Ch. 16: "SQUADRON I pt. 1"

"I have to be away from him for a year??? How could that idiot accept such a thing? Maybe he was hypnotized by them! That's right he's under their control! I need to make him remember that I can't live without him! I haven't even told him how hard my life was when he left for five months, and now I'm leaving for a year? I will not accept this"

Rei was bathing while thinking of a way to convince his brother to reconsider his decision.

"I will never allow you to make me leave Nii-san!" Rei declared as he raised his fist towards the shower.

He stood there in that pose for a few more seconds before deciding that what he was doing was now un-cool; he grabbed his towel after turning the shower off when he suddenly heard someone enter their room.

"Oi! Nii-san, you should reconsider you're decision I can't live a life without you, do you know how hard my daily life was when you suddenly left for five months?" Rei said while brushing his teeth.

No one answered him, he looked at the blurry glass door and saw a shadow standing in front of it. He immediately grabbed a shaving razor and pointed it towards the door while slowly walking towards it.

"Nii-san stop messing with me! You know I hate these kinds of things!" Rei yelled.

He grabbed door handle and slowly opened it, but after fully opening the door there was no sign of anyone there. Rei took a deep breath before coming out and wearing his uniform, he stared at a picture frame at his brothers table which had a picture of them when they were young, and he then tipped it off and walked out of the room as the frame fell to the ground.

"Rei test this out will you?" Chase asked Rei who just entered his lab.

Rei saw the sword he saw yesterday but this time its aura was not visible, it looked like a simple katana which was colored in full black, along with white stripes.

"Is this my Star?" Rei asked.

"It's yours, but it's not as strong as the real stars" Chase replied.

Rei grabbed the sword and felt a mysterious energy enter his body; it felt so heavy that while holding it Rei kneeled on the ground.

"ARGGGHHH!!!" Rei started yelling to the top of his lungs as the veins in his arm which held the sword started turning black.

"Just a bit longer Rei! Hold it for a few more seconds!!" Chase was panicking as he watched Rei who had most of his veins on his arm turn black.

And with his loudest scream Rei fainted, the sword has accepted him as its user; he was successful on having a special weapon.

"Rei!?" Chase said while checking on Rei who was started to regain his consciousness

Rei laying down on a operation table, he woke up with a blurry vision and a numb right arm, he tried to stand up but ended up vomiting black liquid on the floor.

"Kid, you shouldn't move too much" A familiar voice spoke.

"Who's there?" Rei yelled.

"Calm down kid"

An arm suddenly grabbed him, he felt a soft body wrap around him. Rei fell silent, he only stood still as he was embraced, slowly he vision started to clear he saw who the person who was hugging him.

"C-C-C-Commander Stella???" Rei screamed before pushing her away from him.

A hand grabbed Rei by the arm but he did not react.

"So it's still numb, huh" Chase said.

Rei was surprised when Chase suddenly spoke from behind him; he then realized that he was not feeling his right arm.

"Is this because of the sword?" He asked Chase.

"Yes, well mostly because of the other components of the sword" Chase replied.

"Components?" He asked.

"Yes, a star has different components, but one component is special from the rest" Chase answered.

"And that is?"

"The Star fragment, no one really know what that is but a rumour circulated around the capital's military that it was a gift from God or so they say..." Stella explained.

Rei's brain wasn't able to follow so he simply nodded and smiled to show that he understood it.

"Ah before I forget things, Rei you are not to use that black sword until the numbness on your right arm disappears" Chase said while bringing another sword to Rei.

"This is a customized Star, I call it Prototype-13 it's just a modified Zosma combined with Atria so basically it can be used by anyone, but until you can use your right arm you need to use this" Chase said

"How long would it be till I can use my arm?" Rei asked.

"Meh... maybe later tonight or so" Chase said with a laugh.

"Eh... why give me this?" Rei asked.

"Ah... that one is my latest prototype I had no one to test it on so I thought that you can use it, I don't really like using Stars I just wanna toy with its components, ya getting me? We'll see you!" Chase said before leaving the room.

