"Hahh... no, please... we can't..."

  Hot breaths. Sweat beading on tan skin. Shivering limbs.

  "Why not?"

  Measured tone. Bulging muscles. Steady hands.

  Weakness and power.

  Lexine pinned Irene down on the couch and leaned over her like a lion preying on a tiny gazelle. She held down both of the petite personal assistant's wrists with one hand. They peeked out like twigs between her fingers. Pale white on light brown. A glowing angel in the dark room, deigning to touch a mortal.

  Clothes rustled, a breathless moan. Her other hand was buried between Irene's thighs and had just found its target. Moistness greeted her finger, and she licked her lips like a predator about to eat. Seeing this, the petite girl underneath her stared like a deer in the headlights, a shiver running across her entire body.

  "You have... a training session, hahh, in twelve... minutes..."

  "I can skip it."

  A moan escaped Irene's quivering lips. She seemed surprised at herself and pressed her mouth shut. Lexine's smile widened. Her resistance only added to the excitement. The movements of her fingers grew faster. Stronger. Irene suppressed her voice, but could no longer contain herself. A whining scream echoed through the room.

  "I came up with something new for today," Lexine suddenly said, pulling back. She unbuckled her uniform trousers and dropped them to her ankles. With practiced movements, she kicked them off. Then she pulled down her sports shorts with not a hint of hesitation. "Look at this."

  A glowing, elongated shape manifested from her crotch. Its form wavered but soon grew solid. Slight upward curve, a rounded tip. A man's member. Magic manifested. Even untransformed, Lexine could manipulate the overwhelming magical energy coursing through her chiseled body. It was something few of her peers could do.

  She leaned over Irene and placed the glowing member between her legs. The petite girl's eyes widened into saucers. It reached up to her belly button. "Please, no! That would kill me!"

  "Heh." Lexine scoffed. Irene tried to struggle against her grip, but it was hopeless. It felt like solid steel encased her wrists. She tried to kick, but Lexine grabbed hold of her ankles. She was like game strung on a stick, ready to be carried off. The towering woman lined up her creation hands-free, looking eager to test it out.

  An alarm blared throughout the facility, and she froze. There was no scheduled drill today. She let go of Irene's limbs and stood up to listen. People were running by outside the door. Regular shoes and the heavy boots of security forces alike. Something had actually happened. But would it require her presence?

  Her wristwatch, lighting up and beeping rhythmically, dashed her hopes to continue her fun time. She clicked her tongue, dispelled her magic, and put on her clothes. Irene remained quivering on the couch, staring up at her like a rabbit who had just escaped the jaws of a wolf. Lexine straightened her uniform before peering down at the petite girl in her state of half-undress. "We're continuing this later."

  With these parting words, she walked out of the room. Irene sat up and looked at the door as it shut behind the departing Lexine. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. She put a hand between her legs and started moving her fingers. Her lips curled into an unhinged smile. She was looking forward to getting ruined.

  "What's going on?" Lexine stopped the first security guard she saw.

  "Ma'am, there has been a massive coordinated attack on the B&G Inc., Eidolon Systems, and Argentum facilities down the road, ma'am," the man reported with a snappy salute. He stared into the air next to her, too afraid to meet the towering girl's gaze.

  "It seems I'm being put on standby, so it must be serious," she muttered with a click of her tongue. She hated getting interrupted. At least this time, she could punch the cause for it. "They better entertain me, or I'll slaughter them all." She paused and blinked. "Oh, right, I'll slaughter them either way."

  The guard remained frozen in place at those words and didn't even dare look at her back as she walked away without giving him another look. Only when her footsteps could no longer be heard did he move. He realized he had been holding his breath ever since responding to her. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this job. Not that he was really needed here, what with Titan Valkyrie's reputation acting as a deterrent more than any number of regular troops ever could.

  Visibility was low. Sand buffeted the van's side, audible even through the noise insulation. Countless voices, distorted by the wind and interference, played through the vehicle's interior. Radio chatter. Commands, screams, warnings. Enemy movements. Reinforcements.

  "Starlight Dynamics is mobilizing its security," came Nightingale's voice over the radio. "No word on Titan Valkyrie, yet."

  "Should I take out one of the magical girls when they appear?" Robin inquired eagerly. She wanted to make up for her mistake from two days ago. Killing one of the corporations' magical girls would surely lure out Titan Valkyrie quickly and allow them to commence the heist.

