The Six Guns crew were surrounded by the Mages Guild. There was Garreth Hood, James Markwood, Paul Teeter, Skylar Demetri, Agatha Besse, John Steichen, Jack Tobin, Tory Peterson, Ruby Rosewood, and Kyle Ross. Kyle Ross was a new addition to the Mages, filling in as a replacement for Amelia Reese, who fell to The Six Guns back in Tokyo. As everyone prepares for a big fight, Siran asks Markwood "What did you do to the previous Mages?".
"I killed them, of course" Markwood says.
"That answer sounds too easy" Alex whispers to Siran, "I doubt he'd tell the truth so easily".
"I figured it'd be pointless to ask him upfront" Siran whispers back, "but maybe he'll tell us on his own. You know, like a cliche super villain from like a comic book or something".
"...You really lost your mind during all that loneliness, didn't you?" Alex asks Siran.
"Pay attention brat!" Markwood shouts as he starts to move. Markwood moved fast like lightning, but Siran was able to keep up. Seemed as if all of Siran's buff spells were a lot stronger while he's in his other form. Markwood punched his fist right through Holly's digital shield. The two of them clashed, fist to fist. The impact from their fists colliding created a small gust of wind. One would've expected sparks to fly, however their fists aren't made of metal. Siran pushed Markwood back with his fist, just an inch. After Markwood was pushed back just a little, Siran opened his hand and a gust of wind that hit like a moving brick wall knocked Markwood off of his feet. Siran took his sniper rifle he had made when he disguised himself and gave it to Robin, who was now disguised as Siran in his normal form, that way no one would recognize him.
"Lock and load" Siran says, and all of The Six Guns pick a target and shoot. Magic beams flew in every direction, but each of the Mages were skilled enough to redirect the shots or block it with a strong digital shield. Holly reinforced her shield, and prepared for a counter attack. However, Garreth had torn down the shield almost immediately with reactive endo.
"I really need to learn that" Holly says to herself as she shakes her head in disappointment. Holly charges at Garreth, but Garreth puts up a digital shield just as Holly was about to punch him right in the jaw. The shield wrapped around the wrist of her right hand and trapped her. In a panic, Holly starts trying to use digital magic and debuff magic to break free. To her surprise, she saw small breaks in the shield. The breaks, which were almost like thin cracks, seemed to separate the shield into differently sized squares. With her practice in animated digital magic, much like her Dokkaebi Shield, she found that she can move the squares however she wanted. The shield unwrapped from around her wrist and she was free again. Before Garreth had the time to react, Holly grabbed him by the throat and pulled him through the shield. The shield shattered on Garreth's face, much like how a window would shatter, but the shield dissipated when it broke instead of turning into shards. Garreth fell to his hands and knees and he was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe someone could manipulate digital magic like that. However, his confusion had cost him. While he was confused, Robin shot at him with the sniper rifle Siran gave him. The blast was a lot smaller than usual, because Robin doesn't have as much magic to power the rifle with. It was, however, very effective. The beam penetrated the top of his left shoulder, and exited through his armpit. Garreth tried to hold himself up, but he felt something unhinge in his should as he collapsed. His shoulder no longer had anymore connected bones and the tendons were torn. His left arm was now useless.
As that was happening, Satomi and Mikoto were trying to double team Agatha Besse. Though Satomi and Mikoto were fast, Agatha was faster. Agatha was an expert at hand to hand combat, and unfortunately, Satomi and Mikoto didn't have weapons. They had to try something else. Satomi and Mikoto use the art that they were familiar with, armament magic. They engulf their hands with a colorful glow of magic, and speed up the attack. Once Agatha sensed danger, she made a careful retreat next to Skylar Demetri who helped shield her. They remained on defense and it was too risky for Satomi and Mikoto to try and advance the attack. Especially considering they weren't here to kill the Mages, they were here for answers, and so the Ueda sisters retreated also.
