Rays of black energy are suspended between their projector and the metal cuffs, those cuffs being the ones attached to the wrists of the prisoner, the cuffs right above the green surgeon cuffs. The arms are stretched similar to those rays, the black sleeves wrinkled and scuffed.

The head of the prisoner is low, letting the amber bangs shroud sight of the face, and on the other side the other arm is also stretched out and bound to that cuff attached to the black ray which connects to the projector device shaped like a reel, sitting against the brown rubber tiles.

Those rubber tiles cover the whole cubic room, the four walls, the ceiling, and the floor, for the two projectors are the only decor the room has to offer as there isn’t even a door visible.

There is not a sound, instead pure utter silence, as though there is no world beyond the rubber room. The only entity that can be identified was the woman in the blazer and black leggings, the blazer open to show the white tank top underneath, though dirtied and grayed. Her black and white shoes are dangling just off the ground, so close to making contact but unable to do so, for her body is lifted in a cross.

Her face is obscured by the amber bangs from afar, her body slouched forward, beaten, sullied, exhausted.

Alone, between the thick amber bangs of hair is the face of the prisoner, one with a frown underneath those shimmering parakeet eyes, ones who in a present of nothing is subjected to the past of dread, one that she has to carry on with every day, every moment.

It was a past she has largely escaped from now that decades had past, as she was able to climb the ranks of a legitimate corporation, able to make a living helping others rather than taking from them. She had found other friends in this new world, and she was able to make a new life for herself, one full of new memories that perhaps would never overwrite those of the city under clouds but at least balance them.

Yet in this very moment she is not in that world, she is in another one, a dangerous one, one full of those who did live off of taking from others, and she was one of those taken. She is alone, without allies, unsure of how long she’d be held, unsure of what she may have to endure next. Furthermore, those who she sought to help within her own corporation are also subjected to horrors placed by her faults, as in fact she had stolen, but she had gained nothing in return.

Thus alone she remains the prisoner, instead the brown rubber room, chained up to the wall with her body stretched constantly. Her head hangs low, the world around her silent and cold, lifeless, for she is secluded from the greater universe yet again, unable to see beyond those clouds.

For she can’t see beyond those rubber walls, through the other side of the wooden boards facing into the large prison room, the one that is the opposite of silent as there is instead uproar from just about every angle as all the pirates on guard shout to one another across all three layers, all of them facing one common direction down the hall, many of them further down even firing shots from their rifles or throwing fireballs.

Those gunshots and fireballs are directed for the far side of the prison hall, to the entrance and to the three who had stepped in uninvited: the woman in the hoodie surging with pink electricity, the man in the white mask whose hands burst with azure flames, and the older man in the overcoat wielding a makeshift handgun that smokes as the wires wrapped around the barrel are lit hot.

All three of them charge inside the prison car, already in action as the Spirit in the center throws his arm back, projecting a flame over the open door they stepped through where on the other side is a horde of attackers from the hub of the other room, yet those flames crystallized into a frosty wall that did not only cover the doorway but spread over the entire face of the car, more carefully reinforcing the barricade as the pursuing bandits are held back.

No longer needing to concern from those chasing them, the three can now prioritize those they are chasing as the Alchemist is already firing green shots at the bridges up ahead, targeting those who were trying to use the higher elevations to their advantage as the Vanguard tosses those on the floor trying to make a ground assault head on.

The Spirit can do the same as he throws his hands forward, projecting a barrage of kunai towards those being tossed back by the Vanguard, and upon proximity they discharge a blue electric explosion that mixes in with the pink electricity, flashing it white for a moment as the struck pirates fall unconscious. That white flash creeps all the way back up to the source however, sparking on the Vanguard’s fingers as she waves the jolt away, disoriented, but is quick to regain focus as the Spirit glances to the sides, taking notice of the translucent red windows into the rubber cells all along the room.

Many of those cells are not empty, as those that didn't have a single prisoner who is raised off the ground, their arms stretched in a cross by wires made of black energy tied to projectors. Furthermore, while there are strange prisoners such as one dressed in odd robes with spiky hair dyed red and orange to resemble fire, many of the prisoners are instead dressed not in the zany outfits of pirates but instead the professional uniforms of workers, blazers and dresses, with a handful in black jumpsuits interspersed. None of them appear reactive to the intrusion though, with many of them either seemingly asleep or at least in a state of dull, oblivious to the action right in front of them.

Processing the sight and making his interpretation before a quarter second could pass, the Spirit exclaims in his distorted voice, “This must be the area they’re keeping the prisoners from the X-Prints mission, I think that one was Sasha. Dana has to be here too, we need to evacuate all of them.”

He spins as he materializes and throws a shield which deflects a fireball midair as it continues its path as he continues, “We’ll neutralize the pirates in this room and once we have we’ll free the prisoners. This car looks to be separated into a grid so coverage will be more difficult, but that means we’ll also have less targeting us at once.”

He creates a javelin and throws it ahead, erupting in an electric explosion further on as he concludes, “Exploit the corners, don’t move in the same direction for too long. Ekitai, I’ll be taking you to the second floor for better aim positioning.”

Next to him, the Alchemist fires a shot up and remarks, “No ‘please’?” resulting in an explosion that drops two pirates down several stories, landing on speedily manifested trampolines that doesn’t bounce them but rather triggers electric shocks to put them to sleep, neutralizing them but not as harshly as a fall down multiple floors.

Ignoring the joke, the Spirit leaps in the air and attaches a blue cable onto the Alchemist’s back, yanking him in the air as he chuckles and retorts to himself, “Guess humor wasn’t a thing you ever had,” before the cable detaches, dropping him on the bridge above the ground floor, letting him get a quick shot on one of the pirates whose skin begins secreting thick yellow goo as he screams, “WHY AM I STICKY?” while being passed.

Above that bridge the Spirit swings off a blue cable he holds onto, attached to the ceiling before letting go and forming a compact bow made of silver and given a wire glowing blue. On the other hand is also a silver arrow with a glowing tip which he inserts the back of in the wire as he holds the bow at an angle, relinquishing the arrow and letting it fly into the rifle of one of the pirates which causes it to release a chain of electricity that catches the gunner.

With his newly freed hand he rapidly projects another cable to the right and pulls, zipping a hard turn and forming another arrow to pull back against the bow and let go.

Far below him on the ground runs the Vanguard, not only freezing and throwing the bandits on the floor but occasionally aiming up and directing her swarms to the higher bridges, picking off unsuspecting pirates and using them as projectiles to then throw at clusters on the ground. Reaching an intersection, she turns to the left just in time to avoid a barrage of wooden stakes.

