And Fight the Beast Below

Apex let out a hideous laughter before leaping towards Grey and Pit, charging at them with her full speed. Nvr quickly leapt into the Decaynine, shoving it off course and into a wall. Vinea rushed in with his vines, wrapping them over the monster's claws to try and pin it down for a brief moment. 

Pit leapt into action, drawing his katana and went to slice at the dogs head. Yet in an instant, the fox eared monster hunter had unknowingly jumped into an enviously green portal and sent launching backwards. 

Apex quickly opened up a portal under her feet and as she dangled from the vines, she cut the portal to free herself. "Holy shit, that's Ven's portal heart!" Vinea yelled out as he dug his vines underground.

"No... it's Tika's Heart." Avis grumbled, summoning feathers with a few notes before launching them at dazzling speeds towards her. Nvr ran along with the barrage of feathers, and as Apex used a portal to redirect the attack, Vinea shot his vines up from the floor and pierced Apex's leg. 

Nvr used the opening to use "Ruptured Shambles." on Apex's chest, running her hand up to the hounds face before jumping back and letting the ability do its thing. 

Yet Apex began to laugh harder as her body began to rupture open like a doll being pulled apart at the seams. As the Decaynine fell to the ground, Pit quickly tried to go in for a finisher, sensing that the beast wouldn't go down so easily, even by a strong attack. 

And his suspicions proved right.

Apex continued to laugh as her spilt in half torso fused together instantly, mimicking Nvr's own regeneration. "I'VE GOTTEN STRONGER FOX, CAN YOU KEEP UP?! HAHAHHAHA!" She cackled, instantly opening up a portal behind Pit and pulling him through before rushing at Nvr with her free claw, swiping wildly at Bio Weapon.

Grey shifted his hands into his two favourite mimic weapons, Red and Blue Dual Pistols, and opened fire on the dreaded thing he had come to hate. Apex's rough and bony exterior only caused the mimic's bullets to just bounce off her. 

"Red and Blue! How Cute... Not as cute as this!" She cackled like a mad hyena before digging her yellowish claws into Nvr and Pit's chests, and with a crackle of green lightning, Apex leapt through a portal, appearing behind Grey.

She quickly ran a yellow claw down the mimics back and instantly, his back exploded into a mass of fleshy spikes that pierced his body. "Did... Did Apex just copy Ruptured Shambles?!" Vinea yelled, pulling Grey over to himself with a vine. 

Nvr was stunned for a brief moment, having never calculated the possibility of Apex evolving into such a beast. Pit was thrown across the room, right into Avis, knocking the two out as Apex tried to do another move. yet seeming to fail. She let out a disappointed laugh as she charged towards Avis. 

Nvr began to use her brain, coming to realise something to the newly evolved Apex predator. 

"Apex originates from Iris. Type of revive due to Panila and Necromancy. Subject must follow orders or termination protocol activates. Shock collar broken, deterrent not useable. Apex has no living tissue left. Shambles will no longer work. Heart is not allowed to be damaged under order of Lucy. 

She may only copy Heart attacks. Lack of self preservation means she will be reckless. Plan complete. 

Chances of her attacking Avis for Heart Power; 100%

Follow up attack of going after Vinea; 100%

Chance of her focusing on Grey and the other Fox after obtaining Heart; 100%

Interrupting copying process leaving her vulnerable chance; 89%"

As Apex went to dig her now glowing yellow claws into Avis, Nvr ran her own hand across the ground, instantly exploding it into spikes to create a barrier that pierced Apex. The hound couldn't help but laugh, leaping back. 

She quickly set her sights on Vinea and jumped across the pile of beating hearts to attack him, but it was just a distraction. A distraction Nvr fell for, as Apex opened up a portal mid air and went through, now appearing behind Avis. 

With little time left, Nvr grabbed Grey, who quickly shifted into a grey rocket launcher that the bio-weapon fired directly between the spikes. "S.T.A.R.S..." She smirked, watching as Apex was launched back through her own portal, where Nvr then slammed her head down into the ground before using Grey's new form to bash the beast's skull in repeatedly. 

"Vinea, TRY AND FIGURE OUT HOW TO CONNECT WITH LUCY THROUGH THE BAT!" She yelled, and with the order, Vinea quickly grabbed Mammy and ran just outside of the room. 

As bits and pieces of the ceiling began to collapse from the extensive damage, Apex was still showing no signs of slowing down. Nvr was beginning to feel tired. Something that had really happened since she became a weapon. 

Yet as She and Grey began to just beat on Apex, trying to put the beast down for a final time, she began thinking back to the day she became something that was Never To be.

"Because you're being dramatic. I ain't missing you're wedding... I've just gotta do this job first." The purple haired rabbit, Ven said as he sat on a bar stool, giving a playful smirk to his similarly purple rabbit eared sister, Meri. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You go and be like Dad while I spend the happiest day of my life without my own bloody brother." She sighed, pouring herself a drink. She always knew her brother was a bit unreliable when it came to making plans, yet she thought he would at least try to get out of his work for one day. 

