Wyrm

Sumire's breaths palpated after studying the confidential files while Lucia Melody, the leader of her organization, explained further in-depth about the destruction of her planet. With her palm placed against her chest, Sumire wanted to deny it all. The marvelous landscape she stood upon for nine years, which was the one prominent thing that she used to escape from her home in Asahikawa, was created by homicidal tyrants seeking to perfect living standards for the universe. Even though they meant well, Sumire couldn't stand the idea of draining planets and murdering their folk for experimentation.

Now her brother's story made sense; Genesis Laboratories held chambers with bodies being experimented on. They were no doubt from the planets that they invaded, but Sumire couldn't understand why they were being experimented on. There was no clear answer as to how the experimentation of people could link to the expansion of the paradisal land. She sought more details regarding the project's expansion, but all of the evidence had ended abruptly without a clear answer.

"This can't be right," Sumire wanted to deny it all. Countless planets were affected, and only Lucia's story struck clear to her. She couldn't fathom the rest of the planets where their homes were destroyed similarly. This was no mere homicide; it was extinction to a global degree. "This can't be happening. All of the planets were targeted for this? Who even are these people?"

"Thieves," Lucia replied with a cold voice. "But with all actions, they all come with consequences. They cannot escape my justice. I will face them myself and solve this in my own way. I will destroy them and repopulate my planet once again. And this time, Genesis won't come back."

"No, wait," Sumire paused, wanting to enact reasonable justice to the people responsible. "We can do this differently. We don't have to resort to killing them. We can bring them to justice by having them tried in a court, or expose them for their crimes-"

"No!" Lucia roared. "You think that can justify all that they've done to this world? They killed my people, and thousands many more! Your pathetic laws will only ensure their survival. To have them locked up for eternity isn't enough. Here in Aries, they will survive and break free because these are their homes. It isn't nearly enough!"

"No, stop this, Lucia!" Sumire cried, slamming Sadao's desk in despair. She instantly thought about if her father deserved death for all of the abuse he had dealt with her. If he was arrested for his crimes, the thought of him existing out there still impaired Sumire's heart. "You don't understand. I know how it feels to have something taken away from you by force. We're both the same kind of people looking for a way out from our past! I get it. I really do."

"Do you, now?" Lucia asked. "Then surely you would understand my point of view. You'd understand that these people are the real criminals. I harbor no ill will against you and your people. These are the thieves that I've longed for eternity, and I'll take everything back, whether you like it or not. Even if you stand in my way, I'll make sure you're out of the picture. You won't stop us."

"No, listen to me. I know how it feels to want to hurt those who've hurt us in the cruelest ways possible," Sumire panicked. "But I'm telling you, the way you're doing this by fighting against them alone isn't going to work. Why do we have to fight each other? We all want justice and we have the same goals, so why? We can work together and have them pay for their crimes-"

"Shut up!" Lucia interrupted once more, and her voice created static through Sumire's earpiece."You still don't understand my pain and suffering! If you're against my wishes, then I have nothing left to say to you. Vicious will succeed, once I destroy Aries with my own hands! I'll be sending all of the people there back to my home planet, and they can rot in agony as they try to survive on their own! If you get in my way, then I'll send you there too. If anyone tries to stop me, I'll send them all to rot! I'll send everyone responsible! And now… I can do exactly that."

"What?" Sumire wondered what she had meant by sending all of Aries to her planet. What are you talking about? What do you mean? Lucia? Are you there? Stop this right now! We can change the future if we work together!"

Lucia chuckled as she felt her messages were not being expressed properly to Sumire, who knew the truth. "You would rather die than to understand? You know the truth, and yet you are still against our wishes. You would rather die than fight to destroy what they created?"

Sumire waited for Lucia's response, hoping she could change her mind about enacting the proper justice among those responsible. Genesis Laboratories and all of its innocent civilians housed inside for experimentation purposes would be exposed and free. Surely the government and the people of Aries would understand that their crimes would be more than likely and unfathomably insane. The utmost punishment would be enacted, and Aries would give back to the planets that were harmed and affected the most, including Lucia's. A sliver of revenge did cross her heart, but she knew that was not the best course of action.

"Then die." Lucia firmly stated before shutting off communication.

