Okay, before I say anything more, I just want to make one thing absolutely clear.

KRKing, To Broach Or to Put Up: This is my story. I am doing my own progression, one which doesn't involve becoming either an overpowered demigod for no reason, or a haremlord. Please refrain from attempting to backseat drive my story. If you wish to create a story with either of those traits, I give you only the best regarding the production of your own story.

And now for more positive answers.

A.S. M.F.: Thank you? I guess. I don't understand your whole rating thing.

the lone soul: I generally update either Monday or Friday, but I tend to write myself into corners occasionally, therefore causing delays. This one was delayed due to a minor thumb injury caused by dropping a rock upon myself.

Time to rock.

Man, why can't we do missions at a reasonable hour? Like… noon, or two in the afternoon. Sane times. Times when people should be awake.

Not at goddamn eleven forty-five. Sorry, I mean eleven forty-eight, according to my watch. My bad.

None of us are at our best right now. RED's hair is a frizzy mess and she flat-out refused to take off her nightcap, Nepgear's practically falling asleep standing up and needs to be poked every once in a while whenever she stops, and if Compa's incessant humming to keep herself awake manages to get even louder, we'll end up giving away our positions when we actually get there.

Turns out, I'm one of the lighter sleepers of the group. And I mean that in the absolute loosest sense of the term. I'm making due with just silently fuming as I clench and unclench my fists. The only person even resembling being awake and aware is IF, who apparently never sleeps ever. She's taking the lead, occasionally sending and receiving texts from her phone.

I'm fueling myself not through willpower or energy, but through the sheer hatred I feel for this situation. Hopefully nothing important will happen in the twenty or so more minutes I need to get the brainpower required for problem-solving back online. As is, we've been trudging through this ice-cold wasteland for a good ten minutes or so now, and it's definitely not getting any warmer as we go.

So yeah, IF shakes me awake, and I stumble out of my bed, half-destroyed because it's half-past late-o-clock and it's pitch black outside. From there, I'm given a hasty rundown of the situation (operative needs immediate backup RIGHT NOW). Unfortunately, I nod a lot when half-asleep, and somehow, against all odds, managed to agree to this.

Why did I agree to this?

On the plus side…

Fuck. Never mind, there is no plus side.

God, this sucks.

"Okay. So we're approaching the southern entrance to the World Labyrinth." speaks IF, as she looks up from her phone.

There's a sleepy grumble resembling human language in response from Nepgear.

I blink twice, before sighing. "So, who's this agent we're rescuing? Would be nice to know who not to kill."

That gets a blink back. "Kill?"

I shrug. "Kill, bludgeon unconscious, tie up and steal their things, honestly I don't care right now. I just want to go back to sleep."

A grunt of affirmation comes from somewhere to my left. I'd turn, but turning takes actual effort.

"My agent… Well, her name is Marvy, and she's got orange hair." answers IF.

Familiar name, but not really clicking. Did she do anything in the main plot?

Screw it.

"No kill Mrs Orange. Okay." I respond. This of course gets an irritated noise in return.

I can see the beginnings of a massive structure coming into view: from here, it seems the ground slopes into a large, underground cavern. And the walls of the cavern are…

I stop, and pause, before rubbing my eyes. And then I rub them again, because they still look the same.

"Umm… guys, are the walls supposed to look like that? I'm not asleep, or hallucinating, and seeing something that I shouldn't, right?"

The walls, roof, and floor of the cavern are randomly painted every color of the rainbow, like it was designed by a giant toddler with a paint kit. There's randomly colored blocks of whatever just floating midair. It's hideous. It's absolutely disgusting. It's hurting my eyes to look at it. I can't help but wonder that, if I keep staring at it, maybe it'll have one of those 'magic eye' effects.

IF sighs, before she gestures forwards, into the whirlwind of oppressive colors and bad taste. "Welcome to the World Labyrinth."

Goddamn, I knew the inside of the labyrinth was bad, but wow, it extends up to the surface as well? I practically shutter my eyes as we begin to descend into the multicolored maze.

