Olive, Brenda, and Hal crouched behind the only cover this area had to offer. Four of Neuron's best fighters stood their ground.
"So, clones? Good, I was worried it was brainwashing." Jin came quickly to the conclusion that if the twins were fighting the Ravens, so was he. Alicia too. They drew their X-Batons before the enemy started dropping down from the helicopter. Akane emitted a rattling growl and Jin made a conscious effort to keep from flinching away from the claws.
"Listen, " Brenda said, "I don't think the commander is just planning to have a clone army for some kind of coup. It's worse than that."
Alicia nodded. "When you put it that way, I'm glad it wasn't brainwashing... Akane is crazy powerful but if she gets surrounded she can get overwhelmed or worse, chain bound."
Jin nodded to Alicia, "I'll watch her back, keep her from getting back stabbed. It's a good thing Akira's in green today..."
Akira snapped back to Jin, "Hey! The difference between me and these fakes is pretty obvious!" Akane might have made a noise of agreement were she not snagging a claw on a chain and flinging the user of said chain towards the water.
"It's just easier to keep track with a glance based on uniforms," Alicia said, "Behind you, Akira!"
"I don't need your help, I'm FINE!"
"Yeah! You guys show them who's boss!" Hal cheered as Jin did a baseball slide under an attempted clothesline. Jin followed up by whacking the Raven's ankles. Akane ripped an Arrow Legion in half and screeched at the Legionis trying to blindside her twin. Brenda and Olive peered over the pipes and ducked back down. Brenda was saying a lot more worrisome things about Akane's medical history. Jin focused on not dying, as did Alicia.
Akane howled and pinned down a Raven coming at Akira before yanking at the clone's Legatus core. Much to the surprise of herself, the Legatus snapped and she found herself holding a Legion core. Despite being in the middle of battle chaos, she halted. She looked down to the very-much-broken Legatus of the Raven under her.
Hal, ever observant, said, "You just dismantled a Legatus?! Those are supposed to be Chimera proof! Awesome! Wait, look out!"
A chain bind caught Akane. Raven number 3 yanked her down. She dropped the core while struggling to break out. Akira had to rescue her. While the twins were preoccupied, the unchained core lay forgotten for but a brief time. It was enough time for the core to stabilize and absorb corruption.
This was how the battlefield ended up with a Beast Nemesis howling at them all.
Jin saw the angry and unchained Legion attacking Ravens, remembered he'd brought an empty Legatus, and decided this was an opportunity. "Hey! Everyone! Leave the Nemesis to me! I'm using mode C!"
"If you pull this off I will be extremely envious!" Alicia yelled back. "Can we steal a Legatus for me?" She got no reply from Akane. Akane instead went right back into fighting. With a full team of fighters, the squad of Ravens had not much chance of winning. Akira's pure outrage alone had stacked the odds against them. It was reduced even further by Akane clawing Legatuses apart.
The Nemesis on the loose had, unfortunately for Jin, been more than a singular Legion. It shifted between forms with no warning. Had he been alone, he'd be dead even in a battlefield where he wasn't under severe redshift. The Ravens were all knocked unconscious long before he succeeded in capturing the Legion for himself. Jin's triumphant yell echoed in the sewer. "I got him! I got a Legion!"
Akane gave him a cheerful thumbs up. Despite being a larger target, she had taken less damage than any other fighter. Alicia was sporting a major black eye. Akira mostly looked all right, but there was a manic gleam to his eyes that no one liked. Jin got the worst of it and Brenda immediately marched over to the man now that combat was over.
Hal examined the place. "Well, good news! We have a helicopter and a lot of Legatus parts!"
Olive agreed. "We're already fugitives. Might as well finish robbing these guys. Too bad we don't have a Legatus synchronized for you, Alicia."
"Are we sure Commander Yoseph wasn't lying about Legatuses only working for one person? No?" Alicia sighed.
Hal and Olive looked at their list of preparations. They knew they had only one shot raiding the ARI. Jin's Legion control was not great, even before comparing to the twins but still better than nothing. Alicia still was insisting on piling in the helicopter to come along as was Kyle. They had set up a set of biosensors to Kyle to match the ones from the cops. The twins were out and about. Akira didn't want to do anything but wallow in angst. Akane used the excuse of needing help to drag him along in an attempt to avoid thinking about her own problems for a while. (Between them, they ended up babysitting, defending cameras, and slaughtering some unsuspecting chimeras.) All that remained was to call everyone back for a final briefing.
At the ARI, Jin and Alicia shot at the wall of purple crystals. It had taken them less than ten minutes to get separated from the twins. Their Redshift Geiger counters were clicking at them, Kyle's even more so. Jin used an Arm Legion punch and saw no dent.
Kyle hefted his makeshift taser baton. Even when offered stolen Raven X-Batons, he'd kept his. "Step back. I'm going to try." Kyle really did try. The blow rattled his teeth but the crystals remained. "Right. I hate to admit it, but we should regroup. You guys can try to get in at a higher point with the helicopter. I think I'll back up Olive on trying to get our communications running again." He didn't have to say why he was pulling out, his Redshift corruption levels already had climbed past 'worry' into 'howareyounotacubeyet" level.
"But, my kids are in there!" Alicia already had her map up in her IRIS trying to see another route. "See, we can go around the long way."br /
"My vote's the deciding one." Jin said. He thought about it for a moment. "I'm sorry, but I think Kyle's idea is more likely to get us back together with Max's kids. There's not enough space for all three of us on the Beast, but we can get out quicker working together and meet them on a higher point."