https://youtu.be/T1vIS8vbe-4

The ringing bells provided an excellent means of immediately grabbing attention, as the Spectrums and the citizens of Aurum were left wondering just what was going on. Train stations didn't usually have fire drills, so naturally, many were left aghast at the prospect of an actual accident. Indeed, many sprang to their feet, with only a few staying to listen once the speaking started. As Namerisawa heard the voice, however, he froze in fear, shivering as he listened. He knew exactly who that was.

The speaker, clearing her throat, continued after a brief pause, certain that she'd attracted enough attention from the right people. "To all still listening, I've got a question for you: do you like fireworks?" she asked, her words ever so cheerful. "If so, stay tuned! We've got a treat for you after these messages!"

"Oh, Luctus below..." Namerisawa whimpered. "They're here..."

"First, introductions! You can call me Jay, and I'm here on behalf of my leader, who has a very important message for you all!" she continued. "He says you're dead meat, and so is your ragtag bunch of protectors! Don't bother turning to the security, because we're gonna get them, too!"

"...is she talking to you?" Inigo raised an eyebrow, looking over at the panicking Namerisawa, who sat with his head in his hands, silently trembling.

"To anyone else listening, don't bother intervening, 'cause guess what? We're even gonna get you!" Jay declared, her voice taking on a slight mocking tone. "And in case you thought I was bluffing, I've got one word for you: KABOOM!"

Right on cue, her sound effect was followed by a more authentic-sounding explosion, heard by the crew in the distance and accompanied by the sounds of terrified screams and rapid footsteps. Whoever was there had decided to get out of there, ASAP, and though there had been little doubt beforehand, everyone was now certain that this threat was genuine. They all looked at Namerisawa, preparing to attack and defend as necessary as Jay continued.

"Hear that? Wasn't that impressive?" she asked. "Luckily for you, that was just a preview. We've got three more scattered across this station, one for each floor, so you'd best be prepared! In thirty minutes, we'll have one hell of a light show! Buh-bye~"

The alarm stopped at that, and the broadcast ended, with the heroes all drawing their weapons while Inigo looked at Namerisawa with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, pull yourself together." he said, his commanding tone snatching Namerisawa's attention. "That was the Tori-tachi, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." he stammered. "They're here. They're here for me!"

Inigo nodded, looking at the others. "There's three of them, there's six of us. Anyone here know how to defuse a bomb?"

"I do..." Scarlett nodded, looking to see if anyone else did, but frowning when she realised she was, in fact, the only one.

"We'll have to see if there are any authorities nearby who can." Azurine suggested. "Otherwise, focus on containing the blast."

"Now that, I can do." Silas mused, crossing his arms. "So, what's the plan?"

"I suppose going all at once would be risky." Makoto hummed, closing his eyes. "Should we split up, then?"

"Sounds good." Inigo nodded, glancing around the room, which by now was largely empty save for the six of them. "Azurine, go with Silas. Makoto, go with Scarlett. I'll take Namerisawa."

While the others nodded along, Azurine raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Can I trust you'll keep him safe?"

"Azurine, I have higher priorities than assassinating some hatted fuck." Inigo narrowed his eyes in return. "Trust me."

"If you say so..." Azurine murmured, taking a deep breath. "Silas and I will stay on this floor, if that's okay with you."

"Fine. I'll take upstairs." Inigo responded, looking at Namerisawa, who nodded rapidly in agreement.

"That leaves the underground for Scarlett and I..." Makoto nodded.

"All ready to go, then?" Scarlett asked, and everyone gave their own signs of approval - nods from Inigo and Makoto, a "Yeah" from Azurine, and both from Silas. "Then let's go. ASAP."

"Let's regroup here once we're done." Silas added, before turning to face Azurine, who nodded before raising her finger and pointing outward.

"Alright, then." she said, her face now looking more serious than before. "Spectrums...move out!"

