"Hey, before we start…" A man with clean shave on black hair and shiny facial hair said, as he looked up at the woman with deep tan skin and contrasting white hospital patient-like garments over her stood inside a large glass tube, having several rubber pipes and dosing lines hooked up to her body in random places over torso and legs. "Are you sure you want to do this? We never conducted genetic operations like this" He asked, standing directly at the control desk full of buttons, colors and levers plus another protection glass for good measure. Safety first!

"Whatever makes me able to keep up with youngsters, Doctor Valero." Woman responded, looking with her piercing green eyes from two layers of glass and thirty feet of distance total. "I am ready."

"Aaalright then. Here we go." Scientist agreed, whispering to himself as he pressed the big red button. Instantly filling the room with hydraulic noises as the lab tube started to slowly fill with a yellow-ish-white liquid from the bottom. "Now. Do you feel any freezing on your skin?"

"I… I feel muscles retract into my body…" Woman responded, barely managing not to cackle her teeth as the tube continued to fill.

"Then it means our experimental mix of mostly liquid guncotton is stable thanks to far below sub-zero temperature." Scientist continued with mild satisfaction as he pulled a nearby lever with a green handle, stopping the tank at half-full with the woman inside being submerged below the clavicles. "Now, we shall commence with mixing it into your body through skin and into the body structure." He added, pressing a blue button on a side wall to the left.

VVVVVVV* Zooming noises started at full speed, quickly getting to raise the liquid up and all across the outside of the tank, covering anything from view.

"Now, with stabilizer mixtures pumped into the body and rigging being functionally unaffected by body changes. This will all go fine as long as nothing. Nothing happens." Scientist whispered to himself, observing… Something happened ahead of him for sure.

If only that nothing didn't happened…

"ACHO-"

BOOOOOOOOOM*


Ring, ring*

"Hello."

"Wicher. How are you?!" Gorizia asked in exclamation, throwing herself onto the bed, face up into the smartphone screen.

"Achr! Why so loud?" Response with a brief pirate accent came back.

"You didn't respond to any of my calls yesterday and today!" Gorizia continued. "I was worried. Okay?"

"'Kay, 'kay. My bad." Wicher responded. "The mission didn't go smoothly and I got embroiled in repair work as usual… Wait. You said you worried about me?"

"Mhhh!" Gorizia grabbed herself by the mouth, face turning pink. "Of course I worry about my allies in battle! Uh… Forget it! Who are you to talk?!"

"Alright, I see now. I shouldn't have been so smug on you." Wicher accepted the demand for self-humbling. "Can we move on to important stuff?"

"Why so?"

"You haven't disconnected yet. You want something from me here and now."

"... Right." Gorizia agreed. "How should I put this…" She paused for a long while, before realizing something. "Are you still there?"

"Still waiting." Wicher confirmed.

"Oh… Ok-Ok, I know now." Gorizia collected herself in mind. "I need you to join us for a trip to Porto."

"Aight, it's doable. If hours agree that is." Wicher nodded. "More details, please?"

"Me and Bolzano are planning to visit Port-o Technologies Corporation Laboratories." Gorizia explained further. "You know the place?"

"PTLC? Yeah." Wicher confirmed. "I had to get my suit somewhere after all."

"You got it from them?" Gorizia asked, surprised.

"Yeah, they have an attraction towards weird projects like this. As I think I told you recently." Wicher continued. "But back to the visit details, please?"

"Sure, sure." Gorizia repeated herself. "We want to see their innovations related to rigging maintenance and radar. First one because the Commander Council wanted us to cut expenses… Again. And second because Vittorio Veneto said we need to modernize to find Sirens better and currently seeks cheap options. Because again, lower budget."

"Mhm, mhm. Got it." Wicher confirmed with a satisfied nod. "I eat something and I'm ready to go. Meet you two at the place at two P.M?"

"If in Porto directly, then at four P.M." Gorizia responded. "We plan for it to go well until night. Then, spend the night in a local hotel and return home tomorrow."

"Cool, meet you there at sixteen. See ya there."

"See you there."

Click*

"All set then." Gorizia smiled, then suddenly turned around and drove her head into the pillow, holding it closer with both hands. "But he is soooo infuriatingggg…"


"How bad is it?"

