It was a good thirty minutes past twelve o'clock, the sky had lost it's blue hue, and was now black with dotted white stars. Usually, the sky was clouded over, blocking the sight of the night sky, but tonight, it was clear. "You can rarely see the stars this well in Hollow Bastion, it's beautiful, isn't it?" The soft voice of Shizuka drifted, as her eyes counted stars. She was sitting atop a twenty story building, her legs dangling off the edge of the roof. The view from here was impressive, there weren't many tall buildings in Hollow Bastion, so she could see for miles around, not that she was looking at the city below at the moment, for it could hardly be called breathtaking. The city had become one giant ghetto, the streets were dirty with trash and grime, many buildings looked like they could fall over if you leaned on them wrong. Shizuka wished she could enjoy the view of the city from here, but all it did was upset her and make her think of a better time.

"We're on a mission right now, you can look at the stars later, they aren't going anywhere." A male's voice sounded in her head, brought to her via a small device in her left ear. Shizuka scrunched up her nose, begrudgingly looking back down at the city. "Do you see anything?" He asked. There was a large and wide building below her, a military storehouse.

"Not right now, just the ordinary patrols. Two at the front gate, and another three walking around in the compound. Oh, and the tank. Hey Ace, how do you think they got that thing in there? It's too big to fit through the gate." She looked at the tank in question, it might have been more accurate to call it a moving fortress, she imagined it was what happened when a tank mated with an armory.

"Beats me, maybe it was air lifted in.... Hold on." Shizuka swung her legs as she waited, she was supposed to be getting a signal when things should start. She stood on the edge of the roof, and her eyes widened as the front gates of the compound blew apart in a fiery explosion. That was as good a signal as any. She grabbed hold of a pair of chimney pipes, and began to back up. Her arms took on the texture of rubber, and stretched. Once her arms were taut, she let go of the pipes, and rocketed forwards. Her hair blew wildly as she soared through the air, though in an instant her hair was frozen in place, as her entire body took on a metallic sheen. Balling up a fist, she reached out forwards as she fell down towards her target. She slammed into the side of the tank, which had just started up after the gate was destroyed. Shizuka exited cleanly out the other side of the tank, which was now broken beyond repair.

Meanwhile, Ace and a group of other members of the Unbound Hearts stormed the compound. Gunfire erupted as the remaining three guards opened fire. Stepping out in front, Ace drew his katana. With dexterous flicks of his wrist he deflected the machine gun fire, and easily cleaved through the guards as he closed the distance. "The garrison isn't too far from here, reinforcements will be here soon, let's hurry." Ace said, sheathing his blade. Shizuka nodded, and they both rushed into the storehouse. Their goals were simple, steal the Empire's cache of food and weapons, and leave them crippled in Hollow Bastion. They greatly out numbed them, so subterfuge was their only option to gain an upper hand.

If there was one feeling the Trisean prized over any other, it was the feeling of flowing through the air, propelling himself with his whips on rooftops and lamp posts. It carried a certain freedom from gravity, as though you could just leap off into the sky and never touch the ground. While gliding through the air in his own, unique matter, Trisean always carried an incredible smirk of amusement, and he certainly had one on his face right now. The only damper on his mood was the state of Hollow Bastion as he swung across its cityscape. Once upon a time, he had believed this squalor to be necessary part of the empire. But that had been a different man altogether. The man flying through the city now had every intention of freeing the citizens from their poor condition.

Despite Trisean's status in the empire as a traitor, he had absolutely no fear of being spotted and reported by the populace or some stray patrol. If there was only one lesson that Trisean had taken from the empire, it was that discretion could make or break a mission. As such, he made sure to swing through the alleys and over rooftops in a silent and concealed manner. He wasn't perfect, but it would suffice for his purposes.

Eventually, he stopped on a rooftop overlooking a storehouse of the empire. Trisean alighted upon the edge, and his whips coiled back onto his forearms, taking the appearance of the lower half of his jacket's sleeves. It was a convenience that occasionally allowed him to escape notice of a curious guard on the street levels. Trisean pulled out a pair of binoculars, and got a look at the gate. The objective of the day was to raid the storehouse of both food and weapons before reinforcements arrived. A textbook operation that Trisean had a unique degree of specialty in. His knowledge of certain empire facilities proved invaluable in such operations. Though Trisean had only been stationed here for a cursory examination once, it had been enough to inform him of an exploitable vent in the roof. He was easily able to pass off gaining this information by claiming to have "cornered some idiot guard who had been taking a piss in an alley", and "put the screws to him".

Trisean checked his watch, then checked his binoculars again. The time to strike was nearly upon them. He quietly muttered to himself, "Any second....." Just at that moment, the gates were consumed in a ball of fire. "Bingo!" he declared. His whips uncoiling, he latched onto the roof of the storehouse, and pulled himself up in the confusion. Finding the vent with ease, he forcefully pulled the cover off. Intel suggested that there would be another force inside the storehouse. Trisean clenched his eyes, and focused. His body crackled with electricity, and when his eyes opened, the whites of his eyes had turned to a bright yellow, contrasting his red irises. Whips uncoiled, and also crackling with lightning, Trisean slid through the vent. He popped out through the ceiling of the storehouse, and landed on an elevated catwalk. About three guards patrolled inside, one on the catwalk and two on the ground.

By sheer luck, one of the guards was positioned near his entry point. Before anyone could react, Trisean already had a whip flying towards his neck. It wrapped around, and both strangled him and electrocuted him at the same time. At this point, the guards on the floor realized their predicament, and began to open fire. Trisean removed his whip from the guards neck with a simple wrist flick, and leaped of the catwalk in a flip with an almost inhuman speed. In midair, he fired a bolt of lighting from his hand, frying the second guard like an egg. Upon landing, he coiled a whip around the last guard's ankle, and pulled him towards him and to the ground. Trisean lunged, and pressed his hand against the guard's chest, shocking it until the poor fool's heart stopped.

Just as he finished the last guard off, his friends and allies, Shizuka and Ace, came running into the storehouse. Trisean grinned, and flourished with a facetious bow. "Ladies and gentlemen, your order of one slightly used Empire storehouse is served." he intoned. He quickly stood up again, and took on a slightly more serious demeanor. "Just as planned, I hope? Limited resistance so far. What's our next move?"

Some distance away from the Imperial Storehouse of Hollow Bastion and the armed response that was no doubt on route to it due to the chaos that was underway, a woman stood under a street lamp. By the standards of Hollow Bastion she was quite a good looking woman but for those that didn't have to spend their life living in a gutter with no hope of ever escaping it, it was clear that the woman was tired and hagged from her profession and living conditions. Her choice of outfit and the way that she stood was less to find a 'Mr Right' and more to find a 'Mr Right Amount'.

Said woman had been touching up her make up after a busy session with a client when the light she had been using died on her. Glancing up to glare at the latest sign that the Empire didn't even care enough about their world to keep the lights working only to freeze at the inhuman yellow gaze in the darkness that stared back from its position on top of the street lamp. Taking a step backwards, the woman froze as she bumped into something... something that was breathing very heavily. Turning around with a swing born of fear, things happened almost to quickly to follow. A hand like iron grasped her wrist, breaking it as a fist like a sludge hammer planted itself into her stomach hard, knocking the air out of her and causing her to double over. The fist to the stomach quickly changed to a vice grip wrapped around her neck, lifting her off the group and slamming her back into the now lightless street lamp.

Just another statistic of Hollow Bastion's night that no one would really care about.
...............................................................................................

Edward licked his lips as he took a moment to fix up his jacket and make sure his pants were buttoned up.

