- AM -

Madzistrale and Tom walked out of the Capitoline, shaken by their conversation with Abraham Solomon. Even though it wasn't their world, they still felt like they couldn't just let it happen.

“I can't believe that bastard compares human lives to trash in need to being disposed!” Madzistrale raged.

Tom didn't answer; although he did agree to some of Abraham's points from personal experience, he still felt that his sister was right into saying that giving up wasn't the answer.

“He doesn't even want to give them a second chance, or use his power to actually create a revolutionary way of life. No! Killing them off like cancerous cells is his bloody answer!”

“It won't happen on our watch, don't worry,” Tom reassured her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“But what can we do it, with us being the only two capable of fighting this?!”

“Nothing. So why bother?” a Brittannian female voice interrupted from behind them.

The siblings jumped in surprise, and turned to face Ysadora, who was looking at them with clear amusement. She was dressed in her marine blue uniform, her blond hair tied in its usual bun, and her hands rested lightly upon the gun holster and the scabbard on each side of her hips.

“Wow, she's hot!” Madzistrale blurted out in admiration.

Tom rolled his eyes, before replying:

“I think you know that those words alone won't stop us.”

“I was hoping that as well,” Ysadora answered. “Makes my job that much more enjoyable.”

She unholstered her handgun, and the siblings only had enough time to admire its resemblance to the Victorian flintlock before a shot was heard.

Madzistrale closed her eyes as the bullet hit her chest... but opened them again, slightly perplexed as the only result was a small pang of pain. Tom and Ysadora paused as well, but she was quicker than him at replying, firing one more time.

“Oww!” Madzistrale said, annoyed.

“Damn,” Ysadora holstered her gun; they were M.U.T.s. Just like Abraham, their bodies were probably enough out-of-phase against her world to resist suffering physical damage.

“Our turn,” Tom said, a cocking smile revealing his eagerness to give a paypack at whoever were idiotic enough to hurt his sister.

In a dramatic and solemn manner, the siblings snapped their right arm to their side; in front of Ysadora's ludicrous eyes, each of their sword appeared out of thin air, their hand somehow grasping expertly the hilts that weren't there 5 seconds ago.

Ysadora stared at them for a few seconds, mainly at the abhoration that were the siblings' handmade swords; but her training quickly kicked in, and at the reveal of a true challenge, she expertly unsheathed her sword, unrolling it into its 6 foot chain form at the press of a button.

“It’s been awhile since I've duelled; you'll have to forgive my rustiness.” In a swift moment, she pivoted on herself; the sword-chain followed the spin and whipped at the siblings, who only got time to jump back at the very last second.

“Hah! But you haven't met Yousha and Kireru before,” Madzistrale challenged, as she and Tom wriggled their bizarre swords.

Ysadora smiled as she regained her stance.

“What do I have to fear? If you lose your concentration over keeping your body out-of-phase, I kill you and you can never come back here. Two childish inexperienced youngsters against someone who has fought opponents that would make your most hardcore warrior flee with his tail between his legs... I doubt even you will argue against the inevitable outcome.”

“Yeah… But between spending a few minutes minutes fighting you, or going back in time ten years ago and being lectured for hours without end by our Dad… we’ll take our chances with you,” Tom replied, his sister withholding a snicker.

Ysadora smiled delightfully as the siblings began to surround her on each of her side. She whipped her chain to her right, where Tom was placing himself, but right after, she whipped it again so it came right back to her left side, intending to catch Madzistrale by surprise. The sister was however quick in reflex, as she caught the chain between the H-shape blade of her sword. She strongly tugged, and as Ysadora stumbled toward her, she gathered all her strength and punched.

Ysadora flinched, her mind kicking in to block the pain, but instead, Madzistrale’s punch felt as light as feather. She rose her eyebrows in derision.

“That’s it?” she couldn’t help but ludicrously ask; Madzistrale answered with a puzzled shrug, before stumbling back in pain as Ysadora administered her a strong right hook.

“Forgot me?” Tom teased her, slamming the blunt side of his heavy sword against her knees.

Her sword-chain still tangled in his sister’s weapon, Ysadora kicked him back in the knees. Taking advantage that Madzistrale’s sword was trapped alongside hers, she pulled with incredible strength while pivoting sideways, and threw the sister square against Tom. They both fell on the ground, Tom cushioning the fall for his sister; the swords unlinked, and Ysadora didn’t lost a second before gracefully sending her chain in a lethal swing. Tom rolled over Madzistrale to shield her, pressing her against the ground despite her groaning protestations, and crossed his own back with his snapping sword as protection. A satisfying ‘cling’ was heard as the chain hit the sensitive double-blade spring mechanism; but Tom made a disappointed face as only a chip of metal resulted from the chopping.

