Storm

Aleph crosses his arms together, not really focusing on anything around him. To find a survivor is not anything new to him. But one of the few who watch the breakout happen right there are rare these days due to their psychological trauma.

To be openly given another perspective of the outbreak is quite a surprising catch, and even better when it comes from someone who knows the secret of the artifact.

But it left him a question. "Why did you tell me this right here and now?" He asks Xing Tian who is back to staring at the Glitched Heart intently. His question breaks her attention from it before answering him.

"Because you have connections to the people around here." She gestures to the room, where archeologists and other workers are busy analysing the artifact in the distance. It seems that none of them pay any attention to her exposition. "No one would listen to me anymore so… I figured you can help."

Aleph can help her, that is for sure. The archeologists here are trustworthy and, after the last incident, they are willing to take any legitimate warnings and precautions for the final ruins. "I certainly would, but I need to know more about the… procedure."

"Well…" She sheepishly scratches her cheek. "It's a little easy honestly…" The man raises an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering what got the girl nervous. "I just have to be the one to pick up the jewel and put the jewel here." She points at where her heart is, a small frown on her face.

"I still don't understand why I have to put it on my heart but I know the voice told me it should be done like this." Aleph holds back on voicing his doubts about it. He cannot help but be suspicious about the 'voice'. Unfortunately for everyone, she is the only one who proposes the 'safest' solution.

The man sighs before speaking. "Very well, I'll see what I can do. Until then, we can only keep the artifact in the box." The girl accepts the proposal before leaving the hall with him. She takes one last look at the artifact, hoping someday she can finally get her hands on it.

She takes one step on the stairs before a sudden quake surprises everyone, who quickly duck down and cover their heads. When the tremoring stops, everyone carefully removes their hands and surveys the area.

Some lamps and machines have unfortunately fallen, but many of them are still intact. The archeologists and workers immediately reorganize their equipment while those who are leaving carefully make their way up.

Xing Tian cannot help but feel uneasy about the quake. 'Something about this just isn't right.' She thought to herself as she continues her way to-

"̶̨̥͈̥̟͕͛̽̌̿͘G̴̢͓̖͔͗ȇ̵̮͓͉͊̂̌̂̚͝t̷͇̩͎̯͋ ̵̨̪̳͛̑̂̌͐o̸̪̠͆̑̽̈́̏̚͠ǔ̸͎͉̈́̿̔́t̷̢̥̘̅͑͆͑̓ͅ!̶̣̖̄́̎̔"̵̧̝͕͈̑

She immediately hops to the left when the ground shoots up, breaking stairs and the ceiling. Without any time to react, many people fall on their back or roll on the stairs due to their loss of balance.

Dust and sand covers the room, obscuring everyone's vision forcing people to yell out to make sure they are still around. For Xing Tian, she swings her arms around to get rid of the dust before managing to crack her eyes open.

The ceiling is completely broken, revealing the blue sky above. From Xing Tian's perspective, she could barely make out a centipede-like creature flying around in the air, screeching but not doing anything hostile.

"Oh dear…" Xing Tian mutters under her breath before running towards the exit, ignoring Aleph's calling to stop her. As she continues each step, her muscle burns due to the speed she is going. She manages to run past the exit before slowing down, examining the sky.

In the sky is the centipede creature with wings for its limbs. The creature flies around in a flowy manner, as if air resistance does not bother it. On the lower chest of the monster holds the word M̵͓̈̚y̶̰͐͠ḑ̵̀̄o̸̪̫͋͋o̶͖̰̚m̶̜̥͠ and several pairs of pods attach to the skin.

"A Mydoom?!" Aleph exclaims as soon as he sees the Glitch. "What's another titan Glitch doing here?" He quickly looks around his surroundings, realizing the danger that will happen soon before quickly taking a guard's walkie-talkie. "Everyone get to safety! A titan class Glitch is spotted here! Get the local officers for combat!"

The place immediately becomes a hotspot of fear and panic as people quickly make their way to a vehicle to evacuate the place. The guards and other archeologists usher everyone to make their escape. Some quickly make a call to the Faunus Police Station, hoping the local force will help them soon.

