Inside Morino's Mansion…
Kia tossed and turned in her bed, flashes of her husband and oldest son appearing before her. "No. No. No. No. No!"
She recalled what happened when she exited the house and appeared in the middle of a random street, and she recalled the words Dachii asked her as they left Estrium.
"Mom…what am I…? What is Dad?"
"Son…I don't know."
Kuroten's voice appeared in her mind. "Honey, you can't hide the truth forever…the shadows desire you."
Almost on cue, shadows emerged from under her bed, but they quickly retracted before she saw them.
She got up. "I need some air. My boys…please be okay."
She went downstairs to grab some water, not noticing Titan standing behind her, watching before he suddenly disappeared.
In the Technodome…
The girls navigated through more puzzles, linking back up with the boys in the city portion of the dome. "Checkpoint A: Reached! Girls have advanced!"
"Hey, there they are!"
Hikari and Saori immediately ran and hugged Luca and Marachii, and Akari rolled her eyes before joining them. Aoki slapped them both.
"Don't make me worry like that again, idiots!"
"Sorry…"
Her eyes suddenly widened. "Dachii…where's Dachii?"
"Hmm?" Luca questioned. "He should be behind…us?"
He scanned the streets, but Dachii was gone. "Ahh, shi—-"
"You LOST him?" Aoki exclaimed.
"How could you lose him?" Hikari gasped.
"This is why I said they shouldn't be alone together," Akari sighed. "Damn it!"
"Oh no, oh no!" Saori worried. "Maybe he just lost his way? That's all, right?"
"Dearest me," Naoki remarked. "That poor boy seems so troubled. It's not far-fetched to think he simply stumbled upon the wrong path."
Marachii was busy gawking at all the technology, and Aoki had to shake him out of it. "Marachii, wake up! Your brother is gone!"
"Eh?"
The voice rang out. "Time for Checkpoint B! Find the key to the city and you can proceed further! If you can't find it within the next two hours, you will be stuck here!"
"Shit," Aoki realized. "We can't do both at once."
"How about we branch off once more?"Noaki suggested. "These lovely boys and I will stay with Naito and Yūsuke to find the key, you girls find your friend!"
"We can do that," Akari replied.
"Yeah, leave it to us!" Hikari promised.
"Good luck," Luca said.
Marachii was busy examining the road. "Such an immaculate design, they know their stuff!"
"We'll watch him," Luca added. "He's kinda gone tech crazy."
"We should be back in two hours," Aoki stated. "Don't leave without us, you got that?"
"We'll try."
"I'm serious, Luca! And don't let Marachii wander off!"
"Of course, ole' captain."
Marachii was attempting to climb a building, which began to move with him on it. "Ahaha! Why can't my house be like this?"
Aoki had an irritated look on her face as she grabbed his arm and pulled him back over to Luca. "Sit."
She glared at Luca. "Watch him. I'm not losing anyone else."
"Will do."
"Be right back, guys!" Saori waved.
"I really don't think we should leave Marachii with Luca," Akari warned. "He should come with us."
"But look at him!" Hikari pointed. "He's totally out of it!"
Marachii was staring at the mechanical sky, laughing. "Haha! Brilliant!"
"He can stay here," Aoki ordered. "The General can take care of him."
She scoped out the vast Metropolis. "Now where should we start?"
"I don't know," Akari scoffed. "Figure it out."
Aoki took a deep breath. "You know what? Saori, Hikari? Let's go scout this place and leave Akari here."
"Goodness," Hikari moaned. "It's happening again."
Aoki pulled Saori and Hikari away, heading down the street. Akari glared after her. "Hey, you little bitch! You're just going to leave me? Okay, bet!"
Akari ran after them.
From afar, Naoki watched with a sad look. "Why don't those girls get along?"
Luca popped some beef jerky into his mouth. "Because Aoki is Vice-General, and Akari doesn't like that. They hate each other."
"That's it?"
"Meh. Akari is self-centered and condescending, and Aoki is arrogant and aggressive. Bad matchup."
"I see," Naoki remarked. "We'll have to fix those girls."
"You can try."
Somewhere else…
"Wakey wakey, compadre. You're quite a catch."