  "No, save your shots for when it really matters," Raven responded. Before, she would have given the go-ahead. Now, she was aware of Robin's power. It would come in handy against their high-value targets. But she also didn't want her to stain her hands with the blood of fellow magical girls.

  "The Seeker is joining the fray," Nightingale announced.

  "That should be enough to bring out the corporations' big guns," commented Neri with a shudder. He and Igor were regular humans with no magical enhancements. Their expertise was dealing with the mundane, something people steeped in magic often neglected. Still, in a conflict between monsters, they were as fragile as dandelions in a storm.

  "Get ready." Raven peered over her shoulder into the back of the van. The three brothers making up Negative sat in their seats with different levels of calmness.

  Enzo, the oldest of the three, had a towel over his eyes and seemed to be napping. Beside him was Jayden Batista, staring at his tablet screen intently, his black eyes darting left and right. Short hair worn in dreads, a chiseled face, and muscles visibly bulging under his shirt. But his real strength lay in his intellect. Finally, in the very back sat Ethan Chao, the youngest of the trio. His long, straight hair was held in place by a beanie pulled down to his eyebrows. A narrow face belied the wiry physique hidden by his baggy clothes. Despite not looking the part, he was the muscle. His focus on the van's inner wall across from him was impeccable.

  Those who met Enzo and were introduced to his brothers would always furrow their brows, but the three were connected by a brotherly bond stronger than any blood ties. Perhaps nobody else in Starlight City worked together as well as these three.

  "I'm always ready," Enzo said, lifting the towel over his eyes and winking. Raven ignored it and turned around to look out of the windshield. They were parked in the shade of a warehouse down the road from the Starlight Dynamics compound. The sandstorm limited visibility, so they couldn't even see the windowless main building from here.

  "Internal communications suggest that Titan Valkyrie is on standby," said Nightingale. The security forces had a line to the outside world, unlike the research facilities, so she could break her way in and monitor them. "The others are sending out their magical girls."

  Durgama the Seeker was a vagabond who came to Starlight City to improve his martial arts over two decades ago. Nobody knew his exact age, and his background was as inscrutable as the inner workings of his mind. But people were naturally drawn to him, and he began teaching youths without perspective the warrior's path.

  Since the first-generation magical girls all perished two years ago, he stepped up his activities and grew his following considerably, becoming one of the pillars of the criminal underworld. Although he didn't deal in any illicit businesses, being on the wrong side of the law more often than not pushed him to side with organized crime to continue his pursuit of the martial arts.

  Durgama gave no commands. He was no leader. When he entered battle, it was to challenge himself. When his pupils fell, he felt nothing. He cared little for anybody else. His followers were well aware of that. That was the reason they followed him in the first place. Survival of the fittest, victory to the strong, winner takes it all. Those were all terms the adherents of the nameless martial arts school under the Seeker lived and died by.

  Thus, he charged across the Argentum factory's parking lot, straight into machinegun fire. He maintained that he honed his body to the point that mundane weapons were useless against him. And indeed, even high-caliber bullets bounced off his muscles harmlessly. But the same did not work for most of his students, who were killed in droves all around him. It bothered him not one bit.

  Sprinting at a speed far surpassing the fastest human runner in the world, he rammed into one of the armored security vehicles. The impact knocked the gunner out of the swiveling mounted gun. Durgama grabbed the chassis of the truck and flipped it over, right onto the man scrambling to get out of the way. He jumped on top of the overturned car and let out a challenging roar. A cheer ran through his followers. Morale restored.

  He was suddenly hit by an explosion and knocked off his feet. The sound of a jet engine roared over the parking lot, and from inside the smoke and sandstorm appeared a slender girl in a skintight blue bodysuit. Attached to her back was a winged pack with multiple jet nozzles. The upper half of her face was covered by a visored helmet from which her light green hair spilled forth. Her arms were covered in bracers for weapon attachments, and she flew on jet boots. She was Batterina, the magical girl of unlimited magical energy.

  "You are all under arrest. Lethal force has been authorized. If you resist, you will be terminated," she declared over the speakers from her back.

  Duragama stood back up, showing that he had stopped the grenade with his palm. It had barely singed the top layer of his skin. He stared at the magical girl floating above him for a moment, then broke out into battle-crazed laughter. "A flying opponent? Bring it on!"

