Morning soon arrived over Gardard, as everyone started to get up from their living quarters and head towards the kitchen to receive breakfast. Luna helped Lina into making a full course breakfast while Tiki helped herself with a glass of milk and cookies, being convinced to stay away from the kitchen by Enemy, who was told everything about Tiki's kitchen mastery by Yuno. Yuno simply ate an apple while sitting on the counter, taking advantage of his small size and Enemy ate some leftovers.

"So...where's the meatbag?", Tiki wondered.

"Go search for him if you wish, I just woke up and I ain't moving until I finish with this.", Enemy scratched her head, trying to straighten her awfully puffed hair.

"Yeah, I can tell. Your hair betrays waking up.", Yuno said.

"You're absolutely lucky there's a kid in the room, otherwise I'd fu-", Enemy cleaned her throat, "Mess you up.", she corrected herself, menacingly looking at Yuno.

"Please avoid using foul language while in the presence of a minor. Especially when that minor is my little sister.", Luna said.

"Don't worry big sis, I know a lot of those words! Miss Tiki says them all the time, so they're easy to memorize!", Lina happily and ignorantly said.

Everyone took a dead straight look at Tiki, obviously signaling her to apologize for messing up.

"Look, can we start this whole debacle at, like, 10? It's 9 in the morning.", Tiki said back.

"Wait, you know what the word 'debacle' means? What the hell?", Yuno said in surprise.

"Yes, I do, because if you really think I'm as one-dimensional as I look, spoiler alert, I'm not. But for someone stuck up between sticks for his entire life, I'd have no issue believing your social interaction skills are as a total zero."

Enemy was surprised as well, "Constructive criticism? From you? What the hell?"

"Oh my fuc-you know what, if you guys are about to turn it to shit like this, I'm taking my breakfast to that balcony area.", Tiki angrily said, rubbing her forehead and trying to wake up.

"Ok, ok, relax. Don't take it that personally.", Yuno calmed her down.

"I suggest that you finish your cookies and milk before committing to other actions.", Luna adviced her.

"Yes, I will.", Tiki started angrily eating her breakfast, "And where's the diva?"

"I think I saw her sitting with mister Dante in the kitchen last night when I woke up to use the bathroom. They looked like they were serious about something...", Lina said.

"So basically-", Enemy was stopped by Dante entering the room.

As everyone's eyes fixated on Dante, he simply walked up to the counter and readied his usual breakfast of cereal with milk, placing everything he needed on his seat on the table. He then readied a big beer glass with a ton of coffee and milk while adding a massive amount of sugar in it and placed it next to his bowl. He then forcefully dragged himself onto his seat, struggling to stay awake.

"Wow...you look like shit. Did you even sleep at all to prepare this giant thing with coffee.", Enemy said to him.

"No sleep.", Dante yawned.

"I mean, he looks worse than Enemy's hair.", Yuno said.

"Really does.", Tiki drank her milk, sneakily trying to shift the subject from her to Dante.

Dante then proceeded to poor milk in the bowl he said before him, not minding everyone's words against him. He finished by preparing his breakfast, pouring his cereal into the bowl. Everyone froze as they looked at Dante with a fearful look, him not realizing what he had just done. He couldn't take a bite before realizing that others were looking at him with that one scared look he, too, was afraid to be looked at.

"This is...not right.", Luna broke the silence.

"My god...meatbag, what the actual hell are you doing?!", Tiki looked at him dead in the eyes.

"You god damn monster.", Enemy said, also frightened by the sight she just witnessed.

It took but Dante a few seconds to realize exactly what he had just done, before he also gazed at his sin.

"No...no way...", he sadly said.

He had done what he should've never done in his life. Because of fatigue alone, it was an unfixable mistake. He poured his cereal over the milk. He had created milk with cereal before everyone's eyes. He promptly threw the bowl away into the sink, as he then proceeded to chug on the box of cereal, after which he downed his entire coffee in one go. He had successfully averted a crisis of major magnitude, everyone starting to relax after it was all over. To his favor, the rush of adrenaline from the shock of the vile act and the caffeine woke him up completely, getting rid of a long nights restless anxiety.

"No one say a god damn word. You know it was a mistake, so we will keep it at that.", he looked around.

"Agreed.", everyone said.

And so it was that they silenced themselves on the matter almost immediately, then deciding to carry on with their day as usual.

"So...what exactly happened between you and Terna last night?", Enemy asked.

"Hmm? How do you know?", Dante wondered.

"Lina saw you two last night.", Tiki answered him.

"Conveniently placed, wasn't she?", he mumbled, "Nothing. She just couldn't sleep and decided to start throwing random memories back at me."

"So was she looking for small talk or did she have the 'I'm going to change the world' thought in the middle of the night?", Tiki asked after she finished her breakfast.

"Ask her when she's back. Probably out on a long walk.", Dante shrugged Tiki's commend off.

Just then, Drima and Magi entered the room, looking around and grabbing a quick breakfast of their own, before standing in front of them at the door.

"Good morning everyone, I hope the living quarters served you well yesterday. I'm not used to visitors, so they're quite bland, but you can probably personalize them to your liking if you find the time.", Drima announced.

