Ch. 10 "A-CLASS DEMON"

And with a wish of good luck from the commander everyone was about to leave the room, but as they reached the door if the room it did not open, Kurt moved closer to check on the door but it was totally shut and not even a single light from the other side as seen from the door, it also did not have any hole to peep through. At that moment Commander Hugo thought of something he turned around and saw only two people behind him.

"*sigh* Claire do you mind bringing those three there?"

The commander pointed his finger to the place they were sitting earlier, Claire turned around to see Ken seating on his chair while watching Rei and Ashley who were peacefully sleeping like a couple. Claire followed the commander and walked towards Ken.

"They look sweat don't they?"

Claire asked as she stood beside Ken. Ken only nodded as a response not looking at the two who looked very cute.

"But we have to leave now so you should wa-"

Claire was unable to finish her sentence because Ken suddenly stood up and walked towards Rei, he took a few books and piled it a top of each other, he slowly placed it perfectly above Rei's head and with a loving smile he dropped them which directly hit Rei at the head.

"OI!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING NII-SAN!"

Rei shouted as he was awoken by pain he felt on his head, Ashley also woke up due to Rei's loud voice.

"Get up idiot were leaving!"

Ken said before turning his back and walking towards the door, he looked at Claire and whispered a few words before walking past her.

"That was never like us"

Claire bit her lip and lowered her head as she knew what Ken was talking about, she looked at Ashley and Rei who were placing back the books Ken had dropped, she smiled as she looked at the two.

"Yeah, you're right we were never like that"

She whispered to herself, she felt her eyes began to water so she immediately wiped it off before moving a bit closer to the two to helped them.

"Let's go now"

She said, as the three of them walked to the door, she stopped to allow Rei and Ashley to walk in front of her she watched them closely remembering the days she had with Ken before she disappeared and was never seen again.

As the three arrived at the door, Commander Hugo called Kurt to go back to where they were standing, the seven of them stood there as the door began to move on its own and with a loud creak it opened. They then proceeded to the experiment lab where Commander Rylee, Professor Misty, and Chase were all waiting outside.

"That took a while despite close distance of the lab and the Great Library"

Chase said to Hugo. Hugo glanced at Chase with a small smile and walked past him, Chase smirked as all the new members of Squadron III passed him.

Commander Rylee stood firm in front of his new and old subordinates, he looked each of them in the eyes and smiled softly.

"All three of you will be given a Star, but that does not mean your life will not be in harm, once you enter this door there is no turning back"

The Commander said before they entered the lab. Inside was a large scanning device which is used to check at the compatibility rate of some with a chosen Star.

"Since all of you are in Squadron III and with the request of your Commander we are allowing you to choose from these Three different Stars"

The Professor pointed on three Stars on three different table, the first table has a large rifle like Star which is a rapid-fire weapon that creates a continuous laser like white rays its name was STAR: POLARIS, beside it was a Star which which looked like a sword but it has a wide blade that makes it able to become a shield and is very long its name was STAR: IZAR, and the last one was a large war axe that had a long handle it was named STAR: HADAR.

As Ashley who chose Star: Polaris and Ken who chose Star: Izar, Rei was had no choice and chose Star: Hadar. They were all pointed to stand on a large scanning system which will check their compatibility rate with their chosen star, first to be scanned was Ken who had a very high compatibility rate with Star: Izar, next was Ashley who also had a high compatibility rate with Star: Polaris. When Rei was about to go the to system he was immediately stopped by the professor.

"You are Rei right?"

The professor asked him. Rei stared at the small woman in front of him and nodded a yes.

"I'm sorry but you can't go in there right now, you see... When a compatibility rate is confirmed the procedure must be done immediately, but since we only have two areas where the procedure may be done, I would like to ask you to not go to the system until one of them is finished, do you understand?"

The Professor explained to him, Rei nodded another yes and walked back to were everyone else was. All of them watched as the two receive a quite painful experiment, they were both given anesthesia but it only lessened the pain to a minimum as the face of the screamed pain.