Around the corner though she runs towards a woman dressed in a dark purple robe with a large cone hat, and in her hand is a long wooden staff which she aims at as the veins in her back hand light up purple as does the tip of the staff, ready to fire on sight before that staff is struck by a yellow bolt which causes it to begin liquifying before her eyes, to which she collapses on her knees and cries, “MY STAFF!” before being swiftly thrown up in the air by a swarm of pink electricity by the Vanguard who raises her head up to notice the Alchemist flash a thumbs up towards her before continuing onwards. Between the two though flies the blue bolt, that being the Spirit who zips in tight turns throughout the prison, firing darts out of pistols before then dropping their flaming bodies and swapping them for a pair of plasmic blades that he slashes through a pirate on the top floor upon reaching that height.

He approaches another pirate further on ahead, whose eyes expand in horror as he screams and turns around, running up to one of the red translucent panes at the corner and placing his hand on it to which the entire pane dematerializes, allowing him to stumble inside with his handgun waving towards the prisoner tied up who is a middle aged man in a black jumpsuit with a familiar brown beard and short but wavy hair, who raises his head with terrified eyes upon the abrupt entrance of the pirate who exclaims, “I’LL GUN HIM DOWN I SWEAR!” yet the Spirit only propels himself faster with a blue boost, throwing his arm forward and projecting an azure flame forth past the pirate but stopping before the prisoner as the flame then expands into a frosty crystal wall dividing the entire cube room, separating the pirate from the prisoner and instead secluding him with the Spirit who dashes into the room and delivers a single kick to the side of the head with all the momentum he built up, throwing the pirate straight into the rubber wall but unconscious before he could even make impact.

Landing on the floor, the Spirit turns and looks down at the neutralized pirate face planted on the floor, tisking to the close call as he didn’t expect the pirates to try using the prisoners as active hostages.

He sighs and then faces ahead as he waves his hand, allowing the frosty wall to light up in an open blue flame and dissolve to reveal the man on the other side, his eyes wide from a mixture of horror from the near death experience but also utter astonishment to the unexpected savior. His jaw is already hanging in disbelief, unable to even let out a word as the Spirit tilted his head in some curiosity to the man.

Getting a solid examination of the man, the Spirit’s inhuman voice curiously identifies, “Thompson?”

Shocked so much that words can finally be released, the man bellows dumbstruck, “Wait you know my name??”

“May 20th, 2843, you were interning at X-Prints as a laboratory trainee when it was attacked by that Exhuman with the bird army,” Meditat recounts as he approaches Thompson, glancing at the two restraints he’s being hoisted up by, as during this small talk he’s clearly analyzing his options given his gaze is focused elsewhere.

His eyes lighting up like a lightbulb just turned on above his head, Thompson recalls excitedly for an adult man, “The Whistler! I remember that! I can’t believe you remembered…I mean…to be honest I can’t believe you’re actually here! I mean I heard the news months ago, I mean everyone did but like I’m sorry but I just wasn’t sure it was true! But wow it’s actually you!”

He then raises his head up as his excitement calms to concern upon finally focusing on all the distant gunfire and shouting before he asks, “What’s going on out there? I couldn’t hear anythi-,” before his eyes widened in terror.

“MEDITAT BEHIND YO-,” Thompson exclaims as a pirate races inside the prison cell with his arms reinforced in stone only for Meditat to simply thrash his arm back and materialize a metal boomerang which knocks the man in the forehead, staggering him backwards but he still stands up until the boomerang loops back and accelerates with a blue trail before clocking him in the back of his head, immediately dropping him to the floor.

Focusing instead on the prisoner, Meditat manifests two stars and throws both of them at each of the two projector reels, the impact triggering it to emit an electric pulse that causes the black ropes to flicker before vanishing completely, dropping Thompson to his knees as his legs appear weak given his groan; Meditat picks up the freed prisoner’s left hand and manifests a small knife hilt in the other hand that then emits a short plasmic blade the size of a boxcutter knife which he then cautiously uses to cut a slit through the metal cuff, letting it split in half and drop to the floor.

“There’s currently still pirates outside, we’re here to evacuate you,” explains Meditat as he runs to the other arm and picks it up to then cut while conceding, “I was not expecting them to release the prisoners like this, but perhaps I’ve not properly calibrated my perceived honor of these pirates.”

After completing the cut and letting the other cuff fall, Meditat relinquishes the blade and asks, “Can you walk?” to which Thompson groans but nods his head, confirming albeit weakly, “Yeah, legs just asleep.”

To that Meditat stretches his arm and offers his hand which Thompson notices upon raising his head, and with a smirk he grabs the hand and allows Meditat pull him up to his feet. He stumbles subtly but quickly gains his strength as Meditat then turns around and approaches the exit of the cell while formulating, “I’ll need to alert them on the new plan, Ekitai first.” He then gestures with finger curls to command Thompson to approach him, the two exiting the cell and out into the battlefield as Thompson looks down to see the army of pirates firing forward before a wave of pink arcs consumes them, freezing them still before Meditat grabs his attention as he acknowledges, “You’re a bit taller than before so here,” before turning to him and requesting, “Brace me, one arm under the arm and another over.

To that request Thompson nods and steps forward, wrapping one of his arms around Meditat’s torso and wrapping the other over his golden shoulder, gripping tightly as Meditat then bounds off the bridge with aid in a blue burst, the two flying off the bridge before he then projects a blue cable and begins swinging down the prison car.

In a different part of the prison specifically along the central lane where the door is–though now blocked by the crystal wall–, the Alchemist turns a corner and quickly rolls forward in close evasion to a barrage of kitchen knives which he counters to with a shot to the chest using a bolt that then causes the man to unexpectedly curl up into a ball as though imploding, as while he doesn’t particularly he screams in confused agony as his body rolls up against his will.

He then chases down another pirate who places his hand on the wall which dissolves it, allowing him to run inside the prison room towards a woman in a professional suit who squeals to the sight before a blue cable then attaches onto the pirate’s back from outside and forcefully pulls him back outside and into the Spirit’s backhand as he slaps the face, throwing him down on the bridge and landing next to the Alchemist who just reached the opening with a stunned face.

He’s more stunned though to find the Spirit already carrying a grown man, although he lets him off to stand on his own as the Spirit marches inside the cell, followed by both said man and the Alchemist as the Spirit is quick to order, “Ekitai, I need you to stay with the prisoners, pirates are starting to release them as hostages. It appears these cells are preventing them from any awareness of what’s transpiring, and the cells are clearly simple to access, making them unsafe positions. I need to check for any other open cells and alert Kokei to the alterations of plans before bringing her to you,” as he then throws throws two knives into each projector machine, both of them discharging and short circuiting the devices thus dropping the woman before she’s caught by the Spirit who then gently helps her up to her feet before summoning another two knives and using them to carefully yet swiftly cut the cuffs off her wrists.