Dachii opened his eyes. He was hanging upside down from the ceiling, and his body was wrapped in chains of metal that he couldn't break.
"Don't bother trying to escape those chains either. My employers told me no powers nor magic can dent those things."
The man walked out of the shadows, revealing an athletic, armored guy with a mask on that had glowing blue eyes.
"The name's Akamon," he introduced. "In case you were wondering."
"Okay."
"You ain't real chatty, are you?" Akamon noticed. "Most of the people I catch usually protest a bit more. You're a little dull."
"Catch…?"
The man picked up a large technological rifle. "I'm a bounty hunter, kid. And best believe me, the people that want you have put a high bounty on your head. Much higher than any other person on the market."
"Okay."
"Man. You don't talk much, do you? Your name is Dachii Jones, right?"
"Yep."
"You're radiating with power," Akamon told him. "Whatever's inside your body, my scanners are going haywire cuz of it."
He shot the chain connecting Dachii to the ceiling. "Time to ditch this place. But first, I've got one more stop to make."
He picked Dachii up and swiped a keycard to a door, which opened up to reveal a large simulation room, where Voltians were in pods with VR headsets hooked onto their faces.
"Nerds," Akamon commented. "All they are."
He used his keycard to enter the next room, which was a mining facility, where miners were harvesting rare ore. "Lame."
The next room they entered was a large outlet, which had a bunch of Voltian-run shops. There were a bunch of guards patrolling the area, and they immediately pointed their guns at Akamon when they saw him.
"Hey! Hands up, now!"
"Nah. Not my style."
He drew his rifle, and with precise shots, he dropped all the guards to the ground. "Now, back to my target."
He turned around, but only a pile of chains were there. "Tsk. You've gotta be kidding me."
He searched the area for Dachii, who was busy attempting to find the exit. "Hold it, kid! How'd you get out?"
"I wiggled."
He pointed his rifle at him. "Stay there! You ain't leaving on my watch."
"Okay," Dachii replied.
"Now, nice and slowly, get back in the chains—-!"
Without wasting a second, Dachii broke his rifle and sent him flying with a single punch.
BOOM.
"Heh…a fight…" Akamon laughed. "That's more my style."
He pressed a button on his suit, and more armor emerged from it, along with a jetpack. He drew another rifle from his back.
"They said dead or alive, so don't expect me to go easy on you, youngling!"
He flew into the air, firing shot after shot at Dachii, who dodged the attacks.
"What a strange man," Dachii thought. "Super odd."
The shopkeepers ran away as Akamon fired more devastating rounds, hitting Dachii once in the arm.
"Damages," Dachii noted. "Some bullets you've got."
Dachii jumped into the air and punched Akamon into the ground, breaking his jetpack. "Damn kid! I paid a good fortune for that!"
He cracked his neck, drawing an eerily familiar pair of chained axes. "Well, it's fine. I've got plenty of ways to take you in."
Dachii's eyes widened. "Where did you get those?"
"Wouldn't you like to know? FURY!"
He sent one slamming into the ground, causing the entire area to erupt in flames.
"Give those back, right now!" Dachi demanded.
"How about you take 'em from me?" Akamon taunted.
As soon as Dachii got close to attack, Akamon dodged his strikes one by one before wrapping the chain around him and sending him soaring across the outlet.
BOOM.
Before Dachii could get up, a wrist-mounted cannon emerged from his right arm, and he fired a net at Dachii.
"Trap 'em."
Dachii struggled against the net. "What the hell is this crap?"
"Made of the same stuff they make their chains out of. An old material called Volta. Works well for Elementals like you. That net won't go by force."
"I bet it won't."
Dachii managed to stand up, still trapped by the net. "Give the axes back, now."
"You're still worried about them? Worry about yourself, kid."
"I SAID GIVE THEM BACK!"
He punched through a gap in the net, shaking the area so hard the net fell off. Akamon studied him. "It makes sense now! You're one of Morino's brat grandsons, aren't you?"
Akamon could sense Dachii's gaze from under his hair. "How do you know that name?"
"Pff. Info isn't cheap, you know? You willing to pay for that kind of money?"
BOOM.