Rei stared at the prototype star as he held it on his left hand; it was so white and clear that he can see his own reflection.

"Are you ready to leave?" Stella asked him.

"Yeah..." Rei replied.

Stella took Rei's arm and wrapped it up with bondage.

"Do you think we can win this war?" Rei asked while Stella was fixing his arm.

"No" She replied.

"Really?" he said.

"Listen kid, this war will never end unless sides disappear, that's the real answer to your question but humans will never agree to such a thing... and done" Stella smiled at Rei.

Rei walked out of the room while Stella sealed the black sword in a special case, as he stepped outside a person suddenly bumped him.

"A woman? Who's this person?"

"I'm sorry!" the woman apologized.

"Hey Erika I told you to wait for me!" a man came running towards her.

Rei stared at them as the man help the woman stand up, a few seconds later another person arrived behind them.

"I told you two to wait in the vehicle" the man spoke.

The man glared at Rei but suddenly saluted at him, Rei got confused when the other two did the same.

Rei only realized why they did that when a hand suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Rei you should place the other sword inside too" Stella said while pointing at the case.

"Sure" he replied.

Rei watched as Stella talked to them and then the woman slipped away from them and walked towards Rei.

"Hi, I'm sorry for bumping on you earlier" She immediately apologized.

"Ah... its fine no need to apologized" Rei said as he finished fixing his weapon.

' Stella walked towards to Rei and grabbed the case from him; the four of them left the laboratory without a single person talking.

The moment they got out a large vehicle was waiting for them and in front of it was Rylee, Misty and Hugo.

"Here to say goodbye?" Stella asked.

"Yeah" Rylee smiled.

Misty walked towards Rei and handed a small cube to him.

"If something bad happens with your weapon use this immediately, alright?" She whispered to him.

Rei nodded and walked towards the vehicle, Hugo and Rylee was standing in front of it.

"Not gonna say goodbye to your brother?" Hugo asked.

"Why bother? He did the same thing" Rei smirked.

Hugo and Rylee laughed softly towards Rei's answer.

"You two really are brothers!" Hugo said.

Rei smiled at them before he got inside the vehicle, he looked outside and saw the three waving at him, he wave back when the engine suddenly started.

The vehicle now left the facility and was heading towards the Dome of the South. On top of the walls Squadron III was watching as the vehicle drove away from them.

"Were you able to say goodbye to him?" Ken asked Ashley who was holding her hands on her chest.

"We'll meet again, no need to say such things" She replied before turning around and walking towards an entrance to the laboratory.

The others also entered as the vehicle got smaller.

Back at the vehicle that Rei was in, it was very silent inside. Rei was sitting beside Stella the person in front of him was the woman who spoke to him, she was sitting on a chair that can turn 360 degrees, and was in a position facing him.

He was in unease because of the silence, suddenly the man sitting on a seat filled with computers behind Stella spoke.

"Commander, mind if I ask who this man is?" He politely asked with his eyes not leaving the screens for even a second.

"This is a new member of our squadron" Stella spoke.

"What's your name?" The woman in front of Rei asked.

Rei stared at her as her eyes sparkled waiting for an answer.

"My name is Rei, from Squadron III, a starless" Rei answered.

The woman began screaming while writing down his name on a notebook.

"Look Glenn! Look Glenn! I have a new friend! Look" She screamed at the man who was driving.

"I heard you already so stop screaming" the man said.

"This woman is weird" Rei thought.

The vehicle was filled by her laughter; she was so energetic and very different from the others who were focused on what they were doing.

"Aren't you a bit over the top with that reaction Erika?" Stella spoke.

Erika's face slowly changed from childish to a mature one, her posture along with her voice also changed after what Stella said.