I am so glad that the descent is stairs, at the very least, rather than just a ramp. Ice plus a ramp would mean all sorts of troubles. Slowly but steadily, we pass the snow-covered steps, to a drier, warmer locale.

There's a yawn from somewhere behind me.

I barely stifle my own, as I utter the usual words. "Okay… what's the plan?"

"Marvy said she's going to meet us inside of the Labyrinth. Apparently, ASIC's extremely active in this area, but she can't get in deep enough to get further information without exposing herself. She needs backup, because if these numbers she sent me are correct, then there's a sizable force down there."

That definitely wakes me up. "Sizable… just how big a force we talking here?"

IF pauses, before taking in a breath. "Too many. She counted twenty-six armed troops, but those were only the ones on patrol. There could be more deeper inside. We can't risk a big fight in here, not without kicking a hornet's nest. We only have an opening because usually, there's over fifty."

Compa's awake now too, if her startled tone is any indication. "Iffy… that's a lot of bad guys… I don't think we'd be able to beat that many..."

IF lets out a small breath. "This is an information-gathering mission. Honestly, it'd probably be ideal if we didn't need to fight at all, but if it comes down to it, we just need to figure out what they're doing, and stop it if we can."

Pretty much all of us are awake now, if the silence of everyone taking in the situation is of any indication.

I take in a breath. "Okay. Then we just need to not get caught. We can do that, right?"

Here's to hoping that it's not that much harder done than said.

The inside of the Labyrinth is just as much of an eyesore as the outside, if not more. After only a few moments of staring dead ahead of me, I can almost feel the colors beginning to blur. God, I hate this place. I swear, if I looked away towards a white wall, I'd still be seeing afterimages of this crap. I have the near-overwhelming urge to find the artist responsible this place, and kill them. Messily.

On the plus side, the floor is solid and doesn't echo, meaning that we'll at least not need to worry about that when we sneak around. Stil, with as many holes in the floor as there seem to be, I don't entirely trust the ground below us. If I feel anything shift below me, I'm getting off my tile immediately.

"Alright…" begins IF. "Marvy said she's in the northern portion of the Labyrinth."

"Lemme guess." I answer, as I summon a knife and try to jam it in between two of the tiles in the wall. No dice, these things are pretty much flush. Couldn't climb them if I tried. "Northern entrance is heavily, heavily secured, so we're coming in through the back."

There's a nod. "Exactly."

Brilliant. Let's get this show on the road.

Carefully, we step into the large room before us. I take the lead, but pause the girls behind me, the second I hear someone's voice.

"I don't get it." speaks a voice from up ahead. High-pitched, sort of nasally. Don't recognise it. "If you can't sell it, why are you still carrying it around?"

"I just… can't!" grumbles another voice. Lower pitched. "I know this thing's worth a ton of money, but whenever I try to let go of it, I just can't! It's like it's glued to my hands!"

Slowly, I creep forward, and peek around the edge of the wall.

Two girls, in ASIC colors, one of which is carrying some sort of shiny, reflective material. Behind them, there are a pair of chairs, a small campfire, and a pile of battered crates. There's also a small tent, which appears to be empty. Seems we've stumbled across an ASIC guard post. The lingering smell of cooking meat is in the air, it seems they recently were roasting hot dogs over the fire.

"Give me that… You probably just don't want to give it up. If you won't sell it, then give it to me!" demands the first voice, belonging to the girl on the left. She's a little bit shorter than her friend. I can see her reach for the material.

"If you can take it, go for it." shrugs the taller one, as she holds out the material for her compatriot.

I can see the first girl reach for the material, before seemingly struggling to remove it from the second girl's grasp. "Let go, dammit!" she shouts.

"I'm not even holding onto it!" yells back the second one. "I swear, look at my hands. This thing must be cursed. It's the only thing that makes sense. Do you know where I can go to get this thing uncursed? Because now, I think this stupid thing will cost me more to get rid of it than I will make back selling it."

The first girl is practically bracing herself against the second as she tries to remove the material from her grasp. "LET. GO." she shouts, as she applies more and more force to the stubborn material. Her friend winces in pain as a boot is dug further and further into her leg.

Behind me, I hear IF whisper, "What's going on…?"