Akamon got out of the way as Dachii punched the building next to him. Akamon flung an axe at Dachii, but Dachii took it out of his hands.
"They'd better double my pay," Akamon grumbled.
Dachii attacked him again and again, but he pressed a button on his suit, forming a thick metal staff that popped out of the belt that he used to counter the blows. Dachii kicked the staff out of his hands, and he and Akamon went blow for blow, with Akamon equally countering his attacks before revealing a machine gun inside his wrist.
"Peek-a-boo."
He fired it off at Dachii, striking him in the stomach and dropping him to the ground. Dachii watched as he picked up his damaged rifle and put it back together in one motion.
"My baby's back!"
The barrel of the gun got longer, turning into a sniper rifle. "Now, if you still want your head, surrender."
"I don't care. Kill me."
"You got guts, kid. Let's see how much you got when I spill 'em out."
"Dachii!"
A familiar voice interrupted the two, and Saori immediately ran over to Dachii. "Dachii! There you are! We were so worried! We all thought you might have been—-!"
Saori noticed Akamon. "Who's that?"
"A rainbow-haired little brat," Akamon remarked. "Not every day you see one of those. These the things you hang around, man?"
"Saori," Dachii warned. "Please run."
"Why? Dachii, who is that?"
"Okay she's in the way," Akamon announced. "Time to kill her."
He pointed his rifle at her head, and Dachii quickly shielded her, getting shot right through the eye, causing Saori to scream.
"DACHII!"
"Huh. Makes my job easier."
"Trying to…kill an innocent kid…" Dachii coughed. "What's…wrong with you…?"
"Lots."
He prepared to fire another net at Dachii, but Saori quickly fired a rainbow beam at him, disabling his wrist cannon. "Leave him alone!"
"Why do the young ones always have to be strong?" Akamon groaned. "Makes no damn sense."
He picked up his staff and whacked them both across the ground. Akari, Hikari, and Aoki quickly caught up to them.
"Saori! We heard a scream!" Akari stated. "Did you find Dachii?"
They took in the scene, with Saori covering Dachii, who coughed. They immediately surrounded him.
"Dachii! Saori, what happened?" Hikari asked, trying to heal him.
Saori pointed to Akamon, who was reloading his gun. "That crazy guy! He's trying to capture him!"
"Don't make it sound so evil," Akamon scoffed. "Now clear the scene, little girls."
Aoki and Akari stood in front of Dachii.
"So, you hurt him?" Akari questioned.
"I wouldn't call that hurt. My bullets just have a paralysis effect on them due to the Volta inside of them."
Aoki raised her sword. "Then you can die. No one touches my teammates."
"Or mine," Akari added.
Akamon threw his hands up, annoyed. "Dumb shit. Just move out the way."
Aoki threw a red card at him, but he simply batted it into the air with his staff. He fired his rifle at them, and Akari formed her shield to block the bullets, but they tore right through her shield.
"No way!"
She had to twist her body to avoid the bullets, and Dachii barely managed to sit up. "No…no…don't fight him…he's built…different…"
Dachii collapsed.
Akari and Aoki turned around to check on him, but Akamon threw a stun grenade in between them, dropping all the girls to the ground. He fired a chain from his wrist, wrapping it around Dachii. "Come here, pal."
As he dragged Dachii towards him, Akari grabbed onto his arm.
"Let go, Akari…" he pleaded. "This guy's too dangerous…"
"Never! If he's taking you, he'll have to go through me!"
They both started to get dragged, but Hikari grabbed onto Akari's leg. "And me!"
Saori did the same. "Me too!"
Aoki stabbed her blade into the ground, catching Saori's foot. "All of us. Who does he think he is?"
Akamon threw a bomb at them, but Akari blasted it away, blowing a hole into the ground and causing alarms to sound.
"Alert. Alert. Damage detected. Diverting power."
"This is just bull," Akamon complained. "Have it your way."
With a yank of his arm, he sent them all tumbling into the hole. "I prefer to hunt for my prey anyway. And you're all now on the list."
"AHHH!"
He pressed a button on his belt and his boots formed thrusters. Without wasting another second, he jumped after them.
"Sub-Level, Entered."
—-