Hetsu wrapped her hand tightly around the base of the mic, pulling it up to her mouth so far until she practically swallowed it. She arched her eyebrows, staring the boy in the eye. "Then who are you affiliated with?!"
Confusion spread across his face once more. He looked to the floor, his answer delayed through his overwhelming sense of betrayal. Shrugging off the unexpected question, Akino screamed back, "I'm affiliated with you!!!"
The court grew quiet. Hetsu stepped away from the mic, staring at him intently. He stared right back, his relentless gaze locked on her. Whispers followed soon after as people gossiped together. Makina stepped back into the stands, hiding behind the shadows as she let Matoi and Sakagami crawl their way through the people. Akino watched as they debated with Hideyo, trying to get through.
Suddenly, pounding could be heard in the distance. Makina lifted her head and uncrossed her arms, joining the others as they each stared ahead, curious as to what the cause of the abnormal sound was. Akino looked behind him, hearing it as well. The pounding became louder, almost loud enough to cause someone's ears to ring. It was almost rhythmic, like the sound of someone running. Without a single warning, the noise was on top of them. Akino and the others looked up, startled, as the glass dome above them shattered. Then, everything went black.
An obnoxious ringing echoed through Akino's eardrum as his conscious slowly returned to him. His eyes blinked open, finding himself slouched against a chunk of concrete and shattered floor tiles. He turned his head, looking around. Hovering over him was a massive beam of steel, sheltering him from the blinding light of the sun looming above him. He pushed himself up against the bed of crushed buildings beneath him. He winced, collapsing back down as his elbow snapped.
Letting his aching head read against the cold, blood stained steel, he peered through the cracks. He squinted his eyes, trying to focus and decipher the events unfolding behind the blinding rays of sunlight.
Suddenly, a set of fingers curled underneath the concrete slab above him. The slab was lifted up, exposing the person behind it. A bruised and dusty Sakagami leaned into the crevice and grabbed Akino's hand, dragging him out into the open.
Unfolding around him was a scene of anarchy. Behind him was ruminants of a Grand Hall Court Room, piled with crushed bodies. The sky was bright, so bright that it was hard to make out the details of the Stage Three stomping towards him.
Makina tumbled down the mound of destruction. Immediately picking herself up, Makina spun her head around and stumbled towards Akino and Sakagami. "You need to get out of here!"
"What about you?!" Sakagami stressed, her voice trembling.
"Makina!" Matoi cried as she plunged her weapon into the Compactor's neck, clinging tight as it trashed around in an attempt to shake her off. "I need you!"
The Omega turned around and flicked her wrist, spinning her weapon and ridding it of the monster's dirty blood. "Follow the crowd, go wherever they go. Got it?!"
Akino nodded, grabbing Sakagami's hand and pulling her into the street. Together, they ran North with the hundreds of other people frantically stumbling in that direction. Trees flattened behind them as Compactors stampeded through the streets, crushing anything in their way. Nobody could tell whether or not the snapping sound was coming from bent wood or broken necks. Sakagami looked behind her to see a hoard of Stage Three Compactors charging towards them. The sound of crushed bones and torn flesh overlapped the agonizing screams as the Compactors pushed forward. She screamed, gripping Akino's hand tighter as she followed the heels of the people in front of her.
Suddenly, the ocean of people was curving to a different direction. As Akino continued to run, he noticed the path blocked off by Omegas and Police, chaotically shouting at them to head towards the border. Akino quickly changed his direction and started towards the left, following with the crowd before someone gripped his arm, pulling him and Sakagami to the side of the street.
"Sakagami Family, follow me!" An Omega yelled, pulling them past the barricade that was mounted behind the guards.
Akino stumbled over the crumbled road towards an Omega bus. The ground shook beneath his feet as a building collapsed behind them, sending a cloud of dust and debris to envelope the area. Hauntingly, the screams paused once the building settled, killing countless. Shrapnel and other miscellaneous materials flew past him, scratching him and his mother as they flew past.
Akino's stomach turned as his new reality set in. He and Sakagami were ushered into the crowded bus and without a second to spare, the vehicle started speeding down the bumpy street, clouded with haze and cluttered with destruction. A body fell from above them, slamming onto the hood of the bus, painting the windshield in red. The bus driver frantically turned his wipers on, just in time for a Compactor to come into view.
"Oh no, turn around!" Sakagami screamed as they drove towards the creature's ankle.
"No, go forward! Go to Aminawa Bridge!" An Omega frantically instructed the driver.
The driver turned his wheel just as they reached the foot, rotating the car one hundred and eighty degrees. He then put the drive in reverse and backed down the road and away from the Compactor.
"You're insane!" Sakagami screeched.
"We have to be!" The Omega boasted.
Makina spun her blades over her head as she fell upon the Compactor's shoulders, slicing its neck open. With her blood running hot and her adrenaline high, Makina jumped off the shoulder and catapulted herself into the flesh of its neck, her blade pointing down towards it as she cut it in half from the inside, severing its core. The monster exploded into a puddle of blood as Makina caught her breath. Exhausted and leaning on her weapon for support, she turned her head, seeing Matoi arm-less and spread across a slab of concrete.
She noticed the street to her left, deserted of living people and leaving nothing but crumbled cement and crushed corpses. The screams in the distance grew quieter as the battle fled towards the border. Suddenly, a flock of Omegas flew overhead, catching Makina's attention. She checked her earpiece, holding her hand over her other ear to drown out the background noise. Static was all that was left so she pulled it out and chucked it across the remnants of the courtroom.
Matoi groaned, struggling to lift her head up with her sprained and bruised neck. She saw Makina walking towards her. Embarrassed at her current condition, she stated "I'm fine," before her colleague could ask.