All in all it had been a rather pleasurable experience, if a little lackluster. Sure it had been fun and he would do it again in a heartbeat, but he had clearly over hyped it in his head a fair bit. Turning towards the nearest creature of darkness, Edward simply said in a voice of one who couldn't care less "She's all yours. Have fun." as he walked away, leaving the broken and bleeding body for the living shadows of the Heartless to do what they pleased to her.

It was only when he was quite a far distance away from the scene when he ducked into an alleyway at random and changed. A thug that had been hiding in said alleyway, waiting for someone to ambush ran out into the street and continued running into the night in sheer terror at the sheer wrongness of what he had witnessed, never speaking a word about it to anyone for the rest of his life for fear of being considered insane.

..................................................................................................

The first thing that Henry did was throw up in the alleyway he found himself standing in.

Once that was over with, shaking and using a wall for support, he mattered seemingly to himself "Never again."

The voice that answered him came out of his own mouth, but it was quite clearly the voice of the being that had walked into the alleyway before and not the one of the man standing there now. There was a humored mocking tone as it answered "You see, I would be more inclined to believe you if you hadn't said that the last time. Or the time before that. In fact, you've broken that vow so many times that I'm surprised that anyone can still consider you a man of your word since its clearly worth less then dirt, Leroy."

"Shut up and leave me be Andormu." Henry bit back, his shaking slowly subsiding as he forced himself back to his own two feet. He needed to get back to base before everyone else made it there to make sure that he was ready to treat any injuries from tonight's raid. "You're a damn monster and I await the day that I will end you."

" Oh Leroy, that hurts. Not as much as the woman but it hurts." Edward replied, his tone and follow up chuckle showing just how much he cared about empty promises. "You can bark all you want but from the lack of progress you've been making..."

"SHUT UP!" Henry screamed, cutting his darker half off before it could continue onwards. Tonight was already going to be long enough as it was...

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~~~~~~Hollow Bastion / Unknown ~~~~~~

The only source of light within the room came from a single wall, its entire surface covered in various types of machinery. Monitors and lights of different sizes took up most of its space, along with the odd sight of clumped up cables peeking out through the gaps, while a massive keyboard styled object sat flatly on the large desk that directly faced this wall of light.

Each of the monitors seemed to focus on a particular subject, some were of the streets throughout Bastion itself, both the newly developed districts that were always being renovated since the Empire took control and those of what most people referred to now as merely the slums of the city. Wherever the machines that were broadcasting these images were, it was clear the state in their repair was shown in their work.

Guardsmen quickly mobilized as red lights flared, all silently through the monitor for the sole figure who remained in the room watching the screens. The decimation from an explosion seemed to be more than enough to take out the camera for one of the monitors, it showing nothing but static the entire time since something happened.

It was the monitor next to this though that appeared to show the end result of this. A bird’s eye view from the far corner of the warehouse revealed light pouring in from the sole entrance to the building, its large doors having been removed and allowing a steadily growing group of figures to just walk right in.