"How should I say it…" A man in a medical coat said slowly, walking into a room where a yellowish-white body with no distinct features sat on a steel bench right beside a molten down plastic chair. "Your body was altered far beyond the original plan."

"I know." The human entity acknowledged, moving the head up from starting at the floor tiles and then at the man. "But, I need to know something."

"What exactly?" Man made a curious glare.

"How long will I have to be like this before you cure me?"

"I… Honestly don't know." Man said, backing away with a troubled face and voice tone. "But for a time, try to think positively about this. Once your state is established, you may even prove to be far beyond keeping up with younger ships?"

"Beyond keeping up, huh?" Human being asked, looking the other side at a crates window as the man left it alone, closing prison reinforced steel doors behind. "Huh…"

"Besides, you wanted this." A faint sentence came into her ears from beyond the wall and doors. As if to make this brief goodbye a spiteful one.


"Okay pal, your KAN-SEN rigging-rigged stuff isn't gonna be used for a looooong time." Purple thing said, as he and Black Prince stood among various stone and rock boulders. "That's why we start this by ourselves, just how we stand together here and now. Two in one."

"..."

"I know what you are asking me in thoughts. About the other way we are yet to bond." Goo continued. "Any matter other than water plus water is my expansion sustenance. As long as we are close to both, I can feed us both onto maximum growth course."

"So, how do we start our practice?" Black Prince asked, unsure.

"Small to bigger. It's called scaling." Purple goo responded, as they turned together towards the smallest of their gathered rocks. "Now, let's smash it with our arm."

"Got it. Hyah!" Black Prince nodded, before making an effortful swing at the rock with the purple arm shaped into a fist. Smashing it into a mix of pebbles and ground grinded dust at a single downward smack.

"Haaah! Off to a good start." Purple goo laughed, bringing into the target spot the next, slightly bigger stone with the other hand. "Now, we press on!"

"Gladly." Black Prince confirmed, taking a swing from above and smashing the bottom of her fist against the rock, breaking it in an instant and sending sharpened breakaway fragments everywhere. "Whoa…"

"Why the amazement?" Purple goo asked. "It hasn't disintegrated!"

"Still catching on the scale." Black Prince repeated, having already smacked down on another rock. And firmly splitting it in two halves full of cracks and dust leaks. "Sheer power without control is a liability."

"Not if trashing is the endgame." Purple goo countered the argument. "But alright, let's not dilute our unity any further."

"Well said." Black Prince agreed, getting on automatism for the next rock, rushing it so hard the remains jabbed into the ground like turnips, except these came into the soil rather than from it.

The training arc was on.


"Any sight of him?" Gorizia asked, as she stood up against the decorative marble pillar with pouty face directed into the sky. Because of course a science facility has an artistic plaza in front of it for (and to) show.

"Gorizia, please. I barely even know how he looks." Bolzano responded, watching her from a small distance. "Also, the way you treat this pillar is uncalled for."

"There was nothing on the information table at the front gate that I shouldn't do that." Gorizia responded, looking at her. "Also, how did you not even look for information about him in the last two days? After my visit to LeadLose he was all over the internet!"

"I was busy in the office. My apologies." Bolzano sighed shortly. "Either way, let's not be so negative now. He still has five minutes to arrive on time."

"Speaking of…"

"There you are…" Gorizia stood up and turned right, watching obsidian armor land down on low engine thrust. "Kept us waiting."

"That's what you get for coming early." Wicher remarked, landing down and making his way to Bolzano on foot. "Good afternoon."

"Oh, good afternoon to you too." She responded in kind as they exchanged handshakes. "Glad you could make it."

"Hey now, I promised." Wicher responded, quickly making his way past her and up to Gorizia and her princessly stare. "... Hello to you."

"... Hello."

"Alright, we go up to the doors now?"

"We do." Bolzano confirmed as they went ahead with Gorizia tailgating close behind.

"Wicher, can you walk behind us two?" She asked almost instantly.

"There are levels to this, little one." Wicher talked back.

"Hey!"

"Not now, please." Bolzano raised her hand slightly. "I don't want to sort you like children."

"Understood."/"Fine."