  He crouched down and jumped. Batterina dodged to the side and launched a grenade at his back as he fell toward the ground. He twisted his body and grabbed it in midair before landing and throwing it back at her. She avoided it with her superior reaction time and recalculated the situation. High-caliber bullets were useless against him, and he had the reflexes to catch grenades from launching systems.

  Batterina reached over her shoulder. A mechanical arm came to meet it and took off the grenade launcher on her bracer. Then, a new module was attached. The weapon exchange took less than three seconds, in which she circled around Durgama to assess his physical properties. She could not afford to get into a melee fight with him, considering he flipped over a three-ton truck without breaking a sweat. On the other hand, he had no means of attacking her if she kept her distance.

  She resented the comparison, but Durgama was like one of those magical girls who couldn't fly. His strength and durability were certainly on par with one. All he lacked was magic. She had heard of him but never took the warnings about him seriously. Today, she would take him down once and for all before he could harm another magical girl.

  With but a thought, she charged up the weapon on her arm with her magical energy. The magitech component converted it into a physical phenomenon and unleashed it as a plasma bolt. Durgama recognized the danger it posed and dodged. The highly energized projectile struck the pavement and exploded in a flash. The shockwave struck the Seeker, and he felt the heat on his skin. If he had tried to catch it in his palm, his hand would have been gone.

  But instead of fear, a grin split his shaggy beard. His lifeless eyes shone like those of a child about to enter an amusement park. Batterina was the number twenty-nine on the Starlight Billboard Rankings. So far, he had not clashed with anybody in the top thirty. This would be a real test of his mettle. If he couldn't stand up to her, he could never hope to stall Titan Valkyrie for even a few seconds.

  He ran sideways and avoided the next plasma shot. Batterina would not run out of magical energy anytime soon, so trying to waste it was futile. And his martial soul screamed to him to take her down at her strongest. Only then would he be satisfied. Thus, he glanced around and looked for a means to reach her.

  His eyes fell on a dropped ballistic shield. He timed his dodging direction to make it look like he was forced that way and rolled across the ground. When he stood back up, he threw the heavy shield like a frisbee. Its curved shape made it wobble awkwardly in the air after just a few meters. Batterina observed it to the last moment and evaded it almost casually.

  Durgama was gone. Before she could realize the error of her focus, something hung onto her leg. She looked down. The Seeker had grabbed hold of her jet boot. His momentum pulled her down, but her engines were strong enough to adjust to the weight of a man of his stature. She aimed her plasma cannon at his face. He would have to let go or risk taking a shot to hang onto her.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Her world suddenly spun around. With a roar that expelled all the air in his lungs, Durgama used his core strength to pull against the jet boosters on her back. They couldn't correct in time, and her own propulsion system caused her to fly straight down into the pavement. The impact cracked something inside her backpack, and it went haywire. The failsafe engaged, and it was ejected from the attachment points on her back.

  Loosened from all restraints, it scraped across the pavement, past the Seeker's students engaging the security forces in a melee. Then, it took off a few meters into the air before nosediving back down into a massive pink magical explosion. The shockwave knocked people across the parking lot and even stopped the sandstorm momentarily.

  Batterina turned around and found Durgama looming over her. She raised her plasma cannon, but he grabbed her wrist and directed it upward. The shot flew off into the sky uselessly. Undeterred, she kicked his chest with the bottom of her jet boots and activated them. The flames from the engine burned away his torn top, but he swung her by her arm and slammed her into the ground. The impact shattered her visor.

  She couldn't even try to get out of his grip before he flung her over his head and back into the ground again. And again. And again. Her equipment was shattered beyond use, but her magical barrier kept her body largely unharmed. Still, this was the worst-case scenario she had tried to avoid, but it happened almost instantly.

  Durgama stopped and raised Batterina to his eye level. For a moment, she bore the hope that he had grown cocky. She would gather her magical energy in her free hand and blast him with raw-

  Her stomach convulsed from an impact that pierced her barrier. All of her internal organs felt like they had been scrambled. The Seeker had punched her as if she were a sandbag dangling by her arm. Her entire nervous system was on fire from the pain. She had never felt anything like this in her life, not before becoming a magical girl, and even less after.

