[JOHNY BOMB!]

[From Ezekiel's Warhouse]

A large armored jeep drives up fast as the dust blows harshly from it's tires. Ezekiel taking control of the hefty vehicle looks ahead on the dirt road, "We're almost there, prepare to act 'normal' my friend" said Ezekiel. Vash who is on the passenger side stares down the open road then oddly glares back at his behemoth size companion, wondering about his suggestion.

"Act normal? What do you mean by that?" questioned Vash as he lays back deeper into the car seat, feeling comfortable.

"Well 'normally' ya don't see combat reploids like us walking around in such a sophsticated city. So we gotta keep our cool and pretend we're construction reploids ya got it?" answered Ezekiel. He then blows off the sandy dust that's been sucking into his long trunk.

"You got it. . ." replied Vash while he shuts his eyes, cooling down to save his power reserves.

[Heads to Abel City - Freeway]

[White-Jet]

[From Zephyr City]

It didn't take long for Hajime to reach the outskirts of Abel City, but as he was becoming more focused on it, he began sensing some panic within the city, followed by specks of revolt towards reploids, indiciating that another band of reploid-hating humans were trying to cause civil panic in another savage attempt to prove how pointless free-thinking robots were.

Not wasting any time, he flies towards one of the tallest buildings in the city to get a closer look at how much devastation was occurring within the city.

[To Skyrise]

[Magnus Blade]

[From Ragnellius HQ, in an area merely half a mile away from Abel City]

A huge ray of light shines in the air, then shoots down onto the ground as Magnus, Zeon, and Vivian step out from the beam of light. As Magnus takes a few steps, his communicator begins beeping continuously. To stop and accept the call, he presses a button on the side of it while it remains on his belt as he puts it on speaker.

"I trust you all made it in the right area?" The voice of Xenus comes through the communicator. "Our old 'comrade' should be coming your way. For now, just stay where you are. You'll know him when you see him."

"All right." Magnus presses another button on his communicator, then crosses his arms as he looks around in the outer area of the city they are in. "Who would have thought we'd end up back here so soon?"

"With this helpful warp system, I guess it's to be expected." Vivian says. "At least we don't have to keep going to places completely on foot anymore..."

"Yeah, I can't blame you there...I'm all for walking, but all the time just doesn't cut it. That crisis last week...my legs felt so sore, regardless of them being much more tougher with them being cybernetic and all..." Magnus crouches down to stretch his legs a bit.

Vivian takes a seat on the ground, keeping her legs up in front of her, then looking over to Zeon, who seemed to be lost in his own little world of his thoughts. "...You sure are less talkative, Zeon."

"..." Zeon doesn't make a movement nor sound, having his eyes shut. Being so deep in thought, he didn't even catch a word of what his female companion said to him. He just stands there with his arms crossed and paying absolutely no attention to what's going on.

"Um...Zeon?" Vivian inches closer to the silent mercenary after standing, seeing him still not budging, nor making any notice of her trying to converse with him. Then she moves her attention to the Flaming Champion and raising an eyebrow. "...Is he sleeping, Magnus?"

"Nah. Just leave him there for a while." Magnus finishes stretching and places his hands on his waist. "As long as I've finally been able to spend time around him and study his personality, I know by now that it's pretty hard to break his concentration when he's thinking about something really hard like that...As you could see, he's barely aware of you standing close to him. He's got high concentration...I'll give him that."

"I see..." Vivian backs away from Zeon and sits back down in the spot she originally was. Magnus himself remains standing, keeping watch of the said 'comrade' Xenus spoke of. Magnus figured if Xenus contacted this individual in the city, he must be on his way out by now.

Meanwhile, Zeon remains standing still like a statue and lost in his thoughts. So many memories of the past with he, Gaia, and the old company courses through his mind...both good and bad ones...mainly the bad ones. The one that keeps disturbing him the most his the reason of the disbanding of the group in the first place...He keeps replaying that battle scene in his mind that took place inside the HQ in the Restricted Area.