Tuk, tuk, tuk*

"Hfff…"

"Miss Bahia?" A man in the lab coat asked, standing in door frame and watching as the yellow-ish-white body lost the last streaks of withered hair, almost hissing as it watched them fall and disintegrate in air, all of that while moving the fingers if hands and feet up and down, latter causing the noise as it bump at the floor tiles.

"Yesss?…" Human body hissed, looking right from the metal bench at him.

"I have the results of your sample tests, and…" Man hesitated for a moment. "Aaand it's bad."

"How bad?" Bahia asked, almost standing up as her limbs straightened in a stiff manner.

"The guncotton effect on your body is…"

"..."

"Irrevocable."

"... What?"

"Guncotton by now makes roughly fourteen to forty percent of your body structure."

"You said WHA-"

BOOOOOOOM*


Professor Oliviera?" Bolzano asked, as she came first of her trio to greet inside a large, square-like porch of a front reception with full window walls that gave more than enough light to present white walls along with logo of the owning entity: Green anchor placed on front of a diamond with its four edges extending iron fish hooks to jab at the anchor.

"The one and only." Man dressed in a white lab coat that covered almost his entire body safe for triangular trim of blonde hair and blue eyes responded, heading closer for a handshake. "But who do I see beside you…"

"Been a while, Pro." Wicher joke, coming forward.

"Glad you used this occasion, young boy!" Oliviera sidestep to the left and exchange a quick bros hig with Wicher. "Still bad at breaking the ice?"

"I'm a warrior, not an arctic explorer." Wicher played along, before stepping aside to reveal a third visiting party member. "Miss Gorizia."

"No entry? No 'Before your very eyes'?" Professor asked.

"No need to." Bolzano said, turning around to look at the whole group. "We are equal after all. Don't we?"

"Well, uh…" Gorizia tried to speak up, but ultimately didn't choose to.

"All fine. Mistakes are to be learned upon first time, then avoided in every later instance." Oliviera tried to calm her down. "Now then, ready to proceed?"

booooom*

"Heard something?" Gorizia asked suspiciously.

"Sadly all individual components of our facility are directly connected to eachother." Professor Oliviera scratched his head. "Whenever something big happen on one end of it, the other hears it at the speed of sound."

"Huh, that explains it." Bolzano nodded. "But enough talk, we have things to do."

"Agreed."


"The hell do you mean you can't change it?!" Bahia stormed through reinforced doors with glowing eyes, leaving a melted outline of her walking frame.

"Your body is beyond changing!" Man wiggled like a mix of worm and a penguin, pushing himself into the wall as his white lab coat darkened at the edges. "We-We gave you body change you wanted-"

"I didn't want to be like THIS!" Bahia shouted.

KABLOOOOOOOM*

"... I was made into a monster…" She said to herself, slowly moving her hands before face as she saw black skeleton right where the scientists once stood, along with a large hole in the wall that could fit a oil druk sideways. "A freak worse than those I was supposed to fight." She continued to whisper in a squeaky tone, before sharply turning her head to the left and seeing a man in an orange hazmat suit with a water hose in hand.

"Hyh! It's project Pancake. Back out. Back out!"

"Project Pancake? Really? You are worse than Sirens." Bahia said with a menacing whisper tone, turning slowly towards the man, who suddenly found himself unable to back down fast enough in the weirdly tight corridor. "And to stop any other KAN-SEN from suffering by your incompetence…" She walked slowly ahead, moving her hands freely back thanks to the wall hole. "I will destroy YOU!"

BOOOOOOOM-KRAAAAAASSHHH*


"What's this?" Gorizia asked, walking up to one of endless exposition pedestals, that just happened to stretch across the whole room the group was in beyond horizon… somehow.

"This is one of our older radar models. Wave-Tracker Mark Eight." Professor Oliviera explained, walking to her right side as they both looked at a square screen with blue lights with a side electronics box. "Even though the system itself has twelve years already, its quality and aim assist system are one of a kind even today. Truly!"

"And the price?" Bolzano asked from behind.

"Single unit goes by two hundred thousand Euros." Professor turned around with hands placed together at the back. "However, we are more than willing to negotiate with it as the starting price and offer huge discounts for mass sale."

"How huge?"

"Even half price."

