— Watedia, Ranth 13, 8054 —

“Move those boxes outta the way, make some room!”

“Got it. But is this enough? How many hospital beds do you have?”

“Not enough — but at the rate we’re goin’, one of the folks who comes through here will be a Chaotic who can make more for us. What we need is room!”

“Right!” Karísah replied, quickly moving to clear out some boxes and furniture from one of the rooms in Tresnon’s hospital. Barely an hour had passed since the start of the attack on Tresnon, but already the injured and wounded were streaming into the hospital. Luckily, one of Tresnon’s Electrotechnics had restored power to vital services in that time, but the shields remained down — the day was looking to be a long one. Although Karísah had barely any time to contemplate that as she worked tirelessly to help the doctors and nurses tend to the influx of new patients.

“Alright— it’s clear!” Karísah reported, quickly exiting the room just as a couple of nurses rushed in to start laying down mats.

“It’s not gonna be enough…” muttered one of the doctors as he peered into the room. He then gestured for Karísah to move down the hallway, his own attention focused on a clipboard in his hands. “We’re gonna need to set up tents outside. There should be a couple in the lobby. Get on it!”

“Got it!” Karísah replied, already rushing down the hallway towards the hospital’s lobby. She virtually flew down the two sets of stairs between her and the bottom floor, deftly dodging around nurses and patients as she went — all while the pungent smell of blood tainted the air. All these injuries… she thought to herself, …Davídrius said that the Defense Force will have everything handled. But… She then froze as she entered the lobby proper; the room wasn’t large by most standards, but still it was crowded with dozens of Compound denizens, each of them bearing burns and gashes from the initial explosive assault. Nurses rushed about, quickly taking names and jotting down conditions to triage all of the incoming wounded, all while members of the Defense Force warily stood guard outside the hospital’s front doors. Amongst all of the chaos, one thing was clear: the hospital had no where near enough staff or resources to tend to everyone.

…But, will the Defense Force really be able to handle this…? Karísah thought warily, as she slowly surveyed the lobby before her. For a second, she felt a twinge of familiarity — and a flash of flames and smoke across her vision. She clutched at her chest, dizzyness momentarily overtaking her… only for her to shake off the sensation and begin moving forward, toward a pile of tarps in the corner of the room. I can’t stop to think — that’s what Davídrius would say. The best way to fight is to keep moving!

“Make way, coming through!”

Karísah looked up, glancing out the windows of the lobby just as she hefted one of the wrapped up tents onto her shoulder. Upon seeing the newcomer, however, her eyes went wide, and she rushed outside. “Selind?!”

“Ah, it’s you,” Gavon responded, nodding toward Karísah as he held Selind in the air next to him. “She’s burned, she needs treatment. Fast. Although…” His gaze drifted across the numerous wounded already present. “…Things aren’t looking too great, I see.”

“Ugh… don’t worry about me,” Selind muttered; despite the burns down the the right side of her body, she had regained enough lucidity to focus on Karísah — at which point an incredulous look crossed her face. “Karísah? The hell’re you doin’ here?”

“I was with Relia when the attack started,” Karísah responded. “So I’m helpin’ out, here. But you— what happened? No, nevermind that. We need to tend to you—!”

“Bah, forget me—“

“You’re the leader of the Defense Force! They need you!”

“And I can give orders just fine from a hospital bed,” Selind retorted. “But you— and Gavon, too— y’all are Chaotics! Y’all should be out there, fightin’ the dirt-damned Bleeders, not tendin’ to my useless ass!”

“My, how charming,” Gavon remarked.

“But…” Karísah gave Selind a doubtful look. “Davídrius said—!“

“Davídrius says a lot of things,” Selind countered. “That man is more naively idealistic than he lets on. But the fact is, he created that school of his to deal with situations exactly like this!”

“What? But he always tells us students not to get involved…”

“Because he doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. But deep down, a big reason why WCU exists is to train the Chaotics of Treséd to better protect their homes. And right now, that’s Tresnon!”

Karísah faltered, and then passed Gavon a glance, as if pleading for him to say something.

“…Sorry, but I have to agree with Selind,” Gavon said, and then looked to the side, as if checking an invisible heads-up display. “…I won’t tell you to do anything, but time is of the essence. Selind, I’m going back to see what I can do about the shield generator!”