"No problems mister Drima! Everyone is a-ok and ready to go!", Luna happily answered.

"That's good, because we have a really long day ahead of us. As compensation, tomorrow can be a free day if you like, since the operation we talked about will apparently commence in two days. Plenty of time to get our shit together and practice. However, overworking you two days in a row sounded bad in my ears so I convinced Dr. B over here to let you off with one day. Think of it as a workout, one day work, one day rest.", Magi said.

"Doctor B? But wait...shouldn't mister Drima be Doctor D for his initial?", Lina wondered.

Magi chuckled as Drima blushed, "Nah kiddo, it stands for 'Doctor BDS-"

Before Magi could finish her sentence, Luna performed a flawless smack down on her, preventing her from finishing her words.

"Crisis averted.", Luna acknowledged while pinning Magi down.

"Wait, if big sis attacked, does that mean training starts now?!", Lina excitedly said.

"No.", everyone reluctantly answered her, fearing for another devastating performance from Lina.

"And I don't think I'll be doing any test runs with you, Lina. It's a little bit of an adult thing we need to do. Because of that, I going to have to ask of you to stay back and watch for this time and if you're really good, who knows, I might scale it down for you in the future, who knows.", Drima hinted.

"Alright, thank you mister Drima!", she excitedly said.

"Hmm.", he nodded back at her, "Now, let's get to the point. Today's training will be conducted for two reasons. One, being so that I can study up close how your powers work to their core. I will basically allow you to freestyle any combative maneuvers and abilities, to see exactly where you stand. Based on it, I'll be more than capable of creating even specified MODs for you in the future. As of now, the only ones who will be wearing MODs are Tiki, who got it under no one's supervision and Dante who's MOD I worked on for years on end leading up until this point. Luna and Lina, however, I've got something special for you. Specified clothing catered towards your preferences, so you will be able to get rid of the lab subject rags you're wearing right now and for Luna specifically, a new weapon. A scythe, as I've obviously seen you use and carry around, but both stronger, conductive and more discrete, in case you find yourself in special circumstances. As for 'Enemy'...nothing. I am at a loss for who or how I should invest resources into, since there doesn't seem to be a specifically predominant self. You and Hikari hold equal terms as it looks like, if one of you isn't severely injured and in need of the other taking over, that is."

"I understand, it's not like we fully know everything behind this either. So long as we survive, nothing really changes.", Enemy acknowledged.

"Alright then, that being said, I want Dante, Luna and Lina to head towards the changing rooms to receive what I made for them. The rest of you, come along with us to the training area."

As they nodded in affirmation and heading to the areas they were directed at, Drima took the lead and headed out first to make the final preparations needed. In the changing rooms, Dante was guided to his booth by a couple of maid bots, while Luna and Lina were treated the same to a separate area. As soon as Dante entered his booth, he gazed at a casemate with items prepared exclusively for him. Entirely new clothing consisting of his usual style, with black cargo pants, boots and a slick pair of gloves. Additionally, he saw two major things next to his clothing. A massive casing with a sizable edge to it, obviously crafted for his giant sword and a smaller blade sitting next to them both. He didn't know what the other edge was for, but then calmly proceeded to changing his outfit to the one given to him. He then took down the casing from the wall and looked at it for a brief second.

"So, are we going to go on with this idea?", Mellistar appeared behind him in his legless armor form.

"Not like we have any other choice. Give me the sword."

Mellistar obliged as he summoned and gave Dante his blade, as he brought them close to each other.

"I really did think you were...going the other route.", Mellistar worryingly said.

"Hmph. Even simple minded 20 year olds have more brains than you all think, right? I could go down several different routes, but since I don't know which one yet, I'll just go along with it. So long as I can find answers behind how exactly the world works with the people in it, my intrigue will be there. I just hope we can reach that point fast.", he sighed.

As Dante pressed his sword inside the massive case, a small zap of red lighting surfaced from inside, almost as if it was pushing the air out of it. A few metal parts then appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, before clinging themselves onto the case, finalizing its designed purpose.

"Can you morph this in and out of reality too?", Dante asked Mellistar.

"Let's try with both blades."

Mellistar successfully managed to morph both blades in and out of reality, showing that the equipment was truly one of a kind towards Dante.

"Alright, good. That means I won't have problems while fighting.", Dante grabbed the big sword case, "There seems to be a pocked for the smaller one here too. Nice...and the last thing is this. A gun?", he awkwardly looked at the pistol.

"Any form of ranged combat is nice. Your lack of experience with firearms shouldn't be that big of an issue, it's a simple pistol."

Dante picked up the pistol and put it in its case next to his hip, "Whatever. Let's just get on with it."

When Dante exited the changing booth, he met back up with Luna and Lina. Having gotten rid of her old weapon, Luna had changed into a more urban style that didn't betray at all what her background was like, and Lina was the same with a bit of a twist. Long gloves were worn on her hands, almost as if she wore gauntlets. Luna was instead holding on to a weirdly short holster that had a small blade looking item in it.

"Fancy the new style. But about Lina...", Dante looked at Lina.

