Chapter 7: Heroic Dive
Alice is checking in on the sub-bosses of her organization via the highly secured Cogna network. "Report in," she said as she saw the holoscreen with their faces.
"I am scouting one of the Xianzhou flagships, they would be perfect to be used as a plague ship," a woman named Kat said.
"Excellent, how about you Ren?" Alice asked.
"The compass seems almost ready to find the first Omni Key. I will move swiftly when this happens," Ren said.
"Good, we need to keep watch over the movements of various factions like the IPC," Kat said.
"We got something good for them when we are ready to strike," Alice said as Gwen was overlooking an assault on the main city of Thanzo 2.
"I got my own thing to deal with. I will keep you posted on my experiments," Gwen said as she pulled out a datapad to see the layout of the capital city on Thanzo 2. "Time to give these guys one hell of a show," she said.
Elsewhere Welt is looking at a book he is reading for March and Tingyun is walking by talking about music and fashion.
"Morning ladies," Welt said.
"Morning Mr. Yang," March said.
"Hello Walt," Tingyun said.
"Good morning ladies. I heard about you and Caelus getting together," Welt said as Tingyun showed off a big smile.
"Yes, we are very happy about it," Tingyun said.
"Indeed, having someone by your side is important. It helps ease all the stress out there in the universe. Having two share the burden is better to keep things balanced," Welt said.
"Sounds like you come from experience," Tingyun said as Welt nodded his head.
"Yes I had a few lovers in the past and I have gotten a son from a stressful experience," Welt said.
"Oh really, you are quite a mature gentleman which makes sense. Where are they?" Tingyun asked.
"They are very far away and I want to see them again hopefully," Welt said as the girls were confused by this.
"Can you just see them?" Tingyun asked.
"Oh, it's quite confusing. I rather not say," Welt said.
"Okay, I hope your family is okay," Tingyun said.
"Me too, you know that world remembers me of my old homeworld," Welt said.
"Oh, you don't talk about yourself that much. You seem so mysterious," Tingyun said as Welt laughed at this.
"Come on, I am not that standoffish. I am willing to talk with you if you need it," Welt said.
"Yeah Mr. Yang is very nice and explains a lot of things to use," March said.
"So, what is your homeworld like?" Tingyun asked being very curious about this.
"A blue marble in the middle of nowhere. Holding beauty of untapped potential but it was sieged by evil forces trying to ruin everything. I lead a group of people to stop this evil," Welt said.
'Wow, you sound like a big hero where do you come from?" March said sounding impressed.
'You can say that," Welt said being vague about it for it was a painful experience.
"Good thing you are on our side, sir. You know how to hold your own in a fight," Tingyun said.
"Yes, I got into a few battles in my time. Your power is very impressive, that nine tails power managed to overpower that massive machine beast," Welt said.
"Yes, I will keep training my mind and body to aid in helping the Astral Express solve this mystery about this whole situation," Tingyun said.
"Good, I hope they don't have more of those things cracking planets like eggs," Welt said as the girls walked away. Walt wondered where these machine beings came from. "The numbers must be wrong; nothing could have existed at the beginning of time within this universe. Unless," Welt trails onto his thoughts to resume reading his book.
"Oh yeah, Mr. Yang made his anime series," March said as Tingyun was surprised by this.
'Seriously, he owns an animation studio?" she asked.
'Yeah, he is quite popular in this galaxy. People were begging for him at fan events to green-lit a sequel," March said.
"Wow, everyone here is very interesting," Tingyun said.
"Yep, we are a bunch of oddballs exploring the universe while trying to save people," March said with a big grin.
"Seems about right," Tingyun said.
"So, you seem to be pretty close with Caelus now," March said as Tingyun blushed in the face.
"Yes, and it's very wonderful. He is a total sweetheart to me," Tingyun said.
"Good, wish I could find a date and we can both go on double dates together," March said.
"Oh, that would be so much fun. I can be your wing woman," Tingyun said as March sighed at this.
"Yeah, I can only hope. You want to see a movie in my room?" March asked.
'Oh sure, what do you have in mind?" Tingyun asked.
"Star of Outlaws, it's so good. It's about a young man along with his kid partner finding a young woman who is an android connected to some big treasure. He goes on a quest to find her past and understand what she is," March said.
"March, that sounds a lot like you," Tingyun said.