As all this went on, a metal covered finger lightly tapped against the surface of the desk, its sharp point always hitting the same spot and digging further into the metal desk with every precise puncture. The only time the figure seemed to change this clockwork like pattern, was just as the finger was lifting up, this time coming down on a small chain of key presses on the keyboard, the symbols that labelled the board of some strange origin and possibly only meaning something to the figure itself. Once finished though, the metal finger went back to its dull continuous tapping, even as the warehouse monitor showed stirring from just beneath the camera, in the shadows.

~~~~~~ Hollow Bastion / Storehouse District ~~~~~~

The large storehouse remained for the most part covered in darkness, the only source of light coming from the blazing of the tank destroyed by Shizuka and those of the remaining lights circling the outside compound. Boxes and crates were stacked up to the rafters throughout the storehouse, the place most likely a maze with mountains of most probably anything towering above everyone.

“Just as planned, I hope? Limited resistance so far. What’s out next move?” Trisean asked as he entered the building with Shizuka and Ace, the answer to that question suddenly coming in the form of gunfire just barely missing their feet.

“Your next move is going to be getting down on your knees, Unbound scum!!”

Standing before the three who had just decimated the outside security, now stood a group of no more than five of the Empire’s soldiers, their weapons aimed right at those who believed they could just walk right into the place.

“Back-Up’s already been dispatched, you lot’s got nowhere else to go now!” Said the Captain, his sight aimed right on the one who so easily took out the tank outside, However, just like the rest of the man’s squad, his sight was so focused on those ahead of them, that they never noticed or reacted to the growing presence and appearance of bright purple lights from behind them in the shadows.

It was just a flurry of scrambled screams and shouts as one by one the soldiers were pulled backwards into the darkness, away from any source of light that could reveal what was happening to them at that moment. Wild gunfire from time to time would fling out and randomly hit some of the crates or walls of the storehouse, some even missing the Unbound Hearts, but it was only a matter of seconds until even this form of resistance stopped and silence fell throughout the storehouse.

The sound of rummaging metal on metal was the next thing to come, followed by the same bright purple lights as before, staring out of the shadows towards the intruders once more. The cobbled together mess that came into sight for the first time, could probably only be closely resembled to that of a wolf. The body composed of the torn pieces of armour normally worn by the Empire’s lowest soldiers, the generic components that made up the most commonly available rifles, and that of numerous dark purple gears which joined all these mismatched parts like joints.

What started off as one creature soon grew to a whole pack, each one slightly unique in style but still made up of the same pieces of blood splattered metal. With a single loud howl from the lead creature, the others of the pack quickly leapt towards higher ground and darkness, some arching around the hills of crates and pouncing on some of the more unfortunate members of the Unbound Hearts, while the Alpha creature slowly slunk back into the shadows, its bright purple eyes flickering off as it disappeared.

A soft amused hum was barely audible in one of many rooms within the Imperial storehouse. The ‘finest’ soldiers in this place were still weak when it came to expecting the unexpected, and for all the armor they chose to wore it did very little good. Helmet’s restricted vision – you traded head protection for a weaker peripheral – and that was one of the worst trades imaginable when all you were expected to do was follow a simple patrol pattern for several hours before you punched out and left for the day. With nimble fingers dancing across the keys of the prized computer, the infiltrator of this base was beginning to download what sensitive information she could onto a compact disc. Drawing out lists of shipments and patrol shifts while being sure to memorize what she could on her own, the alluring assassin was mighty casual for having not gotten out of the woods yet. The confidence in her skills was evident in how little she cared to finish one of a handful of men that had been in this room dozing off. Hearing him cling to life behind her, coughing and trying hopelessly to contain the blood that pooled at his abdomen, the emerald eyes of the one who killed him were directed at his dying form.

“You know, I kind of liked you. As angry as you were that I slit your friend’s throats, you were cute enough to give me a good long look before you ended up …well, messy.” No exaggeration necessary; this woman knew the kind of stares she could gather, and the best kind of open combat was when she was being eyed at with a lustful glare. Victory was sweeter when they found it impossible to focus, her eyes, her chest and hips, all were focused at one time or another. Then you had the boring types who really wanted to win and didn't pay her any mind, those were the worst kind of people to kill. All the yelling and the name calling they did really just knew how to kill a good mood.

“Y…y….you…”

“Hm?” Turning around on her heel, the assassin took note that the download was almost complete. In the final moments with a casualty of her next payday, the honor of having a full view wasn’t too much to ask. This nameless grunt seemed to be trying to put something together, but the combination of blood loss and her beauty was likely to make that difficult. After several moments and a haggard coughing up of blood and spit, Rika eagerly awaited his final set of words and had a smile on her face in anticipation.

“They’ll get you …for this….”

Immediately frowning, the woman brought both heads behind her head and sighed heavily. Out of everything he could’ve said, it had to be the stupid old ‘rawr, my buddies are gonna get ya’ intimidation move. With the last of the files ticking away and the progress bar nearly full, perhaps some final words for him were in order too. Looking him directly in the eyes, something he was clearly having trouble focusing on with the constant wandering of her body, the assassin stuck out her tongue at him for a moment.

“That was boring! Besides, even as you say that you’re still checking me out, so that kind of ruins the whole scare factor.” Stepping forward, she had come to a stop several inches in front of the dying soldier and knelt down. In spite of his comrades lying all across the room with throats all slit, there wasn’t a drop of blood to be found across her outfit or skin. “Now, let’s pretend I’m your boss. I come in to find a super computer without data, all the men assigned to protect said computer dead, and not a trace of the culprit anywhere to be found. Your Empire isn't exactly welcome with open arms, but no ordinary citizen could be capable of this. Where does the attention go?” An opportunity to respond was given, but the guy was fading fast. “That’s right, the rebels. Who would suspect an eighteen year old young woman to be capable of such precision and brilliance? So I guess when we combine everything I said with the simple fact you guys are basically amateurs in armor, I can come to the conclusion that no, no one is getting me for this.”

Gently patting his head, she had stood up and moved back to the computer finding that the disc had already ejected. Everything on that computer was copied onto it, and as she slipped the prize through her top and securely in her cleavage the data on the machine itself was now erasing everything she had just taken for herself. “When you get to hell, let Death know that Rika Masaki sent—“an explosion rattled the entire facility and Rika had frozen, looking up towards the ceiling and cutting her off from her previous train of thought. Certainly the guards weren’t the smartest but even they didn’t just randomly cause explosions. Everything pointed to the rebels that fought against the Empire, but strangely enough Rika felt no huge concern. This was an ideal situation to get in contact with the people who would be paying her for what she had taken after all, so long as she made it to the main warehouse itself she already had the rights to the loot.

“Things are about to get exciting, aren’t they?” Turning a mischievous grin towards her bleeding friend, his head was flat on the ground, eyes shut and body still. Succumbing to the severe injury she dealt to his abdomen, the last soldier had moved on. “Well, at least you got to die to a beautiful sight: Me. Ciao!” Blowing the fallen soldiers a kiss, the smooth and deadly form of Rika Masaki vanished from sight and had begun to hustle to the main warehouse itself. If the rebels thought they’d stake claim to everything she worked to secure, they had another thing coming.

"Intel, Trisean, we need to find a computer and-" The sound of guns going off alerted Ace, though he knew immediately no pieces of lead were headed his way, as none had entered his 'domain.' He turned around to see five soldiers, each posed to shoot. Their captain singled Shizuka out, threatening her specifically, her eyes widened and she pointed to herself in astonishment.

"What? What did I do?" She asked, looking like a child that had been falsely accused of stealing from the cookie jar. She turned to Ace, sticking her thumb out at him. "He's the one that blew up your gate!"

"Well you destroyed their tank..." Ace retorted, averting his eyes.

"H-hey, they didn't need to know that!" Shizuka shook Ace's shoulder, but the both of them fell silent as they noticed the presence behind the empire soldiers. Whatever it was, it was picking the soldiers off like a monster in a horror movie. The sounds of desperate gunfire died down, leaving an unsettling absence of noise. Metallic shuffling could then be heard, with sinister violet light staring them down like prey. A loud clank was heard as one of the metallic beasts leaped onto a member of the UH, before his jugular could be ripped open Shizuka sprinted over and kicked the wolf in it's head, shattering it and spilling it's gears on the ground like the organs of a giant watch. "This is..." She picked up one of the tainted pieces of metal, she had it's sensation before, she could never forget a substance like this. she yelled out to Ace. "It's the gear head! Run ahead, I'll hold him off here!" They still had an important objective to complete, they couldn't afford to be stalled here for too long.

Ace understood, he began to run for a door exiting into a hallway. Two wolves jumped into his path, growling with a sound that reminded him of the screeching on chalkboards. His pace did not slow down, the beasts leaped for him, and Ace drew his blade, his sword cleaved through the metal flesh, sparking as it passed through them. The would be hunters clanked to the ground, and he rushed into the halls. An alarm was blaring, likely alerting the entire block that something was going on here. The halls were empty for now, as the storehouse's security was surprisingly lax. After barging into multiple rooms he found what he was looking for, a computer, but something was wrong. There were multiple dead men in this room, each clearly killed swiftly and with little to no resistance. As far as he knew, no other UH members had been here yet. Clenching his teeth in irritation he quickly accessed the database and searched for any valuable information, but there was none. "The hell?... There should be at least something here. Did they know we were coming and wiped the data?... No, that's not possible." He looked back to the bodies on the ground, they had been beaten here. After a minute of searching the computer's files in futility he slammed his fist on the keyboard, and left the room. If they couldn't get any intel, they could at least get the supplies in the storehouse. He made is way back, only to find that Shizuka had taken care of the pack of wolves, destroying them with her bare hands. But there was still the issue of the man that had created them. Before they could take the supplies, he needed to be dealt with.

Trisean jumped as the gunfire whizzed by. His whips immediately uncoiled, as he spotted about 5 empire soldiers pointing guns at them. Trisean certainly wasn't intimidated, however. If anything, he was offended that they weren't considered that much of a threat. Still, Trisean clearly looked nonplussed, with a big grin on his face. "Ahh. The welcome wagon." he said as they ordered him to get on his knees. He glanced at his watch, and looked back up, clearly amused. "Wow. Record time, too. What's the occasion?" He couldn't help but smirk as Ace and Shizuka began to bicker over who the soldiers' guns should be pointed at. "Ladies, please. You're both pretty." he said sarcastically to end the bickering. "Now could you please focus on...." Trisean fell silent as he saw strange, purple lights appear behind the soldiers. He raised an eyebrow as the soldiers were pulled back into the shadows. Trisean had no idea what it was, but it didn't sound like it would be good for there health.

As the metallic dogs began to pile in, Trisean immediately knew who they were up against. It could only be the work of the ever mysterious Dr. Nomis. The UH had encountered his work a few times before, and Trisean had run a few "errands" for him in his stint with the empire. Of everyone he had information on in the empire, Dr. Nomis was probably the one he had the least on. He had met Nomis personally only once, and the experience had been unnerving. He hadn't been able to get a read on him or his intentions at all. It was likely that the whole "friendly old man" bit was just a mask. As for his constructs, Trisean had also only encountered them once before joining the UH, in the form of poorly timed reinforcements, at least for his squad. As one of the constructs lunged for him, Trisean swung his whip at the perfect moment, sending the construct flying across the room.

When Shizuka told them to complete the objective, Trisean ran off with Ace, He whistled with awe as as Ace carved through two wolves that had ambushed them, and fired a bolt of lightning at one that had been following them, As the alarms blared all throughout the storehouse while Trisean and Ace ran through the hallways, Trisean said "Well, Ace, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men." When they finally found the computer, Trisean was immediately surprised by the bodies. They hadn't sent anyone through here yet, and there was practically no sign of struggle. That, if anything, put Trisean on edge. Now they had an unknown force to contend with. Hearing the irritation in Ace's voice, he ran over to the computer and took a look. All of the data was gone. Someone had beaten them here. Trisean swore under his breath. They had provided this unknown force with the perfect cover.

As Ace ran out of the room, Trisean stayed behind. Something still felt off. Seeing a dead body slumped on the floor, he went over and had a closer look. He checked it over for wounds, seeing precise stabs across his body. That wasn't it though. Something was still wrong, but he couldn't quite see what...... Trisean suddenly gasped with realization.

The body was still warm.

Trisean ran for a nearby vent in the hallway, ripping the grate off the wall, and knowing full well it led to the catwalk above the main warehouse. He pressed his hand to his ear as he crawled through, and spoke through his comms. His voice had lost any of its previous exuberance, replaced by sheer seriousness. "Ace! Shizuka! The bodies in the computer room are still fresh! Be on your guard. The thief is probably still in the compound. I'm going hunting. Let me know when its time to book it." After taking a few turns, and climbing a bit, Trisean popped out on the catwalk in the main warehouse. The thief was probably interested in the supplies as well, and Trisean wanted to head whoever it was off. Trisean was clearly on edge, as whoever this thief was was clearly good. Even with his thunder enhanced reflexes, he wasn't sure he would be able to react in time. There was another option, but it would be difficult. After a few seconds of hesitation, his resolve steeled. It was now or never.

Trisean closed his eyes and focused. Infusing with a non-elemental magic was difficult, but not impossible. Taking a deep breath, he intoned "Slow" quietly, and infused the energies with his body. Trisean's eyes took on a grey tint around his red irises. From Trisean's point of view, everything around him seemed to slow down, while in reality, his perception had sped up. It wasn't something he could maintain forever, but it would do for now. Trisean looked around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Hm?"

The brunette's eyes would flutter open, staring at the sky above her. She sat up, looking around. What time was it? As the thought crossed her mind, she let out a loud yawn and would lay back down. After a few seconds of silence, she would jerk awake. Oh no. Had she overslept? Getting on all fours she would crawl over to the edge of the building, stealing a peek. Yeah, she overslept. She was definitely late...again. They were definitely going to have her head for this for sure. Once she got to her feet she would stretch her arms above her head, letting out a groan of satisfaction. Sleep was a luxury that she hadn't had in a while...though her dream was definitely weird. Once she had stretched all her limbs, she would make sure her hood was up.

"Alrighty, here we go." She encouraged herself, taking a few steps back. Once she deemed the distance to be alright, she would run off. The jump was somewhat exhilarating, and she would land on the ground in no time. Her knees shook lightly from the impact, but there was no time for that. She needed to get going--Asuka needed to join in the fight.

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~~~~~~Hollow Bastion / Unknown~~~~~~

The metal wolves seemed to only function in two stages. The first was to stick to the shadows of the massive storehouse, the only sound of their positions coming from the clunks of metal as they landed, after leaping about the crates, and their bright eyes which only appeared right before they pounced on their prey. The second stage was all about the struggle, the creatures tackling to the ground anything close to them and whether they managed to kill or not, so long as given the chance they quickly retreated back into the darkness to repeat the process.

The mix of metal that made up their bodies still provided a sturdy defence against most of the Unbound Heart members. However it was clear due to their multiplying numbers, that in some cases the supply of metal was being spread too thin, creating smaller and weaker beasts as time went on. Even this didn’t last too long, and by the time Ace returned silence once again fell throughout the storehouse.

The wall of monitors still continued to broadcast their images for the sitting figure, the large metal armchair allowing the well-dressed man to lay back and watch. That is, if it wasn’t for his eyes being closed behind the pair of glasses he wore. Since the UHs entered the storehouse and the man entered the small combination of symbols from his keyboard, his entire attention was focused internally, his metal layered finger still jabbing the desk with clock like precision. Yet, even though the man never once watched the images on the screens it seemed he knew what was already happening, as well as not being once unnerved by the events.

“The little “princess” trying to fight for the people again? How quaint. Always capable of amusing me with your actions time and time again...” Said the man to himself, his finger still tapping in the same spot even as the metal that covered it began to glow.