“Wait…!” Karísah began, but Gavon had already flown off into the sky, leaving Selind sitting on the ground against the hospital’s exterior wall. Karísah then looked back to Selind, a wary look on her face.

“Go,” Selind insisted. “If you’re worried about Davídrius bein’ mad, then just tell ‘im that I ordered you to go.”

“But—!”

“Are you really willin’ to sit around here while the Bleeders overrun your home?!”

Karísah stared at Selind in bewilderment, but the latter simply stared back resolutely, despite the painful burns covering half her body. Eventually, Karísah offered a nod. “…Alright,” she said, “but please, be careful!”

“Hmph…” Selind snorted to herself as Karísah whipped around and bounded off. “…Be careful, huh? I think I should be the one sayin’ that…”

---

*

“Overdrive: Guardian!”

“Overdrive: Speed Break!!”

With those shouts, Pierce dove into battle, while Spike quickly summoned a large tower shield — just in time to block an explosive round fired from the intruders’ gunship. Thunder rocked the rooftop and smoke from the explosion filled the air, only to be quickly dispersed as Sky’s flames on one side and Twy’s water on the other swept around Spike’s shield toward the twelve attackers. A mere second later, however, Twy’s water froze over, while one of the intruders zipped forward faster than the eye could track to attempt to knock Spike’s shield out of his hands. But as soon as the enemy Velocitechnic outed themselves, Pierce was upon them, utilizing his own speed to knock them high into the sky with a fierce kick — only to then be anchored to the ground as vines rapidly grew from the roof to grasp his wrists and ankles.

“A Cryotechnic, Velocitechnic, Chlorotechnic…!” Twy quickly called out, and then stumbled slightly as one of their attackers suddenly transformed into a large, quadrupedal mammal that looked like a cross between a bear and a hound. “And a Transtechnic! All Tresédian!” she finished, summoning up water to try and knock the offending Chaotics back — though it all froze over quickly. Sky immediately blasted the frozen water with her flames, but as soon as she did, the remaining attackers opened fire on her, forcing her to duck back behind Spike’s shield… until Austin moved up, copying Spike’s abilities to take the laser blasts to his chest as he crafted a second tower shield for the group to hide behind.

“…and Chaos Other Armor,” Phoenix muttered, her hand outstretched towards Austin as a set of translucent purple armor appeared over his body. She quickly looked back to the rest of the group; now everyone except Pierce was protected, and the vines holding him down were soon incinerated by Sky’s flames, allowing him to momentarily retreat behind Spike and Austin’s shields. “Chaos Other Armor,” Phoenix quickly called out, practically slapping Pierce to ensure he benefited from the ability — he passed her an annoyed look, but then snapped his attention to the side as the attacking Velocitechnic appeared around the shields and dealt Spike a fierce kick to the side, launching him through the air. In the instant that followed, Pierce spun around and lunged for the Velocitechnic, all while Austin copied Pierce’s speed to quickly dive to the side and grab Spike out of the air, thus keeping him from flying off of the roof.

While Pierce successfully drove the Velocitechnic back, Spike and Austin being forced out of position allowed the hound-bear Transtechnic to pounce on the unmanned shields, knocking them over and exposing the group to weapons fire. Lasers immediately found their mark, exploding across the sets of purple armor that Phoenix had conjured up — until Twy quickly rose a wall of water between them and their attackers. Instantly, the water froze over as the enemy Cryotechnic reflexively reacted to Twy’s water, but the ice gave the Keys just enough respite for Spike to bound back onto the scene, where he fabricated yet another shield. As soon as he did, Phoenix peeked out from behind the shield and extended her hand toward the wall of ice, calling out, “Chaos Massive Impact!”

A nigh-invisible wall of energy shot forth from her hand to slam into the ice wall, shattering it to pieces and sending the shards of ice raining down on the intruders. As the ice pelted them, the golden light of energy shielding appeared to protect each of the intruders — but then the shards of ice whipped up into a violent cyclone as Kestrel manipulated the air, creating a miniature tornado of ice to assail their attackers. In that moment of distraction, Pierce brandished his summoned blade, and then passed Austin a quick glance. “Alright dweeb, now or never!” he shouted, “follow my lead!”

