The deathblow came. Gaston took a position and landed his leg on the back of a biomass entity. Janna was behind him, landing that buster sword of hers, splitting the monster into two, breaking the concrete below in the process. Gaston landed six feet away from the biomass entity. His exoskeleton gauntlet retracted deep into his sleeves. His respirator-like mask went back on the back of his spine. Janna pulled the buster sword from the back of the corpse before retracting it to a two-handed version.

“Shoot it again.”

“You do it. I’m tired.”

Gaston watched the corpse for a second before he lifted his leg. Smashing the sole of his shoes to the carapace of the beast. The sheer force of his kick pushed the blood and juices of the monster out of the way. Gaston pulled on his gloves. His eyes on the corpses that littered the area. There were about forty of them sprawled on the road and on the side of the building. Above them were the VTOL’s and helicopters and an army of drones scanning the area.

“That should be all of them,” Janna placed her weapon on the magnetic scabbard on her back. The thing sticking on her back with a quiet clang. She leaned on Gaston. “You think we’re getting a bonus?”

Gaston eyed her blandly, “You think they will? If anything the debt will probably take most of our pay cut.”

“She ain’t that cruel.”

“Is she?”

Gaston held this tired gaze. His eyes never leaving the corpses sprawled around them. Janna looked at the corpses. She pulled on her hair before her eyes went to the side of Gaston’s face. Her knuckles playfully push Gaston’s cheek.

“Quit it. At least we don’t have to worry about contacting people from a different time zone. We also still have that apartment of yours, being paid by the Consortium.”

The destruction of the infrastructure and the numerous biomass entities that have invaded the land cause quite a trouble. Because of an enemy that was able to ‘abduct’ a behemoth. Internationally the ‘event’ caused quite a stir. Not to mention that a new enemy that was able to travel great distances without anyone knowing was alarming. It was difficult to cover it up. Not when the cameras or drone in the vicinity of the area was pointed at the monster wreaking havoc.

When the monster left. Everyone didn’t linger their thoughts until the country had its dangerous biomass entities destroyed. The cleanup was being handled by the Breakers while the rest of the cleaning companies and the mercenaries were harvesting the ichorium off the bodies of the biomass entities they were eliminating. Gaston had been stuck with cleaning the rest of the biomass entities that escaped the grasp out with Janna. He wasn’t particularly concerned about doing dirty work. Not that he enjoyed running around like the rest of the breakers who feel this rush whenever they are free to go all out.

“That should be all of them,” Gaston brought out his bracer. “Pinging my location. We got forty T4’s here waiting to be extracted. And please pass a message to the Lady for me that we will not be handling any request at the moment. We are exhausted and plausibly wounded.”

“Roger that.”

Gaston turned his attention to the VTOL approaching them. Without any reason to be here. The two of them vacated the area and found themselves back to Hamamatsu where they got themselves cleaned up and left the branch until they found them back to their home. Janna changed from her tight-fitting battle-suit to her business suit sharing the black and white colors as Gaston.

It took them a while to arrive back at the apartment that Gaston had. Entering through the front door, with Janna going in first, she threw her heels on the shoe rack while removing her suit, leaving only the white shirt on. Gaston gingerly removed his jacket, peeling the exoskeleton wrapped on his back. Gaston pressed the light switches on with his gloved fingers, illuminating the apartment room. Janna scooted on the living room and squatted on the table. She pressed her cheek on the table then held the eyepatch on her eye.

“If only this room was a lot bigger.”

“You keep saying that, Janna. Going to watch TV?”

“Nah. Only idol-shows right now.”

“Should rest. Who knows what they will throw at us next. You made the deal after all.”

Janna nodded slowly. She propped her chin on the edge of the table before leaning on the table. She took the remote from the side. On the television was indeed a three-woman group dancing wonderfully with their superhuman reflexes. The three of them were quite well-shaped with wide hips and beautiful faces enhanced by the camera.

“Your mouth’s drooling.”

Gaston looked away. He took his tie off and sat on the side of the table. Janna tapped her fingers, raising a smirk before changing the channel to the news where all sorts of tragedies were happening in the world.

The news always reminded Gaston that the world wasn’t that kind to them. It was already difficult dealing with monsters, but an enemy that was powerful with such a reason like turning the world into bio-flesh? It made Gaston feel wary. His face became stiffer as he thought about this ‘enemy’ trying to turn the world into a fleshy one.

“Relax, will you? Get some food for us. Ah, you still have those chicken wings?”

Gaston stared at Janna. She behaved as if she didn’t know what he wanted. It was then that Gaston stood up. Leaving Janna to raise a brow at the strangeness of her partner-in-crime. He heated up the chicken wings and placed them on the table. The two partake in the meal while browsing through the lackluster television series that were truthfully less interesting than the events they were facing almost every day as people employed by the Babaika Lions. After a while, the two settled down in the living room wordlessly. Sipping on water and leaning on one another while surfing through the messages in their devices.

