Veronica Swordheart.
Melanie knew her during their childhood, but they were never friends nor enemies. They couldn't afford to be enemies due to their families status of being pillars of the UHA, so instead they avoided each other once they knew they couldn't get along.
Why couldn't they get along?
Well...
Melanie was walking over to the two people while burning away the muck they made. She even torched the corpses or what's left of them. Melanie didn't want to dirty her shoes as they were limited edition and blood was difficult to wash off.
The burning attracted Veronica's and John's attention causing them to raise their guard, but once they saw Melanie's eyes and normal appearance, they lowered their guard.
"My my...didn't expect you here Romanoff and wearing casual clothing. Did ya wanna look pretty while killing these monsters?"
The contrast between the messy blood covered appearance of the two and Melanie's clean white attire of a hoodie and dolphin shorts was apparent. Added to that, Melanie's lip started twitching at Veronica's teasing and her smug look. Nevertheless, Melanie shot back with her own quip.
"No Swordheart, I don't need to wear a combat attire for something beneath me unlike someone here."
"Ha so how many monsters have you killed then?"
"..."
"Oh quiet now huh?"
This was a common occurrence between them ever since they were little. Their passive aggressive behavior around each other could be something like what siblings would do if they were related that is. Plus their opposing personalities didn't fit since one was skilled in navigating through the aristocratic world while the other prefers to train by the sword whenever possible making her the oddball of aristocrat society. Though strangely enough, both had no friends for differing reasons yet they still avoid each other whenever possible.
"Ahem, excuse me Melanie, do you know what's going on?"
John, upon seeing their exchange, cough a little to interrupt their 'conversation' and decided to take it from here. Ignoring Veronica, Melanie turned her head to John Blackhorn, the young man that Veronica has been trying to woo since meeting him in this academy.
"No I just woke up...nearby."
John and Veronica raised their guard at her unusual answer even though Melanie didn't have red and black eyes or any signs of being like 'them'. Confused by their reaction, Melanie backed off a little and raised her guard while asking, "What type of reaction is that? You do know how treasonous it is to raise your arms against me?"
sigh
[We don't mean harm.]
Tired of the shenanigans, Jen decided to show herself since Veronica would immediately know and this seems like an emergency so she was technically authorized to reveal herself to John.
"IS SHE AN AI?"
John freaked out but Veronica calmed down upon seeing a paxian. She knew what a paxian was since her family was included in that knowledge, but Veronica refused to hire one for cyber protection since it'll give her a reason to fight whomever try to hack her. Plus Veronica didn't care much about the deepfakes of her going around the cyberspace nor did her family.
"Relax dearie, she's on our side right little cutie?"
In full form, Jen crossed her arms and rolled her eyes but responded with 'obviously'.
[Also name's Jen.]
This caused Veronica to relax and eventually John upon seeing her guard down. This prompted Melanie to finally get some answers.
"Okay then? Explain what's going on here then. Like for starters this."
Melanie pointed at a corpse of a former student with grotesque protrusions coming out of different parts of their bodies. Before John could politely answer her, Veronica butt in with a straightforward one.
"We don't know but people have either been turning undead or insane. No, not like zombies since they can still move after decapitation or a fatal hit, so dismembering does the trick. We also don't know how they're turning insane but we do know how they become undead and it's not very pretty. So can we head over to get ma swords or should we help whoever was firing those guns over there?"
Veronica pointed towards Pleasantville with her blood covered thumb. Melanie turned to look in that direction but she was too far to see anything aside from the buildings that appeared unattended. Then she look back at Veronica, contemplating whether to stick by them or go solo. But in the end, the logical thing was to stick together against an unknown enemy.
"Fine let's go check for survivors over there."
"I second that...plus your sword collection is the least of our concerns."
John mumbled under his breath but Veronica heard it and chose to ignore that to try getting into his good grace.
"Aye then let's stick to the outer edges."
"Why should I follow-I mean why take the long way around?"
Veronica was tempted to tease Melanie again, but reined herself in as well...she needed Melanie's firepower against the monsters. She hated to admit it, but in terms of sheer firepower, Melanie was stronger unlike Veronica's swordsmanship which relies on close quarter combat.
"Because Romanoff, aside from those crazy bastards, the undead ones are pretty crafty meaning they like to ambush when ya least expect it. Hell we used to have four other people with us but..."
Veronica shook her head as she remembered the brutal deaths of her fellow peers. She didn't particularly know them but considered anyone fighting alongside her a comrade.
[Oh I can bait them out]
Jen nonchalantly said, but Veronica dropped a truth bomb that stunned both Melanie and Jen.
"Sorry I didn't mention this to John because I don't know if I was allowed to, but the rogue AIs running around are paxians that turned insane much like us humans. So they might harm this little cutie."
"Excuse me?"
[WHAT?]
"Oh so those rogue AIs are like Jen but infected somehow?"
Melanie kept calm while Jen was visibly panicking. It was a given since Kat could be amongst them. She didn't want to admit it, but Kat was her best and only friend in her life...before meeting Melanie that is. Still, the thought of Kat turning insane and volatile was unnerving for her.
[WERE ANY OF THEM A GIRL MY AGE BUT WEARING ALL PINK?]
"None of the few we encountered match that image."
Veronica's calm tone and the hope that Kat wasn't turned gave some hope to Jen, revering back to her usual appearance though internally she was anxious now.
After a few more questions, the group decided to stick on the outer edge and circled to where the gunshots were.
Eventually in the distance, they saw two young men tirelessly fighting off extremely tall looking monsters while a middle age man was tinkering on something and a young woman was laying down seemingly unconscious.