  "Huh, is that all? A top thirty magical girl going down from one punch?" Durgama wondered when he noticed that she had fainted. His disappointment was palpable. He dropped her like a piece of garbage. Someone this weak wasn't even worth killing.

  Then, he felt a chill on his neck. It was his martial arts instinct. Other powerful enemies were approaching. But it wasn't the same kind of feeling he had gotten from Sister Striga in the past. When he turned to look up, he found five magical girls coming from the direction of the Starlight Dynamics compound next door. Just their regular magical girl security force. Of course, it wasn't yet time for Titan Valkyrie. She was the main course.

  The Seeker took a deep breath and gathered his spirit. Hopefully, these would prove more of a challenge.

  In the neighboring compound, a very different battle took place. The defenders of B&G Inc. wielded the company's magitech guns. From smart bullets that could curve in midair to handheld railguns that used magical rather than magnetic propulsion, the company excelled in equipping the soldiers of the future.

  However, their enemies were neither man nor monster. They were both at once. A horde of civilians ran across the courtyard with no regard for their lives. They screamed and cried, but their bodies moved on their own like puppets on strings. Even as they were gunned down, they would stand back up and continue to yell for release. But they would find none as long as their master was alive.

  Deng Lau, the Soulripper. Calling him a necromancer was not quite accurate. He did not create soulless husks that followed simple commands. Instead, he ripped out a piece of his victims' souls, placed them in ritual dolls, and controlled their bodies against their wills. They remained fully conscious, most even capable of screaming for help. That was exactly what he wanted, especially in a situation like this.

  The defenders were utterly demoralized. First, they had to gun down unarmed civilians. Then, they had to watch those people stand back up and wail in agony from the wounds. The pain they inflicted served no purpose. Their powerful weapons were entirely useless. They could not save them. They could not even save themselves.

  Even when their bodies were barely holding together from the damage, the puppets continued to dance, pressing forward. Some soon were within reach of the defenders. The first puppet made it over the deployed barricades and leaped onto a security officer. With unnatural strength, they wrestled the weapon out of his grip and discharged it haphazardly on their surroundings. A single weak link, and the entire chain crumbled.

  A brutal BRRRT drowned out every other noise in the courtyard. A stream of bullets cut three dozen puppets in half across a fan-shaped area. Then, silence. From inside the B&G Inc. facility's entrance came a distinct sound. Jingle-clink, jingle-clink. A girl in high-heeled leather boots with spurs emerged from the shadow of the portico. Her leather fringe skirt swayed as she continued to walk forward into the dim light under the sandstorm. She wore a leather vest over her blue denim shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat on her wavy blonde hair completed her cowgirl look.

  She spat out the toothpick from the corner of her mouth and regarded the situation in the courtyard. Gun-Gal, ranked forty-third, the magical girl of bullet heaven. The 20mm rotary cannon she held casually with one hand lacked its usual ammunition drum. That was her unique magic at play. She could replicate bullets by using her magical energy in exchange. Since they turned into mundane matter once created, she did not rank high despite her strong power. After all, they could not penetrate her fellow magical girls' barriers - or those of most monsters. Still, against mundane opponents, she was a menace. The limits of her replication power had yet to be fully explored.

  "Get out of my way!" Gun-Gal announced. The security officers ducked and ran away at those words. She pressed the button to start up her rotary cannon's revolution and sprayed bullets at the army of puppeted civilians with no regard for their lives. They were already dead the moment the Soulripper had gotten his hands on them. Killing them was a mercy. Or at least she would make it so they could no longer scream.

  "Are you sure sending me here was a good idea?" Deng Lau spoke into the radio in his hand. He sat in the passenger seat of a long-haul truck, the very same truck that had transported the hundreds of puppets he commanded. He still had another truckload of fodder, but Gun-Gal was the worst matchup for him.

  "You would not have fared better against Eidolon Systems," came the response from Lady Rosca. "Perhaps even worse."

  Eidolon Systems produced fully automated weapons, predominantly sentry guns. Sentry guns the company deployed on their premises generously. Psychological attacks by using unwilling civilians would have been lost on them. The Neon Triad was sent to crack that nut instead. Sealing techniques were quite effective against stationary targets after all.

