The ten of them had gathered on top of the tower where they would gather and converse when necessary. With an hour of preparation time, they had to decide how they would proceed. However, this hour of planning time would start as soon as all of them are gathered at their towers. This leaves time for exploration and figuring out the topography of this map.

"Splitting up and exploring is fine as long as we get to the tower in orderly time, right?", Hyperion asked suggesting that they use this oppurtunity.

"Of course it is. Just make sure you're here before the sun sets, okay?", Leo replied.

Hyperion took off on his divine key as the others walked towards the base of operations or split up. Emma dragged Franky and Liam with her as she went off to explore in their half of the city. Gertrude was indecisive as she struggled to decide which group she should hang with.

Hyperion came back and picked her up by the waist simply swooping her up taking off once again.

"What are you-"

"Look!", said Hyperion.

Gertrude looked at the city below inspecting the grand city. Every building had at least two floors. The closer they got to the tower, the skyscraper, the more floors the buildings had. They were incredibly reflective and were blinding them within the sunrise.

"It's cool, isn't it?", he asked Gertrude knowing that she was undecisive and likely had confidence issues.

"It is… But there's no life down there," she replied. "No trees, no bushes, no anything… It's kinda lonely without all that."

Hyperion too noticed the lack of plantlife. It started bothering him too which is when he decided that the time for sightseeing is over.

"I guess…"

Glancing at other buildings, he noticed another train station and aimed for it. However, it was empty on the inside and solely existed as decoration. Most of the buildings had the exact same function meaning that the only form of variety were a select few buildings sadly offlimits to this game.

"Since that is all there is to this city, we should head back to the tower…"

Gertrude nodded in agreement as she was carried off towards the skyscraper. The two of them were the first ones to arrive at the top of the tower and decided to start thinking of an effective strategy togther.

Emma, Franky, and Liam were exploring by jumping onto buildings and walking on top of the streets. However, Emma grew bored of walking and lied down resulting in Franky carrying her simply because he doesn't want to watch her order around Liam.

"You know… You can be a handful."

Emma ignored that comment as she hammered on his head ordering him to carry on and get by.

Liam remained quiet showing slight annoyance for the first time in life. Spacing out, he was shocked by the tech glasses reminding him to not lose control once again.

"Those glasses of yours… How do they work?", Franky asked rather curious.

"They just shock me whenever I'm about to lose control. Maybe I can use it to my advantage some day?", Liam replied.

"Hmm…", Emma grunted jokingly. "Growing a backbone and a personality now, aren't we?"

Running into a wall, Franky knocked down Emma and jumped away fed up with her behavior. Liam followed suit just a little worried but rather confident that she's fine.

Melody and Rythm were an odd duo that belonged nowhere. They strangely weren't associated with any organisation or nation. Strange and mysterious, the two displayed a cheerful personality while they weren't exactly as cheerful as they often pretended to be.

"Hey, Rythm… Why'd you choose such tame outfits? I know that they still match but they're kinda boring…"

"We don't wanna attract too much attention, do we?", she replied. Her voice was a little deeper and rather dominating while Melody was the high-pitched and more loud one. Still, it seemed as if Rythm was the one leading out of the two despite being less loud.

"I guess… But in games like these we usually can go all out, right? Letting loose once in a while should be no problem, right?"

They seem to be plotting something. However, that scheme of there's wasn't exactly malicious. The two of them are just two simple free spirits trying to find joy in life.

The three veterans took a leisurely stroll towards their base of operations discussing rather important matters. As they were a lot more in touch with the issues going on around the world, they decided to talk about how they're feeling about the current climate.

"If I remember correctly, you two worked with Belle? The supposed number one in dealing with the minds of broken Dream Catchers?", Leo asked Akio and Reflecta.

"Not really. Me and Kyo-" Before he could finish, Reflecta smacked the back of his head.