"Doctor Drima insisted via a message given to the maid bots that Lina does not forcefully exclude herself from using standard Obsulyte weapons and abilities, as that will only damage her future combative and living standards. He convinced me to allow her to wear these as a form of both limiters and weapons.", Luna explained.

"So there is a catch to this gears. The act as conductive equipment and limiters? Interesting.", Dante wondered.

Lina jumped in front of them, "You two are so slow, I'm off! I've gotta go to the training area and maybe even convince mister Drima to give me a session like yours!"

Lina excitedly ran off to the training area, leaving behind Dante and Luna. This time around, Luna didn't try to make a stopping effort to her little sisters excited running away, something that surprised Dante.

"You're not gonna stop her before she goes haywire again?"

"Negative. I see no reason in stopping her while she remains under a controlled environment. Additionally, I have decided to lessen my restraints on her."

The two started walking towards the training area together.

"Why the sudden change of heart? It's a bit too much if you ask me."

"It would appear as if my reasoning for Lina's restraint relaxation is abnormal. However, after witnessing my little sister in what I haven't ever since I could remember. Normal clothing."

"Wait, really? That's the reason behind it?"

"Dante, it would appear as if you yourself cannot find meaning behind my actions, but I will have to sincerely ask a question. Since you are aware of my past with Lina, the situation that devolved into children experimentation and the eventual passing of them precisely because of the aforementioned subject...what do you see us as?"

"What?", Dante curiously asked, being caught off guard.

"It is a simple question with a complicated answer, but I have to really know. I am fully aware that while Lina can be easily passed as normal that I personally will never do because of my inability to properly process emotions and my thorough surgical procedures that eventually caused the way I'm currently speaking. I was looking to get an answer to further understand more things about humanity's outlook on us, as I cannot bring myself to give a proper answer to this subject, without the assistance of third parties."

"It's a tough question to answer for sure but...why chose me all of a sudden? You realize that I'm not in the best place right now either, right? My answer could be clouded or worse yet completely out of touch with what I'd normally say."

"Despite monitoring your mental state, which has gotten progressively better since yesterday's events, I am still abundantly curious about an answer, even if clouded. You are the perfect subject chosen because of my acknowledgement of your past and vise versa, your acknowledgment of our past. I chose to follow and bring my sister along with you all because you seemed like a party of people capable of sharing affection, unlike the assassins sent after us that I had to fend off. Not only that, but a personal connection was then made with you by my sister, which further inclined me to follow, as to avoid hurting her emotionally. So what do you see us as?"

Dante gathered his thoughts, "People. Good people. I can empathize in the sense that what happened to you was definitely not deserved as it did with me, to an extend. To me, humanity's answer towards you would be that you are a good, caring older sister and a clueless and innocent little sister. Now, that's good to an extent, because I can see very easily that you're way too over protective of Lina. You raised her within a bubble and it really shows, however, you can't be blamed for it again. If ever again you can feel emotions and process them the way we do...talk to her. Not for actual life lessons or training tips, but just simply tell her that you love her and all that. Really helps, you know. But again, don't go around thinking that my answer is the definitive one. Different perspectives born out of different people can vary heavily, and humans, animal or non animal hybrids, are weird. I can admit to that since I tried to avoid most of everyone before they injected themselves into my life...something which I still don't know if I'm regretting or be happy about. Generally speaking, if they find out you're different in any way, prepare to be ostracized. No one will ever really care for your feelings the way we will, or understand you have any in the first place. Beware that not everyone will be willing to help you...quite the opposite. Most people will turn a blind eye and ignore you for not wanting to get involved or join the majority. "

"That is something which I cannot understand. Why would humans attack another human or ostracize them if they are not heavily afflicted with an illness. You are the same, no?"

"I sometimes wish I could be wholly mechanical to be honest...most of the things I tell you are personal experiences. Hell, I'm not normal, like any of us here. I were to say who's the most normal out of all of us, Anya would take the cake, despite her furry transformation. She drinks, laughs and ignores most negativity. She acts like society would expect as to normally act in "our age". I really do wish that sometimes, we could all look a little more like her."

"It would appear as if there is a fundamental flaw to your logic. Sorry for the rude interruption.", Luna said.

"No, go on. Conversations with a little bit of meaning behind them rather than idle chit-chat interest me. I'll accept your take on the matter if you do mine."

"Thank you. What I intended on pointing out is the need for you to obtain characteristic traits of others. It comes across as nonsensical to me."

"It's called "looking up to something". Now wether you want to copy paste yourself from your heroes to you, that's a thing you'll have to eventually find out, but getting certain traits from them ain't half bad either. Considering, of course, who that "hero" you're looking up to is."

"So is Anya your "hero" in that sense?"

Dante chuckled briefly, "Hell no. Why would I want to be piss drunk behind a wheel with a mind that only hunts adrenaline and dungeons?"

"It would appear as if you are talking with general disgust about Anya. Why would you hate her but also want to inherit her traits?"

"I don't hate her!", Dante angrily answered, "I just...it's complicated to explain. If only I could have one of shitty traits then we could probably find some middle ground."

"Then...if Anya is considered a normality upon others but not you specifically, judging off the way you are speaking, why are you almost desperate to inherit a characteristic you like attached to her, but not on yourself, to attain normality based on a general opinion that doesn't fit your thinking in the first place?"