The two moved to the balcony of the apartment. Gaston resting on the padded chairs with Janna just on the side staring down the sky as if something would fall down. No, it was more like she was staring at the airship carriers hovering above the skies of Japan. By the time the behemoth threat was over. ‘Allies’ from all over the world visited Japan with their airship carriers, offering to clean-up the nation. Not for free of course, Gaston had been included in their deals and what they wanted was simply a discount on some of the tech that Japan will be selling in exchange for their help. And also keep the ichorium they might get for themselves.

It wasn’t a bad deal. And right now they wanted to keep the monsters away. Clear the nation as fast they could. The situation was unstable. There was no telling when another attack was coming. If the enemy was bolder then they were expecting them to attack again. Their target would be the infrastructure and the rest of the defense grid that was keeping the nation of Japan alive.

To Gaston it was a situation one would expect in these trying times. He was living long enough in this era to understand that there was simply no telling how things are. Planet Earth was unstable and whatever it was that was disrupting the world and leaking these monsters. It was something that they have no power or idea how to resolve.

Split-realm ships and drive engines that are able to transverse the solar system. Ships that can transform a moon or planet into a habitable world.

These habitable worlds where some of the people have migrated were usually expensive. So far only the brilliant and the lucky ones were allowed to migrate while keeping the population in those worlds stable. Mars in particular were transformed into a semi-water world after they broke both poles and launch a bomb that somehow produced this artificial ozone layer far superior to the one’s here in Earth.

Traveling to Mars was not the problem. Staying on Mars and having a residence there was a challenging task. Gaston had wanted to become a citizen of Mars for a long time. He and Janna were always wanderers with no place to go other than the stars.

It didn’t matter if it was working with the United Earth Defense Force. Anti-Entity Task Force. Otherside Research Institution. They’ve been working for everyone in order to fulfill the dream of leaving this dying planet. If it wasn’t for the accident that Gaston found himself in. If he didn’t owe the Consortium a debt that cannot be paid so easily. He knew that if she was in debt as well. He would not leave her to pay it alone. His eyes on her. Janna found his stare puzzling. She lifted a smile and then leaned forward.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Hmm, is that so? Anyway, from the looks of it there isn’t going to be a problem regarding our task. Our quota is going to be alright. Now we just need to be careful about the red Valkyrie eyeing us. Guess she didn’t forget that time.”

“That she didn’t.”

“You’d think that she wasn’t like that. Then she becomes strong enough to act like that. You think the Lady knows what she is? What can she do?”

“I don’t want to think about it,” Gaston said resolutely. “And to be fair it was your fault, not mine. You weren’t the one giddy about having a drink with a beautiful woman who turns out to be strong enough to match you in strength. I’m actually curious why she is still on about that. You saw her drilling an eye on you and me.”

Janna slid her back against the chair. She looked up and took a sip of her drink. She had this pensive look on her. As if she was wondering what she’d do the next time they saw her. Then again their association was before all the trouble. Gaston and Janna were rough individuals. If they had known that she was going to the damn Red Valkyrie in the future. They might have avoided the trouble altogether.

“It’s a problem. She gives me those eyes you know. It’s actually scaring me.”

“That so? I thought you’d welcome it.”

“Not when she carries that two-handed sword like mine.”

“Guess that’s that.”

Gaston palmed the hand rest of his chair. Janna stood up suddenly. She placed a hand on the railing of the balcony. Her eyes surveying the street. There were mechanized infantry and troops from embassies and the nations itself protecting their interest here in this country. Nishi-Azabu, of the Minato-ku district has become filled with foreigners. Though most of the people were mostly people from the embassies and foreigners who found staying in this ward particularly far safer than the different parts of Neo-Tokyo that still have areas crawling with biomass entities and flesh-towers that were created by the biomass entities trying to establish biomass nests.

The next problem regarding all of this was the cleanup process and how they are going to handle the fact that there was a new enemy. Gaston felt like it was also his duty. But then again he already did a good job keeping the Ayumi safe when the cult attacked the Earthside Consortium branch of Japan.

Still, it was his rest time. Gaston believed that he at least earned this small rest after dealing with so many enemies and reaching their quota. Janna and he were going to continue to act as Adjutants and Associates for the Consortium. Though mostly it was going to be about Gaston and Janna acting as Enforcers for the Babaika Lions.

All because they lacked the money and that they needed a ticket out of this planet.

Evening comes to the city of Neo-Tokyo.

And in this evening, Gaston Hardy found himself wondering when the hunt for the cultists will begin once more…