Umano Underground Slums

"Hey man, just chill out here. This place is full of stupid assholes you can swindle", Bashiro chuckled, insulting his nearby friends too, of course.

"One of these days you're gonna have to pay yer damn tabs", the dad spoke words of wisdom.

"Nah. I'll get one of those Reaper things to delete it for me. I'll be clean!" The man made a morbid joke about using the alien gods for something simple to avoid responsibility. Oddly enough, a few of them busted a gut over how asinine it was. Bashiro's hand clapped his pants leg, then he hunched over. "Ha... Yeah, Umano's pretty terrified. All that shit that happened because Hikaru's gone was put on hold when the news showed that stuff. Resistance showing up helped make people more restless than feeling safe", Bashiro explained, gratefully thanking a new bottle that Satoshi offered, taking a heavy drink out of it before letting out a refreshed sigh.

"That's...our bad. It's hard to reassure people when we're not even a hundred percent sure what the future holds or if we'll be able to handle it the way we think we should." Satoshi stared at the bottle again, sighing.

"Honestly, some of us need more encouragement than others right now to keep going, because it keeps looking so hopeless at times..."

"Best you don't be sayin' that any louder", the father advised, taking a swig.

"It... really is that bad then", Jessie's tone seeped despair, looking down a bit miserably at the... soda they had to give him instead of actual alcohol.

"Nobody knows how to even deal damage to those fucking monsters. We did everything we could, and we barely dented the first one. The second one didn't even look like it acknowledged a damn thing we were trying", Bashiro spoke with more irritation than hopelessness. Being a professional scumbag who was down on his luck and usually lying his way through life, despair was your everyday afterthought at three in the morning. ... For both himself and the people he hurts. Which is how he was able to project more anger toward the situation than sorrow. "I don't know much about this stuff, and I'd love to get a couple of explanations from your boss lady. Details about the last war or whatever was happening here three months ago, how much she knows about these things, everything."

"What good will that do?" Jessie inquired.

"Beats me, honestly. I'm more concerned with just trying over and over until maybe they get sick of it and give up. Seeing how much effort people put in for this whole army bullshit thing is enough for me to believe there's a way out. You guys keep that in mind too. If something's worth putting effort into, there's a way to win. Simple."

It's not that simple, really, but it's how he saw it.

"If she's in as rough shape as you say...I wouldn't press her on it." Cracking a new bottle, Satoshi gulped more alcohol down. "Ladies're delicate to approach even if they're leadin' an army, 'Shiro. Gotta give her some time to get it all back together." He knew she would, but it would of course require some progress on everyone's part.

"S'why I'm out here lookin' for answers." He jerked his head in the direction of the spot he was looking over before. "Tryin' to find any traces of energy of stuff from a few months ago. I need a lead to come even close to usin' what I know to find a solution." He rubbed his arm, his double-ringed mark showing once again. "And while I'd love for nobody to have to die for it, it's a possibility not necessarily written out of the book."

"I'll get it eventually", Bashiro responded to his drunken-sounding comrade. He'd have to be gentle, less forward. Just another tactic he's used already. "Could probably find that Karin chick if you're looking into that energy stuff. She's like the boss lady's secretary, and was looking into Umano." He relayed some information about the dropkicking lass, having some idea of the energy he was referring to. It was likely about the incident with that one woman three months ago who tore apart a district within a few hours, probably less. Sounds like something the Resistance would be on.

Running as fast as he could and praying that the last turn was the correct one, Carlos arrived to a place in the slums that looked familiar to him. He wasn't completely convinced given that it wouldn't be the first time that he is sure of something that turn out to be false. "Like the stupid rumors..." He recalled, panting and sweating. Upon a close inspection, he noticed that the place he was looked familiar. "Oh, over here I met Seifer and Rosalia and Jessie and... His brother, whose name I can't remember" He recalled.

