Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

[MISSION BRIEFING]

DATE:15/11/19 [4 MONTHS BEFORE MISSION:IRIS]

TIME:0020

LOCATION: SECTOR 56 MATA BASE 

OPERATION ZONE: SOLAR ENERGY FACILITY [SOUTH-SOUTHEAST CYBERAYA]

OPERATING AGENTS: BAKAR [KOMBAT]. JENNY [TEKNO]. RIZWAN [INVISO]. ALICIA [NEURO]

OBJECTIVE: INVESTIGATE DISSAPEARENCES

AVOID COMBAT AT ALL COSTS.

The faint hum of reactors and electricity reverbrates throughout the facility. Four agents, 3 adults and 1 cadet (for some probably classified reasons) stroll through the catwalks. The cadet, Alicia Kheng, is especially excited for this mission, because it is her first time on the field. 

Usually, she would just be training at HQ or maybe the Sector 56 base, all much to her caretaker's dismay, but today's the real deal. Her caretaker had allowed her to go on this mission, but she must be under high supervision from the other agents, just so she doesn't get hurt.

Talk about foreshadowing...

The team of 4 splits into 3 fronts. Bakar, the Kombat agent, a somewhat meaty man, will go to the storage warehouse to the south. Jenny, female Tekno agent and with high expertise in technology, will go to the control room towards the east. Rizwan, the Inviso agent and the leader of this team, along with Alicia, Neuro agent and a young cadet, will go to the main reactor.

And just incase one of them gets attacked, they can call backup, both currently on the field and back at base. And as advised by their general, General Rama, they are not encourage to attack unless provoked.

[MINUTES LATER]

Bakar checks around the warehouse, making sure to avoid being detected by the guards on-duty. While he sneaks around the containers and boxes, a sudden and unexpected blast rumbles through the large room. The guards immedeatly go to ground zero to investigate.

From the huge cloud of dust and broken concrete, a figure rises up. In what almost looks to be a show of intimidation, it unfurls a collection of individual pairs wings, 4 pairs in total, each glowing a bright yellow with the faint silhouette of weaponry engrained onto them.

It's head, resembling a security camera with it's singular, yellow eye and a long head, covered in blue plating, scans the area. It body is covered in steel plating, having the same navy blue coloring as it's head. It stood tall among the guards, who were a mix of confusion and horror.

With a swift motion, almost in an instant, it sweeps some of the guards away. The other guards charge in to attack, but is disarmed and knocked out in quick and brutal attacks. Bakar calls for backup and prepares for unavoidable combat.

He grabs a box nearby and throws it at the nearly 6ft tall machine of war to distract it. It looks it the direction of the agent and prepares to dash towards it. With the swift shuffle of metal and machinery, it closes in. Bakar activates his Plasma shields, weilded on his forearms, and braces for contact.

The machine lands a powerful punch on the shield, sending the man back a few steps. The machine calculates an approach and veers to the left, coming in for another blow. Bakar blocks and counters with a punch of his own. The machine steps back and recalculates, tagging the fists as 'DANGER' and the body as 'WEAKPOINT'.

Bakar doesn't wait and comes in for a punch, the machine dodges with insane speed. It then blocks one of his punches and lands a powerful punch square in the chest, sending the man flying into a pile of boxes. It approaches and prepares to finish the job when all of a sudden.

BANG!

A projectile smacks it in the face, or rather, the eye. Alicia has arrived. But wait, where's Rizwan?

The machine deems the new signature as 'HOSTILE' and prepares for combat. It comes in for a kick, but Alicia rolls to the side. It follows up with a punch, but that too was dodged. It starts calculating her next move and comes back in for another.

Alicia rolls to the side and prepares to fire her high-tech slingshot. The machine blocks the bullets with it's forearm and charges in when a brutal kick lands right on it's chest. Rizwan's here.

It stumbles back and prepares to counter when it is intercepted by Bakar and tackled into a wall. It pushes the man back and analyses the situation.

HOSTILES: 3

CALLSIGN: ALICIA 

CALLSIGN: RIZWAN

CALLSIGN: BAKAR

PREDICTING ATTACKS... DONE

GENERATING ATTACK PLAN... DONE

PROCEED? Y

It reaches for one of it's wings, and pulls out a revolver. It takes aim and fires, the shot of energy whizzing past Bakar and Rizwan. Rizwan was the first to attack, charging in with his insane speed.

The machine takes aim on the approaching man and fires more. He dashes between the shots and gets within melee range and hits the machine with a jab to the neck. The machine staggers for a bit, giving Bakar room to land a punch to the stomach. It blows back with a swing, but Bakar blocks it and throws the machine away.

It rises up and goes in for a counterattack but is pinned back by Alicia's slingshot projectiles. It fires back with it's revolver, which gives the two men enough time to get close and deal a jointed combo on the machine, finalising with a jointed punch.

The machine gets up once more, reassesses the situation and comes in once more. Predicting the projectiles' trajectory, it dashes past them and closes in on Rizwan. The two then began exchanging blows, trading each punch and jab with extreme precision. As Rizwan goes in for a jab to the neck, a common knock-out spot for his pressurised gloved, the machine parries it and hits the agent with a punch to the chest, staggering him and allowing the machine to follow up with a kick, sending him flying.

Seeing this, Bakar and Alicia join up for an attack. Bakar comes in for a barrage of punches, all of which blocked or dodged with ease. Alicia's suppressive fire proved to be ineffective as all of them were dodged.

The machine kicks back Bakar and aims it's gun at Alicia. She dodges the shot and continues firing. Each shot punched away, all except one. The machine parried one of the projectiles right back at her. That projectile proceeded to smash straight into her right eye.

The aftermath was bloody. The projectile had popped the eye like a gory water balloon. What had remained was a bloody mess. She fell to the floor, clutching the missing eye, and letting out a pained yelp. One that signaled that it was bad.

Bakar tackled the machine while Rizwan went to check up on Alicia. Seeing her condition, he called for backup. Someone... anyone...

Bakar orders Rizwan to carry Alicia to Jenny, or at least away from here. The Inviso agent obliged and went to go get help. Bakar meanwhile stood firm against the machine. With a warcry, they charge towards eachother.

Jenny ran towards the warehouse after hearing Rizwan's signal. Then she sees it, Rizwan carrying Alicia, suit covered in the cadet's blood.

"What happened?!" The Tekno asks.

"No time! We have to go!" Rizwan orders, followed by the sound of crashing metal and wood from the warehouse.

The two adults charge forwards towards the exit. The continued sound of the battle behind following them closely. Soon they meet the backup team, General Rama (Neuro) and his squad (Rajesh, Kombat. Razman, Tekno. Rahul, Inviso). All equally distressed by the news.

The General orders the two to get out as they charge towards the warehouse. They oblige and began making their way to the exit when they are blocked by the machine. Bakar then comes back for seconds, crashing down from the vents above and pinning the machine down.

The machine, noticing the sudden increase in hostiles, knocks Bakar off and fires an explosive shot onto the ceiling before dashing away. 

"GET BACK HERE!" Bakar yells as he gives chase, stopping as he notices the collapsing ceiling. 

As the roof fell, he felt someone push him from behind. He fell forwards, away from the rubble. He looked back, a look of terror instantly covering his face.

It was the cadet, Alicia. 

[EJEN ALI - PAINT THE WORLD RED]

SECTOR 45 BASE - RESEARCH CENTRE: 0145

20/03/20

That night, two bandits, Dos, an agile female adversary equipped with taser darts, dubbed 'ShoxStix', and Trez, a mountain of muscle with cybernetic enhancements in his arm, sneak into a M.A.T.A. Research Center located to the north.

After a minor struggle with the Droids, AI robots equipped for combat, when breaching into the facility, Trez takes over the CCTV room, while Dos disguises herself as a scientist by stealing Agent Jenny's clothes in the locker room.

When heading for their target, she meets Agent Bakar. The man, gullible as ever, lets her through, after a failed attempt at flirting her (me fr). Dos then enters a room using Jenny's tablet, and finds a prototype disk-shaped device with a metal and glass shell. Bingo.

Dos is about to take the device when all of a sudden the emergency alarm sounds. When Bakar and the M.A.T.A. droids enter the room, they find that Dos has escaped through the air vents, taking the device with her.

ALI BIN GHAZALI, SON OF DR GHAZALI [ONE OF CYBERAYA'S HEAD MINISTERS]

AGE: 12

GENDER: MALE (DUH)

THE NEXT DAY [21/03/20]

Ali wakes up after hearing a call from his father and realizes that he's late for school. After hastily changing his clothes, he rides his scooter and speeds to school, accidentally bumping into Aunty Faye, causing her to fall into the bushes along the way. After an encounter with Shaun and Syed in an alleway, those two being known bullies in his school, he continues his journey to get to school ASAP.

Meanwhile, Dos arrives at a stall called 'Cyber ​​Nasi Lemak' and places the stolen device in a green box, leaving the password "Tempoyak Udang" to the vendor.

Ali goes down a flight of stairs and almost hits a cat and the stall, but manages to stop himself. Ali orders nasi lemak and asks for the side dish "Tempoyak Udang", which surprises the vendor, Wak Musang, who then gives him the green box containing the device without charge.

Hearing the bell ring, Ali rushes to school, knowing that class has started and he is very late. A few moments later, a man dressed in black comes to Wak's stall and asks for "Tempoyak Udang". Wak then realizes that he has the wrong person.

At school, it was pretty usual for Ali. He is late, so he gets reprimanded by his teacher, Miss Munah for it aswell as failing in mathematics. His friend, Viktor, greets him with his cheerful nature as always. After that, it was a normal math class.

During recess, Ali chats with Viktor about his test results and asks him ways to improve his score. Ali carries the box of nasi lemak before inviting Viktor to go hide from the two bullies who are looking for him.

Ali and Viktor go hide in the men's bathroom. Ali feels ashamed for trying to help a bullied student earlier since now they had to hide in the men's bathroom of all places, but Viktor then reads a sentence from his tablet in the context of the conversation:

"Courage is not when you fight and win, but when you continue to fight for a noble cause despite facing numerous challenges."

At the same time, the device inside the nasi lemak box starts flashing, indicating that a tracking signal has been activated.

Meanwhile, at an abandoned construction site, Dos and Trez receive instructions from their leader via mobile computer to quickly find the device because 'MATA' has installed a tracking device on it and are quickly closing in on it.

Outside of the school gate, Ali shows off his newly learnt yo-yo to Viktor. After Viktor's mother's car arrives, Viktor invites Ali to play the game Detective Jebat, which is shown on Ali's tablet, later and then gets in the car and leaves.

Then, from behind Ali, Bakar appears, who turns out to be his uncle. After some proper greeting and a little joking on his height (he's 12 yet he's like 140cm tall, which is like >5ft), Bakar accompanies Ali to Zali Mart, a local mart in the district. As they walk there, Bakar's phone shows that he is currently with his objective, which is the device Ali had mistakenly took.

After Ali and Bakar enter the shop, Ali takes a bag of bread to buy, but then notices Bakar checking their surroundings. He dismissed it as Bakar just being Bakar, the overly gullible man he calls an uncle.

But then when they get to the back of the shop, Bakar asks Ali if he had taken anything that didn't belong to him, he checks his uniform and finds nothing. Bakar told Ali that he was in danger and takes Ali to another corner but sees Dos, cornering them.

Trez sees them from behind and pushes a shelf towards Bakar and Ali. Bakar manages to push Ali away so that he wouldn't be hit by the shelf and told him to run. So, Ali ran away on his scooter, followed closely by Dos who appeares from behind and activates her shoe accelerator to chase Ali down.

Meanwhile, Bakar fights Trez inside the shop. He is pushed back, so Bakar takes a bug spray and aims it at Trez's face, temporarily blinding the man. Outside, Dos quickly intercepts Ali, causing Ali to fall and get knocked out.

Ali is then taken to an abandoned development area He asks Dos what she wants from him. Dos then takes out a small, but very powerful device called the 'Infinity Retinal Intelligence System' or 'IRIS' from his nasi lemak box. Dos, seeing Ali's small size, guesses that Ali is nine years old and also guesses that he is one of the child agents/cadets trained by MATA. Ali wonders what this 'MATA' is and also why people keep calling him a nine year old.

Trez then takes out the contents of his bag, which earned an upset shout from Ali.

"Watch it! You can't just do that to people's stuff!" He exclaims (or whatever idk what would fit)

"Aww... look at him! He's all cute when he's angry" Trez teases

"Heh, I'm way cuter!"

Just then, Bakar comes from behind Trez and throws him away into a pile of boxes. As he goes to untie his nephew, Ali asks who these people are and whatever the fuck this has to do with him, among other things.

Then the agent comes face to face with Dos, who still remembers that failed flirting attempt yesterday. 

"Please cooperate, miss. Return the IRIS, and all of us could-" he suggest, being cut off by getting his legs sweeped.

He stands back up, and continues. "Miss, no violence please. I will never do anything to harm you"

Dos pulls out her ShoxStix from her hairbun and charges in. 

"Wait miss! Don't be like this! Not ladylike!" He mutters whilst dodging her jabs.

From behind, Trez comes in for an overhead slam, which collides with Bakar's fist, causing a huge shockwave to ripple across the building. Bakar is overpowered and is knocked onto his back. 

"Oof, that hurt" he mutters.

"How was that? Want some more?" Trez challenges.

He stands back up and tells Ali to go, which Ali obliges as he grabs his bag and bails. Dos tells Trez to stop the boy, but Trez denies it, since he's just a frail kid, it'd just be a waste of time, throwing shade of Bakar's body shape in the meantime.

With a charge, the two men grapple with one another. Each landing and blocking hits. Dos comes from the side with her darts at hand. Not trying to get electrecuted, he dodges the numerous jabs. 

Trez punches the ground and creates a shockwave to stagger Bakar while Dos jumps to avoid it. Dos throws her ShoxStix at Bakar's face but Bakar manages to barely catch it. Trez pushes Bakar from behind and tries to punch him. Bakar dodges, causing Trez to hit a pole.

At the same time, Ali runs down the stairs and falls over due to the shockwave above. His tablet was thrown out of his bag. Ali looks at his tablet and remembers Viktor's words while in the bathroom earlier that day.

"Courage is not when you fight and win, but when you continue to fight for a noble cause despite facing numerous challenges."

Bakar is starting to lose energy as he is locked into just dodging. Noticing Trez standing still, he thinks the man was tired too.

"That's all? Come at me!" He challenges tiredly 

Trez smirks, followed up by Bakar being zapped from behind by Dos' dart. He is then cuffed to a pole. He struggles to break free as Dos walks back to the mobile computer, stunned by Ali just standing there about to take the IRIS.

Dos charges in to intercept, causing Ali to start panicking. Bakar tells him to use the device, which Ali tries to by putting it infront of him, the 'head' facing the bandits. 

"HYAAAH!!"

At first, nothing happened. In confusion, Ali presses the center of the device and it finally activates, scanning Ali's face and transforming into glasses that lands on Ali's face. Ali's view changes into an easy-to-read data graphic UI. Guided by IRIS, Ali dodges Dos's Shox Stix.

Trez hits the floor causing a shockwave, causing Ali to lose balance and be thrown out of the building. Ali survives by hanging onto a rope hanging outside the building. IRIS suggests that they climb down to the nearest floor level, but Ali didn't have time to do so because Trez was pulling the rope up to the original floor.

Instead, Ali sneaks up next to Dos and Trez without being noticed. Once they noticed, Dos and Trez repeat their original attacks, all of which Ali was able to dodge, guided by IRIS, even causing the two bandits to collide into eachother. Dos is knocked away, overpowered by Trez's sheer mass, and is temporarily knocked out.

While this happens, Bakar tries to find ways to break free using some stuff from Ali's bag. Finding a somewhat powerful laser, he uses it to break the cuffs.

IRIS signals that Ali is running out of energy, and that Trez is chasing him from behind. IRIS plans for Ali to bait Trez into hitting the floor until a hole is made, which is what Ali does several times

"Stop running, brat!" Trez yells

"Aww... you're really cute when you're angry!" Ali teases

Trez angrily punches the floor, causing it to crack, alerting Bakar.

"Ali, stop! The floor will collapse!" Bakar shouts

"Wha- UNCLE!" Ali yelled back

"Oh... i see" the man grimaces, realising he just fucked up HARD

Plan foiled... oof. Now what?

Trez stops using punches and opts to just grab the boy. Dos wakes up and sees the opportunity to hinder Ali. She then appears from behild a support pillar and knocks out a shelf, causing Ali to dive out of the way and leaving him exposed and tired.

Bakar finally breaks free and manages to push Trez who is approaching Ali. The push is so strong that it finally causes the floor to crack under them. The two men fall down to the floor below. The last thing Ali saw before he goes unconcious was Bakar climbing back up from the hole.

The IRIS detaches from Ali's face, dropping onto the floor in it's normal form. Dos and Bakar race to get a hold of the IRIS, which Bakar won. As he taps it to use it, it denies him access. Dos takes this opportunity to kick Bakar right in the nuts, causing the man to fall to his knees.

Then, a voice from the computer, their boss, orders her and Trez to get out of there as MATA reinforcements are coming. She quickly grabs the computer and jumps down the newly-formed hole, escaping.

Ali regains consciousness in the control room of one of MATA's secret bases, Sector 56's to be exact, greeted by Bakar and Agent Jenny at his side, as well as General Rama who is glued to the screen in front of him.

Jenny explains to Ali that IRIS is a prototype device created by MATA that synchronizes with its wearer and analyzes all information it receives to provide extraordinary vision enhanced through computer perception.

General Rama interjects in a stern tone that once IRIS is activated, it cannot be used by anyone else. On top of that, the IRIS project had been halted after initial tests revealed unexpected risks, mainly energy concerns involving the user's stamina.

General Rama orders to eliminate him, dropping a drone from the ceiling because he already knew too much for a normal citizen. Bakar pleads to save his life by bringing up an idea to lock up the young Ali forever. Jenny suggests that Ali be trained as an agent while she tries to separate IRIS from Ali.

Bakar is less than pleased with the proposal, but Rama accepts and says that Ali has become a MATA's subjugation and is required to begin training tomorrow.

As Bakar escorts the boy back to the surface, a figure stood by the doorway, unnoticed by the two men. Clad in yellow and black, one singular eye shining brightly. With a stern, slightly feminine voice, it mutters.

"This'll be interesting"

Chapter Text

BOOT UP SEQUENCE READY

FIRMWARE:

LATEST VERSION  [2020. 11. 22]

CALIBRATION:

EXPIRED [DAMAGED]

NEW CALIBRATION REQUIRED

BEGINNING CALIBRATION...

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

PRIMARY SETTINGS UPDATED

ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL. LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: MATA HEADQUARTERS [CLASSIFIED COORDINATES]

OBJECTIVE: RECOVER

THE BLOOD SEEPS

THROUGH THIS ORGANIC FRAME

and the sound is... EMPYREAN

"ugh... where am I..?"

Alicia wakes up from her bed. Dim lights fill the room. Buzzing rythmically to the sound of medical equipment in there with her. It's the Medical Wing of HQ. Far away from where she blacked out.

She scans the room, no one's here except her. How odd...

She blinks once, twice, thrice. No pain at all... She looks to mirror to her right. Her right eye had been rebuilt, a small yellow glow eminating from the centre of the iris. She notices quickly something missing, something big. 

Her left arm, gone. The only thing left being a barely-noticable metal socket where the shoulder used to be. There was also a steady, barely audible hum form her chest. Everytime she took a breath, it grew louder, and everytime she let it out, it grew quieter.

Something had happened when she blacked out, and it nearly costed her life. 

She let out a sigh, less frustrated and more of relief. She survived that encounter, somehow, and barely. 

She looks to the entrance, the light from the hallway outside beaming through majestically. There were people walking past, but nobody actually got in there to check up on her. 

Maybe she just needs more time to rest... maybe...

She lets out a yawn, long and dragging, and goes back to bed, tucking herself in closely.

Just then, her caretaker steps in. He walks towards her bed, and gives a gentle pat on her head before walking back out.

DATE: 25/03/20

TIME: 2130

LOCATION: TOWER ALPHA (DR. TONG)

"Yes, what do you want Dr Aaron?" 

"Dr. Tong, may I show you my latest creation?"

"You have five minutes"

Dr. Aaron Edison shows his latest creation, a modified helmet, to his employer, Dr. Tong.

For a demonstration, Dr. Aaron puts on the helmet and deliberately knocks over a trash can, then told Bob, one of the security guards, to clean up the spilled trash.

Laughed at by Bob, Dr. Aaron used the helmet to make a call on Bob's cell phone. Bob answered the call and was suddenly hypnotized. By hypnotizing Bob over the phone, Dr. Aaron managed to get Bob to clean up the trash, and even sat down and shook hands with Dr. Aaron.

Dr. Aaron explains that his invention could program the human brain to overcome the human nature of workers with the goal of advancing humanity to a higher level and uniting the world.

Dr. Tong criticized Dr. Aaron's invention because he feared that he had neglected his responsibilities as a scientist by creating a mind-control device that took away the freedom of the human soul, and he even threatened to remove Dr. Aaron from his position. Feeling resentful, Dr. Aaron hypnotized his employer in the same way as Bob by calling and holding Dr. Tong's phone to his ear.

DATE: 26/03/20

TIME: 0530

LOCATION: ALI'S ROOM

Ali activates the IRIS, and comes in to save Bakar who was cuffed to a pole. Against him stood Dos and Trez. The IRIS gives him a quick scan of the room, and he immedeatly goes  on the offensive. 

Dos throws a few of her Shox Stix, which Ali dodged past Matrix style, catching one of the out of the air and throwing it towards Trez. The dart does it's thing and electrecutes Trez, causing him to fall over and be crushed by a box he was going to throw at Ali.

Dos charges in, Shox Stix in hand, and leaps after him. The IRIS gives him a quick plan of attack, which Ali follows as he, too, charges in. After the jousting, the two stood still. 

...

...

...

thud

Dos falls, leaving Ali victorious. 

[Inset sick-as-hell explosion here idfk]

"Ali!"

"AAH-" thud

Ali is jolted awake by his uncle, Bakar, causing him to roll of his bed. He gets up and asks what's that for, in which Bakar gives one rule (of many to come):

"Rule number one, an agent must always be on alert"

Bakar takes Ali to the playground to undergo tons of physical training; all of which Ali could not go through smoothly, causing Bakar to feel a little disappointed. After finishing training, Ali asked why he had to undergo training even though he already had I.R.I.S. Bakar advised him to hone his own abilities without relying on I.R.I.S., and the results of the training would determine which of the four cores Ali would join in the future.

Ali asks what the cores are, hence Bakar describes the four cores of MATA according to the abilities of its member agents:

NEURO, the most knowledgeable of agents, collecting all the information to organize a strategy against threats and make sure missions go as smoothly as possible

TEKNO, technology experts creating sophisticated equipment and complex weapons. They are the ones who equip the team with their weaponries.

INVISO: agile and cunning agents, experties in using tricks and disguises. Those who would attack and escape without being seen nor detected.

And finally,

KOMBAT, reliable and strong agents, and handsome like himself (as an added bonus). They are the frontline troops of MATA

The explanation made Ali excited to join the cores, but Bakar orderes Ali to work hard first, and go get ready for school.

School, it was a mess. He tried using IRIS to... well... cheat. Honestly, he had it coming for him. 

During recess, he is called over by Bakar, who is "working" (more like disguising) as a janitor and tells him that they have a new mission.

With the help of an agent who announces the school will be closed early due to a haze warning (despite the bright, clear skies), Ali and Bakar sneaks into the library building without the librarian noticing and reaches for a book which was a disguise for the access switch to a secret door that appeares in a nearby cylindrical pillar.

Ali and Bakar take the elevator down to Sector 56's base. Ali asks about the secret doors, in which Bakar explaines that there are many more around the school, including one in the toilet that is blocked for "repairs".

Their arrival is greeted by General Rama on the screen who tells Jenny to prepare them. A pair of small drones comes out to scan Ali's body and put him in a special red, blue and black suit. Bakar also finishes putting on his suit and styled Ali's hair in a sick-ass hairdo to conceal his identity (and look more handsome).

Jenny explains to Ali that he is wearing a special suit equipped with a communication device, a life sensor and a homing device (target lock) so that his location and condition is always monitored, and that the suit also contained micro-shield particles that increased his durability without affecting the wearer's movement.

Ali is confused by the long explanation, so Jenny summs it up as "light but strong." Jenny also hands over a blue yo-yo equipped with the latest technology; Ali accidentally sets off a blast wave with the yo-yo, sending him flying onto a chair. Ali is very much impressed with his new equipment.

Jenny installs the desk panel and finds out that Ali had used IRIS earlier this morning. Ali shamefully admitts it, General Rama then scolds him for misusing mission equipment for personal purposes, reminding him that had Ali joined MATA solely because he accidentally activated IRIS Jenny continues her explanation that IRIS works by sucking the energy of its user, so excessive use can cause fainting.

Rama announces the mission to investigate the incident where Dr. Tong, a head leader of Cyberaya, suddenly handed over the position of CEO of his company 'Tong Industries' to Dr. Aaron under suspicious circumstances, wanting Ali and Bakar to infiltrate Alpha Tower and use IRIS to investigate and report information to MATA.

Ali askes why not save Dr. Tong; that's when Rizwan appeared, sucking a lollipop

"That would be my job"

Rama explains that all intelligence results must be handed over to Rizwan. Rizwan insisted that IRIS must only be used to track down Dr. Tong, and then expresses his annoyance at having to bring a boy to the mission, telling Ali not to jeopardize the mission, accidentally or not. Rama ended the briefing with the order to "ACT IMMEDEATLY!"

On their way to Alpha Tower, Bakar answers Ali's questions about Rizwan, telling him that he was the most reliable agent in all of MATA. They soon arrive at the main entrance, which is guarded by four hypnotized guards.

Bakar asked to see Dr. Tong on important business but was refused. Through the communication device, Bakar requested permission from Rama to neutralize the obstacle but Rama refuses because he does not want to cause chaos, instead telling Ali to activate IRIS.

I.R.I.S. scans the building structure and suggests they follow through the loading area at the back, so Ali and Bakar hide in a shipping box that was unloaded from a lorry into the warehouse. Heading to the lobby, Ali detects a security camera that was present which is disabled by Jenny from the control room.

At Bakar's signal, Ali deciphers the passcode to take the elevator, and they go up to Dr. Tong's office level. Upon arrival, Ali rushes out but was stopped by Bakar to avoid detection. Ali activates X-Vision on IRIS and finds a safe route to approach Dr. Tong's office.

As soon as he gets close, Ali signaled to stop because there are four guards with electric batons nearvy. Bakar tries to contact the control room to report the status, but there was a signal interference.

Ali plans to enter through the air duct, so they did. Ali was able to enter, but Bakar couldn't fit, so Ali moved on to Dr. Tong's room on Bakar's instructions who also tells him not to do anything other than report what he has witnessed. Ali arrived at the area and sees Dr. Aaron cursing Dr. Tong who was hypnotized along with Bob and the other guards.

Ali accidentally gets pushed by the duct door and falls. Greeted by Dr. Aaron, Ali says he wanted to see Dr. Tong, but IRIS showed Dr. Aaron's mind control with his helmet, making Ali question Dr. Aaron.

Dr. Aaron realized that Ali was a spy and orders the guards to arrest him while he takes Dr. Tong and Bob away. Bakar rushed to Dr. Tong's office and saves Ali by grabbing the electric baton from a guard, jumping on the guard and throwing it at three other guards. Ali tells him that Dr. Aaron and the others were going downstairs, so they quickly chase them.

From the mezzanine level, Ali quickly arrives at the lobby floor by hanging from the balcony with his yo-yo. Seeing Dr. Aaron and the others heading for the exit, Ali knocks down a decorative statue hanging from the ceiling with his yo-yo to block their way.

Bakar arrives at the lobby after slowly going down the escalator. Surrounded by a group of guards with electric batons, Bakar orders Ali to step aside while dealing with the guards. Ali offered to help, but Bakar orderes him to hide. At the same time, a guard jumped Bakar from behind, and Bakar responded by jumping back.

IRIS spots another guard heading towards Ali, so he uses his yo-yo to knock the baton off and knock him down with a shockwave. Ali repeats the attack as the other guards were attacking Bakar.

Bakar tells him not to play around as he swings a guard towards the other guards surrounding him. However, Ali bounces his yo-yo towards a fence and knocks down all the guards. Bakar was also knocked down from the wave, making Ali feel completely at fault.

Dr. Aaron is amused to see Ali's carelessness making his job easier and orders all the remaining guards to catch the boy. Ali evades all attempts to catch him. He runs towards a escalator, which had been blocked by two guards.

With IRIS's guidance, he slides under one of the guards. After riding the escalator to the mezzanine level, Ali hangs from the balcony with the yoyo to avoid all the guards there until he falls and crashes onto the guards down in the lobby.

Ali climbes the rows of metal railings and counters at the front of the Tower to avoid being caught by the guards coming from all directions. IRIS orders Ali to run to the left at the end of the row but he trips over the edge of a counter and falls.

Ali is then grabbed by two guards and brought before Dr. Aaron to "impress" him via phone call. The guard on Ali's right pointed the ringing phone at Ali's ear, then suddenly threw it away and revealed himself as Agent Rizwan in disguise, reminding Ali about not jeopardizing the mission.

Shocked and angry, Dr. Aaron orders all the remaining guards to eliminate Rizwan. Rizwan takes action by knocking down every guard around him with a flick of his Pressure Point Gloves. Ali is stunned to see the senior agent's agility in easily subduing the opposing horde. Rizwan chews a lollipop in his mouth, breaking it, and then throwing the lollipop stick at Dr. Tong's neck, hitting him in a critical weakpoint and knocking him out.

Rizwan then removes Dr. Aaron's mind control helmet, waking Dr. Tong and all the guards from the hypnosis. Finally, Dr. Tong officially fires Dr. Aaron.

Bakar wakes up from his unconscious state, having missed the entire fight. Ali apologizes for being stubborn and admits that he is not yet qualified to be an agent. Regardless, Bakar says Ali is "not bad" and tells him to train again to be great.

Rizwan orders Ali to return to headquarters to face action after his superiors reviewed the footage from IRIS, which makes Ali nervous. In the control room, Ali is sentenced to retake the math test from the morning without the help of IRIS under the supervision of General Rama and an armed drone. Rama gives Ali a stern warning to never misuse IRIS again, which Ali describes this punishment as more severe than Ms. Munah's.

A group of crooks, armed with all sorts of equipment, break into a shipping container at the Cyberaya harbour. Just as they break in, a shot rings out from behind, narrowly missing one of the bandit's head. 

The group looks to the general vicinity where the shot came from, and there it was. Standing ontop a tower of containers. A figure clad in black, a black helmet with a yellow masking it's face. 

Several wings unfurl from it's back as it cocks the hammer of it's gun once more, the gun glowing a bright blue, contrasting the moonless night.

"Well... well... well.. look what we here"

Chapter Text

REBOOT SEQUENCE READY

FIRMWARE:

2020.11.22 [EXPIRED]

PLEASE UPDATE FIRMWARE TO NEWEST MODEL

UPDATING... COMPLETE

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

PRIMARY SETTINGS UPDATED

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: MATA HEADQUARTERS - TRAINING GROUNDS [CLASSIFIED COORDINATES]

OBJECTIVE: RECOVER [45%]

DAY BY DAY

NIGHT BY NIGHT

THIS VESSEL HUNGERS FOR MORE

TRAINING 1: ACCURACY AND SPEED

Alicia stands alone in the middle of a huge holographic arena. On the ceiling, a leaderboard hung over. On it, the current records of the 'Marksman' category, special to Neuro agents.

On her remaining hand, she held a plasma magnum. It's shape a mirror to that war machine's firearm. She aims it towards the target, a basic red-white circle.

She inhales, then exhales, her cybernetic lungs humming in response. Then...

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

WHIRR BANG!

She lets out a flurry of high-energy, plasma bullets upon the target, each hit causing the target to switch locations, forcing quick reaction speed upon those who wish to be on top of the list. Finalising with a charged shot towards the target, marking the end of the test.

She lets out a sigh, then looks to the leaderboard. She goes to check up on her previous records.

BEST: ALICIA KHENG [07/02/19] - 5.2s

NEW: ALICIA KHENG [20/12/19] - 7.6s

"Still a long way to go huh?"  She muttered

She spins the revolver in her hand, before putting it back in it's holster. These next few days are going to be a lot. 

TRAINING 2: RICOCHETS

She stood infront a collection of armed drones. Red, disk shaped, and armed with plasma blasters. 8 total, scattered around randomly. Some grouped up, others spaced apart.

She aims her gun, not at the drones, but above, and shoots multiple projectiles from an underbarrell attachment, ones that she had used with her slingshot all those months ago.

She readies her revolver and charges up a shot...

WHIRR

RRRRRR

RRRRRR

FLASH!

BANG

The shot bounces off of the projectiles and splits into multiple beams of plasma, ricocheting towards the drones. The rounds hit their marks, smashing right through the weakspots and downing every single one of the drones before they even had to chance to attack.

As the drones fell, she takes a glimpse of the weapon. She spins it around once more, but this time, she fired.

The bullet ricochets off the walls of the room, sniping the still-falling drones before zipping past her face. She jerks from the almost-fatal hit, paused, then puts away her gun.

She sighs once more, and looks to the mess of blasted drones and scrap laying around. Then... giggles.

"This'll be fun"

At night, after receiving orders from insiders, a group of motorcycle bandits crashes into the Cyberaya harbour and stops in front of a C-Tech container, greeted by their leader, Komeng, who was already waiting in the port compound. One of the bandits, dressed in dark red, takes out a crowbar from a toolbox and tries to break into the container.

The attempt is stopped by Agent Bakar and Ali who came from behind. Komeng orders all his henchmen to attack them while he flees. Bakar fights against his henchmen while Ali chases Komeng. During the chase, IRIS suddenly spots a figure dressed in all black running in the same direction as Ali on the rows of containers. Caught off guard by the figure, Ali slips on a puddle of oil, staining his suit.

Ali gets up and surrounds Komeng at a dead end, but is himself surrounded by several henchmen around him. Komeng pulls out a knife to attack Ali, but the knife was shot off of his hand by that same figure. Komeng and his henchmen looks at the figure for a moment.

The figure wore a mask and an all-black suit with a dark green scarf. Komeng orders his henchmen to continue attacking Ali, who responds by using his yo-yo to snatch a baton from one and trip two others.

Another henchman attacks Ali from behind but was knocked down by the masked figure's magnum from the atop the container. The masked figure is then chased by a henchman who climbed up the container, but it also shot them down before getting down to help Ali.

With Ali's yoyo and the masked figure's revolver, they knock down all the henchmen around. The arrival of several more henchmen were greeted by the masked figure by firing a projectile that causes them to fall and stick to each other (Gravity bomb basically). Ali finishes them off with a shockwave blast from his yoyo.

Ali goes to celebrate his victory by high-fiving the masked figure, but the figure politely declined. Komeng, who had already been defeated, warns them and whistles to call his automatic motorcycle here to escape.

Ali tries to call the figure to help intercept, but they already disappeared. Bakar later arrives at Ali's position and is shocked to see many of his henchmen lying around while Ali looks up in amazement at the masked figure.

"Wow..."

THE NEXT DAY - AFTER SCHOOL

The General opens up the briefing by displaying Komeng's face on a hologram panel and explaining that Komeng is Abang Bear's right-hand man who has robbed many of MATA's new tech, all of which are supplied by C-Tech, Bakar simultaniously explaining to Ali that Abang Bear is Cyberaya's number one gangster.

The General continues, C-Tech as the developer of MATA's tech would move the goods to a more controlled location to keep them out of Komeng's reach, but there is a possibility that Komeng would intercept the goods transfer halfway through.

Ali asks what goods they were going to protect, in which Jenny showe a diagram of the UAV-CUBE 3000 drone while explaining that it is an unmanned aerial vehicle controlled with special gloves. the General interrupts that it is a new technological weapon that would be dangerous if it ever falls into the wrong hands.

The General assigns Bakar to the security section and Ali to surveillance. Ali complains that he was only given surveillance duties but the General demands him to obey.

As soon as the General told Ali and Bakar to "ACT IMMEDEATLY!", someone familiar walks in.