Dante looked at Luna briefly, stuck in his mind as he thought about everything 10 times over a million times before finally answer her back.

"I...I don't know.", he tried his best to find an answer but failed, getting stuck on Luna's bland but truthful words, "Anyway, we're here. Let's get on with the training session. Drima said I'm first so I'll head in there."

"Understood. I will be joining the others upstairs so good luck on your training session."

As Dante and Luna went their separate ways, he was greeted with a massive, white, empty room with nothing in it, other than the lights at the top and an observation window at the wall in front of him.

"Hello, can you hear me?", Drima spoke through the speakers.

"Yes, it's working. Now what do you need from this?"

"Alright, good. I need to further collect data to properly categorize everything with live examples. The area you're standing in right now is entirely engulfed with what I like to call "Imaginary Drives". I will brief you on this later, but what you need to know is that this will create a fake reality that you can stand inside and train in by causing a temporary rift between our world and the Imaginary Space. Not to worry, as I have a big red button that will instantly cause the reality created to break by cutting power for a split second, causing it to fall apart. Even if something goes wrong, there's always that option. What I need you to do is take down any practice target however you like. If possible, I'd like you to use more and more power as you go on so that I can progressively see how exactly this will affect everything you do as well as your physical and mental state.", Drima thoroughly explained.

"Basically, monster spawns in front of you, kill monster, we happy.", Tiki more simply said.

"Sounds good. Let's go then."

"Do your best Dante!", Lina encouraged him.

As soon as Drima activated the cores, reality around Dante started to bend and shift, eventually settling and solidifying exactly where Enemy described. Flying metal parts and cubes along with energy waves were all around, engulfing him and the world around him.

"Are you guys still here?", Dante asked.

"We're right here kiddo. Think of the entire place as a box with four walls. We ain't going anywhere, but you can go anywhere. It's science stuff so, just roll with it!", Magi said.

"I'll just do what I have to do.", Dante prepared himself.

A bunch of Enmities and Shadowers appeared before him, all rearing and ready to attack him at a moments notice.

"Remember this, through my studies. Enmities are the opposite of Shadowers. They need energy to survive and possess a physical body while Shadowers are hunting physical bodies while being pure masses of energy.", Drima told him.

"Doesn't matter, they all die the same anyway. So how do I kill them? Small sword or big ass sword?"

"When you unsheathed your blade in Dirunon, a massive surge of energy burst flew by that miraculously just missed Anya and Magi. That energy blast completely eradicated all form of life that couldn't withstand it and severely destroyed all its surroundings. That was the beginning of your burst state, so I highly encourage you to start with the small sword first. The big sword is currently concealed within your case and unable to help you obtain any form of mass energy surge, but you can still use the case. It's sharp end, handle up top and everything we're specifically design so that it can be used as a weapon without the need of being unsheathed. There's a little edge part at its base too, which can be used to trap sharp objects and launch counterattacks by drawing the actual blade. Your and every MOD consists of semi casual wear that I tweaked with nano machines that limit your Obsulyte abilities while simultaneously feeding off them like Mellistar does. They are like cells, reproducing their own kind via obtaining your energy and die off when you decide to lift the limiters off and enter that burst state. Special care has been put into your boots and gloves, since that's how everything disperses most Obsulyte and normal energy, from their limbs. That's all I have to tell you, now training starts.", Drima quieted down and instructed the rest of them to do the same, giving Dante maximum focus on the task at hand.

"Sounds simple enough. I'll take them on."

The monsters then, as if they were released from a cage, all started to run directly at Dante, signifying the start of the training session.

"Heya!", Dante landed a wide forward slash with his sword case and moved forwards, delivering a massive X slash that decimated all enemies it came into contact with.

More and more monsters started to appear from left and right, all heading directly at Dante.

"Alright, time for you to do something other than watching.", he called upon Mellistar.

"Ain't it my pleasure.", Mellistar appeared above Dante's head, holding his own massive sword at hand.

"Now!", Dante pinned his small sword to the ground, and grabbed onto the big one, delivering a combo slash around him with Mellistar following along his movements and covering him from behind, "How about I switch it up, this thing is a different blade altogether.", Dante reset his position, now holding the smaller blade with a reverse grip and the big one next to him as if it was a mere feather.

More monsters came in again, this time directly in front of him.

"Heh.", he exhaled quickly as he delivered slashes in front of him, not letting a single monster get away.

A big monster then came along with the rest, this one jumping above all of them and aiming directly at Dante.

"That fast, huh?"

Dante sheathed his small sword in the case, reverse gripping the big blade and lifting his other hand up. Mellistar, following his hands movement, came directly bellow the large monster as if was in mid air and penetrated its stomach with its giant sword, merely held by one hand. He then violently slammed the monster back to the ground, crushing the floor beneath it and splattering what appeared to be black blood around. Dante followed up by delivering a slash in a wide area before unsheathing his small sword and correcting the grip on his big one, directly diving between enemy lines before sheathing the smaller sword again and vaulting upwards, big sword with reverse grip again, directly slamming the case onto the monsters head, crushing it and killing it instantly. Proceeding with his built up rhythm, he then widened his stance, grabbing onto his big sword and preparing himself. He unleashed the blade, with a massive slash covering the entire area in his front and back, this time instantly unleashing its energy and exploding on contact, obliterating all his enemies at once. He then promptly sheathed his blade back and relaxed his stance.

