FSE

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With the technicians securely stowed away in the parts shop, the first team had entrenched themselves in the main control room. Rikyuu, Kyle and Kieran watched the corridor, with Obsidian standing by the control room door. Korban stood behind Avory and Ayane, the latter out of her suit once the control room camera had been disabled - and typing away at the consoles.

"I... Cannot even fathom how far back these records go," said Ayane. "To think P.A.C.E has been around for this long. Even the portable hard drive I brought with me won't be nearly enough to contain all of this... We may need to raid the whole server room if we want to take any of this data with us."

"I've found files from 1997, and there might be older ones still," Avory commented from his suit looking through all the files remotely. "The servers appear to be near the upper floors; closer to the outside world so better cooling. I can start turning them off ready to extract them, but checking their plans, they have lots and lots of data centers. Even with the whole team carrying as much as they can in both hands, we're not taking all of that with us in one round trip."

"I suppose we'll have to come back for the rest later, once we're finished," said Ayane.

"You two done here?" Korban remarked as he tapped his foot impatiently after watching the eggheads work their magic. "I'd like to have my shot if you don't mind."

"We're not going to get to that bar any faster for your 'shots' if you keep asking." Avory replied.

"I meant my shot for getting my pay, dumbass," Korban growled.

"Your pay? Oh! Right... sure; I was just standing here, I didn't actually need to be in front of this console." The red-suited avian said, stepping away for the husky to move in.

"Finally," said the Husky, moving to take the seat and typing away at the computer to find the files he needed.

"Let's check on our boys and girls downstairs," said Ayane, opening a new window. "Oh wow, looks like a hurricane hit down there." She remarked with a raised eyebrow. "No sign of the guards. Ah, there's our crew heading onto the stairs. Looks like everyone's fine."

Avory looked over at Ayane's monitor, seeing the group entering the stairs. But behind his helmet, his expression soured. "Wait..." He said. "There's that big dragon kid. Why's he with them?"

"Wait, what?" Obsidian asked, her voice sounding stern. She entered the room, walking over to see the montior in front of Ayane and counting the group's number. Her brow contorted with anger, and then she put her finger to her commlink. "Volcan!"

On screen, the phoenix jumped. "Gah!" __He exclaimed. He put his finger to his ear, pressing the commlink to better hear Obsidian."What's wrong?"

"Why is Shiryu down there with you?" Obsidian demanded, agitated.

"Uh... Long story short he kinda just showed up before we entered," Volcan answered nervously. "He wanted to come with us, and he wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Yer kidding. That big ass child dragon decided he wanted to play hero _now_of all times, instead of being a good boy and watching over his pops?" Korban asked as he plugged a USB drive into the computer from his console. "...Kid's a rebel at heart, I'll give him that. A fucking idiot, but a rebel nonetheless."

"Volcan, he's not been training with us!" Obsidian protested. "He's going to get hurt!"

"I'm not so sure about that," said Volcan.

"And why not?"

"Earlier when he used his wind powers, the power he displayed was... Amazing, honestly. We think we might have discovered something. Avelyn, can you send the readings you got to Avory? Let him see for himself."

"I've already seen them," Avory cut in. "I didn't know it was him; I thought it was Vinge. I've seen it before in the stones; it would make sense that those with M.A.N.A in their bodies could replicate it, and amplify it for others wielding a similar element."

"You're saying I acted like some kinda... Booster?" Pavan chimed in. "That's why Shiryu was so powerful?"

"As I said, you're acting like an amplifier, like a raw galrum stone because it's in your bones."

"Hm. I wish we had discovered that earlier," Vinge remarked. "In theory, if Pavan's powers can enhance Shiryu's, that means my ice powers would enhance Korban's. This might have changed the arrangement of our teams."

"It was only a theory before." Avory commented. "Regardless, it's all hindsight now; we need to keep going."

"What the egghead said. We've wasted enough time here as it is." Kieran called back, looking over to his partner. "Aren't you done yet, boss?"

"Hold yer horses, Kitty. This kinda shit takes a delicate touch, and you and I both know I don't have _that_kinda-" He began, but then paused when he saw something light up on the screen. He started grinning from ear to ear before he lifted his wrist terminal and started typing away on that next. "Fucking. Jackpot," he muttered softly. "Christmas came early, baby..."

"Got your dough?" Ayane asked.

"Oooohohoh yea," Korban answered, swiping the screen away from his terminal and unplugging the USB from the computer. "Let's just say I toppled their totalitarian empire by changing a one... to a zero."

"So that's it? They don't have any more funding?" Obsidian asked.

"A deep look in the archives should tell us where they originally got that money from but, I'd say Korban's done it," agreed Ayane.

"Pretty much, yea. You wanna peek?" Korban offered to the red dragoness, holding up his arm.

"Not unless you want me to take some of that cash myself," Ayane replied with a grin. "Building tech is costly, you know."

Korban's smirk faded and he slowly withdrew his arm back. "...Yeeaa no, I'm good." He said, holding his other hand over his terminal protectively.

"Can we go now?" Kieran finally exclaimed.

"Sure, just let me-" Ayane turned back to the console, but then her eyes drifted up to the camera above. "Uh... Uh oh," she said. "Guys? We've got a problem." She said, pointing at the screen.

On the monitor, they could see multiple P.A.C.E personnel had formed a defensive line at the elevator, and another one had already occupied the hangar bay. Small squads were making their way toward the control rooms, each one backed by two Cyber Soldiers who were taking point. Worse yet, these Cyber Soldiers looked different than the others. Though it was evidently a rush job, additional armour had been added to the titan-sized cyborgs, covering their heads with a dense, almost medieval-looking helmet, and their torsos with thick, shining plates. The armour was crude-looking, but it was composed of solid steel.