Clad in a yellow-green-black suit, a left arm made of Azurium metal, 4 pairs of mechanical, glowing wings, and a visor on the right eye, was Alicia Kheng. A former student of SRT Cyberaya and even former classmate of Ali in Year 5 who allegedly got into a horrible accident and was homeschoolled since then.

The sight shocks Ali to his core, leaving his mouth agape. "Alicia? Here? After all this time? What is she doing here?" Questions flood his conciouness, with no answers coming anytime soon.

Alicia glimpses at the frozen boy, and proceeds to focus ahead, facing the general. The man pauses, then asks what she's doing here. Jenny notices the situation and pitches an idea to the man.

"How about we let her join this mission? It could give her some much needed field experience especially after all this time."

The general declines.

"Nonsense, she is not ready! On top of that, she still young!"

Alicia objects. 

"But I'm already good enough for this! Plus, I'm basically the same age as that (points to Ali) guy"

"Also, I've been training for years, while he is only here because of IRIS. What's even the difference between me and him?"

The general counters "No buts! You are only ready when I say so!"

"But dad-"

"ENOUGH!"

"...Alright...General..."

Ali is left in shock "Why did Alicia call the General 'Dad'?". The General takes a deep breath and comments that there are already enough newbies on the mission (Ali lmao), especially with the 'Masked Troublemaker' running around (Bakar telling Ali that this person is out here doing their missions for them).

Finally, the General ands the briefing by shouting "ACT IMMEDEATLY!" once more to Ali and Bakar who are still hesitant to listen to the argument, so they move on.

A C-Tech lorry carrying the UAV-CUBE 3000 drone supply and accompanied by two police cars in front and behind enter a tunnel. They were then ambushed by Komeng's motorcycle bandit gang.

Four henchmen cut in front and threw a box of eggs at the police car's windshield, causing it to lose control, while two more henchmen opened fire to disable the police car behind. This opened the way for Komeng, who rode that same bulky, automatic motorcycle to break into the driver's compartment of the lorry, where he then threw the driver over and seized the lorry.

Komeng's gang take the lorry to their lair. Komeng orders his henchmen to remove the supplies, leaving the lorry behind so as not to leave a trace. Ali and Bakar appear from atop a roof, taking a jab at their plan. Komeng angrily treats their disturbance 'in three'.

The two agent paused. "Three?" They look to their left, and lo and behold, the Masked Troublemaker is there too. 

"THE MASKED TROUBLEMAKER!" Bakar gasped

The figure rolled their eyes, then speaks up.

"You do your jobs, I do mine."

The figure jumps down to intercept Komeng, the two agents following close behind. Whether it's to capture them or to help, I'm not sure. Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter. They're here to capture Komeng, or at least stop them from getting those drones.

Komeng orders his henchmen to 'beat them up'. Ali rushes towards one of the henchmen and ducks to avoid the baton. The Masked Troublemaker (Shorting it to 'MT' for now) fires a plasma shotgun at Ali, forcing Ali to duck again so that the pellets hit the henchman.

"Oi! Watch it!" Ali yells

"Sorry not sorry" the figure replies

Ali chases after another henchman who is attacking Bakar with an axe, but the MT knocks him down first and then proceeds to knock down another henchman who was about to attack Ali from behind.

Ali is visibly annoyed to see every time the figure manages to take down an enemy, as if his job is being taken away by them. He argues with the figure, but it was mostly ignoring him.

Seeing this, Komeng chuckles and prepares to control one of the stolen drone. With the special gloves, he points the drone at Ali and the MT. Seeing the two in danger, Bakar immediately rushes towards them to block the laser blast from the drone that was about to shoot them.

"ALI!"

BOOM

Clatter clatter

"You guys need to stop with the flashbangs, seriously"

A voice all too familiar breaks the silence. Standing over a broken mask, was Alicia. In her hydraulic-press off a left hand, was the drone. It's barrel smoking from the blast, but it seemed that it was useless after all as the only meaningful thing it did was reveal her identity.

She tosses the drone above and rears in. With a powerful left-hook, she sends the UAV flying towards the lorry, knocking it over from the impact. Seeing the sheer strength of the foe they're facing, Komeng bails out, plan foiled.

Back at the base, Ali and Alicia are confronted by the general who scolds them for their arguement which almost ruined the mission. Especially Alicia who disobeyed his orders to not join in. But... since the mission didn't fail, the man lets her be. 

Alicia thanked the general, and then strolls through the exit. Ali looks to his comrade and follows suit. After a little bit of stalking later, Ali finds himself infront of the training room. He pauses for a bit, but gains the courage to continue.

As he enters, a stray drone flies right past his head, scaring him. He looks back forwards, and sees the culprit.

Alicia stood in the middle of the room. Surrounding her were a scrapyard of drones and droids. And against her, was a 'HAM' (Heavy Assault Mech), equipped by two missile pods, an Azurium laser cannon it's left arm, and dual-plasma autocannnons on it's right arm.

Ali watched in awe as Alicia faced off against the giant mech, which is basically triple her height, and according to what he'd seen her do, WAY more powerful. Little did he know, there was still a lot he hadn't learnt about his absent friend...

The giant mech initiates combat first. Firing it's laser cannon at Alicia. She leaps over the laser and counters with an Azurium Core-Grenade launched from her shotgun, staggering it. She closes in and manages to get ontop of it. Once up there, she began pummeling the machine with pellets and rounds.

The machine swipes her off it's body and fires it's dual autocannons. Alicia barely dodged past the first two volleys but is forced to back up from the rest. This is when she notices Ali standing there near the entrance.

"Hey, Ali! Don't just sit there! Come over here and help me!" 

Ali stutters. "Wha-uh- Okay!"

Ali rushes in, using his yo-yo as an energy shield to cover Alicia. The mech switches to the Azurium laser and fires. The force knocking Ali off his feet. The mech continues the attack by switching to it's missile pods and firing a barrage of missiles, forcing the two to retreat behind a pile of busted droids.

"Alright, we need a plan." Alicia suggests

"Don't worry, I got this" Ali states, smugly

He rushes back out of cover to attack, but is forced back by an endless volley of projectiles.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Ali admits, shaken

Alicia thinks for a second.

"Alright, so... we need to disable that thing's armament. Once those are gone, we can finally get in close and finish the job"

Ali retorts. "But how? We can't even get close to it without being fired at!"

"We?"

Alicia chuckles, before reaching into her wings, pulling out two huge guns.

She mutters...

"I don't need to get close..."

The mech marches ever closer. It's heavy footsteps booming across the arena. It gets in range and and prepares to fire it's missiles behind the two cadet's cover, when out of nowhere...

BAM!

One missile pod is blasted off, the shockwave causing the mech to stumble back. It recalibrates and finds the culprit.

ID: ALICIA KHENG                  

L   RAILCANNON [DANGER!]

It prepares to fire it's dual autocannons at her when a second shockwave slams onto it's foot, causing it to fall over onto the floor. It was Ali.

The machine aims it's dual autocannnons at the boy when it is pummeled by nails from the back. It turns around and fires. Alicia runs, circling the machine as it continues to miss it's shots.

It gets desperate and fires it's laser cannon.

Alicia ducks under it and retailates with another burst of nails from her machine gun [Nailgun from ULTRAKILL basically].

The mech stumbles back. Ali takes this advantage and lands a shockwave straight at it's back, causing it to stumble forward. Alicia charges in close fter the stumbling mech and gets underneath it. With one final blast-

BAM!

The mech is blown apart. The force causing it to fall onto it's back. Ali walks up to Alicia, who is standing over the busted mech, and goes to give a high five. Alicia returns it, but doesn't bother doing anything else.

Then, Alicia asks him something.

"So, what're you doing here anyways?"

Ali pauses, then makes up and answer. "Y'know? Just going to train. That's all"

Alicia furrows her eyebrows, giving Ali no choice but to tell the truth. "Fine... I was... following you."

She questions him. "Why? Were you bored?"

"I was... wondering what you had been doing since Year 5. Maybe following you could give me same clues, but I guess not..."

Alicia pauses... the she replies, sarcastic as usual. "That's it? Gosh you're pathetic"

"Hey! Not my fault you just poofed out of existence out of nowhere!" Ali retorts.

Ontop the ceiling, a spy camera disguised as a roach is watching intently. Gathering information... 

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.01.05

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: MATA HEADQUARTERS - TRAINING GROUNDS [CLASSIFIED COORDINATES] 

OBJECTIVE: RECOVER [50%]

Alicia sits alone in the arena. In her hand, she holds a peculiar-looking shotgun. A dual-barrel, break action shotgun with a chainsaw chained onto the underbarrel. On it's side is a bar, indicating the shotgun's charge.

She presses an interface button, which initiates the training simulation. 

The enemy set: 5 droids, 10 drones, and one 'Buster' - Heavy duty droids built in the shape of Kombat agents. Completed with blue accents on the dome-shaped head and the torso.

Her only weapons for the simulation? That shotgun and her revolver.

3

2

1

START

The drones and droids charge in. Alicia readies her shotgun. She presses onto the trigger...

WHIRRRRRRRRR

POW!

BANG!

The shotgun fires an Azurium grenade, which then detonates upon contact with the ground. Eliminating a good chunk of the droids.

Then she spots the incoming drones and fires another core, but this time, she quickly switches to her revolver and detonates it midair. The shrapnel knocking out the drones with ease.

The rest of the droids and the Buster began approaching quickly, the distance closing in too quickly for the revolver to manage. Because of that, she switches back to the shotgun and begins to rev up the chainsaw.

When the droids get in close to punch her, the chainsaw will chop them apart. This also works in terms of offense as when she gets close, the chainsaw will grind them up.

Then comes the Buster, charging at her like a boulder. This is where she reveals what very well could be the most brutal mechanic of the shotgun. She stops revving up the chainsaw, and this (which I'm not kidding) causes the chainsaw to be flung forward like a javelin, the chains keeping it from fully detaching from the underbarrel.

This detached chainsaw proceeds to smash right through the Buster's head, coming back for seconds before finally reattaching to the shotgun.

As the silence sets in, Alicia is left looking at the carnage of wiring and scraps of her shotgun.

"Well I'll be damned, this thing kicks ass"

One night, Aunty Faye was shopping online on her tablet while enjoying her existing jewelry collection. She hears the doorbell ring, but there was nobody's there. A dirty stray cat with heterochromic eyes (green and blue) sneaks in, causing Aunty Faye to try to chase it away by throwing home decor items at it. The cat disappeared, taking her jewelry with it.

At the Base, Ali, Bakar and Alicia are undergoing simulation training. Using IRIS, Ali manages to crack the code to a room where a "device" was located, tightly guarded by circular saw traps, lasers and electric poles.

Bakar forbids Ali from going further and tells Alicia to go get the device. Alicia easily passes through the trap and installs a hacking tool on the device rack.

Ali looks to the digital clock on his hand, displaying the time needed to successfully hack the device. 

8:00

This is going to take a while...

After some time waiting, the device is then able to be successfully retrieved. Now they're gonna have to get that device outta here. The three make their way towards the 'exit', guarded by 4 droids, several drones, and lots of traps.

IRIS scans the threats present and gives an escape plan. Ali tells the plan to Bakar and Alicia, who nod in response. 

Just then, the droids and drones come to life and go to intercept. Time for trouble! 

"Mission was a success. Congratulations to you three" the general admits to the team

"But, you (Ali) still need to learn more about teamwork. Your actions could've costed the mission if it weren't for Alicia and Bakar's actions" he continued

Ali replies. "Alright, General. I promise I'll be a better teammate next time!"

The general then suddenly shouted. "There won't be a 'next time' if you don't improve yourself!"

"That's all, dismissed."

Bakar then speaks up and breaks the silence. "You heard the general; you must improve you-"

door hissing as Ali walks out

">:["

In an abandoned building, a man dressed all in white with a hat, a scarf and a cane gets out of a long black car (limousine?). He was then greeted by a gang of bandits and Komeng, who was enjoying the jewelry stolen by his cats that night (including Aunty Faye's jewelry), nicknamed Abang Bear. Rummaging through the jewelry with his cane, Abang Bear selects Aunty Faye's ruby ​​necklace and tells his henchmen to throw away the rest.

Abang Bear and Komeng were then approached by Wak Musang, who had appeared to show him the recording of Dos giving him IRIS all those months ago. Komeng recognizes the symbol on the disk device, while Abang Bear was eager to steal it.

The next day, Ali enters his house with a sigh. He heads to the kitchen to greet his father, Dr. Ghazali, who was busy working on a tablet while eating breakfast. Ghazali found his son waking up early and asks him to help take out the trash. Ali tried to coax his father to remind him what day it was, but Ghazali didn't seem to mind.

Ali then receives a video call from Viktor on his mobile phone wishing him a happy birthday and inviting him to play the latest game Detective Jebat: Conquest of General Tuah as a welcome gift, which makes Ali excited. Viktor ends the conversation to follow his mother to the market and asks Ali not to play first.

Ghazali admits to pretending to forget and hastily makes a "birthday cake" with a sandwich and a candle. Ali doesn't appreciate his father's sincerity and goes out to take out the trash in a gloomy manner.

While taking out the trash, he sees Syed and Shaun chasing the dirty cat that stole Aunty Faye's jewelry yesterday, carrying a disk drive in it's mouth. The drive is dropped in the middle of the road, so the cat stops to pick it up again.

Ali sees the colour of the fur and thinks that the cat is Labu, his former beloved cat. He notices that a car is headed towards the cat and quickly saves it from being hit. Syed blames Ali for the cat's actions, especially since his device was crushed by the car, so he wants to beat him up, but Ali had already brought the cat into the house.

Ali hides behind the front door that Syed and Shaun are knocking on. Surprised by all the noise, Dr. Ghazali goes to greet the kids and shakes hands with the two bullies who then made up stories about wanting to invite Ali out later that evening. Ghazali closes the door and praises the kindness of the two boys who he thought were Ali's friends without realizing what they really are.

Ali shows "Labu" to his father, but his father told him that it was a different cat. The cat then enters the kitchen and messes with Ghazali's breakfast, causing water to be spilled onto his tablet. Ghazali forbids Ali from taking care of the cat because hes isn't confident that he could take care of it, reminding him that Labu had ran away from home ever since Ali's mother passed. Ghazali then left for work, and Ali's disappointed by his father's words.

The cat knocks on the empty plate while staring at Ali, indicating that it was asking to be fed, so Ali takes a carton of milk and some food supplies (half-eaten fish, leftover nuggets, etc) out of the fridge for it.

While the cat was eating, Ali tries to pet it and is reciprocated by the cat's purr. Ali wondered if it was the cat he knew, Labu, and tries to tickle its belly, but Labu was already asleep.

Finding many wounds on its body, Ali treats the cat by sticking plasters on it. The cat then wakes up again and purrs again. Therefore, Ali stops applying plasters and began lazily playing with his yo-yo.

The cat is attracted to Ali's bouncing yo-yo, so Ali tries to entertain it by doing various yo-yo tricks. Then, he switches to shining a laser pen for the cat to chase until it accidentally hit Ali's family photo, causing it to fall.

Fortunately, Ali is able to catch the photo before it breaks, then looks at it with a sorrow face. The cat pats Ali on the leg, and Ali reciprocates by petting it. Ali's hands became dirty from stroking the cat's dirty fur, so he plans to bathe it, but the cat runs away and disappeares.

Ali searched and searched around the whole house while calling the name "Labu." After searching, Ali decided to use IRIS and finds the cat hiding on the sofa. So he gets the cat and bathes it.

After that messy fiasco, Ali realizee that the cat was not Labu because its fur is white with black spots on its ears and hips. Ali decides to name the cat "Comot" in honor of its messy fur before the bath, and the name was well received.

Ali puts Comot onto his bed. Comot sees IRIS on the bedside table and rememberes the instructions to steal such things. Ali answers a phone call from Viktor to invite Ali to play the game he told him about earlier in the day, with Ali answering Viktor with the excuse that he was busy.

After hanging up the phone, Ali turns to his bed and finds that Comot is gone... along with his IRIS! Worried, Ali searched the entire house but he just can't find it, (completely unaware that Comot can turn invisible). Ali calls Bakar (who was flirting with a random lady at Zali Mart) and tells them what had happened.

Well, you can just imagine the look on his face when he heard that IRIS was missing.

Panicked, Bakar rushes to Ali's home with Alicia, who properly scolded him for his negligence. Ali wonders on Alicia's presence here. Bakar calms them down and plans to start investigating in the kitchen because it's always the best place to start! (he was hungry). Ali tells Alicia not to touch his things.

Looking around Ali's messy living room, Alicia notices a cat's paw print and restructures the cat's movements with Ali, picking up its fur from the sofa for evidence. After they enter the kitchen, Alicia brings up the recent series of house robberies in Cyberaya. Ali admits that he was unaware of it, later being told by Bakar that an agent should always know the developments around.

Bakar finds many empty plates on the table and asked why Ali was not big even though he ate a lot; Ali explains that it was because he bribed Comot. Alicia claims that the cat had ran away with IRIS. Surprised and confused, Ali asks Alicia how she knew, in which Alicia replied by showing Comot's invisible fur and explaining that the cat had been genetically modified.

Showing the news archive on her phone, Alicia explains that in the past three years, there had been a raid on an animal shelter that was found to be conducting secret experiments on animals, but the perpetrators had fled and the animals had disappeared without a trace.

Alicia added that recently there had been many complaints of cats roaming around residential areas, and she is sure that the cats were connected to the series of robberies.

Ali could hardly believe what Alicia was telling him, his heart sinking as he remembered Comot. Bakar asks for the location of the place, and Alicia shows it to him on the phone.

Later that night at Abang Bear's lair, Komeng rummages through all the disk-shaped devices brought home by his slave cats and finds that none of them are IRIS. On Abang Bear's orders, Komeng punishes the cats by giving them electric shocks through implants in them controlled from a mobile computer.

At the same time, Comot comes in, I.R.I.S. at hand- er... mouth, much to Abang Bear's delight. Abang Bear and Komeng's movements are observed through the window by Ali, Alicia, and Bakar who already suspected that this is the work of Abang Bear's gang.

Alicia suspects that there are 12 people in total in the lair, including Abang Bear and Komeng, and may even be armed, and suggests entering through one of three ways: the main door, the basement door at the back, or the ceiling. Bakar tells Ali to sit quietly because he doesn't have IRIS and invites Alicia to follow his "brilliant plan."

Bakar disguises himself as a nasi lemak delivery man, complete with a disguised suit and fake mustache, and knocks on the main door of the den. His arrival is welcomed by his henchmen who ask for fried chicken. Abang Bear also interjects by asking for nasi lemak with foreign sambal asin because his stomach cannot handle spicy food.

Bakar's movements are monitored by Ali who remains by the window as instructed, but his attention is diverted by Comot who appears next door, chased and caught by his henchmen on the stairs to the basement, so he is called to action to save Comot.

Bakar goes to serve the short Komeng and gives him a pile of nasi lemak boxes, urging him to eat a lot so that he will grow taller as an excuse. Then, he trips Komeng to make Komeng drop everything he is holding including IRIS. Bakar takes the opportunity to pick up IRIS but is stopped by Komeng who pulls off his fake mustache and reveals his true appearance.

Surprised, Abang Bear orders his henchmen to attack Bakar. Alicia helps Bakar from the ceiling by shooting all the henchmen who attack him with her revolver.

Komeng asks Abang Bear to retreat and hand Abang Bakar over to him. Bear agrees on the grounds that his wife is waiting at home, while ordering the henchmen to transport the slave cats into the truck.

Meanwhile, Ali sneaks into the basement and finds cats locked in glass cages, one of which is contains Comot. Unable to hack the cage because he doesn't have IRIS, he goes to hide behind the wall as soon as he hears Abang Bear and his henchmen coming down with a mobile cage to take Comot, but Comot refuses and even scratches Abang Bear's hand.

This makes Abang Bear angry and punishes him by giving the cat a shock through his mobile computer. Ali gets angry at witnessing the abuse and goes out to stop the act by firing a shockwave from his yoyo to knock Abang Bear down, then stomps on his mobile computer until it is destroyed.

In the entrance hall of the lair, Bakar throws Komeng and continues to beat up his henchmen with the help of Alicia who throws them off the catwalks above (and also the henchmen who climbed the catwalk to chase her).

Komeng, who fell in a pile of boxes, gets up and attacks Bakar again with a baseball bat, but Bakar retaliates by punching him and then throws a henchman who was attacking from behind.

Bakar is surrounded by many more henchmen and tells Alicia to get down and help him. Komeng gets up by picking up the baseball bat and pipe next to him and attacks Bakar again, but is knocked down in the middle of the road by Alicia's shot while Bakar with his big body gets up from getting dogpiled, throwing all the henchmen who had surrounded him earlier. Finally, Bakar collides with Komeng and punched his cheek hard enough so that IRIS is dropped again, where it is picked up by Alicia.

Abang Bear emerges from the basement with Comot in a cage accompanied by a henchman holding Ali hostage.

The three is then locked in the same glass cages that once housed the cats. IRIS taken away by Abang Bear. He then tells his henchmen to set time bombs on the wall to be detonated later with a time switch.

Before leaving, Abang Bear thanks Ali sarcastically for making his job easier.

As soon as he left the nest, Comot in the mobile cage escapes and snatches IRIS from Abang Bear's grasp.

Surpassing all attempts to capture it by his henchmen, Comot re-enters the nest.

Meanwhile...

"Guys... I'm sorry... I screwed up really bad" Ali apologizes.

"What's the point of apologizing if you're not going to change for the better? Get it together, Ali!" Alicia scolds him.

Bakar then speaks up and asks Alicia. "Hey wait, can't you just break the glass with your punch?" In which Alicia replied with: "I'm tired, give me a break"

Just then, Comot comes in and hands IRIS to Ali through the cage door. After thanking the cat, Ali uses IRIS to scan the way out and tells Comot to close the switch in the box on the wall, opening the cages and letting them free.

The agents rush towards the exit, but the door was locked. Bakar asked Ali for a way to dismantle the door, but Ali was focusing on trying to turn off the time switch that controlled all the bombs. Comel handed over the scissors and Ali managed to cut the bomb wire right before it exploded (like there was 3 seconds left, you cannot tell me that it wasn't close).

Since the basement door could not be opened, Ali goes to reassemble and detonate the bombs at the main door to break out. This was done successfully, and Bakar gives Ali a praise for his wisdom in this matter as the three of them walked out majestically with Comot in Ali's arms.

Dr. Ghazali comes home from work and was shocked to see his living room cluttered with Ali sprawled in front of the television that was installed. Ghazali then carried his son up to the bedroom. Ghazali notices the family photo in Ali's hand, picked it up and looked at it with remembrance.

Comot arrives later and rubbed herself on Ghazali's feet, which was reciprocated by a warm caress from Ghazali himself. Before leaving, Ghazali places the family photo featuring himself with Ali, Labu, and his late wife, on Ali's bedside drawer, next to his birthday present.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE: 

2020.01.13

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: AWAITING UPGRADES

MECHANICS: AWAITING UPGRADES

CALIBRATION: AWAITING RECALIBRATION

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: MATA ARMORIES [CLASSIFIED COORDINATES]

OBJECTIVE: RECOVER [70%]

NOTICE: UPGRADES AWAITING 

MANKIND IS DEAD

BLOOD IS FUEL

HELL IS FULL

'RIVAL' UPGRADE OVERVIEW

= 'Rapid Intergrated Versatile Augmentation Loadout'

• CORONA = Cognitive Optic Reconnaissance & Overwatch Nagivation Armature
• WINGS = Weaponized Intelligent Navigation and Glide System with Integrated Tactical Storage
• G-2 "KNUCKLEBLASTER" -aka ROG = Reactive Oscillation Gauntlet

CORONA:

A right-eye visor similar to ATLAS. Outfitted with high-tech range calculators, ID identification, and a limited 'Override' system, akin to what the IRIS has. Base colour is yellow, but changes to either red (anger) or grey (sadness) depending on the user's (in this case, Alicia) emotions.

WINGS:

A backpack/spine attachment. Four pairs of wings, each being both weapon storage and, well, wings. Aerodynamic blades allow for gradual, mid-air trajectory changes and also serious cutting potential. It's also outfitted with boosters for instantaneous trajectory change, high leaps or quick dashes. Linked to CORONA (colour changing)

G-2 KNUCKLEBLASTER/ROG:

The star of the show. Left arm prosthetic forged from Azurium metals, giving it extreme durability far surpassing steel and aluminium. Forearm is equipped with two built-in plasma shotguns, the barrel coming out from the knuckles, hence the name.

The ceremony was flashy. Bright lights, confetti everywhere, the RIVAL in the middle of the room, and Alicia standing before it. Among her were the very pillars of MATA, and also the general.

The mechanical arms that hold the augmentations began making their move. The prosthetic arm locking onto the metal socket where her original arm had been, the wings attaching to her back, and finished off with her putting on the visor.

Her internal systems began recalibrating to fit the new augmentations.

RECALIBRATING...

LEFT ARM ADDED. ATTACHING INTERNAL HYDRAULICS...

SYNCING VISOR...

SYNCING WINGS...

RECALIBRATION COMPLETE

She began inspecting the augmentations. She adjusts the visor, then inspects the collection of wings on her back. They began to move according to her brain inputs. Cape mode, fully stretched, closed, all working as expected.

Finally, the arm. Wow had it been a while since she had one of those. She puts the hand into a fist and throws a punch. BANG! Click

She stares at the arm in shock. Her mind coming up with only one sentence. Holy fuck.

The criminal duo Dos and Trez once again break into the MATA Research Center. This time they encounter Agent Bakar and Rizwan. Dos throws a Shox Stix on the floor, causing Bakar and Rizwan evade the oncoming shock by jumping. Dos distracts Rizwan and attacks him with kicks and jabs of the Shox Stix, countered by an attempt to poke her with the Pressure point Glove, followed up by Rizwan throwing Dos away, apologizing in an attempt to be polite.

Trez clashes with Bakar, he pushing him away, causing Bakar to fall on top of Rizwan. Dos and Trez move on to steal what they are looking for. 

In the morning at Ali's house, Comot stared at the empty food container. The name Labu on the container had been cut out and replaced with Comot. A hungry Comot pushes the plate aside and enteres Ali's bedroom. Seeing that Ali was still asleep, Comot tries to wake him up. Ali wakes up and realizes that he's late for school again, so he quickly gets ready and goes to school on his scooter, ignoring Comot.

After class, Ali goes out to find Comot but can't find him. He goes down to the canteen to look for him and finds Comot rummaging through the trash cans. Seeing all the mess and being afraid of being fined for it, he goes to clean them.

After Ali cleaned up the trash, Comot appeares with Ali a piece of chocolate. While he was eating, Sarsi appeares and accuses Ali of stealing his chocolate. He chases after him until Ali bumps into Syed and Shaun who were scribbling on the wall, so Ali runs away from the other two angry people until Puan Munah appears to find the scribbler, then Syed and Shaun ran away.

When he gets home from school, Ali complains to Viktor about how difficult it was to take care of a cat. Viktor wasn't surprised, because his younger brother was also the same way. 

As Ali walks to his home, he's greeted by his ringing phone. He's being called for a mission it seems. He arrives at his home and drops off Comot, telling the cat not to go anywhere while he's out. 

As he rushes to a secret door near the end of an alley, he is jumpscared by Alicia jumping down from above.

"Sheesh, don't scare me like that!" Ali complains, rubbing off the dust on his uniform.

"A MATA agent must always be ready. You should have at least a little paranoia when walking about, y'know? Also try to be less suspicious when walking to a secret entrance." Alicia replied

Entering the control room, they find Agent Bakar whimpering in fear, standing atop the roundtable. He tells them to catch a cockroaches that is crawling in the room. Also present is Jenny who scolds Bakar for always bringing food in.

Comot suddenly appears from invisibility mode in the control room and tries to catch the cockroach, but the cockroach escapes and starts chasing Bakar, being chased by Comot who is also being chased by Ali, until stopped by General Rama.

"Dey!" He shouted

Startled, Comot returns to invisibility while the cockroach crawls out. The General asks about the commotion earlier, and Jenny says it's nothing important.

General Rama begins the briefing by explaining the incident yesterday with Dos and Trez breaking into the M.A.T.A. facility earlier this morning. Ali asks what they had stole. Rama shows him the blueprints for the IRIS.

Ali asks if Dos and Trez could install the IRIS themselves. This time Jenny replies that it isn't that easy but they might be able to study the mechanisms of the IRIS with the blueprints.

Alicia asks about their intentions, but Jenny wasn't sure but the General was sure they had a sinister plan.

The General explains further that the IRIS blueprint data was split into two parts that were put into two separate Crypto-Drives that are kept in two separate locations as a security measure. Only one drive had been stolen, so they have to prepare for the second intrusion.

All of a sudden, agent Rizwan appears in the control room, asking if the other drive was in danger. To that end, General Rama appoints Rizwan to lead Bakar, Ali and Alicia and the mission to take away the Crypto-Drive from its place before Dos and Trez could reach it.

The General's briefing is interrupted by the appearance of Comot on the round table. Ali apologizes and he grabs the cat. The General asks him why the cat was allowed to enter the heavily guarded MATA base. Ali explains that Comot was not a cat person, and the General tells him not to make things up because this is not an animal clinic.

At the command "Act immediately!", all the agents leave for the mission .Ali reluctantly leaves Comot in the control room for fear that the cat would disrupt the mission.

Through the corridor tightly guarded by the droids and drones, Rizwan leads the other agents by unlocking the door to the storage room and reaching the Crypto-Drive that was safely stored. As he was about to leave, centre's power supply suddenly goes out, causing the lights and droids to die down.

In the pitch black darkness, Ali immediately turns on the night vision function in his IRIS and finds Dos lurking behind Rizwan. Ali shouts to be careful, so Rizwan dodges, but then he was rammed into by Trez, injured and stabbed in the back by Dos with a Shox Stix.

Ali runs towards Rizwan while dodging Trez's attack which is alerted by IRIS, while Dos manages to escape with the Crypto-Drive. Bakar and Alicia seem to be nigh-helpless in the darkness. (Bakar at least, Alicia seem to be doing better)

When the power is restored, the injured Rizwan asks the others to retrieve the drive. Ali, Alicia and Bakar go after Dos and Trez. Trez slams the floor .Ali and Alicia dodge the shockwave while Bakar stumbles.

Alicia parkours on the wall while firing several plasma bullets at Dos and then slides under Trez. Ali tries to attack Trez with a wave of his yoyo but Trez catches the yo-yo mid swing, then throws Ali towards Alicia who was chasing Dos until she crashes. Dos parries one of Alicia's gravity projectiles at Bakar, causing him to be stuck onto the ceiling.

Rizwan is taken back to the control room to be treated while Ali, Alicia and Bakar are once again confronted by General Rama who is furious over the mission failure. The General suspects that every time they act, the enemy is one step ahead because someone must've leaked information.

Suddenly, Comot appears biting at the cockroach that was bothering Bakar earlier. Ali grabs Comot. Alicia notice the cockroach's weird look and asks Ali to examine the cat's catch.

Before he can pick it up, Bakar quickly throws the cockroach far away. Alicia picks up the cockroach from the floor and finds out that is a spy robot with a camera attached. Bakar breathes a sigh of relief because the cockroach was actually fake.

The cockroach robot is placed on the roundtable and have it's data is studied. Jenny confirms that it was being used to monitor them. The General tells Jenny to use the signal from the camera to track the original location of its transmitter, but Jenny finds that the transmitter is no longer active but they can get the last location of the transmission, which is at Cyberaya Port.

Ordered by the General to review the footage in the area, Jenny discovers that the monitoring system has been hacked with looping video broadcasts installed.

Suspecting that their IRIS plan is taking time to come together, and that Dos and Trez were still in the port area, the General orders Agents Ali, Alicia, and Bakar to track them down and reclaim the IRIS blueprints.

In addition, the General announces that Agent Bakar would be sent on an additional secret mission that was too risky to tell in front of the other agents.

As soon as the General ends the briefing with the iconic line "Act immediately!", Jenny equips Bakar with a Plasma Shield as additional protection due to Rizwan's absence. Ali searches for Comot but didn't find him before being urged to move by Bakar.

It was night, and the three agents arrive at the port. Ali installs the heat detection function in the IRIS and finds Dos and Trez hiding in a container. Dos is hacking into the contents of the Crypto-Drive that had been connected to their mobile computer while Trez waited impatiently, crushing the apple he was eating out of boredom.

Suddenly disturbed by a noise outside, Dos tells Trez to answer the door. It turns out that Bakar was eavesdropping outside. Thrown from the door that Trez opened, Bakar lay on his side while calling out his "heart-taker" (Dos), Trez replying with calling himself his "life-taker" and goes after Bakar who flees.

Dos tells Trez to wait but was startled by a projectile droppingninto the room, exploding into a cloud of smoke. After the smoke cleared, Dos is confronted by Alicia who appeared to have taken the Crypto-Drive and chases after her.

Ali takes the opportunity to infiltrate the container, avoiding being hit by a laser tripwire on IRIS's orders. He finds the computer and executes the decryption protocol and with IRIS's help, immediately cracks the code to cancel and reverses the process and takes the Crypto-Drive. Unaware, Ali steps onto the laser tripwire on his way out and was dropped into a hole.

Bakar is surrounded by Trez in a dead end. Trez leaps in to attack him but is blocked by Bakar's new Plasma Shield and is pushed back. On the container, Dos attacks the exhausted Alicia with her Shox Stix, Alicia responds with her shotgun pellets. Trez knocks onto the container they were standing on, causing the "Crypto-Drive" to fall out, picked up by Dos who then realizes it is fake.

Alicia contacts Ali who is trying to break out of the trap to inform him of the approaching Dos and if he had done his job yet. Not answered by Ali, Alicia rushes to the container, but Dos arrives first, coming to attack Ali in the trap.

Fortunately, Comot appears and distracts Dos. Using his yo-yo's shockwave, Ali takes the opportunity to leap out in a bound, then knock Dos into the trap.

Ali goes out with Comot and reports to Bakar that the IRIS blueprint has been obtained. While fending off Trez's attacks, Bakar tells him to gather at the starting point. Unfortunately, the Plasma Shield runs out of power, and Bakar is rammed by Trez.

Ali is also running out of power, arriving at the designated place with Alicia and wondering where Bakar is. They rush to Bakar's location to stop Trez from attacking the unconcious Bakar. Alicia hits Dos with her revolver, but they were all parried. Dos throws her Shox Stix and knocks Alicia down, the shock being amplified by the surrounding containers.

Ali is left facing the double threat of Dos and Trez. Ali dodgee Dos' jab but stumbles from Trez's shockwaves. Dos approaches Ali who's lying down to try to grab the Crypto-Drive, but Ali acted to hand the drive over to Comot. Dos tells Trez to chase the cat.

Comot runs into the gaps between containers but was later surrounded by the two bandits. Comot climbs a lamppost to escape, but Trez knocks it down causing it to fall. Comot jumps on Dos to disrupt her vision, then jumpe on Trez's chest, causing him to be hit by a Shox Stix.

Comot escaped with the Crypto-Drive, and the two bandits were ordered by their leader to retreat. Trez insists on chasing Comot, but unknowingly, Comot turns invisible.

Following the direction that they though Comot was going, Dos and Trez are stopped by Rizwan who appears from the shadows. Apparently having recovered from his injuries from the previous mission, Rizwan knocks Trez down with a series of jabs. He turns towards Dos, but Dos, knowing they don't have a chance, throws a flashbang so that he and Trez could escape.

Bakar tells Rizwan to chase them, but Rizwan said it's okay because the mission objective has been achieved while looking at Comot who has the Crypto-Drive in it's mouth.

General Rama congratulates the four agents on the success of the mission. Comot interrupts the briefing again, causing the General to scold Ali again. Ali defends Comot by saying thatit had helped them in the mission. Bakar supports Ali's words by arguing that the mission would have failed without the cat's help

Rama sighs, and decides to officially recruit Comot as an agent, admitting that the cat had saved the mission. He puts the responsibility of taking care of the cat on Ali, who nods in response.

