Artificial Timeline: 00000, 2 hours before the raid.
A colossal fortress shaped like a black diamond suspended in an endless void. Its surface is smooth but constantly shifting with faint silver cracks, like veins of light leaking through stone. This is where 85% of TRA agents work and accept missions. Prime Aoi roams the halls, until he enters the Armory of Eras, a constant working environment. The armory contained different weapons from timelines the TRA destroyed. In the back of the room, the Tyrant's Chrono-Gauntlet was powering the TRA's weapons, infusing Chrono-Watch-powered bullets into the different firearms.
"Grab the Gauntlet for me and rev it up for me. We're raiding The Architect's dimension. Aoi #42. I decided he shouldn't be allowed in my new timelines. He stole her from me, redirected her point of view, I cannot have that, especially with the power she wields." He said sternly, running his fingers over the gauntlet. The TRA scientists quickly nod their heads and take the Gauntlet from it's resting position, disconnecting the wires.
A researcher suddenly runs frantically into the room, usually tasked with collecting special materials from other timelines. "Sir, we've been traveling through timelines, Chrono-Savior's assistant, Jason Cross, has been traveling with these two, #42 and Yuunagi. This leaves Chrono-Savior alone and still injured, we can plan an attack." Prime Aoi turns around with interest, grinning. He accepted his Chrono-Gauntlet and slid it onto his hand, it's like an instant rush of power.
"I…have a plan." Were the only words The Tyrant needed to say before patting the researcher on the back, as if it was a token of his appreciation, before trailing past every scientist, exiting the room.
The Architect's Timeline.
Kira, Jason, and the unconscious Aoi Takamura, have been traveling around The Architect's building. Even with a whole hour of walking and avoiding other guards, they've still haven't covered much ground, due to the large scale of the building. An announcement blares through the intercoms.
"WE'VE REPORTED SIX GUARDS DEAD A HOUR AGO. ALONG WITH THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PRISONERS FROM SECTION 12, ROOM 1211. FIND ANY EVIDENCE OR SIGHTINGS OF THE PRISONERS AND BRING THEM TO THE ARCHITECT."
Jason flinches, stopping mid run to listen. "Uhh, they're looking for us now, and Aoi's knocked out! What do we do Kira?!" He shook Kira, making Aoi slouch to the side on his back, making him adjust his position. Kira's expression stayed unchanged as Jason kept nagging her.
"Why are you asking me? I'm not your lifeline. We'll find our own solutions, while correlating it to our situation." Kira said with an usually cruel and blunt tone of voice, putting her finger up like she was correcting a statement.
The three traveled up a couple flight of stairs, making unusually loud sounds of feet stepping on metal, along with the constant notifications of Aoi's condition coming from the nanotech suit. Once they made it up to the 3rd floor, unsurprisingly, there were soldiers of The Architect, but along with those soldiers, it's revealed that they were accompanied with Dr.Elise Maren, from this timeline. She rode an advanced wheelchair, with buttons and screens on the arms.
"Who's the old lady?" Jason pointed, but Kira quickly made sure to shut Jason up because he could say anything more
Kira made her fractured sword crystallize into her hands, her face turning more serious than normal as she readies her surprise. "I can try to take her, but I don't know her techniques, yet."
"Are you conspiring in front of your enemy? What a stupid decision~" Maren cackled, soldiers standing by her side with their weapons raised. It seemed like that with each floor, came more challenges. Within a second, energy blades shot out of the backrest.
It was supported by metal arms that held the blades, increasing their reach.
Before Kira could blink, the swords lashed out and swung at her. She dodged, parried, even attempted to cut off the swords but they seemed indestructible. This paired with the constant energy bullets being fired at her, made it near impossible to get in close contact with Dr.Maren.
"Hah! You're not as tough as I thought you were! It's okay to ask for help~" Jason mocked before narrowly dodging a stray energy bullet. Carrying Aoi was slowing him down, the more he dodged, the more he could realize that obvious fact.
Kira kept herself on defense, although, if she keeps just parrying and deflecting the twin blades and bullets, she'll lose stamina. She was deflecting strikes at every angle faster than the human eye. She found an opening through a soldier and instantly took action. She dashed forward, slashed across their upper body, she jumped and twisted mid-air to avoid Dr.Maren's constant flurry of attacks before landing and throwing her blade towards another soldier with extreme precision, striking them straight in the chest.
Kira catches Dr.Maren's blades with her bare hands just before they were going to pierce her. The mere heat that the energy blades were emitting seared through her skin. Kira pushed through and before Dr.Maren could turn around to face her, she pounced on her wheelchair, summons her sword in her hand before stabbing her right in the shoulder.
Dr.Maren cried out in pain, wincing and turning as the blade dug deeper, leaking out blood. Out of panic, she activated another mechanism in her chair that sent an electrical shock from the backrest od the wheelchair, effectively sending an electric current of 1000 volts straight through Kira's body. Kira's eyes roll back as consciousness begins to fade, her body falling off of the chair helplessly.
Dr.Maren turns around in her wheelchair to observe her damage, with a sick grin, she mocked Kira while she twitched and suffered on the floor. "In the end, you can't even beat an old woman in a wheelchair~ but I knew this outcome, after all, I am the smartest woman in all of the timelines." multiple energy fueled weapons spouted out of the backrest, someone intervened, slicing all of the weapons in half at once in a streak of blue.
"Does this mean I'm stronger than you?" Jason's light hearted demeanor cut through the tension in the room as he appeared in front of Kira. Aoi wasn't on his back, instead left protected by his nanotech suit as he rested not too far away from Elise. "Also, I found my katana! It was in the armory across the hall! Terrible hiding spot by the way." He smirked as he gets into an offensive stance.
