“Woohoo!” Lya cheered as she threw as fist into the air, but much to her surprise, her sense of elation was not shared by the soldiers that had just successfully repelled such a powerful threat.

This left the young woman somewhat confused but her comrade, Jorna, just shook her head before pulling Lya’s hand down from the air. Her demeanor quickly changed, shifting quickly from elated to rather puzzled as she turned her full attention towards Jorna. Jorna just sighed at her naiveté before she motioned to one of many gatherings around the combat area. This particular gathering of soldiers, Rogues Special Forces and Merricent Royal Gard alike, was at the very perimeter of tehe square in which their battle took place. Lya’s eyes widened with shock as she focused her prodigious senses on the scene, gazing past the solemn soldiers to catch a glimpse of a partially dissolved Chiral exo-suit, within which the partially decomposed remains of the pilot could still be seen.

“There’s never anything to celebrate in war, girl.” Jorna muttered knowingly. “You just regroup, bury the dead—”

“—and prepare for the next battle.” Zed finished her statement, her face now exhibiting an extremely puzzled look at the familiar military adage. “Who the hell are you two?”

“My name is Lya Malaikin and this is Jorna Medin – we’re contractors employed by Shin Itami – we’ve been sent to offer the Rogues his assistance.” Lya explained, stepping forward to shake Zed’s hand, whose gaze remained firmly fixed on Jorna.

“Yeah right, like that’s what I need.” She scoffed as her gaze drifted towards the slender blue-haired woman, before she finally slapped Lya’s hand away. “I don’t know what your boss and the commandant have got cooking up, but whatever it is I don’t want any part of it. I have men to look after and a monster to kill – unless these legends are going to be on the ground getting their hands dirty, then they might as well not exist as far as I’m concerned.”

“Hey, they may not come but they do send.” Jorna retorted. “We’re here to lend any help we can; I’m sure that’s gotta be better than nothing.”

Zed’s gaze just narrowed at the red-haired young woman.

“Barely.” She scoffed, much to Jorna’s annoyance, forcing the two women to exchange glares briefly.

“It’s pretty unusual to see haima’sa of that size and power manifesting themselves within city limits, especially in cities with powerful environmental regulators like Neo Brighton – what’s going on with this thing?” Lya interjected, doing her best to diffuse the mounting tension between Zed and Jorna.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out but so far the techies haven’t been able to come up with any plausible theories.” Zed shook her head, finally breaking eye contact with Jorna.

“So far?” Jorna looked somewhat puzzled. “This isn’t the first attack?”

“No.” Zed shook her head. “We’ve fought this thing three times in four days and every time it’s been the same thing: it shows up without warning and when we damage it enough it teleports out of battle – the environmental regulators don’t kick in until after it leaves.”

“I may have an idea of why that is.” Rueben sounded as he finally made his way over to the three women, turning their attentions towards him.

Zed’s eyebrow just tipped upwards at the young man, who exhibited an uncanny resemblance to Roun.

“I’ve been on the receiving end of quite a few haima’sa ambushes.” He started. “What do you know about their energy source?”

“Very little, outside of the fact that it’s supposedly ‘extra-dimensional’ – it doesn’t behave like any form of zeta I’ve ever seen.” Zed scoffed, dismissive of that very explanation.

“That makes sense because it’s not a form of zeta at all. We don’t really know what it is so we just call it ‘magic’… its essentially pure chaos.” Rueben explained. “It originates from beyond Terra and whenever it enters our world it’s accompanied by cataclysms. The haima’sa are beings of this magic. In recent times, they’ve slowly been adapting to use our zeta but their bodies and their most powerful abilities still require actual magic. So to facilitate this, they’ve developed the ability to create rifts between our world and the source of their power. These rifts are the actual source of the cataclysms.”

“Uh huh…” Zed nodded sceptically. “Magic…” She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous – but consider the fact that if we didn’t know any better, zeta would probably be considered ‘magical’ in nature as well.” Rueben countered. “Regardless of terminology though, I’ve seen these rifts with my own eyes and felt them more times than I care to remember – your creature wasn’t creating one when it left.”

Zed’s eyebrow tipped upwards.

“I don’t know where it went, but that was straight-up teleportation – wherever it vanished to, it’s still on Terra.” Rueben explained.

“So wherever this thing goes, it goes there to regroup?” Zed inquired, causing Rueben to nod.

“Most likely. It probably gathers energy somewhere outside of the city, then teleports in to attack – once it’s damaged, it teleports out and repeats the process.” He explained. “If you want to kill it, you’ll have to figure out where it’s regrouping to – and end this there.”

“That’s a fine theory—” Zed nodded “—but can you prove any of this?”

Rueben paused to give the question some thought, before he just smirked.