~~~~~~Hollow Bastion / Storehouse Disctrict~~~~~~

Gears lay lifeless across the floor of the storehouse around Shizuka, along with their now useless slabs and chunks of armour and weapons. Though the silence for everyone else would have probably been a reassuring rest, what followed for Shizuka as the dark gears began to glow would only hint at the danger that was about to befall everyone there.

“The little “princess” trying to fight for the people again? How quaint. Always capable of amusing me with your actions time and time again. Enlighten me…have you still kept this small affliction of yours away from your comrades? Most likely yes…we couldn’t have the “princess” being considered to be losing her sanity, no?” The voice for Shizuka would have sounded as if it was piercing through her thoughts, it being one of only a very rare amount of times to occur, yet each instance would be the exact same.

As the voice continued to speak, the now glowing gears quickly moved with their new order silently given. The hunks of metal littering the ground from more than half a dozen of the creatures suddenly flung towards a single spot in the light of the storehouse, the formless mass of floating iron and steel soon joining together with the help of a growing amount of gears beneath their now new layer of skin.

The large creature stood on two massive hind legs, its build still resembling that of a wolf but with aspects of a human, especially with its long reaching arms. Hunched over slightly due to its top heavy torso, the werewolf styled beast growled down towards Shizuka with not the usual set of purple lights but three running along just before the long snout of its face.

Gunfire merely sparked and ricocheted off the machine’s thick back, and even when one of the other Unbound members managed to get in close and strike the creature’s serrated arm with a sword, this only seemed to agitate it further and always ending with the lifeless body of the member being flung somewhere into the darkness of the storehouse.

The massive howl that erupted from the beast was entirely different to what its small wolf types tried at first. This was like standing face first towards a strong gust of wind, the sheer force from it probably enough to knock normal people to the ground, but it was the stench of something else that gave the howl that extra level of nastiness. It was like that of corruption, as if everything was slowly dying and rotting over time.

As the howl sounded throughout the storehouse and its neighbour buildings, it was soon answered back, the distant howls like that of the large beast that calmly stalked towards Shizuka and Ace, even as a second styled creature swung itself into the path leading out of the storehouse behind the two Unbound members themselves.

Even with time seemingly slowed down for Trisean’s perspective, the sight of these monsters still capable of some sort of movement, albeit slow and sluggish, would have been warning enough that the creatures were able to move quite swiftly even with their large sizes. For the moment it appeared they were solely focused with Trisean himself, one of the beasts slowly moving up and onto the catwalk itself with one of its great leaps while a second, which must have landed on the metal catwalk just after Trisean climbed it, was no more that a foot away with its claws outstretched and slowly moving through the air to pounce its prey.

“Such a peaceful night.”

The skies of Hollow Bastion have always looked so elegant at night, especially if one were to gaze upon them from up top the buildings of it. The way that the stars add a subtle illumination to the darkness the night creates made any bad day or night anyone were to have to just simply fade away. There was just something so marvelous and relaxing that the night sky brought. For Cerden Celebrindal, who stood up top one of the tallest buildings, just watched the night and the city it laid its relaxing essence upon.

As he watched intently, yet in a calmed state, Cerden would spot smoke from the distance. He recognized the area that it was coming from. No doubt that the Unbound Hearts were at it again. This month, it would mark at least the third storehouse or warehouse that they hit that belonged to The Empire. Cerden had to admit that they were a feisty bunch and they had a noble cause. Perhaps if they were able to do more than just some Robin Hood-esque actions, they could put a real damper into The Empire.

Cerden would contemplate on whether or not he wanted to intervene. He did agree that any setback that the Empire would had was a win , but did he really want to add any sort of aid? It was true that if they failed and the Empire got a hold of them, it would definitely not be good for them. “Maybe I should just go see how progress is being made.” And it was with that Cerden decided to go and check it out.

Going from the building that he was on to another just five feet across from him, Cerden leaped and landed on it with little trouble. He would continue leaping the buildings, one-by-one, until he would find himself up top of one that had a perfect view of what was happening in the area of The Empire’s Storehouse. As he saw, it confirmed what Cerden already knew. The members of the Unbound Hearts were doing battle with the soldiers of The Empire. Based on what he saw, the Unbound Hearts were winning, but Cerden noticed something instantly that sent a slight tick through his body. This was a negative one.

