Arcadia

Stray Dog in the Moonlight

A sound that resembled grinding resonated throughout the streets. It was something that is so loud that it stood out from the sounds of crashes and explosions coming from the ongoing fights.  

"W-what's that?" 

Yura, who was in the process of aiding some civilians to safety, can't help but look for the source of that noise. It was coming from a few blocks away, yet it felt so ominously close.

"I'll go investigate!" suggested Jet. The bored look on his face quickly dispersed at the prospect of action. He fixed his jacket and smiled.

He tried to run off, then tripped due to Yura holding his collar as he started running. 

"Hey, what gives?"

"We're assigned here. We let the Aegis handle the rest."

"But they're not going to do anything!"

"We're not in your home district anymore. Why are you still so excited about fighting here?"

Jet looked sullen and calmed down. After a few seconds of recovery, he stood up and faced Yura. "I guess it can't be helped. This is too boring..."

His wish may have been granted, as a machine soldier made itself heard the moment it stepped in front and detected them.

"I've always wondered why we kept tripping these alarms. Are they broken or what?" asked Yura. "Maybe there's some hidden stuff inside us or what... ugh."

"Who cares? The time for action is now!"

Jet immediately leapt into action and downed one enemy with a punch through its metallic head. This successfully attracted their attention towards Jet. 

One of them turned towards Yura, though, and aimed at her. Seeing as she's the only one between the people and the danger in front, she activated Lucent Heart and attacked with a strong downward swing.

~~~~~

The bulk of the fighting was near a residence complex that is a bit far from where Yura's group and Gerard were.

"Eat this!" yelled Erika.

With the roads mostly cleared of civilians and homeowners at this point, a clenched-teeth Erika open-fired with Gale Stinger. The magitek weapon, taking the form of two Uzi's, unloaded energy shots all over the last remaining enemy. The giant mutant brute took damage, but used the body of a destroyed machine soldier to protect itself.

From out of nowhere, a grenade-like object flew towards it and exploded upon contact in a ball of light. As the giant bellowed, he slowly shrunk back to human size before falling down and dissipating into ash.

Erika deactivated Gale Stinger, allowing the two guns to re-merge into an assault rifle. She then looked at Burton with a slight pout. "Hey, that was mine!"

"I just wanted to get this over with," answered the big guy, in as frank a manner as he could. He put down his grenade launcher, which soon shifted back into an assault rifle not too different from Erika's. "To think that these kinds are everywhere. Interestingly, they have different transformed forms as well."

He silently surveyed the damage the battle has done in the place. Posts have been blown off and some buildign, houses and stores wrecked. As usual, casualties lay scattered along the road, some human civilians.

"Gerard won't like the sight of this...." softly voiced Burton about the leader of the team he and Erika are a member of.

"Are you alright?"

Both members of the Investigation Team turn their heads towards the direction of their leader's voice. While Burton nodded and remained silent, it was Erika who immediately paid attention to the little girl being traveled with.