I whisper back, "I'll let you know when I figure it out. It seems like these two are distracted, though."

The two ASIC members wrestle over the material for a couple more moments. They seem mostly distracted. We could probably sneak by, although honestly, I'm sorta curious about the material.

IF is beside me now, and is peeking out just a bit below me. "What are they even doing?"

"It seems they're fighting over a material." I answer. "Think we can rush them?"

There's nods from the entire group, before we take up positions.

On a count of three, we charge forward, weapons held in hand. I've chosen Seamus as my weapon of choice this time, as he is the least likely tool in my arsenal to actually kill the people I hit. I might not be on the same side as ASIC, but randomly killing people for doing their jobs…

Well, I don't want to get into that habit. And then there's basic human morality. That's a thing too.

The poor ASICs barely see us coming, before we're on top of them. I take the taller one down with an anvil swing, with nary a sound beyond the everpresent, bone-chilling battle cry of "Dogoooo!" from Seamus. Absolutely terrifying. Stealth kill, indeed.

RED gets the shorter one, sapping the poor girl with a jump into a book to the head. The victim goes down like a sack of potatoes.

Carefully, I bend down to them, and check their pulses. Good, still alive. I'd rather not become a murderer quite this quickly.

"So uhh… do we just leave them here? Or what?" I ask, as I pause for the three seconds required to say that I did not immediately loot the bodies, before I immediately loot the bodies. Of course, the first thing I do is check to see if they're wearing any jewelry. No dice, besides nose piercings. And I don't feel like trying to steal those.

"Compa, you got anything to keep them knocked out for longer?" asks IF.

The taller girl's material somehow leaves her grasp without any real effort on my part. However, I can definitely see a rash where it was before. That's gotta hurt. I'll just slip this in my pocket for later.

"I've got some standard tranquilizers, but they won't last for longer than an hour." admits Compa. "I wouldn't use anything stronger than that on a human. Not here, in a dungeon."

Eugh, this girl's got nothing on her but a smelly lime-colored scrunchie, a half-empty pack of gum, a massive ball of pocket lint, and a folding knife. I pocket the knife. Can never have enough knives. I don't find a weapon on her, though. Why would they send unarmed troops out this far?

"That'll have to do." answers IF. "Anything on those two, Derek?"

"Sec." I answer with a held up hand, as I move to the second girl. In the corner of my eye, I can see Compa bend down to inject the other girl with something. Here's to hoping she's using clean needles. "First girl's got nothing, unless you guys want a stick of gum."

RED holds out a hand and receives a piece. "Mmm… Minty…~"

The second girl's haul is slightly better, Still only a folding knife and no weapon, but I also find a 5pb. trading card, two healing herbs, and a case for a retainer. I'm going to leave that one behind, since I don't think anyone would even want to buy a used retainer. Truly is a shame though, I could've certainly used a free phone. Still, on the plus side, these two seem to have no way to contact rest of the group. As long as we get these two out of direct line of sight, we should be fine with just leaving this patrol out here.

"Nope." I answer, as I get back to my feet. "Nothing of any real value, unless you want to take their shoes, too."

"Take their shoes?" asks Nepgear, head tilted. "Why would you take their shoes?"

"They can't leave if they don't have shoes." I answer, pointing back to the entrance. "You do remember how cold it is out there? I sure as hell wouldn't want to trudge through the snow in nothing but socks."

"Derek, now you're just being cruel." lectures Compa, as she finishes injecting the second unconscious girl with tranquilizer. "Let's just leave them like this."

I shake my head. "Move them into the tent. That way, it'll look like they just fell asleep."

Carefully, IF and I grab the taller girl, and move her inside the tent, while Compa and Nepgear grab the shorter one. Carefully, we deposit the two inside the tent, although the position we leave the them in is a little bit… intimate.

I'm truly sorry that I can't be around for when they wake up. With one final glance towards the two, we proceed inside the complex.

Those two must've been expected to flee back, if they had encountered anything actually danger.

Because wow, this is a lot of ASIC guards. We're hardly another minute into the maze before we hit an obstacle that I'm not entirely certain we'll be able to fight through. Not without difficulty, that's for sure.