The problem was... Not a single soul was near. "Guys, I know I said goodbye to you and all that, but I need to tell you something important. Don't be like that, I ran all the way here because the taxi cabs weren't working. Something happened, I don't know" He said, thinking that they were avoiding him. Then, he gave up. Maybe there was a new Reaper attacking and he was lucky enough not be dragged to it. "Ok, I'll just stay here until someone appears" He thought while sitting on the floor. "I just hope they are ok...".

Xat walked into the slums and sat down on a stab of concreat. She then sent a text to Yukino. 'Got some info, and a sample of the oman's. as well as figured out that Raidan's theory was correct about the spirit world and cray. I'm at the slums if you want to talk.' She sent the text hoping yukino will read it

Tap, tap, tap, boots clicked about the ground of the Umano Slums. A face that hadn't appeared for awhile ever since Sovereign's victory - Yukino Espoir had returned to Headquarters. It didn't take trained eyes to see humanity's loss... had somewhat destroyed her. Even the lowest of morons that resided here with their dark, brutal, mindless vanguard could tell she had been in an awful state by her puffy eyes alone. The queen held a cold rag that looked more expensive than most clothing in the area to one of her eyes, trying to get rid of them while returning to work - to war.

Hikari, the Broken Sword, hadn't given up on humanity yet.

"Give me whatever reports there are to hear." She announced an order to the Resistance, demanding they relay whatever they have learned over these past few days. No one dared to speak of her condition, instead, quietly respecting the commander's feelings.

Xat spoke up about her the things malice told her, and that she figured out that Raiden's theory was the correc, before showing the essance of an oman. Plus she told them more of Maicle and how he is a part of Darren. Though she kept some of the info that Daiyusha a secret till she got a chance to talk to yukino personally with out others around.

"Sounds like things we already figured out after the reported Malice attack. Tell me what else you know."

Raiden came out of a building, bandaged up from the last battle. He had brought Noel here, knowing that if he took her back to the hospital, she'd likely try to escape again. The doctors Yukino employed had been looking at the two of them, the same ones from the Link Joker Invasion. They seemed used to this kind of thing.

"I can add what I discovered to her report," Raiden said to Yukino. "Darren... or should I say Malice..." I believe I heard him mention that he was different from other Seed Cardfighters. Xat likely already told you this, but he said he chained the Seed to Darren's heart. Even when Karin defeated him, the Seed didn't attempt to transfer the way I heard it would from you before." Raiden gave a small sigh at this. First the Reapers and now this problem. Malice was a lot different from the Reapers. Not as powerful, but also much more direct. "Unlike the Reapers, he was as public about his attack as possible, and most people still don't understand what happens. How is that even possible?"

"I can only imagine they couldn't actually see his units", Yukino theorized after hearing all of Raiden's information. Folding her arms, the Sword began trying to figure Malice's overall plan with his public action. While he was different from the Reapers, they seemed to have the same show-off mentality in mind for their assaults so far. The Seed was different and didn't pull itself out of Darren, which is good and bad. The good news is, if they can somehow deal with it, the Seed might not transfer to anybody and pose no further problems. The bad news is the only plausible way of getting rid of it right now is the same as before: kill the vessel.

Of course she wasn't going to do that.

"The Reapers descend into reality casually and on purpose. The Reality Bangles project one's image into the world before us. ... But I never understood how Seeds worked with their units that weren't G Units. Three months ago, against Shiki, he summoned Chaos Breaker in front of me. Yet, no actual news reported the Star-vader. Malice is technically still a Seed, so it could be a similar case that he's taking advantage of."

That was pretty detailed for a complete guess, Hikari.

Raiden needed to take a moment to think about everything she said. If he really could do such things without some people being able to understand what was happening, then there were people that couldn't be able to defend themselves. Was Malice targeting those people in particular? Why would he need to do that. At that moment, a thought flashed in his mind, something that had bothered him about what he had said during the encounter.

