thankfully, more troops flooded in from the surrounds in trucks and on foot.

The storm started to swirl and the rain coalesced around a commando as she leapt from a moving truck and strode across the battlefield. A large fist raced through the air and slammed into their face, knocking the mask and helmet flying back through the air, but they were empty. Water collected where the head was and quickly reformed the head of a pale-skinned, blue-haired beauty. True to the name Storm, she sent high-pressure blades of water out from her body which were even more powerful than usual thanks to the abundance of water falling from the sky. These blades easily sliced the limbs off of the Revenant.

"All right! Everybody outta the truck and open fire on these sorry bastards!" Two resounding thumps rang out off the driver's door of a truck and a load of soldiers piled out of the back. It was the turncoat Totomaru and his unit who began to move alongside the commandoes and shoot the horde of metal-coated monsters. From the other trucks in the formation came the soldiers who willingly surrendered, all of which used their weapons and the ones provided to them to hurl lead into the Revenants in an attempt to slow them down.

Agent Knight glanced over, making a small surprised hmm before launching the last rocket she had borrowed. "Black Steel! Are you certain that this is the only hole they'll crawl out of?"

"Fucked if I know! But there was something like a hundred pods down there, not all of them were occupied I think, at least that's what that guy said!" The captain replied loudly, pointing his chin at Agent Écriture before quickly pulling it back and out of the way of a massive fist, then another, and another… "Maybe they hadn't updated their lists, and maybe we'll get fucked in the arse soon!"

Celeste paused in the middle of the battlefield and withdrew a grenade, she pulled the pin and sent it through the upper dimension into the body of a Revenant. Once it detonated and blew apart the upper body, she spared a cautious glance over her shoulder and down the street they were backing out onto. She shook her head and adjusted her focus to her Traverse sense before quickly bringing it back to the battlefield. "No big, bulky bastards anywhere else on the surface, but there are a lot coming up out of that bunker!"

"Celeste. Swap out. It seems Sal has gone into some kind of battle trance and I can't keep up. You've shown the ability to fight on par with his speed."

The woman's helmet flicked across to her squadmate who had started to fall back and begin using ranged ice attacks. From what she knew, both him and her mentor had opposing magics, and their specialties were even more dangerous. Frost had told her over drinks that he had inherited his father's magic when Stygian reunited them, it was a magic geared towards combating fire demons like Salamander who was a human-demon hybrid. He had told her that both he and Sal were explicitly warned about the lethality of their powers and had to restrict the usage, but Sal didn't have the right mentality at the time and was running high on emotions and instinct near constantly, which hampered his consistency when dealing with certain high-stress situations.

Celeste turned her attention to Sal, but her eyes couldn't follow him, even the IFF was struggling to keep up with the ball of embers streaking around and among the hostiles.

0=0=0=0=0=0

Explosion: Target neutralised; shift targets.

Incoming right hook: Leap over; kick to the back of the neck; shoot two cursed rounds into the opening, detonate.

Targets at Two, Six, and Nine, Prioritise target at Two.

Empowered kick to the chest plate; target knocked over; drive fist through thinly armoured face; incinerate.

Close distance; a flicker… Lucy; switch targets to third closest; intercept left fist and push it across the body; drive knife up into armpit; dismember; jam fist into shoulder socket; incinerate.

Two targets charging, Twelve and Six; Wait… Dive right, targets collided; drive fist forward; flash the optics, targets momentarily blinded.

Alert: Target to new six. Impact; create distance and re-evaluate situation.

Armour integrity dropping, gauntlets almost destroyed, chest roughly fifty-percent, back roughly twenty-five-percent.

Needless to say, no unnecessary thoughts were going though Agent Salamander's mind, just critical combat information. His head was throbbing lightly from the constant use of his Reflex ability. Dark maroon embers trailed after him as he darted from one Revenant to the next. Even with his speed and Reflex, the battlefield was thick with monsters and if he made one wrong move, one slip of concentration, allowed one hostile to get the jump on him, he would be paying for it with armour, blood, and bones.

Every so often, voices filtered in through his ears, from around him or through his comm system. But he paid them no heed as he rocketed around the battlefield. He did begin to track the suit of armour that flittered about here and there, whenever it took one target he would move to the next.

A thin veil of red tinted the corners of his vision, growing ever thicker, the results of exposure to intense negative energy. It tugged at his sanity, daring him to let go, embrace what he buried deep within.

A large fist closed the distance, Sal intercepted it with his rifle – sacrificing the weapon but creating an opening. His fist slammed forward, a riposte, and it smashed through the armoured mask of the Revenant, crushing what lied within and incinerating it in merciless flames.

Another, Nine-o-clock; throw the body; close the distance.

The burning hunk of armour sailed a metre off the ground and collided with the incoming hostile, stumbling it and opening it up for attack. Sal quickly leapt through the air, propelling himself with jets of flame. He brought down a mighty superheated axe kick, decimating his leg's armoured plates along with the monster's head.

His instincts triggered alarm bells in the back of his mind, he had been surrounded by five man-made monsters. One leapt at him, using its chemically and mechanically enhanced strength to match the demonic man. Sal tilted his head up slightly, it seemed that he had been made the target of highest priority, a quick glance around confirmed it as more Revenants were breaking off from the assault to try and put him down. They were even spilling out of the hole like a tsunami, sprinting full-pace with all the noise of a violent rolling thunderstorm.

Sacrifice right arm's armour and divert the blow; counter immediately with a spinning heel-kick.

"Sal!"

A voice, Knight? Irrelevant; Block incoming attack from the left; blow coming from behind, duck and roll.

Ugnnh

A groan slipped through his throat; his head was starting to split in two from the excessive use of Reflect but he couldn't dial it back. He could easily win one-on-one, hell even if three or four came at him, it wouldn't change the outcome. But this was a prolonged fight and even he was starting to reach his wit's end.

He had lost all armoured plating covering his arms, and the soft armour was tearing from the excessive forces it was being put through, revealing his glowing markings. Each blow was either precisely redirected or dodged by millimetres, just enough of a gap to sail past and deliver his counterattack. He slid to the side to avoid a large fist to the helmet but was met with one waiting for him, taking it to the back.

The ground shattered underfoot as he stomped down and pushed forward, grappling a Revenant around its large waist and pushing it from the circle like a sumo. Another grunt escaped him as he lifted the behemoth and threw it at the charging monsters. Fire burst from his feet as he surged after it, one hit, two, three, four, seven, twelve… A hail of fiery tanned fists dinted the armour like cannonfire.

"SAL!"

A flicker of armour appeared by the wrecked M-ATV, an instant later the head of the monster he was pummelling rolled from its neck, separated by a sheet of twisted metal. It was her work, like how the power cable was severed.

He grabbed the sheet and spun around, sending it whistling through the air and through the neck of another hostile.

Faster.

His magic surged through his body, empowering his muscles with even more draconic strength. Concrete shattered once more, chunks flying through the air like shrapnel from a grenade as the demonic man tore into another monster.

Incoming right hook, high, unavoidable; twist parallel to the attack and deflect the force along the chest plate.