In utter astonishment, the woman just stands shivering, only able to mutter the words, “Me-Me-Meditat? I-is that actually you~?” as the Alchemist behind the rescuer complains raspily, “Wait a second, okay I’m not that kind of guy! Escort missions aren’t my thing, usually assassination ones are!”

Unable to fixate on every person given the escalation off the situation, the Spirit dissolves both of his knives and turns away from the woman, marching out to the exit of the cell and simply demanding, “You’re here on an escort mission, escort,” before leaving the cell and Ekitai with the two prisoners who both look to him as he sighs and whines, “Man I didn’t come to take chores from a kid.”

Outside the cell, the Spirit leaps off the bridge and begins swinging, rapidly turning his head so much it seems to jitter as eight flames burst off his body and each form a black sphere drone as he commands, “Orial, search for active hostages and alert me,” as he then begins swinging before then hearing a man’s voice cry, “GET AWAY FROM ME!!” to which he immediately lowers his head.

Below the Spirit on the ground floor is another open cell that a pirate is running into as behind him chases the Vanguard, immediately signifying the Spirit to dive straight down with an additional boost to land down and find that inside the cell the Vanguard has successfully froze the pirate’s body, though it’s only a few feet from the terrified prisoner, and the dagger in his hand is only inches from the potential victim’s neck.

Stepping inside the cell, the Spirit walks by the Vanguard’s side who notices and thus jerks her arm back, throwing the pirate’s body backwards and into the Spirit’s passive fist, knocking him out as he explains, “Ekitai’s protecting the prisoners, I’ll need you there to reinforce him since the pirates will likely soon focus on him,” as he reiterates the same routine of forming dual pistols and firing blue lasers into the projectors before catching the man’s fall and helping him up to then cut the cuffs with knives as the Vanguard remarks, “Ekitai as the guardian? Huh, how’d he take that?”

After cutting the cuffs and dispersing of the knife, the Spirit leads the prisoner back to the cell’s opening and bluntly states, “He took it,” before then asking the man, “Cling onto me, I’ll get you somewhere safe,” as the man promptly does so while muttering, “Oh my god, it’s actually you….”

The two exit the cell as the Vanguard follows and extends her hand in offer, letting the Spirit grab it with one hand as his other raises up and fires a cable, letting him reel himself and the other two up to the next floor where he lands on the bridge to find that further ahead the Alchemist stands in front of the open cell, firing down on pirates below to which the Spirit lets the man off of him and faces the Vanguard to order, “Take him with the others,” before Orial’s voice then speaks through the Spirit’s arm in the notification: “Marked a breach,” which calls the Spirit to immediately leap back and spin before transitioning into a sharp turn swing.

Being left immediately, the Vanguard is quick to offer in a voice oddly noble, “Come, let’s get you somewhere safe,” and leads the man down the bridge, the man following with his hands over his head from the constant gunfire coming from all directions. The two do reach the Alchemist who notices the newcomers and remarks sarcastically, “He’s not going to clump everyone in this one room right?” as the Vanguard just sighs and reprimands, “You just need to shoot people, I’ll help,” before she then extends her arm outside and projects a swarm off her body down to the lower level.

All the sudden a laser bolt flies straight into her arm, causing her to instinctively jerk it back and scream, although that scream is cut short by the immediate realization that there was no sensation of pain. She tilts her arm to where she was hit, finding that there’s not even a burn mark on her sweater, and she sighs after remembering the shielding before then diverting her arm down the bridge to the pirate holding the pistol before then wrapping him in pink strings and slamming him against the adjacent wall.

From that same side swings in the Spirit, making one long stride before then landing beside the Vanguard and Alchemist, carrying two bodies slung over his shoulder and letting them down before turning around and leaping off promptly, quick at work.

On the top floor, one of the pirates dressed like a sailor in a large white coat and fitting hat notices the scattered open cells, and upon understanding what the few pirates chose to do on their own, the man then bellows with a volume of a megaphone: “EVERYONE, GET OUT THE PRISONERS WE GOT IN EARLIER, THAT’S WHO THEY’RE HERE FOR!”

Swinging along the prison, the Spirit hears that command and immediately lowers his head in the realization that likely every single bandit in the car heard that, to which he mutters, “Shit,” as already he sees three pirates on the base floor approaching closed cell doors while laughing to themselves.

First airborne, the Spirit spins and dives straight to the ground with two cable zips to accelerate himself as he crashes into one of the pirates as one of the others reaches the door and opens it just before being shot in the back of the head with a dart gun to allow the Spirit to focus on the third man already well inside the cell and approaching the crying woman so he projects a cable onto the pirate’s ankle and pulls back, tripping him and yanking his body out of the prison as his other hand aims and fires the same dart gun. He then hears more desperate wails all over the prison, realizing that there’s too many pirates for him to stop all at once, thus he emits a puff of flames off his entire body which spawns ten drones which without commands all autonomously flies around the prison as he leaps off the ground and starts hastily swinging, already finding another pirate entering a cell which he shoots with the dart gun only for the pirate to evade the attack without even seeing it, turning around to reveal herself and her two light machine guns in hand that she opens fire on the Spirit with, who materializes a small shield that projects a wider energy array which consumes the bullets as he dashes straight for her and slams her in the face with said shield, knocking her down before he turns around and runs the other way while spawning another black sphere. While the Spirit leaps away, the bot approaches the prisoner and fires two blue bolts from its body, one into each projector reel before then projecting a blue cable onto the prisoner, disregarding the cuffs for now given the requisite of haste as it drags the freed woman out of the cell and up towards the Alchemist and Vanguard who both fire down on the bandits making their way for the other doors, the Vanguard able to suspend one of them in time for the Alchemist to get a shot to the back and cause the bandit to turn to stone.

They then raise their heads to notice three black orbs floating towards them, each lugging a man or woman in a blazer or jumpsuit on a blue rope before reaching the bridge and releasing them to their feet. The three run behind the Vanguard and Alchemist, hiding in the cell with the growing number of prisoners as the two continue fending off and the orbs fly back out on surveillance.

