Arriving...


Ran: " country A..."

She mused looking out the window.

Hiro: " it brings back memories. When we first went to country A on board of this same jet with Ban-san to look for Kazu-san and Ami-san."

Ami: " who could have thought that things will have a drastic turn then."

She folded her arms in front of her as she thought back to all the things that happened 5 years ago.

Kazu: " yeah, like discovering detectors is actually professor Yamano and I was helping him."

Gouda: " still I can't forgive your for kidnapping us back then!"

Kazu: " I already apologized."

He said with a sweat drop.

Yuuta: " it seems you had been through a lot of fights before, guys."

Genesis : " rough ones nonetheless."

Arata: " even I didn't know about your past fights. Well, naturally I know about the Mizel incident but I didn't know you were heavily involved back then."

Ran: " you don't think we would go out and be like: We saved the world! We're your heroes or something... Of course we ought to keep it a secret."

Mirai: " that aside, they may not look like it but those people saved the world at least once before."

Hiro : " and one of them assumed the role of a terrorist, more or less."

He said with a sweat drop as he rubbed his neck. His friends mostly had wide eyes at how he was able to talk about that incident so... Naturally.

Arata: " don't say that, Hiro-san!"

Ran: " it wasn't your fault."

Kirito: " well, even if, you're not the only one here who had a dark past."

Gouda: " right! We have that evil player from Omega Dain!"

He tried to tease him.

Kirito: " rather than evil, I was merely trying to achieve my own goals, it's not like I did want to harm the world or something."

Sendou: "in conclusion, some of us were bad guys before as well. But in the end, we all gathered to save the world. How ironic."

His voice was laced in sarcasm.

Nightmare: " you can say that again."

Ruri: " still, you guys are awesome. Saving the world and all those stuff!"

Zenon looked at his battler. He was silent, a cold horrifying silence.

Zenon: " Jin..."

Jin: " did we really save it? Or did we just send the world into more chaos?"

He meant it as a murmur for himself, but those close by already heard it. It sank deep into their minds as they tried to think of what he meant.

Evangeline: " Jin..."

Ran: " anyway..."

She looked back at the old man who was sitting at the back.

Ran: " why are you here? Otacross?!"

Sakura: " Otacross-san is the legendary super hacker. You will need him for sure."

Sakura stated gleefully.

Ami: " I wouldn't be sure."

A bell rang, notifying them that they can take off their belts.

Ran: " finally!"

She said as she stood up and stretched her body.

Ran: " wanna grab something to eat?"

Touko: " of course!"

Ami: " I'm coming as well. Evangeline ?"

She casted the male next to her one last glance then nodded and followed after them.

Asuka: " do they have tomato juice on this jet. I forgot to pack enough for the flight."

Most of the girls left the passengers' hall as they made their way to grab something to eat.

Kazu: " to think we're needed to fight once more."

Sendou took out a card.

Sendou: " it seems like we're running in a circle. Whenever we think the crisis are over, we're met with new ones. Just like a wheel."

Zenon couldn't ignore the way Jin's hands were clenching at that.

Hiro: " still, I believe that's what we have to do."

Everyone looked back at him.

Hiro: " we've already known the bad things that happened in the world. I think, after we experienced that first hand, we can't just stand and watch. Even if it may seem impossible for us to change the world for now, at least, we have to do what we can. That's why, we should fight."

Gouda: " what we should do, huh. Your words are those of a true man, Hiro!"

Sendou: " right. If you can see the future then why not profiting of it. Then if you can do something about the crisis then why standing behind."

Kirito leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes.

Kirito: " you guys just don't know when to stop, that's all."

Fenrir: " you're the same as them."...


Country A...

" I see. Then they managed to protect Tokio City. You can't spread the virus anymore there."

The man on the other end of the call nodded.

Jinn: " they're heading to A Nation. Be careful of them, Ash."

The blond male shuffled the deck again.

Ash: " we just have to stop them from coming."

He pulled an Ace from the deck and his blue eyes narrowed.

Ash: " they won't arrive to this country safely."

He threw the ace on the table and it landed on the map of the airport spread in front of him...