"His minions mentioned that Malice needed their energy," Raiden explained to her. "They said it multiple times and it also bothered me that neither those minions, nor Malice himself, seemed intent on trying to win their cardfights. It was more that they were intent on drawing out the full power of their opponents. I heard from reports that they mentioned something about having what they had came for through battles with Seifer who used Shadow Paladins and Mirai who used Royal Paladins. Is it even possible for him to absorb energy from people? And even if he could, what would he want to do with it?"

Hearing some noise, Carlos got up and walked towards the source hoping to fins members of the Resistance. "Guys? Are you here? I have fo- Wait, I have nothing.  Huh, I have friendship to share with you! And some information!". He then found Hikari and others talking while he was searching where the noises came from. "Hikari! Good thing I found you!" He waved happily. "I need to tell you something important!".

Xat took in all this info, and finally spoke up. " I have manage to grab essance of his minions if you want it." She said holding out the item that held the essance. Xat felt tired all of a sudden and collapsed on to the floor.

Raiden rushed to Xat as she said she had an essence of one of Malice's minions. He caught her as she was falling, taking the vial as he turned to Carlos. He had wondered what it was he had found that was so important. A friend? What friend could he be speaking of? He already had a lot to work on with tracking the different energy types that had appeared recently between the Reapers and now Malice and his minions. Maybe Carlos' information could help.

Yukino blinked.

How long had she been standing still, deep in thought? Minutes felt like an eternity for an unexplained reason, as if she hadn't moved for months. Perhaps going through two radical changes due to timelines changing or dying was beginning to take its toll on her concept of time. The scarred woman looked over to the other three, still pondering on what Raiden had inquired. Xat had retrieved the energy they were making assumptions over... Yet, a rather saddened expression was painted. This came off as far too easy.

Several soldiers marched Xat's way to help the girl, offering to take her to the infirmary. There weren't any wounds to take care of, but the resistance was paranoid, and wanted to keep their people safe.

The obsessiveness of an Espoir was rubbing off on them.

Carlos received an exhausted gaze from the commander, "Let's hear about it, Carlos".

"Ok, I-" Carlos tried to say, but he was quickly interrupted by the fainting of a girl who was talking to Hikari and the others earlier. "Hey, are you-!?" Thankfully, she was caught by one of his colleagues present and taken to the infirmary by a group of Resistance soldiers. The young cardfighter was a little bit concerned about the health of the unknown girl, but the permission to speak given to him and the tired look of Hikari reminded him why he was there.

"Well, this may sound crazy" He tried to explain to the other members of the Resistance present at the site. "And you may not believe this, but...". He sighed deeply. "... I met an agent of time/member of Gear Chronicle/one step from being a god".

Then came the silence.

"Sorry. Our god".

"Gear... Chronicle?" Yukino repeated the name of whatever organization Carlos just spoke. The last bit about "our" god seemed like mocking whoever he met, and she simply gave it no mind. This mysterious agent's arrogance can be addressed later, starting with their identity was all the better. "Who is this agent? What in god's name is Gear Chronicle?"

Tiredness turned into worry, slight panic even. The name of a new faction possibly led her to believe Link Joker had another trick up their sleeve. The invaders were never ending and the Reapers were already invincible. How hopeless does this have to be? Ending that train of thought was the vibrating of a phone - her phone. Plucking it out, the device read a message from Karin, her subordinate.

"Good work." Was texted back in response to the report. "I can tell you about the Reapers where ever you want. Just tell me where."

To be honest, the woman didn't really want to travel away from their makeshift HQ, but she didn't want to be rude to Karin again after an irate queen's yelling at home.

Karin walked back into Umano, where the HQ was stationed currently. Sure enough, there was Yukino, texting away, clearly angry about... something. Probably relating to Haruka. Karin spent a moment wondering from afar if she knew everything Sera had said, and if that was the cause for her apparent fury. Deciding the best course of action was to just not bring it up, Karin approached the queen quietly.

"Miss Hikari? I'm back."

She stood tall and gave her superior a rather half-hearted salute, not sure what sort of reaction to expect from Yukino.