The shattering echoes of glass startled Sumire from her concentration. A flying gargantuan steel wyrm slammed its piercing head through the glass in an attempt to kill Sumire to erase the evidence of the truth. The steel wyrm's serrated and jagged edges of its skin sliced through the glass and the floors like butter. Sumire's reaction time was precise, however, and she managed to dash backward to evade the metallic mythical creature from decimating her life.

"Shit!" Sumire shouted as the building's foundation began to crumble. The steel wyrm's entire worm-like body crashed through the ninth floor, slicing its outer walls down until the ceiling began to collapse. The building began to tilt to the side, sending debris and glass flying across the room. Sumire held onto a post made from one of the broken cubicles and began to strategize a way to escape.

Her earpiece suddenly reverted to normal communication, leaving Naoto's echoing voice calling for her. He regained control of the system. "Sumire! What happened? Are you okay?" He called.

The steel wyrm growled through a modulated and filtered voice, screaming during its impending mayhem. When the wyrm had broken through the ninth floor's glass windows, Sumire realized that it was a long shot escape plan to escape through. However, she had to rely on Naoto to fulfill her escape plan. While keeping steady pace and balance against the crumbling floors, Sumire sprinted across to the glass windows while activating her earpiece. "Naoto! Get me Natsu right now! Ninth floor!" She ordered as the wyrm began to backtrack with its drilling mandibles to attack Sumire.

"Okay! I've got it!" Naoto cried.

With the building deteriorating by the second, Sumire had no choice but to grab onto a pair of elongated wires that held the top floor together. Her hands lightly grazed against the wire's movement, causing slight burns from the friction. Sumire steadily placed her feet against one of the last remaining foundational floors of the ninth floor and kicked off from it as the wyrm circled for another attack. Sumire prayed that Naoto followed her orders and brought Natsu to the end of the window.

The wyrm collided with the opposite side of the ninth floor as Sumire leaped out with her arms raised by her side. She screamed after diving down to Bellastraza with the hopes Natsu would arrive. The wyrm passed through the glass window again, missing Sumire along the way. From the corner of her eyes, Natsu arrived after being summoned by Naoto. It soared below Sumire with its piloting chassis open for control.

"Come on, come on!" Sumire yelled as she tried to touch down inside Natsu. She successfully entered the piloting mechanism and quickly linked her brain to the neural interface to take control of it. She concentrated her mind's full potential to take control of the ignition boosters, firing them up to maximum power to stay in flight with the chasing wyrm.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Naoto's voice rang through Natsu's communication center.

"A big fucking worm, that's what it is. Melody's trying to kill me," Sumire replied, seizing control of Natsu to keep up with the wyrm collapsing the building. "I found out what she wants. Genesis destroyed her planet. She wants to kill them all for revenge. I know the truth about it now-"

"Sumire, watch out!" Naoto cried.

The wyrm jolted its upper body out of the building and rammed Natsu with its metallic mandibles. Sumire's piloting chassis shook uncontrollably as she tried to maneuver her way out from the side of the wyrm's bulky body. Using her right fist, she slammed one of the mandibles to escape and soared out from the wyrm's deadly grasp.

Sumire devised a strategy to take down the machine before it recovered. The wyrm's flight patterns were unorthodox and difficult to read from its worm-like movements. There were multiple options of weapon settings that Natsu carried: blade weapons, rapid-fire missiles, a tractor beam used to pull in enemies, and her mag boosters. She inhaled a deep breath and used her interface to locate any of the wyrm's weaknesses from sight. If any damage was to be made to the machine, she realized she needed to penetrate the wyrm's metallic skin. But doing so would require multiple blows in the same afflicted area, and she realized Lucia would have probably caught onto her plan.

"Why are you making me do this?" Lucia asked through the wyrm's voice communication system. Sumire maintained her ignition booster's power to stay in the skies, watching the wyrm rotate around midair with an invisible boosting force. "I'm giving you one more chance. Either you join me, or you join them to die on Vicious. Your call."

"It's not my decision to make," Sumire rejected through Natsu's communication system. "Your way of doing this is over. We can fight and face them together. You still have a chance, Lucia."

"Wrong answer!" Lucia cried. The wyrm's gaping mandibles opened widely, revealing a bright red and white energy source powering up.