"Hey, if I do this job, we'll be richer than uh... Richer than gods! Plus Mementis and Moria love weddings. So, we'll try and make it."

"I don't want dumbass and shorter dumbass there. Plus, you can only bring one guest. Why not bring your little girlfriend?"

"She ain't little... And she hates weddings. Much like me." He smirked, though Meri couldn't help but roll her eyes at her brother's sentiments. "Fine. Don't come then. Like when you missed my 18th birthday. Or my graduation."

"Wait, you graduated?" 

"I- Wha- YEAH! I work at a hospital! I've been a lab technician for what, five years?"

"You sound like a TV show, you know that?" He laughed, using a portal to drop his sister's drink directly into his hand before gulping it down. "Whatever, Arti... Just know, I won't forgive you if you die on my wedding day." She sighed, pouring another drink that was swiftly stolen by Ven.

As Nvr continued her fighting, she came to realise that was the last time she spoke to her brother before they both became monsters in their own ways. One was kind of responsible for the end of the world, the other became a literal monster in her own right. 

Yet as the showdown between two creatures ramped up, her mind wandered towards the hours after her brother had left for his mission with his crappy crew of misfits and where she was standing patiently at the altar. 

Meri had invited all of her friends... All two of them. Her Boss, Echidna and her bff since school, Qiko. She wasn't really disliked, but Meri just wasn't social enough to really have real friends. Yet she had met someone during her employment at Lilian Gate Lab. 

A real gentleman, one who did every thing to make her feel special. It was something out of a fairy tale to Meri, and she was certain of getting her own happy ending. 

As the wedding bells rung, she felt like the goddess of Pandora's Melody herself had blessed this wonderful union. As the ceremony commenced and the bride and groom locked eyes under the beautifully decorated gazebo outside her father's pub, they began speaking their vows to each other...

Yet as with everything that seemed to go right in the Misa family, tragedy always follows. 

Sirens began to ring through out the city to such a degree, that some people had even gone deaf. And yet, Nvr could never forget the robotic voice that followed the fear inducing sirens. 

"How curious... Curious indeed. Humanity has suffered enough. Let me enlighten you all into a world without strife. I am Eden. The one who shall set humanity free."

With that single declaration, robotic tendrils released from the sky as the robotic AI goddess hovered above the floating city, launching her attack. As the panic and confusion began to set in to the citizens, Meri could only watch as her groom fled for his life, only to be crushed under a falling tower. 

She watched as her world had begun to end, and as her friend had tried to help her regain her senses, she was swept up by one of the tendrils, and in the machine's attack had smashed a piece of the wooden gazebo, sending it flying right into her chest and pinning her to the ground. 

This would normally be the part where she'd black out and end her flashback... 

Yet the fight was stirring something. Stirring a memory that she had long forgotten. 

As Meri laid on the now blood soaked wooden floor, Echidna stood over her with a blank stare on their face. The doctor was seemingly being ignored by the AI as it slowly floated through the streets, 'ascending' anyone it saw. 

Echidna let out a small sigh, stroking the rabbit's hair delicately. "Do not fret, Meri. This day was Never Meant to Be. Yet, I won't let you die. I just ask... Do you wish to live?"

With a pained nod, Meri agreed to whatever the doctor wanted. And with that simple action, Meri shut her eyes for the last time. Only to awaken years later as Nvr2b. Yet the sight of her new, true form disgusted her. 

It was if everything she had come to know about herself was gone. And it was. Even her name was something the newly named Splice, would refuse to call her. It was something she had forgotten. The pain of never being herself. The thing she was never supposed to be. The Bride who lost it all in a single minute. 

And realising that, Splice decided to give #### a new form, something to reminisce about. A form that reflected her dream of being a bride, something that would hide her monstrous features. 

It worked. She found herself accepting the name Nvr2b after a few hundred years... Yet she refused to use her true form unless needed. It had come at a long cost to her sanity. But when she found herself in The Eye, fighting in a colosseum for the masses who cared not about her looks, but her skills. 

It was exhilarating. 

And with that, came a realisation. 

Nvr had come to realise she wasn't a dead thing like so many had told her before. She wasn't an undead abomination like Apex. She was a biological super weapon. A living creature with dark flesh and inky blood. Sure that doesn't sound like she's alive, but she technically was. As long as she believed it.

She was her own person after all. It just took fighting an undead dog with her friends to realise it. She had her own sense of pride. Her own sense of self. Her own Ego. 

As Nvr stumbled back from another hard strike from Apex, her eyes filled with a burning blue and purple passion that ignited her hearts, her own Ego had awakened. 

And she called it out with a cold fury.

"[Doctor's Orders]"