"If possible, I'd like to try a few ranged ones. I have no issue with close combat, but I want to be prepared.", Dante requested.

Answering his wishes, Drima proceeded to give him ranged mech enemies forcefully formed by the metallic parts floating around in the pseudo Imaginary Space. The mechs, widening their stance, lifted their guns up and aimed them directly at Dante.

"Holy shit, that was fast.", Dante was surprised by the speed it all happened.

Before he could say another word, one of the mechs fired a massive laser blast directly at him, followed by the other once. The laser beams directly hit Dante. A loud metal clashing sound was then echoed throughout the battlefield. Seemingly disappearing for an instant, Dante unsheathed his big sword and drove himself directly into the backlines, delivering a swift and extremely powerful slash to all of them and destroying them on the spot, before seemingly appearing out of nowhere, back to his original position, both blade sheathed. He proceeded to draw the small blade again and reverse grip it.

"I can totally get behind this. The gears feel appropriate and the weight of everything is decently balanced. So are we done? I'm not planning on using my burst state in here."

"As you wish then, I got a decent enough data count from this. Next up will be Tiki, so I'll have to ask of you to switch places."

Drima turned off the simulation as Tiki exited from a nearby elevator, coming in the center to switch places with Dante.

"Not bad, meatbag. But I guess I should really show you how it's done.", Tiki said.

Dante pulled up close to Tiki, "Your arm ok?", he whispered.

"Dude, don't worry, it's good. If you're gonna overthink this one two then I'll have to kick your ass back into common sense.", Tiki whispered back.

The two of them switched sides as Dante went back up into the observation area with everyone else, leaving Tiki behind to start her own training session.

"That. Was. Awesome! You were amazing Dante!", Lina happily said.

"Indeed. The part of you momentarily unsheathing your blade to avoid entering your burst state but delivering such devastating blows is quite the smart way to get around things.", Drima said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever honestly. I'll just hit the sack right now. I haven't slept all night and I had to go through this, so don't wake me up until precisely 8 hours have passed.", Dante yawned as he dismissed his performance.

He quickly exited the room and started to head back into the living quarters, leaving behind everyone at a sort of surprised and saddened state.

"His reaction to an outstanding performance is incomprehensible. Why did he not rejoice his final grading?", Luna wondered.

"He's Cecilia's son. Modesty is something that they run on.", Magi sighed.

"That, and the fact that he's a total perfectionist. What sad existence. Having your only strive being perfection you know you ain't or are going to be.", Enemy scoffed, "That being said, I don't think I'll perform this training test today. I'll go back to the living quarters as well until I make sure that Hikari is 100% back in action before I attempt to use any of my abilities.", she left the room as well.

"I swear, we need counseling more than we need training with these kids. I mean, sure, they are all good but the chemistry here is...rough.", Magi sighed.

"I will disagree. I see something deeper existing between me and everyone.", Luna said.

"If big says a thing, then it's gotta be true! And as the Morale Manager of the team, I will make sure that everyone stays at peak performance!", Lina saluted them all.

"I'm sure you will. Now, let's get on with Tiki, shall we?"

Drima turned the simulation back on, Tiki now standing in the middle of the same area Dante did.

“Actually…stop it. I’ve got a little bit of an idea. Luna, care to join me?”, Tiki provocatively said.

“Wait, you want a dual training session with Luna?”, Drima asked.

“No, I want my training session to be with Luna. She owes me a run back, so might as well go ahead and do it? Your data can be collected either way, correct?”

“I guess so…Luna, are you willing to go ahead and do it?”, Drima asked Luna.

“If you are capable of collective the previously requested combat data from this duel, the I am highly interested in participating in it.”, Luna agreed.

“Alright then, I have no objections, you can both go ahead. The simulation will still remain, however, as it will allow you to wreck the environment around you without me having to actively pay damage bills for it.”

“Aww hell yeah then! Let’s go!”, Tiki happily said, pinning her long axe down and folding her arms in anticipation of Luna arriving.

Drima then waited as Luna got back down and out of the elevator, entering the simulation area once again as it was turned on by Drima. She got across from Tiki’s path and looked directly at her, calmly preparing herself for the duel.

“I sure do hope your excitement for this matches mine, “Sairi”, because I’m not holding back!”, Tiki picked up her axe and took on her combat position.

“I shall do the same, as I refuse to let you or myself win without using all my abilities to their fullest extend.”

Luna then reached on her side and grabbed the sharp metal blade that was given to her by Drima’s maid bots back at the changing booth. The handle and the blade seemed to instantly detach as the handle then proceeded to extend itself alongside the blade, reaching Luna’s height and surpassing it by a few centimeters. It was then obvious as to what the weapon was originally created to be. A portable and very easily to activate scythe, quality and utility much higher than the one she was forced to use before.

