Three shadows of what appeared to be a humanoid emerged from the portal where the nuclear blast happened; they appeared to have no features besides pitch darkness, one standing in the middle with body parts served from limbs to limbs, but still in place despite there's no bridges connecting it's floating part, spikes growing from each of its body parts and the single white eye staring at the squad. The left one looks more connected, its head missing the upper part, replaced with spikes growing out and a pair of claws on its arm, lowered its back down with a white grin like it wanted to devour them. Then the right one, brute body, arms like a spear, no head.
The three with their features similar to the designated sign on their head, with letters such as X, I, and J. the three, levitate toward them.
James, Vix, V, and Soul get into their battle stance. The cube that used to shield them transformed into an extraction blimp, hooked onto Lilly, and sent her upward high into the sky.
"That won't slow us back..." -James "Contact, you see what I'm seeing?"
The boss couldn't believe what he was seeing; everything had gone beyond his prediction, and "unknown entities detected..."
"James! Get out of there!" -Clare screamed into her mic.
Looking back at them, Vix pushed James away, just about inches away, before the spear pierced his core. It struck the ground before the sharpnels turned into high anti-energy and exploded. Knocked them far away.
"Ugh... Son of a-" Soul slashed a rift, she dashed into it, teleported straight behind the dark force.
"Soul wait!" Vix yelled. He prepared to use Absolute speed.
The brute's dagger arm destroyed her body, digging a straight hole through her body. The absolute speed was cancelled. He looks at her in horror, before she gets split in two. Metal shrapnel and wires spurting dark liquid, her core exploded with the force of a mini-nuke. But the explosion quickly got subdued by the smile, an invisible field contained it in a sphere, and dust remained.
"ENGAGE DAMMIT" Vix slamming his chest, trying to get his core activate Jame's core parts.
James created a new rifle for V. He then picked Lilly up in his arms and brought her away from the madness.
V fired the automatic rifle, bullets enhanced with the ability somehow passed through their body, leaving no damage on their body. She quickly got blasted by an invisible explosion, her armor bent, then broke into pieces. Flung and hit the boulder right on her back, leaving many shattered bones.
Vix finally gets his core function again, uses all the might he has, his speed goes over infinite, and the flame ignites immediately. Everything in their eyes was just like nothing happened, but in his eyes, a whole new view had opened during the sped up. His claws struck at the calamities, but all he saw was an illusion of him taking them down with his willpower. he saw he had torn them down inch by inch, but when the time hit zero. His core has been crushed by the palm of it.
"VIIIIXXX!" V screamed, and she tried to crawl to the battle.
[Core terminated, shutting down in: 60 seconds] Vix screamed, he continued to strike them, but all passed through their body. His whole arsenal of guns has become useless.
"You're brave damned soul. Humankind is fascinated, although it cannot be satisfied. You can't kill a creature that doesn't exist..." the eyed one staring down at Vix, his head bleeding dark blood, pressure making it about to explode.
[15 seconds]
"Coming in hot!!!" James blasted through the skies, dashing toward Vix.
He looks at him, disconnected from the two last pieces of his core. Fell into his hands. "I'll meet you three in hell..." he pushed himself off its arm. Wires and blood vessels are cut off. He threw the core pieces at James.
He caught them, quickly inserted them, and ignored the warning sign to save his team. He saw the last smile on his face before his head blew up. James landed. His eyes locked on the remains of Vix. He teleported and struck them with an electro-magnetic field on his fist, distorting the space, and he managed to make them stumble in the air.
"Got you now..." eyes furious, his voice glitched in anger.
"Leaving your friends in danger... not a wise move... hehehe" the Smile on said.
"Xeon... Isan... Jzon... calamity force. We're here to bring down this universe."
"I guess so..." James flew to V, then teleported her to where Lilly was hiding. He carried them and blasted off into the atmosphere, escaping the danger zone.
The three calamities look at them, they fly into the sky, reviving the fallen armies the squad killed, back with the new upgrade, far more danger than the hidden society can handle. Each body turned into a new life form, just like a living energy, armored with its own used metal flesh and bone.
