I sat down next to Gon and leaned on a tree, feeling angry and displeased by what my sister thought about me. A little weakling who couldn't defend herself in times of danger. What was she thinking trying to keep me from fighting any powerful enemies? I looked up at the night sky, trying to empty my mind from earlier.

"Here." Gon said, and I saw him giving me some fruit to eat. I took it.

"Thanks." I took a bite and tasted the sweetness and juiciness of the fruit.

"Hey. Did you really mean it when you said you won't be saying anything to Lynn until she understands? What does she not understand about you?"

I made a disgruntled noise. "Why does she care about my weakness when I can stop a fight in less than a second with my ability? Seriously, she's so stupid!" I scowled and took another bite of my fruit.

"Don't think about her that way! She's your sister, and she really cares about you. You have to apologize to her and prove yourself that you can fight at full strength." He told me, and I turned my head away from him.

"As if! She won't help me get stronger because she thinks I'll do something foolish that can result in failure in the mission and the deaths of millions of civilians. There's no way I'm talking to her until she understands what it means for me to become one of the strongest fighters in the world." I took another bite and chewed the fruit in contempt.

Gon sighed and took a bite of his fruit. "Well, I wonder if she's okay. Killua, too."

I gripped my fruit tightly, digging my nails into the flesh. Suddenly, I felt someone's presence behind us, making both of us tense up and drop our fruits. We turned our heads around to see a really huge snake ant. We jumped back to avoid getting caught in his tail. The tree we were sitting against collapsed. We gasped at his freakish appearance. That tail was so long!

"Nice job dodging. How about this?" The ant began to coil his tail as a spring, greatly astonishing me. Then he began bouncing around us at an unbelievable speed. I couldn't tell where he was going to attack us from.

"I can use my tail to bounce in and out of trees! It's impossible to follow my moves in the dark!" He laughed as he continued to ricochet off trees and confuse us. All of a sudden, I felt his tail wrapped around me and Gon.

"Hey, let us go, you freak!" I shouted at him.

The snake ant continued laughing. "I don't think so! I'm gonna crush you guys like tiny little bugs!"

I glared at him, not caring if he enjoyed crushing us. Suddenly, Gon effortlessly broke himself and me free from his grasp, shocking the ant. His eyes bulged in shock.

"You're not crushing us." Gon said before jumping up, me following along.

"Take this, you freak!" I screamed, drawing back my fist and landing a punch on the ant's stupid face. The impact knocked him out, so we tied him to a tree using his own tail and ran away.

"Lizzy! Use your En!" Gon told me, and I nodded. Using Ren, I enveloped some space around my body and kept the shape of my aura using Ten. The radius was about two meters, and it increased by a couple more as I ran.

I gasped. "I sense two ants following us!"

"What? Where?"

"Somewhere in the trees!"

With that said, they attacked us, and we dodged as quickly as we could. Still feeling their presence, I turned around and saw an owl and a bat, evil smirks painted on their faces. They flew up and disappeared.

"Keep using En." Gon whispered, and I grunted in agreement. I stood still keeping track of their movements, and I heard laughing from both ants.

I felt something coming at me, and I easily dodged the attack. I turned my head to see...feathers? Suddenly, one of the ants hit me in the face, causing me to wince in pain.

"Nice try. But that won't help you dodge my attacks!" She exclaimed, laughing some more as she hid in the trees again.

"Let's run." Gon muttered.

"Right." I nodded and started running away from them.

I could not feel the other ant's presence anymore, which I assumed was out of range. I kept my guard up to detect incoming attacks from either ant. I heard the boy grunt in pain, and I moved to the side to dodge the bat's attack. She struck him in the face and laughed even more.

The bat keeps attacking us after the owl distracts us with his feathers. Damn it! How are we supposed to attack them if they're gonna keep using the same attacks over and over again?

I looked at Gon and saw that he had his aura activated. The bat flew down and entered my En radius, and I prepared to attack her. I threw a punch, but I missed.

What? How did I miss? I was about to hit her at the right timing!

The bat flew down towards Gon, and he attempted to punch her, too. Unfortunately, he also missed.

I began to feel exhausted from using so much aura, so I turned off my En to recover my stamina. I heard Gon taking a deep breath and saw him getting into a stance.

"Now, show me Rock!" He began charging up his aura to attack them.

I only know little about bats. They use echolocation to locate and identify objects. Maybe that's why I missed. Those ultrasonic waves assist her in predicting our next attacks. I think they are able to hear a reflected sound wave that is much, much quieter than the original emitted wave.

The bat dived towards us at an incredible speed. A sudden realization just hit me.

That's it! That's what I'm gonna do!

When she got close to both of us, I took a big breath and let out a super loud scream in her left ear. Gon screamed in her other ear and stunned her. The bat flew away awkwardly, crashing into trees as she tried to escape.

"Not so fast! Jan, Ken, Paper!" Gon launched his aura at the bat, but before it could hit her, a rock was thrown to deflect the attack. I turned to the owl who was now gorilla-like.

"That was close." He said, picking up another rock. He threw it at our direction, and we dodged in time. I widened my eyes at the big hole it made in the tree.

