Chapter 57.2 - Fragmentation

Fragmentation
As it fell, The Red Marker began to glow a bright yellow light, affecting the entire area.

Ellis' mind immediately cleared up and felt a wealth of information enter his brain. He knew where everything was and not just what he could see above him. For some reason he could tell what was happening below. He felt his mind click with Wesker's. As he observed Silver Surfer diving towards him, he knew their exact velocities and could calculate million of possible events and outcomes in an instant.

Realising that Smith had passed Stella's Shooter powers onto him, and hence also the power of flight via Stella's mecha wings, Ellis sprung off the air, negating his fall and rocketed himself upwards. Silver Surfer, due to his close proximity and his blinding by The Marker, could not react fast enough to dodge Ellis' outstretched arm which struck his neck with strength, knocking him off his board. Ellis did not stop to pause, shooting upwards past The Hunter, The Red Marker and the back half of the Thunder Child with Megatron, Nemesis and Gravemind on board, with no control of his actions.

He had recognised the voice that had spoke to him a moment earlier.

"Skynet," he thought in his head, knowing Skynet could hear.

Wesker's healing factor had been accelerated past his own capabilities, snapping his bones in place. The pain began to numb quickly, Wesker's senses reaching peak efficiency once more. His body began to move on its own accord, facing Nitori ahead who seemed a little fazed. He leaped forward faster than the speed of light, headbutting Nitori in the forehead, knocking off her hat and causing dangerous backlash down her spine. The Red Marker had also blinded her, a painful reminder of those lost in their own worlds. Nitori tried to fly upwards but Wesker was far too fast, grabbing her by the leg and threw her back to the solid ice with a thud. She slipped and slid down the surface, unable to gain her posture before Kyogre body slammed her with incredible force, briefly tilting the massive ice shelf.

Suddenly, a rock pillar shot through the ice, on top stood Suwako, capable of creating land. Kyogre leaped backwards off the ice into the water as more pillars pierced the ice. Wesker did not engage Suwako, thinking about the voice from earlier.

Like Ellis, Wesker had also recognised it, "Why can you control me, Skynet?" he thought as he looked up at the falling objects from above.

"The Director never said we couldn't," Skynet answered.

"And you can control Ellis," noted Wesker, "Have Nemesis and The Hunter been under your control all this time too? They don't multiply."

"Smart thinking. Yes, they have."

Wesker thought a little harder about what The Director had said at Area 51, "You could also control Chamber."

"Indeed."

The Hunter pounced on the back of the blinded Silver Surfer, thrusting its right arm through the Surfer's shoulder and bit his neck as hard as it could, sucking out all the Power Cosmic it could from him. The Surfer struggled in agony to remove The Hunter but only managed to pull off its left arm, which just grew back. As the Power Cosmic drained, the Surfer's complexion changed to dull metallic and his strength left him. Once finished, The Hunter, pulled out his arm and pushed the unconscious Surfer away.

The Surfer's board was slowed to a halt by Emiri's telekinetic powers and it straightened itself out, allowing The Hunter to land on it and continue falling. The glowing Red Marker came to a stop by Emiri, the Thunder Child diving past. Megatron jumped off the ship and transformed into a fighter jet before launching upwards. Len caught up with the Thunder Child and held onto the top, pointing the hyperdrive downwards.

Smith realised Superman had stopped trying to crush the ship around him. The windows had been smashed inwards, essentially leaving Smith trapped inside, holding up a metal sphere. "Throw me a bone here, Marker," he growled.

"Dive," said another female voice below him. He looked to see Gray sat on a bent girder. Smith knew this was an hallucination caused by the Marker making best use of his possession of Stella. "Skynet can rescue you."

Smith frowned, "Skynet? Great." He stopped hovering and the ball began to fall.