Xing Tian immediately fishes out her Downloader before strapping it on. She switches her attention to Aleph, who is busy escorting people to safety. Confirming that he is in a much safer spot, she inserts her D-USB into the Downloader to morph.

The monster in the sky loops around the sky for a few times before diving towards the ground, towards Defender. The true size of the creature reveals slowly as it descends, giving the Defender the true scale of the creature.

She immediately manifests Tiger's Bite before using it as a shield to protect herself. Unfortunately for the girl, the force of the charge flings her off the ground without any resistance. She rolls on the ground for a moment before uprighting herself.

The situation is not good for her. No backup nor any means to keep the Glitch grounded would spell doom for her and everyone around. 'But I can't lose yet.' She reignites her determination before holding her sword in front of her, ready to fight again. 'The people and the Glitched Heart are still here.'

Mydoom circles around the air for a moment, as if assessing the situation, before flying higher. Its pods detach and fall on the ground with a thump, burying parts of itself into the ground. The pods crack before insectoid creatures burst out of their pods.

They look like the Mydoom, but smaller than the titanic creature. The smaller creatures are the size of an average human with a pincer on where their antena suppose to be. The creatures immediately make their way to the evacuating crowd, whose panic causes them to stampede towards safety.

The Defender lunges at one of the smaller Glitches with her falchion, defeating one of them before beheading another with her wild swing. Charging her sword with electricity, she spins a full circle while discharging the electricity effectively frying some of her opponents.

There is still more in her vision, but she didn't stop her assault on the incoming wave of monsters and fight far more wildly. She uses the weight of her falchion to maneuver her direction and uses punches to quickly push away the wave.

Aleph ensures that is the last of the civilians before noticing the Defender fighting back the wave of monsters. The man looks around for Xing Tian before sucking up his breath, internally wishing the girl is still safe somewhere.

But right now he has to help the armored figure to fight the wave of monsters. He reaches into his pocket and reveals a small, white Magia with black stripes on it. The man begins to carefully fire his gun, making sure every shot defeats each creature.

Defender continues her killing spree until more pods bombard the field, creating more of the smaller Glitches. The tiger takes a deep breath before running into the wave to defeat more of them.

Not a single step forward, Mydoom dives towards her with a screech. The girl gasps in surprise by the sudden attack and prepares to take the damage once more.

But the feeling of being hit by a truck did not come, but instead a red blur drops from the sky and stops the creature from going further with its bulky arm. Dust covers her vision, but she still can see what is beyond the clouds.

The figure has a white undersuit with orange scale patterns running across it. The red armor parts that are equipped on it made the figure extremely bulky, with gauntlets that are about five times bigger than average. It has rectangular shoulder pads that are half the size of a man's head and a pair of metal boots that is as large as the gauntlet. The elbow and knee pads are, thankfully, normal size so it does not impede normal movement. The helmet has the shape of a turtle with two horns protruding on the top and a mouth guard that looks like a turtle beak.

The back of the figure has a red shell with a pair of cannons on it. Defender couldn't help but compare this to a certain turtle creature she saw in the orphanage.

The figure grunts for a moment before pushing Mydoom away from him, forcing the creature to take back to the skies once more. He slams his feet onto the ground like a sumo, creating a thermor which unbalances everyone in the vicinity before squatting down.

The cannon on its back hisses for a moment, smoke expelling from the shell before moving itself to the shoulder of the figure. From the cannon discharges a fireball towards the Glitches before exploding upon contact.

With the field under control, the red armored man retracts his cannon and turns to Defender. "I guess I just came in time to save you huh, Defender?"

Defender is shocked, as the voice is recognizable to her. "Ja- I mean Lambda?!" She cannot believe it, as the fourth user of A.V.E is somehow the brother of Noelle.

"You can call me…" He playfully flicks his hand, before doing a gun gesture to her. "Torton."

Silence befalls the two of them before the Defender speaks once more.

"Lame."