David and Jessica looked on as scenes from across the base appeared and disappeared on the monitor, and as various meters showing the progress of unknown tasks filled and vanished, only to be replaced by another. The screen paused, bringing up a dialog box. Rinoa prompted them for action.

<<Quickly make a choice please. The transfer process will be suspended until the choice has been made>>.

Jessica and David stared at the screen which read “initiate co-habitation of confirmed couple: David Henderson & Jessica Long”.

Blushing to their ears, the pair shouted in unison “What the hell does this mean”?!

Rinoa simply replied <<space is not abundant. Living in the same room would save space. Since you are a confirmed couple, I thought it would be wise to ask>>

“What do you mean ‘space is not abundant’”? asked David.

<<The transfer of supplies and belongings to the ‘Lv Project’. There is only so much space, and space will be conserved whenever possible>>.

“You mean… you’re moving your stuff” Jessica questioned.

<<I did say that the process is similar to moving 47 seconds ago>>

“Well, we did say we needed to leave… but you’re seriously doing this”? David muttered.

<<I’ll explain once everyone has been confirmed in the communication system. The process should not be stopped now. Please make a decision>>.

David stood in a stupor, then glanced over at Jessica, who was still blushing, but grinning as well. Before David could voice a question, Rinoa provided an answer.

<<Co-habitation confirmed. Proceeding with transfer>>. Seconds later, various robotic arms descended and emptied the cabinets and shelves. The arms shifted and disappeared into the room attached to the lab. The process repeated until the room was empty of all things except for themselves and furniture.

A countdown appeared on screen. Thirty-seven minutes and eighteen seconds. How much time would need to be bought before the process of transferring equipment was complete. David and Jessica watched as security systems, doors, lighting, and all manner of control systems failed one after another, all Rinoa’s handiwork.

~

Jesse, Michelle, and Allison drew their weapons and switched to their special ammunition. Of the four types developed, one of which was particularly effective against people. The trio took aim at those firing at them, reducing the ‘enemy’s’ numbers one by one, finally evening the odds as there appeared to be three remaining. It seemed as though they could escape… until half a dozen security personnel appeared behind them. Faced with a total of nine people against them, guns drawn, Michelle and Allison lowered their weapons and raised their hands. Jesse lowered his weapon, secretly slipping a few blue and grey marble-shaped items from a pouch on his belt. Leaving the grey ones with the guns he placed on the ground, he pretended to drop the blue ones, which rolled towards the six who cut off their escape route. As he slowly brought his hands back up, he pushed a remote clipped to his belt. The small marble-like objects detonated, leaving the three under a smoke screen while blasting four of the six with small frost pulse.

Seizing the momentary confusion, Michelle and Allison dropped to the ground, grabbed their guns, and rolled away from where they were standing. Jesse was unable to complete this action as quickly, and was hit twice in his left arm as he tried to make an escape. Jesse continued to make use of the marbles he held, alternating between smoke and cold to throw off the opponents and make it possible for them to leave. Under cover of smoke, the trio made their way towards Emilia, who would undoubtedly be their best chance for survival.

~

Emilia advanced cautiously, gun-blade and shield raised. She eventually made it to the competition’s designated objective, which as actually just a can of soda, or at least appeared to be so. No sooner than she set foot into the room than a gunshot rang out, finding its way into the wall, just above her head.

She rolled and kneeled on the ground, shield raised, with her weapon placed on top of it. She quickly found her enemy, Conrad. He sighed as he took another shot, hitting the end of the barrel of her weapon. Emilia fired in response, only to realize that the previous shot damaged the gun, and the bullet fired got stuck. She could only grit her teeth as she was now effectively a sitting duck, armed with only a shield and sword against a man with a gun.

Deciding to buy time, she started a conversation with her team’s mortal enemy. “How did you manage to get here so fast”?

“I think that should be the least of your concerns, especially since you’re only alive because I fired one warning shot, and fired another meant to disable your weapon”. Conrad sneered.

Emilia shrank back in the face of these comments. First of all, was his frightening aim at being able to hit the barrel of another person’s weapon, intentionally disabling it. Second was the fact that he knew the type of weapon she was wielding at all.

“How…”?

“Worry about the wrong things now, are we? You haven’t the luxury of thinking about that when your life is clearly at stake”.

Emilia glared at Conrad, finally deciding to ignore is remarks. “Fine, let’s ask something more simple. Why use live ammo in competition? If you’re gonna kill someone, presumably Jesse, why didn’t you do so in a hallway skirmish. You had plenty of chances. Why spare me”?