The blinded Gray, still sat backwards on Mima's shoulder, swung her sword at the pursuing Neo, the gap behind him closing. Neo held up his left hand and caught the blade. Despite the powerful swing, it only left a minor bleeding cut across his hand. Neo threw a right punch at Gray but his fist was caught by an anti-clockwise turning Mima. As she spun round, Gray's outstretched leg kicked the side of Neo's head. While this barely dazed him, it did allow Gray to pull her sword out of Neo's grip. Gray spun round on Mima's left shoulder so they both faced Neo. Without warning, yellow balls of divine energy spread from Mima, around the size of footballs. With Mima still holding onto Neo, several hit Neo's front at once, causing strong and ferocious burns across Neo's coat. One struck him in the face, cracking the left lens of his sunglasses. Mima pointed a glowing finger on her right hand at Neo.

As Ellis zoomed upwards, he knew Marisa was closing in on him from the side, even though she not in her sight.

"The Universe is our network," explained Skynet, "We can see everything and ensure our survival. Yggdrasil can only see what his slaves see."

"You control my friends don't you?" Ellis had no control over his body.

"The eight of you are defined to be Carriers so the Director cannot control you. You are also human so Yggdrasil cannot either. Which puts you squarely in our field." Ellis noted that Skynet referred to herself in plural form.

"What are my chances of surviving this fight?"

"One hundred percent. Yggdrasil was never a good fighter."

Ellis spun round, Stella's ★rock Cannon forming round his right arm, pointed at Marisa who was standing on her broom like a surfboard. The ★rock Cannon entered rapid fire, firing shiny white balls at twnety per second. Marisa was unfazed, weaving through the cannon fire with ease.

"Marisa and her Touhou cohorts are experts at the bullet hell genre," explained Skynet, "Gunfire is near useless against them as they are excellent dodgers. Which leaves two options, pin her in place or massive area of effect."

Marisa swung an arm towards Ellis, launching three large yellow stars, which sliced through all incoming cannon shots. As the stars rapidly spun towards Ellis, he brought up his left arm, summoning Stella's Black Blade, and sliced through all three. Marisa best use of the lack of cannon fire by flipping forward off her broom, hovering of her own accord and drew her broom back, ready for a swing.

"It's not good to be overconfident," noted Skynet, "While help is on the way, it would be best to move out the line of fire. Just in case. I suggest descending. Marisa is aiming slightly up in case you ascend."

"It's not much of a suggestion," commented Ellis, as he lowered his height, "You're controlling me. I'm not doing nothing. Why are you even telling me this stuff?"

"So you can survive. Even if we're not around. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

There was sudden gunfire from below, a military fighter jet of no known earth variety rocketing upwards with its machine guns unloading its ammunition at Marisa.

The Hunter drew back its arms and slashed forwards as it fell. The Power Cosmic it had absorbed amplified its strength, unleashing two sharp blades of air. They cut through all the rock columns in their way, forcing Suwako to take to the air. The Hunter landed the surfboard next to Wesker and jumped off. Without a pause, Wesker stepped onto the board, feeling the satisfying flow of Power Cosmic come up his legs.

"This is not your fight," said Skynet to Wesker, "You must fly."

Wesker did not have a choice in the matter as he shot upwards, instantly breaking the sound barrier. He boomed past the falling Thunder Child, Emiri flying upwards with him, their sight fixed on the other half of The Thunder Child, in its crushed ball form.

"By numbers or sheer power, Yggdrasil has us beat. But by intelligence and efficiency, he has no chance," pointed out Skynet.

Wesker did not slow down as the ship plummeted towards him though Emiri moved away.

Smith was surprised and mildly amused to see Wesker phase through the bottom of the ball at high speed. Wesker grabbed Smith's arm as he passed and using the Power Cosmic, went straight through the top.

Smith grinned as Emiri closed the gap after dodging the Thunder Child, "So, Wesker, you finally realised Skynet could control you." Apparently, Smith could bypass the problem of conversation when travelling faster than the speed of sound.

"Not in the mood," snapped back Wesker angrily. He was a little surprised that Skynet had let him speak out loud.

"You need to get to Rulia," spoke Emiri in a soft voice, "She is above us."

"I thought Gravemind said she was in the Arctic?" growled Wesker.

"The Red Marker and Gravemind lied," Emiri explained, "They have a very good reason to want to go to the Arctic." The Red Marker did not attempt to input its own opinion to Smith.