"Yeah, it does. I wanted to learn about my past but there is something not wanting me to know about it," March said as she remembered her time on the Luofu and getting a vague answer involving keeping it a secret for her own good.
"Seriously, very mysterious. I hope you find yourself and maybe you get a cool powerup like us," Tingyun said.
"Well can't dwell on that now. We got to focus on the present," March said getting her smile back.
"There we go," Tingyun said as they grabbed some popcorn and tea to go into March's room to watch the anime series episode by episode.
Elsewhere Himeko is sharing info with Herta to ask about anything Omni Keys, Cogna, and the Pathfinders' plans along with the compass. "That sounds insane. That is not possible, there is nothing but plasma and dust at the beginning of time. There must be an error in that dating for that compass," Herta said.
"I know but what other explanations do we have? These Cogna are a complete unknown, there are no records of these things ever," Himeko said.
"More likely train of thought is that these are frauds and pretending to be what they are not," Herta said as Himeko is unsure about this.
"After seeing them firsthand what they are capable of. They are truly alien machines; do you have anything like a key?" Himeko asked as Herta has a wealth of items stored in her giant space station which might have something connected to what they seek.
"I need to look, not sure what an Omni Key even looks like," Herta said.
"Well, the compass will show us when it's ready to go," Himeko said as she had the compass by her desk in her room.
"Well, I need to do some experiments. Also, get Caelus to come over to the station, I need to do more tests with the Simulated Universe," Herta said as she cut off the line.
"Gee, sometimes these geniuses are too smug for their own good. Would bite them in the ass one day," Himeko said as he looks at the golden orb which faintly glows against her desk.
Back with Tingyun and March finished watching the 1st season of the Star of Outlaws to enjoy the show. "Wow, that was interesting and fun. Where are the other seasons?" Tingyun asked as March began to look sad at this. "Hey what's wrong?" she asked.
"There is only one season," March said.
"Oh well, it's better it has one good season than being dragged down by bad seasons. I am looking at you Dragon Legends Super," Tingyun said sounding annoyed by the show.
"Oh, I heard about that. Mr. Yang, it's a big anime series all across several galaxies. A well-worn classic but they made a sequel to this and a lot of people seemed unhappy," March said.
"Yes, it was a complete mess. The fights were dumb, characters acting stupid for the sake of the plot and weird animation glitches which takes me out of the experience," Tingyun said.
"That is pretty sad," March said.
"Oh well, there are other anime I watch," Tingyun said.
"Do you want dirty anime?" she asked.
"Oh, you mean hentai, I watch that. I got a ton of stuff on my laptop," Tingyun said.
"Oh, I see, willing to share?" March asked.
"March," Tingyun protested.
"Hey, I need some alone time too and I need good material to use," March said.
"Well, there is some vanilla stuff mostly with them during lots of naughty things. It's breathtaking," Tingyun said.
"It gave you ideas for your love life?" March asked in a sly tone.
"Oh, a lot of ideas for me to use," Tingyun said with a lewd smile.
"So, you guys did it yet?" she asked.
"What, we just became a couple not too long ago. We will get there," Tingyun said flushing in the face with red covering her face.
"So did you see him naked yet?" March asked.
"March!" Tingyun protested.
'What I was just curious," March said.
"Yes, I saw him naked when he came out of the bathroom and his towel fell," Tingyun said as March looked on with surprise.
"Oh really?" she asked.
"Yeah, I have seen his penis. It's so long and big, that it's been stamped into my brain ever since. I get wet just thinking about it along with his tall slim body. Pretty boy gets me so weak," Tingyun said.
"I can see that. You are a naughty lady despite being graceful Tingyun," March said.
"I can say the same for you March. So cute yet having lewd thoughts," Tingyun playfully touches her forehead. The two women laughed at their shared lewdness to be having fun in each other presence.
"Well, I am happy we found you and I can properly befriend you," March said.
"Me too March," Tingyun said as the girls watched other shows until they were finished.
"That was fun, I hope we can see more shows together," March said.
"Likewise, more girl movie nights," Tingyun said as March had stars within her eyes.
"Oh, that would be so good. Well, see you later," March said as Tingyun walked towards the main area to see Carlus playing with Tingyun's Diting Ace.
"Is he being a bother?" she asked.
"Nope, he is being very sweet," Caelus said.
"Something you two have in common which makes me adore you both so much," Tingyun said as she sat beside him as her Diting leaps onto her leap to stroke his head.