And like light shining through a prism, they dispersed, ready to save the day from the avian menace that threatened this obnoxious yet largely innocent station from the shadows.

.........

Having arrived at the station beforehand, the bespectacled girl had opted to observe events from a distance, having spotted a most interesting sight that left her curious. She had spotted Makoto, which was a surprise, but a pleasant one. What was less pleasant was the company with which he was cavorting. Silas and the blue one were fair enough, but the taller woman...that was Libera's Mata Hari. And the other male - why, she'd know him from anywhere. It was him, the Red Joker.

Staring from afar with a stone-cold expression, she held her indigo-backed phone to her ear, making sure she was out of view as she spoke. "Doctor, I've found Makoto."

"Oh, truly? That's fantastic!" the low-pitched (yet evidently excited) voice from the other end exclaimed. "I knew you'd get results, Stiffie. I think he blocked my number the other day..."

"Shall I approach?"

"If you must, be subtle. I suspect he may be avoiding us - you in particular." the Doctor suggested. "By the by, where are you?"

"We are currently at Nummus. I do not know where he is headed, however." she said, before narrowing her eyes. "And I strongly doubt he is avoiding me. That is simply illogical."

"Whatever you say." the Doctor hummed.

"It is, in fact, more likely that our enemies have abducted him." she added very quickly, never deviating from her monotone. "I see him surrounded by those 'Heroes' from earlier, and a known Libera operative. I also spot the Tori-tachi. Most puzzling of all, the Red Joker is there."

"The Red Joker, eh?" the Doctor chuckled softly. "Keep me posted, will you? I want to see how this plays out."

"Understood, Doctor." she nodded. "I will keep a close eye on him."

"You were going to do that anyway." the Doctor pointed out, tutting. "Do remember to spare the others a glance, too."

"Of course-" she began, only to be interrupted by the ringing bells. She smelt trouble, and her worries were confirmed as she heard the voice of Jay making her announcement. "...I will call you back."

"Hang on, is that Jay?" the Doctor asked, only to be hung up on immediately afterwards. The girl shook her head, listening to the announcement as she looked ahead at Makoto, watching for his reactions. Surely, the Tori-tachi wouldn't stand in Apex's way...but if they did, perhaps she'd need to dirty her hands.

.........

https://youtu.be/DWrcARRjVrw

As he headed down the stairs to reach the underground, Makoto ran as quickly as he could, focused on reaching the floor as quickly as possible, with Scarlett in tow as she matched his pace. The two remained quiet for the most part, but as they neared the bottom, she turned to look at him, smiling gently. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Huh? I suppose I'm fine..." Makoto murmured. "I'm just a little worried about this 'Jay'. Would she really go this far just to kill one man?"

"I can think of at least one other guy who'd do that..." Scarlett looked up, slowly stepping into the metro - a somewhat dusty network of tunnels leading into different platforms - dimly lit, just enough to see the dark brown flooring in all its barely-maintained glory. "If I were in her position, I'd put the bomb somewhere to either maximise damage or cut off escape routes. Let's check the escalators and elevators."

"Oh, uh, really?" Makoto considered this, thinking this to be sound logic. "Uh...how do you figure that? Did you ever do things like this for Libera?"

"I never really did any more than acting as a honeypot." Scarlett clarified, shaking her head. "But I did pick up a few things from those around me. I tried to put myself in their headspace."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Threats like these need some sort of credibility." Scarlett mused. "I also don't think Jay is the type of person to really care about minimising collateral..."

Makoto contemplated this for a bit as the pair headed through the metro, having moved past elevators that didn't have any explosives. "...but what if that's just what she wants you to think?"

"We'll consider that possibility as a last resort." Scarlett hummed, eventually stopping as she saw, in the distance, a triad of escalators - two going down, and one going up. A slow, quiet beeping was the only sound that filled the air as multiple men and women, dressed casually, blockaded the exit, crouching over in a crowd as they looked ahead. She looked over at Makoto, scowling slightly as she whispered, "That's them. Definitely."