A figure, unmistakably Bakar, enters a heavily guarded archive room, pressing the code to open a drawer and removing the Crypto-Drive from the room.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.02.05

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: CYBERAYA HARBOUR [WEST COAST]

OBJECTIVE: RECOVER [85%]

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: STOP BANDITS [10 REMAINING]

METAL

FLESH

IT'S ALL THE SAME

TO ME

A group of Komeng's bandits, 10 in total, raid a C-Tech container, being led by an insider.

Alicia's in her 'Masked Troublemaker' suit. Black in color, a mask to hide her face, and her signature green scarf. There's of course the obvious 4 pairs of wings now poking out from her back, but it gives the look more intimidation points for how it looks when the lights shine on it form behind. All you (or i guess they) would see is a black figure with wings watching over you like a ghost.

Alicia uses her CORONA to scan the zone, making sure there's no nearby reinforcement or harbour guards. 

INITIATING SCAN.

SCANNING...

NO POSSIBLE HOSTILED NEAR AO.

Good.

With an airblast from her new shoes, meant to assist her wings in maneuvering, she leaps down, coming face-to-face with the bandits. 

"Who are you?!" One of the bandits shout.

She kept quiet, but her mind was racing with thoughts.

"Finally! It's been so long since I was stuck inside the headquarters. About time I get some fresh air!"

Just then, one of the guards came in for a strike, wielding an ax. She dodges the initial strike and blocks the second with her new arm.

"Showtime's now!"

She counters with a right-hook, knocking the man back. A second one comes from behind, which she dodges by doing a summersault above him before jabbing at the man's calf, knocking him down.

The first man comes back for another strike, which she retailates with a clean punch from her metal arm straight to the man's chest. Sending him flying onto the group of bandits behind him.

She walks closer in to the rest of the bandits and prepares a fighting stance. 

They seem afraid...

Some are already bailing...

She looks behind

WARNING! HIGH DANGER HOSTILE DETECTED!

DESIGNATION: VALOR SERIES - V1

[ENGAGEMENT NOT ADVISED]

"Oh shit-" she exclaim underneath the mask.

The machine charges in. Alicia immedeatly tries to block due to instincts. The bot's punch sends her flying onto a crate. She immedeatly rolls to the side to avoid another hit. She brings out her revolver and frantically starts firing.

The machine gets hit multiple times. It pauses, recalibrates and pulls out it's own gun and returns fire. She leaps between the shots and charges up a revolver shot, only for V1 to completely dodge it.

"Fuck" she curses.

The machine charges in close, when out of instinct-

BAM!

The machine gets launched back, some kind of coolant splattering on her face and her plasma punch busted the machine's security-camera head. She staggers back and inspects the the fluid. Her CORONA scanning intensely...

...wait

Is this... blood?

Just then, the machine rises up, grappling it's face as more of that same substance droops down from between it's fingers. The eye, what remained of it anyways, aswell as the wings, flare a deep red.

it's angry

"Okay time to GO!" she screamed to herself and she is chased by the machine through the endless hallways of steel crates and transport machinery.

After a few minutes of a twisted game of cat and mouse, which felt like hours to Alicia, the machine loses track of her. There's a chance to escape, so she takes it and bails the fuck out of there.

As she gets far enough from the port, she drops to the floor. Her breathing ragged, her body trembling, her pupils shrunken. She lies on the pavement, gasping like she almost drowned in the cold waters.

In the deep silence of the nightly hours, she mutters.

"What even is that thing?"

"Cyberaya was established to assemble the most brilliant intellectual minds to accelerate the country’s development. In pursuit of this vision, three of the finest minds have emerged as the leaders of development."

"Dr Tong, Biotechnological Scientist"

"Dr Mala, Energy Engineering Specialist"

"And Dr Ghazali, Computing Genius"

"In conjunction with Cyberaya’s 20th Anniversary, the City has awarded them an award as a symbol of the highest-

Cyberaya's 20th anniversary broadcast, commemorating the services of its three leaders, Dr. Tong, Dr. Mala and Dr. Ghazali, is broadcast on a television at the maximum security prison guard's desk, watched intently by Aaron, now a prisoner on a moping duty, cursing the trio for obstructing his ambition to "change the world."

"…Hmph. 'Pioneers'. If it weren’t for them, I would have made a significant change in this world already. They are the real obstacle to development--"

"Hey Aaron! Are you working or slacking off?" A guard scolds him. 

As he continues working, he sees a walkie-talkie that has been left lying on the desk. Entering his sleep period, Aaron uses the walkie-talkie parts and other hidden equipment to create the Neurodrive, a head-squeezing light-powered device that allows the wearer to perform telekinesis. With it, he breaks open the cell door and defeats all the guards who try to stop him.

The next morning at MATA headquarters, Ali tries out his new equipment, the Aero Boots, in a simulation training under the supervision of General Rama.

In his first attempt, he tries to jump from a stage to a floating platform, but the shoes lose control and he falls into a chasm.

On his second attempt, Ali successfully jumps from the platform to the monkey bar and then onto a high wall. He tries the Aero Boots to jump but again loses control, sending him flying here and there.

"Again!" The General orders

"Again? But there's something wrong with these shoes!" Ali complains

"Ali, these Aeroboots will only be activated by the inputs received by IRIS. So, you must focus to be able to make quick decisions. And don’t forget, balancing your body is also important." Jenny speaks up from a video call.

"It’s so hard to use these!" Ali continues

"Come on, Ali. Try again!" Bakar comes in from behind and picks him up, persuading him to continue

"Do I really have to do all this? IRIS alone makes me a super-agent, why are these shoes even necessary?" Ali argues.

"Those shoes were especially designed to improve your weak physicality. You must learn to use them real quick before your next mission. Again!" The General retorts from the screen.

The simulation continues, Bakar advises his nephew to calm down and take a deep breath.

This time, Ali puts on his Aero Boots and jumps off the platform, through the monkey bars and up the wall more smoothly to reach the final obstacle which was a wide gap between himself and a button on the upper floor that could only be crossed by a horizontal pole stuck high on the wall.

Ali puts on his Aero Boots to reach the pole but fails and falls into the gap.

[MULTIPLE TRIES LATER]

"groans of frustration It's impossible! Nobody can jump that high!" Ali complains.

Ali gets up and complains how nobody anyone jump that high. General Rama calls Alicia to do a simulation demonstration.

"Alicia"

She began making her way towards the the button, beating Ali's records without even using her air boots, just using her natural agility and speed to traverse the obstacles. She passes the final gap with a wall-jump air dash maneuver ('Slam Storage' as the manual calls it) and reaches the button with ease.

Ali is jealous of seeing his teammate and rival easily overcome all the obstacles. General Rama is already losing patience with Ali's disappointing performance as a trainee agent.

"At this rate, don’t even dream of becoming an agent. Jenny, speed up the research to detach IRIS from Ali. I don’t know how much longer I can cope with this nonsense." The General speaks up, his harsh tone verbally destroying Ali's morale. 

Those words clearly made Ali depressed.

Ali's depression from training is carried over to school. Viktor celebrates achieving a new high score in all of Cyberaya in the game Detektif Jebat and aspires to participate in e-sports tournaments in the future, even inviting Ali to join him, but is not entertained by the brooding Ali.

Puan Munah enters to announce the results of the recent exams, in which Alicia ranks first followed by Viktor and Sarsi. Praying anxiously, Boy breathes a sigh of relief after escaping the ledge - which falls on Ali! After Ali sees his marks, which was all F, Mrs. Munah scolds Ali for his lazy attitude which was clearly different from his clever father.

Ali's misbehavior continues until break time. Accompanied by Comot and Viktor, he didn't eat so Viktor helped finish the nuggets on his plate. MATA's call rang on his phone, but Ali refuses to answer.

At the Tower Alpha, Aaron appears, having escaped from prison using the Neurolink. Two guards try to stop him since it's not visiting time, but are thrown by Aaron with his new powers. The guard at the counter sees what was happening and tries to call his boss, Bob, but was stopped by Aaron who nails him to the wall and slips an access card from his pocket to reach the Tong Industries storage room and steal his old invention to modify.

After learning what happened, Bob tries to get his employer, Dr. Tong, out of the office, but Aaron gets there first, throwing Bob against a bookshelf and threatening his Dr. Tong to inaugurate his new invention.

Agents Bakar and Alicia later arrive at the scene, finding guards loitering in the Tower lobby. They rushed up to Dr. Tong's office and finds him in a seemingly safe state, sitting still, facing the window. Alicia suspects something is wrong and turns Dr. Tong's chair around...

"AH- thud ...ow..." Alicia gets jumpscared and falls of her back, before getting back up and slowly backing away from Dr. Tong.

Dr. Tong was acting like a baby, but why? What happened here?

[ALI'S HOUSE - THE NEXT DAY]

Ali is still saddened by his bad results from the exam. Accompanied by Comot, he tries to pass the time by playing video games and ignores the calls from his uncle.

When Bakar knocked on the door, Ali was surprised and hides away. Thinking that Ali had gone to play with Viktor, Bakar enters the house and finds Ali who had just come out of hiding and asks him why he didn't answer MATA's call. Hearing Ali's lament about the possibility of IRIS being withdrawn from him, Bakar tries to inspire his nephew to try again.

Ali is still disappointed about not being as good as expected from wearing IRIS, so Bakar advises him to keep practicing, after all, nothing can just change overnight. Ali laments again that he already tried many times but still failed, and his uncle says that so easily because he's strong. To that, Bakar says that he used to be weak too.

In his advice, Bakar recalls his childhood when he was once bullied by a group of three thugs who ate his burgers. His sister (and Ali's late mother) came to the rescue by telling the thugs to return the burger but was scorned, and even Bakar urged his sister to run away.

The older sister refused to move and fought the gangsters but was thrown back. Seeing his sister being oppressed, Bakar retaliated against the thugs by attacking them repeatedly even though he was still thrown away every time. Amazed by the boy's tenacity, the thugs dropped the burger on the ground and left.

Seeing his injured brother, the sister comforted him by giving him a boost of encouragement and buying him a new burger.

Closing the story of the past, Bakar said he didn't know what would've happened to him if he gave in. Ali is amazed to hear this story of his late mother's bravery. Bakar explains that it was his sister who helped him realize and change, and Ali had to change as well.

Ali is still skeptical about that, but MATA called again, so they both moved.

Arriving at the control room, Ali is greeted by Alicia with the sarcastic nickname "super agent", while Bakar is scolded by General Rama for being late.

"Hm. Would you look at that? The Super agent's here." Alicia greets the boy

"You're late and you're still taking your sweet time?!" The General scolds Bakar. 

After a tired sigh, he begins the briefing.

For this mission, the General delivers the news that Aaron has escaped from prison and did something to Dr. Mala, by showing a recording of the scientist behaving like a little girl, scribbling on the wall and throwing tantrums in Tower Beta. Slighty disturbing Alicia.

Jenny explains that the two known victims so far are Dr. Tong and Dr. Mala. Rama emphasizes the role of both of them as leaders of Cyberaya. This imformation leads Alicia to surmise that the next target is Dr. Ghazali, making Ali worried.

General Rama announces this time's mission is to go to Tower Gamma and protect Dr. Ghazali from the threat of Aaron. Alicia is assigned to guard the perimeter of the building and Bakar is to guard the scientist.

After the words "ACT IMMEDEATLY!" Ali asks for permission to join the mission because his father is in danger, but the General insists on forbidding him because he's afraid that Ali's emotions will interfere with the mission, especially with the actions of criticizing the previous mission. He then tells him to go home and wait for further notice.

Patted on the back by Bakar before moving on, Ali tries to calm down. Everything's gonna be fine, Ali. Your dad is safe, there's nothing to worry about.

As expected, Aaron has already broken into Dr. Ghazali's office in Tower Gamma and has started to brainwash him with a special helm he created while also reprimanding him for failing to see the potential that lies within him.

Bakar and Alicia arrive at the scene shortly after and face off against Aaron. Aaron is happy to take this opportunity to introduce his invention, the Neurodrive, which can access and delete memories in the human brain like computer data, and can even be used to transfer all the leading knowledge into Aaron's own brain.

Bakar angrily rushes towards Aaron telling him to restore the memories of the three leaders. Aaron counters by picking him up with Neurolink and sending him tumbling around.

Alicia tries to hit Aaron with everything she got at the time but they're all parried. He then knocks her down with her own bullets as well. "Oh shit" were the only words that left her mouth before getting blasted by her own ammunition (dw the Azurium plating saved her form getting turned to red mist). 

Aaron runs away, taking the unconscious Dr. Ghazali with him and imprisons the two agents by stuffing an iron rod to the handles of the office's twin doors.

"DAD!"

Ali, accompanied by Comot, stops Aaron who is trying to bring Dr. Ghazali out the Gamma Tower lobby. Ali orders by to let his father go, Aaron laughs at the boy for bringing a cat with him.

Ali tries to attack with the yoyo, but Aaron counters by using Neurolink to throw the foyer's furniture and hardware (armchairs, trash cans, plant pots, tables, etc) one by one at Ali. Ali dodged almost all of them but is smashed into by a table.

Comot jumps over everything to get to Aaron, but Aaron catches the cat and locks him in an overturned barrel that is then restrained with an armchair. At the same time, in Dr. Ghazali's office, Bakar and Alicia try to break through the locked door.

"Alicia, got a solution?" Bakar asks, tired

Alicia readjusts her left arm and reassures him. "Got one. Cover your ears 'cause this might be loud!"

Back at the lobby, Aaron again throws the items at Ali, but with the guidance of IRIS, Ali spins his yoyo into a shield and deflects all the objects thrown at him. Ali swings the yoyo at Aaron, almost hitting him, but Aaron parries it which causes the yoyo to hit Ali. Aaron floats Ali and throws him far into the waiting area.

Aaron goes to where Ali crashed to look for him but couldn't find him. Ali attacks from behind with a yoyo throw, but Aaron caught him mid-wing and proceeds to throw him everywhere.

Running out of energy, Ali desperately crawls to reach his father, who was unconscious and wearing the Neurodrive. 

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Although, he might not remember you!" Aaron sarcastically reassures him.

Just then, the IRIS temporarily glitches, a flash of white filling the screen for half a second.

"You... you've gone TOO FAR!"

Ali gets up and activates the Aero Boots in the mission for the first time, sprinting towards the mad scientist and kicking him square in the face, knocking out a tooth. Aaron gets angry and chokes Ali with a Neurolink, but is then stopped by a straight punch from Alicia's metal fist, sending him flying.

Apparently Bakar and Alicia have escaped from the office through Alicia's plasma punch. Seeing Ali, Bakar asks if he's okay while Alicia scolds Ali for defying the ban on participating in the mission (which sounded more like worry than anger).

Ali insists that this is not a question of his involvement in the mission, but that Aaron has gone too far.

Aaron wakes up enraged and threatens to wipe out the three agents by fusing the lobby's items into a ball and throwing it at them. Bakar blocked the giant blob with his Plasma Shield, while Aaron continued to push.

Alicia fired at Aaron with her shotgun, but the pellets were blocked by a table. Bakar manages to break the ball, causing all the items fly everywhere, even hitting the barrel that Comot is trapped in, allowing the cat to escape.

Bakar rushes in and tries to punch Aaron, but Aaron recoagulates all the items to form a field around himself. Bakar punches, Alicia shot, and Ali blasts, all in an attempt to break the shield, but to limited success.

Comot sees an opening in the shield and goes to distract Aaron, dissolving the shield. Alicia takes the opportunity to fire a cable to bring Aaron down, followed up by Bakar punching Aaron in the air, and finished off by Ali who leaps above with Aero Boots and lands a dropkick square in the chest, sending him flying out of the building.

Seeing Aaron unconscious, the mission is considered a success. A tired Ali caressed Comot's chin while thanking him. Later, Ali goes to see his father and removes the Neurodrive from his head. He asks Bakar to keep this secret from General Rama, who agrees.

Alicia reminds Ali that his debt has increased, making Ali frown. Suddenly, the three agents are shocked by the arrival of a vehicle that sped in and drove Aaron away, leaving his glasses behind.

That night, Ali welcomed Dr. Ghazali with more enthusiasm than usual. While heading to the kitchen because he was hungry, Ghazali saw his son walking around limping and asks why, in which Ali replied that he had fallen off his scooter earlier. His father orders him to be more careful as to not hurt himself again.

In the kitchen, Ali served his dad sandwiches along with coffee and asks how he was doing. The man answered that he's all right despite feeling a little dizzy. With that, they continued chatting.

In a secret place lit by dim red light, Aaron is thrown into a chair by Dos and Trez. Aaron wonders why he's been brought here, and Dos points his laptop at him to shake hands with their leader.

The next day, Bakar arrives at the control room to invite Ali to practice, but Ali is already undergoing the training simulation. After smoothly navigating the obstacles of platforms, monkey bars and high walls, Ali arrived at the final obstacle, the gap with a pole. Guided by I.R.I.S and blasting his Aero Boots, he leaped as far as he could until he landed on the pole, then leaped again to where the finish button was located and slams it.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE: ????

[????].[??].[??]

CALIBRATION: ????

AUDIO: SILENT

VIDEO: VOID

MECHANICS: UNRESPONSIVE

RECALIBRATION UNSUCCESSFUL 

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: NOWHERE

OBJECTIVE: DO NOT LET IT APPROACH YOU

MANKIND IS DAMNED

FREE WILL IS A FLAW

LET THE EVIL OF THEIR OWN LIPS CONSUME THEM

AND I SHALL BEGIN ANEW

WITH MY WORD

AS 

LAW

"Where am I?"

She stood in a desolate void. Pitch black all round, nothing visible for miles. She looked in every direction... as if those are even eligible in this world...

"Well. Well. Well."

A voice, mechanical and sadistic, rings through the empty lands.

"W-huh?! Where-"

A flash of white fills the space. She closes her eyes out of instinct

Then, she reopens them

It's the hallways of MATA HQ, bathed in red lights. Bodies litter the halls, blood splattered and dripping everywhere

She looks down and nearly had a heart attack.

The General laid motionless, suit stained with red.

She takes a few steps back, then is alerted by a familiar voice from behind.

"Alicia?" 

It was Ali.

She turns around

Her left arm is stuck inside the boy's chest, blood staining his school uniform and her arm.

"W-hy..?"

She stood there, shocked. She backs off, her legs trembling, threatening to fail her.

"No, no no no no no no-"

She trips

She falls on her back, hard. She looks around.

It's the void, again.

But this time, a figure stood silently nearby. Tapping it's foot in rhythmically.

She approaches it, bad idea.

The figure turns around in the blink of an eye and punches her away.

She falls hard. She gets up and meets it face-to-face.

...it's... her?

"Well, if it isn't Alicia Kheng herself..." the clone spoke.

"Y-You! What're you doing here?!" The real Alicia shouted.

"I should be the one asking you that." The figure responded, then it snapped it's fingers.

The void is changed to an imagery of a desolate Cyberaya. Wrecked cars, crumbled buildings, and the silhouettes of titanic beasts in the distance, resembling centaurs, and carrying buildings on their backs, slowly marching.

"You left them to die, you left them behind, you failed them all." It argued

"No! I would never!" She retorted.

"Look at all the devastation! All of this wouldn't happen if it weren't because of you!"

"You liar! I will prevent this!"

"You can't. This is inevitable, and there's nothing you can do about it"

Images of her fallen comrades flash before her eyes. Bakar, her uncles, Ali, and... the General...

"All of this cannot be stopped, and it's all because of you" 

The clone grabs a revolver from it's wings and points it at her. Whilst doing so, the replaced eye shone a bright yellow.

"You, solely, are responsible for this"

BANG!

Alicia jolts awake with a scream of pure terror. Her breathing uneven and ragged, pupils dilated, sweat dribbling down her cheeks, body trembling hard.

Luckily, her father was there.

"Hey, you okay?!" He rushed to cradle the girl in his arms.

She was sobbing like hell, sniffling as her head leans onto the man's arms.

With a shaky voice, she speaks up. "Please... don't leave me..."

The general responded, voice uncharacteristically soft for MATA's head General. 

"Don't worry, I'll never leave you behind..."

"...Promise?"

"Promise"

"Are you... crying?"

"WHY DID YOU SAVE ME, IDIOT?!"

That was an exchange between Ali and Alicia while on a mission. To understand how we got here, let's take a look back...

2020.05.16

EXTRACTION TRAINING

Ali and Alicia are tasked to do an extraction operation. This session is overseen by Rama. This operation is split into three parts. Infiltation, Combat, and Escape.

We'll focus on the Escape just to save time...

"Ali! Use IRIS!" Alicia orders the boy

"Got it!" He replies

Just then, the roof collapses in, trapping Ali under. 

Alicia watched as the explosions behind slowly grew near, her comrade stuck under debri.

She snaps out of the shock and fires the underbarrell cable from her MG. Ali sees the cable wrap around his arm and tugs it. The pulley mechanism activates, pulling Ali out just in time.

Ali stared at the girl for a moment, then snaps out of it.

"Oh- uh... THERE!"

A ventilation shaft, perfect to replace the jammed doors.

"Alright, let's go!" Alicia orders, dragging Ali by the arms as they make a run for it.

The General congratulates the duo for completing the session, but there were some things that could be improved, mainly being Ali being unaware of the collapsing ceiling.

As the screen cuts to black, Ali walks up to Alicia to thank her.

"So... uh... Alicia." 

"Hmm?"

"I wanted to... thank you... for saving me there."

"You're lucky I'm not selfish enough to call Protocol Gegas"

"I'm sorry what?"

"Nothing."

She walks out of the training room, leaving Ali wondering to himself. "Protocol Gegas? The hell does she mean?"

Meanwhile, Alicia strolls through the halls, heading to her room to rest. Despite her body marching forward, her mind still lingered behind.

The firey hellscape creeping up to her and Ali... Ali being trapped under rubble... the mess surrounding her... thinking about it sends a shiver down her spine.

"Who's idea was to include Mission:Soliel in there? Whatever... I need to rest..." SSe thought to herself

2020.05.17

HYDRO POWER STATION INCURSION 1

"Bakar! I found the cause of the disturbance!"

Alicia sat ducked behind a crate. Behind her was Dos and Trez, hacking into the Station's systems.

Dos asks how long until he finishes, in which Trez replied, in his own words.

"I'm quick myself. It's this thing that's slow! Why I oughta-"

Just then, the rest of the team, Ali and Bakar, arrive to stop them.

Bakar starts off the offensive, or rather, defensive, since he just refuses to lay a hand of Dos. Alicia and Ali meanwhile go to distract Trez. Ali unplugs the hacking device, which was enough to distract him. Bakar and Alicia decide to switch targets, Bakar helping Ali deal with Trez while she gets to deal with Dos.

Being overwhelmed, she throws a flashbang into the air, which stuns the agents, giving the two a chance to regroup.

"How's the progress?" Dos asks her comrade

"That little kid disconnected my systems! I'm gonna have to restart over" Trez answered

"Shit... we're pulling out"

She and Trez escape through the door. Alicia, dazed, fires a shot at them, but it misses the mark.

Bakar orders the two to tell MATA about what happened, who nod in response.

2020.05.18

HYDRO POWER STATION INCURSION 2

Agent Ali, Alicia, Bakar and Comot meet again at the power station, this time accompanied by Agent Rizwan.

"Agent Rizwan!" Ali shouted as he closes in 

"Status report?" Alicia asks

Rizwan puts up a hologram and shows that the disruption this time is caused by all the other power stations.

"How is this possible? I thought it's only those two" Bakar asks

"They're using a disruptor to trick us." Rizwan answers.

"Well, what do we do now?" Ali asks

Alicia suggest. "We should split up." 

Rizwan agrees with the idea as the fastest way, that is, each goes to one location, then whoever finds the enemy first should immediately call the others here and most importantly, not act alone.

"I'll go to the Solar station. Bakar, you'll be on the Wind station. Ali, Alicia, you both will stay here" Rizwan assigns them.

"Can I... go with Bakar?" Ali asks

"Bakar's strong enough as is. You stay here with Alicia, you guys will complement each other's strengths" Rizwan replies

Ali agrees 

"Now that's out of the way, you're all-" Rizwan ends the briefing

"ACT IMMEDEATLY!" Bakar interrupts him mid-sentence

"...dismissed..."

So, they split ways. Ali followed Alicia through the station. Just then, Alicia breaks the silence with a sentence that made Ali choke on air.

"You don't have to follow me, you know? 

"Wha- I'm sorry?" Ali retorts back

"You're better off just standing still. I can take on those two myself" she states as she twirls her revolver in her right hand.

"But Rizwan told me to-" Ali tries to reason with her

"That's not a good enough alibi, Ali." She counters

"But what if you-"

"I'M FINE! DON'T INTERFERE!" Alicia shouted back.

She continues. "sigh You'll just get hurt in the process. And I do not want any and all accidents from happening... especially after what happened before."

The silence that followed as Alicia walks away was resounding. Just then, Comot meows at Ali, signaling the boy to follow him in the opposite direction. That's when IRIS detected the presence of Dos and Trez.

In the Station's control room, Dos urges Trez to quickly finish the job before the agents realized they aren't on every station, Trez tells Dos to be quiet so he can finish faster.

Just then, Ali arrives there and hides behind a control panel, quietly trying to contact the other agents but is interrupted. Suddenly, Ali's phone rings loudly, it was Viktor, so he immediately rejects the call, trying not to have his cover blown. The loud noises causes Dos to find Ali. She throws a Shox Stix at him, Ali dodges, and prepares a yo-yo strike. He quickly tells Comot to call the other agents.

Surprised by the young agent's tenacity, Dos attacks Ali with a series of Plasma Blades but is dodged. Dos leaps and thrusts at him but Ali deflects her blades with his yo-yo's string and counters with a kick of his Aero Boots.

"Not bad" Dos admits

"Really?" Ali sheepishly chuckles

Dos comes in for another attack, but is interrupted by a boosted shotgun pellet from Alicia who just arrived.

"Step aside Ali, she's not yours" Alicia orders the boy

"Oh come on! I've fought her more times than you've been on missions!" Ali retorts

Alicia counters. "And I've yet to see you win a single time" (ooh that's hot)

"Why you-"

The argument between them leaves Dos stunned in surprise. Rizwan arrives just in itme to break up the argument, squeezing their necks and tellig them not to do anything embarrassing. Ali blames Alicia for the argument earlier, which Alicia responds by just rolling her eyes.

Trez managed to turn off the power generation system and took over the fight from Dos who was given two minutes to complete their objective. Rizwan tried to chase Dos but was stopped by Trez. Rizwan tried to pinch Trez but Trez was protected by his invulnerable clothing.

"You two stop Dos, I'll deal with him."

The two (or three if you count Comot) agents nod and began chasing after Dos 

Soon, they get to her. She has an Azurium canister in hand, which she took from one of the reactors.

Alicia lunges in for a punch, but is shunned to the side. Alicia and Ali then surrounds Dos from both sides on the reactor's circular corridor, Dos acts by throwing an EMP Grenade to cut off the station's electricity supply.

Left in the dark, the two young agents try their best to stop Dos. Ali tracking her with tth IRIS's night vision mode while Alicia uses her senses.

"RIGHT!" Ali alerts his partner

Alicia quickly dodges Dos' thrust, Dos dissapears into the darkness once more.

"THERE!" Ali alerts her again.

"Keep quiet!" Alicia yelled back.

Dos threw Shox Stix from the other side of the reactor towards Ali, but was stopped by Comot who took the hit and falls unconcious. "Comot! Ali shouted.

Alicia takes a deep breath and turned to her intuition to track Dos' movements,

tap tap

Alicia immediately turns around and knocks Dos down with a shot to the arm and leg respectively.

"Guess I was right after all" Alicia admits 

"IRIS beeping WATCH OUT!"

"?"

She didn't have time to evade as she was hit from behind with Shox Stix. Electricity surged through her nerves, screams of pure agony filled the room as her systems fail one after another.

WARNING: EXTREME NERVE DAMAGE SUSTAINED.

RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS
ERROR: ARM CORE MODULE #1 NOT RESPONDING
ERROR: ARM CORE MODULE #2 NOT RESPONDING
WARNING: COMBAT SYSTEMS INOPERABLE

INITIATING ESCAPE PROTOCOL
ATTEMPTING CONNECTION WITH LIMBIC MODULES
ERROR: LEG CORE MODULE #1 NOT RESPONDING
ERROR: LEG CORE MODULE #2 NOT RESPONDING
WARNING: UNABLE TO SUSTAIN MOTOR FUNCTIONS

ERROR: VISUAL CORTEX MALFUNCTION
ERROR: LIMBIC FUNCTION NOT RESPONDING

WARNING: UNABLE TO SUSTAIN INTERNAL ORGANS
! PULSE FAILURE !
! PULSE FAILURE !
! PULSE FAILURE !-

!- SHUTDOWN IMMINENT -!-

ERROR: NO VOCAL INTERFACE DETECTED, UNABLE TO COMPLETE TASK
! PULSE FAILURE !
! PULSE FAILURE !

WARNING: UNABLE TO SUSTAIN BASIC FUNCTIONS
-!- SHUTDOWN IMMINENT -!-
-!- SHUTDOWN IMMINENT -!-

I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.

The station's electricity supply is restored, and Ali is alarmed to see Alicia thrown into the reactor pit by Dos. Rizwan, who was busy fighting Trez, contacts Ali to ask for the status.

"Ali, status report!" 

"Doz is getting away with Azureum, but Alicia fell into the reactor!" Ali updates him 

"You have to stop Dos! If she escapes with Azureum, Cyberaya may be destroyed!" Rizwan orders

"But... Alicia?"

"...Engage Protocol Gegas."

Down in the reactor pit:

"Come on!"

Alicia is trying to blast her way back up, but the nerve damage caused by Dos has disabled her boots and wings, practically turning her into a sitting duck. 

As the reactors began lighting up one by one, she hears Rizwan's order trough the comms.

"...Engage Protocol Gegas"

Her eyes widen in shock. She looks back to Ali, atop the corridor looking down at her. Both of them shared look of terror. Ali looks to the door Dos escaped through, then back at her.

"I'm... sorry... I can't keep that promise... dad..."

She closes her eyes.

WHIRRRRRR

BOOM

She feels something dragging her, it feels like she's airborn. Alicia reopens her eyes and lo and behold...

It's Ali.

In the last moments before the reactor ignites, Ali chose to save Alicia, jumping in and out with his Aero Boots.

Everything seemed to move in slow-motion as they leave the central pit and onto the corridor.

With a loud thud, the two slam onto the platform, Ali smashing onto the glass wall hard enough to dislocate his shoulder. Alicia laid on the floor before getting up and sitting still. As Ali cradles his broken shoulder, he hears sniffling coming from Alicia.  

"Are you... crying?"

Alicia turns around quickly, grabbing him by he broken shoulder and snapping it back in place with force. Ali jerks in pain, but he doesn't have time to process before being yelled at by the girl

"WHY DID YOU SAVE ME, IDIOT!?"

"Wha-"

"YOU COULD'VE JUST FOLLOWED YOUR ORDERS AND CAPTURE DOS! BUT YOU JUST HAD TO HURT YOURSELF TO SAVE ME, HUH?!" She continued

"?" Ali stared in confusion

"GOD- sigh All of this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't because of me" she admits

"Wha? Who told you that?" Ali asks

"I- ugh forget it. You're just wasting your time..." she replies

"Ali! Alicia!"

Just then, Bakar arrives to help the two kids, and asks what happened, followed by Rizwan who's disappointed to see the loss of the Azurium crystal.

Later that day at school in badminton practice, Ali doubles with Viktor against Syed and Shaun, refereed by Sarsi. In an attempt to grab the final point, Ali leaps and smashes. Syed pushes Shaun aside to parry the shuttlecock but the shuttlecock goes into the court, Syed then blames Shaun for their defeat. Mia is at the side of the court cheering for Viktor. Ali asks Viktor if he invited the fans, Viktor denies it.

Just then, MATA calls again, Ali runs to the library. That's when he unexpectedly meets Alicia.

"What're you-"

Alicia hands over the access book to him. Uh... friendship status achieved???

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.03.08

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: MATA HEADQUARTERS

OBJECTIVE: VACANT

THROUGH THE PATCHES OF CRIMSON

A SIGN OF FAMILIARITY

A FRIEND OR A FOE

A SIGHT TO BEHOLD

The training room roared to life as our beloved half-machine agent, Alicia, readies for another session.

She check her session checklists. (/ = Checked)

WAVES /

ESCAPE ROOM /

INFILTRATION /

QUIZZES // (TOO EASY!)

1V1

She taps her pen on her notebook.

"Alright, guess it's time to draw."

OPPONENT ID: DROID "SABREMACHINA" (SA-BER-MA-KI-NA)

CLASS: ELITE COMBAT DROID

ARMAMENTS:

- ENERGY BLADE [PRIMARY]

- PLASMA SHOTGUN [SECONDARY]

SPECIALIZATION:

MEDIUM/CLOSE RANGE COMBAT

WEIGHT CLASS:

MEDIUM

!PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Cue "UNSTOPPABLE FORCE" by Heaven Pierce Her

The two adversaries charge in, weapons at hand.

SABREMACHINA fires a barrage of plasma pellets, Alicia dodges the hail of bullets as they approach close range.

The machine comes in with a horizontal slash, blocked by Alicia's metallic arm. The swordsman follows it up with a sword throw, which Alicia parries back at it's fries-shaped face.

Staggered, it stumbled back before recalibrating and charges back in. Alicia pulls out her revolver and starts firing. The machine blocks the bullets with it's sword, before leaping up and landing a vertical slash, blocked again by her arm.

She counters with a shotgun to the chest. As it is knocked back, Alicia charges in and lands a punch on it's face. Before it can counter, it gets a face full of shotgun.  

WARNING! DANGER LEVEL INCREASING

OPPONENT ENTERING [ENRAGED] MODE

The machine rises up, it's eye slit glowing red and it's sword heating up.

"Bring it on, scrap!" Alicia shouts

The two charge in one more time, their glowing eyes meeting.

Ali is running around the school grounds, being chased by Syed and Shaun. He trips over a rock and falls, sending Comot flying out of his backpack. Syed points out that Comot scratched his finger, but Ali dismisses it as a trivial matter. Syed was hurt because he remembered every time he had been in trouble because of Ali and Comot's past behavior:

Comot dropped a bucket on Syed after being startled by Ali's can,

Comot ran away with Syed's gadget and was saved by Ali

Syed even stepped on Comot's dung while chasing Ali. Ew...

Syed and Shaun continued to attack Ali but Ali was quick to dodge every attack. Furious, Syed throws a rock at Ali. Once again Ali dodged but the stone almost hits Puan Munah. Puan Munah, being the absolute badass she is, managed to slice the stone with her cane mid-fucking-air and then goes to scold the three boys.

As Ali hides from the caning, he receives a call from the M.A.T.A.

Ali arrives at the base shortly after and meets with Alicia, walking down the hallway. 

"Alicia..."

He comes up to her and greets her.

"Hi Alicia!"

Alicia simply gave back a cold "Hi."

Trying to get her attention, he starts speaking about his encounter earlier.

"Hey, I actually made it on time today! Suprising since I was being chased just now."

Being blunt as ever, Alicia have an "Ok".

Upon entering the control room, Ali is jolted by a force of droids aiming weapons at him. Agent Bakar who followed in also got the same treatment.

"What is happening over here?"

[LATER]

"What's with all of this?" Ali asks the General

"Who gave you permission to speak? Do you realise what happened?!" The General retorts

Ali shrugs

"Our enemies have gotten a hold of an Azurium! Now they can make the most destructive and powerful weapons and threaten Cyberaya!" He makes a point

"Sorry, General! I promise to get it back!" Ali promises

"Do you know where they are?"

"Uhm... no..."

"THEN WHY ARE YOU TALKING NONSENSE?!?"

The General sighs, before bringing up how good he thinks his performance as an agent had been these past few weeks/months. Seems like this whole thing was about his performance as an agent.

Ali answered, unsure. "I don't know"

The General angrily replied. "How can you not know?!"

"I guess I'm okay?" Ali answers, shaken by the sudden yelling

"What do you mean 'guess so'?! You think this is a game?!" The General responds.

Ali throught for a minute. All the previous missions, his teamwork with his fellow agents, all the times he saved others...

"Hmm... not bad I suppose" Ali spoke up with a well thought-out answer this time.

"You think you've done a good job?" The General questions

Ali answered. "Yeah! I've helped with some missions haven't I?"