Alex and Finn were trying to combine their attacks against Jack Tobin and John Steichen. Alex and Finn closed the gap between Jack and John by Finn using illusion magic to mask his short movements. He used minimal movements to dodge spell after spell as he walked closer to the two Mages. Meanwhile, Alex would cause the two Mages to keep walking backwards by bombarding them with spells. When Jack and John were backed up against a wall, Finn took advantage of their panic to sneak behind them. Finn kicked them into Alex, as Alex punched at them and used a distortion spell to increase the impact greatly. Alex punched the air between Jack and John's heads and the air cracked. Their noses broke and they hit the ground. Finn and Alex held them hostage with their guns as they waited for a signal from Siran.
As Demetri, Zia and Tanya stayed in defense, Robin staying with them as well and trying to use ranged attacks, Rose was fighting against Ruby Rosewood. Rose, mostly using buff and debuff magic, stuck with using small knives and close quarters combat. Rose kept trying to close in on Ruby, but Ruby kept her distance. When Rose has finally gotten too close, Ruby did something that came as a surprise to Rose. She breathed fire at Rose. Rose jumped back and tried to quickly put the fire out on her jacket. When Rose was ready to fight again, Ruby had retreated to a defensive position with the rest.
Vivi tried using several different guns to break through the strong line of defense, but all of their digital shields resisted her fire. As Vivi focused on breaking their defense, Siran and James had fought amongst each other. Each time Siran had charged at James Markwood, James had blocked his attacks. Any time James used reactive endo, Siran countered with reactive endo. Anytime either of them used a ranged spell, the other would redirect it. They seemed to be at a stalemate.
"You need new tricks" Markwood says. "Clearly, you can't beat me like this".
"How's this for a new trick?" Siran asks. Siran creates another ball of reactive endo in his right hand, then raises his hand in the air. The endo changes shape, and becomes a knife made of pure reactive endo. "Transmogrified Reactive Endoindustria. Bet you've never learned this trick".
"Oh bother" Markwood says, sounding uninterested, "this could spell trouble". James prepares a fist and when Siran comes close, he punches the air between them with distortion magic. The knife hits the cracks of the distortion, and the spell seems to break as well as the knife. The cracks grew wider and wider. As the cracks in the air expand, the air between them exposes just a bright, white, endless void before disappearing.
"Wait" Siran says to himself, "was that-".
"I thought I told you to pay attention brat!" Markwood shouts as he punches Siran in the face. Markwood hits him so hard in the face, that Siran flew backwards about a meter and landed on his back. As Siran gets back up, The Six Guns gather back together. The two that Finn and Alex had held got saved by the new guy, Kyle Ross. He attacked Finn and Alex while they weren't looking. Alex and Finn managed to dodge without sustaining any damage, but Jack and John got their chance to retreat. Holly tried grabbing Garreth, but he got saved by Paul Teeter, who had had hit Holly with a distortion attack. Holly seemed to have gotten away, but her right shoulder looked dislocated. Holly only got away because Robin managed to help her retreat by shooting at Paul to make him keep his distance.
"What's the matter?" Markwood asks Siran. "You're not done already, are you?".
Siran looked around, and then at his team who looked as if they had suffered enough. "As a matter of fact" he says, "I think we are done here. We've gotten what we came here for".
"What you came here for?" Markwood asks, "and you think we're just going to let you leave?".
"Something like that" Siran says. A brief wind spell hits the ground and kicks up a lot of dirt, creating a thick cloud that no one could see through. The Six Guns run back to where they came from as those who forgot to hold their breath begin to gag. The Six Guns take advantage of the low visibility to flee and gain some distance between them and the Mages. Markwood tries to follow them immediately, but when he takes a step, he hears a high pitched beeping sound. Some bombs that were placed on the ground blew up and kicked up more dust, as well as made the Mages back up a little more. As The Six Guns run away, Demetri couldn't help but to giggle.