Noticing all the orbs and their destinations being the same, the man in the sailor outfit smirks devilishly before again announcing with his amplified voice, “AND ONCE YOU’RE DONE, HEAD OVER TO LEVEL TWO WHERE YOU’LL FIND THE REST OF THE PRISONERS ALL CLUMPED UP TOGETHER! NICE OF THEM TO DO THAT FOR US-,” as the Spirit abruptly appears out of nowhere from below to uppercut the man in the jaw, throwing his body straight up before he’s grabbed by the leg and harshly slammed straight into the bridge as the Spirit growls, “Degenerates.” He then raises his head to find the pirates no longer spreading, but instead all converging towards the Alchemist and Vanguard, who initially were picking off a few pirates at a time but were quickly getting overwhelmed with greater numbers as more orbs carried prisoners towards them, only further making the position dangerous.

Fixated on the growing horde all targeting one single point of the concentrated hostages, Meditat orders desperately, “Wait Orial, don’t bring everyone the-,”

“The drones have transferred all personnel listed in the mission’s documentation, with the exception of Dana,” interjects Orial with a report, one designed to provide assurance given the success of the initial plan, though to that success Meditat sighs and lowers his head, muttering to himself: “Damn they’re not going to hold that position, we need to begin evacuation now.”

He then raises his head and extends his arm out, firing a blue cable from his hand and leaping off the bridge, letting himself swing in the direction of the horde all crowding in the central lane.

In that central lane, flocks of pirates congeal on the ground in front of the cell housing the workers, shouting fanatically as they fire their rifles and manifest circular saws out of thin air, though those saws are stopped midair as they’re caught in the pink web controlled by the Vanguard who then throws the saws far as bolts of colors as various as the rainbow fire down, covering the floor with blue walls and spikes for obstacles, suppressive fire dealt by the Alchemist as the two maintain their position.

Above them are the scattered remaining orb drones who’ve succeeded in their flawed objective, now functioning as sentry turrets as they fire hails of blue bolts down in support of the Alchemist. A few laser bolts are shot back at them, which they do manage to deflect by the flash of formerly invisible shields, protecting them from most attacks. Though amongst the crowd one projects a stream of spikes carved from blood which breach through half of the drones’ shields and penetrate straight through, completely destroying them.

Both the Alchemist and Vanguard focus on the crowd down the center, though the Vanguard turns to the side upon noticing another direction from which bellows come from, that being the one down the bridge the two stand on. Further down that bridge approaches a dense mob of those who’ve made their way to the bridge, now able to target the two on their appropriate level head on.

In reaction to this development the Vanguard turns to focus on them, firing rays of arcs towards them to suspend the front line and push them against each other, trying her best to hold them back though without a decisive execution she can only slow them down as the front line is shoved by those further back.

From the grunts of her struggles, the Alchemist perks his head up and notices the infestation, but just as he’s raising his pistol to take on the new wave, he’s distracted by a third one in the other direction beside him, for the floods are coming from both directions. To that the Alchemist has to instead fully focus on that side, firing blue slime on the floor at the head of the crowd to slow them down, though it’s an imperfect solution as a pirate simply runs through the crowd, able to bypass the physicality of the slime.

The two put their all into slowing the assaults, yet they’re unaware that the drones covering their front are falling one after the other, each getting struck down as their shields are shown to not be perfect, especially when against such a diverse array of attacks.

In fact, only when the final drone drops, both the Alchemist and Vanguard turn their heads to shock in finding a barrage of ballistic gunshots, laser fire, giant metal cannonballs, and many other projectiles soaring straight for them.

Though they all fly straight into the frosty crystal box which suddenly appears from an instantaneous flame, a box that spreads to the floor in order to stand on its own while covering the two as all the projectiles are either absorbed or simply bounce off it for they fail to even penetrate the material. The box doesn’t only cover the front but the bridge from both sides, completely consuming the two warriors as the hordes on the bridge charge straight into the wall, unable to break through.

On the other side of the crystal wall between the Vanguard and Alchemist stands the Spirit, his right hand held out towards the barrier for the manifestation. He maintains his dramatic pose, having just landed thus having a lower stance, one arm bent in followthrough of a cable, his cape only now dropping down as the whole cluster of hostages watch from inside the cell.

They also watch as the Spirit straightens his posture, glancing at the two as outside continues shouts and roars, the energy not any less chaotic which reasons the Spirit’s command as he turns to the cell and marches inside: “We need to begin evacuation procedures now, we won’t win a battle of attrition inside the enemy’s base.”

He walks through the crowd who all step to the side, almost like forming a catwalk for him to march through to the far wall of the cell as he raises his hand forward, secreting a blue flame that then expands to form another orb though this one significantly larger as it’s the size of his torso, and furthermore the black chassis at the front begins to glow blue as a charge up rather than immediate fire.

Such charge up is required as the orb then fires an immense energy beam forward accompanied with a shriek, one that expands in a conal shape and blasts straight through the wall and extinguishes not even a quarter second after firing, revealing the huge circular hole incinerated through the wall.

Not only that wall, but the rubber cell past it has its other far wall already burnt through with a hole even larger, leading to sight of the distant cells on the other column though their walls untouched given the precise timing of the shot.

That orb extinguishes in an open flame right after its use, allowing the Spirit to continue on ahead as he briefs, “We’ll get to the edge and set an escape pod there, come on they definitely heard that,” before he then transitions into a run as through that crowd races the Vanguard to follow, followed herself by the Alchemist who waves his handgun up and down while criticizing, “You really like that one crystal thing huh, figured a man able to create anything would create more. No cool laser walls or anything?”

Reaching the other side of the second cell where the opening to the outside prison room is, the Spirit swiftly lectures, “My crystal is the strongest material I can conjure and it’s only known exploits are phasers and my brother, but it’ll hold nearly any damage whereas other barriers are typically specialized though can be exploited by more means. I admit they are more draining than other barriers, but we’ll be out of here soon once we pick up Dana and make our escape.”

Though before the Alchemist can make a response, amongst the line emerges Thompson who exclaims bewildered, “Wait no, Dana’s not with us?!” He then glances back and hastily examines the crowd, having been so overwhelmed that he didn’t notice who was and wasn’t with them.

Stepping out into the bridge and reaching the edge where he can peer down the lane, the Spirit answers, “She’s yet to be located, but all other members of your expedition are amongst you.”

“But shouldn’t we first find her before we try leaving? I can’t leave her here…no way…,” Thompson contends back, lowering his head as he grabs it with his hands, clearly distraught in the realization that they’ve yet to secure the one being with the highest authority, and with the most significant role.

Not turning his head back as the crowd has now fully moved into the neighboring cell with both the Alchemist and Vanguard running to his side, the Spirit simply asserts, “You need to reach safety, once you’re all in a safe position I’ll complete a sweep and find her. Though completion of that first objective won’t be trivial.”

That last statement is made in regards to the fact that down on the ground further in the lane they’ve reached, bellows and roars creep in from the corner of the prison room as the lane ends at the intersection, and pirates begin to step into the lane as they’ve already traced the sound of the cannonfire.