"If only...I could stop Nova...then I wouldn't have made a situation in which Gaia was forced to make a risky decision...and Magnus wouldn't have had the weight of leadership thrown on him so early." Zeon makes a frown, still keeping his eyes shut. "He's still out there...gaining more power. This dark copy of Magnus and that Dragon Xeyon are tough enemies...but Nova...We'll be in a hellish situation if he's in involved in our mission. I hope he's still somewhere else..."

[Magnus Blade]

As they all still remain waiting, Magnus spots about three people running towards them from the direction of the city. They were a little too far away to see what they really look like. As they get closer and closer, the flaming warrior takes notice that these people are Reploids. He also takes notice of the hilts of beam sabers on the side of their waists. Going by what Xenus said about it being a 'comrade', he assumed it was supposed to be only one guy.

"Get ready, people!" Magnus unsheathes Soul Breaker and holds it beside him. Vivian, who seemingly was about to doze off on the ground, jumps up quickly and pulling her lance off her back and standing beside Magnus. Zeon opens his eyes, but takes his own observations of the three reploids approaching and not even placing a finger on his weapons.

The three reploids finally arrive several feet away from the ground, then stops in their tracks. Two of them draw their beam sabers, but the leading one holds his arm out, signaling his two comrades to put their weapons down.

"Easy, fellas." The reploid says to his comrades, then looks directly to the Flaming Champion. "The new commander of Ragnellius Mercenaries, Magnus...correct?"

"Huh?" Magnus keeps Soul Breaker beside him, staying on guard just in case this is a trap. "Who are you?"

"Xenus told me about you. I'm Lyle, a mercenary who used to be apart of Ragnellius. I figured that it may be a while before you arrive, so I went and gathered two of my companions to see what we can do to halt these Mavericks until you could stop them."

"Oh, so you are the 'comrade' he spoke of." Magnus sheathes Soul Breaker, then holding his own arm out to let Vivian know to put her weapon away. "So, let's get down to business...Where are these guys we are supposed to defeat?"

Lyle looks around, then places a visor that he has above his forehead down over his eyes. As he scans the area, he then chuckles as he draws his beam saber. "Heh...no need to worry, Commander. They are already here..."

Behind a small hill nearly a few yards away, about ten dark blue-armored reploids come leaping out from behind. When they land on the ground, they creep over to the group. With odd choices of weaponry, some have torn-off pipes and poles in their hands...while the rest of them actually have riffle guns and some have have close ranged weapons.

"What? How long have they've been here?!" Magnus unsheathes both Soul Breaker and the katana Zeon gave him.

"I thought Xenus would have spotted them ahead of time..." Zeon comments, also unsheathing his swords.

Quote

"Forgive me. I couldn't spot them because some strange energy source emitting from one of them that is still hidden in this area is interfering with the sensors. I don't know how much help I'll be with this energy source blocking me..."

"Damn..." Magnus points Soul Breaker at the approaching group. "We'll just have to manage on our own until we find this hidden leader, Xenus. Everyone, let's go!"

As Magnus, Zeon, and Vivian charge in first, the three mercenaries behind them draw their weapons again and follows behind in the assault.

One of the berserk reploid tries to swing the pole he has in his hands at Magnus, but the flaming warrior strikes the pole with Soul Breaker right in the center to split it in half, then thrusts the Modern Katana in the reploid's chest and brings his sword upward while it's still in the reploid. He now jumps with the stabbed sword and severing the reploid in half from the stab wound to the top of his head. As he falls back down, he smashes both of his swords into another's head, bashing him so hard that Magnus manages to split him completely in half, unlike the other.

Zeon instantly takes off the top half of one Maverick with a horizontal slice from Raigeki, then back flips when he sees another trying to hit him with an energy sword. He gathers electricity into Gisarme, then slides his sword on the ground and swings it upwards as a vertical shock wave of electricity; Lightning Fang hits the same reploid as a counter attack, shocking him immensely until he falls to his death.

