Toucan's heavy footsteps echoed in the dead of night as he walked into a vacant construction site, littered with steel beams, mounds of dirt and the skeleton of a building still standing unfinished. "3:30, Any second now…" Toucan took deep breaths before he heard a female's voice behind him.

"I take it you're the one that called for this meeting to happen?" The female voice sounded foreign to Japan, yet still spoke perfect japanese.

Toucan turned around, his eyes widened as he expected there to only be one or two people, but instead there were six silhouettes staring down at him. With five out of the six having glowing multi-coloured eyes piercing through the shadowy veil of night. Toucan could tell that they all wore a similar pure black bodysuit, being differentiated by the accessories they wore and the glowing symbol on their chests, unique to each silhouette. Somewhat resembling a group of comic book heroes.

The sight of these six figures looking down at him made him more nervous than he originally thought he'd be. Toucan coughed before responding, to help muster up as much composure as he could. "Yes, that would be me."

The girl who spoke bore a glowing symbol of two golden battle axes in a cross on her chest, from the look of her silhouette she couldn't have been older than 17. "Before we begin you should give your name."

The way this girl carried herself reminded Toucan of Raleigh, but her presence, while still nerve racking, wasn't anywhere near as frightening or as heavy as Raleigh's was earlier that day. "I go by Toucan."

"Very well then Toucan. I'll allow you to call me, Axgard." The girl placed her hands on her hips. "You must have gone through a lot of trouble to break through our network's defences, and yet all you left was a message wishing for a 'trade'. So allow me to ask, what is it that you want from us?"

Toucan's nerves were telling him to run, but deep down he knew he wouldn't make it far, as he was already in too deep. All he could do was stand his ground and play his cards right to get what he wanted. "I want an audience with your leader."

Axgard's posture changed and grew more serious as she crossed her arms. "Quite a bold request. But even so, if you want an audience with the Grandmaster, you would need to have something we deem of equal value, which would be quite difficult."

"I believe I do." Behind the orange fake eyes, Toucan's posture appeared a whole lot more confident than he really was. "How does some information on your runaway Monarch sound?"

The name 'Monarch' seemed to resonate with all six silhouettes as they all fidgeted at the same time. "And what exactly do you have to say that we don't already know?"

Toucan's false confidence in his plan became slightly more real when he saw their reactions. "I can tell you where he is, what he does for a living and even what name he goes by." Toucan raised his hand towards Axgard. "And before you ask, I won't give the details until I know for sure that I'm meeting your leader."

Axgard stayed silent as she thought before raising her head. "We can't assure that an audience with the Grandmaster will happen, until we can be sure that your information isn't false. So in the end, it appears we've quite quickly come to a crossroad."

('Thoughts')

Toucan's confidence boost came to a sudden halt, he averted his eyes to think of his next move. 'Should I give them the information? I'll lose my whole hand then, but I don't see any other way of getting through this. Even worse is that I can't run, I know for a fact I won't survive before I even reach outside the fencing.' Toucan kept trying to figure out new ways he could gain the upper-hand and or even make his escape. But whether he liked it or not, out of every plan he thought of, the one with the highest-rate of survival was him just handing the info over to them and trusting their word.

Axgard tilted her head to the side and spoke in a mocking tone. "What will you do?"

Toucan looked back at her, knowing he had no other choice, his best bet was to just wing it and hope everything turns out alright. "Fine, I'll give you the information. But I want your word- no, I want you to promise that I'll get that audience."

"Sure." Axgard raised her hands. "I promise that when you hand over the information and we know you're not lying, you'll meet the Grandmaster."

"Face-to-face. No over the phone business." Toucan made sure that they couldn't screw him over.

Axgard sighed. "You'll meet face-to-face."

Toucan nodded. "Good, you ready?"

Axgard nodded back. "Quite."

Toucan knew that telling them the truth about Raleigh was practically handing him over to them. But he also knew that if he gave false information, he would be the one with a death-sentence. He found it hard to get his words out, almost like he knew he was about to make a mistake. "Monarch is… He…"

Axgard crossed her arms again. "Well?"

Toucan clenched his fist and took a deep breath, he prepared himself for what he was about to say. "Monarch hid his identity behind the fake name Oscar Burke. He moved to America a few years ago, specifically San-Francisco and currently works for Bulkin construction." Toucan knew what he'd done and almost accepted it, apart from a tiny spark of hope that they'd believe the information and let him live.

