Part Twenty-Four: Impurification

Nozomi began running down the corridors of the stronghold, grasping his pearl sword and grimacing. The others followed, all keeping up with the boy's pace. Finding a small group of four guards, Nozomi threw his sword in a similar fashion one would throw a javelin, piercing one of their heads. As the other three gasped and began to ready their guns, Nozomi kicked one of them, knocking him to the ground. He grabbed his sword, ripping it out of the dead soldier's head, and pierced the now knocked down guard's chest while a pool of blood began to muddy the area. Shin then quickly ran into the fray, swinging his scythe and swiftly dealing with the other two. Grinning at each other, Shin and Nozomi looked back to the group. Shin gave a thumbs-up as a signal, which led to everyone's moving forwards. Soon enough, the group reached a cross in the road, prompting everyone to separate into their groups. Nodding at each other, everyone ran into different hallways, awaiting the challenges that would face them.

Nozomi led his troupe of J-chad, Roboco, Risu, Mio, Rikka, Izuru, Ran, Knightley, Spade Echo, Melody, and Kaoru through the many hallways in the stronghold using the map of his souped-up radar. After much rushing through corridors, the group finally reached the room they were looking for. As soon as they entered, however, the doors to the room closed and the lights went pitch black.

"What's going on?!" J-chad yelled, unable to see a thing. Suddenly, the lights flicked back on, revealing a boy similar in appearance to Nozomi wearing a lab coat.

"Oh, Thanatos, wonderful to see you alive and well," he greeted, bowing in a very theatrical manner, "I am Nozomi, or codename 004, if you must be specific. I will be murdering the now merged 000 and 001 and drawing Thanatos out of his mortal coil with you today. Why don't you sit back and enjoy the scenery, you ten?"

"There's no way we'd let you do that!" Risu yelled.

"Not after everything you've done to us," Ran grumbled with a cold expression, pointing her trident in the boy's direction.

"Haha, I assumed it wouldn't be so easy, so I prepared this," the boy in the lab coat smiled and snapped his fingers. Nothing seemed to have happened.

"Was that a bluff?" Izuru asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh, definitely not, considering this is possible now," 004 clapped his hands together, and the positions of the people quickly changed.

"Wh-what the hell was that?!" Melody looked around her. She pointed her blaster arm at 004, releasing a large blast of energy, and… the blast was deflected by some sort of forcefield.

"W-wait! Is that…?" Roboco gazed at the walls worriedly.

"Mmm, indeed," 004 nodded in agreement, as transparent blue barriers began to show various people separated into small groups, those being Nozomi with Roboco, Izuru with Ran and Rikka, Kaoru with Spade Echo and Melody, Risu with Mio and Knightley, and J-chad with 004, "Barrier magic. To stop you, I think it'd be wise to separate you."

"You're a coward!" J-chad shouted, readying her fists at 004 and charging at him. He scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief as he walked to the side.

"Ugh, you didn't even let me explain what's going on here," he groaned, putting his hand on the side of his head, "You have no clue on how I plan to defeat you all."

"What plan would that be?" J-chad asked, still throwing flurries of punches, all of which were dodged by 004.

"The original plan was actually to have you all dealt with Iofifteen duplicates, and, while that is still the plan with some of you, I actually lucked out quite a bit," 004 informed, "I'm sure the organizer of this raid didn't see this coming, but you do realize a fourth of your team is digital, correct?"

"What's your point, fuckface?" Melody grimaced at 004. He simply laughed at this.

"Don't you realize, Projekt Melody?" 004 asked, his glasses flashing white, "Computer programs are just lines of zeros and ones. And when your guard is let down like that, I can do whatever I want to them. Add zeros, add ones, subtract zeros, subtract ones, anything goes…"

"Wh-what do you- AGH! " Melody screamed, putting her hands to her head, appearing to have a headache of some sort, "NO! DON'T!"

"Is he- NGH! ROBOCO, ENHANCE YOUR FIREWALL! INCREASE SECURITY! DO IT NOW!" Rikka shouted, putting his hands to his head in a similar fashion.

"U-understood!" Roboco said, closing her eyes in intense concentration.

"Ooh, this might take a little while to crack, if you weren't you, Roboco," 004 grinned, "I know all of your little secrets, Roboco."

"Gah! You don't know me, creep!" Roboco denied, groaning and putting her hand to her forehead.

"Hah. Except I do. I do know you, Roboco," 004 informed, "You're our passion project. And you're absolutely vital to us. So I'd rather you just give up now, if possible."

"Ugh! I have no idea what you mean!" Roboco shook her head, clutching it in her palms.

"You will soon enough," 004 smiled, snapping his fingers, "KEY. Prototype 001. Activate. Password: Aeternum. Threat level: dragon. Amassation level: moderate. Module: exterminator."

"Wh- AGH!" Roboco groaned, dropping to her knees. Nozomi rushed over to her, dropping his sword.

"Roboco! What's happening?!" Nozomi asked concernedly.

"NO!" Roboco shook her head, tears running down her cheeks, "NO, STOP THIS! IT HURTS!"

"You monster, what are you doing to her?!" Nozomi yelled at 004 indignantly.

"Just giving her a memory refresh, as well as what you could call… a new directive," 004 snickered, putting his hands in the pockets of his lab coat.

"NOZOMI, PLEASE HELP- AGH!" Roboco screamed before collapsing in the kimono-clad boy's arms.

...

"Dr. Pesar, hello," a boy in white armor greeted.

"Ah, hello, unit 003," a man in a baggy green t-shirt, black cargo pants, and black-framed glasses waved, "I assume you've come to check on KEY?"

"I have, is it done yet?" 003 asked, motioning towards the man.

"Indeed she is, I've been letting her roam the laboratory to get her familiarized with standard life," Dr. Pesar informed.