Sumire swayed to the side with her ignition booster as the wyrm discharged a laser beam of pure energy towards her, sweeping through the skies to destroy. Sumire stuck with her plan about puncturing the wyrm's skin; as a result, she activated her rapid-fire rockets and drifted around the wyrm's elongated body, firing multiple piercing shots into the back of the wyrm's head.

The wyrm swept its head behind to target Sumire, flailing its head to strike it with its sweeping laser. As it raised its head, the laser pierced through the entire building's foundation, causing large slabs of debris from the building to crumble down to Bellastraza. Sumire ignited her engine boosters to magnetize and control them with her mag boosters, knowing that the debris had the potential to kill unsuspecting innocent civilians underneath their battle.

Sumire ignored the wyrm's attacks and activated her mag boosters, suspending all of the debris in a massively wide area around Natsu. She pinched and pushed her hands forward while in the pilot seat to activate the boosters. Because it took such a heavy toll on her mental and physical strength, she had to find a way to stop the wyrm quickly before she lost control of the falling debris.

The wyrm roared and charged for Sumire's mechsuit, enabling its metal pincers and jagged metallic skin to shred through her. Using quick thinking, Sumire compiled all of the debris into an organized array and repelled it inside the wyrm's mouth. It stopped most of the debris from falling to Bellastraza, and it blocked the wyrm from biting down on Sumire's mechsuit.

Sumire continued circling the wyrm after dodging its charging beam attack, firing more missiles into the back of the wyrm's head. Naoto analyzed the contents of the penetrated hull, indicating that more damage needed to be done to pierce through it. Sumire charged forward with a jagged edge sword that Natsu summoned for melee close-range combat. She jabbed the blade through the hull and pierced through, twisting it to make the penetrated wound more vulnerable.

"Sumire, I'm sensing an energy current coming through! Get out of there!" Naoto ordered.

"What?" Sumire spoke, and could barely react to Naoto's words. The wyrm discharged an electric current, shocking Natsu and rendering her suit immobile. Her mechsuit's systems were made offline from the attack, sending her falling to Bellastraza at full speed. "Shit, shit, shit! Naoto! Use the backup power, now!"

"Activating backup power!" Naoto cried, flipping on a switch from headquarters to transmit a signal into the suit's neural interface. "You've got two minutes before the power runs out. You need to get out of there!"

"Two minutes..." Sumire whispered as she regained control of Natsu. "Then that's all I need."

"Wait, what are you-"

Sumire ignored Naoto's commands to flee the scene and primed a lethal grenade from one of Natsu's weapon slots. She held it tightly with Natsu's left hand and powered up her mag booster with her right. The wyrm noticed her plan of attack and charged at her once more with its piercing mandibles. After charging its laser beam once more, Sumire engaged her ignition booster to travel at full throttle towards the wyrm's mouth.

"That won't work!" Lucia shouted as the wyrm fired the laser beam at Sumire.

Using quick thinking, Sumire tethered a large piece of hanging debris from the building with her mag booster and used it as cover. The beam split apart the debris into two pieces, leaving behind a puffy explosive cloud of smoke as Natsu shrouded behind one or the other pieces. With the wyrm unable to determine her location, it swept its laser beam across to strike both of them. However, it noticed that Sumire was not behind any of them, which caused the wyrm to malfunction when tracking it down.

"What?" Lucia was unsure of what had happened. "Where are you, girl?"

"Right here!" Sumire cried through Natsu's voice communication system. From above the wyrm, Sumire gained enough distance to dive her mechsuit down at full speed. She blasted through the skies, propelling through the wind like a jet. As soon as the wyrm noticed Sumire diving down, it was the moment that Sumire's plan had succeeded. Before she had vanished from the wyrm's sight, she primed the grenade and tossed it into its blade-pierced hole. With the help of Naoto, Sumire's interface told her the exact time the grenade would detonate, along with a specific trajectory that she had to make to toss the grenade inside.

The wyrm's head detonated from the grenade, blocking off its visual receptors during its explosion. The grenade had also loosened up the wyrm's interior by vaporizing parts of its inner armor. Sumire reared Natsu's right fist as she dove forward, screaming to gain strength. As the wyrm shouted in agony, Sumire jabbed her right fist forward towards the wyrm's mouth, penetrating its priming laser beam and passing through it with ease. Sumire endured the pain of having Natsu continuously punch through its serrated armor with its fist, destroying its inner circuits and life systems.