"Bring down their lives."
Back at the mountain base, everyone brings out the landing runway, assembled from giant gears and parts.
"Clear the way!"
The fireball flew down the sky, the heat shield turned into particles, and He rapidly descended from the sky. His feet touched and slid on the runway, ear-bleeding sound of broken metal scraping violently as he slowed down.
"Medic!" yelled. James left the two girls for the staff to handle. He quickly dashed to the main control room.
[S.P.D / A.S-C systems recovered... attempting to fuse IC.E heart]
"What are those things!" kicked down the door, he rushed to the head master of this place. "You told me this was just a normal termination mission." he grabbed his sharp suit. Lifting the man easily on his right arm. Guns, turrets, and guards pointed their weapons at him.
"We're fighting outer worlds now?! This isn't the Marvel universe where they blasted everything up."
"James, calm down." Clare held his hand, speaking quietly, Order received. Making him drop the boss down.
"This clearly doesn't make sense to us. Those things, Xeon, Isan, and Jzon... I believe we should start believing in magic now... "
"Tch... over thousands of years humanity thrives, only to meet their downfall this easily? And you... Boss man," he stabbed his hand through his skull, pulled out his machinery brain, the sudden move made everyone in the room shocked. "Find me that lost memories... like you said"
The boss nodded. James's wound quickly recovered, making a new brain, leaving the broken one on the floor. He walked out of the room, and Kiries and Clare followed.
"Hey... are you okay...?" Kiries said, a bit of worry could be heard in her non-feeling voice.
"You two, I have a complex mind. I can be a madman or a very furious one in just a second. There's a thing I didn't tell you, Clare, but sometimes I feel I'm a different person once I see something that isn't supposed to move my mind. Once I saw Vix's death, anger from nowhere just hit me."
"Losing temper... does missing your past really make you like this?" Clare said.
"Maybe Clare's right, we should find your memories back first before handling those dark creatures..." -Kiries.
["Please DC-404, head to hangar 7 for an important need"]
"What now..." James led Kiries and Clare to their room before heading there.
The hangar was filled with the smell of burning metal, many scientists, and armed personnel.
"Good, you are here." a male scientist said, "We received the order from the boss, for the past few years we studied artificial brains, and how they function. so"
James looks at the chair with wires and connections plugged straight to a device the size of an average computer.
"This thing will let you go into your deepest point of your core. So you can see and recover anything that lost. This device helped a lot of the Cores during duty when they suffered from a broken core. But, we haven't tried it on someone like you."
He was thinking about kiries, the words she said. "Do it then... I want to know why I was the only one to succeed". He takes a sharp stinger, stabbing it right into his core.
[Connected. Establishing a stable bridge]
sat down, the machine held him tight. The scientist begins their work, "starting the countdown."
"For you, everything inside your head is going to be short. But outside, we aren't sure when you will wake up."
"Make sure I stay in a comfy position then."
The timer has hit zero. In his eyes, everything has disappeared, and he feels light and has no restraint. Just like falling. Thump, he saw his body had hit the ground. surrounded by a field of grass in the blue sky.
"This is so trippy..." standing from the hard hit on the ground. Looking at the endless grassy land inside his mind. "My mind is this empty?"
Taking the first step, feeling the strange sensation, the space of endless void shattered, and kicked him down into the rabbit hole. open his eyes, seeing himself in a different place with Tall poles reaching far into the sky, a dark and white color background with only a pitch-dark moon from afar, just like walking in limbo. Once he saw the cube, on the ground, calling the code <[J]>.
James picked up the strange cube. Suddenly, he found himself in front of a door with slash marks. On the other side is a place where the cube needs to be. Not thinking twice, he immediately inserted it. Open the door.
"Are you sure you want to give up your kid for this project? Isn't that cruel?"
"I already wasted my life for this organization... I can't even live to see my 40s... that day I met the love of my life, he died protecting the world and hid the broken truth so they can live in the light... my son... I want him to be the one who changes the world."