"If it's alright, I'd like to learn everything I can about these Reaper monsters. If anything can help me fight them better. If anything could... help me get him back..."

Karin bit her lip as she trailed off momentarily. Maybe now wasn't the best time to bring that up, either, at the risk of imposing her own desires on Yukino again, like she had done last time, when she wanted to see Haruka.

"...Anything to help me better serve the Resistance, and you. Anything and everything."

Yukino was rather irritated being reminded of that chink who wouldn't let her see Haruka while he recovered, and now Haruka was up-and-about when he wasn't supposed to be? Heads are going to roll, the queen growled furiously. A hand gripped at her snow white hair, pulling some of the majestic tresses, leaving poor, ripped strands in palm. Anger management was another thing this soldier was terrible at. Grinding her teeth, a voice called out. Hikari would snap anyone in half at this point, but as fate would have it and arranged via text, it was her subordinate: Karin.

This one is still a little too close to Haruka, but she calmed down.

"It's hard to detail everything I know about the reapers. Ask for specifics. We know codenames, have a slight understanding of delete, and I've seen them kill a timeline."

Yukino knew Karin's statement about "help me get him back" was more than likely referring to Overlord, and the queen couldn't bare to tell the poor girl she honestly had no idea how to restore that which has been deleted... or anyone for that matter. Some held hope that whatever would be erased by the Deletors would return upon their defeat... but not only are they invincible, but they don't even have any proof it would happen.

Her majesty's expression grew somber.

"U-Um, yes, of course. Sorry." Karin was still a bit intimidated, Yukino's ever-imposing aura of supremacy distinctly more imposing and notably more supreme right now. Still, she managed to stay face, for the most part.

Asking for details, specifics, about the Reapers, however, was difficult. Where to even begin? All Karin knew about them so far was that they could erase things from existence and that the Reality Bangle around her wrist was her only was of even looking at them without her head exploding, let alone being able to fight against them. And Yukino said they could erase an entire timeline?!

"Well, um... What kind of being are they, exactly? They were like Sera's Link Joker, but way, way stronger... Are they related? And, more importantly, where did they even come from...? How can something so powerful even exist?"

Question after question came out of Karin's mouth, wanting to learn every last detail she could. Who the Reapers were, how they could be so powerful as to simply erase things from existence on a whim, and how they came to Earth in the first place. And of course, why they were so bent on deleting everything. It took Karin a few minutes to stop herself.

"...U-Um... Sorry, Miss Hikari. I didn't mean to go off like that."

"No need to apologize, be at ease", the commander listened to Karin's inquiries and apologies carefully, and first wanted Karin to be comfortable with her. As a friend and still respecting her as a superior. A friendly militia relationship. It only now occurred to the queen that everyone except her and Sera knew basically nothing about the Reapers, and that was discerning given the fact that Yukino has told the resistance many things about them. Even with that number, it still wasn't enough for a proper understanding. Hell, the queen herself barely understood these bizarre nightmares.

"They're monsters without hearts, eldritches that devour everything for reasons I could care less about. They are the elites of Link Joker - completely organic aliens as opposed to the cyberoid-filled Star-vaders. They come from the planet Brandt, and all I know about Brandt is that it's the Reaper Homeworld."

Every question was answered without boring Karin with the details along with adding the obvious bias of hatred for those creatures.

But how could something so powerful exist?

"I've no idea how they exist if they destroy everything that exists."

"I... see. So we really don't know that much about them, huh..."

Karin took a seat next to the queen, sighing. Their information was so limited, and they know next to nothing about how to actually fight against these abominations. They had the Reality Bangles to summon actual units for their fights, but as for actually leaving lasting damage against them... Her guess was as good as anyone's. What a dilemma.

Karin looked back down at her wrist again, where the Reality Bangle lay dormant, until the next Reaper fight.

"And they can erase timelines... So that's why it's not there..."

"Why what isn't there?"

Yukino picked up on that mumbling and questioned it.