Using the force from the move, he launched a counterattack, a heavy punch right into the armoured elbow. Servos whined and metal sheared – two, three – and the elbow was quickly demolished. He kicked off of the Revenant, creating distance and sending it into a fellow monster.

Torso armour integrity dropping; estimated one or two more hits before it breaks…; helmet integrity still good, visor is cracked, irrelevant.

Every move he made was executed with the timing and precision of a master-crafted watch, his brain was running overtime, overclocked and becoming overtaxed. But he couldn't relent, it would mean he would lose this life-or-death battle, and if he went down, would she be next? No, he couldn't allow that.

Smoke seeped from the cracks in his visor, a brief orange glow emanating from the thin gap. The demonic man re-engaged, pushing himself harder and faster, deaf to the battle around him. Embers and bursts of flame were the only things that revealed his position to the layman's eye, the thumps of his attacks like explosions that echoed over the din of gunfire and shouts.

To kill a monster, send a monster – which did this apply to, the demon-human hybrid that was fighting for his life, or the men turned to monster created to destroy people like him? When faced with monstrous power, one must send an even greater power, a greater monster to defeat it. If one doesn't do the job, send five. Still nothing? Send an army of monsters. But if this army of monsters breaks loose, what monster will be sent to put them down?

A lapse in concentration, only for an instant, and the man was sent flying back. His helmet was dinted by a large fist and his visor trailed after him like stardust. Two, four, seven monsters piled onto him, arms moving up and down like jackhammers.

"NATSU!"

A slim arm tried to reach into the pack but the owner took a flailing elbow to the abdomen and was knocked dozens of metres back. Markings flickered, a faint growl, a tanned arm flopped out between the legs of a Revenant, reaching for the woman, shaking from the impacts of the large fists – tanned – red – tanned – red…

Lucy

"Perdition."

A fist formed from hardened red flesh appeared out the back of a Revenant, the metal casing busted wide open and jagged around the edges.

Dark maroon fire erupted from the pile of monsters, ascending to the heavens like a furious volcanic erruption.

From the ashes and molten metal arose another monster, one feared so much that it had been sealed away. Red covered his arms from his fingertips all the way to the shoulders and spilled out onto his chest, his back, and a little up his neck, it was not the scaled flesh of a dragon but the smooth, tough hide of a demon, with prominent knuckles and elbows – short yet sharp spiked nubs. Maroon embers littered his what was left of his tanned torso and neck, lightly peppering the right side of his face. Gone was the cold, empty look in his red eyes, it was replaced with a powerful glow, both vengeful and confident.

Agent Salamander had reached the tipping point, all the harsh negative energy from the dead and dying, the hate, anger, despair, her fear and pain, it had reawakened the demonic beast they tried so hard to subdue, to chain up.

"Demonic release…"

A mutter drew his attention, among the frozen chaos of battle, he turned his gaze upon a woman across the dancing maroon sea, her freshly released red hair dancing in the heated updrafts. A look of concern was clear upon her face. Erza he mouthed, and offered her a quick wink which set the woman at ease albeit slowly. He wouldn't lose control, never again, he'll prove to everyone that he could control his demonic side.

He turned his back to her, the woman he wanted to protect, his anchor. He could feel her shock, bewilderment, but it quickly turned to understanding. He had no secrets from her, she knew what he was and accepted him with open arms. But she was strong, he had trained her and knew that fact all too well. She wasn't just physically strong, but mentally and psychologically too, so it came as no surprise that she rejected his protection and stood side-by-side with him in this hellscape.

A clatter pattered next to him as he quashed the blanket of fire; a helmet discarded had disturbed some shattered concrete. The owner's blonde hair flittering around her, like strands of golden silk.

"Are you ready, Lucy?" He asked softly, speaking for the first time since engaging the Revenants. The salmon-haired demon glanced down at his hips. His twin pistols were damaged beyond recognition but his knives were still useable. He discarded the destroyed weapons with an annoyed grunt. In a fluid movement, he linked his sharp fingers and stretched his arms above his head, loosening his joints before letting them fall freely.

"Yes, S… Natsu." Celeste gave a small start when found a demonic hand lightly grasp her shoulder, a faint murmur gracing her ear. She blinked rapidly at the familiar but strange feeling of one of his curses, she felt lighter, like how she felt when she first received her Enhancement.

"It's only temporary, but I've boosted your physical abilities and your armour's protection. Sadly, I'm no Kyôka, I can't buff myself with that curse. It's her specialty." He chuckled lightly and gave her a fanged grin, his teeth noticeably sharper than before. "Try and keep up. Remember; feel the battle, let it fuel you. Act on instinct but be smart, one wrong move and you'll end up getting reamed."

With a burst of heat, the man appeared ten metres from a charging Revenant, standing on the far side with his arm lazily outstretched to his side and a large chunk torn from the side of the monster. He let out a weary sigh, even in this form all the negative energy was wearing him down.

The battle continued, even as the duo raced around the battlefield. Bursts of ice and psycho-kinetic energy pounded some, spears of metal and blades of water pierced others. Beams of demonic energy carved through the battlefield and hails of bullets beat upon Revenants like the drums of war.

"Can you turn down the heat, Natsu?" Celeste gave the man a playful smile as she kicked a hulking monster over to the demon for him to deal with.

"What? I thought you loved saunas; didn't you say they were good for your skin?"

"I did and they are, but this particular sauna is a bit too hot for my liking."

The monster was intercepted and quartered by twin ice blades, leaving light-pink mist in their wake. The wielder casually twirled the right blade in his hand as he glanced between his squadmates. "Tide is turning yet again. And it seems that there are fewer Revenants coming out of the hole."

"Oi, Gray. Where did you go earlier?" Sal asked curiously as he nonchalantly strolled over to his friend. He came to a hard stop, stomping a foot down heavily and enveloping a nearby Revenant in a geyser of dark-maroon fire as he lightly rapt his knuckles against the raven-haired man's forehead. "I was keeping track of you but you pulled back suddenly."

"Bit hard to coordinate with someone when they won't talk, but at least you didn't have lava for brains."

"I mean, I could still hear you. HQ is probably going to be pissed though." The demon raised his left arm with a weak grin, his toughened red skin was completely bare of equipment. "I've lost another one, not to mention destroying the armour, I'll never hear the end of it. Can one of you get me with a Spyder and tag it as friendly so we don't get any accidental blue-on-blue?"

"I doubt they'd last long on someone like you, they aren't exactly that tough." Knight joined the mid-battle casual conversation, idly crushing another monster with her psionics on her way over. "Besides, I really doubt anyone would be stupid enough to mistake you for an enemy…"

"Hah! You'd be surprised, Erza." Sal grinned widely and ran a hand through his spikey hair. "There's something about glowing red eyes and demonic limbs that seem to scream 'evil', 'hostile', and 'the enemy'. Like the snowflake over there when he was going through his evil phase."

"Hey! I was undercover, I had to seem evil to fit in. That's the general play when doing shit like that!"