"he will probably die... the project killed a lot around the planet. Although we don't do this much."
"Those test subject kids will die anyway. They never see the outside besides the fake environment we told them at home. But at least they won't suffer like those who got infected."
"You're right, infected ones are hard to put down, they suffered every day, unlike those kids. We gave them a hard future. Let them rest once they're done. And if there's a successful one. They will be the ones who save the universe."
[error 404]
"Hey, what's your name?"
"Kiries... yours?"
"James. Why does your hand look like that?"
"I touched a black liquid somewhere outside here, and they placed this weird wristband on my arm."
"Does it hurt?"
"Yes. But I don't mind."
"I want to see you. But this glass wall stopped us."
"Once we get out, I will find you. And we can play together without anything stopping us."
[ERROR]
"Say, why did you get in here?"
"My mom got separated from me, she works here. I think they want to make us into some kind of weapon. It's confusing."
"That sounds wrong..."
"The sad part, we can't live for long, not because they're gonna kill us, but we have some kind of rare condition, those kids just like me will die from usual normal causes. It's depressing when you know that"
[Detected Ashfall flower particles]
"What happened to your head, Kiries...?"
"I... Don't know... but I want to hold your hand... James, I'm scared."
cough cough "I'm here with you"
[The flower's particle infected with D-blood, those poor children who got it were sent to the facility, those who luckily survived, leave the cause for further generations]
[We need to push the project faster]
"James!"
"Kiries!"
[beginning memories extraction]
[system failures, all memories secured in the main part]
"It was still there all along."
James found himself in a snowy field. "That's why they can't find my old data..."
"Fancy seeing you here."
turning around just to see a person who is just like him. his hair is only a different color of black. He smiling sadistically. "You might be wondering who I am. I'm your copy of mind. You can say that I'm your other self."
"Okay..."
"You see. When you put on that mask, you can't even recognize yourself."
"I was crazy. But didn't expect this..."
"Since you remembered what happened in the past, do you think they were the bad guys for putting us in here?"
"No... We're still gonna die anyway. Except for Kiries, but she will be trapped forever, not to mention those other-dimensional creatures. How are we going to kill them..."
"That's for you to figure that out. but... I hope you remember me every time you put on that mask. For now, go and protect the world like you were intended."
[clear]
Energy surged through his body, and James woke up from the deep sleep. The time had been set to night. Kiries and Clare are sitting next to him. "Look, he woke up..." Kiries said.
"Hey, you feeling alright?" -Clare. "You were sleeping for like hours."
"I'm Fine, Clare... " James rubbed his face. "Kiries... I'm sorry."
"What...?"
James hugged her, a sudden action that made Kiries hits short circuit, her face reddened.
"Sorry for leaving you alone for that long."
"I... Okay..." She wrapped her hands around his shoulder, moving up and down to feel his back. "Nice..." said quietly.
"So you got your memories back. That easy?" -Clare
"It was an error during extraction."
A scientist came in. "You awake. What's your experience in the no man land?"
"I... saw myself, a different person, a replicate mind"
"Interesting... well, we are planning for an all-out attack on those entities. They were asking if u would like to join in."
"All for the world eh? Time to get serious."
James picked up his hat and got off the table. He, Clare, and Kiries got out of the hangar. heading to the main hall where hundreds of soldiers and advanced machinery are ready to deploy.
"Mr. James, we want to give you this Mark-54 combat arms. These originated from your relative's mother, who works here."
James takes the gauntlets, designed to strap on his arm, not his hand. "She likes punching, huh?" He turned to Kiries, "Kiries, you can take it."
"What? It belongs to your mother..."
"Yeah, but it's more obvious you should have it, to get stronger."
Kiries let out a small smile. She takes the gauntlets and puts them on. "Thank you, James..."
The sky begins to change its color, the moon turns red, painting the mountains in the blood red night.
["begins the attack and evac operation. The base will self-destruct in T-minus 5 minutes. Goodbye, all personnel."]