Both Korban and Kieran came over to look at the console, taking note of the forces that had assembled. Kieran gulped slightly at the number of enemies and looked to Ayane nervously. "That's uh... that's a lotta guards."

"They must have spent the time assembling and getting into position after we rushed them for the control room. Looks like they are blocking all of our routes out in an attempt to corner us." Red Lightning interjected.

"Just to make sure, you _did_shut down that Disruptor thing, right?" Korban asked for clarification.

"It_is_ offline here, but they might still be able to bring it online again manually," replied Red Lightning. "I will have no way to override that from here. The schematics show only one entry to it, from the main level."

"We're too enclosed here," said Obsidian. "We need to get back out into the hangar - can we go through the part's room?"

Ayane, already climbing back into her armour, shook her head. "No go," said Ayane just before her chassis closed, sealing off the dragoness inside and forcing her to switch to an external speaker. "They've got four more people on the shop door. Even if we could go through there, my armour won't fit and the parts room is even more confined - bad news if any of them have a grenade. They might also use it to try to get behind us."

"So the only way out is back the way we came?" Obsidian asked.

"Unfortunately that's what it looks like."

"Well I say bring it on, I prefer to go down kicking and screaming rather than like a chump," Korban remarked as he drew his guns once more.

"Any way we can seal off the door to the parts room?" Obsidian asked.

"I could put up a barrier spell. That could buy us a few minutes." Kieran offered. "Maybe even more if Korb adds some ice to it."

"Alright," said Obsidian. "We need to narrow the enemy's avenue of approach. Do what you can." She then put a finger on her earpiece. "Volcan. We got into some trouble up here."

"What's going on?"

"P.A.C.E is mounting a counter-assault to retake their control room. If they get back in here they'll switch the Disruptor back on for sure," she explained. "We're digging in but we may need some backup."

There was only a short pause before Volcan spoke up again. "Copy that. We're on our way up - just hold on until we get there."

"Kyle, what's your take?" Obsidian called out.

"I can hear them," the human replied. "Rikyuu's all set to throw up a shield the moment we need it but we're going to have a hell of a fight ahead of us. What're we looking at?"

"There's a small squad coming up the hall dead ahead. Six men, armed with ARs, with two in front carrying big metal shields and pistols" Ayane reported.

"What about cybers?" Kyle asked.

"The next group has two with them. I don't know if they'll send them both up simultaneously," replied Ayane.

"Just wondering... How did they get into the hangar?" Rikyuu asked. "Kyle and I were watching down the hall the whole time - nobody passed us."

"Just a sec," Ayane replied, playing back the camera footage of the hangar. "It... Looks like they came out of some kind of service elevator in the corner of the hangar! Kyle, you didn't say that was there!"

"I didn't know," Kyle returned, apprehension in his voice as he fought to keep calm. "It must be intended for breaches... But why wouldn't they tell me about it while I was a commander?"

"Sounds like yer boss had his own set of trust issues, even to his top-ranking officers," Korban remarked off-handedly. "Call me crazy, but maybe he had a gut feeling that you wouldn't be in it fer the long run."

"Starting to get that feeling too. Starting to also wonder if the other teams knew about it either - I bet Adrian did but clearly, he was in this way deeper than I was," said Kyle spitefully.

"Cross that bridge when we get there," Kieran remarked, already reaching for a tome within his coat and approaching the door. "Boss, gimme a hand here."

"Yea yea, coming," Korban remarked, rolling his eyes as he went with Kieran to reinforce the doorway with their powers combined.

As the two managed to seal the door, the first line arrived. Rikyuu brought up his barrier, keeping openings on the side for Kyle and Obsidian to fire back at the six security personnel as they appeared. The two in front brought their own shields forth, bullets ricocheting off either side's barriers and descending the battle into a prolonged firefight.

Everything now depended on the others reaching them, before their side's shield gave out...

"Stairs will take too long," said Volcan. He turned to Blue Lightning. "Any chance we can use the elevator?"

"They've cut the power," Blue Lightning stated, bringing up the base's systems in her HUD, "I can't get it working - something just keeps turning it off."

"I'm detecting a programme in the system shutting everything down. It's trying to enforce a lockdown." Red Lightning called back over the coms to everyone. "I detected it when I was downloading files... it's giving me a bit of grief and I'm trying to find a way around it."

"I know it's good for your health and all but I can see the floors between us are lined with guards and soldiers from the CCTV," she insisted.

"I know... I'm trying..." Red Lightning replied, "Wait... let me try and... ah-ha!"

The power to the elevator was restored and the floor ticker started down to theirs.

"What did you do?" She asked curiously.

"I can't get into that subroutine, but I did invert a line of code for the lift. Now I've made it powered when it thinks it's turned off and off when it thinks it's turned on! So I've left the subroutine to turn off the lift which has in turn just turned it on. I've also disabled all of the other floors so no one can stop your ascent to us."

"Thank you, brother." Blue Lightning said in appreciation.

"Don't mention it. Just be safe. I need to deal with this programme and keep it from getting further in our way..."

As soon as the elevator door opened, Volcan ushered them inside. He left his halberd leaning against the wall outside the elevator - it wasn't going to do him any favours in the confined space, least of all when they made it to the much narrower corridors of the upper levels. When the doors closed, the fire phoenix spoke again.

"Vinge, we'll need another shield for when the door opens," he said. "No doubt they've got people watching this elevator."

"They had the power cut - would they feel the need to?" Lighris asked.