"And that beeping...that's the bomb, right?"

Scarlett nodded, and at that, Makoto summoned his spear, prepared to throw it as lightning began to crackle around it. "I see."

"Hey, Makoto! Don't just throw it, you might hit the bomb!" Scarlett scowled, stepping in front of him and looking ahead. Realising this, Makoto nodded quickly, lowering his weapon and entering a runner's stance.

"Right. I apologise." he said. "I shall engage them up close, then."

"I'm right behind you." Scarlett nodded, staying where she was and standing up straight before initiating her dance - a fast one, energetic and evocative of a warrior marching into battle. Once she'd done, she gestured towards Makoto, who at once raised his spear, his soul invigorated like a soldier at the height of his morale. Without further ado, he charged in.

The Tori-tachi mobsters, having noticed the pair and preparing for combat, each drew their own weapons - some wielded guns, some had blades, others wielded various assorted objects, and as Makoto leapt into the fray, he thrust his lightning-shrouded spear into the chest of a man holding an enlarged pair of scissors. At once, the man was sent flying into the escalator, his shield shattering on impact.

The rest of the group looked back and forth between Makoto and their now-defeated comrade, and at once, they charged at him, aiming to compensate for their evidently-inferior might with the overwhelming numbers advantage. So attack, they did, striking him with countless attacks, while he didn't make much of an effort to defend himself. Instead, he went on the attack, delivering rapid, haphazard flurries of blows to strike as many of them as he could. And shields broke one after another, but Scarlett could see the numbers were still in the Tori-tachi's favour. If he continued to go all-offense, he may not see victory here.

So, instead of jumping in to help him, she kept attention off herself, beginning a different dance - a slower, more alluring one than before. Makoto, recklessly weathering each blow, felt the fervour within him vanish, and in its place, he felt an adamantine armour tightly clasping his soul. Now he felt all the attacks targeting him, with little attention on Scarlett, but he barely felt them dealing much damage.

Now, however, defeating his enemies became more difficult. In addition to minding the bomb, he tried to divert his attention as much as possible. He swatted away a few enemy attacks to deliver mighty stabs to the offending gangsters, evidently still the strongest in the room. It was a direct clash of quality versus quantity, but with their attention on Makoto, Scarlett took her chance to strike.

Cloaking herself in Shadow Natura, she moved towards the formation as inconspicuously as she could, closing the gap in short order as she evaded the bullet fire coming from some of the outermost gangsters, and with her sword drawn, she attacked with a flourishing strike, skilfully disarming several of them before gracefully leaping back to dodge the blast of a thrown Natura crystal.

With their attention divided, they did their best to try and split focus between the two. But Scarlett was too quick and nimble, and Makoto, closing his eyes, took to the air on a pair of white wings. Hovering just above the group, he pointed his spear downwards, a surge of energy coursing through him as he looked at each of the mobsters. He clenched his teeth, feeling his heart pumping in his chest as the weapon glimmered with orange light.

In a split moment, he saw a path connecting him to each standing member of the Tori-tachi. It was like a constellation of sorts, but he couldn't really make sense of it before it disappeared. With this in mind, he threw his spear, which became an arrow of light, at one member, watching as it ricocheted off each and every one of them, breaking a couple of shields and disorienting the rest as the weapon returned to his hand in its solid form.

He looked at his weapon in confusion, raising an eyebrow only to quickly move out of the way of further projectile attacks. While Scarlett harassed them by moving in and out of their formation with her flaming blade, he waited for the right moment to dive back in, staying relatively stationary as he fended them off with spear thrusts and light-infused palm strikes. As this continued with neither side being willing to back down, a rapid parade of approaching footsteps could be heard, their owners not quite human.

https://youtu.be/tuGZVcS1RNw

Indeed, as Makoto looked up, his eyes widened at what he saw at the top of the escalator - a gang of pale, wooden structures, with glowing blue lights for eyes, coming in three different varieties, each high in number. Some were bulky and blocky, with large arms and short, stubby legs. Some were rather crude caricatures of canine animals - bearing a vague resemblance to foxes. And some looked like featureless little humans, holding wooden spears.