“Urgh, her sword is strong,” he informed Madzistrale while helping her up.

“Doesn’t matter. If she’s the boss to go through to stop the bad guys, we both know how to handle that, don’t we?” she encouraged him, subtly referencing their video gaming prowess.

“Etsuko!” Tom approved in Japanese, and both of them began immediately planning their strategy without any need of words.

What followed was what could barely be described as a proper fight, as both siblings used anything possible to fight and defend against Ysadora’s martial prowess. Still, a part of Ysadora’s mind admired their tenacity; being a M.U.T. clearly had high advantages.

A few minutes passed, and as Ysadora raised her chain to slash at the tired siblings, standing before her and trying hard not to pant heavily, it suddenly stopped in the air.

“Miss Dawn, I would request that you do not harm the strangers,” Daniel’s emotionless voice said from behind her, his hand firmly holding the chain.

Ysadora made an imaginary facepalm; why he was here she didn’t know, but one thing was sure, was that he wouldn’t let her continue fighting due to his implemented restrictions.

“They are terrorists trying to overthrow Bohm; so let me go, Daniel,” she ordered, facing him while tugging as hard as she could on her sword, without much avail.

Tom and Madzistrale looked at each other with a victorious smile, and simultaneously charged toward Ysadora and slammed their swords on her back. But their victory wasn’t long; Daniel pushed Ysadora aside on the ground, letting go of her chain, stepped over her, stood before the siblings, and caught in each hand their swords.

“Miss Madzistrale, Mr. Tom. I would request that you do not harm Miss Dawn,” he repeated.

“Uhh?” the siblings looked at him puzzled. Madzistrale noticed his appearance, and whispered to Tom: “He looks like that police officer Frank told us about: blond, and clad in a military gray suit.”

“And he does feel strange, somehow,” Tom acquiesced in a whisper.

“Oh, get away, damn it!” Ysadora complained, rising on her feet. She noticed the siblings were distracted, so she used that time to slash them horizontally with her now freed chain.

“Oww!” they jumped back in surprise, letting go of their swords.

Daniel dropped the siblings’ swords, ignoring their outraged cries against such mistreatment of handmade items, and turned once again to Ysadora, tugging away her chain.

“Please Miss Dawn, you must not harm the strangers.”

Ysadora glared at her assistant.

“They are terrorists. Randall personally sent me to deal with them. So get off, this is none of your business.”

“Then, Miss Dawn, the legal procedures concerning terrorists requires that you...” he stopped abruptly as his peripheral vision caught the siblings tip-toeing to where he dropped their swords. Before they could reach the spot, he put each of his feet on the swords.

Madzistrale and Tom put their hands on their mouths, horrified at the vision.

“Yousha!”

“Kireru!”

“Get off of our swords, bakka! They’re one-of-a-kind, and fragile!” they both rushed, trying to tug his legs away. “This guy weighs a ton!” Madzistrale added, puzzled.

“The legal procedures concerning terrorists requires that you...” Daniel resumed, as Ysadora restrained a laugh seeing the siblings fervently trying to move or lift his legs.

“I don’t care about legal procedures. They are not normal terrorists; these are the M.U.T.s from the plaza. Rules from our world doesn’t apply to them.”

“I know who they are, Miss Dawn. Hence why I would suggest that I interrogate them.”

Tom and Madzistrale abandoned the attempt to move him, and instead crept up toward the side to attack manually Ysadora from behind. Daniel noticed it too, and placed himself between the two opponents. As the siblings moved to another place, he made sure to block their way. Even Ysadora was annoyed; she was more than capable to handle them by herself.

“Daniel...”

“If they are M.U.T.s, then interrogating them will give you the proof that you require to know whether Mr. Solomon is in league with them, or indeed on his own as he claims,” Daniel reasoned.

Tom and Madzistrale raised their head in surprise.

“Abraham Solomon is a M.U.T.?!” Madzistrale asked in surprise.

“I thought there was something strange about him,” Tom thoughtfully added.

Ysadora punched Daniel on the shoulder in annoyance.

“Idiot! Now I really have to eliminate them. This was supposed to be a secret!”