"And that would be?"

"The Black Marker."

Neo swung a sidekick at Mima's head but it was blocked by Gray's stamp on his shin, her leg passing right through Mima's outstretched ghostly arm. With his right hand held tight by Mima, Neo's options were limited. He quickly drew his Glock from its shoulder harness with his left hand and pointed it at Gray. The aggressive and risky move pulled off as Mima cancelled the potential Twilight Spark to allow her right hand to grab Neo's left wrist, forcing the gun to point away from Gray.

With both his hands being held, Neo had the leverage to push his leg further against Gray's foot. With a big heave, Gray toppled backwards off Mima's shoulder. Mima was forced to let go of Neo's right hand to catch the flightless Gray by the ankle. Neo dropped the Glock and caught it with his right, pointing it again at the helpless Gray. Before he could do anything else, he was suddenly thrown to the side by Mima towards some of her damaku. With time to react, Neo used his digital manipulation to clear a path for himself through the minefield.

On exiting the damaku field that had spread considerable far out, Neo looked back. He had underestimated Mima but he did not have the time to think about it when he was hit from above by Superman.

Marisa was forced to cease her attack to dodge the incoming fire, her broom's glow fading away. As she spun around, she dropped her Hakkero, which seemed to attached itself to a hovering position behind the broom bristles. It suddenly fired a green tinted beam downwards, through it was only half the size of her Master Spark. The fighter jet unnaturally flapped its wings to avoid the beam as Marisa remounted her broom, the Hakkero acting as an engine. She spun vertically on the spot, the beam tightening into a spiral before whipping outwards, the end thrashing downwards.

Ellis drew Stella's rock cannon at Marisa and pulled the trigger, creating his own blue beam far stronger than the Hakkero's engine waste, cancelling Marisa's beam. Until Marisa stepped on the Hakkero midspin. The Hakkero once again bellowed out a brilliant green beam, dwarfing the cannon's counterattack and pushed back. Ellis barrelrolled to the side to avoid being hit but in that moment, Megatron had managed to boost up to Marisa. As the plane's armour began to clank back into his normal form, Megatron drew back a fist for a heavy punch.

But a gap opened behind Marisa, a hand coming out and taking hold of her shoulder. It was immediately followed by an enlarged Ruyi Jingu Bang, smashing into Megatron's face. Meiling hovered through the gap, pushing Marisa into it. She had managed to wipe the Hunter's flesh out of her eyes and was once more back in the game.

Len activated the Thunder Child's hyperdrive, slowing the ship's fall to settle painlessly on the ice. "We need your help," mentioned Len to Gravemind, "Work with us and we'll get out of this just fine."

"Who would have known that the little box in Area 51 would end up determining our fates," retorted Gravemind.

"Better us than Yggdrasil, no?" Nemesis pulled The Hunter into the ship. "Let's go." The hyperdrive roared to life and, despite missing its front, skated forward on the ice towards the rock columns of Suwako, Atlas' huge figure behind them.

Atlas reached out a hand towards the ice in front of him when a horizontal shaft of light passed in front of his eyes. The brilliant white light from the distant Icarus Satellite blinded Atlas, causing him to howl in distress.

Suwako, on one of the pillars, turned to Atlas to allow Yggdrasil to see what was happening. Noting this, Len powered up the hyperdrive faster, the Thunder Child shooting towards the pillar Suwako was on. But he noticed a black figure rise out a pillar to her left. The black shadows covering the figure faded away to reveal Evangeline A.K. McDowell.

A young looking female vampire, she was very similar to Remilia. Eva lifted a hand in the air, summoning a gigantic and highly decorated jet black spear, chanting Latin words. Len did not falter, continuing the ship's path. Icarus, having succeeded in blinding Atlas, changed its direction, its long shaft of concentrated rays from the sun moving down considerably quickly towards the spear to snuff it out. But the shadow portal under Eva's feet was still open, allowing Rumia to make her way through. Rumia, flew into the air by the dark spear and immediately emitted empty darkness around her, sucking away any light the rainclouds above did not smother. Icarus' beam hit Rumia's darkness full force but was easily negated, unable to match Rumia's power over darkness.