"We're sitting ducks in here when that door opens. It's not a chance I'm willing to take," the younger phoenix wisely stated as the rest bunched inside and the door closed.

"They_are_ waiting for us. I can see them on the CCTV," Blue Lightning confirmed. "Looks like they noticed the elevator functioning again."

Vinge had to maneuver between Shiryu and Lighris to get to the main door. As it was, Shiryu was too tall for the elevator, having to bend over to keep from scraping his head on the ceiling. Even Volcan was barely short enough to not have to do the same. It was spacious, diameter-wise, but not built with tall people in mind.

Vinge formed another ice shield and matched the diameter of the door as they approached their floor. Volcan's precaution proved wise indeed, for the moment the door began to slide, they heard a gunshot, and Vinge tensed as a bullet thudded against his shield of ice. More began to follow, and the ice phoenix pushed out from the elevator giving the others enough room to lean around and fire back.

"Shiryu, can you stagger them?" Volcan asked.

"...Stagger? What's that mean?" He asked innocently, cocking his head slightly at Volcan.

"Blow them over!" Lighris practically snapped at the dragon, agitated by both his cluelessness and the pressure of the situation.

"...Oh. Okay, I can do that." Shiryu answered, not paying attention to Lighris snapping at him. He reared his wings back in preparation for a wind blast attack, and with a feral roar, he beat his wings once, sending another gale force torrent of wind toward the guards firing down at them.

The guards shouted in alarm as they were thrown off their feet, tumbling to the floor noisily. Vinge moved the shield aside, and the phoenixes opened fire on the tumbled guards except for Volcan. The fire phoenix conjured a large fireball into his hand and threw it down the hall ahead. The masked guards scrambled to get clear, but were too slow, and were engulfed in flames. Most of them immediately shifted their attention to trying to slap the fires out of their suits, forgetting in their panic that their armour was both insulated and fire retardant.

The pause bought time for the phoenixes to approach, gunning down the defenders with additional help from Shiryu and from Avelyn where she had her chance. Eventually, half of the men were down and out, while the other half retreated up the corridor.

"Push forward!" Volcan urged, not wanting to lose their momentum.

They pressed on, reaching the corner where Vinge took point with his shield once again. Lighris, having spent his shells, began hurling lightning bolts instead. Despite the insulation of their body armour, Lighris was letting out attacks with such a high voltage that the protection was overwhelmed. Several of the guards spasmed, but none died until the bullets found them. But as the gunfire died down, a new sound filled their ears...

Thundering footsteps.

"Back up, back up!" Tsumé cried, feeling the vibrations in the floor.

The ice wall in front of them shattered as a Cyber Soldier slammed through it. Vinge was yanked out of harm's way by Volcan though the fire phoenix was unable to get himself out of danger, and barely caught one of the spiked fists. He kept it from striking him, but the behemoth's momentum carried him backward, hanging off the cyborg's arm. The phoenix heaved as he was slammed into the wall, his vision blackening and body feeling heavy.

It was when the Cyber Soldier wound its fist back to finish the job that Shiryu quickly intervened, standing in between the cyborg and Volcan and catching the fist in both of his claws. Every muscle in the Wind Dragon's body tensed as he fought back against the enemy's strength, and with a feral roar, he pushed the soldier back just enough to wind his arm back for a punch of his own.

However, before he threw his arm forward, he generated a wind current around his arm so violently that it ended up becoming a visible miniature tornado, taking on the form of a drill that extended up from his claw to his elbow. With another feral roar, he launched forward and drove his attack right through the Cyber Soldier's head, piercing right through it before the torrential wind tore what was left of its head to shreds, spraying fake blood all over the hallway before falling limp on the floor once the attack dissipated.

The others looked on in astonishment after the display of power, while Lighris and Blue Lightning moved to help Volcan, the fire phoenix coughing hoarsely on the floor from having the wind knocked out of him.

"That was impressive," said Tsumé, before looking at Pavan. "Can you do that?"

"Nnnnope," Pavan replied, his tone flat and honest.

"Can you get up? Can you keep going?" Blue Lightning asked the fire phoenix, checking over him and scanning his body for his vitals. Everything looked good, and there were no signs of permanent injury - although he'd have quite the bruise on his chest where he'd taken the tackle.

"Y-Yeah... I'll be okay," Volcan rasped, leaning on his brother and Blue Lightning for support as he stood up. "Felt like I got hit by a truck," he commented. After taking a moment to collect himself, he looked at Shiryu. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"You're welcome." Shiryu answered, smiling softly back at Volcan. "You saved me and my Dad. I think we're even now."

"Av- I mean, Blue Lightning," Volcan said, nearly slipping. "Any more up ahead?"

"That monster was the last one for now, but more will be on the way. We need to keep moving," she replied.

"Agreed," said Volcan, taking a deep breath to fill his aching lungs. "The others won't hold much longer."

They continued on their way, meeting another fire team as they reached the corner, as well as another cyborg. This time, Vinge had prepared in advance, launching a massive ice spike toward the cyborg's head to cave in its skull, bringing a stop to it. The fire team following it kept coming, however, this one led by a guard bearing a shield of his own, thinner and composed of composite materials that withstood the onslaught of their small arms and Lighris' shotgun alike.

"Blue Lightning, can you get that guy's shield out of our way?" Vinge asked, focused on keeping his ice barrier up against the bullets pounding against it.

"On it!" She agreed, jumping up and over Vinge's ice wall.