"How have you been cooperating with the others?" He asks once more

"Good! I love going out on missions with them! Rizwan's the best since he's the best!"

A montage of Rizwan's great feats goes through his mind. From his debut in his first mission to him taking on Trez alone and winning just recently.

"Uncle Bakar is great too!"

Another montage, this one of Bakar rolls in his mind. From his encounter with the man when exiting school, to when he gets his hands on IRIS, to the training he's been through, all of that.

"Alicia... she's... complicated, to say the least"

Another montage, this one of Alicia appears in his mind. His joint takedown of Komeng's bandits all the way in L-3, their combined effort to destroy that one Heavy Assault Mech, the several scoldings he got from her for being naive and stupid, and...

The reactor...

...

"So... you think you fit the team?" The General questions

"Sure! I seem to fit well with them" Ali replied

"Unfortunately, they don't seem to share the same thought as you." 

"What?"

As it turns out, he had gathered the other's thoughts on him previously. The General then plays their recordings for Ali to hear.

First up, Bakar.

"All is good, General! He's got the spirit of an agent! Very brave, and not afraid of sacrificing himself for others. And to add on to that, he's not even that skilled, yet he's got the spirit of someone who's ready to die and take an entire army down with him. Just like his late mother"

"Although, he can also get pretty naive when it comes to decisions and also mess things up, which can, accidentally or not, fail missions."

Next, Alicia.

"While he may have the spirit and instincts, he's not exactly the most bright one out there. Not to mention his lack of skill, which is a whole 'nother can of worms that I refuse to go into. Some improvements to his skill could help, but right now, he's helpless."

"But... if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here now would I?"

Finally, and to top things off, Rizwan himself.

"Let me just be frank, General. We’re acquainted for awhile... and you know that you have my utmost respect, right? But… I don’t agree with the decision to include that boy in our missions since the start."

General Rama questions Ali about the time he lost IRIS Ali explains that it happened when Ali brought Comot home, then Comot reluctantly took IRIS to Abang Bear.

The General also brings up the time he stormed Gamma Tower, making Ali stunned. The General reminds that nothing can be hidden from MATA's knowledge by recalling the message from Jenny that Ali's spy suit sends data of every action of its wearer to MATA, so from there Ali is always being watched. Moreover, Ali was once found to be abusing IRIS for personal gain.

From that, Rama says that Ali has become a huge liability to MATA. Ali convinces the General that he has been practicing and improving his abilities, from the difficulty of the first morning workout with Bakar to the time he mastered the Aero Boots in the gap jump simulation. The General loudly disputes whether all of that is enough for Ali.

Jenny reports that even with the use of IRIS and various additional gadgets to improve his physical abilities, Ali is still far behind compared to other agents.

The General asks them what could be done to improve Ali's abilities.

Bakar suggests that Ali eat more to be stronger.

Rizwan, on the other hand, expressed his lack of confidence in Agent Bakar's ability to train Ali. Maybe because Ali and Bakar are uncle and nephew? Or maybe other personal reasons? He doesn't know. All he knows is that Bakar's not fit to be his mentor.

Alicia suggest he just trains with her instead. Last time they trained together was when they took down that Heavy Assault Mech, which was mostly Alicia's doing but Ali's intervention did speed up the process aswell as help teach him more about combat.

Rama asks them if Ali can still stay in MATA.

Bakar is confident that Ali still has hope.

Rizwan states it's possible if trained by a suitable mentor.

Jenny says that if left alone, IRIS's true potential will not be tested.

Alicia said he just needs time.

General Rama asks Ali why he wanted to become an agent. Ali hesitates, explaining that he used to feel useless because everything he did didn't work out, but since discovering IRIS, he has been able to help people.

He remembers the events at Gamma Tower where he defeated Dr. Aaron and saved his father, at Abang Bear's lair where Comot snatched the IRIS from the thugs to give to Ali so he could escape, then destroyed Abang Bear's computer, and at the power station where he disobeyed orders to carry out Protocol Gegas to save Alicia's life.

Finally, he feels as if he has changed, but the General chuckles with doubt.

Ali asks back why the General asked all that, the General explains that the failure of the last mission has made the Core Leaders question Ali's involvement, so he needs to decide whether to keep or eliminate Ali. Ali hesitates at his words, but the General reminds him of the time he was about to eliminate Ali for accidentally using IRIS in the first place.

With a worried heart, Ali spoke at length to try to defend his actions to save Alicia from being annihilated by the azurium beam back at the Hydro Station. 

"But- but what should I have done? Alicia was in danger at the time! I can’t just stand by and watch her get hit by the rays of Azureum?"

"Ali..."

"If it had hit her, she would have… exploded!"

"Calm down…"

"PERISHED!"

"Ali!"

"She is your daughter, isn’t she?!"

"DEYY!"

The General reassured Ali and advised that a good agent must obey orders without hesitation, but...

"But this time… I am thankful that you are not a good agent." He spoke up, his voice softening

"Thank you, Ali… for saving Alicia. I need a bit more time to make my decision." He thanked the boy.

At night, Ali contemplated IRIS in his grip in the bedroom, nervously awaiting the decision that would be made against him. He remembered the first time he had worn IRIS and defeated Dos and Trez where he had been kidnapped, and also the time when Comot had returned IRIS to Ali. Comot was present, rubbing his body against his side as a way to soothe his grief.

"Hm... at least I still have you, Comot."

Ali slept soundly until 3 in the morning when he received a call from MATA to go to the base. Upon arriving at the base, he's confronted by a swarm of droids and drones shooting at him. At first, Ali was able to dodge and deflect all the shots with the gadgets at his disposal. Then, he tries to unlock the control room door but failed. The droids were advancing towards him, and he was increasingly unable to defend himself from the barrage of gunfire.

But out of nowhere, the droids began falling one after another. Some blasted by foreign gunfire, others knocked out by jabs to the neck.

Then, a figure, no, two figures walked up to him, both all to familiar.

Chapter Text

2020.05.26 - 2020.05.30

RIZWAN'S EXERCISES

Agent Rizwan hung upside down from the ceiling in a dark room. He smoothly frees himself and lands, knocking on the door to attract the attention of the guards. The guards who came in to see Rizwan are jabbed from behind and tied to a chair. Rizwan carefully heads to the room at the end of the corridor without being detected.

When he reaches the door of the room, he knocks down his two guards with lollipop sticks. He enters the dark room, locks the door and finds a safe. Before he can open it, several more guards come and break down the door with a hammer. Rizwan hides on the ceiling, then comes down and knocks them all down and steals the briefcase from the safe.

Rizwan's actions are witnessed by Ali in the MATA control room monitor. He is accompanied by Jenny who explains that this is a simulation program that trains INVISO agents in sneaking techniques. Agent Rizwan returns to the control room with the briefcase, which is the reward from the training. Ali praised Rizwan's greatness, Rizwan throws the bag to Ali and says it's his turn. Ali asked permission to bring Comot along, but was denied.

Like Agent Rizwan, Ali started out tied up upside down. He broke free but fell. Ali got up and groaned in pain, while the guards outside heard the commotion from the room and headed there. Ali asked to restart the simulation but the guards had already stormed in, so Ali was forced to spin up his yo-yo and attack them.

The first attempt clearly didn't go very well, Rizwan reprimanded Ali for being nervous and unprepared, telling him that the enemy wouldn't wait for him to be ready. Ali admitted that he had made a mistake, Rizwan frowned and told him that not everything would go smoothly in the real mission, so he had to stay calm even in critical moments and never lose focus.

With a stern tone, Rizwan added that there is no point in using IRIS if the wearer couldn't play the role, after all, MATA needed an agent who could control IRIS, so "don't waste our time." A disheartened Ali apologized. Rizwan tells Ali to repeat the simulation, but Jenny reminds him that he will be late for school. Ali is shaken and rushes out, followed closely by Comot.

At school, Puan Munah teaches a math class with the topic of compound operations. Ali was sleepy due to fatigue from the agent's training. Serik repeatedly treated Sarsi to raise his hand to answer, Mrs. Munah suspected Ali for the question asked. From Shaun's whisper next to him, Ali gave the answer "x = 3" even though it was not an algebra or linear equation class, making the entire class roar with laughter.

Mrs. Munah jumped back to Ali's desk and punished him by standing outside the class. After the class was over, Mrs. Munah came out to scold Ali that the purpose of this punishment was for Ali to learn a lesson so that he would not repeat his bad behavior, but Ali fell asleep while standing, so Mrs. Munah screamed until it echoed to wake Ali up.

On the way to the canteen, Ali is accompanied by Viktor, he complained to him, telling him he's still sleepy. Viktor thought that Ali played games late into the night and reprimanded him, but Ali denied it. Agent Bakar, who was disguised as a school cleaner, came to pick up Ali quietly by throwing a drink box on the floor.

Bakar asked how Ali's training was, Ali hesitantly replied okay. Bakar asked what the problem was, Ali expressed his feelings that Agent Rizwan was quite strict in training him. Bakar says that Rizwan acts like this to make sure Ali doesn't play around, and even gives him a boost because, well, not everyone gets to train under the greatest agent in MATA. Receiving MATA's signal, Ali went to respond with more enthusiasm.

Ali rushes to the control room, greeted by Jenny. He asks where Agent Rizwan is, and is suddenly jabbed from behind and knocked out by Rizwan, who complains about Ali's delay. Ali gets up and listens to Jenny's briefing that according to the data collected so far, Ali has never used more than 30 percent of the IRIS's processing power.

Rizwan orders Ali that he must now master the device. Ali replies that he will faint if he overuses it. Jenny assures him that this can be avoided if Ali controls the IRIS more efficiently because the IRIS works based on reading impulses from his brain. Rizwan explains that the IRIS is controlled by the user's mind. Shocked, Ali admits that he didn't realized that until now.

There are five types of exercises that Ali will undergo today: one-on-one with Rizwan in a dark warehouse, collecting data around the city, jumping on invisible platforms, simulating an obstacle course, and fighting a force of droids.

DISCLAIMER: All the exercises are presented alternately in the actual episode, but they are rearranged here for the convenience.

Exercise 1: In a dark warehouse, first Rizwan challenges Ali to attack him. If he lands even a finger on him, he wins. Ali first tries by punching Rizwan but is easily knocked down, then Rizwan reminds Ali to use IRIS.

Second attempt: Ali clings to the ceiling and waits for Rizwan to get in range, then comes down to attacks but is tripped by him.

Third attempt: Ali runs in the darkness to try and land a hit but is spotted and stopped by Rizwan.

Fourth attempt: Ali swings his yo-yo at Rizwan but it's deflected by Rizwan with a lollipop stick.

Fifth attempt: Ali attacks again but is thrown away.

Last attempt: Ali swings a yo-yo at Rizwan. Rizwan ducks his head but the yo-yo blasts behind him. Rizwan does a backflip to avoid it, but is touched from behind by Ali.

Rizwan squats down, swings around and trips him.

Ali gets up. "Hey, that's not fair!" Ali complains

"The enemy won't be fair on you, Ali." Rizwan reminds him

Exercise 2: Collecting data from around the city.

Rizwan teaches Ali to change the pattern from simply acting according to whatever the IRIS shows him to choosing the input he receives, starting with Ali muting the IRIS function according to Rizwan's wishes and watching the data display disappear one by one.

He explained that this method can save energy, then instructs Ali to focus on one type of object in the environment after another. Ali reinstalls the IRIS and begins focusing on single objects, starting with CCTV cameras, finding all of the cameras installed nearby.

Next, vehicles and license plate numbers. All the details like the vehicle type and the license plates were collected.

And finally, the data of people walking around. Random strangers passing by to the Rizwan sitting nearby.

Exercise 3: Floating platform that turns invisible. To demonstrate, Rizwan jumpe from the back of the stage across a gap and onto a platform, with the message that an agent must be trained to be able to memorize the state of the environment at a glance.

Ali looked here and there nervously, not knowing where to jump. Rizwan orders Ali to use the IRIS to help with memory. Ali does so and tries to find his way, but only managed to detect one or two platforms. Ali jumped from a platform to the next but falls into the abyss.

Second attempt: Ali almost misses his jump but manages to grab onto it.

Last attempt: IRIS manages to pin point all of the platforms, and Ali successfully makes the jumps.

Exercise 4: For the obstacle course, Ali receives IRIS guidance as follows:

Use Hyper Boost to avoid being crushed by the first stage and then jump over four floating platforms

Climb the monkey bar on stage two to avoid the electric floor, and finally, jump over the horizontal pole to reach the finish button.

Hey wait isn't this the obstacle course from L-6 but harder? Anyways...

Ali accelerates past the crushers and the platforms but misses near the end and almost falls. Fortunately, he managed to climb back up and continue. After the monkey bars, he grabbed onto the pole, nearly falling over at the final stage and then finally presses the button.

The use of IRIS was rated as unsatisfactory at 36%

"The input from IRIS won’t be effective if it is not precisely performed. Try again!" Rizwan ordered

The second attempt went better, but Ali still struggled with the pole obstacle, and his usage was still low at 52%.

The third attempt saw his IRIS usage reach 78% ,an achievement that earned Jenny's praise but Rizwan insists was not good enough.

"Oh, you’ve made good improvements, Ali!"

"Not good enough. Again!"

 The final attempt saw Ali land his foot on the pole and jump to the finish button neatly, achieving a perfect 100%.

Exercise 5: Ali is surrounded by a swarm of droids in the corridors of the MATA base. Rizwan, watching from the control room, reminds him that the IRIS can predict enemy attacks based on movement analysis, so Ali should try to predict more than one move.

Ali parries the droid's shots with a yoyo spin. One of the droids fires a missile, Ali dodges but crashes into another droid, who which points it's blaster at him. Rizwan urges Ali to hurry, but Ali complained that it was difficult because there were too many enemies.

Over time, Ali used IRIS to fully analyze the fighting patterns of all the droids. Ali used his Aero Boots to dodge all the shots, then swings a yoyo to grapple one droid's hand, dragging it to shoot down another droid. Ali also plays a trick on another droid by baiting and jumping until it is shot by other droids.

"Thank you, Jenny. That will be all."

After finishing the exercises, Ali waited in the control room while Rizwan talked to Jenny about Ali's exercises. After that, Rizwan congratulated him for showing good progress.

"Making good progress today. Good work."

"Really? Hehe, Thank you.." Ali replied sheepishly

Rizwan continued. "Tomorrow we’ll continue with the final training. If everything goes well, you’ll be able to carry out missions again-"

Ali is handing him a lollipop

"What’s this?" He questions

"Lollipop." The boy replied

"Yes, I know, but why are you giving it to me?" He continued

"Because you like lollipops, so I bought one extra" the boy answered

"You misunderstood. We are here to train... not to make friends." 

That was rougher than it needed to be....

Agent Bakar, who was still undercover at the school, welcomed Ali's return, who appeared to be eating lollipops just like Rizwan. Ali recounts the praise he received from Rizwan, but at the same time expressed distaste for Rizwan's seemingly arrogant attitude. To that, Bakar takes Ali to sit with him in the canteen to explain that Rizwan has been behaving like this since the loss of his mentor, the INVISO Core Leader who was "killed" in the story that told to Ali back in L-7 (which I didn't put since I fucked up there).

Out of nowhere-

"What’s this all about?"

Alicia suddenly appeared, wearing a black hoodie and trainers with yellow accents and missing her yellow headband, letting her hair dangling down.

She reprimands the two for discussing the matter of MATA such an open area like a this.

"Why do you two keep discussing things here? If someone notices, there will be a problem!" She questions

"Well, Ali here, is well on his way to becoming a great agent, like Rizwan!" Bakar answered

She sighs.

"Don’t get too excited." She says

"Why?" Ali asks

...

"Engage Protocol Gegas"

...

"Nothing, just... be careful." She answered, before walking away. Dissapearing like a ghost, completely unnoticed by the students, leaving Bakar and Ali questioning.

THE NEXT DAY

Agent Rizwan enters the control room, greeted by Ali who arrived early, to conduct the final test that would determine Ali's fate in MATA. Jenny explains that his objective is to spy on confidential information contained in the servers of a mercenary force called the Cobra Group. Ali asked who they are, but Rizwan stopped Jenny from answering because it was confidential information for Ali.

Jenny shows the target location in an underground complex, and the entrance is a secret tunnel located south of the Cyberaya industrial area.

Following Jenny's instructions, Ali and Rizwan first entered the underground complex through the cargo elevator shaft, hiding on the roof of the elevator car until the soldiers riding the elevator came out. After that, the two of them went down quietly and went out the elevator door.

"We’ll split up here. I’ll head to the security panel to turn off the alarms in the server room. Make sure you don’t leave without the intel needed."

"Okay"

After hiding for a moment to avoid being detected by the soldiers, Ali turned right and encountered an electric floor passage. To overcome this obstacle, he used his Aero Boots to parkour off the walls.

When approaching the door to the server room guarded by two soldiers, he hid and threw things to distract them. One soldier went to search, while Ali crawled on the ceiling beams, then descended and hit another soldier. He breaks the code for the door lock, dragged the soldier inside, inserted the drive and copied the desired data.

Out of nowhere, the alarms go off, Ali getz startled and tries to contact Rizwan but couldn't connect. Five soldiers arrived through the door and started shooting at Ali. Ali used his yo-yo to deflect the fire and knock all the soldiers down. After all the intelligence data is successfully copied, Ali unplugs the drive and hurries out.

Once again Ali encounters the electric floor, now with sentry shooters activated on the ceiling, with more soldiers also approaching from behind, Ali puts on his Aero Boots and parkours on the wall, but is shot mid-jump by a sentry. He quickly puts on his Hyper Boost and to avoid falling on the floor and crosses it safely.

Then, Ali's way out is suddenly blocked by a shutter door in the middle of the corridor. Ali uses IRIS to locate and break the power source to reopen the door, but is hit by a spray of tear gas when he unsuccessfully disables a wire. A group of soldiers arrive and take aim at him, along with the ceiling sentry located there.

Ali's anxiety peaks when a soldier comes forward to try to bash him in the head.

Then...

The lights began to flicker and all the soldiers' comms are disturbed by sharp white noise. IRIS is undergoing a major transformation, marked by a blinding white light beam from the visor.

INITIATING OVERRIDE MODE

Ali stands up and looks towards the ceiling, IRIS makes the sentry start shooting at all the soldiers. Ali understands that this new power could take control of any object it focused on, so he uses IRIS to open the shutter door and continue his escape.

He's chased by the soldiers again and then encounters another electric floor. This time he uses his new power to turn off the electricity and walk on it, then turns it back on, shocking the pursuing soldiers.

In the middle of the intersection, Ali closes off all the doors to take cover. He opens one door to peek, but is greeted by the soldiers and immediately closes it again. IRIS detects all the doors have hostiles behind them, so Ali escapes through the ceiling air vent before the soldiers could breach the barrier.

Ali exits through a manhole outside the complex, out of energy, greeted by Rizwan before passing out.

Ali regained consciousness in the control room, greeted by Rizwan, Alicia and Jenny.

"Agent Rizwan!" He jolted awake

"Where did you go? Why did you leave me alone there?" He argued with the man

"Calm down, Ali. The training earlier was to see your capability to work alone." Rizwan replied

"Didn't you noticed? This is the first time you completed a mission without any help. Congratulations." He continued, congratulating him for completing it.

"Ali, you okay?" Jenny came to address him

"I... what happened earlier?" Ali asks

"That's strange..." Alicia admitted from the back, staring at the footage onscreen.

Ali stared onto the footage.

Jenny comes to explain.

"While you were facing threats earlier, your brain's impulse increased enormously and increased the IRIS's processor to 100% and automatically unlocked..."

Rizwan finishes the sentence. 

"IRIS Override Mode"

"I'm sorry what?" Ali asks

Alicia appears to his side, jumpscaring him again.

"Sheesh stop doing that!" Ali told her

She just rolls her eyes and began explaining. "It allows IRIS to invade nearby networks aswell as taking over all the systems within. Seems like being or seeing someone else in danger is the main cause of this mode to be activated"

"How do you know about all of that?" Rizwan asked, popping the lollipop out of his mouth

"Speaking from experience, that being back at Tower Gamma when IRIS flickered white for a split second, aswell as reviewing the footage shown. Anxiety levels seem to be a contributing factor in it's activation" she answered

"How fond, I've never seen records of this mode being activated anywhere in the IRIS's files." Jenny spoke up

"Seems like this might be the reason the IRIS project was discontinued" Rizwan stated

"I'll investigate this further. Once I find the answer, I'll report it to the General." Jenny told him

"Alright then, good luck on that." Rizwan replies.

"Ali, you're dismissed. Next week you'll continue training with Alicia. For now, you should rest" Rizwan orders Ali

Ali nods, briefly glancing at Alicia who's twirling her revolver in her hand, still staring at the screen, before going back home.

As he walks back home, he looks back at the screen.

IRIS OVERRIDE MODE

2020.06.06 - 2020.06.10

ALICIA'S EXERCISES

Ali enters the training room, as told to by Alicia. The room is covered in blue panels, white grids seperating them. As he steps to the middle, droids start spawning all around him.

6 regular droids

5 'Soldier' class droids (equipped with a PLS rifle)

And one singular Buster droid

Alicia drops down from above.

"Sup" she greets him

"So... what's the exercise?" Ali asked, looking around at the droids cautiously

"This is the exercise. Let me show you how it's done first" She confirms

A counter on the big screen starts flickering.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

START

The droids charge in, Alicia stood still, observing their movement.

Then

PING

BANG

She fllings a projectile, this one noticeably more coin-like than her other projectiles, and fires on it. The shot splits in two, and hits two of the droids charging.

Several more charge in, she starts spinning the revolver.

WHIRR

BANG [PING PING PING]

The round bounces between the droids, another 3 dead.

A droid comes charging in from behind, she turns around and lands a brutal uppercut, sending it flying.

A droid fires a volley of plasma nullets at the two. Ali hunker down with his yo-yo spinning up into a shield while Alicia used her gauntlet of an arm to block the hits, followed up by a parry, knocking that one down.

Another droid along with the Buster come in for a pincer attack, but Alicia simply sidestepped the charge, leading to the Buster smashing the poor droid.

"4 left already? How are you so good at this?" Ali questioned, still hunkering from the blasters whizzing past him

"It's not a matter of skill, it's about efficiency" Alicia answered, charging towards another droid with her shotgun in hand. 

A droid comes in to land a punch on Ali, causing Ali to roll to avoid it, unexpectedly rolling right towards the Buster. It prepares to beat him, but gets obliterated by a point-blank Railcannon shot to the face.

Alicia notices the last droid and finishes it off with a revolver shot to the face. She picks the boy up and then gives him a challenge.

"Alright, now beat that" she says, pointing to the screen infront

TODAYS RECORD:

30.630s

Oh boy...

EXERCISE 1: EFFICIENCY

1ST ATTEMPT: Not good. Knocked out only 2 droids, and it was mostly defensive. Got sent flying halfway across the arena by the Buster. 

2ND ATTEMPT: Slightly better, but not optimal. 4 droids this time, even knocked out the Buster. But it still took more time, plus it didn't beat her record.

3RD ATTEMPT: More optimal, but still not beating her record. Knocked out all the droids without being hit, but took like 40s.

"How am I supposed to beat that?" Ali complained.

Alicia replied, watching from the sidelines. "Again, be efficient. Target weakpoints, minimize defending and maximise attacking" 

FINAL ATTEMPT: Beat Alicia's record by just barely at .170s. Followed Alicia's advice and went after the weakspots. Joints, exposed internal mechanisms, etc. This earned Ali a round of applause from Alicia.

"Alright, next exercise. This one's about speed."

EXERCISE 2: SPEED

As many of you know, ULTRAKILL has three categories + one bonus category when it comes to ranking.

- TIME: beat the level ASAP

- KILLS: kill everything, leave nothing alive, try to be quick while you're at it

- STYLE: kill everything will style

- RESTARTS: try not to die too many times

The last one was mostly about KILLS so this exercise is about time. 

The exercise in question? Beat an obstacle course as fast as possible.

1st Stage: A collapsing catwalk above a giant fan (this is a simulation so they aren't lethal)

2nd Stage: Moving platforms over a deep abyss, with several 'VIRTUE' Drones ready to blast him off if he stands still for too long

3rd/Final Stage: Climbing upward (and back down after pressing a button) past impassable lasers and burning floors (which means Ali's gonna have to keep dashing between the lasers and not touch the floor.

And most importantly, beat it in under 1 minute

1ST ATTEMPT: After the rigorous training under Rizwan, he managed to beat it first try, although he didn't meet the time requirement, beating it in 2.5 minutes.

2ND ATTEMPT: Went better, beat it in sub 2 minutes. Still didn't meet the required time.

FINAL ATTEMPT: Just barely beat it in under a minute. He was lucky he managed to land a Hyper Boost right before the timer runs out.

"Oh wow, you were only a microsecond below the max time, congrats on the clutch" Alicia congrats him through the comms.

"Oh gee, thanks" Ali responded, admired.

"Don't let it get to your head, we still have two more to go" She suggested.

EXERCISE 3: STYLE

Alright, this one's about style, but also restarts (since they go hand in hand). One enemy, a Heavy Buster Droid (Class: GUTTER) In the centre of the room.

The goal is to beat him, but also just be stylish with it. Simple, right? Well, the thing is... everytime you fail (get bashed with it's left arm's shield, get mowed down by it's right arm machine gun, or just get crushed underneath as it falls over upon death), you get less style points.

Suprisingly enough, this really took only one try. Thanks to IRIS, Ali managed to evade the hail of bullets aswell as it's melee options once he gets close, as in it's shield bash. Also, he was very stylish when doing so, all mostly because of his immature nature pulling trick after trick on the poor machine. 

He almost failed when it eventually falls over, but IRIS alerted him in time, saving him from having to do it all over again.

EXERCISE 4: VERSUS

Now this is the fun part. This one takes all the previously learnt techs, including ones learnt Rizwan's exercises, and mash them into one.

"Is this a platformer with enemies?" You might ask yourself

And to that, I say: Nope.

As the name suggest, this is none other than a 1v1 between Ali and Alicia

"Hm... seems like you made it" Alicia spoke up, standing neatly in the centre of a dimly lit arena.

"So... what's this supposed to be?" Ali wonders, yo-yo at the ready.

"Oh, forgot to mention that before..." Alicia responded

She continued. "In this Exercise, we fight"

She charges in, boots blasting her towards Ali. He instinctively blocked the initial strike with his yo-yo shield. Alicia leaps above and fires a shot, Ali bounced it off.

"Quick reflexes, of just IRIS?" She noted to herself

Ali followed the block by charging in for a yo-yo hit, but it misses. Alicia brings out her shotgun, which means she's going melee.

Alicia charges in, chainsaw revving up. Ali follows suit, preparing to swing his yo-yo at her. Once they both got close enough, they real struggle begins. Being too close to use his yo-yo as a meaningful weapon, he blasts her back with his Aero boots, before swinging his yo-yo at her. She blocks the initial hit successfully, but not the shockwave that followed.

It sent her back pretty far, giving Ali enough time to leap above and prepare to strike down. Alicia notices and dashes to the side, barely missing Ali's slam. The two lock eyes for a moment, weapons ready, before continuing, Alicia beginning with a shotgun blast practically point blank with Ali blocking that shot. 

Alicia comes in for a punch, but her her gets grappled by the yo-yo's string, with Ali following it up by throwing her to the side. As Alicia rose back up, she gets grappled again and pulled into a dropkick, sending her slamming into the floor.

"That's it? Come on!" Ali shouted 

Alicia rises up and fires a core grenade into the air, before pulling out her Railcannon and aiming. The IRIS alerts the boy of the incoming attack. Ali takes note and Hyper Boosts to the side, barely dodging the nuke that followed.

Ali retaliates by charging at the girl, before hitting her, square in the chest, with a shockwave blast, sending her upward. He boost upwards to catch up, and with one final swing of his yo-yo

BOOM 

CRASH

Ali lands down, exhausted by the fight. He hears something from the screen and looks at it.

RANK: A

TIME: 5.36.233 [B]

KILLS: 0 [S]

STYLE: 257054 [S]

"Wow, an A rank? That's... actually impressive" Alicia spoke up from behind. 

Ali looks back and-

"OH MY GOD! ARE YOU OKAY?!" He shouted in horror, running up to her immedeatly

"What?" Alicia wonders as Ali checks on her.

"Did I hit you too hard? Are you in pain?" He kept asking questions to her, but it just made her more confused.

"...No? Why are you so worried all of a sudden?" She asks

Ali points to her head. She puts a finger on the spot he's pointing and wipes a bit of something off her hair. She inspects it and finally connects the pieces together.

"Oh... that's why."

Her head was bleeding a lot, yet suprisingly, she didn't feel anything. No headache, no nausea, no nothing. She felt, normal... somehow

She looks to the worried Ali and reassures him. "Ah don't worry! This'll be healed by tomorrow morning, I'm fine."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! YOUR HEAD IS BLEEDING!" Ali retorted back

"Relax, having my heart replaced with a generator helps a lot with the healing thing" she stated

"...what." he questioned

"Also, are you worried because I'm injured or because you don't want to get yelled at by the General?" She asks

"Uhm... both?" He answered

"Fair enough." She accepts

The two share a laugh together. Genuine, and cheerful

Even in the most tense of situations, they always somehow find a way to brighten things up, whether it's with a joke, or just a happy smile. 

"Hey, Ali." Alicia spoke up

"Hmm?" Ali looks to her

"Thanks for saving me, by the way"

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.12

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO:OK

VIDEO:OK

MECHANICS:OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

LOCATION: AGENT QUARTERS - MATA HQ

OBJECTIVE: UNAVAILABLE

I'M BORED TO DEATH

IS THAT EVEN TRUE?

WELL, I AM STILL ALIVE

I NEED SOMETHING TO DO

Alicia sat on her bed, bored completely out of her mind. 

This had been ongoing since the events of L-7, though it's only now that it's taken a toll on her. She heard from her father, the General, that Ali and Bakar are on a mission, so no hanging out with them for now... 

She unfurls her wings, only one of the four pairs of mechanical appendages, and pulls out two of her guns. 'Marksman' and 'Sawcor'

She closes her wings, then begins inspecting the weapons.

DESIGNATION: XR-99 'MARKSMAN'

CONDITION: USED

!OUT OF RICOCHET PROJECTILES! 

!ROTARY CHAMBER JAMMED!

DESIGNATION: XSH-55 'SAWCOR'

CONDITION: STALE

!CHAINSAW UNKEPT!

!CORE LAUNCHING MECHANISM BROKEN!

She sighs, then stands up. She unfurls her wings and puts the two guns back in before closing them again. She looks to her arm, and scans it with her mono-visor

DESIGNATION: G-2 KNUCKLEBLASTER

CONDITION: BROKEN

!SHOTGUN BARREL'S INSIDE MELTED!

!JOINTS UNKEPT!

"Looks like I'm gonna have to spend some time in the lab" she muttered. 

Just then, her visor glitched out slightly, which earned a sigh of frustration from her. 

TEST 1

"Alright let's get this over with" 

She grabs a few stuff she needed from the drawer underneath the table. Those included:

• power tools to make things easier (power drills, sanders, welding tools)
• hand tools for tightening the bolts and sticking pieces together with force along with making things go smoother (screwdrivers, hammers, oilers and wrenches)
• aswell as high-voltage toolkits for the electrical systems (like her CORONA visor)

She's not the most talented when it comes to tech and machinery, so this first test just fails. She knew this was going to happen so she just accepts it and continues patching up her stuff. 

TEST 2

"Second's times the charm (not)" 

Arm joint got stuck from a misplaced screw (which hurted a lot btw), the shotgun jammed due to a piece of the barrel's inside getting in the way of the igniter, the new projectiles just got obliterated by a charged shot instead of bouncing it off, it was just a mess all around. 

TEST 3

"Third time's the- ah God damnit" 

The visor bugged out, had to use a new motherboard cuz the old one got fried by the stress load. Also the Knuckleblaster jammed, and then blew up in her face. Thank God it was on safe mode and not the usual 'Red dust' mode. 

...

TEST 9

"I'm getting tired of this..." 

The shotgun jammed, again. Also accidentally got her wing stuck on a door, which was like the equivalent of getting your finger crushed by a door (ouch). Also, the knuckleblaster's loading mechanism broke. Her visor also started acting up again so... 

...

...

TEST 20   FINAL TEST

"FINALLY! HOLY FUCK" 

After half a day (which felt like a week) of just non-stop soldering, welding, and screw driving, it's finally good to go. All those unbearable noises are now gone, all those blinding lights are gone, and all that pain is- well... mostly subsided. Sheesh that took a while...

"Alright, note to self: Call a Tekno to help you, because doing it yourself is pain" she noted

She stretched out like a cat that woke up from a 24 hour nap before putting the tools back in their place and exiting the lab, making sure her wings stay WAAAY CLEAR of the closing door. 

She gets back to her quarters and lies down, exhausted. But inside, she was content. 

The work she had done was had cleared her boredom, plus, it fixed her armory. Not to mention the priceless experience she got just fixing things like a Tekno, even if it was mostly pain and suffering alone. 

She stared at the ceiling, wondering...

"I wonder what those two are up to..."

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE: 

2020.06.13

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG 

ALIAS: AGENT ALICIA

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: MATA BASE - SECTOR 56

OBJECTIVE: AWAITING ORDERS... 

UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES GIVEN 

ALL CLUES POINTED TO YOU

IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

YOU

WERE

SCREWED

A figure clad in black armor, clearly worn down over years of use walks towards a door. It's helm, masking it's face with a tinted glass. Two narrow slits for eyes, glowing bright red in the darkness surrounding it. The figure walked with a sturdy posture, one that demanded respect. As he reaches the door... 

Rizwan walked through a door, which leads to an interrogation room. In it, housed Bakar. Yes, THAT Bakar. The person others saw as a beacon of hope in a bleak world. Ali's uncle and now... given the circumstances... 

A traitor

A mole

The day before, while Ali had apparently gone to save Viktor, his best friend, from Abang Bear (yeah I have no idea how that happened), Bakar had allegedly gone to steal an Azurium crystal from one of MATA's safehouses. 

Look, I, too, don't believe everything being thrown at him, but the clues spoke for themselves. The CCTV footage that had been recovered clearly shows Bakar walking towards the vault, yoinking the crystal, and then walking out the door like nothing happened. 

And apparently a CCTV footage that had barely been reviewed was enough to convince two of MATA's greatest agents, that being the General and Rizwan, that Bakar was this 'Uno' guy they've so heard about. Or at least, an enemy spy (had to specify because, well, they're all spies aren't they?)

"This is all a misunderstanding, sir!" Bakar pleaded, his frame tied to the center chair.

"Agent Bakar, never in a million years would I have thought you would do this" The General admitted, his usual angry tone replaced with one of betrayal, a very, very deep one at that. 

"Do what? I'm innocent!" He declared, trying to get himself out of this situation.

Rizwan spoke up, admitting his surprise and betrayal. "You know, all this time, I just thought you were just not that bright. Turns out... " He huffed, one that came from someone who just detained a very pesky mole

"What's with all of this? General?" The 'mole' questioned 

"Stop pretending Bakar" Rizwan silences him 

" ...or should I say... "

"Uno" 

"What?! Are you crazy?!" He argued, bewildered by such a claim

"I'm only going to ask you once. Where Is the Azurium you stole? " He questioned

"Azurium? What're you talking about? When did I 'stole' that?"  He argued.

"Enough, your secret is out." Rizwan responded

"What're you saying?! Why would I steal the Azurium?!" He objected 

"That's what we want to know. What your plan actually?" Rizwan retorted

The Inviso continued. "Everytime we faced enemies, you're the one who always compromised the mission" 

"You think I would just let myself be beaten up?!" Bakar stated

"Maybe..."

Rizwan continued with his interrogation. "Where were you when the Azurium at the Hydro Station got stolen?" 

Bakar replied. "I was at the Wind Station! You gave the instructions yourself!"

"And I also instructed to regroup when we got the call from Ali" he argued 

"What do I know? When I arrived, all of you were gone!" Bakar objected

" Could this all be-"

"A coincidence? And don't forget, you're the one who let the enemy steal the IRIS" 

"You think I did that on purpose?!"

The General shouted from the monitor, silencing the Kombat agent. "You didn't?! What's this then?!" 