Vivian stands still, being in between three of them and holding the Valkyrie tightly, readying herself. All three of them leap up in the air in attempting to get the drop on her. The female cyborg shuts her eyes, then twists her lance continuously as gusts of wind build up. By the time they finally fall down, Vivian spins her lance with one hand, then does an omni-directional spin with her lance as all three reploids get smacked by both the lance and gusts of wind enveloped around it and tearing their bodies up as they land on the ground, severed in pieces.

When the three reploid mercenaries try to attack the last three berserk reploids, they open fire with their guns as they try to hit everyone within range. Magnus and Zeon rolls out the way, while Vivian and the other three mercenaries jump out in an opposite direction. Eventually, the three Mavericks jump on top of another small hill and starts firing from long-range to gain an advantage.

"Take cover behind the hill and regroup!" Magnus orders, rolling behind another small hill himself. Everyone nods their head and duck, dodge, and roll out of the gun fire to get behind the small hill Magnus hides behind.

"What are we going to do?" Vivian slides down on the wall of the small hill with her weapon ready.

Magnus sheathes his sword and places his hands on Alpha & Omega while they are still in their holsters. "I'm the only one here with hand guns to return fire. I'll go out and distract them while you guys go and sneak behind them while they are focused on me. From the looks of things, you can hid behind the other hills on your way to the one they stand on."

"That's madness! They'll gun you down instantly!" Vivian places her hand on Magnus' hand. "Isn't there another way?"

"I've dealt with worse than these chumps. I'll be fine. They don't know who they are dealing with! Besides, it's the only way. This can also give you all the time to find their hidden leader. All right, enough chatter. Move out!"

Magnus leaps out form behind the hill and does one frontward roll before getting back up and running sideways as he pull out his two hand guns and fire out several rounds of flame bullets at the reploids on the hill. One of his bullets hit one dead in the face as he flips off the hill and falls to the ground. The other two duck for cover, then fire their riffles while lying down on the hill.

Dodging the bullets from their riffles, Magnus hears three more jump up from behind another hill, yards behind him and begins opening fire on him with smaller and faster gun fire. He roles out the way and hides behind a large boulder that happens to be on the far side of the open space he's running around in. He peeks his head around the boulder and begins firing more flame bullets at the new reploids who shot at him.

--

Lyle places his hand on Vivian's shoulder, giving her a smile. "I don't know him as well as you do, but I'm sure he'll be fine. With a fiery attitude like that, I wouldn't be surprised if he shoots them all down before we even get the chance to get up there. But more are undoubtedly hiding behind these hills with their leader. We'll take them down on our way. These aren't ordinary Mavericks. They actually still have some sense left in them."

Vivian returns with a nod, then they all leave from behind the hill and out in open field temporarily until they reach another hill to hide behind.

[Magnus Blade]

As Magnus acts as the distraction, Zeon leads the group from behind the countless small hills of these outskirts. Just from looking around, it seems as if this entire area is perfect for a sneaky battle such as this one...and quite a weird one, considering that it's the company's first job ever since the revival.

"...These guys sure know how to play a good game of hide and seek for a bunch of Mavericks." Vivian says in a bored-like tone with her eyes halfway closed.

"Keep your guard up...you never know what may happen." Zeon suddenly unsheathes Raigeki after hearing a single step on the ground as he looks over from where they stand and over to the small open area between the next hill. "...Get ready."

Battle Theme

When Vivian opens her eyes fully, she sees a reploid duck out from behind the hill and fires several shots from his weapon towards the entire group. Being quick with his skill of the blade, Zeon slashes, yet twirls his sword around viciously and causes the bullets to get deflected. As a counterattack, Zeon slashes out two electrical shock waves from his sword on the ground towards his enemy so fast, he drops his gun upon taking intense damage to his legs and being paralyzed from head to toe.

Zeon now looks up as he stares at countless blue-armored reploids coming from all sides and attempting to surround them all. He slides out the Gisarme from it's sheathe effortlessly while twirling it once and sprinting quickly in the center of a group of close-ranged Mavericks, who once again arm themselves with poles and broken-off pipes.