Eva finished her chant and, with a grin that showed off her sharp vampiric canines, threw the spear straight at the Thunder Child.

"Tilt, Gravemind!" called Len just as the White Noise generator whirred into action, covering the ship in the white barrier. Despite being only the back half, the white noise adopted the shape of the original intact ironclad, funnels and masts included. However, the white noise had a round underside causing the ship to begin leaning to the right. With the white noise covering the entire vessel, the hyperdrive had to be deactivated with Len unable to regain control without breaking the noise.

Gravemind, by far the heaviest body on the ship, shuffled as far left as he could, reshaping his biomass to hug the left wall, Nemesis and The Hunter trying to do the same. The ship did not right itself but stopped leaning further, allowing it to continue on its straight path.

The dark spear struck the front funnel of the Thunder Child, instantly shattering the white noise. But the white noise had blocked the massive force of the spear, knocking it back and allowing the Thunder Child to carry on, the hyperdrive roaring back on. The spear toppled backwards, the back end slamming down on the ground ahead of the ship, the sharp head crashing down even closer, showering dirt and rock in all directions. Even with the view blocked out, Skynet could tell the spear had fallen across the Thunder Child's path. While the thin spear wasn't quite two dimensional, a collision would still cause major damage to the ship and to Gravemind.

Atlas, his vision blacked out by Icarus, was fumbling towards the ice, aided by Suwako's view of him. But suddenly, he was struck by a large underwater object in the back of the right knee. His right leg gave way, sending him down to one knee causing a consider wave of water to expand outwards in a circle. Once the mini-tsunami passed over, Kyogre surfaced behind Atlas. It summoned a big wave of its own, surfing straight into Atlas' back with incredible force. Atlas toppled forward face first into the Atlantic Ocean, creating a far more major tsunami.

Wesker did not have the time to ask about The Black Marker as they fast approached the diving Neo and Superman. Still holding onto Smith, Wesker's eyes glowed brighter as he boosted the surfboard with his own superhuman powers, emitting a sharp purple trail in his wake. Emiri accelerated to match his speed, pulling The Red Marker up with her.

A Twilight Spark shot down at Neo who was attempting to loosen Superman's grip round his throat. But the supersonic Wesker reached Neo first, grabbing Superman's cape and pulling the duo out the way of the Spark, throwing Smith upwards. Emiri and The Red Marker followed Smith upwards. Wekser pulled Superman up to his height and took hold of his wrist holding Neo's neck. With the Power Cosmic, Wesker could manipulate objects at a subatomic level and forced Superman's muscles to release his hold of Neo.

"In your current state, Wesker," began Skynet, "You cannot properly incapacitate Superman without killing him but due to The Red Marker, he is both blind and deaf. We need to take out his spotter, Mima. Which shouldn't take long."

Wesker elbowed Superman in the side of the neck, pulled his cape over the Man of Steel's head and changed the material of Super's costume to heavy reinforced steel, perhaps ironically. Wesker kicked an immobile Superman downwards. While Superman would definitely be able to escape his metal prison, it would most likely take a while.

"Why are you so confident in Mima's downfall?" asked Wesker, taking a recovering Neo by the shoulder.

"Because Smith is an aggressive but non-violent Carrier."

Mima ceased fire immediately to avoid striking Smith. Realising that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, a gap opened behind Mima and Gray who were about to retreat when multiple bright white lines wrapped round their limbs and necks, Emiri pulling the other ends with immense strength.

Gray immediately fell off Mima's shoulder and toppled downwards. Smith, rocketing upwards, dodged Gray, dug his fingers into Mima's abdomen, black liquid spreading slowly across Mima's body.

"Ghost or not," grinned Smith, his wide eyes slightly visible through his glasses, "You're still mine."

Mima could only grit her teeth at Smith as the black substance covered her face.

"Chances of surviving are now what?" asked Ellis as Megatron fell past him, Meiling hovering above them.