"Everyone's heading towards the border," Makina said as she pulled Matoi off the slab, letting her lean on her for support. "They want to get these fuckers out of the capital… but the problem is that… they're leading them out with a crowd of innocent humans to follow."
"What?" Matoi gasped.
"So, we need to go. Is your earpiece working?" Makina asked, already walking into the street.
"No, it broke when the Compactor stomped on us."
"Shit," Makina cursed under her breath. "Anyway, we need to get out of here."
Matoi looked down at her severed arm. Bright blue strings that stemmed from the wound wrapped around one another, tightening together to create flesh until she regenerated completely. Clenching her fist to flex her muscles, Matoi followed behind Makina as they pushed out of the city.
"We're not flying?" Matoi asked, her uniform lighting up as her jetpack booted up.
Makina paused, looking at her from over her shoulder. She pushed her shoulder blades together in an attempt to power hers on. Matoi watched as the lights inside flickered and the motor failed, gas puffing out from between its shutters.
"Why the hell are these things so cheap?" Makina reached over her shoulders and unhooked the jetpack, dropping it in the street.
The girls looked ahead at a pile of vehicles pushed to the side of the road. A bloodied, elderly man crawled his way out of his car seat and onto the trembling street. Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. Matoi looked up to the sky, gasping as a Compactor transformed above them. A blinding light exploded in the sky as it transformed stages. Its titanic foot stomped onto the road, crushing the pile of cars and the elderly man beneath its heel. The man's blood splattered across the road, reaching the girls' feet.
Matoi stood in shock, her eyes wide as the Compactor stood in the billowing smoke from the flattened vehicles. Suddenly, Makina grabbed Matoi's hand and started pulling her away from the monster. "We don't have time for this. Let's go!"
"W-wait, the Compactor!" Matoi shouted, looking back at the monster feasting on the entrails spread along the pavement.
"It's too late, there's nothing we can do!" Makina shouted back, continuing down the street.
Matoi pulled her hand out of Makina's grasps and stumbled back, edging towards the Compactor. "I can kill it! If it follows us then that will just be one more Compactor to defeat later! Let's get this one while its alone!"
Makina stomped towards Matoi, her heels clicking against the concrete before stopping to slap Matoi across the face. Matoi leaned over herself, holding her red cheek as she stared angrily at her squad-mate. "Look at this, Matoi," Makina said with a certain familiar raspiness in her voice. "What's the point?! How are we going to cover this up?! There's like four Compactors going around destroying buildings and chasing people around the capital! Our job right now is to make sure nobody gets past the district's borders!"
A look of distrust spread across Matoi's face as she straightened her back, facing Makina head on. "What? No, we're supposed to be killing these things so that nobody else dies!"
Makina grabbed Matoi by the arm, pulling her close so she could hear. "This is not about their lives, its about Division-A's secret spreading across the city. If that happens, this will seem like nothing compared to the chaos that would come."
Suddenly, a series of bright lights flew over them. The two looked towards the sky, realizing it was a squad of Omegas heading west. A streak of light sped behind them, severing the Compactor in half and killing it within seconds.
"What are they doing?" Matoi asked, amazed by their skill.
"Unbelievable," Makina said, gritting her teeth. "They've released the Suicide Brigade."
Matoi turned her head, staring at her in horror. "You mean…"
"Yes, they're on a suicide mission. They're the senior, top ranking Omegas who are blessed with a lavish lifestyle. That is- until moments like these when they're forced to go on a crusade of sorts, giving up all care for their life in the hopes of killing these damn things."
"You're telling me that they're just running through the city killing them?!" Matoi turned around, watching as the Omegas flew past the sky line.
"Who knows how many of them were killed already. I didn't think I'd ever see…," Makina trailed off, the reality of her situation sinking in. Her eyes drifted to the bloodied, crumbled cement beneath her. Her heart started racing and her legs were shaking. Makina grabbed her aching head, nearly collapsing on herself without leaning on Matoi for support.
"Makina?!" Matoi pulled her up, looking around frantically for help. "Damn it…!" The brunette limped down the road, dragging Makina along. "What's wrong with you?!"
Akino sat impatiently on the bus, peeling the crusted blood off his finger tips as he stared out the window. Aminawa Bridge was flooded with vehicles of all kinds, honking and pushing into each other. Motorcycles squeezed in between them and people left and right were choosing to move by foot instead of waiting for the traffic jam to dissolve.
Behind Akino's bus was a hoard of traffic guards running back and forth, yelling to one another through their radios. Cars were grinding against the other, rear-ending whoever was in front of them. Unexpectedly, the entrance to the bridge from the South District was closed, leaving the people blocked off from rescue. The screams got louder, prompting Akino and Sakagami to turn around, looking out the scratched emergency door window.
Racing down the street was a massive, two story bus. It zoomed past the closed security gate, breaking it in half. People started rushing out of their vehicles, running to the sides of the bridge as the bus continued, crushing any car that was in its way. Akino watched as people ran past his bus. He stared into the driver's rearview mirror, noticing two familiar faces. He shot up from his seat and darted to the front of the bus, leaning out of the open doors and shouting down the lane.
"Yukino, Miki!" He cried as his friends ran towards him, the bus nearing closer.
Random people started stammering into the bus, shoving Akino to the side. He reached his arm out, unable to see them anymore. He felt someone grasp his hand and without a second thought, he collected all his weight and pulled them in, falling to the ground. The three of them climbed off the bus floor, quickly reaching for a pole to support them as the bus behind them crashed into their backside. Their vehicle lunged forward, flinging people ahead and slamming them into booths and windows.