“So, he’s here.” Cerden said as he eyed the metal wolves.

A deep release of air from her stilled lungs returned Rika to the realm of visibility, standing idle in one of the farther corners of the occupied primary holding area. The littered corpses across the area and the ringing sounds of gunfire and other miscellaneous weaponry did not bring concern, but irritation at how such a simple mission could become so loud. It didn’t take a scientist to put together who were fighting here, but if this was the extent of the rebels abilities in operations like this then they had a long way to go. Having done enough observation as she sneaked back in here, the howls of the giant …wolf things, yeah, were good and deafening enough for Rika to do as she pleased. While rations and weaponry were the favored possessions of a militarized group, the sums of funding stored away in said crates would benefit her, although it would only be just one. You didn’t go around calling yourself the ‘Emperor’ and not know how to take good care of money, which means that there must’ve been a wealth of dough hidden away somewhere in a vault. Hollow Bastion was many things, but she wouldn’t dump her savings here either.

Prying open the crate as the shouts and roars of man and beast reverberated around the warehouse, the thief had quietly taken the very top and set it aside, mindful of high-profile actions drawing unnecessary attention, even now. Within was the world’s currency: Munny, small and compact in size, making it easy for transportation. “Bingo.” Rika muttered to herself, slipping her left hand within her jacket and retrieving a small brown sack. Prying it open, she would allow the small amount of munny inside to draw in the rest of the funds. Although she considered herself fairly intelligent with how things worked, not even she had figured out just how munny could be so efficient in its size and near weightlessness. If there was a guess to take, she’d consider that there was at least several thousand within, perhaps even ten. Now was not the time to count, but instead get to a better vantage point and- “Hellooooo~” grinning widely as her train of thought was interrupted, Rika leaned over and childishly reached inside as a few special glints had caught her eye. Pulling herself out, she would have a couple silver bars in both hands and was already snickering at the fortune.

“I knew I was pretty lucky but this is taking the cake!” Like a little girl surrounded by sugary treats, Rika seemed lost in her own world and was not paying much more mind to the monsters running around. All she saw now was more dough, and if the Emperor was so careless that he kept this lying around in crates then there had to be more in other facilities. Memorization of the contents on that computer weren't the priority for her as the information was now in her sole possession, but she had a way around that. This whole war was about to make her the richest woman alive, the trophy of most gorgeous having been taken since she was born. Storing both bars in her jacket and zipping it up hastily left Rika with one last quick glance within the crate before she turned her attention to the surroundings. Death, yelling, roars, guns, noise …noise …NOISE!

“Maybe I should give these rookies a lesson in silence. Hmph.” Kicking off of the ground, she scaled the foundation of the warehouse’s row of goods and came at a standstill up top. Surrounded by several smaller crates that may have stored ammunition or other items of meager importance to her, the thief had knelt down and took a good long look at the growing disturbance. This would be an ample time to see just how ‘good’ this ragtag group was, and if there might be some money in playing along with them.

‘Better use your time wisely, kids…’

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

-Ignore-

"This is getting a little out of hand..." Ace tightened the grip on his blade as he scanned the storehouse for possible escapes. The front entrance was blocked by one of the giant metal wolves, he figured he and Shizuka could deal with it, however, they had already wasted enough time. The original plan the Unbound Hearts had devised was useless now, it was time they tried plan B. Ace turned to Shizuka, who was fanning in front of her face, he was trying not to think of the stench produced by the wolves himself. "We're switching to the other plan, try to hold those things off while I get it ready." Shizuka nodded, and he sprinted towards the large metal shelves containing the things they had come for.

"Alright!" Shizuka yelled, slapping her cheeks to psyche herself up. She really did hate fighting, so she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. The metal wolf was busy dealing with other members of the UH, she tried not to think about how many of her comrades had died, she needed to focus. A pile of steel beams was sitting nearby, she decided to them. "Let's see if these dogs..." She said, easily picking up a beam after hardening her arms. "Like to play fetch!" She launched the slab of metal right at the wolf guarding the entrance, then she picked up another and threw it as well, repeating this until she had thrown all five of them.

Running up to a panel on the warehouse wall, Ace flipped a switch, this caused the crates on the metal shelves to be unhinged from their resting places. He then ran in between the two large shelves. He reached into his pockets and took out a spherical silver device. With a twist, the device opened up into what looked like a dumbbell. Ace quickly sat the device on the ground, and ran over to Shizuka. "It's ready, let's get out of here." He said.

"What about the others? I can't see Trisean anywhere." Shizuka stated with worry.

"He'll be fine, once it opens he should know what to do anyway." Ace said, and just as he did the entire storehouse shook violently. The silver device exploded, and in it's place a dark vortex opened. It was a dark portal similar to what agents of the Empire used, only it was hardly as stable. It grew to the size of a van, and began to suck in the loosened crates, transporting them. It didn't take long for all of the the crates to be moved, and the members of the UH began to leap through the portal. The metal wolves would be too large to fit through, and thanks to Nomis there weren't any Empire troops to try and follow them. Shizuka ran into the portal, Ace stayed behind to make sure they were not followed, he didn't want Nomis sneaking any of his machinations through. The portal began to destabilize, his cue to hurry and get through it as well.

It took a great deal of effort to not stumble through a dark portal, so it was not a shock to anyone when Ace fell through like a ragdoll. "Whoa. Ace, you okay?" He looked up, seeing Shizuka look down on him. He stood up, brushing off his baggy clothing.

"I'm fine... I think." He took a look around the large room, it was a mess. Many of the crates containing the food and weapons had broken open, and there were many injured scattered about, trying to get themselves together. This place was located on the outskirts of Hollow Bastion, and was the Unbound Heart's own supply bunker. "Once we get things sorted, I'll contact the base."

Aloft nothing but the edges of faint light, a faint but present sign of a silhouette sat in a windowsill. With but a leg dangled and arms folded, the motionless spec of life opened it's right eye. The was a reflective shine of red light from the iris, reflecting white letters "CI" in place of a pupil. They belonged to the mercenary, his eyes were cold as often a reflection of his ice-cold body. Where it not for the heart of steel, then his reanimation would be understood by others as grasping at straws.

From his perch he could hear echoes of rapid movement and loud clanking. Averting his eye to the storehouse, he simply rolled the eyes, he was off duty and unassigned. Playing "first responder" was never in his best interest, and when you had his salary, it'd have to be 3 times his current wages and shillings to pay for more initiative. Commonplace to mistake it for greed, but it was an exchange of camouflage, the trade of a hired arm to dirty their hands with the blood, sweat, and flesh of the client's enemies. The thought became a ravenous all consuming animal, all the more the mercenary thought, the darker his intentions then intern became.

He actually smiled, it seemed quite out of place for him, but as he stood from the window, it opened up behind him. A gust of air sucked inward from the slide, as the draft came in. It was none other than Catherine, General Ryoko's maid coming to retrieve the mercenary for an audience with "her master" as she often said bitterly. The mercenary tilted his head, slowly and cut a cold but heavy veil of ice towards the battle-turned maid.

"What does she want. Why didn't she come herself. Wasting my time, you-"

There was but the sound of something unsheathe, it was clean, it was fast, and most importantly the sound past in a mere flit. Fine steel, a rapier about 93 centimeters in length. Pointed directly in front of the mercenary's glowing eye, a scowl had appeared across the maid's face. Talking to her in such a tone was unacceptable, and thats putting the situation mildly. The mercenary took his finger and prodded against the tip of the rapier, in awe as he tried to examine it alongside Catherine's intentions on pulling it out on him. He was hardly even remotely sexually provocative or even active to be enticed by such a sadhist disguised invitation such as this (or so he thought to himself).