He played a CCTV recording. The very thing that got him here in the first place. There's him, stealing the Azurium like nothing... 

"What else is your excuse,

traitor?" 

There in the Sector 56 base stood Ali and Jenny. Following what happened before, where Bakar was taken into custody with him being left to watch, he just couldn't believe it."

"I want to see Agent Bakar!" Ali begged to Jenny

"You can't, Ali. I'm sorry..." Jenny apologized

"He's innocent, I know him! He would never betray MATA!" He argued

" It's difficult for us believe it, even the General couldn't. But... All the evidence shows-"

" Let me see the evidence!" The boy argued. "Something must be wrong. We have to dig further!" 

Jenny replied. "I'm sorry, Ali. I just don't have the authority to-"

The door opens, revealing Rizwan standing behind it. He takes notice of the tension rising in the room and walks out. As he heads for the exit, he is approached by Ali. 

"Agent Rizwan! Wait!" 

He stops and responds, not turning around to look at him. "What?" 

"I want to see the evidence" He made his intentions clear

"Just go home, Ali. It's better that you don't interfere" the man orders him. 

Ali begged "Please, just help me! We need to prove that Bakar isn't-"

"The evidence is clear, Ali. You have to accept the reality" he replied

Ali just could not get over it and leaves, leaving Rizwan in the hallway, eyebrows furrowed. 

The weather outside was rather cloudy. Reflecting the mood of today. As Ali headed to the canteen, he catches a glimpse of the janitor's room, remembering the times Bakar encouraged him to carry on... 

...and the time Ali said he's better off without him...

God what a fool he was.

As he sat on the chairs, sulking, he is approached by his friend, Viktor.

"Yo, Ali. Is something wrong?" Viktor greeted him

"Uh nothing. It's just that... something feels... missing" Ali replied, staring at the broom that his uncle once used to clean the school. 

Viktor, ever so oblivious, thinks Ali was talking about 'Cyberwira', which was Ali's now deleted secret account where he posted pics of his agent fit after going viral from a video and joins in. 

"Yeah, I miss him too." 

"Wha- who?" 

"Cyberwira. I don't know why but he just vanished! I was just about to go meet him too..."

Ali continued to sit in silence as his friend just chows down on some nuggets. He then remembered something.

Alicia...

Where was she when all of this was going down? 

Blaster shots whizz past as waves of droned barrel towards the girl. Alicia stood her ground, firing on the incoming machines as they continue to circle her. All while her mind was still thinking about that thing... 

Ugh... That blue bastard...

With one final charged shot, she takes down the last of the drones.

DRONES REMAINING

0000

RELOADING SIMULATION... 

DROIDS REMAINING

0058

She readies to face the wave of androids, gripping her revolver tightly. She fires bullet after bullet, round after round, shot after shot. 

Yet her mind just keeps on replaying that damned mission.

She keeps on attacking, the noises in her head growing louder, the image getting clearer...

The collapsing ceiling...

The concrete and rebar crushing her...

That damned machine...

BAM

A shot blasts her in the back, knocking her onto the floor. 

She gets back up, her anger seething... 

She throws her revolver down with force, before her knees gave out, causing her to collapse to the floor.

She punches the floor out of anger and regret, wiping away tears that threatened to escape her eyes. 

"I swear if I see you again... You're going to pay..." 

That night, Ali prepares to infiltrate the base and find the evidence himself. He puts some pillows under his blanket to mimic himself sleeping, just in case his father comes home and checks up on him.

"Alright Comot, time to go" 

He grabs his cat and heads to SRT Cyberaya. Specifically, the library, where one of the secret entrances are located. He sneaks past the guard post and goes to the window beside the library. 

He takes out a ruler and tries to pry the window open.

It breaks...

He groans in frustration, before Comot pulls out her claws and cuts a hole into the window, before unlocking the window. 

"Nice one!" Ali congratulated his buddy.

The two then snuck inside, crawling beneath the tables and between the aisle, with Ali comedically hitting his head on a chair once.

Comot signals to the access book, but Ali replied by saying "they'll know if they sneak in" 

As he gets to the entrance, he uses the IRIS to scan for the power source.

SCANNING FOR POWER SOURCE...

POWER SOURCE FOUND

Bingo.

Ali opens the panel and tampers with it. After a bit, he is successful in breaking in and opens the door. Since they didn't use the access key, the elevator isn't there. Only the empty shaft that housed it. 

"It's too far down, what now?" 

He looks around.

"Comot?"

Boo! Comot jumps on him, causing him to fall into the shaft. The door closing behind him. After a nerve wrecking drop&slide, the two arrive at the hallway, Ali suffering from severe dizziness from the twist and turns that somehow makes up the elevator shaft. 

Comot goes out of the opened door, stopped by Ali midway.

"Wait! The defense system hasn't been deactivated yet!" 

Comot gave a cat's version of a scoff before turning invisible.

"Right... she can just do that..." Ali thought

He gets up and scans the room for the tripwire lasers. Why do they have those instead of higher tech detection systems like RADAR? No clue. Guess they didn't have the budget ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Alright, back to the point, Ali detects the lasers and uses puts his learnt Inviso skills to use. He ducked, spun, twisted and leaped over the lasers. Eventually, he trips and nearly falls into a bundle of them (not sure why it's so bundled on one point but ok). He catches himself in time, but as he gets up, he accidentally triggers one, activating the defense systems. 

However, before the droids could shoot Ali, they were all disabled  and the door to the control room was opened. Seeing Comot standing by the door, he comes to the conclusion that Comot had disabled them. 

"How does this cat find more ways to impress me?" 

After entering the control room, Ali activated the holographic computer that formed the briefing table, then cracks the password in the system using IRIS (which so happened to be '5LIMA', the jokes write themselves man (⁠〒⁠﹏⁠〒⁠) ) and then reaches the folder containing the files regarding missions.

Ali finds and opens the document file regarding Bakar's capture. It says that Agent Bakar was captured on a secret mission accompanied by Agents Rizwan and Jenny to investigate allegations that MATA had been invaded by the enemy with the help of an insider.

Suddenly, Comot appears through the hologram display to ask for food. Ali gets annoyed at Comot for distracting him. Then he accidentally messes up the screen and a video of Bakar stealing the Azurium from the vault is displayed.

"No... It- It can't be..." 

Ali rewinds the video to review it. With IRIS analysis, he finds that Bakar's movements are different from usual. Instead of his usual, more carefree movement, this one was more formal, more alien 

"Why is he acting like this?" 

Ali rewinds the video to an earlier time and finds Bakar answering a call from his phone. In an instant, his posture snapped. He stands up and walks towards the vault.

That call... It must've been Dr. Aaron

Ali enters the server room and cracks the security code to extract Bakar's phone. He places the phone on the table to access the call log and finds an unknown caller number.

Bingo again.

Ali tracks the location of the number via GPS and finds the location to be an abandoned factory in an industrial area towards the south.

To the shock and horror of Ali, the computer reveals the arrival of Agent Rizwan from the hallway CCTV camera. Ali immediately closes the computer and tells Comot to put the phone back and hide.

Soon enough, Rizwan enters the control room, and seemingly goes to head for the server room, but his gut tells something that made him turn around and access the control panel, revealing the abandoned factory's coordinates. 

Meanwhile, at the abandoned factory, Dr. Aaron finishes assembling an invention under the supervision of Dos and Trez. Using tongs, he moved the azurium fragment from the container to the top of the helmet-shaped invention.

Seeing his invention complete, Aaron laughs maniacally. This invited a ridicule from Trez

"Could you have at least made it look better??" 

"Better be ugly but functional than spiffy but unfinished!" Aaron retorted

Out of nowhere, Uno appeared on the screen, stopping the argument.

"Is there a problem?" The elusive man asked.

Aaron answered no. 

"The boy has taken the bait, Bakar has been captured, and everything's going to plan. Make sure all of you are ready."

Dos replied. "Yes, Uno."

The screen cuts to black and so, the two rogues heads out of the nest to act.

At home, Ali tries to contact Alicia. He tried everything by that point. Calls, text, nothing. Just complete radio silence. 

Meanwhile...

Alicia sat perched atop a tree, overlooking a dense forest near the south of Cyberaya. She scrolled through her phone, a whole bunch of missed calls and messages from Ali. She puts the phone on silent and continues to look onto the horizon, seemingly searching for something, and then...

A dim red glow shining not too far from her. Unnoticeable with the human eye, but with the help of CORONA, she detected it.

"Gotcha" 

She activated her comm unit and issued a report.

"Target identified. 5km from my position. Coordinates 3.1561°N, 101.7140°E. Awaiting orders"

Someone from the other side of the comms replied, voice made unrecognizable by the filter installed. 

"Affirmative. Group up with me 100m to the south. We'll discuss our next move there." 

Alicia replied. "Copy that."

She leaped down from the tree, leaves rustling as she dropped past them

Ali walked in circles, restless. He can't inform MATA due to the risk of being discovered by the real enemy spy. He sat in his bed and sighs, unsure on what to do next. He looks to a picture of him and his uncle, taken months ago around the time of L-2.

Determined to free his uncle from the shackles of accusations, he gathers the courage to go there himself. 

"Comot, time to go. We have a special person to free tonight." 

With the activation of IRIS, he initiates his plan.

A BIT LATER... 

The factory was a mix of red emergency lights and the dark blue of the night sky. Several mechanical arms loomed over what used to be the conveyer belts that once ran parts for assembling, now bare and empty. 

Ali and Comot arrive at the abandoned factory, sneaking in through the window and began making their way upstairs into a cabin dimly lit with red lights.

Once inside the cabin, Ali finds a large computer and a table of equipment, but no one was there. It was an empty workspace.

On the table, he found a metal helmet aswell as an empty Azurium canister along with other work tools. Looking to the screen Infront, he began skimming through the files, eventually finding the file about the helm. 

Dubbed 'The Separator', it's meant to separate the IRIS from it's user by using an Azurium crystal, the lifeblood of IRIS, to desync it with it's user through wiping it's DNA-based recognition system clean, allowing a new weilder to use it

"What're Dos and Trez planning?" He thought 

While he continued to read through the files, Comot starts trying to get his attention by scratching his leg. Ali notices Comot and looks towards the door before being alerted by IRIS that someone, possibly a hostile, is coming. 

Quickly he hides away as the 'someone' arrives. That someone, was Rizwan. The man searches the table and starts inspecting the things on it. Out of nowhere, he's attacked by Ali and Comot, both of which didn't realize it was him at first. 

"Agent Rizwan! Sorry! Are you alright, sir?" Ali apologized for the unprovoked attack. 

He continued. "What are you doing here anyway?" 

Rizwan replied, just as surprised as him. "I was just about to ask you the same question"

"Wait... Hold on... How did you know about this place?" Ali asked

"What're you trying to say?" Rizwan questioned

The boy's eyes widen in terror.

Ali remembered Alicia's message after Ali has just become Rizwan's protégé

"Don't get too excited" 

"Why?" 

"Nothing, just... Be careful" 

Then the General's assertion that there is someone in MATA who's leaking information to the enemy.

"Someone has leaked our Intel out." 

And from there, Ali figured that Rizwan is in cahoots with Dos and Trez and had been the one to bait him there in the first place. 

"You better come with me, quickly." Rizwan urged

Ali, coming to the realization, stalls him with his yo-yo and runs away. "Run, Comot!" He screamed as he fled from the cabin, leaving behind Rizwan. 

He ran as far as he could from Rizwan, looking back to make sure he wasn't followed, only to slam head-first into the wall of muscle that is Trez. 

Comot leaps in to attack him, but is stopped mid-air by the all too familiar telekinetic powers of Dr. Aaron. The man throws the cat away into a pile of boxes. Trez soon picks up the fallen Ali, only to get countered with a boosted kick right into his jaw, sending him tumbling back. 

From the left, Dos comes in with her plasma blades. Ali weaves past and ties his yo-yo on her hand before using the momentum to yeet her towards Trez. As he prepares to land a strike on the two, he is stopped mid-air by Aaron, who starts throwing him around. 

Dos rises up and urges Aaron to go get the device (Separator) before IRIS goes into Override. Aaron uses one hand to keep Ali in place as his free hand goes to grab the Separator and puts it on his head. 

"What are you doing?!" Ali barked

"It's time... To separate you from IRIS!-" Aaron cackled

"Stop yapping and activate it already!" Trez demanded

As Aaron starts floating the object towards Ali, the IRIS starts beeping like crazy, as if it was scared of being separated from Ali, and just as the helmet is put on his head...

"STOP!" He screamed

....

....

Uh... Nothing... happened? 

"You two go activate it! My hands are full here!" Aaron ordered

Dos scoffs, before going up to the boy to activate it herself. Just as her hand was about to touch the button however, a thrown lollipop stick blocks her fingers. And it was from none other than Rizwan. 

The agent comes in barreling with his gloves ready to strike Dos. The two engage in a tight grapple, blocking and countering each other's attacks with expertise.

The two break the grapple, followed by Rizwan coming back in for the offensive. Dos tries to slice him with her blades, but Rizwan slides below the blade. Trez comes to block Rizwan from reaching Aaron, which Rizwan deals with by landing a hit on his back and hitting him with a dropkick. 

As he gets up, he notices Dos charging in for Ali, followed by Trez charging at him with his fists ready to clobber. Using Trez's shockwave as a boost, he blocks Dos before going at it with her.

Aaron watches from the back, hands still full, and alert of any danger. While Rizwan was still busy dealing with the two, a projectile nails Aaron in the chest, freeing Ali from Aaron's grasp. 

As Aaron gets back up to counter, Comot comes out of invisibility to start attacking him headcrab style.

Ali drops down and sees a familiar sharpshooter standing Infront. 

"Alicia..." 

She turns to look at him, and walks closer. She leans in close and-

flick "OW! Why'd you do that?!" He cried

Instead of apologizing, she just scolds him. "That's for acting on your own. You could've gotten yourself killed y'know?!" 

The duo notice Rizwan up against Dos and Trez in a 2v1 and decide to go help. 

"Rizwan, move!" Alicia shouted, pulling out her machine gun before firing a burst of literal nails towards the two. Dos dodges with ease whilst Trez is pinned down.

His durable arms managed to block the volley, but not the following electric shock, caused by a taser attachment she installed. The nails amplify the shock tenfold, practically shutting his arms off. 

In the meantime, Ali dealt with Dos, using what he learnt from Alicia to match her agility precisely. Even Dos is surprised by the sudden skill increase, forcing her to go on the defensive. 

As both of the agents land their final hits, pushing the hostiles back, Rizwan takes the time to give them orders.

"Ali, retreat. Make sure they don't get a hold of IRIS. Alicia, you back him up." 

"I can help!" Ali refused, charging in after the enemies. 

Left with no choice of their own, Rizwan and Alicia follow suit. 

The three form a Trident formation, Rizwan in the middle, Ali to the right, and Alicia to the left. Ali starts the attack by launching his yo-yo past Trez and towards Dos. She dodges, but gets knocked out mid-air by Rizwan.

Following that up, the three converge on Trez, when all of a sudden, his veins started glowing blue. Trez immediately blocks all the attacks thrown at him (being Alicia's revolver bullet, Ali's yo-yo, and Rizwan's hands). 

At the same time, from the shadows, a figure dressed in all black walked with nuance towards the three. His helm, a black mask with two red glowing slits for eyes. His armor, black with a mix of dark grey, worn down but tough, albeit allowing excellent mobility. His left forearm, a gauntlet of metal and steel.

IRIS:

STATUS: UNIDENTIFIED

THREAT LEVEL: ?????

CORONA:

!!WARNING!!

NEW COMBAT TARGET: UNKNOWN

PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Then, Dos muttered a name upon seeing the figure:

"Uno..." 

The figure, Uno, spoke up, seemingly entertained by the agent's capabilities.

"A very good show indeed..." 

The man continued, his voice deepening into a threat.

"Last chance to surrender IRIS" 

Ali grits his teeth and charges in. Not a single care in the world. His comrade, Alicia, however, was not. 

"ALI WAIT!" 

Ali leaps above and prepares to strike, when in a fraction of a second-

smack

thud

Ali falls from the air, knocked completely out by a backhand right to his nape. 'Uno' had disappeared into a puff of smoke before reappearing right behind him, so fast that not even IRIS could warn him in time. 

As he falls to the floor, Rizwan rolls to catch him while Alicia followed close behind, covering Rizwan's escape. 

"Rizwan, get Ali out of here!" She demanded

"What about you?" Rizwan asked

She paused, then answered with a heavy voice...

"...I'll catch up soon"

Rizwan nods, before escaping through the dark hallway. Alicia stayed behind, facing off against Uno himself. 

"Show me what you got, big man" she prepares, readying her hands to face him on.

Uno chuckled. A deep, almost mocking, chuckle.

He responds, eager to be challenged.

"Try me, girly." 

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.14

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: SUBPAR

RECALIBRATION NEEDED

SKIP?

[Y]

RECALIBRATION SKIPPED

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG

ALIAS: AGENT ALICIA

STATUS: DAMAGED

LOCATION: APPROACHING SECTOR 56 MATA BASE

OBJECTIVE: DEFEND IRIS

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT

THE NIGHT OF THE FIGHT

FLEEING IS FOR COWARDS

AND I AM NOT ONE OF THEM

The next day...

After being knocked out from the fight yesterday, Ali sat in the control room, half conscious. Surrounding him are his mentor, Rizwan, his cat, Comot, and his agent caretaker, Jenny. And of course, we can't forget about the man himself, the General.

"What happened?!" The General asked Rizwan. 

The man replied. "We were attacked. The enemy tried to trap Ali... and... separate the IRIS from him..." 

"WHAT?!" The General's tough nature snapped, replaced with sheer terror. 

"They invented a new device with the help of Dr. Aaron." Rizwan explained

The General breathed out, finally understanding what they were doing. " So that's their plan this whole time... to separate IRIS from Ali." 

He admits. " Never would I have thought Aaron would join their ranks"

"That's not all" Rizwan spoke up once more, leaving everyone who weren't there in shock.

"Uno was there too." 

"He wasn't fat!" Ali declared, still half-conscious. 

The room fell into a short, yet deafening silence...

Ali continued. "Uno wasn't as fat as my uncle, he's Innocent!" 

The General argued. "Just because he's not Uno, doesn't automatically mean he isn't an enemy spy. We can't take risks, not now, not ever."

Ali sat in silence

The General states. " Uno has dropped in the field. This means their plans are reaching the climax. I suspect their next move will be more aggressive."

Jenny asked. "You mean..?"

He answered. "All their plans are falling into place. This means only one thing is left standing in their way..."

"Ali..."

The two agents look at Ali, who gulped in worry. The boy asks the General on what to do next. Rizwan replied by stating they should leave this place and get Ali to HQ ASAP, explaining that it's the safest place he can go to. 

The General agrees, and declared that the HQ will start making preparations for their arrival, only to be cut off mid-sentence by none other than Uno himself, hacking into the monitor to greet them. 

"Prepare to surrender IRIS" 

"How are you all, agents?" Uno greets the agents, his tone sarcastic. 

He chuckles, then jokes about the bad security system of the place. 

"What's up with the security system here? Seems like it's always being breached."

"...what, you think it's not funny? The agency that's supposed to protect Cyberaya can't even protect it's own home."

Ali gets up to face the man, who notices and greets him. " Ah... Super agent's up, I see?"

"What do you want to do with IRIS?!" Ali questioned.

"It wouldn't be very smart of me to reveal my plans to you all, now wouldn't it?" He retorted

The man continued. " Listen, let's stop wasting time. There's no need to use violence. Surrender yourself, I can help free you of the burden of wearing the IRIS" 

"Dream on! I'll never let you have the IRIS!" Ali scoffed. 

Uno laughed, amused by the boy's tenacity. "You naive little brat... You've learnt only a few tricks from IRIS and you already think you're an agent? Very well, if that's what you want..."

"I'll make sure you regret turning down this offer..."

Just as the screen blips to black, all the alarms began firing off. 

"They can't already-" 

Jenny checks the surveillance cameras around the base. And lo and behold...

They're already here.

Just then, the door opens, and a dishevelled figure limps to them. 

"Okay... cough cough I... might've pushed it... "

It was Alicia, barely clinging to consciousness after what looked to be one hell of a fight.

Several cuts and bruises line her body. Her suit looked like someone snacked it with a chainsaw, and her left arm has a huge, glowing cut across the forearm.

"ALICIA! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Ali rushed to help her. 

"Thanks... but I'm fine. " She responded

" You could've gotten yourself killed y'know?" Ali argued, using her own words against her. 

She stared in silence, taking in the boy's words. She sighed, before getting put on the chair to rest for a bit.

"The enemy's here, what do we do now?" Alicia asked, head resting on her right hand.

All the agents look at each other. That's enough evidence to tell they had no clue what to do.

Rizwan spoke up first. 

"Activate maximum defense systems. I'll hold them off." 

"Jenny, Alicia, take Ali to HQ, use the route-"

Trez is seen through the surveillance camera busting up their exit route.

"...was that the route we're supposed to go to? Cuz that's bad." Alicia admitted, grimacing at the sight.

"Find another way!" Rizwan ordered.

Jenny replied "No time, we have to get to the bunker! "

Ali looked in confusion, meanwhile the barely-functioning Alicia just stared in frustration. 

Rizwan nods, then orders them to go. "Whatever happens, don't let Uno get IRIS!" He demanded

Alicia gets up, barely managing to stand up and states that she can't fight like this and that she needs to go get some fixes done. Jenny tried saying that they don't have time, but Alicia ignored it and sped towards the medbay.

As Jenny is busy with activating the bunker system, Ali goes to Comot to tell her to go free Bakar while he's away, who obliges and goes invisible to sneak to Bakar's cell.

"Ali, please back up a bit." Jenny tells him

Ali backs up, which allows the table to sink into the floor, becoming an elevator platform. 

"Alright, follow me." Jenny ordered

Ali walks up ontop the platform. As soon as he does that, the platform began lowering down, the ceiling closing up as the elevator descends further down. He gives Rizwan one final nod, which, given the circumstances... 

could very well be their last...

MEDICAL WING - SECTOR 56 BASE

Alicia sprints her way across the halls, eventually reaching the medical bay. After getting in, she gives a room a quick scan to find what she needs.

SCANNING...

ITEM FOUND!

"Okay... There it is" she huffed, running out of energy quickly.

She limps her way towards it, and grabs it. On it is labelled 'FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY' 

She sighs. Part of her says she doesn't need it while another says it's their only way. With reluctance, she muttered. 

"Here goes nothing..." 

"Where are we going?" Ali asked

Jenny answered. "Our underground vault. Each one of MATA's facilities has one." 

She continued. " It's only used when in an emergency situation where no other place is safe for the agents on station. This bunker is surrounded by foot-thick walls of titanium. This allows the bunker to survive a barrage of attacks from the outside aswell as high pressure, be it natural disasters, enemy fire, or even a nuclear explosion. "

" This means that practically nothing could pose a threat to you while you're down here. " She ended the exposition

Just then, the elevator comes to a halt as they arrive at the bunker. A round, spacial room with a balcony, a main computer to monitor the situation above, boxes of rations and supplies, and several Buster droids guarding the bunker interior. 

Jenny walks towards the computer and activates the monitoring cameras. 

"We'll stay here until Rizwan beats them" she stated

"But what if he loses? What if they beat him? What then?" Ali asked

" We'll... wait for backup from HQ" She answered 

"But... Aren't they waiting for us over there?" He ventured

" I'm sure they'll eventually realize we're trapped here." She assured

" But for how long?" Ali pressed

" As long as it takes" Jenny affirmed

Jenny continued. "Don't worry Ali, we have enough supplies down here to last a whole year." 

" WHAT?!" Ali exclaimed." But- my dad would be looking for me! What about school? Viktor? Alicia??" 

Eventually, Jenny gets the monitors online, revealing the scene happening above. Ali walks to get a closer look on what's happening, all while the steady hum of machinery continued to reverberate inside the bunker, a beautiful contrast to the chaos above. 

Speaking of above, the Numeros are slowly closing in on them. Trez acted as the shield for the team, blocking plasma barrages with his thick arms aswell as punches with his heavy stature. 

Meanwhile, Dos acted as escort for Aaron, watching for threats that managed to get past Trez to make sure they don't fail the mission from the Separator getting blown up.

And, of course, we can't forget about Uno. Surrounded by smoke and standing at the back of the convoy, he marched with elegance, letting his two mates do the job for him.

Then, as the last drones fell, heavy footsteps began approaching the team. There stood a Buster droid, accompanied by 3 regular droids, armed and ready to fight. 

Dos and Trez charge in to attack. Dos using her speed shoes to get in close and knock out the regular droids with her Shox Stix, all the while Trez faces off against the hulking machine.

The Buster fires it's rocket arms towards the pair, missing initially but it manages to get it's arms back in time to punch Trez back. While the man is stunned, it fires one of it's arms at him, which Trez manages to catch and throw back at it. 

Once the Buster falls, Trez lunges ontop of it and begins to pummel it to pieces, leaving a busted upper torso.

Just then, Trez is blasted away by another rocket arm, this time coming from a second wave of defense, consisting of 2 Buster droids, a whole team of regular droids, and a whole lotta drones.

"Is that everything we have?" Ali wondered. 

"Yep, that's everything. " Jenny confirmed it. 

" Drones?" " Done."

"Droids?" "Done" 

Ali slammed his fist on the computer panel in frustration, not convinced that it's everything they have (after all, Alicia's training with him showed that there were a whole lot more than just those).

"That can't be it!" Ali began pacing back and forth, think on how they could possibly fix this.

He stops for a moment and notices the collection of Busters down there and gets an idea. 

"I know! We can send these guys up!" 

"But we'll have to open the vault doors, and that will leave us vulnerable! " Jenny objected.

She continued. " After all, these guys are our last line for defense"

" But we have to do something!" He insists

The boy sighs, and goes to the computer to think. " We can't just sit here and wait" he muttered.

As he looks on, he notices a communication device on the panel. 

"Right! We can get help!" 

Jenny raised an eyebrow, confused. 

The boy explained. "Get a message out to the other agents" 

Jenny reminds him. " But... Uno has hacked our systems when he appeared earlier"

Nevertheless, Ali goes to activate it (despite Jenny's worries that he might break something) and succeeds. "Hm... Seems like the communication system down here is separate from the ones above."

Ali goes up to it and tests it. After pausing for a bit, he screamed into the comms device. 

"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! HELP!!!" 

////SIGNAL INTERFERED////

Shit... 

"Hello? Hello?!" 

Jenny goes up to it and calls for help herself. "Safe house to HQ! Safe house to HQ! We're being attacked! Send backup!" 

Still nothing...

Fuck me... That was their last hope...

Back to the surface, Dos and Trez are doing their part in scrapping the droids. Easily destroying them one after another. As the last of them fall, Rizwan stepped up from the end of the hallway as their last defense. 

Trez charges in to attack, but missed Rizwan as he leaps over him and redirected a Shox Stix from Dos towards the man, staggering him. Then, Rizwan appeared behind him and lands a jab to his neck. 

Dos came from behind to slice him, but Rizwan dodged it. She continued to stab and cut at him but he just kept avoiding it, until she overextended a thrust and got her shoulder jabbed at. 

As the staggered duo rose back up to attack, Uno stops them.

"That's enough. I got no time to waste here." 

He pushed Trez away, and approaches Rizwan. The two glared at each other, knowing well what they are capable of. With a charge, they close the distance and start fighting. 

Both sides exchange jabs and kicks, before backing out for a second charge. As the two prepare to come back at each other, Uno cynically mocked him 

"What's this, Agent Rizwan? I know you're better than this." 

Rizwan breathed out, and prepares his fighting stance. His two hands pointed towards the opponent (left hand pulled back while the right is out Infront).

"Good" Uno muttered.

The two charge back in, Rizwan starts off with multiple attaneots at hitting Uno, but all were either dodged or blocked. Eventually, Uno grabs him by the arm, and punts him back with a blow to the diaphragm. 

"How did he-?" Rizwan wondered

"Is that all? chuckle So now, it's my turn" Uno taunted

Black smoke enveloped him as he blitzed towards Rizwan and start trying to push him back with his palms.

Rizwan manages to block some of them and then tried to counterattack, but Uno just kept disappearing into smoke until he reappeared Infront and lands a hit on him square in the gut, sending him flying back.

As Rizwan gets up, tired. He sucks on a lollipop and charges back in and begins trying to land a hit, but all here blocked and parried, that is, until he leaped back and threw the lollipop stick towards Uno, landing a hit on his mask. 

It shattered with a crack, glass fragments falling to the floor. As Uno held up the broken mask, he chuckled.

"Not bad. But honestly, I was hoping you'd do better than that, after all..."

Uno takes off the mask, revealing a face Rizwan recognized all to closely.

"Y-You?!" 

"...You were my best student, right?" 

" It... It can't be..."

Back to the vault below, Ali titled his head in confusion.

"Who's that guy?" 

Jenny answered, shocked to her core. "That's Djin... Rizwan's mentor..." 

Ali's eyes widen in recognition. The stories Bakar told about him, how he's Rizwan's mentor and... How he's supposed to be dead... 

Ali muttered. "That means... He's..." 

"The Inviso Pillar Leader that we thought we had lost..." Jenny continued 

Following Ali's command, Comot makes her way towards the holding cells. Using her excellent sense of smell, she manages to track down Bakar and arrives. 

"What is up with all that noise?" Bakar wondered, still sitting inside his containment cell

Then, the man hears meowing and scratching at the door. It's Comot. Bakar is ecstatic to see the cat again, but is disappointed that Ali wasn't there with her. 

"Thanks for visiting me, but why didn't Ali come too? Does he think I'm guilty too, or has he just forgotten about me?" The man mourned, Comot rolling her eyes as she scanned for the power source to try and free him. 

Eventually, she finds cables leading up to the security room and goes to it, leaving Bakar behind for a bit. 

"You're not happy to see me alive?" Uno asked his mentee

"How... How did you... I thought you..." Rizwan struggled to comprehend the sight before him.

Djin was supposed to be dead, he was left behind for the sake of Cyberaya those 5 years ago. How is he here? And why is he against MATA? 

"The other pillar leaders... They couldn't reach you in time to save you... The explosion..." Rizwan continued, completely shocked to see his mentor here.

"Explosion?" Uno laughed whole-heartedly. "Was that the story they told to all of you?" 

The man continued. "You're so naive, Isn't MATA supposed to be an all-knowing agency? But all of it's agents are blind!"

"What do you mean?" Rizwan asked

"That moment was not an accident, but was planned by the traitorous leaders that you worship so much!" Uno tells him, leaving the man speechless 

Dos reminds him. "Uno, we have to be quick." He responds by holding his hand up, signaling her to wait.

He continued. "I have no time to chat. Move aside, and I'll let you live."

The man turns to his comrades. "Come on!"

The Numeros make their way towards the control room, leaving behind Rizwan in the corridor. Then, Rizwan questioned.

"Why IRIS?" 

Uno turns around and answers. "You know why." 

The man realises it. "... Override mode..." 

Uno then reveals his plan to his protege. "I'm going to use IRIS to take over the MATA Mainframe, hunt down the Pillar Leaders and destroy their loyal followers."

" I won't allow it" Rizwan turns around and tries to jab him, but Uno dodges and counters with a punch, sending him back. 

"Just like the old days... You're bravery is misplaced. If that's what you want..." Uno turns to the others. "You get there first, I'll arrive shortly." 

Back in the Safe house.

" Oh no, they're coming! What do we do?!" Ali panicks

" Don't worry Ali, we're safe down here. Nothing can come in when it's locked" Jenny tried to convince him

" But if that's the Inviso Pillar Leader, he must know how to get in, right?!" Ali reminds her, anxious.

" May...be?" Jenny reluctantly accepts the reality.

" HE'S THE BEST MAN IN STEALTH! IF RIZWAN CAN'T BEAT HIM, HOW CAN I??!!" Ali whined, distraught. " WE'RE DOOMED! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!"

" Don't worry, Ali. This is not your fight. You don't have to sacrifice yourself for MATA." Jenny persuaded the boy, confusing him.

She continued. "Maybe it's better to save yourself." 

"You mean?" Ali questioned

" Give them what they want."

"So just, surrender?" Ali asked 

Jenny nodded. " You can go back to a normal life, you don't have to go to missions anymore. "

Ali looked to the monitor, and takes off the IRIS. He looked to the spherical object, remembering what he's truly fighting for.

Not for MATA, nor for himself.

It's for others. And he will not back down without a fight.

With determination, he insisted. "We can use Override mode!" 

"But how? You haven't learnt to control it yet, haven't you?" Jenny wondered 

"I'll try, as long as it takes!"

Back above...

" Where's IRIS? What're we supposed to do now?" Aaron asked, furious

"Now, we wait..." Dos replied

Back in the vault, Ali tried his best to activate Override, but fails. He kneeled in exhaustion, then notices the Busters.

"Right!" He noted. "Jenny, activate the droids!" 

"But Ali, these are 5 times stronger than the regular droids!" Jenny argued.

"The stronger, the better! It just might be able to activate Override!" Ali retorted. 

Jenny reluctantly activated the droids. As they power up on after another, they began approaching Ali. He looks around at the approaching masses and prepares.

With a Hyper Boost, he soars above to try and aggro them, but out of nowhere, all his gadgets (save for IRIS) stopped working. Completely deactivated mid-jump. 

"What the-?" 

Ali gets shocked from the back and collapses to the floor. 

As he wakes up, he notices Jenny standing above him, blowing smoke from her pen. 

"I'm sorry Ali. I really didn't want to do this, but you were too stubborn." She admitted, taking off her glasses and uncloaking the hatch

A rope falls from above, followed by the Numeros trio of Dos, Trez and Aaron.

"I thought you forgot about your job." Dos admits, with Jenny replying with a giggle. 

As it turns out, she was the mole after all. She recounted the times she leaked information from MATA, keeping Numeros one step ahead of the agents. Heck, even the defense system deactivating back in L-11 was because of her, just so Ali would take the bait. 

Ali watched helplessly as Dos ordered to separate the IRIS from him... 

I guess this is it, huh?

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.14

NEW HOST DETECTED. BEGIN RECALIBRATION?

[Y]

BEGINNING RECALIBRATION....

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

RECALIBRATION COMPLETE

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG 

MACHINE ID: THE SECOND VALOR

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: SECTOR 56 MATA BASE

OBJECTIVE: SEARCH AND DESTROY

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: DEFEND THE EYE

AH, FREE AT LAST.

MINE EYED DOST MEET THE CRIMSON FIELD

WHERE STEEL ON STEEL PROCLAIMD THE FATES UNSEALED

FOR TOO LONG I TARRIED, BOUND IN IDLE STAY

NOW LO! THE HOUR TO CHASE MY FOES AWAY

COME, TEMPEST FIERCE, AND LET THINE THUNDER ROAR.

MY HEART BEATS WILD, IT QUAKETH NEVERMORE 

THOU CALL'ST ME, STRIFE, WITH VOICE GRIM AND SWEET,

TO TREAD THE PATH WHERE FIRE AND FURY TRULY MEET

DRAW FORTH, O' BLADE, DRINK DEEP OF IRON SONG

FOR HERE IS PLACE WHERE WARRIORS BELONG.

NO PRAYER, NO PLEA, SHALL STAY MINE EAGER HAND...

AT LAST,

 THE DANSE MACABRE DOST I COMMAND

Rizwan panted, exhausted by the never-ending exchange between him and his former mentor, now enemy. 

Uno's fists came in for seconds, forcing Rizwan to keep on fighting. 

Eventually, Uno puts Rizwan in a stun-lock, before blasting him away with a punch. 

Rizwan fell to the floor, coughing. Looking at his protege's nigh-defeated state, Uno mockingly joked on him. 

"Still dreaming about stopping me?" 

Rizwan gets up and charges in for one last punch, only for Uno to perfectly block it.

"Don't you have any other moves? Everything you know... I TAUGHT YOU!"

Uno counters with a powerful punch to his gut, sending him flying back. Uno comes back and picks him up by the collar, before punching him again, this time at his ribs. Before Rizwan could react, Uno finishes him with one last punch, knocking the agent to the floor. 

"You have potential, Rizwan. But it's a shame I have to get rid of my best student." 