The demon shrugged lightly and waved his hand across a group of incoming monsters, sending out a burst of embers that burned through the metal and detonated within. "You're not wrong."

A rich giggle graced the three veterans, the beautiful blonde split a monster in two with some rubble before turning back to her friends. "I bet Mr. Freeze over here would have made for an entertaining villain. It's a pity I couldn't have seen it, though maybe I could check out the records. I bet he was so cool and was cracking the ice with puns so cold they chilled you to the bone."

Sal bent double, holding his splitting sides as he howled with laughter. Next to him, Erza hid a mirth-filled smile behind a fist but her eyes were beginning to brim. "Oh, Gods… now I've got you giving me shit for it too?" Frost grumbled as he clapped a hand over his eyes and snapped his fingers, freezing a cluster of Revenants solid before they were shattered by demonic beam from the other side of the battlefield. "We should finish these bastards off and check in with Command, see if they have found Jose yet."

"Good point." The salmon-haired demon nodded and bounced on his feet, rolling his shoulders as he flared his magic and demonic power, causing a cloud of orange and maroon embers to form around him. "Drinks on whoever has the lowest count?"

"Sounds perfect!"

"Says the blonde who can't hold her liquor."

"Don't worry about her, Erza. I'll probably be the one putting up with her drunken shenanigans since she'll most likely follow me home."

"You make it sound like I'm a stray cat." Celeste pouted at the demon and crossed her arms under her armoured bust as she leaned in closely, looking up at his red eyes from near his chin. A small smirk quickly spread across her lips. "Well, cats do love warm places."

"Not to mention that you act like one when drunk." Sal smiled slyly and placed the tip of a sharp finger under her chin and lightly scratched it, earning a playful purr from the woman.

"Really, you two… We're right in the middle of a war and you are flirting with each other?" Agent Frost deadpanned and shook his head. He turned on the spot and reformed his ice blades before charging into the fray.

"Usually, I do not mind that you two are close. But please prioritise our mission."

Celeste giggled and gave the demon a quick kiss on the cheek before heeding the redhead's request and sprinting through the battle. She leapt low along the ground and brought her legs forward, crossing near one-hundred metres in an instant thanks to Traverse, and landing a heavy dropkick on a Revenant and transferring her momentum to it. To add fuel to the fire, she used Traverse on the monster at the last possible moment and sent it up in the sky. While the armoured behemoth plummeted to its death, the woman moved onto her next target.

Concrete exploded under the demon's feet and he shot across to the other side of the battlefield, a burst of fire helped him gain altitude to clear an extending metal spear that was moments from penetrating a Revenant. Thanks to his intense aura, the metal armour of the monsters had been softened, making them easier targets for their regular troops. "You're in the way, Black Steel!"

"Get your own targets, Salamander!"

"Kill them faster and maybe I won't have to finish them off!" His sharp fingers sliced through the armoured monsters like literal hot knives through a slab of butter. Sal tumbled through the bisected experiment and dug his fingers into the concrete, igniting his legs as he whipped them around like a break dancer and driving them into the pack of monsters. The metal became superheated and scorched the flesh beneath, eliciting scratchy screams from the Revenants. With a quick twist of his body, he flipped back around and gouged a deep wound right up the middle of a Revenant, leaving yellow trails behind. The curse detonated half-a-second later and split it in two.

He felt free for the first time in the entire night. No longer constrained by the armour, his senses could freely pick-up everything around him, and he could move exactly how he wanted to; it was liberating. And thanks to his demonic transformation, he was no longer suffering the soul-crushing pressure of the death and despair around him, instead he was channelling it into his attacks and releasing the pent-up negative energy that was draining his sanity and reducing him to nothing more than one of the monsters he was facing.

The hair on his neck stood up; a large fist coming in from his seven-o-clock. The demon grinned wildly as he twisted his body around, placing a hand upon the top of the fist and bringing his body up and over the attack. Red eyes blazed brightly as a flaming leg arched through the dark night, illuminating the black armour of the Revenant – brighter and brighter – as it came down upon its head.

Metal glowed and bubbled, flesh seared and charred, bone cracked and shattered, all that laid in the path of the Demon's leg turned to hot ash as the dark-maroon flames devoured its prey.

Lightning cracked over his shoulder and collided with a monster in the form of a man. An arc, many times the lethal amount, surged through the metal armour and fried the man-made monster housed within. Only a pitiful scream was all the former human, its mind degenerated by experiments, could muster before the fell silent to the ground. "You finally brought some real fire power."

"Right now…" Sal spun over the top of the blonde agent and struck out with his clawed fingers, slicing through the neck of a Revenant. "I'm more powerful as a demon than a dragon slayer, so regardless of my hesitations, it was the best solution to end this quickly." Lightning surged past him once more and Agent Spark appeared once more, driving a lightning-coated heel down upon a helmet.

"As long as you keep it together, I don't care what you do to make our mission a success. And if that means stepping into the darkness to save lives, then so be it."

"Well, that's a lot of faith for the man who's going to be the next Head of the FTA…" The pinkette chuckled brazenly, his fangs glistening in the firelight as he raced after the Lightning Dragon Slayer. "What a great honour."

"I'd say 'shut up and fight' but you're already fighting, so just shut up, Salamander."

"Yeah, yeah, Sparky." The demon laughed and jetted to his next target, delivering a flaming lariat to the armoured neck and slamming the monster to the ground, breaking the concrete underneath. "Damn, I think the contractors are the real winners of this war! Think about how much it'll cost to repair just the concrete."

"I can hear the old man grumbling already." Added a new voice, the owner flying overhead and raining beams of magic on the monsters. She occasionally swooped in and slashed through weakened enemies with her demonic claws, finishing them off. "They've stopped coming out of the hole, maybe we've exhausted his supply of freaks!"

"Can either of you get in contact with Command and see how the search is going? I noticed that some of the squads haven't joined this fight."

"They got waved off after both of your squads arrived, there was enough power here to warrant teams returning to the search."

"Well, we can't let the bastard slip through our fingers." Sal skidded to a halt, smoke seeping from the corners of his mouth. A billowing mass of orange flame ripped across the concrete, crashing to a group of Revenants like a runaway train. The instant his flames died down, the glowing monsters were sliced and diced with the remains snap-frozen and shattered by Frost and Celeste. "Oi! Those were mine!"

"'Kill them faster and I won't have to finish them off,' wasn't that what you said?" Agent Frost yelled back to the demon with a sly grin.

"Well, if you wanna throw my words back at me. Technically they were finished off by Lucy, so those go to her count!" The Demon fired back, returning the grin before assessing the battlefield. It had taken some work but the allied forces had finally culled the Revenants down to almost single digit numbers and those that were left were about to fall thanks to the increasing amounts of focused fire.

"Sal." Agent Demon called out as she flew down to him and landed by his side, releasing her take-over. "Your brother said he'd call you; I'm guessing your phone is safe?"

Sal shut off his aura as the last Revenant fell, causing the air to quickly become chilled and a blanket of thick fog to form around them. The rain that was being evaporated quickly picked up once more, soaking his hair and skin. "Yeah. I kept it with me but not on my person, for obvious reasons. Thank the gods that it's waterproof…" As he mumbled the end, he brought the device out of his magical pocket dimension and to his ear as it went off. "Sup?"