"Thats enough, I will not tolerate any more degradation from the likes of you military dog. It's scum like you that-"

"Remind you how a soldier becomes a serv-"

BASH!

The should of the metal shattering against the mercenary's head, and the steel splintered into pieces of loosened metallic shards. There was a loud ping, and right before Catherine's eyes, her Arc Blood Rapier, a prize from her past occupation has been repealed at a quarter swing across the mercenary's skull with the intent to slice his head clean through. She let out a high pitch scream of confusion mixed with anger and shock.

"Ouch...not me, the blade. That looks pretty damn expensive, I'm guessing you'll want me to replace that...well, i could always become your sword Catherine."

Her frustrated screams escalated, and she took him by the collar of his jacket and shook him violently, clearly forgetting he was still standing on the windowsill, held up by nothing but Catherine's hands flailing his torso back and forth.

"Ugh! Just come with me already, of all the mundane things, is obedience to an order really that difficult for you?!"

"Well no, not at all. Should you of all people, really be giving this reprimand to me?"

"Nein! Just be quiet and move your feet, military swine!"

"Yeah yeah, easy on the shaking...i'm seriously gonna fall to my death, for real this time."

In moments she'd pulled him through the window and they'd proceeded down the hallway to Ryoko's quarters.

As Trisean scanned the warehouse, his attention was suddenly drawn to the more upgraded wolf constructs. Specifically, the one climbing his catwalk, and the other one that was already on it.Whatever they were, they were clearly fast, as only Trisean's perception had sped up. He didn't want to have to engage them, as that would only take precious time. Damn Nomis and his constructs! Trisean continued to glance around, but didn't see anything like what he was looking for. Finally, the wolves got too close, and Trisean had no choice but to react. He swore under his breath. Trisean caused his entire body to speed up for a few seconds, and slammed one of his whips into the pouncing wolf, sending it flying across the room. He waited for the other wolf to reach the catwalk, then immediately sped up again, slamming his other whip vertically into the wolf, slamming it into the wall. Trisean released his magic, then went to a knee, panting. Both wolves were still on the catwalk. While Trisean looked around for an advantage, his eye caught movement. A single figure he didn't recognize was bounding across the supply crates. It had to be the thief.

Smirking, Trisean glanced at the catwalk supports as he had an idea. The supports were weak enough that he could probably bring it down with a well placed strike. As his plan fully formulated, Trisean focused his energies, and imbued himself with fire. As the wolves began to charge him, Trisean flipped off of the catwalk, grabbing it with a whip and swinging underneath it. He swung all the way under it, and then flipped back up the other side and above it. He swung down at the catwalk, and his enhanced strength split the catwalk in two. As he fell past it, he spun to his back, and twirled his whips in front of him, towards the wolves. He focused his energies, and two fireballs shot out of his whips, nailing both wolves as they fell.

Trisean flipped as he landed, postioning himself to run. He focused, and imbued himself with lightning. He bounded his way up the crates towards the figure, landing on the row just below her. He looked up as he landed, and both of his eyebrows immediately raised in sheer surprise. Positioned right above him was what could only be described as an alluring young woman with bright emerald eyes. Definitely not what he expected of the horrible, thieving assassin who stole the data he so desperately wanted. And yet, who else could it be? If only they could have met under more favorable circumstances...

The data. The Data. FOCUS! Trisean snapped himself out of his surprise, and grinned slyly, imagining the exchange would be amusing, at the least. "Well, hello there." he said to the mysterious woman. "Not quite what I expected, but I'm not complaining. Glad I found you. You see, I think you have something that me and my compatriots need. So, if you could just hand over any data you might have..."

Trisean was cut off by the clatter of crates being knocked aside. He turned to see both wolves getting back up from the floor, clearly battered, but still coming. "Oh come on!" he exclaimed with irritation. "There was no way those two could have survived that!" A sudden gust of wind drew Trisean's attention to the center of the room. Ace and Shizuka had decided for plan B, and were using the portal. And what perfect timing too. Just when he was about to get the data. Glancing back at the woman, he said "Well, looks like its your lucky day then. We do need that data though, so at least have the courtesy to make another copy or something." As the crates began to dislodge and pile into the portal, Trisean postioned himself behind a particularly entrenched crate, and swung his whips at one of the steel beams on the roof, over the portal. "I'll see you around then." he said, as he pushed against the crate and pulled on the whips, sending himself and the crate flying through the portal.

Still imbued with lightning, Trisean was just barely able to flip off of the crate before it landed. He rolled on the floor as he landed, and was barely able to climb onto another crate before one landed just where he had been. He went to his knees, panting with exhaustion. Maintaining his concentration through a dark portal was quite difficult, not to mention having used a ton of energy sustaining his slow embodiment. After catching his breath, Trisean hopped off of the crate, no longer imbued with any magic. Catching sight of Ace and Shizuka, he ran over to them. "Well, that was certainly eventful," he commented. "I'd say by the books, but we kind of fumbled the ending there. Anyway, I didn't get the data, but I saw who took it. We should be able to find her if we act quickly enough. Just let me catch my breath, and I'll go hunting for her."

Teamwork seemed to have some effect on getting the freedom-fighters out of this bad situation. The monsters were not the issue, the issue here was getting what they needed to and getting out before reinforcements arrived. These guys would be lucky to have any wealthy backers, so it would take wit over technological superiority to get out of this unscathed. Both sides suffered casualties, and were she untrained in the art of murder the screams and pleas for help may have gotten to her. All that kept in mind, Rika did manage to listen and listen well at the two youngest participants. The joke by the girl with what appeared to be the power of taking the property of whatever she touched did prompt a roll of the eyes. “And I thought I had bad jokes.” She muttered, witnessing her using her newfound strength to keep the monsters at bay. The young boy with her had taken off, bringing Rika’s attention to a panel nearby that he had promptly used to free the otherwise secured merchandise. Glancing on either side of her and taking note, it still raised the question of how exactly they were going to get it all off of the shelves and out of here. Trucks? Maybe those weird ships? This was becoming more and more entertaining by the second; working alone didn’t give you time to appreciate the struggles of others very often, unless of course you killed them.

The two reunited and prepared some kind of device, what it was she couldn’t make out but it was obviously meant to be some kind of ‘trump card’ for the situation at hand. Before she could get a closer look, attention was drawn to someone Rika would presume was a friend of the rebels. Out of the corner of her eye she had noted his engagement with the wolves, but as he looked like he could handle himself he was much less interesting to spectate than the young ones dealing with the giant freak. He looked at her, and she looked at him, expecting him to explain his reason for approaching someone who was of no real threat to him at this moment in time. There was that momentary awkwardness that guys usually gave when they took a good look at her, and Rika smirked at him just as he made it clear what he was after: Data. “What data? This is a warehouse, not exactly a library of information.” If he wanted data he was surely looking in the wrong place, and to make matters much more embarrassing for him those wolves he ‘defeated’ earlier weren’t beaten at all. “Tsk tsk tsk,” she muttered in disappointment. “That’s too bad, isn’t it? Might’ve gotten me hot if you didn’t mess that up.”

