Zephyria

Yami gently nudged Aloe, who had fallen asleep atop her new Case. He found it quite uncanny that she could doze off sitting upright upon this floating box, but he admired the technique nonetheless. He even contemplated on asking her later on for the opportunity to try it out for himself.

Aloe slowly opened her eyes and vaguely recognised the Inn-u from earlier that day. The tiredness that seemed to live upon her face didn"t move out this time, but at least she had something to say about the canine complex.

"It really is a doge" she muttered.

She secretly had an affinity for cute animals, with many many plushies stuffed within her baggage, still carried by gentleman Yami.

Ryan nodded enthusiastically at the sound of a second non-uninterested voice (though that was debatable.

"Yup, a shiba inu to be precise."

"Hm. It"s scientific name is actually Canis lupus famili"

She paused before she could finish displaying her impressive canine knowledge, and her eyes widened, instantaenously and fully waking up.

This confused Ryan somewhat, but due to the lukewarm reception he"d been inadvertently been beaten with, at this point his desperation prevented him from ignoring even the slightest hint of enthusiasm.

"I get you, doges are shocking to me too. Especially the cute ones with large eyes and fluffy bods. An-"

Aloe did not listen to a word the Prince said, but she was definitely using her ears.

As mentioned, Aloe"s earrings acted as sensors for her orbs, but the virtual link allowed them to essentially communicate back via vibrations. The intensity and rhythm of these vibrations differed based on the protocol, all of which she had set up and became accustomed to.

Whilst the Prince babbled, her earrings had gone from a slow, gentle buzz to a fast, violent vibration. One of her orbs sensed something. Something coming. Coming fast.

She quickly turned around to face the garden and summoned two orbs from her Case, which instantly formed a large yellow barrier in front of the entire Inn-u. A super-sonic projectile collided with the barrier just as it finished materializing, causing a ma.s.sive explosion and a subsequent grey smoke screen.

The impact had caused Ryan to stumble to the floor, but his attention was on Aloe. It didn"t take him long at all to realise what she had done, and his mind was blown once he did.

"Incredible." he thought to himself. "She sensed the missile with the [Scan] orb on standby, then created a giant barrier using her new [Amp] orb to magnify the effects of her [Screen] orb, all within a few seconds. Such skill. Much cla.s.s."

The rest did not share the luxury of sitting down and admiring Aloe"s glorious feat. Once the missile exploded all six other members had adopted their battle stances, ready.

"We"re under attack." Hikari shouted, as he immediately turned to Ryan. "Get inside now!"

Only at the sound of Hikari"s legitimately concerned voice did he understand that this wasn"t a time to fool around, and nodded in acknowledgement before retreating inside the mansion and towards his lab.

As soon as Hikari witnessed the Prince get to safety he turned to the rest, who were all still within the barrier.

"Aloe, keep the shield up but let us out."

"Yes sir. I don"t plan on staying inside either."

Despite most being on casual terms with him, all understood that Hikari was their leader and they did not compromise this chain of command, especially during a battle situation.

Aloe briefly deactivated the barrier to let them all onto the other side, before reactivating it. Hikari quickly led them into the grey smoke, which had started encompa.s.s the entire garden and didn"t seem like it wouldn"t linger. It was so dark and thick that it completely blocked their vision in front of the Inn-u. They had to get rid of the smoke, ASAP.

"Gale!" Hikari yelled.

Gale needn"t hear another word to understand, so she swiftly summoned her new wings and knelt down, with one fist on the ground. As she charged up, air currents started to form around her entire body until she snapped.

[TEMPEST AXEL]

She shot straight up into the sky in a magestic spiral fashion. As she ascended her body rapidly rotated anticlockwise in conjunction with her wings, causing a mini tornado that gathered all the smoke into her wings. She dispersed the concentrated smoke upwards and outwards, clearing their view.

Xero wasted no time in getting a closer look at the perpetrators, activating his sniper rifle and turning his scope dial.

[GLACIAL SCOPE 3]

This scope allowed Xero to view perfectly at a max range of 3000 meters. He peered through his eyesight and towards the distant horizon and became incredibly disturbed at what he saw, much to the concern of Hikari.

"What do you see?"

"A lead airship about 1 klick away, coming in hot. Really hot. A huge fleet of about 150/200 follow, 3 klicks back. Not as fast, but fast."

Hikari"s contemplated on the sentiment. Fleets of such size were a major deal.

"Air Force?!"

"No. The lead seems to be a type D aircraft."

Hikari thought to himself for a few seconds, then it occured to him.

"Wait, isn"t that the Di"

The lead jet had already entered the mansion"s vacinity, not slowing down at all.

[BLASTER: INFERNO BURNO]

Amber activated her cannon and shot a tiny fireball that rapidly increased in size and heat as it travelled. The fireball grew to envelop the jet, causing a huge explosion and disintegrating all that were within.

That is, all but two ent.i.ties, which seemed to go from falling hopelessl in the sky to diving intently to the ground, landing with much impact and such presence (ironically staring at the doge mansion and those that protected it; very wow).

As the dust settled (unarguably more easily than the smoke previously), the view of these people became crystal clear, quite literally actually.

Stood in front of them were the first and second lieutenants of the Diamond Yakuza, one of the most powerful crime syndicates in all of Zephyria.

"We"re not letting you at Ryan." Hikari declared, staring them down.

"We"re not here for him." the second replied, looking past him and at Amber and Elektra, both of whom"s forms changed significantly to pure killer-instinct. The fiery rage was evident in Amber"s eyes as were the electric sparks in Elektras.

"When we heard the two of you were gathered here in one place, we just had to come personally to destroy you."

Amber and Elektra turned to each other, acknowledging each"s own transformation.

"How do you know them?" Amber asked, unwavering in her flaming aura.

Elektra"s electricity chaotically surrounding her intensified.

"We had an altercation back in the day. I escaped with my life, but my partner was not as lucky. You?"

Amber clutched her blaster, her revenge manifesting as flames all over her body.

"They took away my life at the academy. They will pay with their own."