As the cloud of dust clears, Markwood was standing near the middle with a dome digital shield covering the area where the bombs were. He was clearly irritated. Markwood points to Ruby and says "You! After them!".
"Wait, why me?" Ruby asks.
"You're one of the fastest Mages here" Markwood says, "so you're more likely to catch up. I'd do it myself, but we need most of us here, especially myself. The strongest have to protect this place, you go and track their movements!".
Ruby shakes her head and runs after The Six Guns. By the time Ruby makes it outside of the city, The Six Guns were already driving off on motorcycles. Ruby runs to the nearest civilian and gets them to lend her their car. "Sorry" she says, "I need to commandeer this vehicle. It's urgent".
The Six Guns make a stop once they get outside of Omnia. Siran was riding as the passenger of Zia's bike, as she was the first one to insist that he ride with her. Once they pull over, Siran asks "This is strange... they didn't send waves of soldiers to chase us. What are they planning?".
"That's not the only thing that's strange" Holly says, rubbing her shoulder. Before they got on the bikes, Tanya helped pop Holly's shoulder back into its place, but her shoulder was still very sore. "They were all going on the defense. Although it's natural to take defensive positions when defending your city, they didn't seem to be protecting the city at all. I mean- think about it. The way they lined up when they retreated, it looked like they were defending the building behind them and nothing else".
"They've got something to hide" Siran says, "and they definitely want it protected. But if it's a war they want, I'll give them a war".
"What do you mean?" Zia asks, "wasn't this already a war?".
"Yes" Siran says, "but I'm about to make this more interesting. If everyone in the world knew who I was, then how do you think the civilians would react towards The Six Guns?".
"They probably wouldn't know whose side to take" Vivi says. "With the government being a war mongering death machine and the ones they made out to be outlaws being a group of outcasts led by a hero and a war criminal from our history, there'd definitely be some confusion".
"Exactly" Siran says.
"But wouldn't that be more reckless?" Finn asks. "I mean, some people may take our side, though I doubt many would. On the other hand, people knowing who you are alone would be a good enough excuse for other governments and big organizations to put a bounty of their own on your head. You'd potentially draw the attention of hunters".
"As long as they'll be after me and not the rest of you" Siran says, "that's a risk I'd be willing to take".
"But they probably will be after us" Finn says.
"Well right now" Mikoto says, "we don't exactly have many allies. The best we could consider, is Japan's government being our ally in some way. They appreciated our help there, but other than that, they're not exactly our allies. If we could potentially gain allies through this method, I'd say it'd be a bigger help in the long run".
"If there is a long run" Finn scoffs.
"So, What is everyone's analysis" Siran asks, "about what we just encountered?".
"I think I learned how to use hacking type digital magic" Holly says, "and also, dislocated shoulders hurt more than I had previously thought".
"The Mages are stronger than I had first thought" Alex says, "so we really need to learn more magic before going on an all out attack. Also, they probably know some of our tricks by now".
"That's why I played defensively" Zia says. "They obviously weren't showing us what they had up their sleeves, so if I didn't need to show them my tricks, I wasn't going to".
"Their defense is strong" Vivi says, "but if we can learn the trick to using reactive endo, then that could more than likely be taken care of".
"So what we have so far" Siran says, "is learning reactive endo, learning new tricks, the potential of being marked by hunters and the Mages were more worried about protecting that building than they were they city. Anything else?".
"You forgot the part where you've already been tracked down" Ruby says as she walks up to the group. Although she seems to be alone.
"How'd you get here?" Rose asks in a panic as she gets ready to fight again.
"I followed you here from a safe distance so you wouldn't notice me" Ruby says. "As for what I'm doing here, I was hoping to find your hideout, but instead got bored when you stopped here".
"Bored?" Siran asks.
"Hey, don't shoot the messenger" Ruby says. "Didn't you want to know something about the new and old Mages?".