“Man, I’d be jealous if I didn’t already receive my present for this year. Thing looks pretty badass…hope I can apply it to this big ass thing, portability is everything nowadays, unless you wanna look like a lunatic with weapons going down the street.”, Tiki commented on Luna’s weapon in her own way.

“Indeed. I am most satisfied with the results of this weapon. The clothing seem to also be very adaptable and easy to maneuver in. My combat experience can only increase in favorability rather than be hindered.”, Luna said.

“All MODs are practically made to be bulletproof, flame proof, and all round indestructible while providing no hinderance to the user in any capacity. It takes a ton of work to get all of them going, but I think it’ll eventually pay off. Remember that the things you’re wearing are no jokes, they’re as much a weapon as the thing you use to stab with. The only reason I made it so easily accessible for you all is because we need a direct edge over everything else, and it will act as both training wheels until you all get a perfect understanding of what you’re capable of and when you do, it will act as an overwhelmingly powerful distributor to increase your combat capabilities. Now, let’s not procrastinate any longer, I also need to process this data when you’re all done.”, Drima directed them.

“Fine by me! Ready?”, Tiki said.

“Let’s engage.”, Luna took her own battle stance.

“Let’s go!”, Tiki jumped right at Luna.

Tiki took a wide swing of her axe right in front of Luna’s face, her avoiding it just in time and launching a counter swing at the front. Tiki then jumped over her counter attack and proceeded to take on the position for a plunging attack. Luna smartly kept her forward momentum, dashing forwards to avoid the hit. As soon as Tiki’s axe connected with the ground, Luna used the opportunity and took full advantage of the window given to her and took another upward swing at Tiki. Her attack now connecting, she dashed forwards again to set off her combo attack by slashing Tiki on her back, before smacking her down with the flat side of her scythe and slashing her once more, sending her flying backwards. Tiki, still holding onto her weapon, crashed on one of the floating cubes around the area, then dropping down to the ground as she kneeled, trying to take in all the damage inflicted on her.

“Damn…”, she struggled a bit, “Never easier.”, she got back up again, “Now let’s really set this off!”

Tiki slammed her axe onto the ground with the full extend of her strength. The ground shook as it cracked along its surface, causing a huge earthquake in the surrounding area. Amidst the chaos she had created, Tiki dashed right back in front of Luna, delivering a massive and wide forward slash, cutting down two cylinder pillars that formed around her. Luna managed to barely avoid the attack by dashing backwards, however, this time, Tiki took one step forward and delivered another massive and powerful slash, that attack managing to connect directly with Luna’s body. Stuttering from Tiki’s immeasurable and enhanced strength, Luna was sent flying back as well, crashing through a wall am being dragged across the floor by the built up momentum. She flipped herself around and smacked the ground with her scythe, pinning the blade underneath in and being dragged along the floor with before eventually coming into a stop. She calmly looked around the area, trying to locate Tiki but failing to do so. As she lowered her eyes back down to take a breath, she realized that her shadow was getting bigger and bigger. She jolted back up as she gazed and a Tiki from above, coming down at full speed.

“Take this!”, Tiki yelled.

Barely being able to bring her scythe in front of her to block the hit, the cracked ground bellow Luna’s feet failed to hold on to the massive force applied, being completely destroyed and sending both of them to a free fall.

“This ain’t gonna stop me! Hyah!”, Tiki kept attacking Luna mid air.

“I must answer accordingly.”

In a pinch, Luna seemed to boost herself forward from some falling parts of the ground, managing to strike Tiki straight through. Before she could make another move, she felt a firm grasp on her back. Tiki had successfully endured the hit and powered through to launch a counterattack of her own. She twirled around tossed Luna in front of her, falling down, before kicking her in the stomach and raising her massive axe above head again, both of them heading for another lower floor. Luna crashed onto the ground first, before managing to somehow react fast enough to bring her scythe in front of her again, somewhat mitigating the damage that was about to be inflicted on her. Tiki, coming from above, directly clashed on top of Luna. In a massive cracking of the floor beneath them both, the entire area shattered to bits as wind kicked up. The floor crushed again and they were both sent into free fall once more. The 3rd lower floor they crashed two, they were harshly separated when they crashed on the ground, then gasping for air as they both kneeled and tried to recover.

“No…bad…”, Tiki grunted.

“Agreed.”, Luna kept her composure.

They both then got off the ground and resumed their battle stances.

“So…care to go down for once? I really don’t want to do some irreversible damage to your tin-can ass.”, Tiki slammed her axe down.

“I would suggest you bring it on.”, Luna provoked her.

“Heheh. So be it.”

Tiki widened her stance as she gathered all her energy around her, entering her enhanced state.

“This will get interesting.”, Luna sighed.

“You bet your ass it will!”, Tiki said with a smug all over her face.