  "And Argentum is Durgama's target because it's the closest to Starlight Dynamics," Lady Rosca preempted the debate about the topic again. They had discussed the matter at their final strategy meeting. Deng Lau was technically only here to create a third prong in their attack. He was not meant to succeed. None of them were. It was all a diversion to lure out Starlight Dynamics' security forces so that Negative could do their job.

  "Let me give you a bit of help, piggy." That was the voice of Niv Adama, the Witch of the Wastes. "Make use of it however you will."

  The sandstorm picked up in intensity. Deng Lau saw it through his puppets and understood. This was something only he could capitalize on. Limited visibility mattered little when he practically had a bird's eye view over the battlefield by combining the vision of all the eyes he controlled, even when they were not connected to a person anymore.

  One eyeball lay near Gun-Gal's feet. She pulled her hat into her face, although her barrier protected her from the sand. It was a reflexive response from when she was still a regular human. The storm was stronger than ever, and she could only see a few steps ahead. The security forces nearby reported that it had grown strangely quiet. No more civilians wailing.

  "This is no natural sandstorm," grumbled Gun-Gal.

  "That's right," a female voice whispered next to her ear in a lascivious tone. She spun around, but there was nobody.

  Then, she felt something grabbing her from behind. One of the puppets, a man who looked surprisingly whole after everything, had approached under the cover of the sandstorm and latched onto her. But a mere human would not be able to wrestle down a magical girl. She elbowed the civilian in the chest and heard the sound of bones crunching. The man didn't let go.

  From within the veil of sand surrounding her emerged another puppet. A woman with only one arm, missing half her head. And then one after another. They all grabbed onto Gun-Gal and tried to bite her or bash their heads against her. It was all absorbed by her barrier, which could stop anything mundane.

  "What are you trying to do, Soulripper?" she asked, knowing the puppet master could hear her through the ears of these unfortunate souls.

  In her transformed state, she could carry the rotary cannon that weighed a quarter ton with one hand as if it were a simple handgun. Even a dozen people holding onto her would barely slow her down. She crouched down to jump and throw them all off at the same time, but froze when she noticed a light in front of her. It came from inside the clothes of the puppeted civilian. Then, all the others started glowing from inside. Her mind raced to a conclusion, but her body couldn't respond fast enough.

  A magical explosion ripped apart the puppets from within.

  The entrance hall to the Eidolon Systems parking lot was littered with the debris of broken sentry guns. The Neon Triad's foot soldiers, wielding assault rifles, advanced behind the cover created by their shield bearers. So far, not a single one of them had been wounded. It was far more competent than the other two fronts.

  The triad's sealing masters had made short work of the stationary defenses using their nine-faced barrier technique. It enclosed a space and then crushed inward. People made from flesh and blood would be squeezed to death, and machines would give out at their weakest point. So far, the human security forces had been able to escape that fate, but the company's prized sentry guns were largely neutralized.

  Rectangular trapdoors suddenly opened near the main building. Groups of humanoid robots were raised on platforms. They carried ballistic shields in one hand, and a minigun was mounted on their other. Before the sealing masters could complete their magic, they got into a line formation and advanced while unleashing gunfire. They were Eidolon Systems' newest androids, using Mind's Eye Technologies' latest onboard intelligence: Legionaries.

  Peter Wei watched the situation unfold in a water mirror inside his limousine parked several blocks away. The weapons of the corporations continued to evolve, but they were still a far cry from human decision-making skills. For now, they could only employ simple, pre-programmed tactics. Not something useful against highly-trained and coordinated warriors like the triad soldiers.

  He didn't even need to give any commands. His men moved on their own and positioned themselves to overwhelm the androids with superior tactics. Still, since they carried ballistic shields, were armored, and deployed barriers of their own on top, only magitech bullets could damage them. Peter truly hoped this whole operation succeeded since magical rifle ammunition was expensive and hard to come by.

  He was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed unusual movements from the Legionaries. Those were not the tactics of the level of intelligence Mind's Eye Technologies was capable of. Somebody was controlling them directly. And that person could only be Eidolon Systems' very own magical girl.

  As if the thought of her presence invoked her appearance, she descended from the factory rooftop on golden wings. She was a young girl with short, curly blonde hair under a golden helmet with a white crest. Her white cuirass looked almost like she was naked, with a chiseled body of pure perfection. Frilled golden epaulettes tied down her long white cape, and a skirt made of overlapping cloth strips covered her slender thighs. She carried a double-edged sword in one hand and a short staff in her other. Golden greaves and white sandals completed her look.