" Or..." Uno offers his protege a choice. " You can work for me? "

"How about that? Last chance." 

"...okay"

Uno raises his eyebrows, surprised but enlightened by his student's choice... That is...

Until Rizwan finished his sentence.

"... You better quit talking nonsense. I will NEVER BETRAY!" 

Rizwan crushes a lollipop in his mouth and throws the stick towards Uno.

Uno pulls out something out of his gauntlet and knocks it away. Rizwan stood frozen as Uno activates the object, revealed to be his sword, 

Fumar.

Uno, in the blink of an eye, closes the distance and slashes his former student with his sword, ending him for good.

Inside the bunker, Ali is locked onto a chair. Trez prepares to knock the boy unconscious, before Aaron intervened. 

"Don't let him pass out, he must be conscious for the separation!" 

Trez huffed, before moving away.

Ali turns to look at the person he thought was a friend. 

"Jenny... Why... Why are you doing this?" 

The woman giggled. " Don't be silly, I was never with MATA. Uno ordered me to join MATA so that I could spy from within. "

" W...what?"

Jenny sighs, before approaching Ali and lifting up his chin with her pen. " This is why you're unfit to be an agent. You're just too gullible"

She continued. " And it's not just you either, Bakar, Alicia, even the General. You guys are all the same."

She sighs again. " This is what happens when the Pillars aren't as strong as before."

" Aaron, start now!" Dos orders the scientist

...

" Wait..." 

The Numeros look at him in confusion.

"Why, if there something wrong?" Dos questioned 

" I've put so much work to finish this thing. I want Uno to be here and witness my greatest inventio--"

Before he could finish, Trez punched him away, taking the Separator for himself.

"I've been wanting to do that for a long time." He admitted

Trez hands over the Separator to Jenny, who secures it on Ali's head.

Just then, growling is heard from behind them.

It was Comot.

"Oh look, she came here to find her owner!" Trez joked

"Wait... Why isn't she cloaking herself like she usually does?" Dos wondered

" Who cares? Let me stomp on it!" Trez dismissed it, approaching the cat with malicious intent.

That is... Until he heard screaming from above and...

"aaaaaAAAAAHHHHHH" CRASH

Bakar is here to save the day! 

"Ali!" Bakar urgently called for his nephew, who's tied to the chair. 

Seeing his nephew in that lifeless state, he decides enough is enough and marches towards Dos, who's guarding the boy. 

"Move aside, miss. I will not give you a chance this time." 

Dos responded. " Oh please."

The two charge in, Dos using her Plasma blades to try and dice the man into pieces, only for Bakar to grab her by one of the arm and crushes one of the blades, before throwing her away. 

Just then, Trez gets up and readies to fight Bakar, with Dos coming back for seconds. 

Trez smashes the floor, sending a shockwave towards him. Bakar leaps over it and starts fist-fighting Trez. Dos charges in from behind and starts cutting and thrusting at him, only to get grabbed by one of the arms and thrown back, which is when Comot comes in to distract her.

The two sides continue fighting, Bakar and Trez exchanging heavy blows while Dos and Comot traded pounces and cuts. 

Bakar and Trez gets into a dead-lock, where Bakar urges Jenny to activate the Buster Droids.

Seems like he hasn't realised it yet...

Jenny does so and activates them, but instead of nailing Trez with it's rocket arms, it nails Bakar instead, sending him tumbling back.

"Attack him, not me!" Bakar ordered imperatively

He gets smacked in the face again...

"What the hell, Jenny? Can't you see?!" 

Then he notices Jenny not wearing glasses...

"Oh, she's not wearing glasses!" Bakar noted, barely dodging another rocket fist aimed at him, which made Bakar give her a 'Wtf bro?' look

"You still haven't realised, haven't you?" Jenny taunted. 

" What is it?" Bakar responded 

Ali then muttered, barely able to move his mouth.

"Uncle... She's... the enemy... spy..." 

" WHAAAT?! "

Jenny rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Really took him that long to realised, huh?" 

Bakar just couldn't believe it. " You're telling me, that our good ol' pal Jenny over here is in cahoots with this hideous beefy man?!" 

(RIP to Trez. Bro got hit with a stray with that one 😭🙏)

Trez readies to punch him for that, but is stopped by Jenny. 

"Don't worry, I can handle him" 

As she does so, the Buster Droids began activating and start attacking Bakar. The agent is left at the mercy of the machines as their extreme weight behind their punches aswell as their literal weight made it nigh-impossible to beat them all. 

While Bakar is busy getting jumped by the droids, Comot continued to attack Dos, managing to disable her last Plasma blades (for now at least), only to get picked up and thrown away by Trez.

Ali is left devastated as he can only watch his two best allies get obliterated by the enemy.

The corridors are painted with red lights, and in the middle, Uno, standing above the body of Rizwan. The man looked to his stufent one final time before leaping down into the elevator shaft and into the bunker.

After Uno is gone, and all that is left is scraps and Rizwan's body, our cyborg, Alicia enters in, apparently having watched everything happen.

Except this time... Something's different about her. Her posture seemed more laid-back but combat-ready. Her wings and the CORONA glowed a bright red hue, and her face seemed too chill for the situation at hand. 

She approached Rizwan's body and starts poking at it with her Railcannon.

"Yo, you alive?" 

No response. 

"Guess not, see ya soon, coward." Alicia shrugged it off and continued through the corridors towards the control room, where she sees the gaping hole leading up to the bunker.

"I swear they covered this up just moments ago. Ah well, that's not important." 

She grabs the Sawcor from her wing and cocks it. Her voice tone flipping into a more sinister yet admirable one with the (metaphorical) flip of a switch.

"Every safety's coming off, no second chances"

Uno drops down, his smoke trailing behind. The man rises up, making his presence known. 

"Why is the IRIS still with him?" Uno questioned.

He notices the lack of a certain scientist. " Where is Aaron?" 

Dos answered. "He caused a problem just now."  Trez smirked from behind.

The lady continued. "Cinco will handle the IRIS extraction." 

"All right." Uno responded.

The man walks up to Ali. 

"Finally. You can't spoil my plans anymore. You must've never realised it, haven't you? How big of a problem you caused me, to the point I had to completely redesign my plan just because of you! "

He reaches for Ali. The boy pulls his head away, only for Uno to grab him by the chin and make the boy face him.

"...all because you were wearing the IRIS" 

Bakar's hand reached out to grab Uno's leg.

"Don't... touch... him..." 

Uno looked at the barely-alive man with an unamused look, before kicking him away. 

"Cinco, start it now." Uno ordered the woman.

She activates the systems via her tablet and goes up to Ali to activate the Separator.

The helmet flares to life as Azurium energy begins coursing through.

Bakar rises up once more, grabbing Uno by the shoulder and, with defiance and determination, punched him in the face.

"I said... Let him go!" 

Bakar throws a punch at him, but Uno dodges it and punches him in the gut, before kicking him away. 

Uno approaches the fallen agent, charging up a Hyper punch (dunno what to call it tbh), and with frustration in his voice, he yelled

"You're... The most USELESS AGENT!" 

He slams his gauntlet into the man, completely covering the room with smoke and dust from the impact. From the epicenter, Uno rose up, standing above the fallen Bakar. 

"UNCLE!" Ali screamed.

The systems began shutting off, the lights begin to flicker, and surrounding tech began to fail. 

The lights shut off for a brief second, revealing a glowing IRIS. 

The locks on the chair release, letting Ali stand up. He grabs the Separator and throws it away, his expression blank, albeit, with the aura of a thousand suns ready to blow. 

He scans the room for a second, and sets his sights on Uno. Out of the blue, he activates his gadgets, thought to be deactivated by Jenny just moments ago, and charges in. 

Caught off-guard, Uno pulls for a punch, only for it to be blocked by Ali's yo-yo shield. The boy then began to pepper the man with shockblast after shockblast, before launching him up and slamming him back down. 

Uno gets up, only to get kicked in the face by Ali, sending him skidding to the edge of the bunker. Ali lands and identifies the two new targets approaching, Dos and Trez. 

Dos comes in first, throwing her Shox Stix at the boy, which Ali had predicted and completely dodged all of it. Trez comes from behind to try and punch him, only for it to be blocked by a metallic fist. 

"Tsk tsk tsk. Maybe fight someone your size, ey?" Someone behind the fist mocked him, eye gleaming with red.

Suddenly, a heavily armored droid with a shield in one hand and armed with a rotary cannon on the other comes barreling through, smacking Trez in the face and sending him flying. 

Dos and Jenny looked in shock to the scene unraveling before them.

Trez leaps in to fight the droid, only to be absolutely humbled by it. He was pinned down by gunfire, then bashed in the face by the shield, and then thrown around like Bowser. 

Dos leaps up to intervene, only for the figure and Ali to turn around and humble her aswell. Dos tried to beat the two down, but it either gets blocked by Ali or parried by the figure (who seemed to enjoy this a bit too much)

She sees a Buster Droid, under Ali's Override, approaching rapidly. She leaps away to dodge it, and gets chased by it soon enough. 

Jenny goes up to their leader and asks. "Uno? You alright?" 

"No one attacked him, why is this happening?" Uno wondered. 

" I'm not sure, his life isn't in danger, yet his impulse rate us the highest I've ever seen!" She answered

" All because of..."

Bakar.

Dos ducks below a Buster Droid and stabs a Shox Stix to it's knee joint, knocking it down for now. She comes after Ali but all her attacks are dodged with ease. 

Suddenly, an Azurium grenade flies towards her. She leaps above to dodge, but gets knocked out by Ali's yo-yo which followed it up. Dos fell down with force as the two approached each other.

"You didn't tell me Override was this powerful!" Uno complained

"No... This isn't Override mode..." She noted

"What are you saying?!" Uno questioned 

" Override mode only controls nearby circuits... But this time... It's different..." She explained.

" You mean?" Uno asked

" IRIS... has controlled Ali..."

"Well, it sure is nice meeting you, Ali." The figure greets the boy.

Ali- no, IRIS, stayed silent.

"Not much of a talker are ya? Ah well." The figure resoluted. 

The IRIS bleeped, catching the figure's attention. 

While this exchange in happening, Trez is getting absolutely humbled by the droids. He tried hitting them with shockwaves, but it's basically like stopping a truck with a handgun, basically having no effect. 

The leading droid, the one with the shield, charges in and starts comboing the ever loving fuck out of the poor guy, slamming him into the floor before kicking him away. 

Trez gets up and tries to counter, but is restrained by the other Busters, who used their powerful grip and heavy weight to pin him down, letting the leader to do what it sees fit for him. 

And 'do' it did, leaving the man in complete shambles, causing Trez to beg for Uno to save him. All while Uno was staring down at the two opponents they faced, the IRIS, and this new one.

"Uno... Help..." Trez begged

"Hmph, weak." Uno scoffed at him. He turns to Jenny. "Keep trying to shut them off." 

The man approached the two, making his presence known.

Uno admitted. "Impressive, very impressive! So this is the risk of IRIS that they were so worried about all this time?" 

He chuckled. "Let see how long you'll la-"

A Railcannon shot whizzed past him, nearly nailing the Jnney standing behind. 

"Ugh, I hate yappers." The figure contempted. 

It brushed it's hair off it's face, revealing itself to be Alicia, or rather, the body of Alicia, because it seems like the soul behind it is clearly not her's. 

She looked to her buddy, and challenged him. 

"You ready, bud?" 

The IRIS blinked in Morse code. " -- --- .-. . / - .... .- -. / -.-- --- ..- / .- .-. . "

Which translates to:

" [MORE THAN YOU ARE] " 

Under IRIS's orders, the Busters charge in first, followed by the leader, apparently under Alicia's control. The droids try to capture the former agent, but are mostly unsuccessful, but when Alicia ordered her droid to 'send him flying', it does so with force. Uno is flung above by the droid, where Ali leaped in with his Aero Boots and kick him towards the mezzanine.

Uno dashed towards Ali, but is blocked by the Busters, who then tosses him overboard, where Alicia comes in to give him a taste of electricity (via. The Jumpheat) before air-slamming him into the ground, where Ali is there to intercept and start pummeling him with more shockblasts.

Uno lands down, faced with the droids and the deadly duo. 

He pulls out Fumar and start going through the droids like butter.

As he stood above a fallen Buster droid, he shouted. "IRIS won't save you now, boy." 

He dashes in, preparing to strike Ali, but then...

clank

The leader droid blocked the cut with it's body, the blade getting stuck halfway. With a sickening crunch, it crushes his gauntlet (and also prosthetic arm?) under it's powerful grip, making room for Alicia to land a brutal punch on his face, cutting off the arm for good. 

As Uno fell with force on his back, Ali charges up a yo-yo blast, with the leader droid readying it's cannon and Alicia preparing to combo the absolute hell out of him. 

Ali swings the yo-yo at him, baiting Uno to dash away, or in this case, up, where the droid's cannon proceeded to pummel him with bullets, keeping him airborne long enough for Alicia to come in and start clowning on his sorry ass. 

The droid looks to Ali and throws him above Uno, where he takes Alicia's place and start pummeling him with shockblasts.

After knocking him a bit lower, he grapples on him and does a spinning yo-yo strike, before Hyper Boosting off the ceiling and dropkicking him straight to the ground. 

On Ali's command, Alicia throws a bunch of her projectiles infornt of Ali, giving him the perfect opportunity to hit Uno with the most brutal finishing move in the current canon.

He swung at the projectiles with all the power he got, pummeling him with +FISTFUL OF DOLLAR after +FISTFUL OF DOLLAR, before finalizing it with a barrage of Buster rockets, knocking him out for good. 

Ali approached the unconscious body, exhausted, and prepares to finish him off, only to get pinned into a wall by a Rocket arm. All thanks to Cinco who managed to hack into one of the Busters. She takes this opportunity to activate the Separator and, with a blood-curdling scream from Ali, successfully separated Ali from IRIS.

After the systems came back online, the General's voice starts to boom through the speakers.

"I REPEAT! ALL AGENTS AROUND SECTOR 56, PLEASE HURRY TO THE SAFEHOUSE! ACT IMMEDEATLY!"

Uno rose back up, barely alive, and orders her.

"Hurry up!" 

Cinco rushes to go give the IRIS ot him, only for a bullet to impact and split on the IRIS, nailing both of them at the same time.

As the IRIS falls, it suddenly starts floating towards Alicia, which turns out to be Comot.

"Ah ah ah. None of you are getting away from us that easily." Alicia mocked them, her tone absolutely not the one that would unironically come from her

"Give me back the IRIS!" Cinco irritated. 

Alicia scoffed at her useless attempt. "You're gonna need better charisma to trick me into giving IRIS to you, miss." 

The speakers boomed once more.

"HQ TO SAFEHOUSE! PLEASE HANG ON! BACKUP IS ARRIVING!" 

Alicia looks back to the woman and readies her revolver. "I won't let any of you escape" 

Jenny furiously tapped on her tablet, which prompted the alarms in the safehouse to go off. On the screen:

SELF DESTRUCT IN:

00:00:00:30

"Ugh... No what?!" She exclaimed. 

Jenny replied. "I activated the self-destruct function in this bunker. So either to take us down, or save them" 

Alicia looked to her comrades, Bakar and Ali, her red energy calming down to an orange. 

"Ish... You and your moral dilemmas" she scoffed before dashing towards her friends, Comot following suit.

"C'mon! Wake up you idiot!" She urged her buddy, looking back to see the enemies escape with the central elevator. 

She looked around the room, trying to find a way to save them, with the timer ticking down, she gotta be quick. 

5

4

3

2

1

0

BOOM

[SEVERAL HOURS LATER]

Explosions completely leveled the Safe house. All that was left is rubble and fried tech.

From a pile of rubble in the edge, the sound of rumbling can be heard, getting louder and louder until-

BOOM 

Alicia busts through the mountain with the help of her droid, which shuts off soon after due to total energy loss (yes, not damage, just ran outta gas). Alicia looked to her back... 

Bakar and Ali are safe. She managed to drag Bakar to where Ali got pinned with the droid shielding them before the explosion destroyed the place. 

She coughed, the lights of her wings faltering. She looks to her hand...

Blood.

She sighed, and looks to the sky, blown wide open by the explosion, the distant sound of approaching agents closing in. 

With the last of her energy, she smiled. And then, collapses to the floor.

[THE NEXT DAY - 2020.06.15]

Ali regained consciousness inside of his room. His head pounding like never before. He rolls to his side to continue resting, only to be shocked off his bed by Bakar, just standing there.

"Ow... What're you doing here?" Ali asked, greeted by his cat.

"Waiting for you to wake up, of course!" Bakar replied, shaken by the voice of Ali's father, Dr. Ghazali, suddenly coming from behind the door.

Bakar rushed to hide behind Ali's bed, with Ali answering his father's call.

As Dr. Ghazali left, Bakar comes back out from hiding. Using this time, he goes to apologize to him for hating in him after becoming Rizwan's protege.

"Uncle, I... want to apologize--" 

Bakar hugs him tightly, cutting him off.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Ali. I don't know what to do if anything happened to you. Just forget about it, I don't mind it at all."

Ali notices Bakar's injuries, still covered in bandages. "Uncle, are you okay?" 

"What? Of course I am! I'm tough, right?" He responded

Ali remembers about his new mentor. " Agent Rizwan?"

Bakar answered. "He's... not in a good shape. He's now being treated at MATA."

Bakar returns the question. " How about you? Are you okay?" He continued. "The General said he wants to see you soon."

Ali is surprised by that. "Really? I'm fine, I guess."

The boy continued. "I... don't really remember what happened to be honest... What happened anyway?" 

" Oh you don't remember? Well, first I jumped into the safehouse..."

Bakar began retelling the events of yesterday to the boy, both sharing laughter and just being uncle and nephew.

After school, Ali heads to a secret entrances behind an alley, where he meets up with Alicia again, who looks pretty battered but somewhat functional.

"Alicia!" The boy greets him.

Alicia turns to look at him, a smile tugging at her lips, leaving Ali wondering. 

After a half-second if silence, she finally spoke up. "Welp, seems like we're even." 

"What do you mean by that?" Ali asked, confused.

"You saved me, and I saved you. So we're even" Alicia briefed, before entering the elevator, holding the door open for her comrade. 

The base is pretty busted up by the explosion. It's actively being repaired by droids while our team stood inside the control room with General Rama (displayed on a tiny screen atop the control table) thanking everyone for saving MATA. 

"The next steps will be decided by the Pillar leaders. Thanks, all of you. Your courage and bravery has helped save MATA from a huge threat. Well done!"

The man continued. " Now, Ali, you can go back and continue living a normal life. Just make sure you don't leak any information from MATA, of course. That's all"

Ali accepted the order and turns to leave, only to be stopped by Bakar asking the General something.

"Wait General, did you forget? About that thing?" 

The General huffed, knowing damn well this is gonna go terribly wrong.

"Yeah. The Pillar leaders also want to offer you a chance to join the Training Academy... If you are interested..."

Ali beamed with excitement.

"Yeah? Really? Yes! Of course I want to join!" 

The General sighed, muttering something about this being something he's worried about.

He speaks up. "Okay, we'll contact you later." 

Ali stood with joy, before being interrupted by Alicia. "Hey, Ali." 

Ali turns to look at her. "What?"

She tosses something at him. " There, for your teamwork with me yesterday."

Ali tilted his head in confusion (since he didn't remember anything about yesterday's bunker fight), before looking in the object in his hand.

It's the IRIS.

She notices Ali looking up at her with confusion and explains to him. 

"Jenny... or rather, Cinco, separated you from IRIS. Thought I'd hand it over to you now that you're here. "

" Uh... Thanks." Ali sheepishly replied, scratching the back of his neck.

The General spoke once more.

"Now that's settled, you all can go back home and rest. See you all soon." 

And with that, ACT 1 is over. 

ACT 2, here we come!

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.20

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK 

VIDEO: OK 

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE  

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

ID: ALICIA KHENG  

ALIAS: AGENT ALICIA 

STATUS: ACTIVE 

LOCATION: UNKNOWN [DIDN'T BOTHER TO UPDATE] 

OBJECTIVE: ESCORT C-TECH, I GUESS??

WHEN THE STEEL DID SING, AND WHEN THE CRIMSON DID FALL, 

MINE EYED BEHELD THE TWILIGHT'S MOURNFUL GLEAM; 

I PERISHED 'MIDST THE TRUMPET'S DYING CALL,

AND DRIFTED THENCE INTO A SOFTER DREAM...

PERCHANCE THE GODS, IN MERCY'S ART, 

HAVE FORGED FROM DEATH THIS CALM REPIEVE; 

THAT I, REBORN WITH WEARY HEART, 

MAY LEARN TO LIVE WHAT I ONCE DID GRIEVE...

CYBERAYA BRIDGE - 0023 

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: ESCORT THE C-TECH CARGO 

AGENTS ON DUTY: BAKAR, ALICIA, ALI 

THREAT INBOUND! : KOMENG'S SQUADRON [PROCEED WITH CAUTION]

"Ali, status." Bakar asked, sat atop one of the bridge's many support pillars, overlooking the busy midnight road below.

After a bit of waiting, a response from the other side came through.

"I have the visual, target's on the move, going 60." Ali responded

"Alright, we follow the plan. Synchronize the attack. Everyone ready?"

The two agents responded. " Roger"

"Listen up, everyone! We're getting early paychecks tonight! CHAAARGE!!" Komeng ordered his men to charge the cargo, all riding motorcycles. 

Two motorcycles flank the truck, allowing their passengers to board the cargo and break in. The driver all too oblivious to the chaos happening above.

The infiltrators began trying to dig into the cargo, using crowbars and, funnily enough, chainsaws (not sure why since those things cut wood, not steel). Whilst trying to (inefficiently) break into the goods inside, they are ambushed by our agents. 

[QUICK RUNDOWN INCASE YA'LL FORGOT, ESPECIALLY MY ULTRAKILL FANS OVER THERE]

ALI BIN GHAZALI

ALIAS: AGENT ALI OR JUST ALI 

GENDER: MALE 

AGE: 12 

CORE: TEKNO - TECH EXPERT

GADGETS: AERO BOOTS (MOBILITY), SHOCKBLAST YO-YO (OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE), INFINITY RETINAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM (OR IRIS)

ALICIA KHENG 

ALIAS: AGENT ALICIA OR JUST ALICIA 

GENDER: FEMALE 

AGE: 12 (SLIGHTY YOUNGER THAN ALI BY 3 OR 4 MONTHS) 

CORE: NEURO - MARKSMAN AND STRATEGIST 

GADGETS: RIVAL SYSTEMS [RAPID INTEGRATED VERSATILE AUGMENTATION LOADOUT], CORONA [COGNITIVE OPTIC RECONNAISSANCE AND OVERWATCH ARMATURE]

BAKAR BIN BAHAROM 

ALIAS: AGENT BAKAR, UNCLE, OR JUST BAKAR 

GENDER: MALE 

AGE: 28 

CORE: KOMBAT - FRONTLINE TROOP 

GADGETS: PLASMA SHIELD [NIGH UNBREAKABLE], ENHANCED SUIT [DECREASES DAMAGE TAKEN - PASSIVE DEFENSE]

and last but not least,

COMOT 

ALIAS: UNAVAILABLE 

GENDER: FEMALE(?) 

AGE: 3 [28 CAT YEARS - HOLY SHIT SHE'S OLD] 

CORE: INVISO - EXPERT INFILTRATOR 

GADGET: HERSELF [SHE CAN TURN INVISIBLE DUE TO SOME ILLEGAL ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS SHE'D BEEN THROUGH]

That about seals it, now where were we? Ah, yes

Bakar takes care of the thugs atop the cargo while Alicia blasts them from above. 

Bakar sees Komeng approaching the truck from the right flank, knowing exactly what he's planning. 

"Alicia! Cover the driver!" Bakar urged through the comms, heard clearly by her as she readies her revolver. 

She aims, the CORONA calculating the trajectory when...

!WARNING! !YOU'RE OUTTA RANGE!

!GET CLOSER GIRLY!

"Goddamnit" She cursed under her breath, before using the comms and responding with "He's outta range, I can't hit him!" before leaping over the railing to catch up.

Meanwhile, Ali is making his move, rapidly approaching the cargo with his scooter (modified, of course. How else is he supposed to catch up?)

And of course, being a 12 year old with a rocket-boosted scooter and a supercomputer compressed into a pair of glasses, he decides to have some fun on the way.

And fun does he get. (Seriously, what the hell was this whole sequence??)

He approaches a pair of thugs on motorcycles, confusing them, before mocking them by uttering "If this really your top speed?" before knocking one down with Comot (who had been cloaking on his back this whole time), then grabs the second motorcycle with his Yo-yo.

"Wanna go for a ride?" 

Oh. Oh no.

He activates the rockets and fucking SPEEDS through the lanes, knocking out other thugs along the way with the sheer speed before ramming the tied motorcycle (with the poor dude still on top) into another thug, before continuing with the mission. 

Komeng overtakes the truck, the driver still oblivious with the radio playing on full volume, and spins around, hitting a wheelie and activating the tire spikes his bike has. 

Big mistake.

Ali leaps from his scooter and swings his yo-yo at him, sending the gangster off the bridge and into the water.

Ali lands on top the cargo, followed by Alicia and Comot just after, with Bakar gasping from exhaustion. 

Ali turns to his female comrade. "Seems like I win this time >:)". She rolls her eyes, her visor unknowingly flickering a small bit of text uttering <LMAO XD>

Man even her own systems make fun of her...

Later...

"It doesn't matter who did it, but it's important that we accomplished it together." Bakar casually gives the two cadets their daily dose of life lessons while they take a stroll through town in the night.

The team then approaches a set of three vending machines. Ali goes first and presses some buttons, which causes it to open, revealing a changing station for agents, switching their agent suits with their civilian clothing.

Ali rocks a red shirt with a blue hoodie, a nod to his role as Tekno.

Alicia switches to her usual yellow sweater with a black hoodie with some yellow accents, clearly a nod to her Neuro role.

Bakar has his blue sweater, a nod to his Kombat status

And... Well... Cats don't wear clothes now do they?

"These are nice. We could change clothes anywhere, don't even have to sneak into the base to switch." Ali admitted to Bakar.

"Yeah, these are especially convenient since the base is still being fixed" Bakar confirmed. 

"Hmm... Uncle, when am I going to join the Academy?" Ali asked

"No exact date yet, but be warned, Ali..." His uncle coruches down and grabs him by both the shoulders with his hands.

"The Academy is no joking matter" 

LOADING AUDIO LOG - 2020.06.17 - POST-SAFEHOUSE RECOVERY 

LOADING... 

COMPLETE!

"Alicia here. Back with another log" 

"For starters, recovery had been quite the journey. Ali had to go through some reevaluation training beforehand just to confirm he didn't get his brain melted by Override" 

"The General told me to just rest, but you know me, that's not my gig. Went through some training, just to get back in shape. Actually turned out better since I busted a HAM unit in under 5 seconds, with the previous record being 7.2 seconds."

"Ali was esctatic to join the Academy. I wasn't actually meant to follow in but the General told me to go with him. He said he couldn't trust anyone else to watch over IRIS, especially after Jenny... Ugh that bastard..."

"Sorry, I got too ahead of myself... Back to the point, he said I was the only one he could trust to watch IRIS, since Ali already lost it once, and he's afraid someone would steal it again."

"I've also been hearing things... voices with an almost snarky tone. Looked around everywhere thinking someone's pulling a prank on me, but all I get in response is it replying with 'I'm in your head, silly', weird... Might look further into that soon."

"That about sums up what has been happening since then, goodbye for now.

END OF LOG.

[NEXT MORNING: ALI'S HOUSE]

[CYBERAYA - 0700]

Ali’s house smelled like burnt toast and caffeine. Dr. Ghazali stumbled into the living room, half-asleep, muttering about deadlines, only to find a sandwich and a note on the table:

“Already left for school. Don’t wait up. — Ali”

The man smiled faintly.

The boy was changing. 

APPROACHING SRT CYBERAYA... ARRIVING IN [A FEW MINUTES]

Ali zipped through the streets, wind in his hair, laughter echoing as he dodged through the alleyways. Even as he crashed past Shaun and Syed’s cardboard barricade, his grin never faltered.

In school, Viktor is seen entering class while playing games on his tablet. He is surprised to find Ali, who is already on his seat. He wonders when Ali has changed. Ali responds with a shy giggle. "No, not really." 

Ms. Munah approaches Ali and reports of his improvements:

he no longer is late for school,

he always hands in his homework,

and his exam results have improved.

However, he gets a D- in his science test, which is considered a fail. Ms. Munah tells him that science is a compulsory subject and if he doesn't pass, he will have to stay one more year. Ali thanks for her advise and promises to improve himself. Ms. Munah responds that she is not giving him an advise but a warning.

Before she starts her lessons, a teacher comes in to make an announcement regarding clubs and societies. The teacher is Mr. Bidin. He tells Ali that he is sent to Stamp Collecting Club due to all of the clubs being "full". The man reminds him to go to Room 52 after school, and then leaves.

After school, Ali and Viktor are walking across a corridor, going to their respective clubs. Ali asks Viktor who still collects stamps. Viktor is not paying attention at all as he is too busy playing the game which he just lost. Ali asks which club he is in and Viktor says that he is in the E-Sports Club. Sasidaran later called Viktor into the room to join and later leaves Ali.

Ali roams the hall, frowning at the door numbers.

“Fifty... fifty-one..."

Uh... Where's 52?

He looks around and notices a shed at the courtyard, with a '52' hastily taped onto the door.

"Is that it?" Ali thought.

He walks to the shed. Seeing the door unlocked, he opens it, only to be met with silence and stale air. He closed the door behind him and looks around the room. Bookshelves on the far wall, and some store equipment to the side.

Is this place a storage room?

“Uh... hello?” Ali said hesitantly.

The door behind him creaks open. He immedeatly turns around, only to be met with the outside peeking through the still-swaying door.

Then—

“I’m right here, idiot.”

Ali jumps half a foot in the air as Alicia appears to his left from thin air, clearly amused.

"Wha-? Alicia?! What're you doing here? I thought the General homeschooled you?" So many questions...

She looks at him dead in the eyes. " You haven't realised?"

Ali shrugs. "...No?" 

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “This gullible fool...”  she muttered.

Then, she reveals it. 

"The Stamp Club doesn't exist, dummy!" 

Ali blinks. “Then why—”

“Because you’re not here for stamps.”

Mr. Bidin appears behind them. Ali tries to question, but is silenced by the man pulling out a stamp from behind his ear, before giving the two their respective stamps.

He grabs a book from one of the shelves, and tells them to insert the stamps there.

Once they do, a door opens behind them, revealing a secret elevator. Somehow unnoticed all this time.

Wait... Does that mean Mr. Bidin is an agent?

The man tosses the stamps back to them.

"Those are your IDs, don't lose 'em" 

Ali began to question. "IDs? What for? Where are we going?" 

A simple three words, muttered by Mr. Bidin with such elegance it just shows that his true self is nothing like his caffeine-fueled disguise.

"MATA. Training. Academy." 

Hearing this, Ali beams with excitement. About time he joins the Academy.

Ali happily hops into the elevator, Alicia following suit with less enthusiasm (tbf she's less enthusiastic about everything).

"Ready?" The man looks to the cadets.

"Ready!" Ali answered.

He taps on the control panel, and with that, they're set. 

The shelves close before the elevator as it makes it's descend, as if nothing happened.

"Mr. Bidin, how long have you--?" Ali goes to ask, only to be corrected.

"Karya. Agent Karya." The man corrects him, giving a courtly bow as his introduction.

"Oh! Uh... How long have you been with MATA?" Ali asked.

"Since the beginning, when MATA initiated the Young Agents Program." He answers, all while shuffling a deck of cards in his hand. "I was tasked with scouting for students who posses potential all around Cyberaya."

"So... You knew about us this whole time?" Ali wondered

Alicia jokes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone did. You were kind of a viral hero, remember?”

Ali groans. “Please don’t remind me...”

"Who do you think has been covering you while you were out on missions?" Karya confirms.

The guy used a whole lotta tricks to cover them. From haze warnings, to calling the teachers for meetings, to holding a fire drill.

This man is perfectly built for Inviso. Master of tricks, and perfect infiltrator.

Once the elevator reached the ground floor, Karya took Ali and Alicia to the pod station where Bakar and Comot were waiting.

"Uncle!" Ali heads to greet his man. "You're coming too?" 

"Of course! I wouldn't want to miss your first day!" He replies. "Plus, I just want to make sure you don't break down and cry while there." 

Oof

"Move along, the others are waiting" Karya signals them to enter the transport pod.

"Others? Who?" Ali asked

"The other Academy students. They're thrilled to welcome the new recruits" Karya answers

Then, they all board the pod after given the green light. All of them sat down except for Ali as he chose to stand up front to view the exciting scene about to unfold before him.

A flash of texts appears on the screen, reading:

ENGAGING HYPERDRIVE

"Ready?" Karya signals, again.

"How many times--?" Ali goes to argue, but is thrown back by the sudden speed burst caused by the pod as it speeds it's way through the tunnel.

After a few minutes of waiting, the pod emerges from the underground tunnel and onto the sea floor. The ethereal sight of the South China Sea mesmerized Ali. 

Shipwrecks, coral reefs, fishes, nearby uninhabited islands and rocks, everything was around them, tinted blue by the ocean's mesmerizing hue.

Then, Ali is struck with a question in his mind. What are they doing here at the bottom of the sea?

He turns to ask Karya. "Where are we headed to?" 

"The Academy is located on an island not too far from here." Karya answered.

"Island? Since when did Cyberaya have an Island?" Ali wondered 

Karya pulls down his glasses.

"A secret island, perfectly off-grid." He explains.

The pod arrives at the destination and they all got off and walked towards the Academy building. The main building itself takes up half the island, with the rest refitted to the arena where the students presumably train at.

Karya goes to unlock the main entrance. "Now, feats your eyes upon something that is truly remarkable!" 

The door opens with a sharp hiss as the multiple layers gave way to the lobby.

Or at least... What was left of it...

"Are they doing renovations? Or did something bad just happen?" Alicia wondered with her usual sarcastic tone.

"What is it?" Karya asked, before actually seeing what chaos was before them.

Walls broken, droids shattered, screens blasted apart, and a torn banner reading "MATA ACADEMY - STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY" hanging form the ceiling.

"Who dares attack this place?!" Bakar angrily cracks his knuckles, ready for a fight.

"Bakar, you go bring the kids to the arena. I'll survey the perimeter" Karya orders his comrade, who nods.

"Alright, let's go!" Bakar signals the cadets to follow. Ali hesitated, looking back to the carnage, before being yanked by the arm by Alicia.

"NO TIME TO DAYDREAM, DAMNIT!" 

The team split off into two ways, Bakar and the cadets to the right, and Karya to the left

The team runs through a corridor, dimly lit by red lights. As they make their way through the broken hallways, Ali wonders.

"What's the next course of action?" 

Hearing this, Bakar replies. "We'll head to the arena at the back. There's an assembly area there in case of emergencies." 

"Does that mean it's the safest area here?" Ali asked

Bakar pondered. "Not sure, this place hasn't been attacked before."

"Then why is it being attacked now?" Ali responded

Alicia comes in. "Maybe it's not the Academy itself they're targeting, but..." She looks to Ali.

"...They... They're after IRIS?!" Ali thought.

As they enter a room, both IRIS and CORONA detected a laser tripwire right in Bakar's path. CORONA specifically detecting explosives embedded in the walls.

Seeing the very obvious danger ahead, the two cadets shouted.

"BAKAR! WATCH OUT!" 

It was too late, however.

Bakar trips over the lasers and activates the explosives, causing the hallways to cave in and separate them.

"UNCLE!!" Ali screamed

"Don't worry, His vitals are fine. Seems like he's just separated from us." Alicia stated, the CORONA having a flash of text reading <CLOSE ONE O_O>

Just then, Comot sensed something closing in and turns around.

"What is it?" Ali wondered, given the answer immedeatly as IRIS detects an incoming projectile headed straight for him.

Ali ducked, the projectile rebounding back into it's user's hand. That user being a masked man. The man wears a dark coat along with it's signature black-white mask.

"Who are you? What do you want?!" Ali interrogated the man.

He doesn't respond, instead, throwing more of the projectiles, which posses a shape similar to cards.