Next Day...

The brunette let out a breath as his LBX finished off the last rampaging robots out there.

Ban: " good work, Odin."

Odin: " it's all thanks to everyone's help. It became easier with more powerful LBXs. Plus, that thing you recently discovered-"

Ban nodded before he blinked when Odin was focusing somewhere.

Ban: " what's wrong?"

The robot pointed behind his partner.

Odin: " Ban... Isn't that..."

He turned around to see a certain old man, sitting down on some ruins and staring at the sky.

Ban: " you!"

Old man: " it's quite a good day, suitable for a flight."

Odin: " what is he talking about?"

The old man looked back at the brunette.

Old man: " your friends are on their way, they will need your help."

He said before hopping down behind the rubble.

Ban: " wait!"

He tried to catch-up with him but when he peeked down from above, he found no one.

Ban: " they will need my help?"

He looked down in thought.

Odin: " Ban..."

The gears at the back of his mind clicked.

Ban: " it can't be..."


" Everyone! We're above N City's airport, please sit down in your seats and fasten-"

The pilot's voice suddenly was cut off and the airplane shook vigorously upon being hit by something

Twilight: " what..."

Muraku: " guys! You should look down!"

Everyone hurried to the windows and peeked outside at the land of the airport beneath them. All they could see were hundreds of LBXs pointing their weapons at the airplane.

The pilot tried to fly the plane down again but one of the LBXs launched its missiles at it, forcing them to fly up.

Magna Orthus: " they don't intend to let us land down."

Ken: " or even fly away."

He said as the plane was hit again by a wave of missiles, shaking them off and causing Momona to fall to the ground.

Momona: " not fair!"

Jin: " at this rate, they will keep us up till we fall down."

Yuuta: " can't we do anything?"

Fenrir: " we can always go down and fight."

All the LBXs exchanged agreeing nods and Dot Blastrizer smashed one of the plane's glass panels, opening a way out for them.

Momona: " I want to help but..."

Arata : " you can't possibly control your LBX from here."

Ami: " can they handle it?"

She peered at the LBXs flying downwards.

Ruri: " let's believe in them."

The enemies tried to shoot them down while in air but they failed as the LBXs with shields took the vanguard, escorting their friends to the ground safely. As soon as they got there, the fight started as the two fractions clashed.

Considering their number, Zenon and the others shouldn't face a lot of troubles with them. Still, it seems the enemies were having back ups, which made things a little bit tough.

" Attack Function: Omega Explosion!"

" Attack Function: Dimension Zero!"

" Attack Function: Trident!"

" Attack Function: Sword bit!"

" Attack Function: Midnight Katana!"

Minerva: " Alright! We're holding just fine here!"

Queen: " not for so long! Enemies' arial renforcement is approaching!"

She pointed at the flying LBXs heading their way.

Kazu: " More back up!"

Magna Orthus: " Oh man..."

The LBXs flung their muzzles and readied to open fire on the airplane circling above them.

Freedom: " No!"

" Attack Function: Jet Striker!"

The enemies' flying units were soon destroyed as a certain jet scooted through them.

The LBX shape shifted to its original form, grabbing both his lance and shield, he dashed forward to attack as well.

Not far from him, a certain brunette was typing away on his white CCM.

Jin: " Odin Mk2..."

Evangeline: " it's Ban."

Relief washed over them seeing they had back up of their own.

Odin: " everyone!"

He yelled at his friends there and pointed up at the jet flying in the sky.

Odin: " we can't leave them hanged there! Let's first open a way for them to land!"

All the LBXs nodded as they started bashing the enemies away, making enough space for the jet to land down.

" We're going for a rough landing! Everyone! Hold on tightly!"

The pilot decided to make a quick landing, not wasting anytime, the jet promptly approached the land with a neck breaking speed, knocking away the LBXs that slid past Odin and the others, and may at some point knocked a certain pinkette off her seat.

The wheels touched the ground while the umbrellas were thrusted backwards, slowing the jet down. It finally came to a stop and everyone inside either let a sigh of relief or tried to calm their upset stomachs at the rough landing.