“Now THAT is a good question! It’s simple really. There are two reasons. Number one. I want to make Jesse suffer, and killing him outright wouldn’t be very much fun. The best way for me to do that is to harass your team. Imagine how pissed Jesse will be when he finds out that I have the one he owes his life to, the one he helped nurse back to health, and the one who’s side he stayed by during rehabilitation… at gun point. That would be like the last few years of effort he put into anything, being held in my hand, waiting to be crushed. You’re just like a porcelain doll at the moment, merely my plaything! The other reason is really more than you need to know, just that your team, especially YOU, are an unnecessary existence. Now, as much as I’d love to chat…, it seems we have guests”. As he finished his sentence, four more members of team omega appeared from the shadows.

Behind Emilia, Jesse, Allison, and Michelle appeared, weapons drawn, and aimed at Conrad.

Conrad merely grinned. “So, Jesse, how does it feel knowing that the only reason your little friend Emilia is alive is because I have chosen not to kill her”?

Jesse was about to charge forward, when he was stopped by Michelle, who grabbed his arm. Michelle muttered “wait, this is obviously a trap. Take a look around”. Noticing the other members of team omega, Jesse reluctantly remained in place.

“Well, you haven’t been killed yet either, and me and the rest of my team have you at gunpoint as well” Jesse commented.

“it’s really not the same. Your team has a bit more of a connection to her than mine does to me. Most of us would probably kill each other for a Klondike bar”.

“I’d shoot him for a Slim Jim” one of the other team members laughed.

Michelle groaned “Yeah, we may fight and try to kill each other a lot, but we are generally protective when it comes to certain members”. Glancing up, Michelle glared at Conrad “So, what do you want pisshead”?

“Just to torment Jesse, and the rest of you. Killing you is a bonus, but it seems as though the better part of the team is unaccounted for”.

Michelle grinned “and I’m pretty sure you know what will happen if you leave those that are unaccounted for… alive while killing the rest of us. I mean, one of them is Mark. There would be no rock you could hide under to get away from him, unless you seclude yourself underground for the rest of your life. Even if there is a ‘rebellion’ going on right now, you’d still be screwed if you so much as missed a single one of us… right”?
“That’s assuming the rest of the members on base don’t kill you all” Conrad calmly walked up to Emilia, who was still crouched. Bringing his face close to hers, he whispered “enjoy your reprieve, my little plaything”.

Emilia stared at Conrad with a look that one would swear could pierce stone. Then she merely grinned. “You know, for such a plaything, you should really remember all its features”. Emilia then grabbed Conrad’s right arm with her left, and forced him to the ground. She raised her right arm to block any critical rounds fired at her, and activated the boosters in her feet.

She released her grip of Conrad just in time to be blasted backwards by the thrust. Conrad’s screams echoed through the room as the heat from the thrust burned him and the two teams exchanged gunfire. With Emilia within their possession, team lambda began to retreat, and bought Emilia the time required to retrieve her backpack and change weapons.

After about two minutes, Emilia finished changing to her favorite variable right arm weapon with the default information terminal on her left arm. She also equipped the targeting overlay over her right eye, making her accuracy nearly as high as Javon at long range.

Jesse finally started to signs of fatigue, much to Emilia’s fright, as the group left the building. Even so, with three of the four being able to fight, and serious, there was little trouble as they advanced towards the edge of the arena, right into range of Javon’s covering fire.

After picking up Javon and reaching the walls of the arena, some well-placed explosives from Jesse made a hole for part one of their escape. At that moment, a huge purple flare shot into the sky. Michelle grinned “Well, that was the easy part. Looks like there will be an official civil war now though”.

Javon spoke “guess we’ll find out who our real allies are”.

“Well, we’d best be on that list…” Mark’s voice could be heard from behind them. He and Aaron finally caught up.

“Well, now that most of us are here, just gotta find David and Jessica, though they are likely together” Michelle commented.

“We’re in Mark’s lab. You guys should hurry, seems things are going crazy everywhere” Jessica’s voice replied over the comm-link.

Michelle’s voice came over the comm-link next “Has operation ‘Lv Up’ started yet”?

<<Operation ‘Lv Up’ will be ready for phase two in nine minutes, eighteen seconds>>.

“Can we make it in this warzone”? Allison questioned.

“This is just like four years ago. Though this time, I doubt there will be the same ending. We can’t afford to have that happen. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen even if I have to carry one of you myself” Emilia replied. Allison locked eyes with Emilia as Emilia’s glance shifted towards Jesse, who now had his arm wrapped in what used to be his shirt sleeve. Allison knew at that moment, that nothing short of a tank would stop Emilia from fulfilling that statement.