“Wha-what—?!” Austin responded, a mixture of irritation, incredulity, and confusion crossing his face. But before he could say anything else, Pierce had shot forward, using his speed to deftly dodge around Kestrel’s tornado and bring his weapon to bear, using it to slice through the guns of the attackers. One gun, two guns, four guns were destroyed by his incredibly sharp blade before the attacking Velocitechnic intercepted him, but in that moment, Austin realized what Pierce had meant. Summoning his claymore, he then copied Pierce’s speed to rocket forward, slashing through the remaining guns while Pierce distracted the enemy Velocitechnic.

But just as Austin sliced through the last weapon, vines erupted from the ground beneath him to grab his arms and pull him to the ground. Sky quickly began blasting the vines with fire from afar, but she was soon distracted by the hound-bear lunging into her face, forcing her to stumble backwards. Spike moved up to grapple the hound-bear to stop it from moving — only for it to immediately transform into a small feline to escape Spike’s grasp. He stooped over to try and grab it, with Sky and Kestrel both turning to try and catch the transformed feline, but a second later, a plethora of vines exploded out of the roof, tearing part of the building to shreds as they leaped up to try and restrain the Keys. Sky turned her attention to fighting off the vines with her flames, but Spike was forced to return to holding up his shields to protect against incoming icicles. Kestrel was left to try to lock down the Transtechnic on her own, while Phoenix exchanged shots with the enemy Cryotechnic and Pierce continued defending against the Velocitechnic. With no one else to rescue Austin from his floral binds, Twy quickly turned to shoot high-pressure jets of water at the vines binding Austin in an effort to cut him free — only for her jets of water to quickly peter out a mere couple meters in front of Austin.

“What—? Shit!” Pierce swore, spotting the small device that one of the attackers had grabbed from their gunship and was now holding next to Austin. That must be a CENT generator! Shit! he thought; immediately, he brought his blade to bear and threw it at the device, only for the enemy Velocitechnic to intercept his blade and knock it off course. Ice then rapidly appeared around Pierce’s ankles, holding him in place just long enough for the Velocitechnic to slam their foot down over his head, instantly flooring him.

“RRRRAAAGGH!!”

A roar of exertion turned everyone’s attention to Spike — just as he threw a massive shield through the air towards the Velocitechnic standing over Pierce. As the Velocitechnic made to dodge, Spike quickly fabricated a small buckler and then chucked it through the air at the man standing over Austin — only for a wall of ice to spring up, intercepting the buckler. “Chaos Impact, Chaos—ngh!” Phoenix began calling out, only for a fierce blow from the enemy Velocitechnic to knock her on her back — and break the purple armor that had been protecting her until that second.

On seeing Phoenix fall to the ground, the enemy Velocitechnic standing over her, Pierce’s eyes went wide. He then glanced back at Austin, who was still struggling against the vines that bound him as one of the SFC soldiers emerged from the gunship with another gun, beginning to point its barrel right at Austin’s chest. Kestrel was already turning towards the enemy Velocitechnic, fierce winds whipping up around her, while Twy was moving to try and stop the SFC soldier, Sky continued burning vines as quickly as they appeared, and Spike attempted to lock down the Transtechnic — but none of them were fast enough. The Velocitechnic’s hand was moving toward Phoenix, and the SFC soldier was too close to Austin. Only Pierce had the speed to actually stop the attackers… but for just a moment, he faltered. How the hell am I supposed to save both of them?! …Aw, fuck me! “WAIT!!”

Everyone’s attention snapped to Pierce in response to his shout; without missing a beat, he quickly turned toward the Tresédians and added, “you just wanted me, right?!”

“Pierce, what are you—?!” Phoenix began to shout, only to be interrupted.

“If you leave them alone, then I’ll come with you, alright?” Pierce reiterated, his gaze fixed on the Tresédian man who had spoken earlier.

The man stared back at Pierce, his expression unreadable. He then quickly surveyed the scene; in the lull granted by Pierce’s shout, Kestrel had subtly dragged Phoenix out of harm’s way with a cushion of air, but Austin remained snagged by vines, his abilities suppressed by the nearby CENT generator.