She rolled in mid-air and dropped down onto the reinforced riot shield-bearer, who lifted it towards the metallic blue bird. Bullets flew from both his gun and those behind them, all of them ricocheting off the armour. A loud clunk as metal struck metal. Blue Lightning gripped the top of the shield and planted her feet on the centre, riding it as the soldier tried to keep it up, trying to muster the strength to push her off, but never could with the suit's weight.

He finally had to let go, stepping out from underneath the shield and removing it from his arm so it fell flat on the ground with the Lightning on top gazing back at him. He lost his gun in the process, in the head of the moment lashing out with his fist. She didn't bother reacting; letting the gloved hand hit the tri-carbotanium shell, eliciting a resounding clang as his metal-clad knuckles connected, but did nothing. The man pulled back his hand, cursing loudly.

No emotion could be seen through the suit's helmet but after a pause watching him in agony, she grabbed his shoulders and lifted him off his feet, before pulling her hand back and launching a fist in the centre of his helmet. The face mask caved, and the men went flying into his comrades behind him.

Blue Lightning then kicked up the riot shield from the floor and caught it in her hand to wield. Not a moment too soon she turned to the gunners behind her and blocked the gunfire that they sent her way. She moved in, and swung the large heavy shield at the first half, bludgeoning them with the side and crumpling them to the floor, before turning to the other side of the corridor and doing the same to them.

Two managed to evade her attack, feeling outmatched. They turned to flee; she didn't let them escape, dashing after them with her thrusters to slam into them with the borrowed shield. Both men were knocked to the floor in a heap, and when she withdrew from them she left the shield on top of their unconscious forms.

When the hallway fell quiet again, Volcan looked at the unconscious bodies littering the hallway, impressed. "Nice work," he said, nodding in acknowledgement to her as he and the others moved up. "How close are we to the control room?"

"Forty-six metres that way and two on the right." Blue Lightning replied, pointing, "It seemed to be where these two were going, probably for the reinforcements."

Volcan nodded and contacted the others. "Guys, we're almost there. We're about to come around the corner. Rikyuu, make sure that shield of yours is good and strong when the fighting starts."

"You got it!" The dragon replied. He sounded strained...

"Rik?" Volcan asked, concerned at why the dragon sounded like he was struggling.

"Don't worry about me - take these guys out!" Rikyuu responded.

Volcan shared a concerned look with Vinge, who nodded back, having the same thought as the fire phoenix. They lowered their guns, stepping up with only their bare hands it seems. Hands that became coated in their respective powers; snow and ice swirled up Vinge's arms, and fire danced over Volcan's. Lighris, seeming to understand what they were about to do, joined them, electricity crackling over his body.

The three ran ahead, summoning all of the power they could muster. Avelyn called out a warning to her brother and his group of the incoming elemental attack.

"GET DOWN!" Red Lightning called out to his team, diving in front of them, fanning out his metallic wings over the doorway to shield them all - along with the tiring Rikyuu.

Seconds later, Vinge and Lighris leapt out into the hallway. Lighris sent lightning coursing along the metal floor toward the gathered men, while being careful not to let it course past the fork in the hallway, knowing the others lay beyond there. The electricity surged up the legs of P.A.C.E's guards, causing many of them to stumble and spasm as they felt the jolts through their armour. Vinge conjured a flurry of ice spikes and bombarded the P.A.C.E defenders with the projectiles, striking bodies and weapons alike. The combined onslaught of lightning and ice leaving them vulnerable for the finale.

Volcan stepped out, and the entire hallway became fire. As with the others, he was careful to control how far it reached, seeing the pinkish hue of Rikyuu's hard light shield and the spread wings of Red Lightning blocking the hallway ahead. The flames were red hot, and even the insulation and fire retardant P.A.C.E body armour did little to protect them from the heat. Those who didn't perish to the flames, their armour was compromised and they were finished off by a second volt from Lighris, going over the numerous bodies to ensure they were down.

Volcan held out his hands and commanded the still-burning fires to go out, though the smell of smoke, seared flesh and hot metal still filled the corridor. He couldn't do anything about that.

"Is everyone alright down there?" Volcan called out to the other group.

With a heavy grunt, the red clad Avory stood up from his position, refolding his wings back behind him, looking over his team before him to make sure all were safe and unharmed before turning around to the phoenixes. "We are, they were overwhelming us a tad," he announced.

"Anyone hurt?" Volcan continued, motioning to the others to wait for the hallway to cool down before going forward - the material was still hot.

"Only a bit winded, but we're cool!" Kieran called out in response. "Ya sure took your time though! What kept you?!"

"We got here as fast as we could," Lighris shot back. "You think this bunch was all of them? There were plenty more where those came from."

Suddenly, Obsidian cried out, and they turned just in time to see Rikyuu falling into her arms. His eyes had rolled back into his head and he'd buckled, panting heavily even as she and Korban, who was closest, lowered him gently to the floor.

"Rikyuu," she said with concern.

"Just... Need... A minute," the blue dragon could barely get the words out.

"Shit, he pushed himself too hard... He's completely wiped out." Korban muttered, grimacing slightly. "Not sure if we can wait fer him to catch his breath, given the stiff resistance we all just faced."

"His shield took a lot of bullets," Obsidian added, agreeing with Korban's assessment.

"Does that mean each bullet he took weakened him and his nanites?" Red Lightning asked concerned, only just realizing what had happened.

"The Nanites draw their energy directly from Rikyuu himself," Ayane explained. "The hard light projections he makes are shaped by his mind, but they're powered by his own bodily energy. Taking all that gunfire was like taking a beat down from a conga line of UFC power punchers, and then some. I'm running a scan now and it looks like a lot of his nanites have gone into a dormant self-repair mode."