"We got a new commission. It involved more of those hybrid monsters, the city wants us to wipe out the source which is coming from a valley nearby the farmlands," Caelus said.
"Well, we can give some peace to this world," Tingyun said.
"We can bring March and Dan Heng for this one," Caelus said as they got ready to go into their travel outfits to teleport toward the farmlands to head for the valley where the cybernetic monsters were coming from.
"Good thing we are on the case. This place has been good to us so far," March said.
"Let's make this quick and easy," Dan Heng said as they went up a hill to go towards the location.
'Hey Dan Heng, can you go into that dragon mode again if we are in a tight spot?" March asked.
"It's not just a power-up, it was who I used to be, and rather put it behind me," Dan Heng said.
"Well, can you power up when we fight a big threat like that Gravedigger?" March asked as Dan Heng just sighed at this.
"I will think about it," Dan Heng said.
"No seriously, we need all the firepower we can muster," Caelus said.
"Yes, these Cogna mean business," Tingyun said as the four climbed up the rocky walls to be within the valley. "Here we are," she said as they were in the valley to see the chasms go so deep here.
"Gee, this place is vast," March said as Tingyun's very sharp eyes could see something in the distance.
"Seems like we found our monsters here," Tingyun said as they saw several canine-like beasts transformed into cybernetic beings.
"Watch out," Caelus said as one of the beasts fired lasers from its eyes to aim at them. They scattered away from the energy attack with them heading down the cliff to engage with the organic robots.
Dan Heng comes in to dodge incoming cybernetic monster hounds trying to bite into his face but Dan Heng knocks it back before this happens. He whacks the beast away and stabs it in the head with white blood oozing onto the ground.
March fires ice arrows to freeze targets with Tingyun and Caelus breaks them apart with their close-ranged attacks. Caelus uses his baton to glow with white energy to bash and smash into the robotic alien canines.
Tingyun is zapping several targets with arcs of lightning as she uses her bladed fans to slice off their heads. She swings her fans to unleash torrents of lightning to zap multiple enemies with Dan Heng slicing and stabbing into the stunned enemies.
Caelus switches to his flaming lance to unleash a barrage of fireballs to burn away the enemies. He stabs into the head of the robotic canine to melt its head away. March fires arrows into the air to seek out targets to freeze them in place. Dan Heng uses powerful thrusting attacks to smash the frozen targets to pieces.
Dan Heng swings his spear to unleash crescents of wind energy to slice up robotic hounds to reduce them to gore and blood. "Gross," March said as the synthetic blood and metallic flesh left a foul odor.
"So, you managed to find my testing site. Good job," Gwen said as a drone flew by them to show her hologram which revealed a medium-sized lady covered in a set of tight-fitting black clothing with a grey cloak over it. She sports blue short hair and a pale skin tone looking quite striking with a serious expression.
"You did this?" Caelus asked.
"Yes, this was a testing ground to gauge the defenses of the city but then you guys showed up," Gwen said.
"We will not let you do any more harm to this place," Tingyun said.
"Well, good thing you are here. I need some test subjects for my new beasties," Gwen said as two big boar-like monsters appeared.
"Not these things again," Caelus said as he switched to his wind-infused punching daggers to swiftly go after the first one with Tingyun backing him up.
"You did mention fighting this before," March said as she and Dan Heng fought the second one. They roll out of the cybernetic hog's rushing charge as she fires her arrows to slow down the second hog. Dan Heng is attacking the first covered beast with lunge attacks.
The robotic hog tackles Dan Heng with its metal tusks to knock him across the field. It pounds its hooves to unleash waves of energy to push him back as March is trying to help but gets nailed in the chest by lasers from the metal pig's eyes.
This stuns her in place to get nailed by its ramming charge to send her flying. March regains her balance to create a wall of ice to block the charging beast. She raises her bow into the air to unleash a wave of icy arrows to fall onto the metal monster.
March freezes the ground to make the monster lose its balance to slide toward Dan Heng's powerful lunge attack leaving big cuts on its weird hide. They see it beginning to heal it seif as March freezes it again with Dan Heng empowering his weapon with wind energy to deliver a powerful lunge attack to appear behind the beast.
Then the metal monster explodes with gore to scatter across the rocky floor. "That was tiresome," Dan Heng said.
"That thing kept coming huh," March said as the loving duo was fighting the last monster boar.