"Unchanged," answered Skynet, "While Megatron cannot regenerate, he is very easily fixed."

"And how easy am I to fix?"

"Being a relatively normal human and hence more native-like, you're much easier to restore but not without The Director accusing us of cheating. And we don't want that. Do we?"

"Then how do I defeat so many Bangs?" I'm sure you saw the trouble Neo had at Area 51." Bang had split into dozens of copies, hurtling towards Ellis.

"We did, very clearly. But remember, you have Stella's powers. Here, you have an advantage. Let me show you."

Suddenly a black chain shot out one of the Bangs, attaching to another Bang. And then another chain launched out of that Bang into a third. Huge numbers of chains began to connect the metal rods together before some chains shot upwards at Meiling. The rods, while still duplicating, could not match the weight of the rapidly elongating an multiplying chains and began to sink downwards, even if they changed sides. The strands of chains heading up tried to grab hold of Meiling but she dodged the chains easily enough. Until the chains began circling wildly, adopting the shape of a typhoon and sucking air downwards. Meiling was unable to move away and was pulled into the chain typhoon, the loose chains above closing in on her.

The Hunter jumped off the front of The Thunder Child as the hyperdrive switched back on. With its upper arms, The Hunter lifted the front up the ground, the Power Cosmic granting the necromorph immense strength as well as mighty durability against the grinding ground as the Thunder Child roared forwards. Unable to get a good grip on the metal with its handless arms, The Hunter shifted the grip to its mouth and teeth. Nemesis tossed several landmines overboard which quickly went under the ship before all exploding simultaneously. The Thunder Child immediately launched off the ground, taking off easier than when it was whole due to the reduced weight. With Gravemind's mass at the back, flight was relatively stable despite not being aerodynamic. Nemesis pulled The Hunter back onto the ship as they passed high over the dark spear.

Suwako and Eva turned round at the same time, at the Thunder Child and the incoming mini tsunami respectively. Eva began chanting away as Suwako summoned several chakrams, sharp circular metal rings. The Thunder Child began to lose height when more rock pillars thrust through the ice, blocking the ship flight route. The Hunter immediately sliced through the pillar in front, the sharp air cutting through the next few ahead, Gravemind using his outstretched tentacles to swat aside any incoming debris.

Suddenly there was a loud crackling noise as the mini-tsunami immediately froze over, Eva's ice spell finished. While Suwako and Eva were below the ice, Rumia had to remain above to avoid the far bigger incoming tsunami. But then Icarus erratically moved to the side, the beam a short distance in front of the Thunder Child. The tsunami passed over its smaller frozen counterpart but any water coming anywhere near Icarus' beam boiled away instantly, the laser cutting a straight path through the wave for the vessel.

But then, the Thunder Child was hit from below by a rock pillar. With the sudden jolt, the ship spun round, head over heels, only just fast enough to keep everyone inside from falling out. Meanwhile, the tsunami crashed down on the island, the frozen archway groaning against the strain. Rumia readjusted her position, blocking Icarus' beam once more.

Having avoided the brunt of the tsunami, the Thunder Child twirled rapidly. Nemesis attempted to take hold of the firmly planted Hunter for support when he was struck on the side by something gooey and was swiftly pulled off the ship. He hit the ground with a strong thud, splashing in water two feet deep. As he stood up, he saw Suwako on the ground, retracting her long and sticky frog-like tongue just as he was hit in the right shoulder, both knees and his throat with the chakram. Nemesis stumbled back, pulling out the chakram in his throat with his left hand just as the Thunder Child slammed into the ground not far behind him. It had landed upside down, crushing and snapping off the back funnel, skidding along the floor towards the immobile Nemesis.

But then the white noise was regenerated, the Thunder Child once again covered by the white light in its intact form. However, since the ship was upside down, the white noise funnels and masts were in the ground, stopping the vessel with an immediate halt, while the breaking the noise from the immense force. Both Len and The Hunter held on but Gravemind did not have the energy and slid straight out at high velocity through the water.