"Oh my—" I was interrupted by a deafening noise, and I groaned and covered my ears.

The owl punched us, sending us back a few feet. My head was spinning for a moment, and I did not like that dizzy feeling.

What the hell was that? Did that bat use her ultrasonic waves to try to disorient us? That was so powerful! I don't know how I can get rid of her without her causing my head to spin so many times.

I noticed Gon using Gyo in his eyes, so I decided to use the technique, too. But the bat used her ultrasonic waves to distract us again, and the gorilla-like owl punched both of us for a second time. The owl continued punching us around, and I knew how I could block the bat's ultrasound waves from reaching my ears. The owl punched me one more time, and I quickly recovered myself and tore off a piece of my shirt to make earplugs. I ripped it in half and crumpled them up, then spat on both of them before putting them on. Now I wouldn't have to worry about the ultrasonic waves distracting me any longer.

They worked, greatly reducing the sound volume when the bat used her ultrasonic waves once more. Now I could locate the owl due to his aura.

Using Gyo, I only sensed a feather, and I realized he was using Zetsu. I turned around and earned a couple of punches, but I blocked them all with my arms. Gon did, too.

The bat keeps bothering me with the ultrasonic waves she produces. I have to take her out no matter what.

"Gon. You deal with the owl. I'll deal with the bat." I told him, and he nodded.

The bat smirked and used her ultrasonic waves on me, and I slightly flinched. She dived down at an incredible speed, and I barely dodged. I attempted to land a hit on her face, only for me to miss. She disappeared out of sight, and I used Gyo to find her. Gon got distracted by the waves again and the owl began running away. The boy followed him as well as the bat. I ran after them.

The bat produced more waves to distract Gon, but that didn't slow him down. I found a log along the way and immediately knew what I could do with it. I stopped and focused all my aura in moving the log however I needed to. I moved it up towards the bat and swung it around to try to hit her. She evaded every single attack and started flying away. I continued running to catch up to her. I did my best to move the log as fast as I could to keep up with her speed and block her way. I couldn't land a single hit on her, much to my frustration.

Gon stopped and turned back to see me desperately swinging the log around to land a hit on the bat. My mind strained to keep it up in the air, and after a few seconds, I couldn't do it anymore. It fell on the ground with a thump. I clutched my head with a hand and panted heavily.

"Are you okay, Lizzy?" The boy asked.

"Yeah." I replied, slowly recovering from the mild headache I got.

"I have an idea." He said, coming over to me. "Let me have this for a moment."

He picked up the log with all his strength and waited for the owl to come closer to him so he could strike him with it. I stepped back to let him swing it with much force. When the owl was close enough, he swung it towards him, and the owl easily dodged the attack. But then, Gon began to swing it around, creating a whirlwind. The bat was flown back and crashed into a rock wall, impressing me.

Oh, so he used their coordinated attacks against them. How clever of him.

Gon jumped up to where the bat crashed and smashed her deeper into the wall with his fist. He landed smoothly on the ground, and I turned to see the owl looking shocked.

"Guess that means you're next, night owl." I said, smiling confidently.

The owl gulped and ran away from the two of us, and we followed him.

"Show me Rock!" The boy yelled, charging up his attack. "Jan, Ken..."

"Why you!" The owl attempted to hit him, but he easily dodged, shocking him even more.

"Rock!" He finished, punching him and sending him flying high in the sky.

"I made sure to punch you to the west. Go back to the NGL!" He shouted.

"Yeah!" I yelled and stuck out my tongue, making a scornful noise.

Killua and I had gone to many cities warning the citizens that Diego had fallen and that they had to warn others about brainwashed soldiers killing innocent people. The task was going smoothly until Diego announced that East Gorteau was placed under martial law, and anyone who was seen outside their residence would be called a rebel and severely punished. Soldiers strolled around the streets and drove tanks to find any rebels.

We tried to warn other citizens about the fall of the Supreme Leader, but after the announcement, they just wouldn't believe us. They threw all kinds of things at us and called us rebels. We knew that the odds were against us now, so we decided to take out as many puppets as we could.

We were now trying to get away from a flying Chimera Ant that was watching us from above. We jumped off a cliff and went into the dense forest so that it couldn't see us from the air anymore, and that it could descend to where Killua could hit it with his yo-yo. We hid in a bush and waited for the ant to come down. A rumble could be heard, and I looked to see a huge rock and a Chimera Ant soldier rolling it to where we were hiding.

Shit!

Killua and I jumped up to avoid being crushed by the rock. Killua decapitated a scorpion-like ant and jumped higher, and I did, too. We took out almost all of the other five ants and only two remained. We started chasing the leader, and before we even attacked it, it blasted a fireball at us, burning the area around us. I suffered a few injuries, but I was fine.

"Damn! That's like a fart bomb, and that's more than disgusting." I grumbled.

"We better get out of here now. I bet that ant is still following us." Killua firmly stated.

We ran back into the dense forest trying to remain in hiding, but suddenly, I saw something small crash into the side of Killua's head, sending him flying a couple of feet.

"Killua!" I cried and ran over to him, feeling worried about him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Look." He showed me a flea about the size of a quarter.