“…So the Visitechnic got away…” the man commented, and then turned back to Pierce. “Do you also agree to accept punishment not just for yourself, but for your invisible friend, who has cowardly left you behind?”

“If you promise to leave everyone else alone, then sure, whatever,” Pierce replied.

“Pierce…” Twy muttered.

The Tresédian man, however, simply stared at Pierce, who stared back firmly. After a second of silence, the man responded, “fine, you have a deal.” He turned toward the SFC soldier standing over Austin and ordered, “let him go.”

“That’s ridiculous,” argued the soldier. “Why take one when we could take them all?”

“I don’t care what you outsiders have planned, here,” the man countered. “We only joined this raid to punish those who have transgressed us in the past. We have no interest in anyone else. We have no interest in the thoughtless plunder of the Bleeders or you PMCs.”

“Fine. You can go for all I care, but we aren’t leaving perfectly good Chaotics behind.”

“You’re free to do whatever you want once I and my compatriots are gone. But do you really think you’ll be able to subdue these six Chaotics with none of your own?”

The soldier wavered in response, his eyes flicking to the side — where Spike, Twy, and Sky were glaring at him, evidently fully prepared to attack. “…Fine,” the soldier muttered, finally withdrawing from Austin. As soon as the CENT generator was out of range, the vines holding Austin recessed, allowing him to climb back to his feet and warily stumble towards the rest of the group.

He then looked back at Pierce. “…Pierce, I—“

“Just get the hell out of here, dweeb,” Pierce interrupted as the six Tresédian intruders moved to surround him. “I’ll be fine on my own!”

“You can’t be fucking serious—!” Phoenix began, but Spike interrupted her.

“Let’s get goin’…” he muttered, his voice low. “We can figure out how to rescue Pierce later, but he’s right, this is the only way we all get out of this situation alive.”

Phoenix passed Spike a startled glance, but by then, he had already leaped off of the rooftop. Austin, Twy, and Sky quickly flew behind him, while Kestrel’s air wrapped around Phoenix and began to lift her into the air. Tentatively, Phoenix looked down at Pierce, who simply looked back at her, his expression unreadable. “…Hmph! You damn bastard…!” Phoenix muttered, but soon turned away as Kestrel flew them both away.

Back on the roof, Pierce watched the others leave before turning his attention to the six Tresédians around him.

“Hands out,” the leading man ordered.

“Hmph…” Pierce snorted, but nonetheless obliged; there was no sense in resisting at that point, as he could feel that a CENT generator was now suppressing his powers. As one of the Tresédians clasped a pair of handcuffs onto Pierce’s wrists, he turned back to the leading man, remarking, “so… you guys are from Rokres, aren’t you?”

“You’ve finally figured that out, have you, outsider?” the man retorted. “Then, if you know that, I’m sure you know why we’re here.”

“I can’t believe it. We saved your stupid little Konés, you know! And from the Bleeders, too! But now you’re working with them to attack Tresnon?!”

“Typical outsider self-righteousness,” the man countered. “Rokres is immune to your lies. We know that you were agents of Tresnon, all of you. And for your flagrant violation of our sovereignty, we will punish you.”

“I’m the self-righteous one, huh…?” Pierce muttered under his breath as the Tresédians led him onto the gunship. “…Great. Wherever you are, Conrad, you better not forget that you owe me one hell of a favor…”

---

*

The sound of electrical static echoed through the air as Davídrius’s blades slammed into Strén’s shoulder, lighting up the shields protecting his body. As soon as the blades hit, Strén lunged forward, his hand shooting out in an attempt to grab Davídrius by his neck — but the Dean quickly dodged out of the way, deftly dancing around the Bleeder to his back. Davídrius made to swing with his swords once more, the blades moving far faster than the speed of sound toward Strén’s back… but just before they hit, Strén’s entire upper body rotated 180 degrees, as if his hips were a swivel, all while Strén transferred the momentum from the sudden turn into a momentous punch. Immediately, Davídrius blocked the punch with his swords — but the fierce blow still launched him away from the boat and over the waters of Mirage Lake.