When the three mercenaries parted from her to assist Zeon, who serves as the leader in place of Magnus temporarily, Vivian finds herself surrounded by five Mavericks when she herself was going to help out. She takes one great swing with the Valkyrie as it connects to the sides of two of them when the lance tore through the first like paper and then does the same to the second. But something unexpected and surprising happened...The reploids' bodies start to decay instantly as if acid touched them when they hit the ground.

"Wh-what the...?!" Vivian says, startled. She leaps backwards when the remaining three tries to attack her at once. "...What's going on here?!"

Zeon notices Vivian stepping back for some reason, but then he finally realize what startled her when he sees what happens to one of the reploids he slices in two with absolute ease. Deciding to ask questions later, he lights his blades up with electricity and slices the foes in his path with no mercy. From the corner of his eye, he catches the sight of a few more enemies trying to sneak up behind Vivian while she's in her slight shock and trying to fight off the three that were still in front of her. The three mercenaries sees Zeon moving his hand over towards Vivian, obviously telling them to help her out...that would mean he has to deal with these guys in front of him on his own for now. As the lone mercenary stares at them...there were roughly twenty of them left standing in front of him.

--

Back out in the open, Magnus continues to fire multiple flame bullet shots from Alpha & Omega at the enemies on the hill. After finally taking out the group that first appeared, more appeared in larger groups and start descending from the hills while Magnus doesn't notice them, as he is still hiding behind the large boulder. After hearing many footsteps, he figures that they are finally taking the straight up, close-ranged offensive. Then out of nowhere, seemingly from on top of another hill far away, a large blast of energy completely shatters the boulder that holds as his shield.

"...Whoa! Where the hell did that come from?!"

He turns around to see multiple fiends coming at him. As he unsheathe Soul Breaker and the Modern Katana, he activates his crimson red Phoenix Eyes as he had some strange feeling that he should take this a little more seriously when it comes to close-range combat. Darting himself out towards them, he also feels that something isn't right about these reploid as he happens to gaze upon one of their eyes.

"...They're completely lifeless...Are these guys...really ordinary Mavericks?"

Coming in contact with them all, Magnus brings Soul Breaker down with a vertical slash, cutting one down in the middle. But as it begins to break down, it's body suddenly crumbles apart and ends up in pieces on the ground. Just like it did to Vivian, it makes Magnus widen his eyes out of shock. He's never seen a reploid break up so easily...or let alone break up like that at all!

They all take this advantage and tries to surround him from all sides. Regaining his senses, Magnus back flips several times to get some space to recollect his concentration. But before he knew it, more of them begins pouring from behind the hills. Magnus begins to suspect that something normal isn't going on here. So many of them...as if their numbers could quickly be close enough to a large unit of soldiers of some sort...but to appear out of nowhere?

As this would make him question more and coincidentally makes the same decision like his older brother, he'll ask questions later and go straight for the kill. The blades of the two katanas he wields surrounds themselves with endless flames as he awaits all of his enemies to surround him intentionally.

[Gaijin Zero]

[Enter Dorian - After the Time Skip]

As he traveled, Dorian couldn't help but hear the sounds of battle and he stopped for a bit, and used the viewfinder in his Visor to note that two groups were fighting several yards away.

thinking to himself for a moment, Dorian decided it would be best to see what the ruckus is about, so that he wouldn't get caught up in it, and he rushed over to a nearby hill... eying the action that happened around him, he saw that there were what appeared to be humans being attacked.

Pulling out his Sventovit rifle, he lined up a shot and fired, the Titanium X spike traveling far as it busted through the head of the lead Maverick, leaving a large hole where it's control chip should be, he then proceeded to pick off another five Mavericks in short order as he maintained his position, he was running low on ammo, but he managed to keep firing and as he wasted the last of his Titanium X spikes, he managed to wipe out what seemed to be all but 5.

Smirking, he knew he would have a good amount of ability to create back up ammunition for his gun from the bodies of these dead mavericks, and he simply waited out the results of this battle before making any sort of appearance.