“So Solomon is the M.U.T. Anazryel told us about!” Madzistrale whispered to Tom, walking slightly away.

“It’s a brilliant plan. Whatever he do, if he ever gets found out, no one here can ever hurt him. He’ll just disappear, and come right back,” Tom admired.

“So he’s the bad guy we’re after.”

“No,” Tom said, looking hard at Ysadora’s reactions. “She’s pissed, but not the way she should be if he was the mastermind.”

“But he’s essentially immortal! He can do what he wants without consequences,” Madzistrale argued.

“Or… he can be a very useful puppet. A scapegoat. He’ll become the bad guy, and no one will bother to look behind him.”

“So who is the puppeteer?” Madzistrale asked.

Tom looked interestingly at Daniel.

“Let’s ask him,” he said, winking at his sister.

Ysadora saw the siblings approach; her instincts fired in alarm.

“Daniel, this is an order. Get back to my office!” she changed her tone to one of a military officer.

Daniel looked blankly at her.

“I apologize, Miss Dawn, but I cannot follow that order. You are in danger of being administered harm, and you are administering harm as well. I must stop both of you, and request that you allow me to interrogate them instead.”

Madzistrale looked at him in puzzlement, then a thought crossed her mind, and her eyes widened.

“Tom? Do you think he’s an… an android?” she finished in a whisper.

“I am an Asimov-Class anthropomorphic robot, Miss Madzistrale,” Daniel confirmed, hearing her whispering.

“Asimov-Class...” Madzistrale repeated the familiar name.

“That’s why I said: ‘Let’s ask him’; I had my doubts,” Tom told her, winking again. He turned back to Daniel. “Daniel, who is...”

Before Tom could finish his sentence, Ysadora jumped back and as quickly as she could, unholstered her gun and pressed the trigger toward her assistant’s head. Daniel became rigid, and he fell face first straight on the ground as Madzistrale let out a shocked cry.

“I hate being surrounded with incompetents,” Ysadora mumbled, picking up her chain sword, and walking over Daniel’s body to face the siblings.

“You killed him!” Madzistrale shouted.

“I turned him off, idiot,” Ysadora said. “He can’t lie unless instructed in advance; it’s the problem with him.”

“Does he know?” Tom suddenly asked, nodding toward Daniel.

Ysadora looked at him without answering, smiling challengingly.

“He seems to be rather preoccupied by not hurting people. So does he know he’s serving someone who is bringing Doomsday to innocents?” Tom challenged her, motioning subtly Madzistrale to go and pick up their swords.

“He doesn’t need to know, and that’s none of your business. It’s not your world,” Ysadora answered, edging closer to them.

“I’m afraid it is. We would be poor heroes if we would mind our business and let innocent people die just because you don’t like them. And I think your assistant wouldn’t be too happy about it either.”

Ysadora laughed.

“Two childish kids like you being heroes? We would be long gone if that ever worked before.”

“You still don’t answer. Does your assistant know of your master’s intentions, and what would he do if he knew?”

Madzistrale gently slid Kireru’s handle in Tom’s hand as he finished his sentence, and she stood by him, Yousha ready in hers.

Ysadora’s eyes narrowed, and without speaking, flung her chain toward them.

“Did I touch a sensitive subject?” Tom taunted her, evading the attack.

Ysadora still said no words, but instead, entered a dance, and her chain followed her movements, swinging and snapping in unpredictable ways, while always shielding her. Her tip finally hit Madzistrale, and the sister sprung back.

“Oww!”

The siblings spent a good minute trying to get through the shield, but kept getting hit.

“How can she keep this up?” Madzistrale wondered, panting.

“My choppings don’t do much damage, I’m afraid. She has a heck of a blade!” Tom complained.

Madzistrale suddenly began to wobble from side to side.

“My arms feel numb...” she said.

Ysadora smiled victoriously.

“Don’t ever get attached, idiots. Your bodies will become material, and I can then hit you with my poisoned blade.”

“Huh? it's poisoned?!” Tom realized; he saw his sister wobble some more. “Damn. Gab!!” he yelled to the empty air, while joining Madzistrale.

He held her in his arms, shielding her as Ysadora threw more swings. A loud and annoying alarm resonated in their ears, and they let the sound invade their mind as they closed their eyes.

Ysadora watched as the siblings vanished into thin air. Sighing in disappointment, she looked back at Daniel.

“What am I going to do with you?” she asked, annoyed, before sending a call to Randall with her implant to relate the newfound problems.