Caelus uses his lance to summon a fire shield to block the charging beast to shove it away and unleash a counterattack via waves of flames. Tingyun unleashes bolts of lightning to zap it as she cuts and slashes into the hide of the monster.
Caelus switches to his wind daggers to conjure a twister of fierce winds to slam into the boar and entrap it inside. Tingyun mixes it up with her lightning bolts to empower the twister to do some major damage.
Tingyun cloaks her blade fans with lightning to crave into its head and slice the head off with white blood pouring onto the floor.
"So those Infected are destroyed. The Cogna nanites are doing their job to turn the local fauna into weapons for us," Gwen said as she unleashed waves of humans transformed by nanites to swarm them like mindless zombies.
"How horrible, getting transformed into weapons," Tingyun said as they all attacked the waves of infected humans who became hybrid abominations.
Caelus switches to his baton to hit and bash incoming enemies to send them flying into rocks getting split in half. Blood and guts spread all over the place as Gwen is watching through her drone.
"They are way more capable than I thought. Better prepare the best subject I've gotten on this planet," Gwen said.
Tingyun lets out torrents of lightning to vaporize groupings of infected humans. Caelus uses crescents of wind to slice up the mobs of enemies. Dan Heng is thrusting and slashing into the infected humans as March creates a wall of ice to block their advance.
Tingyun unleashed a dome of lightning around her to vaporize anything around her. They managed to wipe them out to clear the way. "Gee, we need to get to her hiding spot," Caelus said as Tingyun went to one of the infected humans to pick up a strong scent of perfume on it.
"Interesting," Tingyun said as she picked up the scent of it which belonged to Gwen. "Guys, I can smell her. Follow me," Tingyun said as her Foxian's powerful sense of smell allowed her to track her down.
"Oh, you became our bloodhound," March said lightly.
"You should be grateful for my powerful nose," Tingyun said as they went up the cliffs which went very high into the sky.
"Gee, we are going pretty high huh," Caelus said as they found the mouth of the cave high above the valley.
"Here we are, it's strong here," Tingyun said as her nose picked up the perfume very strongly within this area.
"Good work, we can get to the bottom of this," Dan Heng said as they found a small research base that had glass tubes on display.
"Turning people into infected monsters," Tingyun said as the tubes are holding people turned into infected.
"So, you managed to find me here, very interesting. Your Foxian traits helped you seek out my little outpost. As you can see, I am turning people and fauna with the Nanites but I have found something very capable whom you will meet," Gwen said as they heard a mighty roar which rocked the whole cavern.
"What is this?" March wondered as they drew out their weapons to see a huge being within the shadows.
"One of the apex predators on this planet transformed by the Cogna nanites into a fearsome weapon. Meet the Vex, the lumbering terror," Gwen said as something flung out of the shadow to smash into the wall.
It was the broken head of the huge boar to flopped nearby the group. They see a huge six-legged beast with horns on its head and baring large fangs.
"I hope you have fun, goodbye," Gwen said as the Vex unleashed waves of sound from its mouth to knock them all away.
"Oh shit, this thing is huge," March said as the metal/organic hybrid beast slams into the ground to unleash waves of energy to push them back further.
"We need to press on and fight back," Dan Heng said.
"No shit," Caelus said dryly as he summons his flaming lance to cast a barrier of flames to block the incoming energy waves. The huge beast lifts its tail to unleash streams of sticky slime.
"Seriously slime," March said as she got hit by the sticky goo to slow down their movements. The Vex unleashes a beam of energy from its mouth as March summons a wall of ice to block the shot but breaks apart to knock March away.
Dan Heng got hit with the slime to pin him to the floor as it got hit by the mouth beam to knock him into a wall.
"This thing is very strong," Caelus said as he dodged incoming streams of goo which was covering the floor. He and Tingyun use their powers to superheat the goo to make them disappear to clear a path to the infected Vex.
Tingyun puts up her fans in front of her to block the incoming barrage of energy bolts from the monster. She ducks under the attacks to unleash waves of electric crescents to crave into the body of the Vex. Caelus uses his baton to slam into the face of the beast to knock it onto the floor.
Both Tingyun and Caelus cut and bash into its face with Tingyun folding her fans into daggers to stab into both eyes. She delivers powerful shocks to burn out the eyes making the beast yelp in pain and smash its leg at Tingyun to send her into a wall bursting her back.
"Shit," Tingyun said as her body is healing rapidly to get back onto her feet. "Thank goodness, this Nine Tails power is very handy," she said as she saw Caelus get covered in goo.