I can see nine people in ASIC uniforms up ahead, and these ones are definitely armed: I can see a tire iron, two hatchets, and even a machete beside them, and that's just the things in plain view. I mean, I know the operation in here is big, but this is serious muscle. Way more than we can handle in a fair fight.

We're just lucky that this place is nothing but corners. If this were a straightaway, they'd have seen us for sure. And I'm definitely not a fan of being outnumbered nearly two to one.

"IF…" I hiss, as I retreat back fully into cover. "What do we do? I don't see a gap in their sight lines, that's for sure."

Nepgear, on the other hand is more curious than afraid. I suppose being mostly immune to mortal weapons would do that to you. "Why would they put so many troops here, though? Whatever they're doing must be pretty big. Maybe it has something to do with the Mascot?"

IF shakes her head back. "The Mascots for Lastation and Planeptune weren't guarded by a force this big. Whatever's going on in here, it's bigger than the Mascot, that's for sure."

Okay. Time to think. We won't be able to fight through them. Maybe we can run a distraction? But what then if one of them runs backwards, rather than forwards? We'd only bring down the entire force down on ourselves, and who knows how many agents that'd be.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have any Eject Buttons on you, would you?" I plead, but the blank gazes back I receive tell the answer as plain as day. "Fuck. I didn't think so."

So we need to not only sneak in, but sneak out, too. Okay, Nepgear's the only one of us durable enough to last in a prolonged fight…

"Pssst!"

I pause my thoughts, before glancing back towards the group. "Any of you say something?"

There's a unanimous no. Maybe I'm hearing things. Happens sometimes. Eugh, I need to focus. I crouch down, so I can block everything else out.

But if we deploy Nepgear as the distraction, then we're down our heavy hitter for whatever's inside. I don't know if we'll be able to break through the inner section without her power behind us.

"Pssst! Hey!"

There it is again.

"You sure? Because I'm hearing someone call me." I answer, scratching my head.

Compa blinks at me. "You okay, Derek? Because I don't hear anything."

I sigh. "Dammit, sorry then. Sometimes I hear things, and it always is worse when I'm tired."

"Ugh… Hopeless."

Okay. So… maybe if I set off a bomb in the entryway? No. That'd wake up pretty much everyone, and definitely set off the alarms. We can't risk that, at least not until we're entirely out of options. Plus we only have so many of them… How do we get past this?

I flinch as something solid, but not heavy collides with my forehead. Fearing for the worst, I fall prone to the ground, and attempt to push away whatever it is with my arms. Despite stinging, it didn't kill me. Or at least, I don't think it did. I don't have any experience with being dead, so I can't really know for sure.

"Up here!" whispers the voice, point of origin directly in front of me. Which is weird, since I'm on the ground facing up.

Slowly, I open my eyes, to find a rope dangling about a foot above my head. At the top of the rope, an orange-haired girl wearing a uniform two or three sizes too small for her stares back down at me in annoyance. "Seriously. Why do they never look up?"

The girls are silent, although they all have their weapons out. Thank you.

"Climb the rope! Hurry!" hisses the orange-haired girl, as she retreats backwards just out of sight.

I roll to the side to get out of the way, and one by one, the girls ascend the rope, with me taking up the rear.

The moment I'm up, the orange-haired girl retrieves the rope from where it was (tied tightly around an isolated stone) and stows it away in her inventory. She then gestures for us to follow.

We walk for a few seconds before IF finally speaks. "So what's the situation, Marvy?"

Marvy. Orange hair, badly-fitted clothing. Ah. This is MarvelousAQL. What does she do in the games again?

"It's definitely bad, but it's not as bad as it could be." answers the ninja, as we move through the upper corridors. The ceiling is far too low for me to stand upright, forcing me to slouch as we creep through. In fact, the only one of us able to walk normally is RED. "ASIC's set up a few guard posts around here like the one you just saw. I'm just lucky I managed to find a way up here. Try not to make too much noise, we don't want to be spotted."

"Wow, look at all of those statues!" whispers Nepgear, from behind me.