Momona: " why is it always me..."

She complained as Ami helped her up with a sweat drop.

Odin: " we're not done here yet!"

He yelled as he impaled the end of his lance in the LBXs that came blundering at him, but more of them emerged from behind. They took him by surprise and managed to land a hit, pushing him backwards.

Odin: " Ban! Use it!"

Ban: " eh!"

Odin promptly tweaked and flew backwards to avoid the onslaught of attacks heading his way.

Odin: " I need more flexibility! Odin Mk2's armor can't afford it!"

The brunette nodded understandingly as he pressed on the CCM's keys.

Ban: " Armor Change!"

In a flash of an orange bright light, the LBX's armor parts changed, leaving behind Ikaros Zero instead of Odin Mk2 much to everyone's bewilderment.

Hiro: " wait! What was just that!"

They were following the battle from inside the Jet, not daring to step outside just yet.

The LBX quickly zoomed around, stubbing the enemies in their torsos, and smoothly shifting his position to dodge their multidirectional attacks.

Evangeline: " I see. In term of flexibility, Ikaros Zero is surely the best choice. But..."

Arata: " how did he manage to do that amazing thing!"

Ruri: " Armor... Change..."

Mirai: " as I though, Yamano Ban is really an awesome player!"

" Leave some for us!"

" We're joining as well!"

" Attack Function: Byakko Shouhazan!"

" Attack Function: Grand Wall!"

" Attack Function: Side Winder 8!"

" Attack Function: Hyper Energy Bomb!"

The four LBXs joined the battle, immediately letting out their special moves.

Jessica: " hope you don't mind us intruding."

Ban: " not at all. The more the merrier!"

It didn't take all of them more than a few minutes to wipe away all the left enemies in the airport.

Elie: " that was a close call. Maybe you should consider elaborating your messages more rather than just sending us a mere location."

She said showing the location message she got from her brother who rubbed his head with an apologetic small smile.

Their friends on the jet finally managed to get out, facing off the bright beaming faces of Ban and the others who were waiting for them on the ground.

Jessica: " seems like it was a rough trip."

Ran: " no exaggeration."

She pointed out at the broken LBXs scattered on the airport's ground and the airplane scathed from the rough landing.

Haruka : " to think they would target us while trying to land down..."

She seemed to be thinking of what may have happened had Ban and the rest didn't come to help out.

Otacross : " they shouldn't be underestimated deyo~."

Elie: " most importantly that you're fine."

She said giving the red eyed girl a hug.

Evangeline : " you don't know how much worried I was about you all."

Ban: " so, how is Tokio City?"

Ban asked the most important question in his and everyone else's minds.

Kazu: " don't worry about it. We made sure everything was alright before we came here."

Touko: " anyway, this seems like a long conversation."

Jessica: " you're right. We should continue talking in NICS. I had the Fire Sweet vans waiting for us, let's go."...


Tiny Orbit...

Employee: " they faced some troubles, but they're sound and safe!"

He informed everyone back at Tiny Orbit.

Rina: " it seems NICS picked them up as well."

Takuya : " thank God."

He looked at Yuuki who was at another consol.

Takuya: " how is the situation of Tokio City?"

Yuuki turned back with a smile.

Yuuki: " don't worry, president, with all our friends that we've given the vaccine to, they're bound to stop any virus user before their LBXs break loose."

Rina: " I hope they can help in N City as well."...


N City...

Yuuya: " Eh? Ban-kun was able to pull off such thing..."

Even the four that had been with him for the whole fight looked back with wide eyes as Ban pulled out his CCM and changer IKaros Zero back to Odin Mk2.

Ban: " I actually discovered it no long ago. When I was fiddling with the sittings, I saw something called ' Multi Armors Setting ' and it's status was activated. That's when I figured out about it."

He said while smiling at the LBX that landed on his arm as he held it up.

Jun'ichirou : " it can even change the LBX's armor... But how?"

Kaios: " this thing goes beyond imagination."

Evangeline : " seems like something out of science fiction movies for me."

Haruka: " anyway, secretary Kaios, we've taken a close look on the city's situation while on our way here."