He gets hit very hard by the Vex knocking him out cold. The Vex is ready to eat him as Tingyun transforms into her Nine Tails state to summon orbs of plasma to pepper the beast gravely wounding it.
"Don't you dare turn my boyfriend into a snack, that's my job," Tingyun said as she summons a beam of plasma to burn away one of its 6 limbs.
March and Dan Heng can feel the power and heat coming from her transformation. "She is so deadly yet beautiful," March said as the white hairs on her head, foxy ears, and tail along with her striking blue eyes made her look quite otherworldly.
Tingyun is ripping up the big beast burning away two more limbs. Her next blast knocks the Vex through a rocky wall that leads outside right on the edge of a huge chasm that looks bottomless.
"Oh no," Tingyun said worried as the beast grabbed onto Caelus in one of its remaining limbs. The battle has made the edge of the cliff unstable making the Vex fall off still holding a blacked-out Caelus in hand. "NO!" she shouted for the beast and Caelus began falling into the chasm below.
Dan Heng and March are beside Tingyun to be worried. "Oh no, what do we do?" March asked as she was panicky.
"We need to get a shuttle and grab him," Dan Heng said.
"That would be too late for that," March said feeling like crying as Tingyun nodded her head to leap off the cliff without fear. Both of them were shocked by this as Tingyun divebombs towards the monster falling down the deep chasm.
"Why did she have to do that," Dan Heng said looking annoyed by her foolish actions.
"That's what happens when you are in love, you do crazy things," March said as Tingyun fell towards the monster still holding onto a blacked-out Caelus still tightly held within the Vex's hold. She can feel the rush of air going over her body as she is focused on getting her boyfriend back.
"Caelus, don't worry I am going to get you safely into my arms," Tingyun said as she saw the beast trying to stop her by spitting waves of goo and energy orbs. She is dodging through the hail of projectiles to blasting them out of the air with orbs of plasma.
She keeps divebombing to gain speed to get closer to the monster. She conjures copies of herself to distract the Vex from hitting her as she gets closer to her target. The blobs of good and energy bolts hit the clones leaving Tingyun unharmed.
She also dodges falling rocks as she is Caelus is waking up to see the situation he is in. "Don't worry baby, I am coming for you," Tingyun said.
The Vex fires a beam of energy to strike at Tingyun but she puts up a plasma barrier to block the shot leaving her unharmed.
"You are not getting away," Tingyun summons her plasma barrier as she begins to rocket towards the beast going to use her superheated barrier like a battering ram. "Burn in hell," Tingyun speeds up like a bullet to smash through the torso of the Vex leaving a burning hole behind and killing it instantly.
Caelus gets out of the monster's loose grip. "I got you," she said as she used her tails to grab hold of him. She uses her bladed fans folded into daggers to dig into the side of the cliffside to slow down her descent until she stops to land on a large cliff edge feeling safe there. "Hey baby, are you okay?" she asked to place him on the ground.
"Foxy, that was awesome," Caelus said as Tingyun felt her face flushing red.
"Well, I didn't try to be cool. I wanted to save you and that was the best option in my head," Tingyun said.
"You are the best partner/girlfriend a guy can have," Caelus said as Tingyun went down to kiss him on the lips.
"Likewise, I always have your back sweetheart," Tingyun said as she saw Dan Heng and March coming at them using a shuttle to recover them. "Our friends are here," Tingyun said as Dan Heng hovered by the rocky platform to let them inside.
"Gee Tingyun, you got me scared half to death," March said.
"Well, I wanted to save him and I just did it," Tingyun said.
"Well, the main site of these beasts being made is destroyed. This planet shouldn't suffer any more of these monsters," Dan Heng said.
"Hopefully, this is over here," Caelus said as he got a deep hug from Tingyun for they go back to complete their commission to save the planet.
Elsewhere Alice is in contact with Ren who is at the Herta Space Station meeting with somewhere. "How is the plan going there," she asked on the Cogna network.
"I got a certain person who will be useful to me," Ren said as he sat down on a chair to wait for someone to talk with him.
"Hello sir, you need something," Arlan said as Ren has a smirk across his face.
"Yes young man, I need some help with someone. I will be grateful if you can help me out," Ren said as he fixed up his sunglasses. Ren and Arlan go off with Ren looking at the young man with a smirk. "Part of a greater whole," Ren said as his plan was going into effect very soon.