"Natsu, we've got a Dragonfly drone in the AO. Are you doing alright?"

"Better than I was. I think they bashed a few knots out." Sal switched his phone to his left ear and patted his thighs down. He let out a quiet sigh and placed the phone on speaker, handing it over to the white-haired woman. "You've probably realised already, but those bastards destroyed my Tac-com. So, I'm off-net until I can get another."

"Just stick with your squad, I'll have Knight relay orders to the group."

"Fine by me." The demon ripped the holsters from his legs with a small grunt and tossed them aside before replacing them with his Glock 20 holsters, thankfully the mags were interchangeable so he still had useable firearms. He glanced around the battlefield as the fog began to thin and raised his voice to address the troops. "Alright, listen up! I want people to collect up the remains of the Revenants and make one big pile somewhere for me to burn. Medics tend to any wounded, if you need supplies then just go raid the base's medical facilities. Take note of allied casualties, and tend to those as you see fit. The rest of you are on guard duty!"

"YES, SIR!"

"Seems like Gale is setting up a spare Tac-com, I'll have it delivered once it's ready."

"Have Celeste grab it." Sal suggested, returning to protocol now that he had burnt off all the stress. He ran a hand through his wet hair, brushing it back out of his face before glancing at his demonic hand. He was wondering if it was worth staying in his Demonic Release, or returning to his lower power state. "Are we facing continued resistance from the Loyalists?"

"No. Between Totomaru's betrayal, and bringing the troops under his command with him, and the show of force that just happened. We've been receiving reports of surrenders from all over the base. We only need to find Jose Porla himself; we've got teams scouring the AO and drones overhead searching for him. He hasn't left the perimeter since we've had teams skulking around in the snow."

"So, it's just him left?"

"Yeah. Totomaru changed sides and executed Sol. Hibiki shot down Aria, went guns and got shots on the cockpit; no ejection. All the leaders are either dead or have sided with Black Steel, and by extension; us."

The pinkette brought a waxed brown leather jacket from his storage to cover his upper body. Like most of the jackets he carries with him, it was lined with bullet resistant materials. Once he took the phone back from the oldest Strauss, he gave her a nod goodbye and brought the device to his ear while walking back to his team. In the distance he saw Celeste vanish, most likely retrieving his temporary tactical computer. "I'll keep my squad readied to hunt him down if someone gets eyes on him."

"Will you kill him?"

"I… haven't fully decided yet." The demon sighed quietly and carefully placed his usual mic, earpieces, and contacts on in preparation for the new device. "He deserves it, a lot of us think that. And his fate is sealed either way. But thanks to the transformation, I've mellowed out a bit, so maybe I'll be a little more lenient."

"Your girlfriend just popped in; she's chatting with Gale." Stygian chuckled quietly to himself and the sound of wind came through the receiver. "I stepped out to get some fresh air. Daybreak isn't that far off, you know?"

"I haven't been keeping track of the time."

"Sir. All the remains of the Revenants have been piled near the bunker's entrance."

Sal glanced at the nervous looking soldier, she was shorter than Celeste and stood below his shoulders, her long brown hair tied in a neat bun just below her open-face helmet. She must be one of Totomaru's units. The demon bared his fangs slightly in a small grin and gave her a word of thanks before heading over to the awaiting bodies. "Will we be heading back straight away?"

"Fae plans on leaving a contingent here to help but the majority of us will be returning to Magnolia."

"Good, I need to sleep off this migraine. Though, if I get an uninvited visitor, I doubt sleep is on the schedule."

"I hear that. When you live with a woman who loves living as much as she does, sleep is optional on the list of things to do."

"At least until you get caught up in work and she gets annoyed that you aren't getting enough sleep. Am I right?" The brothers shared a healthy laugh, with it coming to an end when Sal reached the bodies. A quick wave of his hand set it ablaze with dark-maroon flames, even the heavy rain won't be able to douse the fire.

"You aren't wrong, but even then, she doesn't like wasting time."

"I getcha. Anyway, we should stop chatting and get back to work, otherwise the Old Man will have our hides. And I don't think a demon would make a good wall feature." Again, the two brothers shared a healthy chuckle before Sal took the phone from his ear and ended the call. He sent it away so it wouldn't get damaged and stretched his maroon arms out above his head; groaning softly. "Burning bodies… she's probably going to puke at the stench…"

"Oh god… does it usually smell that bad…?"

Speaking of the devil, Sal turned slowly and looked back at his friend, a sad smile spreading across his lips. "Yeah…" He muttered softly. "Yeah, it always does. Thankfully, though, the wind is blowing south. At least, it currently is."

Celeste reached out slowly, gently taking the demon's hand and running her thumb along the back of it. Her chocolate eyes glittered in the unholy bonfire as she drew him closer and started affixing the device to his left arm. "Your skin feels strange."

"Oh?"

The blonde giggled quietly and ran a hand up under the unzipped jacket, from his abs to his right shoulder. "Normally it's your muscles that are hard, your skin is fairly soft and smooth. Nice and warm to the touch. But this, your demonic flesh is hard as a rock yet somehow moves freely. It boggles my mind, but it is a little disappointing."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm~." Celeste smile slyly, her eyes flashing lightly as she leaned up to his face, standing on her toes. "I love feeling your muscle under your taught skin, all that raw power just under my fingertips…" She gasped softly at the strange sensation caused by the man deactivating his demonic transformation. Like a withdrawing wave, his demonic flesh rapidly receded under her fingertips and they sunk ever so slightly into his tanned skin. His arms wrapped around her as he paired the new Tac-com to his gear, enveloping her in his warm. Celeste let out a delighted murmur and stepped in closer, flattening her boots on the ground as she leant into his warm embrace.

The man noticed curious gazes on them, his red eyes faded to a very dark green. Was it so strange that someone like him, someone capable of so much death and destruction, was bring given such open affection by an almost unbelievably beautiful woman? He ran his right hand through the woman's wet hair, taking it out of the bun and letting the long blonde strands fall down her armoured back. A faint mumble escaped his lips, his thoughts coming to the surface. "Strange…"

"What is?"

Sal smiled slightly and gazed down into the woman's chocolate-coloured eyes. He gave her a small shake of the head and rested his chin atop her head. "It's nothing, I was just thinking about some things. I can feel the wind starting to change, could you move us away?"

Celeste giggled and wrapped her arms around her neck, twisting her body and bringing her legs up to force him into carrying her; which he obliged. Once she was secure, she took them away from the fire and atop the remaining M-ATV, standing on the bonnet. She found herself coming closer to the vehicle as Sal sat down and rested his back against the thick windshield. The woman shifted her weight and got as comfortable as she could on his lap, but it irked her somewhat that her armour was getting in the way.

The suspension shifted as heavy footsteps approached the duo and a large frame sat down on the edge of the roof beside them. A faint hiss and a thump told them that the Agent had taken off their helmet. "It's almost over, isn't it?"