"Hmm…"

boooommmm*

"What was that?" Gorizia reacted first."

"Definitely a noise from boiler removal." Professor stated with a casual tone. "Some processes call for steam technology which we also strive to perfect. And metal is loud while forcibly removed."

"Hmm…"

"Very well. I know how scary and noisy this place gets." Wicher nodded from the side. "You'd struggle to survive in the engineering department. I tell ya'."

"I guess so."


"Get some extinguishers here. Quick!"

BOOOOM*

"Uwaagh!" Man in an orange hazmat suit cried out, sent flying by a rapid explosion and into a stack of wooden box crates. Breaking half of them in a process. "Owwwgh…"

"Heh, hehhh…" Bahia breath in heavy sighs. walking across either smolded to black essay or forcibly shortened wall, her yellow-ish and white body being an outlier in between black walls, gray smoke and other stereotypical industrial colors that just never seemed to end. "Where is Valero?" She asked, walking into the room, directing straight ahead towards the unfortunate man slowly standing up from broken cartes.

"Which… One." He barely said from underneath the suit.

"Whre is VALERO?!"

BOOOOOOOOM*

"Grrrr…" Bahia growled, seeing how once again something right before her turned into a black skeleton loose on the floor and hole in the wall that reached the upper level above her. "Whatever!" She shaked her head, which caused the top of it to explode, bringing down the floor above her that simply just broke upon impacting her and throwing down a bunch of dumbfounded hazard response crew all around her. "If all who I ask instantly die…" She turned around to look into black visor of the next unfortunate guy, who fell down onto his back and tried to slide away from her with a panicking hand waving. "Then I get to him MYSELF!"

BOOOM*


Booom*

"This is concerning…" Gorizia looked to her right, making the whole group stop for a moment.

"You're scared of dump trucks?" Professor Oliviera asked her as the whole group stopped to look at him. "... I mean, I get someone getting scared of their smell and all the contotacions. But, sound?"

"Dump trucks don't make explosion noises." Gorizia pointed out.

"Noise distortion over large distances." Wicher stepped in with an explanation. "Both across the wall and with reverb from going through corridors, and ventilation. I get confused too."

"Oh well, that can happen." Bolzano nodded, turning left and looking closer at a piece of electronics. "What are these, Professor?"

"Energy mid-direction chips." Oliviera explained, swiftly making his way to her. "Originally designed on order from the Iris Libre Commander Council from three years ago, they regulate and optimize energy usage of KAN-SEN rigging in real time. Thus, allowing for cheaper and more efficient operation."

"Interesting." Bolzano nodded.

"So this is how first gen looked like…" Wicher added, standing from the other side of this exhibit.

"You know this?" Bolzano asked him.

"We gave him an experimental third gen chip with second gen as backup to the suit." Professor Oliviera threw in.

"Yup, this armor is their experiment after all." Wicher stated proudly. "And I am the field tester with free guarantee pre-order on full porduct."

Boooooooooooom*

"Again?" Gorizia looked up at the ceiling, searching for something.

"Production line start-up?"

"Production line start-up." Oliviera confirmed with a smirk. "Heavy machinery is noisy. You know, it's called heavy for a reason."

"Really?" Gorizia asked with concern all over her face.

"Whatever it is, I trust you that it is what you claim." Bolzano added, taking off her captain cap and cleaning its inside with free hand. "Gorizia, if you don't want to stay inside, you could just say that to me earlier. Plaza outside has benches to sit on for you."

"Hnnh… Understood." Gorizia sighed deeply. Turning around and heading away from the trio.

"*Sigh* She is sometimes clingy when out of comfort zone." Bolzano made a tired face after a sigh. "But I guess it's a drawback to her can-do attitude to press on. Not that I have the right to complain about it…"

"It just shows she cares about you. Even if articulation is botched." Wicher counterpointed. "I'm sure she'll apologize once we're done here."

"Right." Bolzano reluctantly agreed, following the two further in. "I'm sure…"


"Really?" Bahia asked, looking down at another black set of bones resembling a human, even picking one of the hands up and then dropping it down with a 'plup' noise. "Good call for me to treat these like Sirens. There are no humans in the suits, so no guilt for me to blow more up." She stated for herself before crossing the hole in the wall and into a darker room with a ripped apart glass tube in the middle. "Right. This place…" She grabbed herself by the head, seemingly cooling off. "Maybe I can find something on him."