An hour had passed since the procedure had began, the two were now calm and everything was going well when the lab was shaken by a strong earthquake which somehow messed with Ashley compatibility rate. Ashley then screamed in pain as she felt a sudden burning sensation all around her body, Chase immediately went to the area and helped on the procedure, everything calmed down and Ashley was now stable. When suddenly Commander Hugo received a urgent call from the Central.

"What is it?" 

The Commander asked.  A distressed voice spoke at the other end of the line.

"A-class"

It said while stuttering.

"WHAT AN A-CLASS!?!"

Hugo's voiced was heard all around the room, everyone including the ones doing the procedure stared at the commander, The whole room fell silent.

"Will it affect the walls?"

Hugo asked, but the person on the other side took a while to answer his question, slowly pissing off the commander. The rest continued the procedure as they knew that an A-class is something they cannot defeat unless they have 4 or more Star users.

"It is 45 meters, but something is different about it!"

The person said.

"Huh? what do you mean?"

"A large amount of fire is rapidly spreading along with the demon!! if it gets to close even the walls might not be able to handle the heat!"

The person explained.

"It's done!"

Misty shouted from a distance.

"Hey you two! this was not planned and I know that you cant use those Stars perfectly at the moment but we need your help to fight that demon off! because if we don't it might end us all!"

Ken and Ashley agreed to it not even doubting that they might not be of help.

"I like that kind of courage!"

Commander Rylee suddenly spoke.

"Now then, Shall we break the core?"

The commander continued, he acted optimistic but despite that he knew that there's a chance one of those two might run amock and make things much harder than it should be.

"I will help them out with controlling the Stars, you will also help out right, Chase?"

Professor Misty said as she fiercely stared at Chase.

"The Squadron IX will standby for back up"

Commander Hugo said as his call with the ones at the Central has ended. As everyone was planning Rei was left dumbfounded not knowing what the current situation is. Ken then went to talk to his brother.

"Don't worry you'll get yours after all of this"

Ken said trying to comfort his brother, little did Ken know Rei actually had no idea what is happening, this is due to Rei falling asleep after being sent back by the Professor.

"Oi Kid! so your farewells to your dear brother were leaving now!"

Commander Rylee shouted to Ken as everyone was now ready to engage on a combat against an A-class demon. Rei smiled at his brother who was about to leave.

"Good luck nii-san!"

Rei said before lifting his right hand and clenching it indicating a fist bump which they would normally do when they used to play games back when they were younger.

"Thanks! I'll be back"

Rei was immediately called by the Professor Misty who was about to walk outside the lab with Chase. Rei then walked towards then bowing his head a little to look at the professor who was just as tall as his chest.

"You're coming with us down at the Central, I can't have you wandering in this facility alone, you might stubble upon things you won't understand"

The professor warned him before walking out, Rei followed her and Chase to the Central, where everyone was shocked to see a tall fellow come out of the elevator.  A man suddenly stood in front of the professor handing a data sheet to her.

"The estimated arrival of Squadron III is 30 minutes"

The man said before going back to his desk. Professor Misty, Chase and Rei stood in front of a large screen which showed  the scene on where the demons was, the camera they were using was at the top of the wall making it easier for them to see how big of a threat it was.

"Is there only one demon?"

"There are no other signs of another demon within its area professor"

A woman answered her.

"Rylee do you hear me?"

The professor spoke to a mic which was connected to those who were about to go fight the Demon.

"Loud and clear professor"

As the Squadron III was near the demon they were stopped by the Commander.

"This is as far as we could go with the clothes were wearing"

The commander said.

"So how do we fight something like that?"

Kurt asked as their surrounding became more hotter that they were now sweating.

"Commander Hugo!"

Rylee said to a radio on his ear.

"I will now open fire"

Hugo replied. The members stood quietly as their surrounding became more hotter and hotter that fire was crawling towards them in a crazy speed.