"Yeah, Beast. Almost is."

"How many have we lost?"

Sal's onyx eyes drifted away from the top of the blonde's head to the bulky man next to him, gazing up at the tanky agent. "Cinnabar has three casualties, had to mercy one of them. I don't know exactly who else died on our side, probably faces I pass by daily but never got to fully know. Proportionately, I'm more than certain that we suffered far less casualties than the Loyalists. I'm not counting his experiments in that either."

"Naturally. As far as I'm concerned, they were already dead."

A lighter weight shifted the vehicle as the youngest Strauss flopped down on her back, half hanging upside-down over the front of the roof. She, too, released her helmet and let her white hair hang freely down to the bonnet. "We did them a service, sending their souls into the beyond. Bix was telling me how they seemed tortured."

"Yeah, I felt it too." Sal turned his attention from one side to the other, from brother to sister. He closed his eyes and reflected on the battle, on the emotions flooding into him that he was trying to block out. "All that… emotional noise, it was, how do I put it… I had to completely shut everything out otherwise I didn't know what would have happened to me."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. So, since we've gained control of the base, I'm taking a breather to bring myself back into acceptable levels before the call comes in to hunt down Jose." Holding Lucy seemed to be helping too. Something he was gladly indulging in. "I think we all need a break, it's not often that we spend an entire night fighting a war. Skulking around, yes, but not this near endless fighting, it's not usually something we do."

"Just relax, Natsu." Celeste whispered against his chest. "Just wait for the call."

0=0=0=0=0=0

Two suits of armour ran along the rooftops, leaping from one to the next. Even on the wet surface, their boots never lost grip nor produced anything louder than the soft splashing of water. On the road below was a civilian car, a new BMW X5, struggling for grip as the driver racing for freedom.

"Is it him?"

The vehicle broke traction as it skidded around a corner, losing control for a moment before straightening out quickly and falling in line between a pair of M-ATVs. The X5 passed under a light and in the brief instant of illumination, a sharp-faced man with dark red hair was shown to be driving with each seat filled with guards still loyal to him.

"Yeah, it's him." The slimmer of the two agents gracefully leapt across the road and to the opposite buildings, raising her Desert Tech HTI skyward to avoid smacking the suppressor into the roof. "Agent Osprey to Command: We have eyes on the Head Honcho. He is in a small convoy; one civilian BMW SUV, two M-ATVs. Bearing west. It's safe to assume that they are beelining it to the airfield."

"Osprey, this is Fae. Understood. Keep watch over them and alert us of any changes. Follow them to the airfield but don't pursue further than the last building. I'd rather you and Eastwood set up on the roof and provide sniper support."

"Copy that; continuing with pursuit."

"Do we have eyes on the airfield, Fae?"

"Not at the moment. I have a drone heading that direction. Hopefully, it will reach the destination before the target does. If we need troops there ASAP, Wolf squad will be called in. They'll be there in moments."

"Yeah, I bet it's very useful being able to teleport around like she does." Agent Eastwood chuckled lightly and adjusted the sights on his custom Lever Action rifle – chambered for 6.5 CM like the majority of rifles carried by Agents that night – changing the variable sights from 3.4x to 6x optical magnification. "I wish this rain would let up, but I guess it's better than fighting in snow. Isn't it a bit late for snow?"

"We're at an altitude that it still forms, that's why they have that magical system in place to heat it into rain. Brrrr… You should feel it outside the base."

"This rain is plenty cold enough, thanks."

0=0=0=0=0=0

"Is the helicopter ready yet?" A man barked, his eyebrow twitching irritably. When he didn't get an instant reply, he snapped into the radio he held in his left hand, his right still gripping the steering wheel tightly, knuckles white from the pressure. "Well?!"

"Almost, Sir. We've filled it and ran all the checks from within the hanger, we're just bringing it out now."

"Good. We're only five minutes away. Who knows if we're being followed, so expect company when we arrive." The man tossed the radio back over to the passenger and ran the hand down his long face before driving a fist into the dash, busting the head unit. "Gods Damn It!"

"Sir?"

"Gajeel fucking Redfox… How long have you been planning this?"

Jose Porla was red with anger, his face contorted in rage. He hadn't been able to get in contact with the leader of his Air Force his he finished his mission, and both his armoured and infantry leaders had gone silent, but at least they had been able to bring the power back online. With no options left, he had sent an order to his little pets, liquidate everyone. The man glanced out of his right mirror, in the distance was an ominous dark-maroon glow with smoke rising from that direction. He could only guess that his Revenants had been completely wiped out by now, and by the fucking monster that he created them to kill. "That Mother Fucker was meant to be sealed, Makarov! All those Revenants would have easily killed him if he was. The fucker could barely handle one of them!"

"Sir, what do we do now?"

"Right now, we need to concentrate on getting out of this base and regroup with our forces at another base. Once we get in the air, we can start planning a counterattack."

"How many factions are we facing, Sir?"

"Black Steel's commandoes are for hard and fast strikes deep within enemy territory, and those Fairies are espionage specialists who slip into the enemy faction with ease, comfortable in any setting. I can't imagine those Fairies lasting very long in straight up warfare, they only have a handful of heavy hitters, all of which have been deployed it seems. We may have the moniker of Phantom, but they are the real spectres, do not let your guard down for one second when you hear one is nearby, but sometimes you never get a warning." Jose let out a rough grunting sigh and followed the lead vehicle onto the road running behind the hangers. "We've been blind since midnight, no RADAR or outside communications, we don't know Aria's status but since he didn't arrive at his scheduled time, I think it's safe to say someone or something took out his squadron."

"That narrows down their attackers to a handful of companies. Out of those, the one that would immediately aid the FTA would be the BP-ADG."

"Hmm… Yes, that would be the most likely offender." Jose nodded slowly, glancing at the armoured man next to him out of the corner of his eyes. "They specialise in airborne assaults, highly advanced aircraft… They'd be the ones who would've easily gotten the jump on an entire squadron of our finest, most loyal pilots." The man grunted once again, his anger flaring at the increasing number of factions against him. "Which means we need to be careful and stick low in the valleys on our way out."

"Sir. The helicopter is spooled up and ready for take-off, just waiting on your arrival."

"Perfect." He reached over and snatched the handheld radio. "We're coming up on you now. We'll need to stay low outside the base, the vultures are circling." The radio was tossed back once more and pulled around the lead vehicle, accelerating around the corner. The tyres struggled for traction against the water-coated taxiway, but Jose straightened up the X5 and slowed back down as he neared the waiting UH-60 Blackhawk.

Once the convoy came to a stop, Jose and his contingent of bodyguards disbanded their vehicles. The helicopter – with the pilots already inside – and the soldiers guarding it stood under the bright lights in front of the hanger, giving them a good visibility of the surrounds, ensuring that it would be very difficult to catch them off guard. The Blackhawks's rotors were already chopping away, sitting at a fast idle and ready to take off the moment Jose stepped aboard.