"You're willing... to talk?" Alex asks. "Why... the hell?".
"To tell you the truth, I didn't volunteer for this shit" Ruby says. "When I became a Mage, I wasn't exactly hired. I was drafted... aggressively at that. I was in the military, but I had no interest in the Mages Guild or anything. Then one day, Garreth Hood tells me that I've been 'selected' and if I didn't join then there would be repercussions".
"I'm interested" Siran says, "but before we go on..." Siran the holds a gun up to her head and says "tie her up, find her charms and remove them if you can".
"My charms are tattooed" Ruby says, "like most others that were in the military. Isn't that right, former Second Lieutenant Alex Schulf?".
Finn whistles and says "Second Lieutenant. That's impressive".
Alex begins tying her anyways as Vivi asks "Did you guys know each other?".
"Not well" Alex says, "she was my previous CO before I became a lieutenant".
"CO?" Finn asks.
"It means Commanding Officer" Ruby says. "Anyways, as for Markwood's response earlier, it was a lie. He didn't kill the Mages, but rather one was killed. Only one, and the guy who did it was executed. Although, it was weird to think that someone could've simply killed a Mage like that and run away. The assassin got caught, and Garreth Hood took his seat. From there, one after another, the other Mages seemed to just resign. It was like none of them wanted to work with Garreth. Garreth appointed James to a seat on the Mages council and he later became the head of the Mages Guild. When someone else gave up their seat, James personally picked the people he wanted. I'm guessing I was drafted for my clean record and well known obedience".
"Why are you telling us this?" Alex asks.
"Because I have a request" Ruby says. "I want out of the Mages Guild".
"How should we get you out?" Alex asks. "Aren't there circumstances to leaving?".
"There's a quick way to do it" Ruby says as she leans over and exposes the back of her neck. "Kill me, so I don't have to report back".
The crew was shocked. "We're not going to do that" Siran says.
"Why not?" Ruby asks. "We're still enemies. Don't think I'm on your side here. I'm on neither side. Let me go and you'll likely pay for it".
"What if we do let you go and we don't have to pay for it?" Siran asks.
"... what?" Ruby asks, disappointed by Siran's answer.
"There's another way for you to not have to work with them" Siran says, "although it will take a while. You stay with them, and when the time comes, you help us kill them".
"I don't think you heard me the first time" Ruby says. "I'm not on your side. Why would I help you?".
"For the benefit, obviously" Siran says.
"You live in a strange fantasy" Ruby says with a laugh, "in what world would your enemy just work for you?".
"I'm not telling you to pick our side" Siran says. "This choice is yours to make. Decide who you hate more, us or them?". Ruby was silent for a little while. "No answer?" Siran asks.
"If I tell you my answer, your head will fill with more dumb fantasies" Ruby says. "Look, kill me, or there is no deal".
"This is getting pretty dark" Alex says.
"Guess we'll have to keep you prisoner then" Siran says. "I already said I'm not killing you right now, so I guess there's no deal after all".
"It's like they're having a contest on who's more stubborn" Rose says.
"Take her with us" Siran says. Alex ties her up more tightly and puts her on the backseat of his motorcycle. Alex put a gag over her mouth and they got ready to take off again. "We're taking her to Vega" Siran says.
"Why Vega?" Demetri asks.
"Because" Siran says, "we can hold her there, and it'll be a hard place to escape when you're a Mage that everyone in Vega would like to see dead".
"But isn't dying what she wants?" Finn asks.
"At this point, it's a win-win" Siran says, "she lives, then she can remain an asset. She dies, she's no longer an obstacle. I don't have the patience to argue right now".
As they drive off towards Vega, Siran thinks to himself. "That shattered distortion spell" Siran says to himself, "when I hit it with reactive endo, it looked a lot like a rift. It was like a window into Valhalla. It's probably nothing, but this is something I need to look into".