“Actually, I can – if you can access data from a channeler disturbance in Frigaheim about a month ago, that is.” He suggested, causing all parties involved – including Jorna and Lya – to look on with puzzlement.

Zed in particular narrowed her gaze at the odd young man, before taking him up on his offer.

“I’ll see what I can do – come by the Garrison later and ask to speak with Harry Benet.” Zed offered. “Now get out of here so my people can clean up, I need this place accessible by the public in three hours.”

“Not a problem, we’ll get out of your hair.” Rueben conceded.

“We’ll look forward to seeing you later…” Lya started, hoping that Zed would at least get around to introducing herself.

“Commander Zed Cross.” She replied. “I’ll be in touch.

With this the three of them made their way back over to Rude and Cunall’s location, to check on the two injured psychers.

“You two still alright?” Rueben inquired over their team chat, causing their faces to once again be projected on top of his vision, so that he could watch them both grimace and nod in the affirmative. All he could do was chuckle.

Moments later, Rueben and his team were exiting the demilitarized zone that had been erected around the battle. Unlike the apex of the dome that had been blacked-out, which exhibited no physical shielding, entry into the DMZ from the ground was heavily controlled. The mobile barrier generators that had forced Daito to divert around the area were still in full effect, preventing physical entry and exit at this altitude without the express permission of the Rogue Special Forces or the Royal Guard. For this reason, the small group of channelers had to be provided with an armed escort to the edge of the DMZ, where the Chiral pilots accompanying them temporarily deactivate a section of the barrier to allow them out.

“Well that went… horribly.” Cunall sounded as the barrier reactivated behind them, giving the Rogues and Merricent military time to complete their clean-up efforts.

“Yeah.” Rueben nodded. “I didn’t expect something that deadly to be roaming the streets of Neo Brighton. I’m sorry about that.”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it man.” Cunall just shook his head.

“We’ll certainly have to be a lot more careful from this point onwards.” Jorna added, as usual considering the security of those around her.

“Agreed.” Lya chimed in. “If these haima’sa can show up at any time and any point in the city, it might not be such a good idea for us to split up.”

“Yeah, no offense to you guys, but if that thing can put me out of commission in one attack – I’d hate to see it get the jump on one of you.” Rude threw in his two-cents. “Sounds to me like we need a new plan.”

“Not nece—” Rueben started, only to be cut off by an unfamiliar female voice.

“Roun!” Came the yell that caused his eyebrows to tip upwards, before turning to see a red-haired young woman making her way towards him.

Rueben’s eyebrow tipped upwards as he turned, but as he did he saw the elation on the young woman’s face drain away, only to be replaced by an expression of disappointment.

“Oh… you are not him.” Muttered Nicola, somewhat confused by Rueben’s appearance as she approached the young man.

Her statement however simply caused him to smirk before he turned his full attention to the young woman that had mistakenly approached him. Unbeknownst to Rueben, the young woman had just minutes earlier left the Watering Hole with her sister and her friends, and like each of them she was on her way home when she caught a glimpse of that man that she’d mistaken for her sister’s best friend.

“You’re a friend of Roun’s I take it.” Rueben finally replied to her hail with a pleasant smile, leaving Nicola somewhat puzzled by the fact that he even knew Roun.

“And you would be?” She inquired, somewhat sharply, expressing just how off-put she was by the charming lookalike.

“Rueben Itami, I’m Roun’s… cousin.” He added.

Jorna could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes at the assertion, which only caused Nicola’s gaze to narrow sharply at Rueben.

“I didn’t know Roun had any cousins.” She retorted incredulously, resting her hand on her hip as she looked Rueben from head to toe.

Even amidst her scepticism, she had to admit that his claim was compelling. The channeler’s energy signature was oddly similar to Roun’s in his low-powered state, while his skin tone and the two-toned nature of his hair were also distinctly similar; but on top of all of this he shared one of the most distinguishing traits that these Itamis exhibited. While globalisation had all but destroyed the concept of racial purity that existed some centuries prior, even in these times it was possible to determine a person’s racial heritage. Roun and his brothers however had inherited their father’s absolute racial ambiguity, making their particular ethnicity totally untenable. Rueben shared this trait, exhibiting an almost eerie mean of race-defining characteristics.

The young man just smirked as Nicola continued to inspect him.

“We’re admittedly pretty distant cousins, but his family are some of the only relatives I’ve got.” Rueben replied casually.

“Strange that he’s never mentioned you.” Nicola pressed on with her interrogation.

By now her absence had piqued the interest of her sister Tyler, prompting her to make her way over to Nicola’s location to see who this stranger was that her little sister had seen fit to engage in conversation.