One of the silhouettes seemed extremely agitated by what Toucan said and spoke loudly in a harsh tone. "How dare you!" The silhouette had the physique of a teenage boy and bore the symbol of a dragon head that covered their torso with a vivid red glow. "You dare stain the name of our older brother! I'll-."

"Enough, Sovereign!" Axgard's voice turned harsh as she ordered the boy to be quiet. She jumped down from the steel beam, onto the dirt floor.

Toucan's eyes widened as Axgard's face became visible. The absolute look of irritation on her face was scary enough, but when he glanced at all of the silhouettes he realised all of their piercing eyes held a heavy amount of irritated anger. "What's with those looks? I gave you the information."

"Yes you did." Axgard's body became visible as she entered the moonlight. Her sleek black bodysuit was accompanied by some golden ribbons wrapped around her limbs and waist, with her black hair falling out from the hood that her golden coloured eyes shone from beneath. "But you missed the part where our older brother honourably died to protect the Hall from being exposed to the public."

Toucan's eyes grew smaller upon hearing that Monarch or rather Raleigh was dead. "Hounorably died?"

Axgard simply opened her hand and a steel axe appeared out of thin air. "I'll do as our older brother would do and end this quickly. But I can't guarantee it will be painless." Axgard began to run at Toucan as she reeled the axe back.

Toucan took a step back as Axgard got closer. 'I've never fought in a real battle before… but I made countermeasures for this type of situation.' Toucan ripped his gloves off before jumping backwards, revealing his robotic hands. He held his arms out towards Axgard, the tips of Toucan's fingers opened like caps as narcotic darts began to shoot out at his opponent.

Axgard seemed unimpressed as she blocked the needles using the blade of her axe, which seemed to grow in size, as a shield

Toucan kept jumping back to keep his distance. 'That was just the first of many countermeasures I thought up!'

He lifted up his hoodie and opened a compartment in his stomach that held many box-like objects. He took one out and attached it to his arm, the box then unfolded transforming into a blade. He began to run at Axgard, swinging his blade when he got close enough, only for it to immediately shatter against her axe.

Axgard tried to slash at Toucan whilst he was near, but she only managed to graze him as he used a sort of air cannon in his foot to gain distance. "Cheap trick."

"Says the one that came in a group of six!" Toucan unattached the broken blade and grabbed another attachment from a compartment in his leg, which turned out to be a sort of grenade launcher that he attached to his arm. He didn't speak as he aimed his arm at the incoming Axgard. Once he saw the perfect timing he shot the tear-gas grenade that was inside, but to no avail as she easily swatted it away.

Time after time, attachment after attachment, nothing worked. Toucan managed to keep his distance, gaining a few scrapes and dents, but he was running low on options. "I'm out of ranged attachments. All I have left are close-quarters, but I'm not sure I'll even survive long enough to use them."

Axguard turned her head to Toucan as she lifted her axe over her shoulder. "I'm surprisingly starting to have fun, so don't stop now."

"Not like I have much choice…" Toucan's arms opened up to reveal rectangular screens built into the under-sides. He held both of his arms in front of him as he ran in close and with both screens pointed towards Axgard, catching her attention. "Say cheese!" Both of his eyes disappeared and within a second both screens lit up, creating an insanely bright flash.

Axgard didn't have a choice but to close her eyes as she stopped in place. "A flashbang? Already resulting in the classic tricks, are we?"

Toucan didn't waste the moment he gained and ran towards Axgaurd, his arm clicked a multitude of times as he reeled it back. "Still worked, didn't it?!" He jumped at Axgard as her vision was still healing. But just then his arm made a snapping sound as the spring and wire that helped reel his arm back broke, shooting his arm out towards Axgard too early.

Axgard heard the breaking of the spring and wire and used the sound to determine Toucan's location and distance without having the need to see. "Found you!" She immediately swung her axe in the direction of the sound.

The axe made contact with Toucan's arm, it crushed its way through the armour plating and got caught on the steel supports, and with the force Axgard put into the swing, it only caused Toucan's arm to be ripped from his body. Exposing his wiring and broken supports that filled the shattered shoulder joint.

Toucan was thrown away by the swing at the same time, landing a few metres away from Axgard and his arm. After landing face down, he went to grab his arm but found it missing. "Ahk-" The pain he suddenly felt made him want to scream his heart out and puke at the same time. But Instead he kicked his legs out and slammed his head against the ground to stop himself, cracking the visor in the process.