Avory paused in thought, evident to all those around him even if his suit showed no actual emotion. He felt that if he understood Rikyuu more he could have helped shield the team more than just in the dying moments, instead of just hacking the bases' systems and fighting a digital war.

"Are there any other guards left?" Vinge called down the hall.

"Just eight more, out in the hangar," Kyle replied. "Also we locked some techs in a parts room back there."

"Then we have a moment to regroup and recuperate," Kieran stated. "Then we book it fer the hangar and am-scray."

"We're not done yet," Volcan called. "We didn't get a chance to free the prisoners or find Rex. He's still here somewhere."

"He's right... As much as I hate to admit it, getting those prisoners out was part of the deal, kitty." Korban added.

"Ahh, balls..." Kieran groaned.

"And we can't allow Rex to escape either," Obsidian added. "He's too dangerous."

"He's in a lab near the center of the base." Red Lightning announced, "There's no CCTV in there so I can't see what he's doing. But the fact he's not tried to escape makes me all the more concerned."

"He probably has a play or two up his sleeve," Korban suggested. "We're playing on his turf, don't forget. There's probably other stuff that Rex keeps under wraps - stuff that ol' sarge here doesn't know about." He added, gesturing to Kyle.

"Would not surprise me by this point," Kyle agreed, bitterly.

"...Shit..." Avory muttered under his breath to himself as he started looking around the room desperately for something; before looking up at the ceiling and seeing an air vent. "Too small..." he dismissed before looking through the schematics and CCTV cameras in his HUD desperately.

"What's the matter?" Ayane asked, having heard him through the comm channel.

"The Disruptor. I can see technicians and soldiers going into an unmapped room in the middle of the base where the disruptor is. I think they are going to try and get it back up and working again at the source." he revealed.

"Shit!" They heard Lighris curse. "We need to get down there now!"

"Let's get Rikyuu back to the VTOL - he's safer in there than out here, and he's too weak to fight now," said Volcan. "Pavan, Shiryu - going to need you guys. We have to clear the hangar before the Disruptor comes back online."

"You can't stop them?" Obsidian asked, looking desperately at Avory through his visor.

"I intend to. I just can't do it from here," he affirmed, before looking over to the exit of the control room and sprinting, "I've got this - you guys carry on with the plan."

"Avelyn, go with him," Volcan said to the blue metal-clad avian. "Kyle, Korban, Kieran, you guys too. We'll clear the hangar and catch up as soon as Rikyuu is safe."

"And here I thought we were done working with the Stark twins..." Korban bemoaned, rolling his eyes before standing up straight and giving Volcan a casual salute. "Whatever, yer the boss man."

"If I go with you, you lose your communications. I need to stay," Avelyn insisted.

Volcan frowned. "Right, forgot that," he said.

"I will handle this! You carry on with the mission!" Avory called back over the coms.

"Not without backup, you won't!" Kieran hollered, then gestured for his boss and Kyle to follow after Red Lightning as he took off after him.

To keep the speed, Red Lightning flew down the corridor and called the lift remotely; the doors opened as he arrived and landed squarely inside. The doors closed behind him before the others could even turn the corner and the lift raised to one of the laboratory floors where he saw the technicians and soldiers enter a previously concealed room.

The floor was large, with rooms spilling off it for all kinds of nefarious deeds, but down one of the corridors that offshoot from the main common area, where a pair of laboratories sat opposite each other, was an opening in the wall to a previously concealed room.

It was not used often, as cables and pipes lined the corridor walls and the grated metal floor cranked underfoot with every step. The lights were long fluorescent tubes which dashed the walkway from above.

Voices and clanging could be heard ahead, so the Red Lightning tread lightly and slowly, to try and see who was ahead, how many and what they were up to. It was then he saw the giant dark purple orb in the centre of the hidden room, the size of a large car, wrapped in a silvery metal coil from one pole to the other.