Nemesis, with metal in his knees, was not able to jump out of the way but a blue electric leash arced over Gravemind and wrapped round Nemesis' waist. He was pulled off the ground over Gravemind towards the user, Len. With Enel's electricity under his control, Len's leash was able to cross over much longer distances or deal more dangerous electric shocks.

Suwako immediately took to the air to avoid Gravemind but was not quick enough to avoid a tentacle of his grabbing her leg and pulling her back down to ground just before he slammed into her and then into a pillar. Suwako gritted her teeth in pain of impact her body struck in Gravemind, whose body was highly toxic. Without warning, a small dark spear pierced straight through Gravemind's body from above. Gravemind looked up, a little surprised and tired but otherwise fine, to see Evangeline on the same rock pillar. Eva clicked her fingers and ice immediately raced down the sides of the pillar towards Gravemind. He could not move out of the way, not suited to moving himself across ground without aid, especially not in water. And he had fallen off his wheeled platform from Area 51 when the Thunder Child had landed upside down. Suddenly he glimpsed a rocket propelled grenade just as it hit the centre of the pillar, shattering it under Eva's feet. A long electric leash was flung into the dirt cloud, followed by blue flashes and her screams as electricity was ejected.

Len rocketed into the dirt cloud, following his leash, straight at Eva who bore with the electric pain. Len gave a strong pull but Eva was far stronger, able to pull back and hold her ground, just making Len's flight faster. Which was Skynet's intention, something Yggdrasil had not realised. But parts of Len separated from his body with clean cuts, Almost invisible, the area was covered with razor-sharp wires, many of which stretched into the sky with no visible end, summoned by Eva, who was also a Dollmaster. At Len's fast velocity, the wires cut through his soft metal body with little effort, catching him diagonally across the head, his right elbow, left shoulder and right thigh. But Skynet had deliberately left Len his left leg which kicked out at Eva despite being nowhere near her.

Out of Len's foot came out another of Nemesis' RPGs, ignited by Len's rocket boot and followed the electromagnetic fields of the electric leash towards Eva who was still tied by the leash. The grenade hit her square in the torso and exploded, once more covering the area with dirt. Len landed on the flooded floor below by the pillar, his parts, liquidising and reforming his body. His right eye glared red before firing a consistent laser beam. With a turn of his head the laser cut through the pillar and with a strong kick, he knocked the pillar from its perch, removing Eva's footing from under her. Stamping his foot into the ground for a secure footing, Len pulled down hard on the Eva, Eva hurtling down. But the ice user was ready, the power of her will casting a huge ice column downwards that had engulfed Len at the bottom. Eva landed on her feet and looked at Len just as one of Nemesis' landmines exploded inside him, the ice breaking with ease. With the close proximity and Eva still tied by the leash, Len gave the leash a third tug, pulling the two together. A second landmine shot out of his chest, securing itself to Eva's torso. Len was about to detonate the mine when something in the sky far above them caught their attention.

Gravemind, essentially stuck where he was, was feeling dizzy. He had lost interest in Len's fight even though he was right next to him and couldn't help looking at Suwako who had passed out from Gravemind's venom. He was hungry and tired despite already having absorbed all his Flood subordinates, his end would not be far off. Gravemind knew nothing about the girl he had hostage and was sure the world won't miss her. Screw the Unwritten Law. He widened his jaw and was above about to take her in his mouth when-

"Gravemind," reprimanded Len, threateningly, "No," as the front half of the Thunder Child smashed into the ground behind them. He did not stop Eva from unwrapping the leash from herself and throwing the landmine aside. While the two of them looked at each other with distrust, they did not fight.

Wesker, two Smiths, Neo and Emiri caught up to Ellis, who was looking upwards. "Ellis, there a problem?" asked Neo. Neo could see that Skynet was controlling Ellis via his digital sixth sense.

"Sasaki's fighting Rulia," answered Ellis with concern, "Not good." Above them, Sasaki and Rulia, or more correctly Zyling, were in combat, Sasaki being incredibly aggressive. Neo noticed that all fighting had stopped between Yggdrasil and Skynet as the Director fought Rulia. He was about to ask why when Smith spoke first.

