Nothing happened at the incident site. Nothing as far as those present could tell. The silence continued to envelope what was once Red Garden, and then-

FWIP

THUD

The sound was imperceptible, blending with the background noise. A few cops caught it, but they all assumed it was just some stray animal roaming around the destroyed buildings. The area was monitored by drones, after all. Nothing could have entered without any alarms being triggered.

But something did enter the area. Something that went undetected by all the sensors scattered around it. It snuck into one of the destroyed buildings and stood at the edge, but then something struck it, and it hit the wall next.

Shortly after, someone emerged from the shadows. A young woman dressed in a hunter's garb, giving off the feeling that she was from an entirely different time. The hood pulled over her head hid her green hair, and through the shadow it cast, the glint in her eyes shone brighter, appearing like that of a hungry predator who came out to hunt at night.

She approached the spot where the sound was with slow steps, then leaned toward it. There, a green arrow glowed with a faint light. It seemed to be pierced into a wall, but half of it was missing—the half connected to the wall. Because of that, it appeared like the other half was floating in the air.

A hand reached up, but it didn't touch the arrow. Instead, it seemed to hover slightly above it before grasping at the air. When it pulled away, it looked as if the world itself was pulled away, revealing something that had been hidden.

Seeing the robotic head pierced by her arrow, a frown brought her brows down. An android wearing an invisibility cloak. That couldn't be anything good.

Moving around, she glanced at the back of the pierced head. A normal human would have struggled to see anything in that Darkness, but her eyes were special, and she could see as clearly as if it were the middle of the day. What she saw caused her frown to deepen.

Raising her left arm, she tapped the bracelet locked around her wrist a few times, then spoke in a hushed voice.

"Strike, I think I caught something."

[What is it?] Someone answered, surprise clear in his voice.

"An android." She replied. "It's the cult."

[Are you sure?]

"Who else could afford to cloak these things?"

The more obvious evidence was the three gears on the android's head, so she snapped a few photos with the bracelet and sent them right away.

[I will send someone to get it right away.] The voice said.

"Can I go back now?"

[Not yet.]

"Why not?" She clicked her tongue. "Isn't this enough proof?"

[We still don't know for sure if the cult is involved. Keep your eyes open.]

"You got to be kidding me…"

Sparing the pierced android another look, Huntress heaved a long sigh. She pulled her hood down and walked away. A moment later, she melted into the Darkness, as if she was never there.

~[ ]~

Monday, February 13

'... I should have thought this through a lot more.'

[Indeed. Agreeing right away might have been a mistake.]

At the moment, what Dante wanted to hear was a good argument for why all the suffering he was going through was worth it. For that reason, hearing his resident AI agree with him only added to the frustration he felt, and gritting his teeth no longer had any effect.

His arms were starting to grow numb. Being made to hold them up by his side for this long was a type of torture on its own, but doing it while wearing a Level 3 armor made the whole experience much worse.

[Hey, couldn't you do something about this?] He asked.

"It's just a few minutes." A disinterested voice replied. "Quit complaining."

[Easy to say when your shoulders aren't about to pop off.]

Dante looked around him, then clicked his tongue all around him. White arcs slid left and right, circling him while casting a pale blue light. Looking up, he saw that the ceiling was casting the same pale light. It felt as if he was standing inside one of a miniature car washers, only this one showered him with lasers instead of water.

"Don't move." Came a voice from beyond the circling arcs.

[Yeah, yeah.] He clicked his tongue and tried to endure.

Looking at the timer in the corner of his vision, he realized that he still had a few minutes to go. Just as he was about to curse his lack of foresight once more, the blue light suddenly vanished, and the arcs circled behind him before coming to a stop.

Up ahead, a blue-haired girl looked up at him, her thin lips curved into a small smile.

"It's over." She said.

[... really?]

Before she could respond, Dante dismissed his armor and climbed out of the machine.

"I didn't think a complete scan was possible, but here we are." She said. "With the data I gathered, it will be possible to recreate a virtual copy of the armor."

"Huh…" Dante dropped himself on a nearby chair and waited for the pain to fade. A few seconds later, he turned to the blue-haired genius and gave her a dubious look. "So… does that mean you can recreate it?"

"In time," Suzuka replied. "Remember what I said before? The tech in that suit of yours is unlike anything I have seen before. It would be a while before I'm able to reverse engineer the whole thing."

Her tone carried only a hint of the excitement she seemed to be feeling. Listening to her speak, Dante felt the same passion he usually felt from Finn. Though the two of them expressed it in different ways, he couldn't help but see how similar the two of them were.

"Alright." Turning to face him, Suzuka let her smile widen. "Starting next time, we will be scanning a different suit."

"... You got to be kidding me…"