Arcadia

Shared Strengths, Joint Wills, and United Hearts--

"Having survived even the weapon to slay gods, nothing can stop him now."

Kagami held his gun out, aimed at Emi. The gunshot did not come from him, but neither was it Emi's, who had surprise written all over her face.

The Accenture CEO soon dropped his grip on the gun and slowly fell down. Emi ran to inspect him, but found no visible gunshot behind him, which was the only reasonable place that the shot could have come from. She walked towards the edge of the balcony and scouted for anyone, but the lobby downstairs was completely deserted.

"Oh, if it isn't Emi Tachibana from Aegis!"

Emi looked for the source of the friendly voice. Gerard entered the lobby and stood at the center, right in front of her. He held his ever-trusty magitek weapon, the sniper rifle named Silver Bolt. With Emi finally locating him, he gave an affable smile and wave.

A few minutes later, the two of them walked out of the building, where Erika awaited them. In front of them were some officers, whom Gerard handed the handcuffed Kagami to. Some other Accenture members have also been escorted out and apprehended.

Just as they finished, they heard some more explosions from within. After finishing up the energy cannon, Vega has entered the top part of the building and began its destruction.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh?" said Emi. She covered her ears following another explosion.

"Hahaha. It's no good. We are all doomed, doomed to destruction," said Kagami.

"Save your breath, Accenture CEO. You'll need to talk a lot later," sternly retorted Emi.

"Later? This city would be in flames and ruin before any of that would happen. If Fierte-Omega cannot do it, nothing can destroy that thing!"

All the while, Gerard stood in silence. He waited until Kagami was taken away before approaching Emi. Before he can talk, Emi began.

"So... I'd at least want a bit of explanation, leader of the Investigation Team. Also, you look like you knew something with regards to what he said. A way to defeat the archbishop in his current state, perhaps?"

"Uh...." Gerard stammered before chuckling. "Well, what happened was...."

~~~~~

"Come on! Is that all you can do?! Weaklings, all of you!"

She talked and taunted a lot, but Erika had her focus on one thing: destroying the remaining machine soldiers that lurked that headquarters. With them depowered from the deactivation of the core, all of them were easy pickings for Erika's Gale Stinger.

Energy bullets from the twin Uzi's flew around the room, immediately boring multiple deep holes on the robots, rendering them mere scrap metal.

Erika charged forward, attacking more robots at will en route to the inner areas of the headquarters.

Amidst the loud noise of the reckless firing, Icaros walked towards Gerard with a finger covering each ear. "It's just like you to be the one who can put up with her. Don't you feel a bit dominated? I mean, if any other guy sees the both of you together.... I don't know."

Gerard laughed while looking at Erika. "Yeah, she can be a handful, but that's also something I've grown to love about her. She's not afraid of anything, grabs every opportunity headed her way. A perfect balance of personalities with me and Burton, don't you think?"

He aimed his assault rifle upwards and shot at a surveilance camera.

"So it's what they call 'Nice, Mean, and In-Between', eh? Nice to see it enacted so by-the-book in real life."