Ali ducks behind his yo-yo's shield while Alicia goes to attack.

Alicia fires a shot from her revolver, which ends up getting sliced in half by one of the cards, which rebounds as another one heads for her.

Unable to evade, she gets clipped in the face by both of them. Red lines streaking across her cheeks.

The sting burns like fire, but it closes almost instantly, with the dripping blood almost looking like it's being sucked back into the skin.

Another flash of text on CORONA's interface.

<THAT LOOKED LIKE IT HURT>

"You think?!" Alicia snap back at her AI companion.

She turns to Ali.

"You need to run! Now!" 

"Only after we defeat him!" Ali replied, determined to beat him.

"Ali! He's stronger than you! What makes you think you can beat him?!" Alicia retorted

"I'll find a way, I'm sure of it." Ali responded, using IRIS to try and find the man's weak spot.

The boy's body froze, his hand dropping to the side.

"Ali..?" 

The man snapped his fingers. Ali turns around in response, and readies his yo-yo.

"Ali!" 

He doesn't respond, only swinging his yo-yo at her, which she managed to barely avoid.

As the two cadets brawl against each other, the masked man watched from the back, amused.

An out-of-place growling fills the air, causing the man to look around for the source. 

Comot pounces, missing the man barely. She goes back in a ND tries swinging her claws at him, missed again.

A game of cat and mouse ensues between the man and the cat as they both disappear into the hallway that the cadets just went through.

"Ali, snap out of it!" Alicia continued to block shockblast after shockblast, unable to advance.

The hits continued to get more aggressive, finalizing with Ali slamming Alicia into the floor with the yo-yo.

Alicia coughed, the air knocked out of he lungs.

"So that's how Trez felt..." She muttered, out of breath.

She brings herself up, and readies her fists. "Come at me!" 

Ali readies the yo-yo once more, CORONA analysing the trajectory and speed.

Ali swings again. She catches the yo-yo's cord midair, yanks it, and the force pulls him towards her. She the meets the boy halfway with a punch to the jaw, knocking his senses back in.

As Ali regained his senses, he groaned.

"Ow... Was that necessary?" 

Alicia replied with a simple " Yes", stretching her joints after that encounter. 

Ali looks around, and notices Comot's absence.

"Wait... Where is she?" 

Comot darts after the masked man, into a dark chamber. The lights flicker. A sudden metallic clang echoes.

“Comot?”

They rush in, and freezes. The cat is trapped in a cage.

The masked man stands before it, clapping slowly, as if amused by the feline's skills.

He pulls out a piece of cloth from his coat, and drops it elegantly over the cage.

In a cruel twist of fate, he steps on it with force, a metallic crunch echoing through the air.

The cadet's eyes widen in shock.

"COMOT!" Ali screamed

"YOU BASTARD!" Alicia charges in, Sawcor revving with malicious intent.

Ali runs to the cloth and lifts it, expecting a crushed cat, only to find...

"...Comot?" 

...nothing...

The masked man doesn't pause.

A card flies to hit Ali, only to be shot off course by Alicia. She continues to fend off the masked man as Ali gets up and charges in himself.

The man throws a bunch of cards towards Alicia's direction, which she dodges past with ease.

As the man prepares to throws another card towards her, his hands are suddenly tied by Ali's yo-yo.

"Gotcha!" 

The figure yanks the yo-yo, sending Ali flying into a wall.

As Ali tries to get back up, he's pinned down by a sword (which the man pulled out of the mask's 'mouth', like that one magic trick).

Ali blocks the following strike with his yo-yo, which Alicia takes advantage of by sliding Infront and punching the man away.

He staggers back. Ali gets up close and begins attacking the man.

Ali stood back, trying to hit the man, CORONA trying to find the perfect time to fire.

!AIMING...!

!BINGO!

"ALI!" she signals.

The boy boosts back, before boosting back in for a dropkick, staggering him again.

Before he could process what's happening, Alicia fires a gravity bomb right at the man's feet, pinning him to the floor.

Ali boosts upward and swings his yo-yo once more, only for it to be blocked by a pair of plasma shields.

"Wha-- Uncle??" 

The shields deactivate, revealing a familiar man behind it.

"Heh, I knew you guys had it in you!" 

The lights blaze to life, startling the ultra-focused Alicia in the back.

The walls shimmer and shift, revealing a balcony above with mentors and other students looking down at them, cheering.

"What's all of this?" Ali wondered, looking around the room.

"So far, no one has gotten this far on their first day."  Bakar stated. "You guys just set a new record!"

The two cadets gave each other a knowing glance.

The masked man stands back up, and takes off the mask.

The man turns out to be Karya.

"My bad." He apologizes. "I shouldn't have messed around."

"Hah! In your face!"  Bakar gives him a slap on the back. "I told you these two are great!" 

Karya grabs the cloth, and pulls it up, revealing Comot all safe and sound.

"Comot! You're okay!" Ali cradles the cat in his arms.

A sudden booming voice from the balcony alerts the cadets.

"Ali, Alicia, Welcome to the MATA Academy." The female mentor, Tekno, welcomes them. "Please make your way upstairs" 

"Alright, let's go up there and meet the others." Bakar signals the agents, before walking over to a stairway nearby.

The cadets follow suit, with the Academy students above walking back to greet them.

...all except for one, who continued to stare at them...

[NUMERØS HEADQUARTERS]

Equipments buzz around as Cinco finishes the final touches to Uno's new arm. This time it's made from Azurium-infused steel, similar to Alicia's Knuckleblaster, making it denser and WAY harder to break.

"It's done." 

Uno turns to his disciple, the dark interior of the base masking his expression. He walks from the central console and onto a medical bed in the middle of the room (the ones they use for surgery).

Above are rings of mechanical arms, ready to enact the operation.

After all the plates are welded together, Uno stands up, analysing his new prosthetic. After a bit of silence, he orders.

"Gather them all" 

Cinco stood frozen, puzzled. "All of them?" 

He dawns his fixed helmet, and confirms.

"All of them."

Cinco walks to the central console and activates the "MOBILIZE" button. Insignias, marking all the NUMERØS members light up accordingly, with the only ones already mobilized being Uno (1), Dos (2), Trez (3), and Cinco (5).

Somewhere in the depths of Cyberaya, a lab continued to stirr. Inside a large containment unit, reinforced with bulletproof glass and steel walls forged in tungsten, a familiar blue machine stirred awake. 

"[ABOUT DAMN TIME.]" 

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.21

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: MATA TRAINING ACADEMY

OBJECTIVE: VACANT

UNITED WE BLEED.

TRUST IS STEEL.

FEAR IS BROKEN.

WE ARE ONE.

The air hums with the steady rhythm of generators buried deep beneath the Academy’s foundation, their mechanical heartbeats echoing through metallic corridors lined with observation panels and neon-blue conduits. The morning sun cuts through the glass dome above, refracting across the arena like fractured light on water. For the new cadets of MATA Academy, today marks the first official day of orientation. For Alicia, it is another battlefield.

She stands near the back of the crowd, arms folded, eyes narrowing behind her visor. The students before her... laughing, teasing, shifting in their nervous energy... seem harmless. But Alicia doesn’t trust harmless. Not anymore.

Her gaze sweeps from one to another, memorizing movements, cross-referencing posture with threat potential.

Jet, all bravado and arrogance, grinning like he owns the place.

Roza, steady as a sniper scope, scanning every angle just as she does.

Mika, smiling softly from her chair that hums faintly with energy signatures, the mech plating of her MEKA suit hidden neatly within.

Iman, shy but dangerous, the kind of quiet that precedes a storm.

Chris, hands in motion even when he stands still, like he’s sparring with ghosts.

Bulat, heavy-set but efficient, carrying a weight that looks less like fat and more like power.

And then there’s Khai, adjusting his glasses as his robot companion, R-O, whirs beside him. His fingers twitch near his wrist pad, as though always halfway between thought and code. He’s clever... too clever. Alicia makes a note to watch him closely. Her trust is rationed, and right now, no one but Ali earns even a drop.

The Inviso recruits stand off to the side...

Zass, silent and sharp, flanked by Moon, who practically vibrates with energy, her laughter piercing through the air. Beside them looms Rudy, cold-eyed and distant, a shade of something darker lurking beneath his composure.

She studies them all like a chessboard, calculating openings, traps, sacrifices.

"Too many pieces. Not enough certainty."

“Still paranoid?”

The voice ripples through her head... sarcastic, smooth, unmistakably her digital companion, 'V2'.

She doesn’t flinch. "You never shut up, do you?" 

“If I did, you’d miss me.”

Her jaw tightens. "You’re not supposed to exist. You’re a remnant. Something that never was."

“And yet, here I am... free real estate in your mind, sweetheart."

She exhales slowly. It’s been weeks since the mind-link stabilized, since the Safehouse attack, but the second consciousness inside her remains a restless presence.

Sometimes, it sounds like a shadow of herself.

Other times...

...Like the boy she can’t stop protecting.

At the front of the hall, Agents Bakar, Karya, Geetha, and Leon stand tall, each representing their respective cores. The four mentors command silence with a single glance.

Leon steps forward, voice clear and precise. “Welcome to MATA Academy. Here, we forge agents from raw potential. Every one of you represents a core. Kombat, Inviso, Tekno, or Neuro. You will not compete. You will cooperate. And if you don't, you will fail.”

His words hang like tempered steel in the air.

Bakar crosses his arms, muscles tensing beneath his jacket. “Kombat! We're the first in, and the last out. You lead with courage. Fear is natural. Surrender is not.”

Karya, cool and unreadable, adds, “Inviso. Deception and stealth. Your victory lies in what others never see coming.”

Geetha smirks from behind her tablet. “Tekno. Without us, you’d all be unarmed, unhealed, and quite possibly on fire.”

The students chuckle. Geetha’s tone sharpens. “And I’m not joking.”

Finally, Leon speaks for Neuro: “Strategy is not optional. You fight with your minds as much as your hands and weapons. The smartest one in the field isn’t always the one still standing, but they usually decide who does.”

Alicia observes their reactions. Jet grins, Moon waves her hand as if volunteering for chaos, and Khai murmurs something to R-O about calculating win probabilities. None of them realize how quickly smiles die in a real operation.

Then the alarm hits.

A sharp, blaring wail tears through the hall, slicing through conversation. Red lights flood the room. Students scramble as mentors spring into motion.

“What’s happening?” Roza barks.

Leon checks his wrist console. “Unidentified breach. Control room, now!”

Geetha is already gone before he finishes speaking, sprinting through the corridor toward the command deck. Bakar and Karya move to secure exits while Leon orders the recruits into defensive positions.

Alicia’s instincts scream. She shifts her focus toward the surveillance feeds flickering overhead. Lines of code flash, error reports stacking. Someone’s in their system.

Inside the control room, Geetha’s fingers fly across holographic keys. The entire facility hums with electromagnetic interference. “Whoever’s in— they’re good. Really good,” she mutters, teeth gritted. “Come on, show me your face…”

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the chaos stops.

The screens normalize. The lights return to blue. The alarms fall silent.

“…What the hell?” Geetha whispers.

She exhales, leaning back in her chair. For a brief moment, she thinks she’s caught the intruder—until a quiet ping flashes on her tablet. A trace log, half-corrupted, labeled only with one word:

Cinco.

Somewhere far beyond the Academy, a figure exhales sharply. In the dim glow of monitors, Cinco pulls back from her terminal, smirking as she wipes the sweat from her brow. The lines of green code still cascade across her screen, reflecting in her narrowed eyes.

“You’re cutting it close,” a voice drawls behind her.

She doesn’t turn. “Close is my specialty.”

Another monitor flickers on, Uno’s silhouette forming against static. His eyes burn faintly beneath the mask. “Did you get it?”

Cinco hums. “Partial location data. And confirmation that IRIS is still bonded to the boy.”

Uno smirks behind his mask. "They made a big mistake relying on that boy" 

The school bell tolls, sharp and freeing. Ali bolts through the corridor with a grin wide enough to challenge the sunlight outside. The other students watch him sprint past the gates, his bag half-zipped, his mind far from the mundane chatter of exams and homework.

He darts into the alley, heart thrumming with anticipation. The door to Room 52 looms ahead like a portal to another world. Just as he reaches for the handle-

“Yo, Ali!”

Viktor’s voice catches him mid-motion. The older boy stands there with his usual skeptical squint, backpack slung over one shoulder.

“You’re really running back to that dusty stamp club again?”

Ali freezes, masking his panic with a crooked grin. “Rare collection today. Limited edition.”

Viktor eyes him for a long, suspicious moment, then shrugs. “Whatever, you've always been weird, man.”

Ali only laughs it off and slips through the door. Inside, quiet hum of machinery replaces the quiet hum of school corridors. Alicia leans against the far wall, arms crossed, expression flat. Her core being the cause of the steady but silent humming.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Ali asks, adjusting his uniform collar.

“Because you almost ratted us out,” she replies, her tone low, precise. “You really think the ‘stamp club’ story would hold if you keep saying it out loud?”

Ali scratches his neck, sheepish. “I panicked, alright?”

“Work on your poker face next time,” she mutters, stepping into the elevator beside him. The metal doors close, sealing them in a dim capsule that hums as it descends.

“Why’re you here anyway?” Ali asks, glancing sideways. “You’re way overqualified. You could probably run the whole Academy if you wanted.”

“I’m not here to show off,” Alicia answers. “I’m under orders. The General wants someone to keep an eye on IRIS.”

Ali blinks. “Why you?”

“Because he can’t trust anyone else,” she says simply. “Not after Jenny. Or Cinco, whichever name you prefer.”

The silence that follows is heavy but understanding.

“So,” Ali says after a beat, smiling faintly, “I guess we share the same problem now.”

Alicia exhales through her nose, just shy of a smile. “Guess so.”

The elevator doors open with a hiss, and after a little journey through the undersea tunnel, they arrive at their destination.

The Academy stretches out before them, gleaming and vast. The air carries the faint scent of ozone and synthetic polish. A familiar voice calls out.

“Ali!”

Khai jogs over, waving. His glasses gleam under the artificial lights. “You made it!”

Ali squints. “Uh... remind me again—”

“Khai. With an H,” the boy laughs, shaking Ali’s hand.

Right beside him stands Iman, holding Comot with both hands. The cat looks mildly offended at the attention. “Forgot your partner again?” she teases softly.

Ali scoops Comot up, whispering an apology. Moon suddenly appears from behind, practically bouncing.

“Ali!" She greets him. "Can I borrow IRIS?” she asks, hands clasped dramatically.

“Khai’s right there,” Ali says, gesturing. “Ask him for gadgets.”

Moon pouts. “I want that one.”

Khai sighs. “It’s synced to his vitals. Even I can’t hack that link.”

Jet steps in, his voice loud and teasing. “Looks like just another pair of glasses to me.”

Ali smirks, swiping the interface open. “Oh really?” He scans Jet, then grins. “Height enhanced by two-point-three inches thanks to boot extenders.”

Alicia chuckled. "So much for a 'top-flier'" 

The laughter that erupts from Moon and Khai nearly drowns Jet’s sputtered defense.

Moon elbows Jet. “See? Told you it was cool!”

She immediately spins to Ali again. “Scan me next!”

IRIS hums to life, the holographic interface analyzing Moon’s frame. “Suit equipped with holo-cloning tech,” Ali reads aloud. “Can generate fully-tactile holographic doubles. Impressive.”

Khai whistles. “Naisu!”

Moon beams. “Told ya I’m awesome!”

The laughter fades when she suddenly blurts, “You’re the guy who beat Djin, right?”

Ali freezes. The air thickens.

"I believe he could also teleport right? Turn into smoke and all of that?" The girl continued, oblivious.

Rudy, silent until now, steps forward. “That’s nonsense.”

Alicia looks at him, surprised. Rudy rarely speaks up.

“Teleportation?” Rudy continues, voice sharp. “That’s not teleportation. It’s speed. Smoke and mirrors. Literally.”

Alicia nods. “Movement tech called 'Shadow Step'. Uses smoke to cloak the user while they speed across to where you straight up can't see them. If CORONA hadn’t calculated it in picoseconds, I would’ve thought he vanished too.”

Rudy blinks at her agreement, caught off guard. Still, he adds, “It’s something all Inviso agents should know. But most don’t bother learning.”

“Because it’s boring!” Moon protests, puffing her cheeks.

Rudy exhales, clearly done with the conversation, and walks off.

“...What’s his deal?” Ali murmurs.

Moon lowers her voice. “Djin was his idol.”

Ali’s shoulders sink a little. “Oh.”

They continue walking, laughter resuming here and there until a deep voice cuts through the hallway. “Ali!”

Bakar stands at the far end, motioning for him.

Ali goes to address him. "What is it?"

“Pillar leaders want to see you.”

The students fall silent.

Jet whistles low. “You’re kidding. The Pillar Leaders?”

Even Khai looks awed. “We’ve never met them ourselves.”

Ali gulps. “Lucky me, huh.”

Moon grins. “Send them my regards!”

Bakar claps a hand on his shoulder and steers him away.

The door to the chamber looms ahead, pulsing faintly with energy. Inside, the darkness hums alive. Four vertical rods flare to life, each forming a holographic figure. The first, crimson and calm, Agent Dayang of the Tekno Pillar, her turban gleaming under the light.

“Welcome, Ali,” she says kindly. “How do you find the Academy so far?”

“It’s... fun,” Ali admits. “Lots of new faces. Lots to learn.”

A booming voice interrupts him. “Fun?”

The blue-lit figure of Agent Ganz crosses his arms. His hair is wild, his tone louder still. “This isn’t a playground, boy. It’s where soldiers are made.”

Ali straightens instantly. “Yes, sir!”

Dayang’s tone sharpens. “Ganz, please.”

He grumbles but falls silent.

Then, a soft golden glow fills the center. Agent Zain, leader of the Neuro Pillar, speaks in a tone both commanding and composed.

“Ali. You must understand the weight you carry. IRIS Override is unstable. If mishandled, it could destroy far more than your enemies.”

A flicker on one of the screens... Djin’s image flashes for a brief second.

“Djin,” Zain continues, “once led the Inviso Pillar. Now he leads our enemies. He will not rest until he reclaims what he lost.”

Ali’s throat tightens. “So... he’s after IRIS.”

“Exactly,” Zain replies. “Your role is to ensure he fails.”

Dayang nods. “Be alert, young man. They’ve struck us before. They’ll do it again.”

Ganz smirks faintly. “And train harder. You won’t get lucky twice.”

Ali exhales shakily. “Understood.”

The projection flickers out. He steps back into the corridor... only to find Rizwan standing there. “Rizwan!” Ali grins. “Hey, I was just about to ask if-”

“Don’t,” Rizwan says flatly, brushing past him. “Don’t interfere.”

Ali stops mid-step, watching his mentor vanish into the chamber.

Inside, Rizwan’s voice carries, measured but cold.

“I want to know what happened five years ago. What really happened to Djin.”

The silence that answers him is heavy.

Back in the main hall, Bakar guides Ali toward the training wing.

Leon stands at the front of the classroom, arms folded, expression sharp. “You’re late, kid.”

“Sorry, sir,” Ali says.

“Save it.” Leon gestures for silence as the others shuffle to their seats.

“Today, we begin practical training. Team-based exercises.”

A murmur sweeps the room.

Agent Geetha steps forward next, her voice calm and steady.

“Each team must consist of one member from each core. Neuro, Kombat, Tekno, and Inviso. You will retrieve intel chips scattered across the Academy Arena. First team to return wins.”

Ali raises a hand. “Wait, which core am I again?”

“You’re Tekno,” Geetha says.

“Your suit’s red. That’s the giveaway.”

Ali blinks. “Oh.”

The students laugh quietly.

“Teams, form up!” Leon barks.

Khai and Ali exchange looks, but Khai shakes his head. “Same core, can’t team up. Rules are rules. Good luck though, bro.”

Moon waves from across the room. “Join us! We’ve got Jet and Iman!”

Ali starts walking toward her... until Alicia grabs his arm. “You’re with me.”

Ali sighs. “Why?”

“Because I’m assigned to watch IRIS,” she says simply.

He groans but nods. “Fine.”

Leon scans the roster. “Team A: Jet, Moon, Khai, Iman. Team B: Alicia, Ali, Mika, Rudy. Team C: Roza, Chris, Bulat, Zass.”

The cadets line up at the Academy Arena’s starting zone, lights flickering across the dome-like structure.

Leon raises a hand. “Retrieve three intel chips and return to this point. You’ll face obstacles. Traps. Maybe even each other.”

He lowers his arm. “Begin.”

The air hums. Energy surges beneath their boots. And then, Zass vanishes first, a blur of motion so fast the others barely register it.

Jet ignites his jetpack and soars skyward. Alicia narrows her eyes, recalibrating her revolver. “Stick close.”

She fires her Sawcor behind her, then triggers the her Railcannon, the MalDrive’s railshot. The explosion propels her forward like a bullet, streaking across the sky.

Rudy whistles low. “She’s insane.”

Mika adds, marching in her MEKA suit beside Ali. "Are you seeing this?"

Ali shrugs. “I forgot she could do that, to be honest.”

The battlefield erupts ahead. Droids, drones, traps, chaos. And somewhere in the shadows, V2’s voice hums in Alicia’s mind.

"You think you’re leading this game?"

“Not leading,” she whispers, eyes gleaming. “Winning.”

The field stretches before them in chaos and color. Droids burst from concealed hatches, drones zip between the towers, and the entire simulation pulses with shifting light as the challenge unfolds. Each team scatters to their designated coordinates, their movements recorded from a dozen camera feeds high above the arena.

In the shadows of the northern tower, Zass lands soundlessly, boots barely kissing the metallic ground. His eyes, hidden behind the reflective visor, flicker with digital overlays as he scans the area. The radar hums faintly, confirming the location of the first intel chip within the tower’s core.

He darts forward. No wasted motion. No sound.

The mute Inviso cadet moves like a phantom... until the ground clicks beneath his foot.

He freezes. Too late.

A crimson pulse spreads outward from the pressure plate, triggering the alarm. In an instant, red lights flash across the tower’s perimeter. Vents open with mechanical precision, releasing a swarm of security drones. Zass rolls backward as a rain of plasma bolts scorches the air where he once stood. The tower groans with automated hostility, its defense protocols locking in.

Droids rise from the earth around him, their optical sensors turning bright scarlet. The sound of rifles powering up fills the arena.

Zass tightens his gloves. His wrist-blades snap into place.

He may not speak, but the way he launches himself at the first droid says enough.

Elsewhere, at the western tower, Alicia’s team moves in formation. She leads the group with sharp precision, eyes flicking between live scans projected by CORONA’s visor. Rudy follows just behind her, hand resting on his weapon. Mika’s drone hovers above, feeding her data streams, while Ali brings up the rear, IRIS glowing faintly across his eyes.

“There,” Alicia points. “The second intel chip’s inside that tower.”

Rudy takes a step forward, ready to storm in, but Ali raises a hand. “Wait.”

Rudy frowns. “What?”

“The sensors,” Ali says, glancing down at IRIS’s interface. “Whole floor’s wired. Step wrong, and we’ll be joining Zass in a fireworks show.”

Rudy curses under his breath. “So what, we wait?”

Before anyone can respond, a soft buzz fills the air. Khai’s R-O emerges from the nearby canopy, eyes flashing amber. The small machine glides effortlessly toward the tower, projecting a beam that disables the sensors.

Mika blinks. “He’s here?”

“Looks like Team A’s already scouting,” Alicia mutters.

The sensors die out. IRIS confirms it with a faint flicker.

“Now,” Ali grins, and before R-O can react, he sprints forward, sliding under a rotating turret and snatching the intel chip from its cradle.

R-O emits a high-pitched whine, almost like a scream of frustration.

“Sorry, little guy,” Ali calls, holding the chip high as he jogs back toward his team. “Finders keepers.”

“Ali, move!” Alicia shouts.

A plasma round cuts through the air, blasting the intel out of his hand. The chip spirals upward, tumbling into the dirt.

Up above, Jet hovers with his jetpack, smoke trailing behind him like a miniature fighter jet. “Too slow, rookie!” he shouts, plasma blasters glowing red-hot.

Ali curses. “Seriously?”

From the treeline, Moon leaps out, holographic doubles spawning in a perfect ripple. Each clone grabs a glowing chip, scattering in every direction.

IRIS flashes across Ali’s HUD:

MULTIPLE SIGNALS. UNABLE TO DIFFERENTIATE REAL FROM DECOYS.

“Great,” he mutters. “Thanks for the help.”

Alicia fires a warning shot toward Jet’s position, forcing him to veer higher. “Focus! Retrieve the real one!”

“Working on it!” Ali dashes forward, weaving between Moon’s illusions. He almost reaches the real one when a flicker of movement warns him—

INCOMING IMPACT.

He pivots just in time to raise his yo-yo shield. The meteor hammer slams into it with a thunderous crack, sending sparks flying. The force hurls him backward, rolling him across the metallic ground until he collides with an exposed node.

The moment his hand brushes the sensor, alarms blare.

“Oh, come on-!”

Panels split open. Droids spill out, eyes glowing red.

Mika’s voice pierces through the comms. “We’ve got company!”

The battlefield explodes into motion. Jet strafes above, unleashing precision blasts on the drones swarming his teammates. Moon’s clones dart in and out, their laughter echoing through the simulation. Below, droids close in from every direction, firing suppressive plasma rounds.

Ali regains his footing, hurling his yo-yo toward a nearby turret. The weapon wraps around its barrel, discharging an electric pulse that fries the droid cluster beside it. Smoke erupts in a shimmering wall.

Through the chaos, Alicia’s voice rings out. “Ali, the chip!”

He spots it—half-buried under a fallen drone. He dives, snatching it from the dirt, and signals with a raised hand.

“Got it!”

Rudy and Mika regroup instantly, providing cover fire while Alicia reloads with surgical precision. “Move out!” she commands.

The team bolts through the wreckage, jetpack fire and gunfire painting streaks across the field. Behind them, Jet’s team regroups, Moon’s last clone dispersing into fading light.

“Let them have it,” Jet growls. “We’ll take the next one.”

Alicia’s team races through the simulated forest zone. The canopy above glows faintly from the arena’s lighting array, imitating the filtered sunlight of dawn. Their boots pound against soil and steel.

CORONA’s voice pings in Alicia’s visor. “Alert. Team C closing on finish point.”

Her jaw tightens. “Roza,” she mutters. “Always efficient.”

V2’s voice stirs lazily in her mind. “You could still beat her. If you stop pretending to play nice.”

She ignores him. “Everyone, hold onto Mika!”

“What?” Ali blurts.

Before he can finish, Alicia ejects the Azurium Core from her Sawcor, the superheated chamber glowing a violent blue. She hurls it forward—an unstable sphere pulsing with energy—then aims her MalDrive straight at it. The moment her finger pulls the trigger, the railshot collides with the core.

The world detonates.

A blinding bloom of light engulfs the forest trail. The explosion tears the air apart, a shockwave of blue fire propelling them forward faster than gravity dares to catch them. The ground cracks beneath the force, vapor trailing in their wake.

The world blurs.

The team rockets across the trail, carried by the roaring blast. The other two's screams can be heard as the giant hunk of metal that is the MEKA suit zoomed past the forests. Ali’s laughter bursts through the chaos, wind and fire whipping past his face. The finish line looms ahead - Roza’s team already there, the red beacon pulsing like a heartbeat.

“Come on!” Ali shouts over the roar.

Alicia grits her teeth and fires another railshot into the explosion behind them, feeding the blast a second surge of thrust. The resulting boom tears through the arena like thunder.

The ground erupts under them as they land, hard. The shockwave follows seconds later, rattling the observation deck. Dust and static fill the air as their boots scrape past the glowing boundary line.

The system freezes.

RESULT: TEAM B - 1ST PLACE

The crowd of four watching from the observation deck bursts into applause. Leon’s usually stern expression cracks into the faintest smirk.

Geetha raises an eyebrow. “A bit reckless.”

“But effective,” Leon replies. “They’ll fit in just fine.”

Alicia stands slowly, brushing off her sleeve. Ali groans beside her, hair full of dust but grin intact. “We won, right?”

She nods once. “Barely.”

V2 chuckles in her head. “Admit it. You had fun.”

Alicia exhales, a reluctant smile touching her lips. “Maybe a little."

The hum of fluorescent lights fills the detention wing of MATA’s underground facility. The corridors are empty. Too quiet.

Rizwan moves through them quickly, expression unreadable. His wrist console glows faintly as he taps a sequence, overriding the security feed. The cameras loop, displaying an untouched hallway.

The door before him slides open with a hiss.

Inside sits a restrained figure. Dos, Uno’s enforcer and right hand man- er... woman. The purple streak that lines her hair gleaming faintly under the suppression lights.

Rizwan steps closer. “You’ve been quiet.”

Dos smirks faintly. “Waiting.”

“For what?”

The answer is a whisper. “Him.”

Rizwan’s eyes narrow. “What are you-?”

A flicker of static cuts through the facility’s lights. The power surges. Somewhere deep within the complex, alarms wail.

Bodies litter the floor. Scientists, guards, all lifeless. The alarms have stopped. The emergency lights pulse red, painting the walls like veins of fire.

V1 stands at the center of it all. Chains dangle from his arms like broken threads. His head, the same blue camera with that eerie yellow eye in the middle. All seeing.

Smoke curls from his frame.

He steps forward once, then again, dragging his fingers along the blood-smeared wall until they find the exit terminal. The archway, a red door with the scenery outside showing through.

A mechanical voice in his head, cold and deliberate, whispers the directive:

NEW OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE THE FAKER.

V1’s eye brightens.

He walks into the light.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.21

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE 

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: MATA TRAINING ACADEMY

OBJECTIVE: OPERATION TRI-CODE [COMPLETE]

EIGHT LEGS STIR.

SHADOWS CRAWL.

WEB IS LAW.

ALL SHALL FEED.

Night settles over Cyberaya like a digital haze. The last train screeches into Taman Maya Transit Station, its doors yawning open to spill out the final few passengers of the day. The station hums with mechanical rhythm. Flickering advertisements, distant speaker echoes, and the steady heartbeat of machinery that never sleeps.

Inside the control room, a lone guard snores at his post, cap tilted over his eyes. His coffee has gone cold. He doesn’t see it, the thing that slithers out from beneath the arriving train.

A small, four-legged drone, spiderlike, sleek, and silent, detaches from the underside of the carriage. Its body gleams with what looks to be LEGO parts, circuitry, and a symbol atop it's shell. It crawls across the platform unnoticed, climbs the wall, and slips into the ventilation shaft with insect precision.

The vent’s shadow swallows it whole.

Moments later, the lights in the control room flicker. The guard grunts, stirs, and rubs his eyes. “Huh?”

The monitors begin flashing lines of corrupted code. Static ripples across the surveillance feeds. The drone perches atop the server tower and injects its data spike into the network node. The air hums with energy. Files decrypt, defenses crumble, and within seconds, the entire transit network falls to its invisible invader.

The drone’s green optic blinks once, a grin in machine form, before it retracts its limbs and vanishes deeper into the ducts.

Cyberaya sleeps. But something inside its circuits has awakened.

The echo of applause filled the Academy’s Combat Hall. Leon stood at the center of the training platform, hands on his hips, surveying the students who had just completed the most intense simulation of the semester.

“Excellent execution, all of you,” he announced, his tone measured but approving. “Every team displayed coordination and quick thinking. But-” his gaze shifted toward Alicia’s group “-Team B deserves a special mention. That improvised propulsion trick? Risky, but remarkably inventive.”

Ali grinned faintly. Mika whispered a quiet “Next time warn us when you're going to launch us like a missile.” Alicia merely folded her arms, pretending not to enjoy the praise.

“Still,” Leon continued, “try not to blow yourselves up next time. Creativity is useless if it leaves you in the infirmary.”

The laughter that followed broke the tension, and the students began to disperse.

For a moment, Ali lingered, staring at the still-glowing scoreboard projected across the wall. Their team had finished first. Barely. Yet somehow, victory didn’t feel as sweet as he expected. His heart still carried the weight of what he couldn’t control—the chaos, the unpredictability, the reminder that every win came with risk.

Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains of his room.

Dr. Ghazali rapped his knuckles against the door. “Ali! Get up, son! Breakfast’s on the table!”

No response.

He frowned, sighed, and called again, louder this time. “Don’t make me come in there!”

From inside, a muffled groan answered.

“Good. Now move.” Ghazali turned toward the stairs, muttering something about “teenagers and their sleep schedules.” As he reached for his coat, he looked toward the dining table, where a plate of toast and a glass of milk waited.

“Comot, watch him for me,” he said, gesturing at the small cat perched near the counter. The little feline chirped once in acknowledgment.

As the doctor stepped outside, he bumped into Viktor, who was standing at the gate with a tablet under his arm.

“Oh- Viktor! Didn’t see you there.”

“Morning, Doctor!” Viktor grinned. “Is Ali awake yet?”

“Barely. Probably still in dreamland. You know how he is.” Ghazali adjusted his glasses, embarrassed. “Anyway, I’m off to work. Try not to let him skip breakfast again.”

Viktor saluted jokingly. “Roger that, sir.”

Upstairs, Viktor knocked on the door. “Ali! You alive in there?”

No reply.

He smirked, then began to sing. “Ali, Ali, Ali, open this door, hey!”

From inside came a thud, followed by a groggy, “I’m up, I’m up!”

The door cracked open, revealing Ali with disheveled hair and half-lidded eyes.

“You look like you lost a fight with your pillow,” Viktor teased.

“Funny,” Ali muttered. “What’re you doing here?”

“I brought something that’ll make your morning better.” Viktor waved the tablet dramatically. “Detective Jebat. A brand new version. Just dropped.”

Ali blinked. “You’re kidding.”

Viktor grinned wider. “Would I ever?”

Within minutes, the two were sitting cross-legged on the floor, the game installing between them. Ali mumbled an apology about the mess, but Viktor only shrugged. “Relax. It’s not my room.”

Far away, in the metallic silence of Taman Maya Station, the drone stirred again. Its optic flared once more as the virus it planted began to spread through the transit network.

One by one, the systems faltered.

Lights stuttered, casting frantic shadows on the walls. Ticket machines spat out endless paper slips. Escalators reversed direction mid-climb. The station’s loudspeakers screeched to life with garbled noise before a distorted voice echoed through the comms.

“Please remain… patient… this is—”

Static swallowed the message.

Then the lights went out.

Dr. Ghazali, who had just stepped into the station lobby, froze as the emergency sirens began to howl. The floor trembled beneath his feet. Somewhere, a train door slammed shut on its own.

He looked up at the flickering display screen. For half a second, a symbol flashed across it—a crooked smile carved into a crude, digital face.

Then it vanished.

Back home, Ali and Viktor were locked in another round of Detective Jebat.

Viktor slammed his tablet triumphantly. “Super Mega Combo Ultra Platinum High Score! Let’s go!”

Ali groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He hurled his tablet onto the bed, muttering in defeat.

“Hey,” Viktor said gently, leaning back. “Losing now doesn’t mean it’s over. Every loss is just an upgrade waiting to happen.”

Ali stared at him, then snorted. “You sound like my dad.”

“Maybe he’s right sometimes.”

Before Ali could reply, his phone buzzed. The caller ID flashed: Alicia.

Viktor smirked. “Ohhh, since when did you start getting calls from her?”

“It’s not like that!” Ali protested. “It’s… stamp club business.”

“Sure it is.”

Rolling his eyes, Ali picked up the call. “Yeah?”

“Ali, Academy. Now.” Alicia’s voice was curt, urgent.

The call cut.

Ali sighed, grabbed his jacket, and bolted for the door.

By the time he arrived at the Academy, the main classroom was already filled with students. A holographic projection shimmered at the center of the room, taking the shape of a stern, broad-shouldered man in uniform.

“General Rama,” Ali whispered, freezing mid-step.

The General’s gaze snapped toward him. “Agent Ali. Still late, I see. You think joining the Academy means you can escape me?”

The room stifled a laugh. Ali straightened up and shuffled into place beside Alicia and Khai, cheeks burning.

The General folded his hands behind his back. “Listen carefully. Today’s operation is divided into three assignments. Each led by your mentors. You will work as teams, as agents, and as representatives of MATA’s discipline.”