"Kite."

"WHE-"

BOOOOOOOM* She exploded in a rapid flash, sending shockwaves all across and breaking the ceiling into chunks the size of poppy seeds.

"Now I run!" Voice from behind her added, apparently doing this on purpose.

"DON'T RUN AWAY FROM ME!"


CRRRRGRGRRRRR*

"Huh?" Bolzano suddenly stop, seeing the floor ahead of her rapidly crack.

"That's weird." Wicher commented, looking left at Oliviera. "Renovation works?"

"A-Actually no…" Professor took a step back, his face turning from casual into stressed faster than the blink of an eye. "This was not expected."

"This building Isn't safe then." Bolzano turned around quickly. "We must leave."

CRRRRRRR*

"Now!" She stomped in between the two, grabbing Oliviera by the arm in a hook hold. "Now go."

"S-Yes."

"M-hm."

CRAH*

"YOU!" A shout from the suddenly collapsed floor came as a white figure surfed up into the exhibition hall on the extended shockwaves shaped in a sphere as the closest floor tiles flew up like lifted glass shards, making similar noises on the way up and down.

"Yea?" Wicher asked unimpressed.

"Where is Doctor Valero?" White entity asked, landing on the not collapsed part of the floor closer to the trio.

"N-No idea." Professor Oliviera stated with a nervous stutter.

"Liar." White being said with a dry voice, taking a step forward and preparing fists for a fistfight. "And don't even try to escape from me. I know you are the top here. He wouldn't slide in recruitment without your full knowledge of his state right now."

"You literally blow up the floor to get here." Bolzano responded. "Why should we trust you not to harm him?"

"That's the point." White human continued, making two more slow steps ahead. "He made me into a freak that I am here and now. And so I will have my revenge."

"... Your consent?" Wicher asked, turning his head to look at Oliviera. "As in, you consent to this operation?"

"I have honestly no idea-"

"LIA'!" White thing didn't wait, making an accented scream as another explosion followed all around.

BOOOOO-*

"NO!" Wicher panicked, jumping to his left as he blocked the path leading towards caught off-guard Bolzano and Professor and taking the full load up front. Needless to say…

He was fine, actually.

"What?" White being asked, dumbfounded that this time the explosion didn't eradicate the obstacle into ash.

"... He-How?" Bolzano asked, looking up from the cover of her shoulder to see Wicher standing in a sumo position.

"Bolzano, get Professor to safety." He said in a 'fully serious' tone. "I have this fight."

"Right! Let's go."

"No! Don't let him escape!" White thing extended the arm ahead as if to try to grab the man. But to no avail as Bolzano took the man by the arm and ran away.

"Blowing people up is a shitty negotiation tactic when KAN-SEN is involved." Wicher cracked his knuckles as he slightly moved his torso up. "Then you act surprised we don't trust you."

"You don't UNDERSTAND!" White being shouted, sending a powerful blast all over.

BOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

"AAAIIIIEEEEEEE!" Wicher made a guttural scream, as the blast threw him backwards, forced to bend for a flip and into a wall, visibly being made to sit in its armor-shaped dent. "... Augh, khykh!"

"What's wrong?" White being asked, walking with a devious smirk forward across the devastated, burning mess of an exhibition area. "Can't handle a blast?"

"... Yea, I-You have a point…" Wicher admitted, moving out of the wall that turned out to be an exhibited sheet of armor composite. "I-I can't handle it." He added, bowing down with hands together at stomach.

"Then why try to stop me?" White person asked, its tone smoothly changing to a feminitive one. "I just want justice for the one who made me like this."

"But my exterior can!"

"Huh?" White being was caught by surprise as Obsidian-coloured armor yeeted itself forward with rear engine thrust and put a fist into her stomach, sending her flying with a spit out of mouth. "Haeeeyyyhh!"

"This suit wasn't easy to get." Wicher clashed his fists together as white being landed down with a bounce after high-arcing flight from a gut punch. "It took my savings and cost happiness in life. Luckily I had neither." He added, having one gun on his left shoulder move out of the armor frame and fire a shot towards the lying opponent.