"It's a learning AI?" 003 pondered, "Why did you bother with that?"

"Well, she's gonna be fighting out with you guys on the front lines, right?" Dr. Pesar explained, "Wouldn't it make the most sense to make her a sentient learning AI?"

"What do you mean? She's not fighting with us," 003 informed.

"Wait. what?" Dr. Pesar confusedly asked, "004 told me KEY would be an artificial supersoldier of sorts, and that it'd use it's Niku-amassing capabilities to help unite the Mirror."

"Oh, that was a lie, then," 003 shook his head, "KEY's true purpose is to amass Niku and inject it into Elohim. To be honest, all the battle capabilities are supplementary to its main goal. It's called KEY because it's the KEY to our plans, after all."

"W-wait, huh?!" Dr. Pesar's face contorted into one full of fear, "You're going to inject Niku into Elohim?! Impurify the ultimate god?!"

"That is correct," 003 nodded, "Niku is impurity of the human variety. But we have also found it has extreme strength-boosting qualities. Due to its easily amassable properties, we commissioned you to build KEY. When the time is right and we have liberated aloof the Megalo Gods, we will put Niku into Elohim using KEY."

"Impurify god… impurify god…" Dr. Pesar seemed to be hung up on that fact, muttering it to himself repeatedly, "I can't let you corrupt such a beautiful piece of art!"

Before 003 could respond to such a statement, Dr. Pesar had pulled out a small pistol and shot 003's ankle. As 003 groaned in pain, Dr. Pesar ran hurriedly to a different room, closing the large metal doors on his way there.

"Pesar, what the hell?!" 003 growled, limping over to the metal door as he realized it was locked. He then pulled out his massive sword and began to beat at it in hopes of making it loose. Meanwhile, Dr. Pesar ran into a spare laboratory room and found a brown-haired yellow-eyed robot girl looking onwards worriedly.

"Pesar-hakase, what's going on?" she asked, "I heard gunshots, and-"

"Roboco, I don't have much time," Dr. Pesar informed with great urgency, "I'm going to have to send you to the other side of the Mirror."

"Huh? Why?" the robot girl asked, "I want to stay with you, Pesar-hakase."

"I'm afraid that is no longer a possibility," Dr. Pesar sighed, looking down with regret, "I'm sorry, but we can be together no more."

"Wh-why?" the robot girl asked, small tears forming in her eyes, "I want to stay, I-"

"Please," Dr. Pesar pleaded, "This is for the betterment of all humanity."

"I…" the robot girl stammered, "Trust you…"

"Good," Dr. Pesar smiled as to hide a pained expression, "I will be hiding some of your memories, as the enemy would most assuredly make use of them."

"Wait, no, I don't want to lose my memories of you!" the robot girl shouted.

"You won't lose them, I'm merely suppressing them," Dr. Pesar consoled, "They'll still be a part of you."

"Pesar-hakase, I'm scared…" the robot girl whimpered.

"Don't be. Here," Dr. Pesar smiled, taking off his glasses and putting them on the robot, "Something to remember me by. We'll never be too far apart now."

"Gah! Pesar, you're a dead man!" 003 shouted on the other side of the door, banging it all the while.

"I'm sorry, Roboco, but this is where we say farewell," Dr. Pesar said somberly, flicking a few small switches as a small wormhole appeared in the distance, "I love you, my greatest invention."

"I… love you too, dad," she said, sobbing and entering the portal.

The door was finally knocked down, revealing a limping 003 with his foot now completely covered in red.

"Finally! Pesar, I'm afraid you're relieved of your duties!" 003 grimaced, readying his giant sword.

"Hah," Dr. Pesar laughed softly to himself, "She called me dad."

The massive sword connected with his flesh as Dr. Pesar met his unfortunate demise.

...

"NO, THAT CAN'T BE!" Roboco screamed, "NOZOMI, HELP!"

"You bastard! Stop this right now!" Nozomi flared furiously at 004.

"Sorry 000, there's nothing that can be done now," 004 shrugged nonchalantly, "Now, why don't you watch her turn into a blood-hungry beast that only knows murder?"

"The hell you mean?!" Nozomi shouted, his anger only growing by the minute. Just then, clouds of purple began to surround Roboco. As they danced around her, they slowly began to enter her. She groaned in pain as this went on, and eventually she collapsed, as her hair began to turn a dark shade of black and her eyes turned a light violet.

"Roboco!" Nozomi went up to her.

"Wh-what the hell?!" Tamashi gasped, "Stay away from her!"

'What do you-' Nozomi began before being met by a solid punch to the face, sending him flying to the nearby magical barrier. Just then, Roboco rose, her cold eyes meeting with Nozomi's.

"No, you didn't…" Nozomi said.

"Oh yes I did," 004 began to chuckle, "And I did with those other two as well! Although they don't have the KEY like she does, so they can't make use of Niku."

Nozomi looked to his left and right, noticing Izuru and Ran holding off Rikka on his left while Spade Echo and Kaoru did battle with Melody on his right. He grimaced.

"And, of course, I wouldn't leave you three in the back unamused as well," 004 smiled, "Here. Some Iofifteen duplicates."

He snapped his fingers, and some duplicates of a white-haired girl wearing overalls with art supplies in them appeared behind Mio, Risu, and Knightley.

"Now that all that's taken care of, why don't we get on to the main course?" 004 asked, outstretching his arms almost as if he were basking in glory, "000 and 001 will be murdered by the KEY, the guitarist and the demon will be slaughtered by the android, the phantom thief and the crossdresser will be decimated by the corrupted malware program, the squirrel, vampire, and stand user will be executed by the alien copies, and I, unit 004, will draw Thanatos out of the body of the Underworld's liaison!"