Without warning, I was shot in the back of my head and stumbled. I quickly recovered my balance and took out another flea. I grimaced at it.

Killua got shot in the neck, and I got shot in the leg. I took the flea out of my left leg and realized that the bleeding at the back of my head had not stopped. I could feel the blood trickling down and staining my hair.

I raised my guard, trying to figure out where these fleas were coming from. A sniper had to be behind this. The fleas didn't do serious damage, but I was losing some blood, and that was gonna be a big problem.

I got shot again, this time in my right shoulder. Killua got shot in his right arm. I took out the flea and let the blood trickle down my arm.

So they shoot us from the same direction. And they're pretty good, too.

I decided to dodge the fleas at the second they shot them. I dodged one that was aimed for my head. Killua dodged one that was aimed for his foot. I moved around for a bit, thinking that the sniper would miss if I did. I noticed that Killua surrounded himself in aura, and that he was not using En because he didn't have the necessary skills like I didn't.

While I was observing him, the sniper shot me in the right side of my chest, and I removed the flea and threw it. Killua got shot in the side of his head, even though his aura was surrounding him.

"It's coming from this way!" He turned to the direction where the sniper shot him and took off running. I followed him after.

As we were heading for the sniper's location, I realized that my wounds had stopped bleeding. There had to be some kind of chemical that kept the blood from clotting, and now it had worn off. We couldn't afford to get more bloody wounds, so we had to hurry and take down the sniper as soon as possible.

Gon and I were running through a desert, trying to shake off whoever was following the two of us since we separated from my sister and Killua. I wasn't even complaining about the heat as I ran millions of steps on the sand. We stopped and looked around to find our pursuer.

"You like that? Now you have nowhere to hide, so come on out!" Gon shouted.

There was no answer, and they weren't here.

"Hello? You there? Come out wherever you are, you coward!" I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled.

They still didn't show up, and we turned around and started walking away.

"Wait!" A voice called out to us, and both of us turned our heads around. "It's a huge desert. There's no water here, and you guys can die of thirst in a day."

I didn't see anyone around here. I heard footsteps coming our way, and I saw them stepping on the sandy ground. I widened my eyes and gasped.

"Aw, man. I really wanted to watch you guys longer, but I guess that won't work. I'm running low on stamina, anyway. I suppose now is the good time to talk things over with you two. First, let's introduce ourselves." He revealed himself as a chameleon-like ant with short blond hair wearing a gray sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. "Hello. My name is Jail—uh, I mean Meleoron. I was a Squadron Leader when the Queen was alive. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Why are you following us?" Gon asked, ignoring the question.

"Because I didn't want to let you two get away. And I certainly don't want to let either of you die...because you two will make valuable partners."

I looked at him suspiciously and sternly. "Valuable partners?"

There was a moment of silence until Meleoron spoke up again.

"Do you guys have any business with the King?" The chameleon ant asked.

"We don't." Gon replied.

"Huh?"

That was close. We can't tell him anything about the plan. He might be our enemy, so let's just keep our mouths shut for now.

"Really? I thought you four were here to defeat the King."

"You four?" I questioned.

"Yeah. I've been watching you ever since those other two kids were with you."

"I get it." Gon and I increased our auras dramatically, making Meleoron tense up. "You picked us over Killua and Lynn. You felt like we would put up less of a fight than them!"

"W-wait! You've got it all wrong! Is that how it sounded? Now it makes sense. I look like the enemy, don't I? I guess I should have been more clear about that. Listen, I'm not lying, I swear! I'm not looking to trick or defeat you guys!" He raised his hands in defense.

I guess I had no choice.

"Okay. I believe you." Gon bluntly replied.

"Me too." I added.

"I know. It's hard to understand. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't...Huh?" He gasped, almost giving himself away.

I wouldn't be too sure if trusting him was a good idea or not. I decided to believe him for now, wanting to hear a good reason why he wanted us to be his partners.

The two of us had been following the sniper since he jumped off a ledge. He led us to a hole and smirked.

"It's a trap! Do you still wanna come?" He said in a singsong voice and jumped in. We jumped in after him.

"Couldn't care less. Now die." Killua stabbed the head with his sharp claws, and tentacles enveloped us as we were falling towards a lake filled with voracious Chimera Ants.

"You want a taste of hell? Well, here you go!" The ant said before Killua cut off some of his tentacles to free himself and me. We used those tentacles and their suction cups to adhere to the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and the ant did, too. I watched the corpse fall into the water below, and a moment later, some Chimera Ants devoured it down, splashing a lot.

"Bastard! How dare you chop off the great Ikalgo's precious arms?" He exclaimed.

"Sorry, but we couldn't let you drag us down into the water. These suction cups saved us." Killua told him, his face showing boredom.

"Your name is Ikalgo, right? The word 'ika' means squid, and the other half of your name comes from the name of a rifleman I don't remember. So you're an octopus that can shoot targets from far away." I explained, and that really pissed him off.

"Don't call me an octopus!" Ikalgo yelled and pointed a gun at us.

We had encountered an octopus that could manipulate corpses and shoot with great accuracy. This would be a tough one to deal with.