"ENOUGH!" White being shouted, throwing the shell off course and into the wall with a shockwave. "I will not be denied!"

"You will." Wicher responded in kind, suddenly leaping forward in a jump as his right arm extended its built-in blade.

"Nuh, uh!" White person responded, rolling away and standing up like a martial artist in a fighting stance.

"Yea-uh!" Wicher countered, firing another shot from the left side gun.

"Nuh uh!" His opponent did not relent, narrowly tilting the body to the left for timely dodge.

"Yuh! uh!" Wicher pressed on, landing with a low stab attempt from his right that got denied by his opponent swinging the body back to right, making him slice the air instead.

"Nice try!" White thing taunted as it swung the fist for a right hook.

"Hardly." Wicher raised his left arm for a simple block, knocking the whole arm into a slide across his armor up to the gun, which aimed itself directly at the face of a dumbfounded enemy. "But enough about fighting. Who the hell even are you?"

"I'm Bahia." White being stated quickly. "Happy?"

"Kinda." Wicher acknowledged. "Now kindly give up. Please."

"NO!" Bahia shouted, instantly exploding directly into his face.

"WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Wicher made a Wario scream, flying across the room in a sideways spin like a tossed shuriken before bouncing off of the wall and down to the floor. "... Ough… That smarts."

"Smarts, yet you still try to fight me like a dumbass." Bahia commented, once again slowly walking forward towards him out of the newly expanded collapsed part of the floor. "But I think one-two more point blanks will put you out for good."

"Grrhhh…" Wicher groaned, slowly standing up and aiming his left gun ahead at her.

"Come on now, no way such flimsy mounting can hold on." Bahia almost laughed, not feeling intimidated in the slightest.

"Wanna bet on it?" Wicher asked with full confidence, standing back up into a casual pose.

"Try me." Bahia smirked, not stopping even for a moment.

"Ok." Wicher nodded.

BLAM*

"... Eh?"

"What is happen-" New voice cut in, as a quick succession clatter of heels came into the ears after a shot. "Heh!?"

"... Bet lost." Wicher said, as the gun on his right side was breathing smoke after a shot. "Now, get lost. You… Whatever you are by now."

"... Heh… Khekhk…" Bahia coughed in an unregulated manner, slowly moving both hands to her chest and tilting her head down to see blood coming from below her temple. "You…"

"You explode whenever you scream. Yet, you don't have body detonation upon receiving a hit." Wicher stated, retracting both his guns and arm blade back into his suit as Bahia collapsed onto her knees. "Says a bit about you as a whole. Contradictory at best."

"Ghhh… Hhhh…"

"Stop!" Gorizia commanded, storming into the room close to Wicher and directing her shouts to the bleeding hostile. "Just. Stop. It's over."

"Nnnooo…" Bahia looked slowly up at Wicher with bloodthirsty eyes. "NnnnNNOOOO!"

"Duck!" Wicher screamed in panic as the obvious to him wasn't obvious to his companion.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*


"GORIZIA!" Bolzano cried out with full power of her lungs as she saw a massive chunk of the ceiling fly high into the evening sky with a trail of crumbling dust.

"Oh my Lord…" Professor Oliviera covered his mouth, watching the same thing from behind her while surrounded by people in full anti-terrorist gear and automatic rifles.

"Who is inside?" One masked man beside the Professor asked.

"Two KAN-SEN level individuals. Including one member of Sardegna Empire Navy." Bolzano responded first.

"C-Kc-Correct." Oliviera nodded with a solid hesitance.

"Yup, they'll be fine." A-T unit member nodded twice.

"Hey! Look!" Other one pointed into the sky as he noticed something in the yellow sky. "What's this?"

"That…" First uniformed man put a hand above his eyes to cover them from the Sun. "Seems like a gas leak! Evacuate the close area!"


Crrrrr*

"Augh… aaargghhh…" Wicher groaned in pain, slowly standing up as metal sheets and other rubble was forced aside and out of space above him as his almost completely deformed armor stood up into the late, fading sunlight. "Thaaa-kh, kh! That was something… Bad." He stopped to cough, also seeing just how much devastation was all around him.