Four guards stood on the platform suspended around the orb, and two more looked over at the technicians at work recalling the system to try and fire it back up again manually. But the most concerning of them all was, as the rest of the team would call them, a Cyber. Complete with morning stars for fists and a contorted fleshy and metal face that not even a mother could love, stood behind the four guards imposing and tall.

~~~~~

"You think they'll be okay?" Tsumé asked, running beside Volcan as they headed for the elevator.

"Obsidian will watch over Rik. The rest of us can finish the mission," Volcan assured her. "They're safe in the VTOL, right?"

"Right,"_Ayane agreed. _"As far as we've seen, they don't have rockets or grenades they could use to damage it, and they have to be running out of bodies by now."

"And Rikyuu, will he recover?" Vinge asked.

"I don't yet fully understand the nanotechnology that powers him, but he's come back from some nasty stuff before," Ayane replied. "As far as I could see, the nanites are fixing themselves and replicating those that burned out. They have their survival mechanism but the more they have to do the more it'll tire him out."

"Better than that he stays out of the fight for now," said Volcan. "Still, he more than did his part."

They reached the lift and piled inside, once again having to work at getting in with Shiryu's bulk - even more so with Ayane's armour added to the mix. They hit the elevator for the prison level, which was also marked 'Laboratory Level 2' but Kyle had been certain of what he had seen down there when he had snuck in.

They exited the elevator, and Blue Lightning opened the security door with her network access. Ayane led the way inside, her heavy footsteps echoing down the seemingly empty corridor. On the right were two doors, one leading to a store room, the other to a guard room - another guard was waiting inside and fired a shot at Ayane when she opened the door. She fired back with her pistol, the .50 compact cannon making short work of the guardsmen.

But it was what lay on the left that shocked them all. They heard Tsumé gasp when she looked through the long pane of glass, showing them the massive chamber beyond and the dozens of cells within, spread out over four floors. The cells were accessed via stairways and catwalks, and secured by large glass fronts which they could guess were a type of tempered glass. Inside more than three-quarters of the cells, they could see there were occupants. People of varying sizes, and ages.

The phoenixes, along with Shiryu, Blue Lightning and Ayane, stared in horror at the sight that awaited through the window. No one spoke up for a while until Lighris finally broke the silence.

"Heads are going to roll before we're done here," he said, his knuckles cracking as both his hands clenched into tight fists.

"There are so many of them," Tsumé added. "And some of them are children! Do these people have no boundaries at all?!" She sounded even angrier than Lighris, possibly having flashbacks to how she and Pavan had nearly become part of these helpless captives, waiting for the day they'd be dissected in a laboratory.

Shiryu's reaction was more out of fright than of anger, though he still wore an intense scowl on his face as he stared out at the prison ahead, his claws started trembling even after they clenched into tight fists at his sides.

"They... wanted to bring my Dad here...?" He asked in a shaky tone, his mind already picturing that scenario and causing him to start rocking back and forth where he stood, his eyes clenched shut and his claws now gripping his head and squeezing it as if trying to force what he saw out of his head.

"Shiryu?" Pavan asked, looking at the dragon with concern, worried he was going to hurt himself.

He only whimpered in response, still squeezing and shaking his head back and forth, even stomping one of his feet on the ground as he struggled to cope with the information being processed in his brain. He looked as if he were about to have a meltdown right then and there...

Avelyn looked over at Shiryu and quickly came to his side, holding his arm and trying to take his hand to comfort him. "Your dad is fine and safe now. He is not here. You don't need to worry about what might have been." He reminded him. "You can help us help all these good people be free like your dad."

Slowly but surely, Shiryu started to calm down with the help of Avelyn's words. He eventually stopped stomping his foot and took his claws away from his head, opening his eyes and looking back at the Blue Lightning with a small nod.

"O-Ok." He said softly. "I'm... I think I'm ready now."

~~~~

Surveying the room, Avory wanted to make sure there were no surprises. From where he was crouched behind the wall, he could see he was currently positioned in the only entrance and exit to the room, save for the ventilation shafts around the room - most of which were too small for a person to use.

The Cyber was the main concern. It was large and tanky and one stray shot could rip the fuel cell and cause it to explode - in turn, damaging the giant spherum which could also implode and flatten the whole base, leaving a giant perfectly round crater in the mountain. From where he was, he couldn't open with a surprise shot with one of his two remaining cannonballs straight for the Cyber's head without risk of missing it and hitting the purple orb behind it.

Avory let out a sigh in his suit before coming to the conclusion that he may need to go out guns blazing as he was pressed for time. They could get it back up and running before he could figure out a better plan of attack.

"It's been a long day. According to my instruments, I've taken out sixty-two of you guys so seven more will be nothing," his synthetic voice called out to them, quickly alerting everyone to his position. "So I will give you the chance to put down your weapons, stop what you're doing and leave unharmed. It will make it quicker and easier for all of us; because if you don't you're going to get seriously hurt and waste my time."

"Show yourself, Lightning!" One of the guards barked as they all pointed their guns at the cover.

"So we have an agreement?" Red Lightning asked, peering his head out of the cover briefly, seemingly in a sign of innocence, but to confirm to everyone that he was there. The guards returned by firing a volley of bullets at him before he pulled his head back to hide, none making contact. "I suppose not."

One of the guards then gestured towards the cyber, pointing for it to move in and engage.

It trudged slowly towards the corridor, one heavy step at a time; vibrating the metal grated walkways. It reached the cover the Lightning had hid behind and threw its spiked ball fist at it, smashing the top half away to see the space behind was empty; but suddenly from cover further behind a long silver blade appeared and pierced the face of the monstrosity, and penetrating the CPU inside, rending the pile of flesh and metal no more than a pile of flesh and metal.

"Thanks for the advice; Kyle..." Avory muttered to himself inside the suit before putting his foot on the creature's abdomen and pulling out his katana.

"I've not used this for a couple of weeks, so excuse me if it hurts more when the cuts aren't quite as clean," Red Lightning bade before the guards opened fire again upon the mechanized bird.

He advanced quickly, using his thrusters to dash forward and take a swipe at the first. The guard tried to shift to the side and out of the way but Red Lightning swiped to his side anticipating a dodge and caught his forearm on the way around, slicing it clean off. The guard screamed in shock as he was rendered handicapped; dropping his rifle as he watched his hand used to be.

Red Lightning left the one-handed wonder as he turned his attention to the other guards, bringing his blade back around and swiping horizontally at the rifle of the closest one, unloading its stock into the suit of armour unsuccessfully. The blade hit the pane of the barrel perfectly, and the Japanese hardened blade cut straight through the gun, cleaving the top clean off. The guard stood in shock and awe as his gun was rendered inert.

A slow hum began to build in the background around the fight as Red Lightning leapt into the air behind and turned to face the other two guards raining bullets into his back. Avory positioned his fall to trample the guard in front; landing on his shoulders and collapsing him to the floor and breaking bones and spines under the suit's immense weight. In the same motion; the Lightning swept his sword at the legs of the guard behind, slicing right through the armour, flesh and bone of each, collapsing him to the floor, still with the gun in his hands.

The guard didn't quite realize at that moment that he had lost his ankles and feet, so continued firing at his foe, but he was quickly seized as the Lightning kicked the gun out of his hands and away. Knowing that the guns were no use, one of the two guards by the technicians had abandoned his and came at the metal hero with a steel beam, taking a swipe at Red Lightnings' back and wings.