"Me and Reflecta", he corrected. ",were far beneath her. Since our primary job isn't taking care of Dream Catchers that may turn into Demons, we didn't really interact much. It was mostly just us travelling towards ruins long forgotten hiding behind a fold in space…"

Reflecta wasn't interested in talking about the past and instead diverted the conversation towards the present. She promptly claimed, "Aren't those Claw guys gonna act out soon? What will you do then?"

"Huh? I told you that I'm still thinking about it!", said Akio.

"I thought it's simple. We're the three strange outcasts that don't adjust to the society we live in. Might as well start over as soon as Ana is in the green," replied Leo.

"Your sister huh? Is she still not waking up?", Akio asked.

"No… It's a wonder she's even made it this far. If it weren't for the Calamity-/AE-System, she would have turned into a Demon and I would have lost control in battle. Thanks to Calamity, we have another shot at life!"

"What about Claw? Couldn't that potentially jeopardize your sister's recovery?"

"I don't think so. What about you? You've been looking for a chance to just dodge these duties, right?"

Akio was trying to steer away from the conversation but whenever he does attempt to do that, Reflecta and Leo would take the helm and steer right back towards his decision. Efforts to deflect from that topic were cut down by the two of them.

"Fine!", he yelled. "I think King is quite interesting and I wanna hang out with them… with you!"

"Oh? A proposal?", she snickered. "Well, well… Before that we'll have to check out these strange dream recruitments. Salvation lying somewhere in the US is something I at least wanna look into."

"Yeah… I also was gonna check them out but… you know… Ana and all that."

Their conversation went on as the three of them spent their time just talking about whatever they had on their minds. At last, they too would make it to the tower where the ten of them were supposed to unite under.

Before the rest had arrived on top of the tower, Gertrude and Hyperion discussed the first few drafts of their grand plan.

"I don't think that will work… Going on the defensive leaves this flag of ours vulnerable. We can't have that, right?"

"I know," said Hyperion. ",but if we can get towards them in time, there should be no problem. Chronos can stop time so we can just snatch it before they know about it!"

"We should probably wait until the others arrive, okay?", Gertrude advised. She had come out of her shell with Hyperion and felt rather comfortable around him which was rather surprising.

As they came to a close, the gang he had come here with arrived on top of the skyscraper. A long flight of stairs was the only way to get up meaning that it takes a while for anyone to make it up there. Franky and Emma rested by the doors as Liam went straight for Alpha.

"Did you have fun exploring?", Alpha asked.

"It was mostly just Sugar whining and ordering King around. The buildings also are completely empty except for occasional staircases."

The three of them decided to talk a little more about the exploration in this world wondering if there was something they could take advantage of.

The duo of Rythm and Melody finally reached them by using a spinning G-Clef the same way you would use rotor blades on a helicopter. Rather quickly, Emma reached out to them trying to figure out how they met each other. Neither would budge but the three of them would talk about fashion and cosplaying. Franky was left to brood on his own.

Finally, the veterans arrived. Before they could come together to discuss things, Akio and Franky headed down a couple flights of stairs to have a private conversation concerning the future.

"Me and Reflecta… We kinda want to join your merry little gang. I know it's weird but like… Can we? Please?", Akio asked.

"I don't really make those decisions but Alpha would likely just agree… Especially if you have some extra cash lying around since we're kinda tight on cash."

"Sure, sure… But you don't have any uptight Dream Catchers in your area, right?", he asked before deciding to head back up.

"Aqua-"

"Aqua?! I take it back! She's so duty-driven that she'd cause a genocide if ordered to! If a higher-up told her to kill herself, she'll likely do it! I can't deal with that!", Akio exclaimed. It seems as if him and Aqua are rather well-aquainted.

However, Franky didn't perceive her as strict as Akio made her out to be. "Are you sure? She was loud and a little stubborn but surprisingly understanding the last time we talked."

Akio was perplexed as he hadn't heard of Aqua ever being described as understanding. He left the conversation at that discontinuing it for now.

"We've been thinking this over and over again for the past hour but something just feels wrong. Our plan simply depends on them being naive and staying on the defensive until we take their flag," Alpha said.