Above them, the bridge the three warriors stand on is the same bridge the hordes run along from both forward and behind, having circled the block and now approaching quickly.

Without needing commands, the Alchemist and Vanguard each focus on one of those bridge sides, firing arcs and bolts as in the center the Spirit raises his hand and beams a flame straight forward but it splits into two streams flying vertically straight, forming a thin rod that materializes in steel metal right past the edge of the bridge. He grabs onto the rod first, and embedded in the metal illuminates a blue ring underneath his grip, one that drops as he does in his descent from the bridge.

Reaching the bottom as the two warriors remain on the top floor to push against the mobs on the bridge, the Spirit covers the ground as he spreads a flame to form more orb turrets as he simultaneously arms himself with a large firearm in the shape of a light machine gun, one he aims at the horde which then fires a barrage strangely not of bolts but instead balls that upon striking the bandits expands to reveal a net that wraps around the target, balling them up and chaining them down.

While the three warriors cover the various fronts, individually the hostages grab onto the pole, blue rings appearing embedded in the pole under their hands and guiding them on their gentle descent down to the base floor, moving everyone down to the ground.

On the ground, the Spirit focuses on suppressive fire as the grouping of workers behind him grows, more reaching the bottom of the pole and following him as he stays in place, waiting for the remainder. While his fire is targeted to the pirates, his head noticeably turns sporadically to the many cells around him, as though his attention is split and he’s simultaneously conducting a search.

His search is short lived though as it doesn’t take too long for the whole group to navigate down the pole followed last by the two warriors who catch up to his side, the Alchemist quick to report though sarcastically, “Ay ay captain lead the way,” as he doesn’t waste time focusing fire on the opposition in front same as the Vanguard who manages to push them further back.

The whole group together with no good reason to stay in place, the Spirit subtly grunts in irritation before nodding his head and announcing, “Let’s move,” as he begins his march forwards, leading the two but also the cluster of prisoners seeking their escape.

That escape though requires directly pushing against the pirates on the other side, although with hasty movements they all reach the intersection before the full horde can reach them.

Glancing first across all the cells while whispering to himself, “Come on, where are you…?”, the Spirit notes the continuous stream of pirates and turns the other way as he shouts the order: “Go the other way! We’ll hold them off!” as the workers oblige, shuffling in the opposite direction on their way through the next lane.

The Alchemist and Vanguard by his side, the three fend off against the assault, forming a barricade of their own power to allow the prisoners to all move together around the corner and begin their way into the next lane, and as they move further down the three begin stepping backwards to keep proximity.

However as they keep themselves between the workers and the main mob, some of the prisoners further ahead shriek in terror, grabbing the Spirit’s attention first followed by the Vanguard and then the Alchemist, all of them turning back to find that further down that lane towards the far last line of cells now appears another barricade but one in the form of pirates, ones instantly moved as one of them constantly appears, vanishes, and reappears grabbing the arm of a different pirate, using instant teleportation to block the path.

Noting the second wave, the Spirit grunts and determines, “I’ll stop them, you both guard the rear,” before he leaps forward and dashes straight through the crowd.

Racing through the pack to the other end in seconds, the Spirit steps in front of the group as they all flock behind him, letting him watch the growing barricade of pirates block their path.

One of the pirates teleported in is an elderly man in black robes similar to a priest, and he raises his hand up as a golden ray of light emits in front of his hand, a light that then reshapes and manifests into a construct in the shape of a cross the size of the man himself.

Beside him, pirates raise their handguns in preparation to fire, to which the Spirit raises his own hand and manifests a large spear with a tip that blinks red in preparation for an explosion, and he throws that spear straight at the crowd only for it to be suspended by the appearance of a wall of translucent golden light in front of the cross, catching it and absorbing its subsequent eruption.

Right after the miss, the drones above him open fire on the pirates, only for all the bolts to be again caught in the flashing wall. The color of the bolts change though, as the drones stop firing blue bolts but instead begin firing purple ones, ones designed for depowering electronic shields, and yet those too are absorbed by the wall with no indication of its power being sapped.

Tisking from the block, the Spirit raises both hands and emits flames that form the handle around his hands that connects to a large weapon that has the shape of a minigun, and the long barrel or rather set of barrels all clumped together begin rotating as a windup whir trails.

Holding the weapon steadily, the Spirit fires a rapid barrage of small darts from earlier, and despite the amount of darts being fired a second being uncountable, they’re all simply caught by the shield, failing to reach the targets who instead open fire of their own which bypasses the shield, forcing the Spirit to instead manifest a tall crystal wall in front of the group to protect them, unable to puncture their wall.

From above, the cluster gradually becomes cornered as the mob from behind advances despite the Alchemist and Vanguard’s deterrence, pushing the group further ahead towards the second mob who hail fire on the crystal wall, one that has to be replaced by another a couple feet further ahead to make space.

After a short glance back to the advancing army pushing the group further ahead, the Spirit grunts forward in the realization that they are slowly being crushed. He lowers his head in ponderance, knowing all that needs to be done is to penetrate the shield, and then they could easily push against the mob as in truth it wasn’t all that large, they were simply invincible given the barrier.

However, the barrier clearly wasn’t made of traditional energy as the A-P shots had no effect, but it wasn’t physical or at least made of a known material with a known weakness. Whereas some Exhumans had the power to manifest physical constructs that they could use as barriers such as those who could manifest metals which had defined weaknesses, some had abilities that provided them the power to form constructs that weren’t as identifiable, energy but not simply electricity. In fact, most of the time the closest neighbor to their energies was Exmatter itself, not nearly as concentrated but clearly derived from it, a purer technique of manifesting Exmatter and one that bypassed the limitations of physical material.

There was in fact only a single known weakness to this brand of energy, and one he had tried to pack into the darts he just shot: Anti-Exmatter. Though due to their physical containers as material darts which had to make skin contact with the target to let the Anti-Exmatter reach their system, the darts proved ineffective.

To bypass this pure shield would require a pure weapon, a form not restrained to physicality either. There is indeed one solution that contains these parameters: energy-based Anti-Exmatter. However, such a solution was only invented in the last decade, made during this Spirit’s absence, and thus he’s only known of its existence for a few weeks and hadn’t even produced it within a complex application. While he was curious about the technological advancements of the hundred worlds, he hadn’t quite moved on from other subjects weighing down his focus, yet that inadequacy of studying had now come for him with punishment. The research he had done on the energy was a solid basis, but research was different from applicative testing, and he only had truly done the first.