"My name is Erika Matthews and I use Atria, the mine beside me is Glenn Thorton and he uses a Zosma, and lastly the man at the back is Aizer Reeve he's currently using an Atria too but according to Commander Stella he'll receive a Star once we get back to the capital. Of course you already known the Commander Stella who is our Commander, and there's one person who is back at the capital but she doesn't like new people so be careful once we get back." She introduced all of them to Rei.

The two of them shook hands when the vehicle suddenly began slowing down.

"Aizer is there any sign of a demon inside the walls?" Glenn asked.

"Huh? No, why'd you ask?" Aizer answered with a question.

"Eh? Commander I think you need to see this" Glenn said.

Stella looked at the side of the vehicle as it passed a large hole in the wall.

"Glenn were checking it out" Stella ordered.

The vehicle immediately shifted directions and drove faster towards the wall, the closer they got the more they realized how large that hole was.

As they were about the stop the ground began shaking, the vehicle titled and was about to fall sideways but Glenn was able to park it properly even with how titled it got.

Everyone got out of the vehicle while Stella and Rei stood on top of the vehicle.

"Don't move closer to it" Stella ordered.

Stella had never seen a demon cut in half and haven't regenerated before, she was baffled over it.

"A demon would be able to regenerate any part of its body as long as its core is not destroyed, broken body parts will immediately regenerate if the core is hit or scratched, is what they told me before but what is this?" Rei stared closely at the demon finding its core.

"All of you get back in the vehicle, Aizer call the capital right now" Stella ordered.

Everyone followed her order and went inside the vehicle; Aizer called and explained the situation to the capital. They were all silent inside the vehicle when a loud screech sounded on top of the vehicle.

And with a loud explosion the demon began screaming and after a minute its screams began fading, then entered Stella who had a small part of her face sprayed with black liquid.

As they were about to leave loud sounds of helicopters were heard from a distance, Rei watched as large helicopters that had mechas tied to them got closer, they left and moved closer to the dome of the south. Along their way a horde of zombie were walking towards the laboratory.

The place was a total wreck a small portion of the dome had multiple zombies bashing their heads towards it, suddenly the vehicle went on a full stop, and Rufus tried to start it again but was unable to. Slowly the horde of zombies began approaching their vehicle and it would only take a few moments before they got fully surrounded.

"Glenn, give me the keys, this thing won't start anymore, and those things are growing their numbers sooner or later they'll flood us. I'm gonna use it" Aizer said.

Glenn locked the doors before giving the keys to Aizer, Erika then started handing out headsets, they immediately started using sign language and when Erika and Glenn gave an okay sign loud machinegun started mercilessly shooting everything outside.

It was so noisy that even with the headsets the shooting could still be hear, everyone was covering their headsets to lessen the noise more, but Stella was calm she did not use nor try to cover her ears, she just sat down on her palace and closed her eyes.

"This is so loud, how could she not hear this?? What the heck is wrong with this woman?"

Rei was pressing the headsets harder on his ear when he suddenly heard a voice speak to him; he looked towards his right and saw a demon banging their door.

"Help me!" "Help me!" the voice spoke to Rei. He just stared at the poor creature as it kept banging the door before it was killed by the machine guns.

After an hour of endless firing Aizer finally turned it off, and the first thing that Stella said as everyone took of their headset.

"The Dome of the South is about to collapse"

Every one of them stared at her when suddenly a large demon emerged from outside of the wall.

"Glenn, Aizer, Erika were fighting that thing, Rei here call her" Stella ordered.

Stella gave a walkie-talkie to Rei before the four of them exited the vehicle, once they got out Aizer locked the door not allowing Rei to get out.

"What the heck is?? Why are they trapping me in here? Commander who should I call?" Rei was lost in his thoughts when more zombies began banging the vehicles doors.

Rei hesitated for a bit before he started turning the walkie-talkie hopping to find the signal of the person the commander was talking about, he watched as the car slowly got covered with zombies.

Rei looked at the case that contains his blade but he a still couldn't move his arm, he continued to change the channels of the walkie-talkie until someone finally answered.

"Commander Stella, you called?"

[Chapter End]