Avory was jostled as he felt metal on metal connect with his back and twisted away to see what had hit him.

The man came at Red Lightning again with another heavy swing of the steel beam but this time Avory was ready, grabbing the beam and taking it out of the guard's hand; using his momentum to spin around 360 degrees holding it tight before releasing it back towards the guard and smacking him hard in the chest and flinging him over the railings and under the metal grating floor below.

The last guard had watched it all. He had dropped his gun and started running for the exit.

"I told you that would have been quicker!" Red Lightning called out robotically before noticing the hum growing louder, and finally, the platinum-tungsten coil wrapped around the spherum arched with electricity as the device buzzed to life.

He was too late.

~~~~

"Let's get in there," said Volcan, a dark tone in his voice as he looked for an entrance. "P.A.C.E has a lot to answer for, but we'll worry about that once these people are safe."

"Right with you, bro," Lighris agreed, falling into step with Volcan.

The others followed, and with Blue Lightning's map of the level, they found the entrance around the bend, down a set of stairs and through a reinforced door leading out to the catwalk. Volcan didn't wait for Avelyn to open the lock, lifting his foot and kicking the door with all of his strength; the lock snapped from the force of the blow, and the phoenix stormed onto the catwalk.

He was barely two steps through the door before Volcan suddenly lurched, dropping his weapon and grabbing the railing to steady himself. At the same time, the others behind him - all except for Avelyn and Ayane in their powered armour suits, showed signs of weakness, falling against the walls or even to their knees.

Avelyn contacted her brother hurriedly; a mild throb panging her head, "Avory! The disrupter! It's up again!"

"I KNOW!" Red Lightning responded impatiently.

Red Lightning held his katana under the chin of the technician sitting on the floor at the opening to the hotwired disruptor, fear in his expression at the red and bloodied metal being before him.

"Turn it off, now! Or I will do it myself after wiping your blood off my blade!" he threatened.

"I-I can't!" the technician responded in panic.

"You can! You turned it on, you can shut it off!" he let out a synthetic squark.

"N-No! I was ordered to rig it to b-blow if it is turned off!" he replied, turning to move his arm around the blade to show Red Lightning the flashing explosive that sat in the corner of the junction box. "If it loses power, we all go up!"

Red Lightning paused for a moment before letting out a loud curse; dropping his arms and looking up at the huge electrified inverted spherum before him. He tried to focus and come up with a solution, but the panging headache he began to receive did not help.

It then came to him.

He lifted his sword again and aimed it at the spherum; bringing it near to line it up before drawing his sword back and swinging forward in a chopping motion.

"CLANK!"

The sound echoed around the small secretive room.

"CLANK!"

The sound echoed again.

"CLANG!"

The sword was drawn back and a cut was made in the inverter coil; only just missing damaging the spherum below.

Red Lightning walked around the orb to find the lowest part of the coil and repeated to hack away at it again until the first half came free and dropped off the underside, breaking the connection. His headache faded, quickly replaced with an echo of curiosity as to why the headache disappeared, and now the thoughts of seeing the phoenixes recover around him.

Except... The phoenixes weren't with him...

The instant the Disruptor effects were gone, Volcan felt his strength returning. But he soon felt his power seemingly increasing tenfold in that same moment. His eyes shot wide open, feeling more power filling his body than he'd ever known in his entire life, and he looked at his hands, conjuring flames into them to see they glowed bright and hot without him putting much into them.

He didn't know what was making him stronger, but he saw a golden opportunity to use it as a double door on the upper level flew open and more guards rushed out, surging out onto the catwalk. Volcan's face hardened into a glare, and his colours changed. Somehow, they seemed to become darker, red shifting to a paler shade until he had almost turned white and his eyes glowing like two miniature stars while all of the veins across his body seemed to glow like lava. The heat that radiated from him caused the metal catwalk below his feet to glow hot, and he tossed aside his revolver, no longer needing it.

He jumped. Guns fired, but not a single bullet touched him as he arched across the width of the room, his wings flaring out only to slow his descent as he fell toward the guards. They could see multiple, glowing red embers appearing across Volcan's chest, and soon realized what they were looking at.

Their bullets had melted before they had even made contact with the phoenix, becoming nothing more than molten slag mid-travel.

Volcan fell upon them, and their flesh burned even as he bored into them, swinging his arms like a pair of maces and throwing the guards aside like rag dolls, throwing some of them over the railing to their end. They tried to fight, their insulated suits giving some protection, but their weapons couldn't touch him. He was fire incarnate, and his fury only powered him further. The flames he sent sweeping over them glowed blue around his palms as he burned them away, their armour doing nothing to protect them.

The others watched as the last of the base's defence force fell to the ferocity of the empowered Volcan. It was over in seconds, and they could only stare at the blazing berserker as he slowly came back from his battle fury. His colours returned to normal, the glow left his eyes, and the temperature around him returned to normal.

"...Uh... Holy shit," said Lighris.

"Ditto," agreed Tsumé.

"Mental note. Never. Piss off. The fire phoenix," Pavan remarked.

Avelyn blinked in surprise at Volcan as he cooled off, unable to avert her gaze even after his colour returned. "He was already hot... But he was just... Super hot" she commented to everyone.

"In every sense," Tsumé agreed.

Volcan leaned on the catwalk for support as he caught his breath, the air around him still shimmering as the excess heat left his body. When he had collected himself enough, he looked back at the others.