"W-What?" he froze momentarily, before immediately preparing to strike. The wooden automatons ignored him as they began the march down the escalators, their focus on the crowd of gangsters. By now, the Tori-tachi members had noticed the arrival of the cavalry, as had Scarlett, and they all watched as the puppet squadron met their foes, going on the attack right away.

Makoto found himself about to throw his spear at the puppets, only to pause as he considered what he'd been told - to know what cards he'd been dealt and play them to their fullest. The puppets had ignored him, so perhaps they weren't here for him. They were fighting his opponents, who had now been placed entirely on the backfoot. So it was clear they weren't a priority, even if she had been the one to send them.

Scarlett, surprised by the intervention but nonetheless undeterred, slipped in the middle of the group of occupied gangsters and reached down, snatching the bomb they had been protecting and handling it as carefully as she could. She stepped right out again, waving towards Makoto as she, with a straight face, called out, "We should get out of here!"

"But what about-" Makoto began, only to stop as he noticed the explosive in her hand, and gave a quick nod, noticing some of the gang realise their weapon was missing. While most of them were busy dealing with the puppets, a few of them pulled out Natura crystals, throwing them at Scarlett, who began to flee. So, taking off after her, Makoto shifted his focus between her and the mob, who with their last moments of freedom, threw another storm of crystals at the pair. Scarlett mostly managed to avoid through footwork and speed, while Makoto, who wasn't quite as quick, fended them off with his spear. As they hit the floor, they exploded, leaving behind a dazzling display of colourful bursts of fire, ice, wind and lightning. The heat and chill could be felt, but ultimately, the damage was evaded.

As the two made their way to safety, hiding behind a pillar, Scarlett got to work disarming the device - a heart-shaped Natura crystal mass with wires coming out of it, wrapping around it like arteries and veins, with a timer counting down from just under 15 minutes. Every passing second was heralded by a beep, which only felt more foreboding by the moment. Makoto watched Scarlett closely, lowering onto the ground with a frown.

"What are we going to do?" he asked, an uncharacteristic urgency in his voice. Scarlett didn't look up, but listened closely, raising an eyebrow. "Not only do we have to deal with the Tori-tachi, but Apex is here, too! And worst of all, it's her!"

"Huh, even you don't like the Puppet Queen?" Scarlett chuckled quietly, shaking her head. "Figures. I've seen her in action a few times. She even broke into Libera's base once."

"What's she even doing here? This is a coincidence, right?" Makoto asked, more to himself than anything. Scarlett watched him as he clutched his hair, clenching his teeth with a panicked look in his eyes. "She doesn't know I'm here, does she? She's not here for me, is she?"

"Makoto, calm down." Scarlett said, continuing her work. "I don't know-"

"How can I stay calm? I've been avoiding her for weeks now!" he cried out, unintentionally cutting her off. "What do I do, what do I do?"

"Don't lose your head over it." Scarlett suggested, shaking her head. "Whenever you're ready, you can explain things to the rest of the group. I'm sure they'll have your back."

"She...won't get us before that, right?" Makoto murmured, taking a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down enough to present his argument. "I mean, they weren't attacking us, so maybe..."

Scarlett hummed at that, allowing Makoto to lull himself into something resembling a state of calm. "...we'll have to wait and see." he said. "Would you have my back, Scarlett? Because I am not coming back to Apex. Or to her."

"Seems like you have quite the history." Scarlett smiled a little, nodding happily. "Don't worry, I've got you."

"...thank you." Makoto responded, a hand on his chest as he imagined the icy, bespectacled stare of the Puppet Queen. But he wouldn't face her alone, would he? Leaning against the pillar, he counted down the minutes as Scarlett continued to defuse the bomb, until the beeping died down at long last.