"Say, what have you thought of so far?", asked Leo.

Franky and Akio were indifferent as they weren't known for planning ahead. Even Emma struggled to compete with Alpha and Gertrude as the two of them were rather advanced in their planning.

"We've thought of an all out battle by starting off with several shots at the scraper. Stopping time should allow us to fire just enough for a few shots to breach through. However, it would mean that me and Chronos have to at least get to the halfway point. Chronos himself won't be able to fire as he can't see as far as I can meaning that I'll have to deplete all of my magic. From then on, the two of us would have to escape on our own in stopped time. It would mean that the eight of you would then have to fight for yourself all on your own without guidance from someone that can gaze at them from afar."

"So we thought about me protecting the two of them for long enough that they recover their magic," Gertrude added. "But then I'd be dealing with protecting three people. What if three others appear and take me out? What if they defeat me while I'm supposed to be protecting them?"

"But that's why we have the ten of us right?", Leo said. "We don't have to go purely offensive to make for a quick decisive win. We simply need to make sure that we get the flag, right?"

Setting their eyes on another strategy, they decided to think about a fully defensive team. Gertrude would cover the entire building in vines to make it a lot harder to get to the top. Hidden within one of the vines, Leo would set them all on fire if necessary to collapse the building while Reflecta keeps an eye from them by using reflective surfaces as portals. Hyperion, Liam, and Emma would be a couple hundred meters away from the skyscraper sniping whoever gets too close. Melody, Rythm, and Akio would each be assigned one sniper they have to protect. Franky remains on top protecting the flag as Gertrude replenishes her magic while also acting as a protector of the flag.

"Then we'll never get the flag at all. Everyone's occupied with just defending themself and our base. They'll just keep coming back until they have the flag."

Franky and Akio were finally ready to chime in. Deciding that their input is worth something, Franky said, "Well we still have traps, right? Ten bomb fields to destroy our base sounds like a good plan, right?"

"We'll just have to be quick about it! They won't understand why we're letting our tower fall apart and a lot of time will simply be spent on them trying to recover our flag as they sift through rubble. Sure, we'll lose our respawn point but at least we'll have free reign over whatever we do," said Akio.

Though the others were rather perplexed by their proposition as it would simply leave them open, they decided that this was a worthy plan that had a few things they needed to work on.

Finally, they had everything worked out and knew how to deal with the other team. Alpha, Franky, Emma, Liam, Rythm, and Melody were moving forward to deal with capturing the flag. Melody and Rythm sped ahead trying to trigger any of the bomb fields. Knowing that the two of them won't be hurt by the explosives, the rest of them constantly stayed behind them covering in fear as soon as they entered the enemy half of this city.

"Sugar!", yelled Hyperion.

As he had told her earlier that she should cause as much collateral damage as possible to get their attention and make them panic, she created a bow and arrow out of flames. Burning bright and burning anyone near her, Emma stepped away from the others. Finally, she fired her first shot at the skyscraper. Just about ten kilometers away, she wasn't going for a specific target nor the destruction of the tower. While her eyes were perfectly fit for sniping, her abilities weren't. Condensing fire into an arrow already was a task she struggled with as she couldn't control the output that much. Her magical reserves also were massive. Instead of flying straight ahead, the arrow would splinter and explode. However, she has just enough control to let the splinters maintain form until they collide with something.

A bullet passed right over her as someone on top of the tower took their first shot. Colliding behind her it created a massive dent within the street they were walking on. Shortly after, something shredded the rubble within the crater. Taking this as a sign to hide behind another building as Rythm and Melody advance, they took a rest.

"Exactly as planned! The bullet's trajectory just screams a sniper sitting on top. I can barely see their silhouette!", stated Hyperion. "But we can't intercept them quite yet. We have to get closer if we want accurate shots!"

Rythm and Melody ran ahead at top speed as Franky and Alpha took off with Alpha's divine key. Quickly, they vanished within the chaotic battle field. Smoke, dust, and rubble prevented the enemy sniper from taking any more shots. Struggling to see her targets, she gave up on pursuing them.