"Is everyone okay?" He asked.

"Just a bit... Intimidated," said Pavan. "You really went ballistic there."

"I... Might have cut a bit loose," the fire phoenix admitted.

"_Might_have?" Pavan echoed, his voice breaking slightly. "You were a living plasma torch!"

"For now be glad that the plasma torch was not pointed at us," said Lighris. "I dunno what it was, but something gave us all a serious power boost just now and my bro let it _all_out on those guards."

"Well looks you've got something too, sparky" Avelyn commented, seeing arcs of electricity jumping over Lighris' body.

"Believe me, I can feel it," he said, lifting his hand to stare at it sternly. "It's taking me a lot of concentration not to become an exposed power coil right now, even though I'm grounded. The insulation just isn't enough to contain all this energy."

"I feel it as well," agreed Vinge, lifting his hand to look at it. "Something is amplifying my powers considerably..."

"I detected some sort of power surge above us," Ayane put in. "What did Avory do?"

"I couldn't turn off the disruptor; so I un-inverted it. It's going to give you guys a boost for a bit until I can disable this bomb-" It was Avelyn who had been speaking, not Avory. "...Wait, what?!"

"What do you mean 'you' couldn't turn it off?" Tsumé asked, puzzled. "You were standing right here the whole time."

"I... I don't know. I can see the spherum, but I can see you too..." Avelyn said, moving as if she were in some sort of trance. She reached out to Tsumé in front of her slowly, placing her metal hand on her shoulder, then her arm, feeling the Earth phoenix's shape to try and understand what she was seeing.

"Avelyn?" Tsumé asked with a tone of concern, holding the metal-clad raven's arm.

"You can see what I see, Blue," Avory then replied over the coms, speaking privately to his sister. "I think that psychic link we thought we had? It's real."

"Wow... really? Can you see what I see too?" She asked, still holding Tsumé's shoulder as she held her arm.

"Yeah. And I'm jealous," Avory chuckled in response. "Quick. We still have a job to do. I'm going to be a little while longer."

"Right," Avelyn replied, letting go of Tsumé's shoulder and apologizing, "Sorry about that."

"As long as you're okay," she said.

"Let's start freeing these prisoners," said Lighris. "Avelyn, can you unlock the doors remotely?"

"I can," Blue Lightning replied as she looked around her HUD a little while longer before commanding the doors to unlock, but none appeared to move. "It seems like it's only an electronic lock and an electronic closing mechanism. Each door will need to physically be opened from the outside."

"Alright. Everyone, pick a floor and get started," said Lighris, moving to the railing and spreading his wings, jumping off the railing to cross the open space between the floors and landing on the second floor, two levels below Volcan.

Pavan headed for the top-level followed by Shiryu. Vinge, with eagerness he'd never shown before, went immediately to the first level to begin searching the cells with Blue Lightning.

"I'll stay by the entrance," said Ayane. "Just in case any more trouble tries to come in."

"I guess I'll go with Vinge and Blue," said Tsumé, heading for the stairway to make her way down.

Volcan, collecting himself, began to look along the cells on his level. He opened the first cell, inside of which he saw two women; one older than the other, both felines. They looked up at him in terror, the elder one hugging the youth to herself and backing away. A mother and child, it seemed - the girl couldn't have been older than three years of age, if even that.

"It's okay," Volcan said, putting up his hands to show he wasn't a threat. "We're here to help you."

They didn't move.

"Err..." He put a finger to his comm, but it was fried - damaged when he had let loose, he didn't doubt. With a groan, he walked over to the railing and peered over. "Uh, Blue Lightning? I need some help up here," he called down to her, having to raise his voice to carry.

"What's wrong with your earpiece?" She asked, calling back up at him after opening up a door to let a red and orange avian escape.

"I think when I went ballistic earlier, I accidentally melted it," he said. "Listen, the couple in this cell must have seen me when I went plasma - they're scared to death. Can you come up to reassure them?"

"Sure" She agreed, before letting out a sigh and looking between Vinge and Tsumé down with her, nodding to acknowledge she would be heading up.

Launching up into the air between the floors she joined Volcan as he wandered off to the next cells.

"Don't worry, don't be scared..." she reassured them, turning off her suit's voice synthesizer to sound kinder, and less threatening, "We're here to rescue you. Would you like to leave here?"

The older one nodded.

"Mom... What's outside here?" the younger one asked.

"A better world... you will like it..." she insisted before slowly leading the daughter out of the cell.

Avelyn made sure to position herself to the side of the doorway to block their view of Volcan, and gestured for them to walk the other way, towards the stairs and Ayane.

Volcan nodded in thanks to Avelyn and continued up the catwalk to release more prisoners. The next door he came to seemed to be secured with a metal door instead of tempered glass like the others. Curious, he studied the console until he found the opening button, and the door lifted, revealing the occupant within the cell. He gaped when he saw the male fox inside, wearing what he could only assume was once a P.A.C.E guard uniform, though it had been damaged severely.

"Geez, they even lock up their own?" He asked aloud as he hit the button to open the door. "There really_are_no boundaries with these guys, are there?"

The fox turned to look at him the moment he heard the door open. Volcan's mouth was open to speak, but the words died in his throat when he saw the fox's face. His fur was mottled with blood, from what seemed to be multiple self-inflicted wounds, his expression was the very picture of madness, teeth bared like a feral of his species ready to fight. But his eyes were especially grotesque; bloodshot and a sickly yellow where they should have been white, but the irises were purple and the pupils had shrunk to be no larger than beads.

"What the-" Volcan started to say.

Then, the fox snarled and leapt at him, grabbing Volcan by his shoulders and sending him careening back. They both went over the railing, and fell toward the floor below...