[Magnus Blade]

The leading Maverick completely garbed in a black cloak, who seems to be hiding behind one of the hills on the opposite side, was pressing a few buttons on a small terminal until the incoming bullet took him out flawlessly. He falls down and his body starts to decay on the ground like his soldiers were before him.

When Magnus takes two big strikes from his swords, he sees shots flying across his head and hitting several of the Mavericks, most noticeably when one goes straight through one of their heads behind him. Then he turns around and noticed some of the shots traveled over to another side of the hills.

"...What now?!" Magnus takes the opportunity to get some distance from the Mavericks during their little temporary confusion. He begins gazing around the hills with his Phoenix Eyes until he spots a lone figure's presence from the distance...However this person isn't moving.

Assuming the shots came from him and they hit his enemies, Magnus decides to focus on what's left in front of him...and it seems as if the extra Mavericks stopped coming for some reason.

In one of the unknown Maverick's head, a computerized voice sounds in it's head...as well as all the other remaining Mavericks.

"CONTACT LOST WITH LEADER! RETURN TO SHIP AND RETREAT!"

--

Zeon and the others see about half of the enemies around them gunned down. Ignoring it for now, Zeon thrusts Raigeki clean through one's chest, then slides to his left and hacks off three heads of his enemy all at once with Gisarme. Finally, he leaps in the air and dives back down on two enemies, severing them in half as he is performing one of his lightning techniques.

With the shock completely gone, Vivian holds the Valkyrie sideways, then swings it downward as four of them are lifted off their feet with the slicing winds of her lance. One tries to slice her in the back, but she turns around and knocks a beam sword from it's hand. Then she impales Valkyrie into it's chest several times and sends the weapon upwards, splitting the reploid in two. She avoids looking at it's body as it breaks up and decay again...so she hurries until she meets side-by-side with Zeon.

But suddenly, the message in their heads activate like the others, and the remaining Mavericks, about seven of them left on their side, are slowly walking from them all and heading out into the open area where Magnus is.

--

Magnus sheathes the Modern Katana for now and smashes his fist in the ground...performing a very weak-leveled Magma Smash that manages to send six of them flying in mid air. He leaps up and swings Soul Breaker back and forth, chopping them all to pieces by the time he falls back down. Before he could make another move, the ones engaging him all stopped in place and listens carefully to the message, as it seems to be repeating itself until they acknowledge the command.

He sees more of them coming from behind the hill, with Zeon and everyone else running out from behind, but not pursuing them. Magnus first believes the Mavericks all were trying to gang up on him, but they all just start walking pass him like he isn't even there. The Flaming champ rubs the back of his head while watching them go towards a more larger hill than all the others out here. His brother and the group begins to approach him, as they too are unsure what's going on.

"So uh...do we just let them go?" Magnus looks towards Zeon.

"Keep an eye on them...it looks like they are heading towards something on that large hill--" Zeon pauses himself from speaking after something flashes on the hill.

Before their own eyes, a medium-sized black ship reveals itself out of nowhere on the center of the hill and the the Mavericks are seemingly going into it as the hatch at the bottom is wide open and lying on the ground. Magnus examines the ship well, seeing that it has some sort of cannon-like weapon on the side of it. He figures that's what destroyed the boulder he hid behind earlier.

"They...must have camouflaged it this entire time! I've seen all that I've needed to see...These guys...aren't normal Mavericks for sure." Magnus sheathes his sword and rests his hands on Alpha & Omega, just in case he needs to return any fire they may decide to dish out.

As all the Maverick boarded, something shoots out from the top of the ship as it begins to lift off the ground. It seemed to be like a mechaniloid being released from the ship. It comes down like a meteor in front of everyone in the huge open space, then rises up from the crater it makes upon landing. It creates lots of smoke and dust, but when it clears...the mechaniloid could be seen clearly. However, he has the same type of armor like the reploids, but larger...