Though at this moment, there was no alternative. There was a single solution, and right now the lives of many were depending on his ability to produce it. So despite the stacked doubts weighing down on his shoulders, he raises his arm up, and holds his hand out.

Off his fingertips secrete azure flames which start to circle to create a thin cylinder in front of his hand, a battery. The battery colorizes to a dark gray metal with sparks of black electricity as more flames sprout from the fingers, creating wires that attach to the battery which control the sparks as they materialize into rubbery material as overlaying the entire mechanism is a shell with the same thin shape, almost resembling a katana’s hilt, which slowly moves around the battery first in quarters but then melds into halves that then connect whole. The hilt then colorizes into a metal piece which the black and white glove grabs tightly, and from the hilt extrudes a thin blade of pure black energy which hums magnetically, the tip sharp like a katana.

Planting one foot back and grabbing the hilt with his other hand too in a lowering stance, the Spirit exclaimed: “KOKEI, COVER THEIR FRONT” which catches the Vanguard’s attention just as the crystal wall abruptly combusts in a blue flame, and before that flame disperses the Spirit launches straight through the blaze.

Smiling devilishly with his wrinkles stretched across his face, the priest watches the slow crushing of the hopeful escapees, all of them repelled by the golden cross that inhibits their resistance, trapping them in the lane.

Though he only gets one instance of sensory capture to witness the splitting of that cross in half along the diagonal by the black blade wielded by the blue bolt, causing the cross to drift apart before fizzling out entirely, to which his expression falls in horror.

However, his next instance of sensory capture is after the bolt had passed him and now stands in the center of the mob all of whom stumble back in fright, for in the center of the mob stands the Spirit with his hand on the black blade drawn out, the tip grazing the floor, his cape slowly falling down.

Before it does though, the priest’s whole body flashes black before he then does, dropping on his knees in a pose like he’s praying before he then falls forward on his face.

Stumbling back in fear, the bandit who was previously teleporting the mob stammers, “Wait I’ll get mo-,” but he silences as the Spirit reappears past him, his blade now drawn higher up as his body is next to flash black before falling, the transporter gone.

That leaves the rest of the mob, who all focuses on the Spirit, one of them raising her hands and manifesting a fireball before she’s slashed in the chest, dispersing the fireball as her body flashes black as another man wielding a simple pistol fires at the Spirit who strafes in a quick dash simultaneous as he drops his left hand from the hilt to birth another flame forming a similar hilt but one that projects a blue blade just in time to slash through the shooter, neutralizing him in a second.

Now wielding a blue blade in one hand and a black in the other, the Spirit begins dashing through the mob as the prisoners behind him begin moving forwards, the Vanguard at the front able to freeze the few pirates who make a desperate dash for the prisoners, letting the Spirit focus on dispelling the horde itself as he moves in blue trails not bounded to the floor as he leaps with angled dashes, making quick work now that he was able to reach them.

Without the shield either, the Vanguard is able to deliver her own strikes as she expels a swarm of pink arcs that form a field over the remaining mob, freezing them in place against their will as after that it doesn’t take a full second for the remaining to collapse to the ground, whether flashing black before or dropping their weaponry on the floor.

Now all caught up together as the Vanguard reaches his side, the Spirit turns back to assess the resuming movement of the group which he nods to before then facing ahead and continuing onwards past the bodies.

Beyond that barricade now gone, the group reach the far end of the prison, the Spirit making his way to the wall of chambers with the one right in front of him on the ground level empty. He again makes a panoramic sweep first of that cell and then the cells neighboring it before turning around and examining the entire lane of cells along the edge, some of them still housing prisoners though they weren’t of the appearance of the one clearly on his mind.

He spaces out, his movements slowing down as he just surveys the huge array of chambers yet not a single one with what he’s searching for. As he just stares blankly, the sounds of the gunfire and shouting taper down in his mind, focusing away from the fight until he’s just standing still at the front of the empty cubicle, staring off into the distance as the hazy beings approach him.

A voice echoes towards him, gradually growing louder and clearer with notable rasp, and eventually that voice reaches full clarity same as the speaker that being the Alchemist who yells, “HEY NOW’S NOT THE TIME FOR A POWER NAP I’M THE ONLY ONE HOLDING THEM BACK!”

Immediately the Spirit shakes his head as he’s flooded with the roars and rings of gunshots, and he nods his head before requesting, “Kokei go help him,” and focusing on the translucent red window of the empty cell, extending his arm out and again producing flames to form the same huge orb the size of his torso, which again flashes blue before firing a huge energy beam with a shriek that lasts for just a quarter of a second longer than previously, again burning two holes.

The first is the one to the cell, but the second is through that cell, past not only the rubber tiles, metal linings of the walls, but every other layer of the vehicle leading to the outer metallic wood shell and out into the open blue sky, the one that immediately begins sucking in the air as the whole group shows terror with yelps as their bodies are dragged towards the hole for just a second before the Spirit emits a second flame through said hole which forms a short enclosed sky bridge whose end has a translucent blue shield that combats the pressure, blocking the flow of air out and freeing the group with relieved sighs.

With the opening now made, the Spirit relinquishes the orb cannon but keeps one hand aimed through the bridge which he fires another flame through, a longer one as well which travels through the tunnel into the other end before expanding rapidly, spreading to form an interior space that only a second later hardens and textures to what resembles a bus interior given the visible aisle in between black seats and the windows on the far wall, providing view to the great blue sky ahead: freedom.

He then turns back towards the crowd and announces, “All of you, get inside! Single file line!” which is immediately followed as the head of the workers step in through the hole of the next cell, back into the type of rooms they were previously trapped in, but now the cell functions as a passageway to escape as they step through the sky bridge and into the bus interior, walking down the aisle one by one as they vanish from view.

Given the passage’s completion, the Spirit moves back up alongside the Vanguard and Alchemist who continue firing down on the approaching mob, now just needing to hold this point for a shorter time.

Furthermore, the three stand in front of a mob that’s depleting quickly, for most of the guards in the room have been defeated. While the prison room was exceptionally guarded, though that’s understandable given its purpose, after the long battle the numbers were finally dwindling. They of course were not a small group, for they were still factors larger than the three fighters, but the threat they posed were dropping with their remainders.

As the three maintain the wall to protect the evacuating workers, one of them with the voice of Thompson beseeches, “Wait sir, what about Dana?” to which the Spirit turns around to face him, finding that of all the workers, he’s the only one disobeying the evacuation order.

Glancing past his shoulder to confirm such, the Spirit nods his head and assures, “I’ll get her, looks like the room’s clearing up.”