At last, Sumire pierced through the wyrm's entire steel body and exited through its end. Explosions from its catastrophic damage destroyed the wyrm from the inside out, rendering it destroyed in chaos. The wyrm's final screams pierced the skies as they crumbled apart into nothing but falling machine pieces.

Sumire dashed in with Natsu and realized that her backup power was winding down. She utilized the last of her strength to suspend the wyrm's lifeless pieces with both of her mag boosters, pushing it back into the destroyed building to prevent it from falling to Bellastraza. Sumire landed on one of the floors, ejecting from Natsu before her suit's power failure and toppling against the debris to safety. With her skin battered and covered in muck, Sumire nearly lost control of her breath after being subject to one of the most dangerous battles she had ever been in.

"Sumire? Sumire!?" Naoto's voice rang through her earpiece. "Are you okay?"

Sumire coughed to clear up the dust buildup in her throat from the collapsed debris inside the building. "I'm fine," She could barely articulate her words as she struggled to contain her pulse-pounding breath. "Damn it," She said. "Lucia's gone insane. If this keeps up, then she really is going to destroy all of Aries."

"But how?" Naoto asked. "She's just one person. What did she say to you about it?"

"She said she was going to take everyone on Aries and send them to her home planet," Sumire stated as she remembered Lucia's words. "Her planet's not like Aries or Earth. Her planet thrives on the bonds that people make with each other to bring life. If everyone's sent there, no one's going to bond together coincidentally," Sumire slammed her fists against a piece of shattered debris in anger. "Damn it! If only I could have convinced her to stay on our side! Then we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Despite Lucia attempting to murder Sumire, she still wholeheartedly resonated with her story and experiences from Planet Vicious. Sumire could sense the pent-up rage and agony inside Lucia's heart from miles away, and she knew she was aggressively lashing out to solve the problem without reasoning. Her obliging attitude wanted to bear Lucia's cumbersome weight to stop her from destroying Aries.

"No, you couldn't have stopped her," Naoto reassured. "She was too stubborn. She's evil on another level. We have to take her in."

"No!" Sumire shouted. "We're not going to do anything like that! Her heart's jaded and she's lost. I can feel her anger. We both want justice, but for different reasons. I only want her to realize that the payoff's much greater if we take them down our way. But she doesn't understand. She's too angry, and nothing I say can stop her at this point. You saw what she did. It's only a matter of time before she finishes everyone off."

"Damn it," Naoto said. "What do we do now? How do we track her down?"

Sumire slouched backward, relaxing her arms against a flopped-over table. She gently pressed her back against it as she pondered about the future. She compared her life situation to Lucia and wondered if their attitudes and mindsets were alike. But Sumire knew one thing that she may not have had; someone worth fighting for and protecting. Perhaps she was alone in her quest for conquest and revenge, and she had no one to share her pain to except Sumire. Despite Lucia wanting to silence the truth away, Sumire wanted no more than to stop her and Genesis the correct way.

"I don't know how we can track her down," Sumire said. "But... we may be able to with Chiaki's help. The good thing is, the nanosuits belonged to her. So... Sezan stole it from her. None of this makes sense. Why would he steal something from her to use against Genesis? It can't just be for money's sake. That was the purpose of them invading the lab with my brother."

"I don't know," Naoto said. "Maybe it's a coverup? Maybe Sezan's trying to take them down as much as Lucia wants them to?"

"Probably. But as of now, the real threat is Genesis, but we can't fight them right now. We have to find out what Lucia's planning and stop her before she destroys Aries."

"All right, that sounds like a good plan, I hope," Naoto agreed. "Natsu's power supply is recharging. See if you can make it back to HQ, and I hope your brother and Natia are doing okay at the factory."

Sumire relaxed against the table as the cold breeze from her altitude blew her jet black hair against the wind. She soaked in the comfort, believing that a bountiful rest and meal was perfect for recovering for the next mission regarding Lucia's revenge. She gazed up into the scarlet sun casting its vibrant rays against the aquatic-themed city and fervently hoped that her brother was safe.

He'll be okay.