"Ignore the ship! Take this big guy out first!" Magnus shouts his command as he brings his swords out one final time.

[Magnus Blade]

(OOC: Gained permission from Zero_v2.0 to post again.)

--

As everyone stares down the brute slowly coming towards them all, it's body is making strange noises, as if parts of it's body is loose.

This causes Vivian to stare down on the mechaniloid's legs. Some bolts were falling out of it's leg and a bit of smoke begins rising from a few noticeable cracks on the side of it's legs. She could tell if it either injured itself upon landing, or body and legs themselves are extremely weak. She holds Valkyrie in front of her while frowning upon being completely sure it's the case.

"Magnus! It's legs!" She shouts. "It seems like the weakest part on it's body!"

"Huh?" Magnus examines the mechaniloid's body and legs itself. It indeed looks as if it was sent into battle already damaged. "...You're right! We can take this guy down easily. Good going, Vivi."

Upon smiling, Vivian steps in front of everyone. "With me specializing in wind, I can cut that guy's legs straight off with ease from my lance on my own, since it's legs are really fragile. I'll catch his attention."

"Don't be silly--" Magnus cuts himself off when the giant arrives in front of them and brings it's large fist down on the group. Fortunately, everyone is able to jump back in time to avoid it. Using it's extremely slow speed and it's weakened body to their advantage, they all distance themselves some more backwards to formulate a quick plan to take him down.

"Just trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing this time!" Vivian insists, stepping in front of Magnus again.

The Flaming Champion hated the idea, but for that split second, he realizes that his friend isn't the little girl he used to spend his time with as a kid anymore. Seeing the mechaniloid recovering and inching closer to them, he has a bit of sweat falling from his face while shutting his eyes for a second. Afterwards, he makes up his mind and nods as he places his left hand on Vivian's shoulder.

"...All right, you win. Kick his ass." Magnus returns a smile after releasing her shoulder. "Stand back, everyone! Let Vivian handle this for now."

Acknowledging the command, Zeon steps back beside Magnus and sheathes his swords after watching Vivian storm off towards the enemy. He crosses his arms and looks at his younger brother, who places a nervous gaze towards the soon to be one-on-one battle.

"Relax, brother." Zeon says.

"How can I? I just sent her out there on her own without giving it enough thought...and I see you just put away your weapons as if the battle's over."

"...Watch carefully, Magnus." Zeon says.

"...What?" Magnus raises an eyebrow.

"You'll see in a few moments...just watch."

Magnus eyed his brother for a few moments before looking back over to the battle. He wonders what Zeon is talking about, but all he can do is just wait and watch.

--

As Vivian is merely several feet away from the mechaniloid, she notices it opening it's mouth. From the looks of it, a small and round object sticks out like a small cannon. It fires a blast of green energy towards the lance user. She flips to her side as the blast flies past her head, not hitting her at all. She barely avoided it upon being taken off guard. Regardless, she continues her pursuit until she finally gets a good close up distance.

The large brute brings his fist down again, but Vivian leaps up high to land on it's arm. Upon landing on it with her feet, she can even feel that his arm is really fragile, as cracks appeared on it's large knuckles when it last smashed the ground. She spins Valkyrie around over her head, then slices clean through it's arm with both the might of her lance and wind energy combined. She falls down with the severed arm until she leaps off and lands directly in front of it's feet.

Trying not to get any more parts of him cut off, the mechaniloid brings his other fist down, causing Vivian to roll to her left, but she's still pretty close to it's legs. Going directly in for the finish, she grabs the center of her lance and holds it semi-behind her and to her side as she charges at the legs while avoiding it's arm that's stuck in the ground.

She spins the lance around viciously with one hand as she pauses in front of it''s legs as the massive amount of winds becomes visible, then she grips the end of Valkyrie with both hands. Just like a baseball bat, she swings it as hard as she can at it's left leg, tearing straight through it's fragility and severing it half. Her lance travels sideways more as it connected to the right leg and does the exact same thing to it as the left.