Thompson nods his head, though still there’s reluctance in his body as well as his voice when he then timidly requests, “Yeah I see…hey I hope it’s fine, but I think I’m going to wait until I can see Dana for myself. I’m the one in charge of this mission, and if I can’t confirm her safety then…well…I just can’t let that happen. I hope that’s fine with you.”

Stunned by the sudden conviction to stand in a battlefield still lethal, the Spirit tilts his head for a moment in contemplation, but ultimately nods his head and permits as he turns around to face the shrinking horde, “Very well, but I advise getting behind the wall of the cell for safety-,” before silencing as his head perks up just subtly.

Behind the mask the world was tinted with a faint shade of blue, but through those parallelogram lenses is the prison room where down that lane are the remaining guards still charging though with fewer numbers where their battle deficiencies begin to shine when paired against opponents who’ve lived many lives. But they are not the focus, for beyond them past the crowd far down the many intersections of the long lane, past the closed other door at the very end of the lane on the opposite side of the car is the cell across, the cell whose translucent red walls provide view of the woman in the dress suit chained up, her head low as her face was obscured by amber bangs.

Immediately upon contact of sight, Meditat steps forward and determines, “I see her!” in a voice still serious especially given the inhuman distortions, and yet through those distortions there’s a certain gleam in the voice, excitement almost childlike.

He marches past the Vanguard and Alchemist as he emits two flames from his hands to reforge his twin hilts of blue and black blades simultaneously with his request: “Both of you, hold this point, I’ll clear some of them on my way,” as Thompson peers past his shoulder in curiosity but curiosity optimistic.

From a steady walk to a jog, the Spirit advances towards the remaining pirates many of whom are already being frozen by swarms of pink arcs before being struck by colorful bolts, but those managing to weave the rapid fire are met abruptly with the twin blades as the warrior drives through the crowd, slashing his way as he transitions to a full sprint, leaping over collapsed bodies as he leaps and spins, only providing his enemies the chance to reveal their Exhuman abilities in windup but not the time to even administer a strike before he slashes them down, their bodies flashing black as they’re stripped of those very abilities before using them.

Bolting through the horde with graceful movements, the Spirit reaches the other side where now there’s no obstacles between himself and the cell on the other end, and after he spins back to manifest a crystal wall behind himself to block a gunshot aimed for him, he turns forward and projects a cable from his hand onto the bridge above, pulling himself in the air and swinging faster on his way towards the last prisoner, and his best friend.

Closer and closer he gets, passing the first intersection and approaching the second intersection with the door, the one that opens.

And with that opening comes a great flood of men and women, all pouring into the room along with bellows and roars, raising firearms and maces along with floating rocks and purple orbs of energy.

And in that moment, Meditat abruptly stops in place, his cable detaching and his body boosting backwards to instantly suspend his momentum, letting him drop back to the ground as every single member of the flood turns to him, all of them gathered in front of him with such density that the sight of the last prisoner obscures.

Standing in place, utterly dumbfounded by the new wall, the Spirit just takes a step back, and then another, and then he leaps backwards with a boost emitting from his chest, propelling him backwards as cables project from his hips the other direction, reeling him from the chasing wave that just birthed at the last’s death.

Finally getting a shot on the last standing pirate whose body becomes encased in a huge block of ice that then slides subtly forwards before stopping against the pile of other bodies, the Alchemist sighs in relief before raising his head up at that moment of the crowd’s entrance, finding the Spirit retreating back as he now groans whereas the Vanguard steps forward in concern.

The Spirit spins around to land right in front of the two, stumbling forwards as Kokei gravely asks, “Where’s Dana??” to which the Spirit sighs and admits in shame, “On the other side, we can get her but we can’t have the rest sit out here.”

He then passes her to approach Thompson who hadn’t moved from his place.

While his position hasn’t changed, Thompson’s expression has fallen from anticipation to dread as he hears those fateful words, “I need you to get inside the pod.”

Clenching his teeth in reluctance, Thompson lowers his head and contends miserably, “Wait no I can’t leave her, I need to see her safe-.”

“Please Thompson,” interjects the voice that raises his head up.

Staring straight at Thompson in front of the chasing mob with no end, his back turned away as his two allies glanced down the lane that was just cleaned, the Spirit raises his head and asserts boldly, “I need you to get inside the vehicle, you are no longer safe here.”

Jittering in anxiety, Thompson cries out, “But I can’t leave her-.”

“I’ll save her,” again interrupts the voice, cutting Thompson off.

Standing in front of the tsunami of pirates, the Spirit focuses exclusively on Thompson as he declares, “I’ll save Dana and bring her home safely. I promise that. Now I need you to save the rest of your team, and get inside the pod.”

Clenching his teeth in agony to the difficult decision, Thompson finally lowers his head and sighs, accepting although in a dreary voice: “Okay…I’ll do that. I…I trust you, Meditat.”

Nodding his head, the Spirit responds back, “I’ll maintain that.”

Taking in a deep breath and exhaling it out through his nose in a huff, Thompson raises his head up to meet the Spirit’s blue gaze, and he toughens his expression even if slightly, at least able to perform a firm nod.

Then he turns around and dashes into the cell, running along inside the sky bridge and to the other side as the final member of the evacuation.

Jogging through the bridge, Thompson steps into the bus interior, the long aisle in between the pairs of seats, and along the walls are two strips of window screens with the one to the right showing the adjacent golden brown wooden exterior of the train and the one to the left exhibiting the bright blue sky to freedom, nearly all the seats full of the rest of his team in the crowd waiting to escape to it. He gazes down the aisle as though hoping to spot the person he knew wasn’t there anyways, and he turns to where he knew her to be, back down that tunnel.

The doubts still linger on his face, but after one more sigh, he turns back and sits himself on one of the empty seats right by the front near the door, which was left likely for the leader of the company, but now that leader would need to take a different seat. The workers glance at him, all of their faces anxious, for they understand the weight of his seat choice.

Past his shoulder, Thompson watches as a cloud emerges over the door of the bus, covering the tunnel and allowing him one last glimpse of the prison before the cloud materializes into the opening, isolating the bus from the exit.

The engines then awaken with a roar falling back to a hum, and as he watches the window strip of the train’s exterior, he views the bus’s distancing as the escape pod separates from the station, taking flight and moving away as it nearly immediately starts angling upwards for it seems the train rotates from his point of reference.

The engine’s hum starts to grow again as through the window he watches the bus climb past the train, finally able to catch a glimpse of the fortress he was stuck at as all the other workers do too, staring in awe at the massive golden halo in the sky amongst the clouds that progressively grows further and smaller.

In the sky flies the large bus pod with a screen exterior that gives it a blue body with white swirls, mimicking the clouds behind it, though those swirls animate in motion as the bus climbs higher. The engine grows louder from just an intense hum back to a full roar as it accelerates like a rocket, blasting off for the clouds above, the back of the bus white like the swirls it vanishes into.