She immediately cut to the chase.

Otacross : " it's horrible deyo~."

Elie: " you can say it again."

She rubbed her forehead.

Kaios: " as you saw, we already had five people able to use the program. And the fifth one was actually added yesterday."

Jun'ichirou : " we actually had to deal with those LBXs with only Yuuya, Ban and Elie's help for so long. It was hard for all of them and their LBXs."

Kirito: " I see. You can rest now, we have the solution for this first phase you're going through right here."

He said taking out a flash drive.

Evangeline: " we can stop the rampaging using this. But we need some sort of a capable computer to run the program."

Kaios: " would Otacross' computer do it?"

Otacross: " right. I'm sure my computer can handle it deyo~."

Kirito: " very well. Then let's go, old man."

He said dragging Otacross out of the briefing with him and Eva.

Haruka: " even if we stop the rampaging now, be ready for more horrible things to happen."

Elie: " eh!"

That made them look back at her with stunned faces. What could be possibly more troublesome than an army of insanely powerful LBXs advancing on them?

Ami: " as soon as we stopped the automatic rampaging in Tokio City, players were hypnotized and used to attack others."

Jessica: " what?!"

Ran: " as you heard. They were all controlled by some evil AI called Leviathan."

Liu Bei: " Leviathan...?"

Jin: " it's a long story, it will take a while to feed you on everything that happened with us."

Elie had a downcast look at that, but her LBX was the one who voice out her thoughts.

Beargguy : " then our fight won't end easily."

Seeing the serious atmosphere all around them, she didn't need an answer.

Arata: " another thing is, the enemy has stronger followers by his side. Itan Kyuji, he as well got a talking LBX that he is using for Leviathan."

Ban: " even the enemy is..."

Kaios: " it seems like a massive world crisis here.''

Haruka: " secretary, what about your communication?"

He shook his head.

Kaios: " even the satellite we've recently activated was blocked. We don't know how."

Yuuta: " we have to get the communication back here as well."

Jin: " that's an important step. But we need a computer strong enough to do so. Last, we needed Goliath's."

Ban: " Goliath!"

Sendou: " long story short, Kousuke has a talking LBX as well."

Odin: " eh!"

Kazu: " see, it's not only us who were surprised."

Kaios: " we can think about the communication later. Now let's focus on the rampaging."

Soon Kirito's face appeared on the main screen.

Kirito: " alright, all LBXs should have stopped functioning by now."

Jeanne D: " eh! This quickly!"

Zenon: " Kirito and Eva have been working on how to stop those rampaging LBXs before even the crisis started. They had been taking care of infected LBXs since the L Virus first started to spread."

Haruka: " and that's how, the rampaging only took half a day in Tokio City."

Everyone's eyes went wide open in shock.

Jessica: " eh! Half a day! To think we've been fighting for a whole month!"

Sendou: " we owe Kirito and Eva for their hard work. If it wasn't for them then we could have suffered more."

Kirito: " you should be greatful."

Evangeline : " enough of it Kirito."

Kaios: " anyway, Kirito-kun, you have my thanks."

Kirito merely nodded at that.

Kaios: " contact president Claudia at once! Tell her we've taken care of the rampaging LBXs! People can go back to their normal lives, but while being careful as well! NICS will help with the reconstruction of the city!"

Achilles Deed: " we will be landing you our hands as well!"

Kaios smiled as he looked back at them.

Kaios: " thanks."...


He slammed his fist roughly on the table, shaking everything on top of it and the deck of card came cascading down the rim of the table.

Ash: " how can that be possible! All of the rampaging LBXs! They stopped them!"

Jinn: " I told you not to underestimate them. Thankfully I expected such failure."

Ash: " Jinn! You!"

Jinn: " listen, I've sent someone to you there. Expect him anytime soon. He may be hard to deal with but, he is needed. "

The man clicked his tongue. Though he wanted to protest, saying he doesn't need help, he thought back to their master and then took a deep breath.

Ash: " alright then."

He slightly pulled down the front of his red hat.

Ash: " I will make sure to clean things here."...