Persona: Rise of a New Wild Card

Chapter 8: First Strike pt 1

"It is morning! I request that you wake up." Maki slowly opened her eyes to see Anton standing over her bed. "My alarm clock..." Anton looked puzzled. "It has not triggered yet. Five minutes early is on time." As if on cue Makoto and Yukari walked into the room. "Why am I not surprised he'd be in here. Aigis did the same thing to you when we came back from Yakushima." Yukari was chuckling as they told Anton that he will be staying elsewhere in the house. He understood and Makoto made sure that his programming was working right. "Alright Anton your systems are functioning just fine. I know you want to be by Maki's side to protect her but that's only during the Dark Hour while on missions." Anton nodded, "I comprehend" Makoto left the room for Anton to examine the room and the rest of the house while Maki left to go to school. Kojiro and Lance both laughed when they heard about what Anton did to Maki earlier.

"That's funny, but hey at least he didn't wake you up in the middle of the night. I'd be so mad if I lost out on sleep over that." Lance continued to laugh as Kojiro punched his arm to get him to stop. They walked to class and waved at Minerva as she entered her own class. The trio were extremely bored while the class went on. Akihiko's class was the only one that wasn't boring and it was only cause he would have the students exhaust themselves so by the time school would be over they'd all want to go home as quickly as possible. The three person pair walked home together talking about going to Tartarus that night. "I'd like to see what Anton is capable of too. He should be far more effective than Lance at least." Kojiro laughed with Maki as Lance got upset. "What the hell did I do to you two to be treated like this?" Maki and Kojiro realized they'd gone a bit too far with the teasing. "Sorry Lance, we might have gotten a bit carried away. We'll stop." Lance looked down at the ground. While he forgave them for the teasing he still fealt a bit bad over it.

Maki and Kojiro met at Maki's house while Lance went home telling them he'd meet them at Tartarus. Makoto was cooking food while Yukari was making the table. "Oh Kojiro, I thought you were going home today. Let me guess, you two wanna go to Tartarus tonight?" The two nodded their heads just as Anton walked in. "I am ready to commence the operation. We shall destroy all shadows. That is my mission." Maki chuckled at Anton's statement. The next full moon operation for them was coming up fast with it only being two more days before they had to go fight the Chariot and Justice Arcana on August 30th. The team met at Tartarus and they all got some training in. Anton showed everyone that he was a very capable fighter. His persona was very powerful all things given. Makoto noticed he fought almost perfectly the same as Aigis only he was like a male version of her. Mitsuru wasn't able to make it for the next couple operations. "I'll be able to fight on the final shadow but I'll have to attend to issues until then. I hope you understand." was the final message she had sent to Makoto and Yukari before they left Yakushima.

Anton made the team feel a lot better about exploring Tartarus without the adults always being with them on every floor. Minerva stilled remained on the first floor because she didn't have the use of a combat persona. Makoto and Yukari were more than capable of protecting her on the first floor however. The team was making great progress in reaching each boarder floor without much difficulty. Maki was doing a great job leading the team. Lance was still feeling a bit jealous and upset with Maki and Kojiro. Anton was beginning to notice but Lance pressed Anton about not saying anything about his feelings to anyone. The team left Tartarus that night after finishing defeating every shadow they needed to to gain more power.

August 30th was soon upon them as the kids returned home ready to fight the next two shadows. Makoto and Yukari knew exactly where the shadow would be but they wanted Minerva to get used to her power of detecting shadows. It took a bit of time but they were able to find the shadow in an abandoned military base. As they entered the building from behind them they heard clapping. "Bravo on finding yet another shadow." Everyone turned around to see all the members of Strega. Takaya, Jin, Chidori, Matsuyama were all standing in front of them. "You." Makoto had a very cold and hate-filled look on his face. Takaya quickly summoned Hypnos which sent a wind blast which threw everyone but Yukari back before Jin forced the giant base door shut. Makoto banged on the door but it was no use. As they turned around the giant tank shadow was behind them. Everyone got ready in a battle stance and started their fight. Unlike most of their operations where a team was selected, everyone was bombarding the shadow with attacks. While this was occurring smoke began to fill the entire base. "Knock-out gas. Everyone, we've gotta deal with this thing quick!" Makoto cried out.

The large tank shadow prepared to fire a huge blast at the group. Makoto dove and protected Maki from the blast. Nobody was seriously injured but they saw that the shadow was far stronger than Makoto had last thought it to be. As the shadow prepared to fire another blast everyone looked to the door as loud banging was heard. The tank shadow which held the Justice and Chariot Arcana fired a volley of smaller bullets which hurt the team. Everyone held their wounds hoping the pounding on the door would burst through. As the shadow prepared to finish the team off a loud cry was heard throughout the facility.