The entire warehouse had begun to creak and moan, a quick return of her attention to the kids in the operation showed a portal open, obviously brought forth by that strange looking item that guy placed. She could see that things within the warehouse, including people, were being drawn in towards it. The getaway plan was an actual portal, but where could it possibly have led to other than their base of operations? This was an opportunity to know more, and to get more than she could have ever hoped. Names, faces, and most of all trust. Rika held her breath and vanished from sight just before Trisean had turned around to address her, instead focusing on bolting towards the portal itself and rushing by Ace, who had wisely chosen to watch carefully for those that didn’t belong sneaking inside. ‘You can’t catch the uncatchable, kid.’ She mused to herself playfully, tempted to tease him but instead saving it for the other side. Having stuck closely behind the girl that had entered just before her, Rika had landed smoothly in spite of how strange and unfamiliar the ride was, and was quick to get out of the way before anyone else could manage to hit her.

After several more moments with injured bodies and crates piling in, the final few had made it through and the portal had closed. Taking a quick seat on one of the furthest crates that had not managed to be broken from the impact, she took the gourd from her side and listened to the one that the girl referred to as ‘Ace’. From the small exchange she got both a name, and the realization that this was not the primary base of these freedom fighters. They were a little smarter than she gave them credit for, it’d be a shame if someone not only sexy and talented, but threatening happened to sneak inside and know the location. And then there was the sloppy guy from earlier, notably older than his counterparts, who had brought up something both amusing and cute.

“Good job team,” Rika had taken in air once more, careful to reappear out of the peripheral of the main three speaking and casually tug at the cork of her gourd. “We really stuck it to those goons today, all we need to do now is look for that woman your friend here THINKS he saw take something important to you.” Leaning her head back, Rika took a long swig of the ripe and delicious wine for a few seconds, then leaned back forward and exhaled. The flavor of her brew and the beauty of the situation were both very appealing to her, especially with what was to come next. “Oh, wait! Wait a second, that’s me right? How awkward.” Placing the cork back in the gourd and securing it to her waist again, Rika slowly unzipped her jacket again, revealing the fine black top that clung to her full chest snugly. This gesture was for no reason other than for her own comfort and to appeal to the male variety in the room, if they happened to have interest in women anyway. “If I had whatever it is you wanted, there’d be no sense in sticking around here for you to take it back, I'd be long gone right now like the real thief is. So maybe we can help each other out a little; if I can get what you want back, you let me meet your leader and join you. I’ve always wanted to steal from an Emperor~”

With a cute wink of her right eye, Rika crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knee, awaiting the verdict with little concern. There was only one right answer to this.

------------------------------------------------------------

~~~~~~Hollow Bastion / Storehouse District~~~~~~

The large beasts slowly circled Ace and Shizuka, their long claws clattering and scrapping the rough storehouse floor with every pace they took, yet their half a dozen eyes each still watched the two for any chance of escape. It was the small amount of space each werewolf gave the other that allowed Shizuka access to the steel bars close by, and with surprising strength for someone much smaller than the machines, the metal beams were soon sent flying towards the creature closest to the entrance. The suddenness of it all definitely caught the machine off guard, the long hunk of metal easily slamming with its full force right on the side of the Werewolf’s head and bringing it down to the ground with an almighty crash.

The second beam caught the fallen machine’s chest just as it began to stand back up, but it was the third that came right afterwards that managed to cause the most harm, running right through the thick metal chest and seemingly putting the creature down for good, its many eyes fading as it lay now harmlessly on the floor. The last two metal struts however weren’t as effective. With one swatted away by the remaining machine like it was a twig, the final piece of metal was soon cleaved into four smaller chunks, the Metalwolf’s claws being more than sharp enough to pass through the steel like paper.

The rumbling that ran throughout the storehouse was enough to cause some of the higher stacked crates to come crashing down onto the ground, spilling their contents of machine parts, forged weapons, even dried packs of rations, soon the floor was covered in this and more, with splintered chunks of wood littering the piles. Racing over the growing mounds of now rubbish, the Metalwolves from every section of the storehouse seemed set on the heart of the quaking, arriving just to see the last few boxes and figures disappearing through the closing dark vortex. Like gravity returning to a vacuum, those crates which had been caught in the pull of the portal but had no time to make it through, came crashing down once more, whatever they had merely getting buried more and more with falling crates until silence filled the large building once more.

The five massive Metalwolves simply held their positions, all facing their sights on where the vortex had once been yet it was the first to be created that slowly took steps forward, before turning to face the four. With another howl from the lead Metalwolf, those four that remained swiftly shot in different directions of the storehouse. While two were busy digging through the piles of crushed crates for something specific, it seemed the other team had a much simpler job, each one leaping higher towards the rafters of the building and slicing through the thick pipes that ran along them.

Every new slice on the line of pipes allowing the gas within it to escape, until the storehouse was filled with nothing but the sound of hissing and highly dangerous gas. It was nothing more than a simple spark from one of the beasts landing feet that caused the massive reaction to occur, the storehouse exploded first with a deafening boom just before the fire erupted, like a beacon perfect for the pitch black sky. There was probably nowhere throughout Hollow Bastion that one wouldn’t be able to see this blazing inferno reaching high into the air, and that was the real purpose behind it, that no one would miss it.

~~~~~~Hollow Bastion / Castle Keep~~~~~~

The once grand keep of Hollow Bastion had been mostly decimated at the time the Empire arrived on this world. While partly in restoration at the time itself, the castle keep was still formidable enough to hold a moderate amount of resistance, but even then it didn’t take too long before it and the world itself fell under the rule of the Emperor and his Empire. Since then the city of Hollow Bastion, as well as the castle itself, had slowly been rebuilt and remodelled, with once smaller sections soon expanded to accommodate the sudden increase of technological advancement that had never been seen on the world before the Empires rule.

The massive castle had changed drastically since then, its height now towering over the even bigger city below, strange hunks of metal shaped buildings clung to the side of the tower like structure the castle had become. And yet all this was still a work in progress, the peak of the castle/tower still being added to daily and though having reached passed the clouds, people could still see on clear sky days the unfinished work at its top.

The fire that blazed from the storehouse district was noticeable, even from the huge amount of distance the castle had between them. Light from this fire poured into one of the large rooms of the keep, the chamber fitted and filled with all manner of books and devices, the massive fireplace situated on the far wall having burned itself out hours ago and so brought in the pitch blackness to the room to begin with. Behind the large wooden desk and armchair, the single crack of light pouring out through the open sliver of an almost unnoticeable door revealed the wall of monitors and sitting figure before them all.

All but some of the screens now showed the raging fire down at the storehouse district. Some from a distance, some from a street levelled view while people seemed to flock towards its general direction all to see what was going on. Monitors that had once showed the invasion of the UHs as they entered the storehouse showed nothing but static now, but what they once had was now being replayed piece by piece on a large screen, of which all other monitors circled around it.

While not showing the entire chain of events, it was clear that was the point. Images showed the group of UHs ransacking the storehouse, their destruction of the defences outside clearly noticeable through the large opening of the building they had taken. Blood covered bodies lay strewn over piles of broken crates, some nearly beyond recognition. Blurry but still faint enough images of a figure stumbling over crates and planting a device on one of the far walls of the storehouse were the next to appear. All this building up to the final sequence of events, of the structure erupting with its earth quaking explosion.

Already new images were coming in through the other monitors, those arriving to combat with the fire soon stumbling across the littered bodies left by the UHs themselves, along with a few of their own members both inside and out of the blazing building. Tapping his finger on the desk as he watched, the figure smiled as he laid back in the chair.

“Wonderful…simply perfect…”

The faint sound of footsteps that could be heard from the joined room didn’t seem to unnerve the figure, still laying back in the chair as two young women entered, side by side and both identically dressed like those of maids, the colour of their hair seemingly the only difference between them both.

“Lord Nomis?”
“Master Clacverk?”

Both of the women spoke in unison, the masks they strangely wore covering both of their faces and revealed a simple design of a smiling woman, yet the emotionless tone from their voices was definitely contradicting.