Gertrude and Leo awaited enemies coming to get their flag. Hugging Gertrude from behind as he held her waist, he made sure that the moment they loose their footing, the two of them would safely take off and launch their counterattack.

"Are you ready?", Leo asked her as Gertrude tried to have some form of distance between the two of them.

Gertrude nodded as she remained beetred. Just as they had expected, someone entered one of the bomb zones. Since all of them were placed around the skyscraper and interconnected with each other, they all went off letting rubble, ash, and smoke rise and hail onto the enemy. The people responsible for triggering this attack were using a tunnel to reach the flag. However, those explosions alone weren't enough to take out the ones trying to claim their flag.

Gertrude, to make sure that none of them will pose a threat to them, created and dropped several vials full of golden or emerald green liquids. Exploding into massive vines and golden gas as soon as they come in contact with fire, they temporarily took out their targets. Knocking out and binding two enemies, the third one kept walking as he stared at the two in the air.

Meanwhile, Reflecta and Akio were out there spectating with binoculars. With the two of them travelling through mirrors, they made sure that everything went along smoothly. Though they couldn't get to Gertrude and Akio thanks to shattered glass in their vicinity only being big enough for one to take a peak with just one eye, they still could relay anything they deemed important. Telling the others that Gertrude and Leo are dealing with an opponent seemingly immune to the gasses and explosions their enemies have caused.

After long last, they finally get to take a little breather since everything still is going smoothly.

"You're not out of energy yet, are you?", Akio asked.

His partner sat down and exhaled, "It's fine. We'll simply have to make sure that I do not run out of magic while they deal with everything else."

"Can't we just go to the flag? The doors up there are made of stained glass, right?"

"I'll run out of energy. If several people happen to be up there, I'll not only have to deal with them as I lose the ability to escape, I'll also have no chance to respawn as our respawn pad is busted."

Akio still insisted on getting the two of them to the enemy base. The sun was setting where Leo and Gertrude are located meaning that Alpha and the others will have no issue with sniping while the enemies are heavily disadvantaged for now.

Sick of his insistence and knowing that he was doing this because she insisted earlier on finding out what Akio wants to do with his life, she caved and decided to take a glance at the skyscraper. Within she could spot five people within the building and two on top. A female sniper and a brawny man acting as a guardian were protecting the flag. The respawn pad sat within a corner surrounded by two hooded guards. Spotting Reflecta, Akio acted quickly by summoning a katana and throwing it at them. Before it could explode, Reflecta severed the connection between the glass panes.

Alpha and Franky spotted the explosion stemming from within the enemy skyscraper. Since they have been observing it for a couple minutes, they could rule out that the explosion came from within the tower. With Akio's and Reflecta's abilities known to them, Alpha could tell who was responsible.

"I'm guessing that Akio took out their respawn pad. At least we won't have to worry about them coming back perfectly fine when killed. But… What if they decided to destroy their base to bury their flag now that they believe that someone is in there?", said Hyperion. While this did come with an advantage, it also came with disadvantages.

"It's fine. We can fly right up as soon as Emma provides more chaos as a smokescreen."

Emma kept firing at the tower while trying to avoid shots herself. Since it takes a few seconds for the sniper to get her own chance at taking out Emma, Emma has enough time to charge shot, fire, and get out of the sniper's view.

"We should wait until Reflecta reports back to us. Let's stay here and hold out, okay?"

Melody and Rythm went into hiding as they had done their duty. Simply keeping to themself they were wondering how much longer it will take for the others to act. With their second duty simply being the protectors of Liam and Emma as soon as they move into position, they were getting ready to split up.

"Should we move into position already or just wait until they get there?", Melody asked.

"Obviously we should get there before they do… They can't be alone as they are supposed to be the ones taking out the lone sniper and reclaim the flag," Rythm replied.

Sitting back to back, the two were relaxing as they looked up at the sky.