"Sir, we've spotted plumes of smoke to the south of the base. Most likely what remains of the returning aircraft." A guard informed his leader, snapping off a quick salute as the red-haired man drew near. "It's best if you head north."

"Damn it." Jose cursed softly. He was keeping his voice quiet but just loud enough to be heard over the rotor blades. It wasn't because he had calmed down, he was still boiling over, but because there were three Dragon Slayers on the base and all three had highly sensitive hearing, and in the dead of the night, with the air still frigid, sound travelled much further distances than in the daytime. "We'll have to keep low, skimming the tree-tops. Otherwise, we'll get picked up by the hostile AWACS that is undoubtable still scanning the area."

They had only covered half the distance before calamity struck; the lights illuminating the area all blew at once, while a coarse grinding and violent shaking could be heard coming from the Blackhawk as the engines were forcefully and destructively shut down. Mere moments later, after the patch of taxiway had fallen into silence, a wet gurgling hiss seeped into the night; a soldier clutched and clawed at his throat, blood oozing between his fingers as he fell to his knees, panic and terror in his eyes.

Unfortunately for Jose and his guards, the bright lights had burned their natural night vision away, leaving them in even blacker darkness. "Form a perimeter! We're under attack. If you've got flashlights on your weapons, turn them on, if you've got flares, throw them! Our position has already been compromised."

At his orders, cones of light flashed to life and moved from left to right as the soldiers formed a circle around Jose. The silence was only interrupted by the fading whirl of the rotor blades slowly down and the final struggle of the dying man. A few seconds passed without incident, the dense air becoming thicker as nerves started to fray.

A thud and a scream cut through the silence, a soldier had been knocked through the air and her scream was cut short when her head became separated from her body. She had collided with the helicopter and the blades sliced through her neck midway, and again a little further down, and again, and again until the body lost upward momentum and fell to a bloody heap on the windshield of the Blackhawk. Droplets of the woman's blood were spread around by the rotating blades like a gruesome sprinkler, leaving red spots on the soldiers.

"Oh fuck…" One of the soldiers whimpered, a burning sensation racing up from their stomach. She swallowed it back down and panned her light around with a noticeable shake to the illuminating cone.

"Come out, Salamander! I know it's you, you fucking monster!" Jose shouted but all he received was a disjointed giggle that seemed to come from every direction.

"Tell me, Mr. Porla. You are a man used to inciting fear and terror, are you not?" The woman's voice was clear, soft, yet powerful, in control, it was smooth and beautiful. "You would know what the five basic fears all humans share?"

"Are you planning on giving me a lesson in psychology before you kill me?"

Another giggle. "Perhaps. Firstly; Ego-death – the fear of the loss of one's sense of being, are you capable of surviving this war, do you consider yourselves great soldiers, etcetera." One of the soldiers had their legs swept from under them, making them shout in shock but they suffered no further harm, only more giggles that came from all directions. "Secondly; Separation – this one is self-explanatory. Being left alone, the last one standing, being shunned, losing your friend."

At the last words, spoken in a honeyed voice, two soldiers standing particularly close together quickly shared a glance and moved closer. But they weren't the ones to fall next, instead it was a lone individual who had strayed a little too far from the circle. He died in the same manner as the first, having his throat slit by an unseen hostile.

"Thirdly; Loss of Autonomy – basically, being out of control of the situation… I'm sure that sounds familiar, doesn't it? All alone, the only escape being cut off, you're in pitch-black darkness, cold and wet, surrounded by who knows how many hostiles. Is it just one? Just me? Or are there more lurking just outside of those little cones of light?"

A quick crack and pop filled the air as another body dropped, his head facing the wrong direction on his neck, eyes blank.

"Forth; Mutilation – a threat to your precious body, be it from animals or otherwise. Something that would be growing within each one of you, from the very first person to die, to the one sent into an impromptu blender, to the third who now is always looking over their shoulder. Could your attacker be sadistic and take a hot knife to you, would they tear off your nails one by one, maybe cut your fingers off with a cigar cutter? Would I do something like that? I know you are familiar with this concept, Mr. Porla."

A flitter of gold slipped through a passing torchlight but vanished halfway through the cone. Another body dropped, this time with a standard issue combat knife buried in their chest, piercing their heart – killed by their own weapon.

"The biggest fear that all beings feel, well… it should go without say. Extinction. Death. This is a fear that is in every one of you at this very moment. Even you, Mr. Porla, you just don't want to accept it."

In the short silence that followed the woman's remark, three bodies dropped. The two that were stood practically shoulder to shoulder now had their heads rolling around their feet, and the third had a stab wound to the base of the skull, right below where it meets the spine. A new presence was racing around the circle, their footsteps barely making a noise over the sound of heavy rain. They were moving impossibly fast, so fast that even Jose couldn't keep up.

"Tell me, Mr. Porla. Do you remember what number three was?"

At the woman's words, Jose's body seized up. He felt some kind of pressure, like invisible hands, holding him in place. His arms were quickly moved to his back and he found himself face-down on the freezing-cold rain-soaked taxiway in less than a second. He could swear that he could see ice starting to form in the puddles.

"In basic terms, she said it was the fear of being unable to move, of being restrained against your will." A new voice summarised, it was a new female, this one with a rich, mature timbre that was coming from above.

The creeping cold grew ever worse as time ticked by, numbing the remaining soldiers' hands and stiffening their joints, making it even harder to react to the onslaught. And one by one, sometimes two or three at a time, their numbers were whittled down to just one soldier and Jose Porla. The soldier was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, knees clattering together as their head spun circles. The last thing they saw was a beautiful blonde woman appear in front of them, raise her pistol, and pull the trigger, and then everything faded to black.

"Celeste, call it in. You made the plan, we captured Jose, you get to call it in." Sal ordered as he clapped the woman on the back on his way past. He crouched down beside the man and placed anti-magician cuffs on him as the woman's voice filled his ears.

"Wolf Two to Command."

"Command here, report?"

"Stygian, we've captured the HVT. We eliminated the hostile force guarding him and he has just been restrained. He is no longer a threat. Orders?"

"Commandeer one of those vehicles and proceed to Black Steel's new position, he had everyone move to a rugby oval to the Southeast of the airfield. Pick up Osprey and Eastwood along the way. I'm sending the locations now."

"Understood."

"So, we finally get to meet face-to-face once again, Jose." Sal muttered as he took a knee in front of the redhead, grabbing his chin firmly and wrenching his head up to look into his face. "How does it feel, to be a dead man walking?"

"Fuck you, Monster."

"Thanks for the offer, but you aren't my type." The man grinned widely and effortlessly dragged the older man to his feet. "I'm a little disappointed, you know? I was hoping you'd go out with a fight."

"How can I fight something I can't see?"

"You find other ways of keeping track of it. Do you not watch any movies? You'd get plenty of ideas from those." Sal's green eyes shimmered and his fangs glistened in the reflected light of various torches. "Evidently some ideas pop out of that twisted mind of yours, we didn't know you had that many Revenants. Man, those bastards really gave me a rough time."

"Pity you couldn't just roll over and die."