“You wished to be informed when it was close to sunrise, Lord Nomis.”
“And that time is nearly here, Master Clacverk.”

“Thank you, my dears.” Said the figure, who after standing up from the chair allowed the two women to start slipping on the long but thick coat onto him, accompanying it with the dark metal cane which Nomis soon took possession off from the red haired maid.

“I trust preparations for our upcoming event are coming along well?” Nomis asked as he made his way past the two maids, entering the large study that joined the monitor room and almost immediately began flipping through some of the already opened books on the desk.

“Yes, Lord Nomis.”
“Quite well, Master Clacverk.”

“Good. It should be any day now, and then we will be able to do so much more.” Said the well-dressed man, his smile returning as he flipped through one of the larger books, revealing within it page after page of various diagrams of a growing and familiar structure.

An unfamiliar voice sounded from behind Acesto, it was a female's voice, and a sultry one at that. He turned around, and laid his eyes on a young blond woman. "Ace? I thought you were guarding the portal, where did she come from?" Shizuka asked. He obviously did not know, his perception allowed him to identify anything close to him, so he should have caught a person of all things passing him. The only explanation he could think of was that she possessed some sort of ability that hid her presence. Whoever she was, she was clearly comfortable where she was sitting, as she saw fit to speak in a casual, joking manner and drink in front of them. Ace glared at Trisean, before his eyes went back to the woman, he should have picked his words more carefully. It was hard to keep a straight face when looking at her, she had unzipped her jacket, revealing more skin than was necessary, he could tell it was a deliberate act.

"You want to work for us?" Ace said, walking a bit closer to the woman, just enough that she was inside his domain. It was a subtle movement, and considering she had no clue about his ability there was no hint of threatening body language on his part. "So, you're asking us to trust you this much, and you haven't even told us your name?" The blond either had one hell of a poker face, or she was telling the truth. He wasn't sure what to believe, the data on the computer was missing, and those men had been killed by someone swift and deadly. She had slipped past him, so it was no shot in the dark to imagine she could have done the deed. Even if she was lying, what was he going to do, kill her? That wasn't how they operated. What was he going to do?

"Welcome to the Unbound Hearts! Here's a badge, it'll let you communicate with me, Ace, and our leader. I'm Shizuka by the way, and he's Acesto." Shizuka had already moved while he was deep in thought, honestly, he should have seen it coming.

"Shizuka, what the hell!?" Ace yelled, she only smiled back at him.

"Hey, I know a good girl when I see one, we can trust her, right... uhh," She looked to the blond with a inquisitive expression. "What's your name again?"

_________

The castle in Hollow Bastion was an impressive sight, with dark, metal spires that pierced the sky and an imposing position looming over the city below. Yet, Ryoko despised the place. Impressive and beautiful were two very different things in her mind, this place was all function and no fashion. The room she was staying in was large, and well furnished, however it had the color pallet of a can of beans. Everything was so damn rustic and brown, the feng shui was completely thrown out of whack. From her window she could see a pyre of flame rising from where the Imperial storehouse should be, reports said it was the doing of the Unbound Hearts. She was not having a good day, not at all.

"The storehouse has been destroyed, you say?" A deep, distorted voice spoke, emanating from a mirror above the desk she was seated in. The mirror's reflective surface was clouded by swirling dark fog, appearing very much like a bucket of milk with shredded coal mixed into it.

"Yes, Lord Emperor..." Ryoko responded with disinterest, an elbow on the desk and her hand on her chin. She was gazing outside the window, looking as if she wanted to jump out of it.

"There was very important information stored there, was it secured?"

"I couldn't say..."

"... Then you know what to do, this takes top priority."

"Yes, Emperor." With one final lackadaisical response from Ryoko, the mirror cleared up, and her chat with the Emperor ended. Moments later, the door to her room opened, and in stepped Catherine with Salforge in tow. Her personal maid didn't speak, only closed the door behind Salforge and stood by with a grimace on her face. Ryoko let out a yawn and stood from her seat, stretching her arms like a tired feline. "Hello Tin Man, you and me have got a job to do, we need to head to the factory and secure it, there's a possibility it could come under attack soon." She snapped her fingers, and an oval portal of dark opened between them. "Let's go."

Looking on, and examining everything, Cerden saw everything that happened to the Storehouse. He saw the fighting, the screams, the array of bullets of guns and the clashing of claws and swords. Everything that happened, Cerden saw from a rooftop and he did not act. He would merely observe with the hood of his Longcoat up. As he indeed did look on, it wouldn’t be long until he sensed strange magics in the air. Or perhaps it was something else. It perhaps was technology putting on the façade of magic. Yes, that’s probably what it was.

Cerden looking on, he smelled gas. The stench covered the area and in the minute that followed, Cerden saw that the gas would ignite an explosion. The fire would destroy everything in the storehouse, including anyone — or anything — that were still alive in there. Though, safe to say, whatever that false-magic technology that Cerden sensed was, it probably was a teleportation device. That’s the only thing that Cerden could deduce from the position that he was standing at. Still, it didn’t make what he saw in front of him any easier to digest. It was true that the Unbound Hearts had a noble cause, but to set a fire of this magnitude wasn’t a smart idea.

Cerden would descend to the ground as he jumped. He landed on one knee gently as the spot he landed on was as soft as sand. Cerden would now look at the burning building in front of him. If it wasn’t for his supernatural body, Cerden would most likely be affected by the heat that the fire presented. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to go inside as the heat would be too much for him. So, instead, Cerden would just scale around the building just to see if there was anything left over from the outside that he could examine. Doing just that, Cerden was about halfway around the building and as he walked, he stepped on something. It felt like metal, so taking a step back, he saw that it was remnants of his brother’s Taint Metal.

“This is good.” Cerden simply said as he knelt down and took the Taint Metal in his right hand and examined it. He did know of the metal itself and he didn’t need to, but there were certain aspects of it that seemed foreign to him. Something about it was different from the last time that Cerden had encountered Nomis’ Taint. Perhaps it was the time since he last held it in his hands or just a feeling he got from it. Whichever the case, Cerden counted this as a victory for his personal mission. However, now he just had the task of locating the Unbound Hearts or his brother, which ever one came first.

As soon as he heard the voice from back in the warehouse, Trisean's whips uncoiled by instinct. Cute girl or no, he did not like being surprised. It didn't help that the more she talked, the more he got the vibe that she was quite the manipulative one, and enjoyed it to. If there was anyone that reminded him of, it reminded him of the nightmare that had been Ryoko the sadist. Running missions with her had certainly not been enjoyable, and merely remembering those instances left a bad taste in his mouth. As much as this woman still retained her allure, Trisean was now on his guard. Whoever she was, she clearly had some sort of interest in the UH now.

Ace gave Trisean a miffed look, which Trisean returned with one of shock. "Don't look at me! You're the perceptive one!" he said, clearly irritated that Ace somehow thought this was his fault. Trisean also found it hard to keep a straight face while looking at the woman, so he opted for a look of distrust instead. Better then letting his guard down, at least. After her "offer" to join them, Trisean had a bad feeling what she intended to do. If anything, this stunk of a mercenary sting operation for the empire. Responding to this situation would take a great deal of cunning and intrigue.

Of course, this was immediately followed by Shizuka handing the woman a badge, a proclaiming her a member of the unbound hearts. Trisean responded with a face-palm. She had done it. She had actually taken the bait. So much for keeping watch for empire treachery. Trisean decided to take Ace's side of the issue. "No, I'm pretty sure she isn't, Shizuka." he said. "I know a manipulative girl when I see one, and that's something I know from prior experience. At the very least, we should take some precautionary measures!"