“We actually only met about a months ago, so that’s not too strange.” Rueben replied, continuing to ignore her mounting scepticism.

“Who’s your friend Nicola?” Tyler inquired as she finally closed the distance between her sister and Rueben.

“He says he’s Roun’s cousin.” She replied, prompting yet another head to toe inspection of Rueben before Tyler made her own inquiry.

“On which side?” She questioned.

“Our fathers are distant relatives.” Rueben explained, causing Tyler to nod.

“Fair enough.” Tyler shrugged. “I’ll tell Roun we ran into you when next we speak…” she paused, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.

“Rueben.” He smiled. “Rueben Sol Itami.”

Oddly enough, Tyler immediately turned her attention away from Rueben at that point and instead addressed her sister.

“Nikki, we should get going before they shut down anymore of the city.” She prompted, almost hastily, causing Rueben’s eyebrow to tip upwards.

“Yeah…” Nicola turned to her sister and conceded reluctantly, before turning once again to address Rueben. “I guess I’ll see you around, ‘cousin’.” Her conclusion to their conversation was as sharp as the rest of it, serving only to further amuse an already tickled Rueben.

With this the two young women turned and made their way off, heading back out of the narrow side street and onto another, on their way back to the main street; leaving the small group of foreigners to their own devices.

“Cunall, you feeling any better, bro?” Rueben’s query came just as the two young women had cleared the area and he was sure that they could no longer hear him.

“Not really.” Cunall replied with a grimace, but his interest was at the very least piqued. “Why?”

“I need you to tail those girls.” Rueben explained; leaving the rest of the group rather puzzled as to his reasoning for such a strange assertion.

Some distance away, Nicola and Tyler had already reached the main street and were well on their way out of the city. Unlike the others, their trip home required an additional stop, forcing them to make their way back to Titan Academy where Tyler had parked her hovercar. This was somewhat customary, as traversing the city on foot was not just easier but often times faster. This fact however made something about their trip back to Titan Academy particularly strange, and it hadn’t taken long for Nicola to notice that they were moving at a much quicker pace than they tended to. A puzzled look dawned on her face.

“You in a hurry to get somewhere, Ty?” She pressed, prompting her sister to look over her shoulder briefly before turning to Nicola to address the question.

“Yeah, I’d like to get as far away from Neo Bighton as possible right now.” Tyler replied, much to Nicola’s surprise.

“What’s gotten into you?” Nicola pressed, now becoming slightly worried from her sister’s tone.

“Did you catch a glimpse of the two men that were with that Rueben guy?” She inquired as her pace quickened yet again, forcing Nicola to also quicken her pace in order to keep up.

“No, not really. Why?” Nicola pressed as her energy instinctually began to uncap itself in preparation for some kind of danger.

“Because they were both injured, and more over I’ve seen wounds like that before.” Tyler explained, leaving Nicola rather curious as to what she was getting at.

“Where?” She pressed further now, trying to figure out exactly what it was that had Tyler so spooked.

“At school.” She replied. “Roun looked just like that, right after a sparring match with Rei.”

“Rei who?” Nicola just looked completely baffled.

“Kanrei.” Tyler pressed, but the name didn’t seem to ring a bell with the younger of the two Cage sisters. “Kanrei Angelus… he’s in my class… a blue-hair, skinny fellow…”

“Nope.” Nicola shook her head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Geez, Nicola.” Tyler retorted with exasperation. “But never mind that—Kanrei’s the only person I know who can do that to somebody. Even with my abilities I’ve never been able to replicate the technique. So a bunch of suspicious men lurking in an alleyway and reeking of Rei’s toxic energy at that – that qualifies as some pretty damn suspicious stuff.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty true.” Nicola nodded in return. “Not to mention that there’s clearly been a disturbance and the Rogues are swarming the place.” Her eyes widened. “Y-you don’t think those are the guys that they’ve been looking for?”

“I’ve got no idea, but I’m not about to take any chances.” Tyler replied. “Plus, I finally hear from Roun after a month of nothing and all of a sudden this guy shows up asking if we’re friends and claiming they’re cousins?”

“Yeah… too many coincidences for one day.” Nicola affirmed.

“Precisely.” Tyler nodded. “Given the atmosphere in Neo Brighton over the past couple weeks, I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“Agreed.” Nicola nodded. “Brace yourself, I’m taking us to T.A. right now.”

With this Nicola allowed her braver form to power itself up to full capacity, filling herself with the ambient zeta as she grabbed her sister by the hand. Soon both of their bodies were overrun by Nicola’s personal energy, before they both vanished from the area under the influence of her crimson flash – Nicola’s personal variant of Roun’s silhouette slide – leaving the already deserted streets of Neo Brighton completely desolate.