The mechaniloid makes a very loud scream as it's complete top half flies off from getting most of it's legs destroyed and severed from it's body entirely, then falling backwards and about to fall on it's back. When it lands, it's fragile and half-complete body crashes on the ground, having many bolts and parts of it's body break off. Some of it's body begins decaying upon the strong impact of falling.

Back at Magnus and the rest of the group, Magnus had to blink more than twice after seeing the mechaniloid fall so quickly. "...Where the hell have I been?"

"Busy with the hunters, apparently." Zeon says with a smile. "I don't know how Vivian was when you two were kids, but she's not the girl you knew anymore. I noticed during the incident with Abel City last week...when she pushed herself from being tired the entire time to the very end, I could tell right away from the look in her eyes that she can handle herself well in battle. Don't underestimate her anymore, bro...you may regret it later on."

"...R-right..." Magnus places a hesitant smile on his face while putting away the Soul Breaker and running over towards Vivian and the destroyed mechaniloid.

Vivian wipes some sweat off her forehand before sighing a bit and looking at the broken up and halfway decayed mechaniloid. She spins her lances behind her while placing it on her back and seeing Magnus approaching her.

"Hey, Vivian! That was amazing..."

Vivian walks closer before Magnus stops. "See? I told you that you could trust me--"

Suddenly, the mechaniloid's body flashes red, then something bursts out the remains of it's chest. A strange and small mechaniloid with two wings and very sharp teeth soars up and dives down at Vivian with great and unexpected speed. It then fires a small plasma shot from it's mouth at the female Cyborg as it hits her directly in the back.

"Ugh...!" She falls forward.

"...?!" Magnus looks above after catching her in his arms to break her fall. He takes a better look at the small mechaniloid beginning to come back down towards he and Vivian. It took the shape of a large bird and it's eyes were completely red. He quickly, yet, gently lies Vivian down and unsheathes Soul Breaker.

"...You little bastard!" He stands to guard her as the mechanical bird closes in and is about to attempt to bite him. But with his new and superior speed to the bird, Magnus takes one step ahead, then slides forward with great speed as he slices the small, yet unknown bird mechaniloid in half, straight down in the middle with one flawless strike. Both sides of the flying mechaniloid falls to the ground and bursts into flames upon impact after Magnus slides the Soul Breaker back in it's sheath.

Magnus looks back at the remains of the first mechaniloid, keeping his eye on it just in case something else flies out of it. Then he runs back to Vivian's aid as he helps her off the ground slowly.

"Are you all right, Vivian?!" Magnus asks, keeping a grip on her shoulder and holding her closer.

"I'm okay...it was just a small shot to the back." She says, trying to get back up on her own and standing up on her feet. The shot itself didn't leave any physical damage. It may have worsened if Magnus didn't catch her earlier.

"You've done enough as it is. Anything else happens for now, leave it to me. We're in this together, all right? Hopefully this is the end of all this crap..."

Magnus looks up as he sees that the ship the Maverick got into completely vanished during the fight. Either they warped or they must have driven off so fast that they all didn't notice. Sighing one last time, he releases Vivian upon trusting her again that she was okay, and and then seeing Zeon and the other three mercenaries behind him rushing over.

"Are you two okay?" Zeon asks.

"Yeah, we're good. What a strange job we've taken here..." Magnus comments while holding his head out of annoyance. "But things seemed to have calmed down now. Guess this job's over and done with...nice work, everyone."

Suddenly, Magnus feels something roll and hit the end of his foot. While everyone was talking, he kneels down and picks up the sphere-shaped object, then widens his eyes upon knowing what it is.

"This is...!" He grips it tighter, but then quickly shoves it in his accessory pack before anyone could see. He couldn't let anyone know about the Magma Cores until he happens to run into Hajime again, since he was curious about it. Plus, Magnus trusts him enough to give out the information he found out about them back when he was a hunter.

[Vérité]

[???]
The airship landed swiftly with the four landing prongs extending. After, the landing ramp shot down and several droids ran out.