I slowly turn back towards Nepgear, and follow her pointed finger. What I see, well…

I can definitely understand why she thinks they're statues. Holy hell, I wish that they were statues.

Standing at what I can only guess is eight or so meters tall apiece, the deactivated Killachines grimly stand at attention. Like a terracotta army out of a steampunker's fever dream, row upon row of the mechanical monstrosities sit in the massive chamber to our right. Eight a row, and I can see at least nine rows… There's over seventy in here. There's over seventy of the damned things. Just one of them was enough to force the crew to flee. No wonder this place is so heavily guarded.

I can see dozens of ASIC mechanics darting between the mechs, bearing wrenches and hammers and welder's torches, or carrying metal plates. If they get these things active, then who knows what they'd be able to do. At least a few of the ones in the front are still covered in rust or damaged in some way, so they'll require a bit more repair before they'll be ready for action.

I let out a pained gasp, before practically diving forwards into solid cover. The other girls follow me immediately, taking cover.

"Did someone see you?" asks Marvy, being the second one of us into cover. "Do we need to get ready to fight?"

I shake my head, as I steady my breathing. "No… No one saw us. But that's the least of our problems right now. Shit… This is really, really bad. Did you see those things in the other room? Fuck, we're on a clock…"

"Awww, are you scared of the statues?~" chirps RED.

"Those… Those aren't statues." I breathe out, letting the numbers sink in. Those things are classified as heavy weaponry, probably even as a supertank. They should still be deactivated while the Mascot is in the picture, but how long will that be? We need to get this done ASAP.

"They aren't?" questions Marvy, eyebrow raised. "How do you figure that?"

"I've… read about those things." I whisper through my teeth. "Statues generally don't have mechanics repairing them. Those things are war machines. I've read just one of those damned things, once turned on, is enough to fight a goddess to a standstill. I've never imagined, not even in my worst nightmares, of seeing so many."

All of the girls blink at me, before IF practically grabs me by the lapel and drags me down to eye level. "Tell us everything you know."

I take a deep breath, before I recall everything I know about them. Unfortunately, it's not much. Half of this shit is memories from a different game, and the rest is my own opinions, but they're all so blended together it's a horrible mishmash.

"They're called Killachines. I don't know who made them - and the rumors about where they came from are all contradictory. Some blame an evil goddess, or a previous crime syndicate, and there's even theories that they came from an entirely different dimension. But every single rumor has one word in common, a word that doesn't make much sense - Avenir. Regardless of where they come from, that's not what we should worry about though, because they're pretty much indestructible, and just one of those things set loose is enough to seriously damage a city." I state, thinking back to my memories of ReBirth 1, in particular what happened when one of these bastards got into Lastation. "Even worse, those ones look like the Perfected Model, so I'm not sure if we'll even be able to put them down permanently, once they get activated."

The girls are all giving me wide stares of horror and dismay. I might have overdone it a bit, but seriously, these things are bad news.

IF blinks, before breaking the silence as she leans back to take a breath. "Shit."

"We need a plan." breathes Marvy, as she glances back towards the inactive machines. "We need a plan on how to stop this, right now."

There's silence from all of us, as we collectively attempt to come up with a plan.

"Derek. How many bombs you got?" asks IF, gesturing towards the other room.

"I've got ten short-fuses, and two long-fuses." I answer, retrieving them from my inventory and placing them upon the ground before me. "I could make more, but it'd take some time. I've only got enough resources on me to make another six bombs. Unless you've got more Dogoo Jelly on you, Marvy."

Marvy takes a breath, but shakes her head in response. "Eighteen bombs… That won't be enough. Ideally, we'd want to bury the entire facility, to stop them from getting back into here at all."

"We could knock out the entryway to that room." I offer, as I once more pocket my bombs. "Unfortunately, that'd blow stealth right out of the window. We would have a hell of a time getting back out, and wouldn't really stop the engineers from repairing the Killachines…"

Marvy shakes her head. "That's a last resort. If we get detected, we'll definitely need to do that before we make our way out, but for now, we need to keep scouting the facility."

With extra hesitation in our steps, we continue onwards, past the veritable army of metal laying dormant behind us.