"Remind me what the problem with that is," noted a bored Mima-Smith.

"Rulia is independent of both The Director Network and The Yggdrasil Network," spoke Emiri, "Which means she can act on her own accord. If she is lost then our own chances of survival drop greatly."

"Hmm..." hummed Smith, "Rulia's infected, right? Not a Carrier?"

"...Don't do it, Smith," Emiri warned.

"Well then, she's mine," he smirked, the Smiths launching upwards towards Rulia, faster than twice the speed of sound.

"No!" cried Emiri, Wesker and Ellis chasing after them on Skynet's command. Emiri cast out her restraining white lines as chains shot out from Wesker's surfboard, courtesy of the much slower Ellis.

Mima-Smith turned round, pointing his hands like guns downwards, before firing two Twilight Sparks at the same time. Both the lines and chains were obliterated by the beam, Emiri forced to dodge. Wesker, who was slightly faster than Smith also dodged, but to avoid slowing down rather than damage fears. It was clear Wesker was not aiming for Mima-Smith but rather Black-Smith who was going for Rulia. However, Mima-Smith had the high ground and could not be mindread by Skynet. He smashed himself into the approaching Wesker, thrusting his hand into Wesker's abdomen. Wesker could not fight back against Smith, his phasing ability overridden, the black substance spreading over his body.

"I'm sorry, Wesker," stated Smith, obviously not sorry at all, "But you'll be a good addition to my team."

Suddenly, someone else's hand roughly pulled out Smith's hand, reverting Wesker back to full power. Neo, who was as fast as Smith, had caught up.

As Wesker rocketed upwards, Neo was confronted Smith. "What are you planning?" questioned Neo, keeping his composure.

"Protection, Mr Anderson."

With both Sasaki and Rulia above, and Wesker too far behind to catch up, Black-Smith couldn't help grinning, the thought of taking their powers for himself was intoxicating. However, someone other than Skynet spotted him and his intentions.

Haruhi, hovering further up in the sky, appeared to be in conversation with a revived Vocaloid Hatsune Miku when she noticed Smith's approach towards Rulia. She frowned before disappearing. Haruhi teleported between Zyling and Sasaki, before kicking him away from both Sasaki and Smith before encasing Zyling in a Hakurei Barrier cube. Smith struck the Hakurei Barrier as hard as he could but it stood firm. As confident as he was in his abilities, Haruhi was in a whole other league. He could only watch as Zyling's armour was shattered and Rulia was subdued before she fell through a gap.

Haruhi shut down the cube, the water and armour inside dropping towards the ocean below. She looked at Sasaki, who still had her fists clenched. This would not be enough to appease The Director.

"You are a fool, Yggdrasil," claimed Miku, hovering down to Haruhi's level, "Rulia is not your toy to play with." Haruhi did not reply. Growling, Miku set her rocket boots to full power and charged at Haruhi, fist raised. Yggdrasil was not in the mood and punched her straight through the torso so fast that Miku did not have time to swing her own arm.

But pieces of solid metal flew off Miku, the shards tumbling down towards the Atlantic. No liquid metal, no mimetic polyalloy. Genuine traditional steel and aluminium, cables and gears, cloth and plastic. No Append.

Horror set on Haruhi's face, "You're not Hatsune Miku." Clicking and grinding noises began to ring out as the machine's motors and drives malfunctioned, the head tilting backwards. Haruhi had already crushed the robot's main hard drive by accident so it was already technically dead. She noticed Sasaki glare at her, realising what Skynet had done. Skynet had not created a copy of Miku, instead disguising someone else who did not have an Append form, most likely Zatsune Miku, and jacked out just before her death. This made Miku a Carrier. And since Yggdrasil was a Carrier himself, this meant-

"Friendly fire," declared Sasaki.

Arsenal Gear: Accelerator Yamato: Minna Nautilus: Gold Moby Dick: Whitebeard The Flying Dutchman: Ritsu HMS Bedford: Konata Elisor: Takuto SSV Normandy: Shepard Fire Emperor Class: Mokou