"Eh, if I did that then I'd waste my brother's hard work, not only that but I'd make a lot of people sad." The pinkette shrugged and glanced over at Agent Frost. "Grab one of those M-ATVs, we'll toss him in the back and head out."

"Alright." The raven-haired man replied idly. He jogged over to the vehicles and started looking inside before climbing into the last one and starting it up.

"What, you aren't going to kill me for torturing that man, what was his name again?" Jose spat, snarling at the agent holding him just slightly off the ground by his jaw and neck. "Mick, Mac, Mike?"

"Don't tempt me, you'll be charged with treason and sentenced to death either way." Sal replied calmly. Once the vehicle was brought around, he threw the target into the back of it and climbed in after him. The agent was joined in the back by Celeste while Knight took the passenger seat. "I'm more interested in getting a few answers, one way or another."

"What makes you think you'll get anything from me, Monster?"

The salmon-haired man leaned in, his lips spreading into a devilishly dangerous grin as his eyes flashed red for just a moment. "I did say 'one way or another', so, we can do this the easy way or the easier way?" When he didn't get a response, he leant back and pressed on. "Why would someone, who commands a force responsible for ensuring the safety of Fiore and her citizens deliberately aid and entice attacks on those very same things you're meant to protect?"

Jose remained silent for a minute or two, staring into the green eyes across from him with intense loathing before he finally spoke. "How does one forge and temper steel into weapons? By heating it up and beating on it until it takes the form you desire and then you cool it rapidly to strengthen it. To strengthen Fiore, I put it through hardships, toughened the populace, and was there to provide support and stability to reshape them into a stronger nation."

"You killed innocents, either directly or by supplying terrorist groups, because you believed you were making the country stronger?" Celeste asked incredulously, stiffening in her spot next to Agent Salamander on the bench. "What twisted logic is that supposed to be?"

"Both of our companies do dirty work under the Queen's nose, what makes you lot any better than us?!" Jose snapped at the blonde, spit flying from his mouth.

"I won't deny that we do some shady shit here and there, but we draw the line at killing innocents. Gassing them with Sarin, for instance." Sal rebuked calmly, placing his hand on Celeste's armoured thigh and rubbing it soothingly. "If they interfere with a mission then it depends on secrecy requirements, among other things. But in most cases, we avoid the public eyes while working in and out of the public view. I did have a case where I did have to kill civilians recently, but they were armed and hostile and were a threat to myself and the mission. So, it was justified by self-defence and the authorities chalked it up to gang warfare."

"Then why are you sitting there and not here?"

"Like I said, we do shady shit but we don't go out of our way to kill Fiore's populace for the sake of 'Strengthening them'." The pinkette sighed quietly and gazed out the back windows. "However, I do somewhat understand where you are coming from. It's a very draconian way of thinking; those who survive learn to hate, those who die become martyrs to fuel that hate. This hate gets funneled into nationalism, directed at terrorists and foreign nations. The economy gets pushed to more militaristic projects, improving out soldiers' training, weapons, their vehicles. Contracts are sent out to various mercenary factions for supplemental troops or further training of military personnel, sometimes they purchase tech developed by these factions. As a whole, it strengthens the nation."

"Yes. That was the basic scheme of it."

"However. That still doesn't excuse you for attacking your own country, that is treason, not to mention domestic terrorism. You're chances of getting away with a slap on the wrist are as close to zero as possible and I might as well put a bullet between your eyes to spare you the wait until you are finally executed."

The M-ATV came to a short stop, allowing Osprey and Eastwood to board before it took off once more. The rest of the trip was filled silence within the cabin, Jose refused to speak and Agent Salamander had no intention of asking any further questions. When they arrived, they were greeted with all of the Agents and Commandoes, including the command staff. Totomaru's soldiers gathered around under a couple of marquees made from Black Steel's magic, talking with each other and some of Black Steel's commandoes, sharing drinks around.

"Out you get." Sal said as he unceremoniously dragged Jose from the vehicle and across the muddy ground to Captain Black Steel before depositing the man at his feet. "Brought you a present."

"How lovely, just what I wanted too; a fucking terrorist bastard." The red-eyed man grabbed his former boss by the collar and threw him into a nearby camping chair before turning his attention back to his fellow dragon slayer. "Things were lookin' a little hairy then for a few times."

"You're not wrong. Getting dog-piled by a bunch of those freaks felt like I was being run over by a bunch of damn freight trains." Sal quipped instantly. He ran a heated hand through his hair and quickly dried it out, styling it back into his usual spikes just as a familiar weight slumped up against his back. "Feeling tired, Lucy?"

"Mm'yes…" She mumbled into his back. She wrapped her arms around his chest and grunted cutely, her lips pursing into a small pout. "Are we safe?"

"We should be." The man replied and he sensed a faint pulse of magic from her before an even more familiar softness compressed against his back muscles.

"There you are." A man called out as he came under the makeshift shelter, followed by a bubbly blonde. He shook the water from his black hair like a dog and styled it with his hands before giving his younger brother a weary smile. "We're just waiting on the Nighthawks to arrive and we'll be on our way home."

"Salamander, Stygian; come over here for a sec, will ya'." Black Steel growled calmly over his shoulder as he made his way to where some soldiers were gathered. As the two men – plus Celeste who didn't want to let go of Sal and Fae who would always be at Stygian's side – followed him, they were enveloped by the warmth of a campfire, fuelled with both rubble scavenged from damaged buildings and branches ripped from nearby trees. The studded man kicked open an Esky, revealing a collection of drinks pilfered from a Mess Hall. "Pick your poison and have a seat." Once the five found their spots, the man leaned in with a serious look plastered on his face. When he spoke, it was a soft, low growl. "I wanna thank you guys, for helping make this happen. It could have ended badly if we didn't have your support. You gave me a chance in that warehouse, and it led to our freedom."

"I'll be honest, I didn't trust you in the beginning, Black Steel, and I made that perfectly clear." Sal muttered as he cracked open his can of whiskey and cola, needing to work around the blonde who stubbornly took a seat on his lap with no sign of budging any time soon. They were drawing glances, but he couldn't decide if it was due to their heritages as a hybrid and a human, that they were Agents showing a softer side, or if it was blonde's battle clothes clinging to her soaked body and emphasising her sultry figure. "But Makarov saw an opportunity and had me offer an olive branch. He should be the one you are thanking."

"I'll have to do that when I see him next. Whether it's me going to Magnolia or him coming here to inspect the facilities."

"It was a win-win situation." Stygian smiled slightly as he brought his can of cider to his lips. "You all get out of Jose's thumb, Fiore becomes safer, Jose gets taken care of, and we get the lion's share of the leftovers."

"So, what'll become of us?" Asked a newcomer as he took a drink from the ice-filled cooler and plopped down in an empty spot near the black-haired commando. "Storm gave me the brief rundown, but I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth."