For the bus has left the battlefield, evacuating the original team from the colossal golden ring in the sky, the metal tunnel still jutting out of the body though difficult to discern given the scale of the structure comparatively.

Inside said structure, the three Bellators stand side by side as the massive wave of bandits flood in, bandits of different sizes as there are those the height of children and those towering like bears, all of them in outfits of various styles and colors, but all of them seeking one objective: the defeat of the three intruders.

First to move is the one in the center as the Spirit launches forward, slashing one of the brutes in the chest as a clump of reinforcements are surrounded by pink arcs all emitting from the Vanguard’s arm before she swings it forward, commanding the field to throw them back as the Alchemist fires rapid bolts that splurts purple spikes and blue walls.

Slowly but surely the three advance forwards as the Spirit releases three streams over him each creating spherical drones that immediately open rapid fire as he also emits a vast array of more rays higher up, all of them stopping over the second floor and shaping to long cylinders with conal tips before completing to be a barrage of missiles that all are released to fire straight ahead just as a set of the pirates are suspended still by a pink wave, subjecting them to the bombardment along with others unable to defend themselves, and those who do are shot back by the Alchemist yet more enter through the door as the three pass the first intersection.

Yet instead of standing back, the Spirit immediately advances straight for them, his body low with blades in each hand as he leaps forward and propels himself with a burst and slashes the center as the edges are shot rapidly and thrown back, pushing the line forward aggressively as they climb towards the red translucent door, pushing directly against the curved flood.

Wave after wave, there was no end to this army, for in truth the force they faced was merely the security team inhabiting a single room. They had only explored three, and judging off the size of the train when originally inspected, it was not even a quarter of the entire vessel.

As the Alchemist lets the Vanguard pass her so he can flick his handgun and eject the cylinder, letting the empty flasks drop on the floor and shatter without regard but instead focusing on the full flasks he pulls from inside his coat to reload, the Spirit marches at the front though close enough to the three that he can rely on their defenses, for in truth he’s become more reliant on their strengths over the course of this first mission.

Closer they reach to the center of the room, exactly where the door is, stepping into the second intersection, relentless in their combat, not slowing down but only speeding up as the Spirit’s strikes become more aggressive, swifter and with greater ambition.

The horde begins to backtrack from the push, as despite them being continually fed they’re still struggling to push back against the three intruders. As fields of arcs raise bandits off their feet and in the air to be shot down, others are caught in the whirlwinds of energy blades, and finally the three manage to reach the main door that they’re streaming through.

Blades still in both hands, the Spirit aims his right hand to the doorway as his fingertips fire a blue blaze towards the incoming pirates on the other side, and while the blaze doesn’t strike those pirates, the doorway they’re attempting to reach becomes sealed not by its original door but instead one made of frosty crystal, thin enough that a translucent view of the pirates on the other side is given through a view distorted by the fragmentation of the raw crystal texturing.

The pirates on the other side come to a halt, leaving those who managed to pass through before the blockade to battle against the warriors led by the Spirit who moves into a full sprint upon shutting the door, racing through the wave as he spins and slashes while being protected as others right beside him are shot with green and yellow bolts on his right side as on his left he watches pirates get wrapped in fields of pink electricity before being pulled away, helping him clear his path through the horde by the Vanguard and Alchemist running right behind him, trying their best to keep up as they approach the third and last intersection.

Towards the back of the horde, one of the pirates dressed in an oversized gray shirt with red overalls turns around to face the direction they’re approaching, and upon doing so his eyes widen in revelation. He immediately slaps the shoulder of a man in a flight bomber jacket who turns to face him, wearing strangely large sunglasses over his head as he opens his mouth to bellow in annoyance, though stops himself.

For the act of turning around reveals to him the justification, and so his jaw drops for he didn’t even realize what was on the other side at first. He then turns to face his ally and the two nod their heads, and without needing to communicate their idea, they bolt off away from their group and down the open lane.

On the other end of the mob, the Spirit encases his fist in a huge metal gauntlet with black panels on his knuckles which he flare a bright light upon the uppercut of one of the taller brutes, tossing his body high in the air as for a moment they both fly above the crowd.

Though in that moment, the Spirit’s focus diverges from the man he just struck and instead to the two random pirates running the other way, at first seemingly in terrified retreat from the fight, but upon following their directional path it becomes clear that their justifications are far less out of cowardice and more out of malice.

Landing back on the ground with a roll, the Spirit’s intensity reaches its maximum as he lowers his stance and races as fast as he can, focusing on small quick creations with a small Anti-Exmatter energy dagger in the ribs of one man and then throwing a reflective ball at another which bounces off the face of the man and straight into another at an altered path not normal to its angle of impact, all as he powers through the field of bandits being stuck together by blue slime or being raised in the air by webs of pink electricity, those of whom catch the Spirit’s attention who jumps forward and grabs onto a twelve foot mechanical battle mech with a heavy metal body equipped with large guns on its arms and a transparent window shield on the front revealing the girl inside it wearing over the ear headphones, though she quakes back upon watching the Spirit grab onto that window shield with his fingers reinforced with claws that penetrate the glassy material, allowing him to speedily crawl up the mech so he can throw himself on top of the horde to then aim his hand at the cluster of bodies in the air, projecting a blue cable onto one of the bodies and jerking his arm back to pull himself towards them as an anchor point to swing off of, landing his foot on the head of a brute as a jumping point as he propels himself to the brute’s expensive, whose body is crushed to the floor, allowing the Spirit to finally reach past the horde and gain sight of the two running pirates just reaching the cell.

He reaches his hands forward and swiftly projects cables and tugs for a quick zip that flings his body straight with an aggressive roar of his own at the two pirates who turn around with terrified faces upon identifying their pursuer who arches his arms back as his frosty knuckles flare bright, the man in the overalls turning around and raising his hands to project a wall formed out of traditional red bricks connected with white cement to protect themselves as his ally reaches for the door just as the Spirit throws both of his open hands straight through the brick wall with such intensity that it results in an overwhelming shockwave that not only propels the two pirates forward but combusts the wall behind them entirely, the red translucent projection flickering away to reveal the brown rubber tiles that are ripped apart from the sheer force of the strike alone which isn’t even meant to be a punch but rather a grab as he snatches both of the pirates by the collar, all of their bodies airborne as they soar into the rubber room, the Spirit’s cape dancing in the air same as his hood as the two pirates flail their bodies helplessly amongst the debris of tiles and bricks flung into the air in all directions, all in front of the prisoner who finally lifts her head up.