The whole exhibition hall he was just fighting in was gone. Reduced to a chaotic mix that was forced to become layers upon layers of rubble. Everything that was above him? Most likely in the rubble as well.

"Ugh." Gorizia groaned in annoyed fashion, pushing a disc-shaped piece of concrete aside with a forced shoulder shoved as she stood up behind him. "What a mess. And one who caused it…"

"Not sure if anyone other than us could survive this." Wicher stated, making a few steps out of the dent in a ruin they covered earlier. "It's… Gone."

"... Aren't we on the top floor?" Gorizia asked after a moment of thinking.

"... So the whole layer we are on can fall any minute." Wicher stated, as a whole wall of minimal jet engines briefly opened all over the back of his torso, legs and arms with a quick up-n-down of the power. "I can get out of here and bring you along. Not really a reason to stay around since Bahia is gone at best."

"That was her name?" Gorizia asked, confused.

"Yeah." Wicher nodded, slowly turning his engines to work, forcing Gorizia to take two steps back as blue jet flames were too close for her liking. "At least that's what that thing said. You can't know for sure."

"Yet you call her that." Gorizia pointed out.

"Nm-hm. Oh, come on." Wicher tried to whine, getting slightly above the trashed floor and turning around with arms ready to pick her up. "Not like I have a better idea."

"Right." Gorizia nodded, quickly turning sideways and sitting into his firm grip. "Let's get out of here, this place can get lost for me."

"Like airline luggage."


"Wicher."

"Yeah?" Man inside heavy deformed obsidian armor asked, as he and Gorizia sat on a bench in a park, having a front view on roughly one hundred meter away chunks of roof blown away earlier, by now infested with people in various uniforms and blocked by yellow caution tape along with police officers. The view of which amazingly not obscured by a fact of dark shade coming from the lack of sunlight that gave night its turn to shine bit by bit.

"Something has been bothering me." Gorizia said with an unconvincing voice. "Two things, actually."

"And you want me to answer them." Wicher tilted himself forward into sitting 'serious gamer' pose.

"Yes."

"... First question."

"Why did you trust Oliviera even though suspicious noises were all over the place?" Gorizia gave him a side look with a disappointed face.

"Hnn, hffff." Wicher sighed deeply, placing his hands together. "I got insensitive. I… I just got the mentality of 'Hey, I was here many times and know these people. Surely I am aware of everything that happens here. I know this place like my own pocket.'." He ended, turning his head to look at her from under the helmet. "But alas', that pocket wasn't even mine. End of story."

"... Huh." Gorizia nodded, not even angry at the admission of failure. "A-A-And what about the disappearance of Bahia?" She asked, taking some time to remind herself of the second question.

"Hell if I know." Wicher shook his head in disbelief. "Maybe under rubble, maybe turned into blast energy altogether. Probably dead."

"It's not the problem!" Gorizia protested. "How did she get like this in the first place? And why? Why she turn into- like this? I can't comprehend it."

"Lemme' take them all one at a time." Wicher responded, putting open palms of his hands between them to stop her. "How did she get in? Almost surely from inside, because there is no reason they'd let her roam free in destruction. Why did she become what she had? Hard to tell, maybe an accident or other disastrous mishap." Wicher paused, seeing Gorizia freeze in movement for a moment before nodding lightly. "Either way, I need to tell you something for a record: P.T.C.L. always keeps their cards close to the chest unless you are one of their trusted people. And you don't get into that trusted group without specific requirements even Professor Oliviera doesn't fully know. Who gets to be in their projects is chosen by them. Not HR, not lead members. Not even owners. Regardless of anything."

"... Thanks for telling me." Gorizia acknowledged. "Planning to go?"

"Sooner out of action, sooner back in." Wicher responded, standing up from the bench. "Take care of Bolzano while at it."

"She's a mature grown up." Gorizia shaked her head slightly. "She can handle such an event gone wrong, no problem."

"Oh well, you do you. Just don't be so strict in her face." Wicher shrugged his arms before getting off the ground. "Either way, have a calm night." He added before suddenly blitzing into the darkening sky like a ballistic rocket.

"Yeah…" Gorizia said, looking up into the trail following armor engines. "Have a calm night."