"Ah yes, the "comedian" of this weak group. By standards, you should've died first, after all, your types are the weakest." She mocked, the blades were reeled back into her chair and came back out fully repaired. All of the weapons, Razors, metal fists, blades, all made out of energy, lashed out at Jason.
Just like that, Jason was deflecting around 5 weapons at once, Twin energy blades, a razor, two metal fists. Each move had to be made carefully, Jason dodged the blades, also deflecting the razor while running on a wall. He was forced on Parrying and deflecting, he was creating more and more distance on purpose. He parried the blades, dashed forward, dodged the razor, closed the distance between him and Elise, but he was caught by a huge metal fist that shot up and released a devastating uppercut that made Jason fly upwards, crashing through the ceiling. Jason suffered a serious concussion from the blow, he struggles to even hold a firm grip on his katana as he falls back to the same floor.
"Like I said, they always die first." Maren looked at Jason with a satisfied grin, before approaching him with the razor. Kira finally regained consciousness, her TRA military suit protected her from death. With her fractured sword in hand, she quietly trails her feet towards Elise, and when she least expects it, Kira pierces the backrest of her wheelchair, also piercing Dr.Maren in the back.
Blood dripped down Elise's mouth, her eyes lost their shine. Jason watched the whole thing, confused at first but quickly finds out that it was just Kira. "Woah, Man, I'm dizzy! I didn't need your help by the way—" He chuckled as he struggled to stand back up, stumbling back and forth a little after getting on his feet.
Kira rolled her eyes "Shut up already..where's Aoi?" She turned around to find Aoi in the same position, she sighed out of relief, "Why did you just leave him there? Do you know how many guards frequently patrol around here?!" Before she can grab Aoi, the floor suddenly opened up beneath them. Kira instantly secured Aoi with her, Jason positioned himself like a cannonball.
"What's happening?!" Jason screams and clutches his katana like it was his mother as the three soared downwards, down each floor. Kira remained calm on the outside, but she was feeling a coaster of emotions as she plummeted. She made sure Aoi was her top priority since he was unconscious.
After a whole minute of falling, they land with a crash into an all white, simulated room. Kira was to first to realize that this large room had something different. When she landed, there were cracks in the floor, before she could realize, the cracks repaired itself before Kira could realize. "Something is wrong. Is he here?"
Suddenly, someone materialized into the room out of thin air. It was none other than The Architect, instead of his calm and overly enthusiastic demeanor, it was replaced with an uncharacteristic, disgusted look.
"You ignorant little bugs! Do you know WHO you killed just now!" His brow furrowed, teeth clenched as he stands before the three.
"Another odd variant? First you're cool, now you're not—just how important was she anyway??" Jason mocked, being his usual overconfident self wouldn't be helpful in a situation like this. Kira just got electrocuted, Aoi is unconscious, and he has a severe concussion.
"MY MENTOR WAS EXCEPTIONAL! What could you, a sidekick, POSSIBLY understand about the importance of knowledge?! You're a shadow of your own master." The outburst was able to completely shut Jason up. Within a blink, The Architect appeared in front of him, possibly teleportation. "I should kill you for speaking out of line."
Kira observed the banter between the two, already preparing for confrontation by summoning her fractured sword. What she was really worried about was how were they gonna keep Aoi safe if The Architect does decide to fight?
"Do you know why I dragged you three in here?" He paused dramatically, as if pondering how he could speak how agitated he was. "So I could kill you satisfaction, knowing you couldn't even fight back." He took a deep breath, and his expression took on that same pleasant smile and eyes with glee. Before Jason could even react, the floor shaped itself into sharp spikes, quickly shooting up to pierce Jason. Kira was able to intercept and block the attack.
The Architect smiled at how fast Kira had to be to even predict his ambush. "I control this room. Every aspect and element, I'm able to control, and with this, I can control how painful your deaths can be."
Jason and Kira backed up, but the spikes followed them and kept rising higher and higher, making their ends even more sharper. "Ah crap.." Jason leaped up with agility, and latched high on the walls, right hand holding his katana, left holding onto the wall's surface.
Kira rolled to the side, keeping her posture and stance. She turned around and jagged spikes rose from the floor and rushed towards Kira in a split second. She blocked and backed away, creating distance. More spikes erupt from the floor like a forest, aiming for Kira's vital points. Kira ran at full speed from the spikes as fast as possible, feet moving as a blur as the spikes spreaded across the floor like a virus. "JASON!" She called out to him, who was struggling to outrun the growing destruction that was trailing behind him due to having Aoi on his back.
"I'm not doing so well! It's gaining!" Jason pants from the other side of the room, constantly dodging rising spikes that varied in different sizes. One of them scraped his side, making him wince in pain. With Aoi on his back, he can't do much.
"Pass him to me! Quick!" Kira barely dodges another spike, scraping her hamstring. The spikes erupt and grow in an attempt to crush Kira. The Architect continued to stand in the middle of the large room.
"Let's dance~" He smiled as he reappeared in front of Kira, with a single hand gesture, he summoned a large single spike that pierced Kira's right arm, pinning her to the wall.
Blood leaked out from Kira's arm as it went almost completely numb. Her sword slipped out of her fingers and fell on the floor. Jason glanced from afar with Aoi slugged across his shoulder, the minute The Architect looked back at Jason, spikes shot up from the wall in front of him. Straight towards Jason, he instantly moves, the spikes crushing where he was previously. Jason continued to carry Aoi along the wall as sharp spikes reached out for him.
If Kira and Jason lose, Aoi loses his life, along with the both of them.