Tiki dashed forward once again, Luna deciding to block her attack instead of evading this time. As she appeared in front of her, Tiki slammed her foot down before stopping her mad rush, crushing the ground bellow it and pinning it on the ground. She then delivered a devastating upward slash with her axe, breaking Luna’s defenses completely, before slamming her axe back down, taking Luna along with it. As Luna bounced back from the sheer force of the downward impact, Tiki followed up with 3 powerful slashes directly on her body, before finishing up with a swing of her axe so strong, that she put her whole body behind the entire move from start to finish. Luna was sent flying beyond the speed of sound, out of the ground area they were standing at, shattering multiple objects as she went along the way. Fearing for the worst, Drima then promptly decided to end the simulation on his own accord. As if they were dragged back together, Luna then appeared at the exact same distance the simulation had started away from Tiki, completely unconscious from the powerful hits she endured. Tiki, exiting her enhanced state looked at an unconscious Luna, but kept her composure. She walked up to her and kneeled before her.

“Don’t touch her! I see vital signs very vibrant from here, I’m coming down to check on her!”

“Relax, nerd. Hey. Hey Luna. Wake up, this moron thinks you’re drying or something. Hey…hey!”, Tiki yelled.

Before Drima could say another word, Tiki slapped Luna in the face, before she herself received Luna’s punch in the face from her reflexes kicking back in.

“Ow, son of a bitch.”, Tiki rubbed her jaw.

“It would appear as if I lost consciousness during or after the match was concluded. I must admit defeat.”, Luna calmly said.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! Are you trying to kill her?!”, Drima angrily said.

“Nope, no way! Tiki loves my big sister, she would never do that! They are great rivals, like in the movies, they need each other!”, Lina bravely said.

“That, we do, kiddo.”, Tiki chuckled a bit, “Hope that didn’t cause you permanent brain damage. Though if it did, you wouldn’t be talking like a virtual assistant, would you?”, Tiki extended her arm for Luna.

“I suppose that your assumption can be counted as correct, given the circumstances.”, Luna grabbed Tiki’s arm and lifted herself back up, “I hope you enjoyed the rematch requested. I shall practice my abilities harder and train so that I can further provide a more satisfying experience for you to enjoy in the future.”

“I sure hope so. We’re one for one. If there’s anything I hate more than people pointing out my tail, it’s definitely draws. We’ve gotta find a conclusion to who’s the absolute best someday.”

“I am sure that the result will eventually boil down to a satisfactory end for both parties if we give it the best of our abilities.”

Tiki then put Luna’s arm above her head and carried her over to the elevator, going up to meet up with everyone else that was left.

“Ok, that was a good show. Great job to both of you, kids. Been awhile since I’ve seen a match such as this one.”, Magi congratulated them.

“Thank you for your applause. We will expand on it to keep you satisfied.”, Luna answered.

“Big sis, although you lost, that was amazing! Can you teach me to do that someday?! Please?!”, Lina begged Luna.

“Maybe someday, both me and your sister can teach you a thing or two. For now, how about you let her relax instead? She’s gotten through enough hell facing me for one day, that’s for sure.”, Tiki calmed Lina down.

“Wait, both of you…teaching me?! That sounds amazing! Can we please do that tomorrow?!”, Lina got even more excited.

“How about a few years…come on now, let’s get you out to play with the scared guards again. Everyone needs a little bit of a rest for now.”, Magi guided Lina outside.

“Alright! Maybe we can spar too! I wanna do some training and become the very best!”

“Please no, I’m going to be in serious trouble and debt afterwards…”, Drima worryingly said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep her in check. Now come on, let’s go kiddo.”

As Magi took Lina outside of the room, Drima looked back at both Tiki and Lina as they both crashed on the sofa.

“What the hell were you thinking, that was way too overboard!”, Drima yelled.

“Relax, we both got our sweat in and did the training. Did you not manage to collect enough data with that? Hell, considering how easily meatbag was able to cut through those enemies as if they were made by butter, this is 100 times better. Longer battles and more aggressive ones for you to get her data on higher power moves and abilities.”, Tiki said.

“I have to agree with Tiki. Her statement and training suggestion were both logical and accurate, taking into consideration the interest of multiple parties at once and managing to give them all exactly what was promised to be delivered. You have obtained your training data as per request, Tiki has obtained her rematch request and is satisfied with the results of her victory and I got to fight a powerful opponent again to better learn and adapt to the physical capabilities of my body.”

“The reason I’m yelling for is not because of the fact that you did what you did. It’s because you both went extremely overboard for unnecessary reasons!”

“I disagree. No chance in hell I’d wanna fight Luna if she was forced to drive throughout the entire fight with a made up limitation that you enforced on us. Plus, you wouldn’t have gotten what you did were it not for that in the first place, so stop bitching about it.”

Drima sighed, “I just wish that you understood the concepts of training a little better.”

“The concepts of said situations are forced into constantly shifting based on who is and how they chose to fight.”, Luna added.

“Whatever…I got what I needed and you did the same, so I’ll end it in that. I am at least happy to see that the gears I provided work 100% as intended and no malfunctions or anything happened. They are perfectly functional through and through. However, while I got what I expected from Tiki, Luna’s results were quite the interesting ones. Tiki, mind leaving us alone for a bit? You know where the medical bay is at, if you need anything you can grab it from there. I’d like to speak with Luna directly.”

Tiki was weirded out, “Uh…sure? I don’t have any objections, but that’s a little bit out of the blue. Anyway, don’t forget to drop by later for some lunch. I’ll be healing up and heading there after. Hope someone took the initiative and cooked because I really am not in the mood to touch the kitchen today.”, Tiki got angry as she reminded herself of what happened that morning.