"Query: What is our objective, Master?" One asked into his communicator

"Answer: Our Master says we're to retrieve the maverick Dominic. Let us hurry, brothers!"
- [ Half an hour later]
After some time, the robots returned, hauling the unconscious Dominic far from battle.

"Contacting Master: Master Cordell, the target has been acquired! Query: Where do you wish us to place him? Suggestion: Perhaps it would be fine next to our other guest."

"Yes, Place him in a holding cell. This one may prove more challenging."

"Answer: Right away, Master.." The lead bot said, ushering the others to follow after.

[So Sweet]

Dominic awakened after a long time uncounscious. Although his eyes still closed, his sarcastic and scarry smile appeared in The Jester's face again.The last thing he could remember was a red reploid, a Maverick Hunter, shooting him, ending the carnage in Abel City. Openning the eyes, he found out he was in another place, far from the battle. He was in a holding cell.

"Well, well, well... It seems that the scene has changed all of a sudden by magic!." Dominic said ironically, but happily "So, what's the trick? The Hunters have finally gotten after all this years? Aha ha ha ha! I don't think so. They are so very DULL to get me, the incarnation of fun! Someone else must be behind this. Whoever is behind it, show yourself, s'il vous plaîte... Otherwise, it'll be time for my next performance."

[Vérité]

music suspense moment

A robot from the other side of the holding cell approached her, watching with its green eyes. It began to vocalize.

"Query: Are you quite content with your safety, Guest?" it asked oddly.

[『ちびまる子ちゃん』正人]

Meanwhile, in a different Cell, Liaf jolted awake. "WHEEEEEEEERE AM I!?" he shouted as he saw he was in a mysterious place.

[So Sweet]

Dominic laughed after the stranger stop talking. The clown got up off the floor and straightened his cape, a little torn in battle. Looking into the eyes of the robot, he said in a calm voice and full of some fun that only he could see:

" Yup. Well, hello, green eyed guy! It's a pleasure to meet you. Let me do the cordialities and introduce myself: I am the master of merriment, the pleaser of crowds... I am..." he grined wickedly and his eyes shone with a frightening way. "Dominic! But of course you know that, otherwise I would not be here. It's a funny world we live in, don't you think?"

[Vérité]

The robot didn't move. "Dry response: I'm afraid I haven't detected anything amusing in our previous statements."

As he finished speaking, a second approached this one, a slightly discolored variation. "Statement: Colonel Liaf is now active."

The second responded. "Enlightening statement: Dominic and Colonel Liaf must meet with our Master before any further misinterpretations begin."

[So Sweet]

Listening to what the robot said, Dominic grined once more and states:

"Aha ha ha ha! You guys speak in an odd way... I like it. And it seems that I'm not the only one that you have got. I hope I can have a good and funny time with this Liaf guy and this Master that you're talking."

[Senju]

[Platinum Knight from Downtown Abel City]

Platinum, after following the jester and small mechaniloids to the city's outer areas, took note of the large airship. He had stayed far back from it in order to scout out it's occupants. Upon running out of patience, Platinum walked over to the ship. He was ready for anything, and expecting a mass of confusion...

[Vérité]

"Proposition," The droid said, twitching its head. "Our master wishes to offer you work along-side him to cause mass destruction and mayhem on the unsuspecting world."

[So Sweet]

The Jester listened to the robot's statement very carefully, looking directly to its green eyes with his complete insanity. For him, there couldn't be anything greater than someone inviting him to do his biding: bring fun and laughs by killing and causing destruction. He grined thinking in all the mayhem he can do joining these guys.

"Well, it's the case, I have to say that I'm completly on it!" Dominic said happily. His eyes were shining with the gleamer of an insane assassin. "But I think it's more appropriate if I speak directly to the boss."

[Vérité]

"Reply: He will be with you momentarily." The robot responded. "Clarified statement: Allow him a few minutes. He may be very busy in his quarters."

[So Sweet]

"Of course, my boy. I'll wait for him." Dominic said as the robot spoke."After all, we have to wait for that Liaf guy too."