“Damn cybernetics! Shit, he’s more like an android, at this point…!” Davídrius growled as he sailed through the air. He then spun himself around right before coming back down to the water, enabling him to begin running across the water’s surface. Flames, lightning, and laser fire shot back and forth across the lake and the shores as the Tresnon Defense Force attempted to fight back the SFC and Bleeders, but Davídrius simply ducked and weaved around the various attacks as he ran a curving path around the boats back towards Strén.

In that moment, a massive rock column exploded out of the water under Davídrius, catching him off guard and launching him skywards — just in time for Strén to come bounding through the air to grab Davídrius by his neck and drag him back to the water. They both crashed into the lake’s surface with a tremendous splash; amidst the spray of the water and the bubbles under the surface, Davídrius managed to free himself from Strén’s grasp and quickly kicked at the water, utilizing his superspeed to swim upwards and shoot out above the lake’s surface. With a quick flip in the air, Davídrius drew in his tethered blades and then returned to running across the water, his attention directed at where Strén had submerged — only for the Bleeder to leap out of the water himself, supported by levitating rocks.

As soon as Strén spotted Davídrius, he grabbed the levitating boulder underfoot and ripped it in twain, leaving one half for him to stand on while he hefted the other half and hurled it at Davídrius. The Dean immediately switched directions to dodge the boulder, but Strén responded by puffing out his chest — from which a powerful laser emerged, instantly blasting the thrown boulder to smithereens and sending debris raining down on Davídrius and the lake around him. Davídrius grit his teeth as he was forced to plow through the shotgun-like rain of debris; in his haste to join the fight for Tresnon, he had neglected to grab any protective energy shielding, leaving only his innate durability as a Velocitechnic to protect him.

But that durability, for now, was enough; Davídrius emerged from the shower of rock shards with nary a scratch, only to forcefully divert himself to the left as Strén lunged for his position. As the Bleeder’s arms once again rushed past Davídrius’s face, the Dean quickly swung one of his swords to tag Strén’s shields, but that was all Davídrius had time for before his speed carried him away from Strén.

Can’t stand still while I’m water runnin’… Davídrius mused bitterly. Strén has less access to rocks out here, but I’ve never been good at water fightin’, either. But I can’t bring the fight back to Tresnon; Strén’s Overdrive is too dangerous to let him get close to the Defense Force. His attention then drifted to one of the several boats floating on the lake just off of the shore. …That’s it. Let’s go!

Immediately, Davídrius changed his direction again, pounding his feet against the surface of the water with such incredible force that he created a massive explosion of water as he launched himself straight towards the nearest boat — just in time to evade one of Strén’s rocks crashing into his former position. As the Dean sailed through the air, he spun himself around to quickly deflect another couple of rocks that Strén threw at him; but just before he landed atop the boat, Strén fired his chest laser again, nailing Davídrius in the air and sending him flying past his target boat. “Agh—!” Davídrius grunted in pain, but managed to recover just quickly enough to land on the water with his feet and continue running. As he did, he assumed a zig-zagged path, quickly and unpredictably changing directions all while Strén fired more laser shots at him, the laser blasts each time missing Davídrius by just a hair and throwing up massive explosions of water. How the hell is Strén keepin’ up with me? Davídrius passed a brief glance back at Strén, but was soon forced to focus on dodging lasers again. He’s not a Velocitechnic, his reflexes shouldn’t be THIS good. It must be those damn cybernetics—!

A second later, the laser blasts ceased; immediately, Davídrius did a quick, short hop to let his feet get in front of him — and then kicked hard against the water, completely reversing his momentum just quickly enough to evade Strén as he himself crashed into the waters right in front of Davídrius. But Strén was ready, too — his arms were outstretched as he landed, enabling him to grab Davídrius by his ankle before the Dean was out of reach. Immediately, Strén began whirling Davídrius through the air, all while raising rocks out of the water to stand on; Davídrius kicked at Strén’s hand to try and get him to release, but all he achieved was lighting up the Bleeder’s shields.