  Centuria, the magical girl of technomancy. Despite her looks evoking the appearance of an ancient commander, she had the unique power to control technology with her mind. A magical girl chosen to be a leader. She was ranked thirty-fourth and fit right in with Eidolon Systems' mission to automate weapon systems so that humans would not be harmed.

  She landed on the portico above the entrance and raised her staff. The Legionaries moved according to her will, like perfect soldiers, no, like chess pieces. Her hazel eyes were firm, surveying the parking lot like a general would a battlefield. Centuria's magic was not the only thing extraordinary about her. Her mind was a computer trained on war games, capable of calculating moves and outcomes on the fly like nobody else.

  Peter Wei stared at the water mirror for a moment, then cracked his knuckles. He would not back down from a challenge in strategy. With one palm over the magic surface that showed him the battlefield, he began to exert his influence on his men. They immediately felt the familiar pull of their leader and let go. From now on, his magic would flow through them and enhance their every move. In exchange, they would give their bodies and souls over to his commands.

  This was very different from how the Soulripper used his victims. The Neon Triad's members put their absolute trust in their leader, working in tandem with him rather than trying to resist. It was like two minds controlling one body to its full potential. That was Peter's secret to uplifting the triad from its dire straits. And today, he would bring it to greater heights than ever.

  The sealing masters created duplex barriers to funnel the Legionaries into kill zones where the foot soldiers concentrated their fire. On the other side, Centuria commanded her troops to avoid those traps repeatedly. Both sides moved in ways only Peter and she understood. It was a chess match on the highest level, using living beings and the most expensive hardware of one of Starlight City's premier weapon manufacturers.

  But soon, the winner became clear. Unfeeling machines were superior to flesh-and-blood humans. Centuria subtly maneuvered them into a position where they could get the Neon Triad under crossfire. Increasingly, the sealing masters had to amplify the shield bearers instead of going on the offensive.

  Then, the encirclement was completed. Centuria raised her staff and gave the command. A massive seal covered the entire parking lot. Her eyes widened in shock. Her connection to the Legionaries had been cut off. The Neon Triad members' movements across the parking lot had followed a specific pattern to place down lines of magical residue. Activating a barrier spell off those lines allowed the sealing masters to erect a barrier unlike any other before.

  She had lost because she didn't know the capabilities of her opponents. Their arcane magic was very unlike her technomancy. Thus, she was forced to watch the androids get destroyed one after another by concentrated fire, now that they were back to their much less sophisticated programming.

  "You win this time," she muttered before flying upward. A good commander knew when to retreat. There was no shame in escaping from a battle to win the war. They would continue their duel inside the facility.

  "Not so fast," came a voice on the wind right when Centuria cleared the rooftop. She looked around in shock, but there was nobody. Then, the storm picked up and surrounded her. Her magical barrier, the bubble type rather than the skin-tight type, started glowing all over from countless magical impacts.

  The Witch of the Wastes. Centuria had only heard the rumors, but it would appear that she was real. She had to get indoors. Out here, she was exposed to her element. But the sands buffeting her barrier blocked her view. She couldn't tell up from down.

  Crack. She spun her head around and found that the barrier behind her had a tiny fracture. To her horror, fine grains of sand started to enter from it. She had never learned to mend or rebuild her barrier before, since it had never been broken. Thus, she could only watch impotently as the fissure widened, and sand started pouring in.

  Centuria looked down and found that the sand had filled her bubble barrier up to her knees. Panic gripped her heart, and she tried to fly haphazardly in hopes of touching down somewhere, anywhere. Sand started to flow into her clothes and chafe her skin all over. Realization started to set in.

  "You are so cute," whispered the witch's voice sweetly in her ear. "What a shame."

  Centuria screamed.

  "Finally." Lexine's irritated frown was replaced by a broad grin of anticipation. She was up. A catapult platform raised her to the ground level within seconds, and she was launched high into the sky above the Starlight Dynamics grounds. "Titan Valkyrie, to the slaughter! Hahahahaha!!!"

  "Titan Valkyrie has sortied!" Nightingale reported instantly.

  "Go!" Raven gave the command, and Negative sprang into action. Even the laid-back Enzo's expression sharpened as he exited the van behind his brothers. The heist had finally truly begun.