“The maid bots should’ve already handled that. You’re fine and ready to go.”

As Tiki nodded and exited the room, Drima took a grim look at Luna, almost as if he was afraid of her or for her. Whichever it was, she was struggling to process.

“So…Luna.”, Drima sat at a chair in front of her, “Any chance that you had something from you removed while undergoing that surgical process that gave you a part machine body?”

“Affirmative. Multiple things were tweaked so that the human dominant side could not interfere with the mechanical side. Pain receptors were artificially blocked to not derail from the mission while attempting it and emotion elevating chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin were completely eradicated and blocked from ever been produced by every subjects brain. Certain subjects, younger such as Lina, were deemed unable to be put through the surgical process in fear of permanent damage causing disabilities or even death.”

“So the Augmented formula project was indeed complete…may I ask your full name. Please?”

“Luna Falana, subject 007 class E. My sisters name is Lina Falana, unaffiliated and uninitiated due to lack of proper aging components that would deem her capable of becoming a fully functioning Augmented soldier.”

“Shit…so that means…dammit.”, Drim said with a sad face.

“You appear to be distressed. Is everything alright?”

“No, it’s not. Look, Luna…if I…if I told you I could fix this, make you entirely human and your sister again…how would that make you feel?”

“I would rejoice for my sisters capability to be able to go back into being as innocent as she was before the procedure took place, however I can no longer be able to live without my partially mechanized parts.”

“What? How so?”

“In order to avoid deviancy, all personnel were cause to be depended on their mechanical parts to where if they were to be removed under any circumstances, death would occur at a 100% mortality rate. Lina was never programmed in such a way, however I was. Lina was brought into a new format to a better generation of personnel capable of many more things than the previous issues.”

“I promise you..I will bring her back into normality. However…I need to know something extremely important. During your battle with Tiki, I noticed something abnormal in my readings. What is exactly happening inside your brain?”

“My brain has been partially augmented to fit a neural network from which all available personal, now mostly deceased, can communicate uninterrupted and without the possibility of an EMP attack disruption. It is called HIVE or Holographic Intelligence Virtual Environment. It acts as both a communication network and a central intelligence network that can gather anything from combat data, to mechanical part instructions and even memories of the subjects sealed before their operation took place.”

“Wait, how do you know that? Those details were never handed out to you.”, Drima answered.

“Could it be that you are partially responsible for the situation that occurred?”, Luna promptly asked.

Drima stutter for a moment, realizing exactly who was standing before him, and afraid to give an answer. He then opened his mouth once again, to solve Luna’s confusion.

“During the time I was making the first MOD that Tiki is wearing, I was instructed to make a plan for which we could possibly transform non-Obsulyte users into ones by forced surgical operations. Super soldiers, in a way. I was against it throughout the entire process and tried to warn them, but they didn’t listen. When I decided I didn’t want my identity revealed but also didn’t want to hurt more innocents by proxy from my breakthroughs, I simply left. Someone must’ve picked up where I left off. That’s why…since the first time I somewhat realized who you actually were, someone’s affected by that project, I did backtracking and reading that dated even decades back. I found out everything from the surgical, to personnel procedures such as information about the HIVE. I know you will be angry but, trust me when I say, I despise all of them. I hate what they did and all I want to do is help you escape all that shit they made you go through. Please…allow me to help you.

“I will accept your offer. However, do note that you have been marked by me as a hostile subject that I can choose to terminate under circumstances I deem appropriate. I will allow redemption via removing the afflictions done onto my little sister but will then only lower the hostile risk to a level needed for observation but not elimination. I hope that you are not offended by the logical escalation of things or offended by my wording placed on the subject.”, Luna very aggressively said with a neutral demeanor.

Drima sighed as his face saddened deeply, “When I see that innocent little girl jumping around in excitement to almost everything that’s happening…how she went through all this but instead chooses ignorance and happiness. I never wanted you to forgive me, because I wouldn’t do so myself. But believe me when I say, I will go through hell and back to fix it however I can. And maybe, just maybe, help you as well. Look, I know a place…on the other side of the city, a little bit outside the walls, there’s an abandoned “factory” that the old LAB scientists, including myself, used to work. Down there, if you can maybe reach the core, there could be absolutely critical information that could help me save you and Lina…if you can go there tomorrow and look for it, I could really use that to not only save you, but create catered MODs for you to help you better arm yourselves against this cruel world…please. For you, your sister…and to an extend, my redemption.”

“I can proceed to the sight and collect the requested information via communication guidance. Please do note that our alliance will, as of now, be counted as strictly business within acquaintances. Until further items are investigated, I refuse to further strengthen that relationship.

Luna then quickly got up and out of the room, almost as if she was showing her anger for the first time. Drima was left all alone with his thoughts in silence. What he just discovered was yet another part of his long life he wanted to erase. It was another time that his creations, his brilliant mind that he always brought up into everyone’s consideration, had betrayed and hurt those around him when used by those he came to despise the most…but the day wasn’t over. And like he always used to power through the darkest times back then, now it was the most important out of them all for him to do so.