Once he was done Toucan made his way back to his feet, and raised his head to look at Axgard, his cracked visor displaying only one orange dot, an anger-filled eye. "I thought of and created so many countermeasures for today…" He clenched his remaining hand into a fist. The metal covering his hand gave off a high-pitched scream as it began to glow a furious orange, the immense heat that built up within his fist burnt through the sleeve of his hoodie and started to produce steam. "But out of all of them… this is my favourite!"

Axgard took one of her hands off her axe and grabbed the air in front of her, making a smaller axe suddenly appear. "Continuing to fight back is only going to make the suffering worse!" She threw the small axe towards Toucan before running towards him.

"Only a single shot… and there's not a chance in hell I'm missing it!" Toucan shouted to himself before dodging the small axe by side hopping and running towards Axgard at full speed.

As they met in the middle Axgard slammed her foot on the ground and used the momentum she built up to swing her axe upwards. Toucan placed all his bets in landing his single attack and threw his whole body into the fray, thrusting his hand out towards her at point-blank range, the palm of his hand opened up to reveal a gun barrel that was built into his arm.

For a single second Toucan's open palm sat but a few inches from Axgard's torso. "I win!" A whistling sound came from Toucan's arm as something was shot towards the end of the gun barrel. Toucan's moment of victory seemed assured. Then the small axe that was thrown towards him flew into his vision and forcefully jammed its way into Toucan's arm. "Wha-?" Toucan watched the axe push his arm away from Axgard's torso and towards a pile of steel beams behind her. The whistling in his arm got louder and louder, until suddenly a high-speed projectile was shot from Toucan's arm, covered in bright orange flames and pierced its way through the air faster than a bullet ever could, easily burrowing its way into a melted cavity of a steel beam. "No!"

Toucan's eye quickly turned back to Axgard who had a confident smile on her face. "I applaud the effort." Her axe made contact with Toucan's body from underneath, it easily tore through his hoodie and made contact with the armour platings beneath. The plating became heavily dented and cracked but it managed to protect him from that one attack, sending him flying into the air again.

Toucan roughly landed on his back, surrounded by broken pieces of his armour plating. He tried to pick himself up but his remaining arm creaked as it could barely hold his weight anymore. "D-damn it…" Toucan fell back onto the floor with sparks of electricity emanating from every gash that cruelly decorated his metal body. He realised he had already lost and Raleigh popped into his head. "I should have just taken your advice and walked away…"

Axgard slowly appeared in Toucan's line of vision, she stood above him, bathing in the moonlight that her axe reflected as she held it up towards the sky. "I'll award you some last words, speak them."

Toucan's one working soulless eye looked past Axgard's pure golden eyes and to the entirety of the Hall. "It doesn't matter whether I'm dead or not. Many out there wish the same thing that I do and they'll give up everything to make it a reality, the same way I have."

"And what reality would that be?" Axgard asked as she tightened her grip on the axe's handle.

"A reality where the Hall of Heroes fall!"

Axgard didn't say anything before swinging the axe down with great force, causing Toucan to close his only eye as he didn't want to see what came next. As the blade of the axe made contact with Toucan's cracked and dented armour platings, it easily broke through them, generating sparks as it dug deeper and deeper into Toucan's chest. But then the axe suddenly came to a halt, when a single hand bearing black fingerless gloves with steel knuckles caught the blade and lifted it from Toucan's chest slightly.

Glowing lines raced across the blade, originating from where the uncovered fingers made contact. Axgard couldn't fully see the person the hand belonged to. All she could see was the back of the person's black hooded jacket and their black trousers tucked into their steel-plated boots. "Who-" Axgard couldn't finish her sentence before the person interrupted her.

"Break." A man's voice assertively commanded.

Axgard watched as cracks traced the glowing lines and soon after the axe's blade submitted to the man's command, beginning to shatter into tiny fragments like glass. "Huh?"

Toucan opened his working eye and saw the figure that saved him, but from a point that made them look as if they were standing within a rain of steel fragments that came from the shattering axe blade. "You're…"

Toucan saw that the bottom half of his face was covered by a black neck and face mask, allowing his ghostly green eyes to stand out from under the hood.

Toucan's eyes blinked and regained some semblance of life as he began to recognize the figure. "Nemesis."