A chime-like giggle cut through the overarching chatter, Agent Fae smiled benevolently at the man with two-toned hair. "It's rather simple: For those who willingly surrendered; we'll be conducting various interviews and checks, and if we find them suitable then we'll induct them into our new branch. Those that were forced to surrender, they'll be tried in the High Court, overseen by Her Majesty, the Queen of Fiore." She paused for a moment while she took a delicate sip from her can of lemonade. "It has already been decided that all bases and their contents fall under our jurisdiction, but should we choose to sell them, the Fiorian Military gets first dibs at a discount. The personnel on those bases will be treated like they surrendered peacefully. We won't be taking in everyone, that much should be obvious, as should the fact that we'll be very stringent in our screening."

"Naturally."

Fae glanced at the studded dragon slayer at his grunt, flashing a pleasant smile before returning to Totomaru. "Those who remain will be evaluated to see what training they need, and if there is any particular job they wish to continue doing or switch to. Unfortunately, we won't be able to train up air combat pilots, so we'll be getting instructors in from Blue Pegasus. Likewise for the armoured division, though who we contract is still up for debate."

Black Steel sighed quietly, finding his fellow Captain's intrusion mildly aggravating. He met Agent Salamander's gaze and jerked his head off to the side. The pinkette gave a small nod and whispered into the blonde woman's ear. Thanks to his keen hearing he picked up him telling her to hop onto his back only to have a mumbled 'carry me' thrown back at him. The red-eyed man smirked at the blank look Salamander gave Celeste, he rose to his feet and snatched a few cans out of the cooler, one for each of them. When he turned back around, he was met with his fellow dragon slayer who was giving the blonde a piggy-back ride. "Made her see reason?"

"Told her she was being carried either way and to put up with it." Sal chuckled and downed the last of his drink, he was about to toss it into a nearby crate turn makeshift bin when he saw a few commandoes, soldiers, and agents using empty cans for target practice. He decided to hold onto it and used Macro to make it levitate around him as he took the offered can from Black Steel.

Celeste make a small and cute hmph noise, making her jolt ever-so-slightly on the man's back. Her drowsy chocolate eyes drifted over to the other man as he waved a new drink in her face. A soft murmur escaped her lips as she reached for the drink. "Thank you."

As they made their way out from under the marquee, Black Steel glanced at the blonde, narrowing his eyes slightly before directing them to Sal. "Hey, is she related to who I think she is?" He asked quietly, purposefully keeping his voice below the woman's hearing range. "She looks a lot like her."

"Descendant." Sal replied in kind, bringing his left hand up and petting the woman's head lightly, earning a buzzed purr from her. "It was one of the reasons I was sent to save her, I knew her family personally. Though, we both know how long ago that was, I doubt she even remembers."

"To think I'd see a Heartfilia up close again. I wonder if she knows just how powerful her bloodline is?"

"Maybe. I wonder if she knows Anna, I'm certain her mother would." A soft breath washed over his neck, slow and even. The busty blonde had fallen asleep due to his warmth, and not even the cold water falling on them seemed to have any affect on her. "She's still very green, I'm surprised she could last a full night of fighting." He gazed up at the falling rain, lost in his thoughts. "I wonder if that is why she was always so comfortable around me, that she felt a strange familiarity that put her at ease, probably why she always breaks into my house when she is bored. Maybe I should start doing that to her?"

"I noticed she seemed to pop in and out at random areas during the fight, what's that about?"

"Hmm, I suppose I can tell you, since we're pretty much in the same company now. Due to the enhancements that we go through, the procedure has a chance of turning us into an Esper through mutation. Mine, as you probably guessed, boosts my brain's processing speed, increasing my reflexes to microsecond levels. Time moves slower for me while it's active, and paired with my movement speed, I can see, perceive, and react in an instant. For Lucy, hers is a new one that grants her access to a higher dimension, she can see into it and move through it. You can't sneak up on her since she is aware of everything within her visible bubble. She can also send objects through this higher dimension, and when it comes back to ours it displaces the matter at the destination. Or so we found out tonight."

"Huh, I wondered why you could literally dodge every single thing we threw at you. And that she is capable of that, damn. Though, I guess she'd have a proficiency with dimensional stuff being a Celestial mage, and one from the main Heartfilia line too. Isn't she practically royalty in their eyes?" Black Steel narrowed his eyes slightly and an unusually sly grin crossed his face. "Hmm, that sounds a little bit familiar, Your…"

"Don't say it."

"Highness."

"Fuck you." Sal grunted, shooting a quick glare at the man next to him. He came to a stop as the faint sounds of rotor blades caught his attention, they had a unique sound pattern that only their Nighthawks had. "Sounds like our rides are almost here."

"I wonder how many of your buddies know about that part of your dragon heritage?"

"They know Igneel, some have met him. I don't know if the fact that I'm the son of the Fire Dragon King has passed over their head or if they just didn't want to make a fuss about it. Either way, I prefer them not saying anything about it, I hate titles."

"Yet you're so fond of the title of Salamander that you'd hunt a man to the ends of the planet to stop him besmirching your name."

"I mean, that's a different case. That one is a professional name; I can't have that one get dragged through the mud by some bastard sex slave trader…"

Both men looked up as a flight of Nighthawks descended above them, their pods vertical as one touched down in the rugby field. Farewells were heard around them and the agents started loading their dead aboard the first.

"Anyway, speaking of dragon heritage. How's Metalicana going?"

"Heh, fucking deadbeat barely comes around. But he never did like Jose, warned me about him, I guess he was right after all."

"Well, maybe he'll show himself more often now that you've changed scenes."

"Maybe he will. Are you in contact with the others?"

"No, unfortunately. Though, I've kept track of them a little. The twins recently some special forces group in the northwest of the country. The little one has started studying medical science and medical magic, pretty suitable for a sky dragon if you ask me. From what Igneel tells me, Grandeeney has been looking after her like a loving mother."

"At least she is keeping out of trouble." The taller man let out a gruff chuckle and bared his fangs in a grin.

"Unlike the rest of us, it seems. Just can't keep our hides out of danger." The salmon-haired man returned the grin and shook his head lightly. "But we are all dragon slayers, trouble seems to love us."

"Eh, it's just Mother Nature's way of keeping us entertained, I guess. I'd rather the excitement over a boring life, wasting away in some backwater dump."

"Those places have their own charm, but you've just got to pretend to enjoy it. Once you're out though, it's much better."

"Hey, Natsu. It's time to go."

The pinkette spared a quick glance to the landing zone and found his older brother waving to him from the ramp of a Nighthawk. He gave the man a nod then turned back to Black Steel. "Well, it's been fun. See you around, Black Steel."

"Gihi. Next time I throw a party, you'll be the first to know. Safe flight."

"Have fun with the aftermath of this party." Sal waved over his shoulder as he walked to his brother. He sent the empty cans to the makeshift shooting range and boarded the stealthy helicopter with his squad and the command staff. After a long night of fighting, it was finally time to head home.

---

Well, I'm back from my break, and hopefully I haven't gotten rusty. Still fairly busy but will be updating when I can. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter; it came out much better than the original version and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Leave a review with what you thought about the chapter, I've been reading a lot of light novels recently and have been learning from them so hopefully you like this chapter as much as I did writing it. I'll see you all in the next one.