"None of you knows this since this is the very first time you will be fighting an A-class demon, an A-class demon has two cores, one that could brew storms above it or  it can burn the ground below it. That's why Commander Hugo will help us, because he has a Sniper-like Star and with the help from those at the central he can easily pinpoint the location of the second core. Most of the second core are above their armor like skin so he can easily shoot it"

Commander Rylee explained to his subordinates, and with a flash of light the front feet of the A-class demon suddenly exploded which made it cry a very loud roar, that cause a small earthquake. The fire that has been surrounding its path suddenly began to disappear, yet their surrounding was still hot that they still can't get close to it. 

"Here's the plan, Kurt and Cecilia will make a hole from its back to its stomach using the combine force of Vega and Betel if it will hit a part of its main core it will immediately react and regenerate its body and add a another layer. Once we locate it Claire you and Kenzou will be the ones to cut both its front legs which would make it fall at that very moment I will lift up Ashley to the sky where she will use Polaris at the exact spot on were the core is, got it?"

As the temperature of their surrounding started the cool down they immediately positioned themselves to how the commander planned. And with the perfect distance they then proceeded with their plan, Kurt and Cecilia made their way to the top of the demon. Once on top they stood in front of each other and with a full forced thrust from Vega and Betel a huge hole was created which passed the whole body of the demon. But to their surprise it did not react, the two repeated on different location but did not even a single bit scratch any part of its core.

"Captain! the core seems to be somewhere else!" 

Cecilia said through a earpiece that allows the squadron to talk to each other and also contact the people at the central.

"Ah I noticed, get off the back and help with the feet I have an idea to where it is"

The commander replied.

The commander stood beside Ashley and pointed at its face.

"That part, in between those eyes, behind that black skin is a core, once it falls down fire your Star with all its power"

Ashley nodded to what the commander explained to her, Cecilia and Claire stood along each other waiting for the demon to come closer with Kurt and Ken also waiting on the other side. As the demon got in the perfect they made their move with a full force attack that not only obliterated its front feet but also affected its back, prohibiting its movements, as Ashley pointed her star to where the commander said.

"Bye-bye monster!"

Ashley then pulled the trigger, her attack hit the right spot but it did not do any damage. As stood there confused and was about to attack again when the commander pulled her back, the others also retreated to where the commander was and all of them watched slowly as a smaller demon detached itself from the A-class demons head tearing the skin off its face revealing its core where in the smaller demon breaks it before jumping down to the ground.

It then started screaming and stopping causing the ground around him to crack, as it scream the earpieces that the squadron III were wearing suddenly malfunctions, to which they remove it and throw it away where it immediately sparks and forms a small explosion. All of them successfully removed each earpiece before it exploded, except for their commander who was unable to do so which revealed the secret hidden under his skin.

"C-captain?"

Cecilia said as she points to the commanders head, where in the commander realizes that his secret has been exposed to everyone including the ones at the central. The commander takes a deep breath before giving an order.

"All of you, retreat now! I'll hold this thing off"

He then began ripping parts of his skin where it revealed that his body was part robot. The group were hesitant at retreating as they don't want to leave their commander specially Cecilia who's star was about to go out of control. Kurt decided that they were only going to be dead weight to their commander as he actually knew that secret.

"Were retreating now!"

Kurt ordered them, Cecilia's hair was starting to turn white when they heard a sudden loud screech and a white light suddenly hit the demon, then a barrage of light started hitting the demon. The commander smiled to them as they all began running back, Cecilia took a glance at her commander once more to see him smiling at her. As the squadron were no longer on sight the barrage came to a stop, revealing a unwounded demon.

"Shit!"

The commander cursed before rushing to the demon but was suddenly stopped when the demon started to speak human words.

"Zeroo"

It said in a whispering tone. Rylee fell down to the ground as random memories started popping to his head.

[Chapter End]