And then, an instant later, Strén released Davídrius, hurling him through the air towards one of the attacking boats. Davídrius impacted hard, the raw force denting the deck of the metal craft — but the Velocitechnic quickly recovered, using the momentum from the throw to flip over onto his feet just in time for Strén himself to pounce onto the boat. Strén immediately lunged for Davídrius; the latter waited for just a split second as the Bleeder approached, and then bicycle-kicked Strén in the face. The Bleeder’s energy shielding promptly flared to protect him from the kick, but the glowing sheets of golden light momentarily blinded him, allowing Davídrius to slam his foot over Strén’s shoulders and knock the massive Bleeder to the ground. As soon as he was down, Davídrius began rapidly slamming his foot into Strén’s back, using his superspeed to jackhammer the Bleeder’s shields in an effort to drain them.

“Hey, it’s the Sentry! OPEN FIRE!!”

“Tch—!” Davídrius scowled as he snapped his attention to the handful of Bleeders that shared the boat’s deck with him and Strén — and each of them wielded a gun in their hands. Unwilling to bet on if his Velocitechnic durability would stand up to concentrated laser fire, Davídrius abandoned his assault on Strén to rush forward, using his swords to smash the Bleeders’ guns before they could shoot him.

A couple of the Bleeders quickly recovered, one of them summoning up a ball of flame and the other generating sparks around their arms and legs — only for them both to be knocked into the water by two massive boulders as Strén leaped back to his feet. “Stay away — the Sentry’s MINE!!” he bellowed, all while stooping over to shove his hands through the boat’s metal deck. A second later, he curled his fingers to grab the deck and then yanked upward, his incredible strength tearing the boat’s deck to shreds and sending a wave-like ripple through the metal. The shredding of the deck, followed by the fast-moving wave of metal, caught Davídrius off-guard and sent him stumbling back, thus giving Strén time to leap toward the Dean and slam him to the deck. Davídrius hit the ground with a pained grunt, only for Strén to grab him by the neck and whirl around to chuck him at one of the boulders that had knocked away the Bleeders earlier.

“Ngh—!” Davídrius grunted in pain again as he hit the boulder back-first. He fell to his knees, his brow knit in pain as Strén lunged toward him again… only for Davídrius to quickly shoot his fist upward, just in time to connect with Strén’s incoming face. Once again blinded by his shields, Strén stumbled for long enough for Davídrius to grab the Bleeder’s neck, reach under his crotch with his other arm, and then throw the Bleeder onto the deck. As soon as Strén hit the ground, he fired a laser from his chest, but Davídrius anticipated the attack and managed to dodge out of the way; he then dove back towards Strén, kicking him in the face to blind him once more before stooping down to try and flip the Bleeder over — but Strén lashed out with his arms, smacking Davídrius in the chest and sending the Dean flying off of the boat. He hit the water hard, his tethered blades flailing through the air behind him, but he quickly rolled to his feet and jumped back into the air, all before breaking the water’s surface tension; a second later, he landed on the deck of another boat, just in time for Strén to do the same.

“Hmph… not bad, whelp!” Strén declared, rolling his shoulders before turning to stare at Davídrius with bloodlusted glee. “Really showin’ off the drawbacks of shieldin’, there, too! But you know what? I didn’t need those, anyways!”

“Really,” Davídrius drawled, watching as a bright flash of golden static fuzz swept across Strén’s body — the sign that he had just shut down his energy shields. Davídrius then activated the motors on his blade-tethers, rapidly drawing in the blades to catch them a second later. “…Gonna put your life on the line just to show me up, huh?”

“A fight ain’t fun if you don’t got a li’l skin in the game,” Strén retorted. “But even like this, I’ve got more than enough power to kick your sorry ass!”

“Tch… still grandstandin’, even now,” Davídrius muttered, and then cast a quick glance toward Tresnon. Smoke, explosions, and the sounds of combat still echoed across the lake, but it was also evident that the fighting had drifted further into the Compound. Shit… well, if I can at least keep Strén out here, then it’ll make the Defense Force’s jobs easier. Hell, I bet the only reason he hasn’t used his Overdrive yet is ‘cause he wants me to hear his taunts — if so, then as long as I can keep his attention, we shouldn’t have to worry about his Overdrive…

“What, gettin’ cold feet?” Strén questioned, drawing Davídrius’s attention back to him. “It’s like you said the last time we met, ‘Sentry’. Today, one of us is dyin’—“ The Bleeder lunged forward, an eager grin spread across his face. “—So let’s settle this, once and for all!!”