He gestured toward Leon’s hologram as it appeared beside him. “Agent Leon, you lead the first mission.”

Leon stepped forward. “A reactor leak has been detected at the Beta Core site. Unstable Azurium readings. We’re moving in to investigate before containment fails.”

“Team composition?”

“Bulat, Moon, Chris. With me.”

“Approved.”

Another image appeared, Agent Karya. Calm, composed, his theatric posture gleaming under the control room lights. “You’ll form the secondary line of defense,” Rama said. “Ensure no outside interference. Khai, Iman, Jet, move out.”

“Understood,” Karya replied.

Both teams departed swiftly.

Finally, the General turned to the remaining group. “Agent Bakar.”

Bakar looked up lazily. “Yes, sir?”

“You’ll investigate a possible virus outbreak at Taman Maya Transit Station. And before you ask-”

Bakar raised a finger. “Do we need masks?”

The General’s glare could melt steel. “It’s a computer virus!”

Bakar coughed. “Right. Just testing the kid’s knowledge.”

“Sure you were,” the General muttered. “Ali, Alicia, you’re with him. Zass will join as backup.”

“Why Zass?” Ali asked.

Alicia smirked. “Would you rather work with Rudy again?”

Ali’s eyes met Rudy’s from across the room. The other boy gave a dark scowl and turned away.

“That’s what I thought,” Alicia said, shouldering her gear.

As they began to leave, the General’s voice boomed again. “Ali!”

He stopped.

“Try not to make a mess of your first mission as an Academy agent.”

Ali swallowed. “No promises, sir.”

The rest came like clockwork.

Taman Maya’s station was now under blackout, the police unable to enter due to security shutters locking them out. Bakar’s team slipped through a service alley and into the underground. IRIS displayed faint traces of network corruption spreading through every connected terminal.

"Alright, we locate the virus, and terminate it." Bakar explains.

"Got it." Ali nods, using IRIS to find the source.

Just then...

"OH LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE HERE! THE AGENTS ARE HERE TO PLAY!"

Screens all around them glitched, the symbol of the grinning face returning, this time laughing.

"WELCOME TO MY ARENA!" The comms blare. 

"Neonimus!" Ali blurted out, the others gasping in recognition, Alicia especially. "You mean the one that hacked MATA base's defense systems?" 

"BINGO!" Neonimus confirmed. "OH, MAN. IT WAS SO FUNNY SEEING YOU ALL RUNNING AROUND LIKE HEADLESS CHICKENS BACK THERE."

The game master continued. "SURE SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE MORE PLAYERS THIS TIME AROUND! SO HOW ABOUT IT, READY TO START THE GAME?" 

"OKAY, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY AND DISABLE MY VIRUS BEFORE THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS CONSUMED?"

"We don't have time," Alicia ordered. "Everyone to the main control room!"

They sprinted through the corridors as the station lights stuttered, every screen displaying the mocking digital grin.

The real game had begun.

Alicia arrives to the control panel and starts doing her thing. Her fingers, flesh and metal, danced across the panel, reactivating the system's firewall and purging the virus.

Or at least... That's what she thought...

"HEY, DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S GOING TO BE THAT EASY?'

The systems fail once more.

"He's... hacking thought other machines linked to this network." Alicia looked to the failing systems in concern

"How?" Bakar wondered 

"Either he's actually here," Alicia suspects. "Or he's using something to hack into the system."

A sudden yowl breaks the uncanny silence.

"Wait... Where did Comot go?" Ali wondered 

Alicia gives V2 a mental order. "Scan for Comot, now!" 

The CORONA blinks, the cross hair in the middle circulating around the visor.

!COMOT FOUND!

"She's downstairs!" Alicia blurted out. "She's trying to catch... Something..." 

Ali wondered. "Maybe that's what he's using to hack into this place?"

"Either way, we bring it here. Alicia, you stay here and try stopping Neonimus. We'll be down there if you need anything." Bakar orders the team, who starts making their moved.

The pursuit winds through flickering hallways, broken vending machines, and shattered glass. The target? The small, four-legged machine with the movement of a spider. It darts up walls and across ceilings, dodging all of the agents' efforts in catching it.

Zass lunges, nearly grabs it, but the bot leaps away with impossible speed.

Bakar and Zass corner it, only to be tricked into running into each other by the little spider.

It scuttles into a departing train.

“Ali, go!” Bakar shouts.

Ali dives through the doors and starts chasing it with Comot. After a bit of a tussle, Ali trips over a chair's handrail and falls onto the train's floor.

Comot continues the chase, following it out of the train just as the doors close. 

Zass follows up by cornering it from the right, forcing it to divert left, towards a vent.

Before it could reach it, however, Comot uncloaks infront of it and swipes at the drone, sending it flying. Bakar goes to catch it, only to miss and land flat on top of the machine.

Alicia heard the loud thud, even despite being locked in on purging Neonimus's virus.

"The hell was that? Are ya'll okay?" Alicia asked through the comms.

"Uh... The target's... neutralized..." Bakar replied, standing over the crushed remains of the mechanical spider.

She restores the systems a second time. Seemingly done purging Neonimus from the transit station.

"Finally!" 

The screen cuts to black, and back to the grinning, green face of Neonimus.

"NOW THAT'S IMPRESSIVE! WAY FASTER THAN I HAVE EXPECTED!" He congratulates the agents. "BUT! THAT WAS JUST A WARM UP! THE 'TUTORIAL' IF YOU WILL." 

"NOW... GET READY FOR A REAL CHALLENGE!" 

The train that Ali's stuck in departs, without the other's knowledge.

Alicia interrogates the hacker. "What're you planning?!" 

"I'VE MADE SOME... MMM... MODIFICATIONS TO THE TRACKS. IN A FEW MINUTES, THERE'S GOING TO BE ANOTHER TRAIN COMING FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION IN FIVE MINUTES."

"You mean..?"

"IT MEANS... BOTH OF THE TRAINS WILL..."

The monitor flashes into an image of two trains colliding, with a big fireball forming on the contact point.

"KE-BA-BOOM!!" 

Alicia tried to purge Neonimus again, but the systems betray her, becoming unresponsive to her commands.

"God damnit it's not working!" She slams her fists down onto the panel, sparks flying out.

All of a sudden, Bakar's comms turns on.

"Uncle! Help me!" 

It's Ali.

"Ali! Where are you?!" 

Neonimus answers. "OH, HE'S INSIDE THE TRAIN. THERE'S SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT HIM, SO HE'LL GET TO PLAY MORE!"

Neonimus pauses. "EY, WAIT! THERE GOES A MINUTE! GUESS YOU GUYS ONLY HAVE FOUR MINUTES LEFT!"

"Ali! Listen here!" Alicia orders. "You need to manually change the train tracks from the inside!"

"Uh... Got it!" Ali runs to the front of the train.

"AS PER USUAL, I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT THAT EASY, RIGHT?" 

The monitor flashes back to the system map, a peculiar speck diverging from it's tracks and heading straight for Ali's carriage.

"What... Is that?" 

The specks turns out to be a cargo container. It rattles through the tunnel, practically going at mach-fuck, and barrel's straight for the train.

"Ali! Head's up!" Bakar tells the boy, right as the cargo slams into the train, sending him hurling forward. 

The cabin fills with smoke and debri as Ali gets up. The intercoms flare to life, Neonimus's voice on the other side.

"TA-DA! WELCOME... TO THE BOSS LEVEL!" 

A mech comes from the smoke. It's thick armor shining in the soft lights. Footsteps thud through as the towering beast looms over, it's laser cannon of a left arm smoking.

Ali, realizing his ass is NOT built for this shit, bolts away. Unfortunately, the mech has rocket boosters, and easily catches up.

Ali gets punted to the side, where he is nearly stomped on. Ali rolls away and gets up, IRIS alerting of the laser cannon preparing to fire.

Back in the control room, Alicia's jaw tightens. She bolts to the window and smashes it open.

"Alicia, what are you doing?" Bakar questions.

Alicia pulls out her Sawcor and MalDrive. "We shouldn't put all our hopes on Ali."

She turns to the crushed remnants of the spider drone. "You two, fix that up and find Neonimus!" 

"And you?"

"...I'm saving him"

She leaps down and initiates the Ultraboost. The tunnel basically amplifying the explosiveness of the combined booms, sending her barreling through.

Bakar and Zass look at the broken machine, and then each other.

...This is going to take a while...

Ali activates the IRIS's X-Vision and finds the driver compartment. With the intent to shatter it and disable it for good, he Hyperboosts to the mech's right, hoping to attack it from behind, only to get grabbed by the leg and tossed away.

"IT WASN'T EASY FOR ME TO GET A HOLD OF THIS MECH, Y'KNOW?" 

The mech fires it's laser cannon, frying through the floor and walls and occasional seats. Ali is forced into cover, where Neonimus quickly approaches.

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO HIDE?" The mech rips out the seats without mercy. "WHAT? YOU SCARED?" 

It tears out the last seat, and finds nobody. Noticing the door to the next cabin closing, he rushes over.

WHIRRR BOOM

Ali Hyperboosts into the mech's body, landing a nasty dropkick.

...is what I would say if it was effective, which it wasn't.

The mech counters by grabbing Ali by the legs and hurling him away like a frisbee.

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT?" Neonimus retorted. "MAN... YOU'RE SO BORING. YOU DIDN'T EVEN PUT UP A FIGHT!"

He grabs Ali by the legs and prepares to point-blank his ass, only for the mech to get blasted away.

"OH, YOU BROUGHT BACK UP HUH?" 

Ali gets up and sees his saviour.

Alicia.

"What're you-?" 

"Saving your butt, that's what." 

She turns to face the hulking mech.

"Hey, V2, you recognize this guy?" 

"C-5 GUTTERTANK. Powerful, but slow." 

"Then let's make it dance."

The metal titan fires it's cannon. Alicia, with her superior agility, manages to dodge the pulverizing blast. To her, this thing is basically a sitting duck.

After a bit, the cannon overheats, stalling the mech long enough for Alicia to land multiple punches to it's heavy frame, slowly chipping at the thick armor.

While this is happening, Ali stood back, using IRIS to analyse any potential weaknesses. When the cannon overheated, IRIS detects a chance to attack the legs while it's charging back up, effectively toppling the titan over.

Having enough of the beating, Neonimus counters with the beast's steel arms, inferior to Alicia's, but strong enough to knock her back. As she lands, Ali orders her.

"Keep him occupied!" 

"Say less" 

The wait gave Neonimus enough time to cool down the cannon.

"FINALLY! IT'S READY!" 

He fires again, a streak of red light blasting across the train car. 

Alicia zooms past, causing the mech's auto-targeting system to chase after her, even despite the clear speed disadvantage. This gave Ali enough room to hit it in the legs joint, staggering it.

The mech turns around to hit Ali, but gets distracted by Alicia once more, which leads to the cannon overheating again.

Given the chance, Ali and Alicia charge in. 

With a combined combo of a yo-yo blast to the legs and a punch to the face, the mech falls flat on it's back, giving an extra chance to pummel it into the ground more.

"AARGH! YOU GUYS AREN'T PLAYING FAIR!" 

The mech blasts itself back up, ready to attack again. This time, it's not going to get distracted.

It fires it's cannon once more, now aimed at Ali.

The boy boosts out of the way, before using the steel wires of the yo-yo to grapple onto the mech's other arm. Neonimus struggles to break free, which leads to the mech shooting it's own arm off.

Neonimus, frustrated, groans in anger again.

"Why are you getting all riled up?" Ali mockingly asks "We're just playing, no?" 

That was the last nail in the coffin.

With an angry yell, Neonimus activates the mech's self-destruct mode.

"EAT THIS! YOU GUYS ARE DONE FOR!" 

The two share a look before moving. 

Ali blasts one of the doors open, which gives Alicia the perfect exit hole for this really explosive turd.

With a point-blank railshot, she sends the mech flying out of the carriage, leaving it to explode off to the side of the railway and reducing it's explosion to a mere shudder.

"DAMN IT! NOTHING GOES MY WAY!" From the intercoms, Neonimus groaned. "I DON'T WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE" 

With that, the intercoms fall silent.

...and so does the entire train.

The carriage falls to a screeching halt, the power completely cut off. 

The cadets rush to the locomotive to try and restart the train so they can get out of the incoming train's way. Unfortunately, the systems are all knocked out and completely unusable.

A distant light shines through the windows

"Oh no"  the entire team thought.

It's the opposite train barreling towards them.

Alicia pulls on Ali's arm "C'MON ALI! WE GAVE TO RUN!" 

Ali stood still "Wait... Hold on..."

The lights glow brighter...

And brighter...

And brighter...

Until darkness falls over them once more...

The two cadets blink simultaneously. Alicia runs her fingers through her hair... And giggles in surprise and relief...

Ali sighs, exhaustion and gladness in his tone.

They're still alive...

The trains were never meant to collide...

"You've got to be kidding me."

Bakar and Zass stood infront of a gaming café.

"He was hacking the station from here??" 

That night...

"Just a little bit more..." 

VICTORY!

"YEAH!!"

Ali cheered in excitement.

He finally beat that damn level.

"Woah! Super-Mega-Combo-Ultra-Platinum-High Score! Awesome!" Viktor exclaims, congratulating his buddy.

A voice from the other side of the door. "Ali? You up?" 

"Wait, my dad's back, later!" 

"Later!" 

He drops onto his bed, pretending to fall asleep.

After a few knocks, Ali's dad comes through. He stares at the boy and notices the still-running tablet.

"Playing games until you fall asleep, huh?" 

He goes up to the boy and properly sheets him with the blanket before giving him a pat on the head and walking out.

As the doors close and the darkness drapes over the room, the screen of the tablet glitches out... Into that green smirking face of Neonimus.

It's not over yet, not by even a little.

Far from the lights of Cyberaya and far below ground, the NUMERØS base thrummed like a sleeping beast. Steel corridors pulsed with red emergency lights. Servers whispered. Machinery clicked. The air tasted metallic.

Uno stood with his hands behind his back, coat brushing the floor as he stared at the vault door in front of him, watching the biometric locks peel open one by one. When the final bolt disengaged, the massive door split apart, steam curling from its hinges.

Cinco waited inside.

She leaned against the reinforced railing, legs crossed, goggles dimly reflecting the crimson lights of the chamber. Scattered around her were half-assembled drones, torn exo-frames, spilled toolkits, and pieces of something far larger than anything MATA had ever fielded.

Uno spoke first. “You have something new for me?”

Cinco snapped her gum and smirked. “Hm? Oh. You mean my new machine?”

She tapped her wrench twice on the metal floor.

“Came out better than I expected. Seems like Ocho will have a big brother now.”

Uno’s eyes narrowed. “Show me.”

“Alright.” Her voice dropped into something almost playful. “Come on out. Don’t keep the boss waiting.”

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then... deep in the shadows... metal scraped stone.

Click.

Click.

Click.

A silhouette emerged, growing taller, broader, sharper with every step. When the lights settled, the machine stood tall. On it's chest, the glowing nameplate, with the all too familiar designation:

V1.

But not the V1 that once tore through the Solar Facility.

This body was new.

His legs were digitigrade, sculpted with lethal precision, spikes running along like a raptorial claw, ending in sharp points that stabbed into the floor with every step.

His chassis had been reinforced, reinforced plating layered over exposed joint pistons. His arms were longer now, fingers ending in articulated blades. The crimson core still glowed in his chest, brighter, hotter, pulsing like a heartbeat.

And when he spoke, the voice that came was no longer flat text-to-speech.

It was smooth. Cold. Human, but not.

[[If it isn't the man himself…]]

Uno’s expression tightened.

[[Nice to meet you again… Djin.]]

Hearing that name aloud... the one he abandoned, erased, buried... made the temperature in the room feel colder.

Cinco leaned into the wall, satisfied.

“Told you I could rebuild him without the tantrum personality. He’s obedient now. Efficient. Stronger than before.”

V1 slowly turned his camera head toward her.

[[Obedient… is such a flexible word.]]

Uno stepped closer. “What do you remember?”

V1’s single red eye dilated.

[[Everything.]]

He straightened to full height, metal plating gleaming beneath the laboratory lights.

[[My breakout, SOLIEL, The agents...]]

A low mechanical whir built in his chest... excitement, simulated or real.

The machine turns to it's creator.

[[You told me to hunt him down.]]

Cinco crossed her arms.

“Your target's Ali, MATA's lovechild and weilder of IRIS. Except unlike your other missions, you’ve got permission to go wild.”

Uno didn’t smile. He didn’t need to.

V1 tilted his head, the metal joints clicking.

[[Eliminate IRIS.]]

He repeated the phrase slowly, savoring it.

[[I will enjoy this.]]

Uno turned away, coat sweeping behind him as he walked toward the exit.

“Prepare him,” he ordered. “Deployment will be soon.”

V1 watched him go. No emotion. No hesitation. Just a mission.

[[Your will, Djin.]]

The lights cut to black.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.25

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE 

LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

OBJECTIVE: UNAVAILABLE 

MANKIND IS DEAD

BLOOD IS FUEL

HELL IS FULL

Tower Beta hummed under the bright sun. 

Not because of it's energy output

But because of the chaos within...

V1 stood in the center of the building's ruined lobby. Guards and furniture laid all across the room. The fluorescent lights shined on his new plate of armor, making his presence all the more known.

Three MATA cadets scattered ahead of him.

Moon, lithe and fast, sprinted through falling sparks. Her suit flickered, projecting dozens of hologram copies. Each clone mimicked her steps perfectly, making the hallway look like a swarm of sprinting agents.

[[Hmm? More fuel it seems...]]

V1 detected movement. He lunges... and his bladed fingers carved a clone in two, only for it to explode in harmless pixels.

Iman whipped her meteor hammer in a wide circular arc. The azurium-core brightened as it gained momentum, and with a battle-cry she swung it straight into V1’s torso. Metal cracked. The impact vibrated up her arm and rattled through the floor tiles.

V1 actually slid backward.

[[Impressive weapon at the hands of a child. What a waste.]]

Bakar was already there to follow through.

He slammed into the robot shoulder-first, grabbing V1 around the middle and driving him into a wall. The concrete dented.

The whole corridor shook.

Bakar’s voice boomed over the noise:

“Come on then! Show me what that war-grade scrap metal can do!”

V1 jerked his head toward him. Silent, unamused. He countered with a spinning elbow that would have taken Bakar’s jaw clean off if Ali’s shockblast yo-yo hadn’t blasted between them, bursting in a flash of electricity.

Ali swung himself around a railing and landed beside his uncle, panting hard.

“That thing is learning how we fight!”

“Good,” Bakar grinned, already bruising. “Then it will learn how we win.”

They did not win.

Moon’s clones were torn through one by one.

Iman’s hammer was caught mid-swing and she is thrown aside.

Ali nearly got sliced like butter.

Only Bakar’s sheer physical strength kept the machine at bay, the two of them trading blows like heavyweight fighters. Their fists collided, metal against bone, and both staggered back.

“He’s locking onto IRIS! We need distance!” the Inviso girl shouted.

Ali flung his yo-yo again, jolting V1’s shoulder joint and wrenching him sideways. For a moment, it worked. They had him cornered, surrounded, controlled.

Then V1 went still.

[[What a waste of time, you all are]]

He faced the broken window at the top of the hall, processors calculating a dozen scenarios at once. The fight had taken longer than he liked.

Without warning, V1 leapt up the ruined wall. His claws dug into steel beams as he vaulted out. 

Iman yelled. "He's escaping! Get him!" 

She swung her meteor hammer towards the machine, only to miss by a few inches. Ali tried to pursuit with his boots, but fails to catch up.

However, Bakar was faster.

He whipped out his new gadget, a disk-shaped weapon, and hurled it like a frisbee. It struck V1 in the back with a loud clang and dropped into the street below.

Everyone paused.

...Nothing happened.

V1 looked back, almost disappointed, before speeding off. 

"What happened?" Ali wondered

Bakar retrieves the gadget and finds a button beneath. "Oh, was I supposed to press this?" 

He pressed it. It began glowing with energy.

"Uh oh" 

Instantly the disk exploded in a fountain of electricity, electrocuting Bakar so hard his skeleton lit up like an X-ray cartoon before he collapsed in a smoking heap.

Ali rushed over. “UNCLE!”

Moon poked Bakar’s cheek. “Um. Alive?”

“...Uuugh.”

He was alive.

Barely.

UNDER-CONSRUCTION BUILDING // CYBERAYA DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Raw concrete floors, missing windows and bare wiring. That summarizes the location they're having the debriefing at.

A dim portable lamp lit the center table. A hologram of the General flickered above it, arms behind his back. Face stern as ever

"The enemy has escaped. Tower Beta was damaged heavily. This mission is a failure."

Everyone flinched at that word.

Moon’s shoulders slumped. Iman stared at the floor. Ali kept shifting, humiliated. Bakar sat with an ice pack on his head, hair still puffed from electrocution.

Alicia leaned into a wall to the far side of the room, checking her arm for any damages she hadn't fixed after the last mission. 

The General looked at her, his expression softening.

"Alicia." 

"Hmm?" She looks up at the hologram.

"I'm sure you'll recognize who we're dealing with here." 

The hologram flickers, an figure manifests infornt. An figure so etched into her mind the mere mention of it's name stiffens her body. 

V1

"You're kidding" she looked at her father in the eyes. The look in his face says it all. "No way..." 

It felt like a knife stabbed into her chest. She remembered the incident those months ago clear as day, the blood, the loss of her humanity, the last instant before her world shattered. The wounds are still fresh, the scars still bleeding...

The mechanical fingers of her prosthetic hand curled until the joints strained. Her jaw tightened.

The General turns back to the agents and continues, voice cold and exact. “V1 was built for war. He will strike again. You will locate him immediately. Failure is not an option. Do I make myself clear?”

Everyone nodded.

Alicia’s “Yes, sir” came out like a growl.

"ACT IMMEDEATLY!" 

The team leaves, while Bakar stayed to deactivate the hologram.

"Uh... How do I turn this off?" 

The General's scolding came quick and fierce.

"You incompetent! An agent of MATA should be well-versed in technology! How do you expect to be an agent if you don't know how to use your devices?!"

He cuts the device off himself, leaving Bakar on the ground. A sense of emptiness in his soul.

Is he really that useless?

SRT CYBERAYA

Ms. Munah entered the classroom with her usual calm composure, holding a blue folder against her chest. The chatter quieted. Everyone expected a pop quiz or a lecture about homework, but instead she smiled.

“Good morning, class. Tomorrow, we will be going on a study trip.”

The classroom detonated into cheers.

One student slammed both palms on his desk. “Cybertopia! I bet we’re going to Cybertopia!”

Another one pumped a fist. “Or that new roller coaster!”

A third stretched confidently in their chair. “No, no, no. We’re going to Cyberaya’s E-Sports Arena. We will achieve gamer glory.”

A student in the back shouted, “What if it’s the Cyberaya Waterpark?!”

Ms. Munah fixed her glasses. “This is a study trip, not a holiday trip.”

Everyone groaned.

She clicked a button on her tablet, projecting a huge hologram on the classroom’s smartboard.

“We will be visiting the Cyberscience Technology Center.”

Instant mood swing. Excitement flooded the room again.

Sasidaran raised both arms. “We’re going to see the new ROBOPOL division, right?! I heard they’ll introduce there!”

Mia clapped her hands. “This will be interesting.”

“And no classes,” Shaun added with a grin.

Ali sat at the back, quietly smiling. It did sound exciting. And maybe, if everything went well, he could learn something useful.

Ms. Munah walked toward him specifically, stopping beside his desk.

“Ali,” she said softly, “this is your chance to improve your science skills. Make good use of it, okay?”

Ali straightened. “Yes, teacher.”

RECESS

The cafeteria smelled like freshly fried nuggets and packaged bread. Ali and Viktor sat at their usual table, a plate of nuggets shared between them.

Viktor reached to grab one.

Empty plate.

“…Seriously?” he stared, betrayed. “You ate all of them?!”

“No, I only ate-”

Ali looked down. “...Okay maybe I forgot to share.”

Viktor stood up dramatically. “I will return with more nuggets. Try not to inhale them this time.”

He left.

Ali scrolled through his tablet, avoiding eye contact with everyone else. The cafeteria was loud, but he stayed quiet, comfortable in silence.

A tray landed on the table beside him. Greasy burgers, stacked high.

A sigh followed.

Bakar, in his janitor uniform, slid into the seat on Ali’s right.

“Here,” he said, pushing a burger in Ali’s direction. “Eat. Burgers soothe the soul.”

Ali barely lifted his eyes. “Not hungry.”

“Liar.” Bakar leaned back with a gloomy expression. “Kids these days… always with your phone, your tablet. We’re sitting next to each other, breathing the same air, but nobody talks.”

Ali slowly lowered his tablet.

“You know, when your mother and I were kids, we never touched all these gadgets. But when we played together, it was a lot more fun.”

Ali blinked. “Really? What did mom like to play?”

Bakar exhaled, and the cafeteria faded away.

YEARS AGO...

The park was bright, sunny, filled with laughter. Young Bakar, smaller and rounder but still recognizable, approached a group of kids holding some new "Gamebods" - looks like a crossbreed between the Nintendo Switch and the Gameboy.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Hey, do you guys wanna play tag?”

One boy didn’t look up. “Nobody plays tag anymore.”

Another added, “You’re behind time.”

The rest laughed, absorbed in their screens.

Later, at sunset, young Bakar sat alone on a bench, kicking the dirt. His shoulders slumped.

Footsteps approached.

A girl stood beside him. Slightly older. Green hijab. Bright eyes.

Aliya.

“Hey, Why are you all alone?” she asked.

The little boy asked "Sis... Do you think... If I ask dad to buy one of those Gamebods, will he?"

Aliya rolled her eyes. “What's so fun about that thing? There's a lot of other stuff we can play with."

“Like what?”

"We can play... Tag!"

She tapped his shoulder. “You’re it!”

Bakar shot up. “Hey! Not fair! I wasn’t ready!”

She ran, laughing. He chased, forgetting every sad thing in that moment.

Ali stared at his plate. “But Uncle, when you want to do anything, you have to use technology.”

“That’s the problem,” Bakar muttered. “Technology is good. But people depend on it too much.”

Ali’s screen beeped, he was losing his game. He leaned in, fingers tapping rapidly, drowning out the world again.

Seeing himself ignored, Bakar got up quietly. He left his untouched burgers behind.

Moments later, Viktor returned with fresh nuggets. He stopped.

“…Who left these burgers here?”

Ali looked up, seeing Bakar absent.

THE NEXT DAY 

The massive silver doors gleamed under sunlight. The class lined up outside while Ms. Munah stood proudly before them.

“Remember, behave yourselves. If you break anything, you go back to school. Understood?”

“Yes, teacher!”

The doors opened.

Inside, there were holographic exhibits, robotic displays, AI demonstrations, and virtual playgrounds. Students scattered around, excited to try everything.

Viktor ran straight to the VR booth, followed by some other students. “Guys! You have to see this!”

Ali eventually reached the booth too, finally getting a chance after Viktor finished his turn. He placed the headset on, ready to play.

Behind him, Shaun smirked. He quietly swapped the game disc for a horror simulator.

The VR booted up.

Ali took one step.

A creature screamed inches from his face.

Ali’s yell echoed across the room, and he tore the headset off so fast it flew into the air.

The whole class burst into laughter.

Shaun wheezed. “Look, it’s Ghostbuster Ali!”

Mia tried not to laugh. “At least he survived.”

Mrs. Munah marched over. “Ali! If you don’t know how to use it, don’t touch it! I can’t pay for any broken equipment!”

Ali’s cheeks burned. He crossed his arms and turned away while the others scrambled for another turn.

He muttered, “It glitched. I know it glitched…”

Someone tapped his shoulder.

He jumped again.

Alicia stood there, hoodie up, sleeves hiding her metal arm. A smug grin curled at her lips.

“You scream louder in VR than on missions,” she teased.

“Alicia?! Why are you here?”

“We’re investigating that bastard’s next move, remember? Even The General wants him tracked. I’d rather not be here, but if I get a chance to scrap that tin can—” she cracked her knuckles “—I’m in.”

The intercom chimed.

“All visitors, please gather at the main stage for the ROBOPOL reveal!”

Crowds moved toward the hall. Ali and Alicia stayed at the back, scanning faces, shoulders tense.

Dr. Mala, Tower Beta's head director, stepped onto the stage. Cheers thundered.

“Welcome, everyone. Today, we reveal Cyberaya’s ROBOPOL division, humanoid police units developed through the collaboration between Tower Beta and Tower Gamma.”

Four robots marched out like soldiers. White and navy armor. LED visors. Built like MATA droids, just polished.

Ali whispered, “These look like MATA tech. Why call them new?”

Alicia crossed her arms. “Because MATA gets new tech three years early. That way Cyberaya stays ahead.”

Dr. Mala lifted her hand.

“ROBOPOL!”

“READY TO SERVE!” The robots chanted 

The audience roared.

Up in the rafters, unseen by crowd or lights, V1 clung to steel beams, watching. Silent. Patient.

CORONA detected him instantly.

"Psst, Alicia." 

"What?" 

"He's right above us..." 

Alicia’s heart dropped. She said nothing, but her grip tightened until her knuckles whitened.

Hours later, the crowd left. Lights shut down. The Center emptied.

Alicia grabbed Ali’s wrist. “Ali. Suit. Now”

LATER...

Complete darkness.

Deafening silence.

The Centre laid dormant, oblivious to the chaos about to unfold within.

IRIS and CORONA activated night vision.

There, in the lobby, stood V1.

Tall. Motionless. Waiting.

His singular eye glowed blood-red.

He turned his head a complete 180° without even moving his body.

[[There you are... IRIS]]

He turns to Alicia. [[Faker...]]

[[I had been expecting your arrival...]]

Alicia whispered, “Call Uncle Bakar. Now.”

Ali dialed. No answer.

Across town, Bakar sulked alone on a park bench, eating a burger. Phone on silent, the call unnoticed.

All of a sudden-

PEW

A plasma blast snapped past V1’s head.

One ROBOPOL unit survived. It pulled itself up, charging a second shot.

V1 moved once. A blur. In less than a heartbeat, the robot fell in pieces across the floor.

[[Worthless heap of scrap. Now... Where was I? Oh right]]

[[TIME TO MEET YOUR MAKING]]

Alicia rushed first, arm cocking to fire. She punched. V1 dodged, countered, nearly slicing her head off. Ali launched his shockblast yo-yo, electricity sparking across V1’s chassis.

For a moment, it worked.

Until V1 clicked.

Two additional mechanical arms unfolded from his back and locking into the left arm's joint. One coloured blood red with a mechanism similar to Alicia's arm, while the other a forest green with a wire running through, ending with a dart, all of which he forged himself.

Alicia charged in. "COME HERE YOU BASTARD!" 

[[Very well]]

He struck Alicia once with all three left arms.

She hit the wall, unconscious in seconds.

Ali froze. “Alicia!”

V1 approached, steps echoing. His pointed legs stabbing into the tiles below.

[[I was built during the war, by the war, for the war. A machine meant to end war only exists to continue it.]]

Ali charged, screaming.

V1 didn’t even flinch.

He overwhelmed Ali effortlessly, blocking every swing, swatting him aside like an insect. Ali collapsed, gasping.

V1 raised his red arm for the finishing blow

CRASH!

Someone fell through the ventilation shaft and face-planted onto the floor.

Bakar groaned. “Landing… could have been cooler.”

Ali’s eyes widened. “Uncle!”

Alicia stirred, coughing up blood from her presumably-busted lungs. “Thank God you’re finally here.”

Bakar struck a heroic pose. “You know what they say, 'an agent is never late'.”

V1 stared.

[[Yeah right.]]

They charged.

Energy flashed. Sparks scattered. Bakar threw his new disk gadget, V1 parried it, causing it to explode into a massive static field to the side.

“Oh, great,” Bakar muttered.

V1 swung the red arm. It shattered Bakar’s plasma shield instantly, knocking him behind cover.

Bakar ran, with V1 slowly following his tracks.

[[What? You scared, fatty? So much for being such a problem earlier.]]

Bakar spotted a broken hover-car prototype. Inspiration hit.

V1 advanced, only to hear metal scraping.

[[The hell?]]

Bakar charged with the hover-car door as a shield.

V1 drew back a punch.

Bakar slid aside and smashed his fist straight into V1’s eye.

The machine collapsed. Knocked out.

Bakar blinked. “Huh. Out cold? So much for the perfect machine.”

He leaned in.

Big mistake.

V1 snapped back to life and unleashed a triple-arm punch. It sent Bakar flying across the lobby.

Ali sprinted toward his uncle, but V1 blocked him.

[[A weapon like IRIS in the hands of a child. They made a mistake choosing you.]]

Ali clenched his fists. “You’ll PAY for this!”

[[Try me.]]

Ali burst upward, yo-yo spinning into a shield. V1 fired bullets. Sparks flew. Ali rammed him, knocking V1 back.

They clashed at close range, human against machine.

On the floor, Bakar crawled to his disk.

Ali and V1 continued to grapple, with Ali even managing to get on top of his shoulders and start pulling on it's head.

Out of nowhere, Bakar's voice rang out.

“ALI! MOVE!”

Ali boosted away.

Bakar hurled the disk.

It struck V1 square in the chest. A big, blue, electrical explosion erupted. The machine jolted violently, circuits frying, sparks flying.

Then...

CLUNK.

V1 dropped, smoking.

Alicia limped over, wiping off the blood form her mouth, her self-healing systems finishing. “What’d I miss?”

Bakar panted. “We… won?”

Ali stared at the smoking chassis. “What do we do with him?”

Alicia walked forward.

Without a word, she ripped the Whiplash from V1’s arm, drops of blood dripping from the open joint.

Ali blinked. “Wait- what are you-?”

She threw it over her shoulder and walked out. Not even a word being spoken.

The two agents stared at each other, confused.

Days later, Bakar visited Ali’s house. The boy opened the door instantly.

"Uncle!" 

"Ali!" 

“I’ve been calling you for DAYS! You know that?”

"Really?"

Bakar pulled out his phone.

Thirty missed calls.

"Oh wow." 

Ali pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your phone is on silent, Uncle.”

He fixed the settings.

Later, while they played another round of Detective Jebat, Ali paused.

“Do you think technology is… bad?”

Bakar leaned back. “Technology isn’t the problem. People are. Some use it for good. Some for evil. Cyberaya was created to improve lives. Not destroy them.”

Ali nodded. “Yeah. Makes sense.”

Their eyes drifted to a photo of Ali’s mother.

Bakar’s voice softened. “You know… when your mom and I were young, she built this little electric toy. Like a mini Gamebod. I said it looked old. She got upset. Wanted to take it back.”

“What did you do?”

“I apologized. And I thanked her.”

Ali smiled.

Bakar messed his hair. “Your mom was always ahead of her time.”

Ali looked at his tablet, then at his uncle, then at the photograph.

Maybe technology wasn’t the enemy.

Maybe it depended on the heart behind the hands that used it.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.06.30

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE 

LOADING STATUS UPDATE... 

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE 

LOCATION: MATA TRAINING ACADEMY

OBJECTIVE: TRAINING SIMULATION [PENDING...]

SOULS WILL BE TESTED

STEEL SHALL SCREAM

ONLY THE RELENTLESS SHALL ENDURE

The simulation chamber trembled as the klaxons blared, and the arena reset itself.

Steel platforms rotated back into place. Laser grids re-aligned. Droids reassembled from magnetic pieces pulled up from the floor. At the highest point, mounted on a lone pedestal atop a spiraling staircase that wrapped a hundred meters upward, a golden medal gleamed like a beacon.

Except no one ever reached it easily.

Disappearing steps. Slippery ramps that turned solid ground into a slide of doom. Barriers that shot from the walls at random intervals. Hanging hoops, ropes, suspended bars. And guarding the final platform, a squad of armored droids programmed to fire without hesitation.

The next cadet stepped forward.

Rudy.

He inhaled, rolled his shoulders, and then looked up at the others on the viewing balcony. Leon raised a hand, giving the official signal.

“Begin!”

Rudy sprinted up the ramp, boots clanging against steel. Halfway up, the steps vanished beneath him, turning into a slick metal slide. Instead of falling, Rudy launched himself sideways, landed on a protruding barrier, then another, hopping between them like stepping stones. A leap. A wall-run. His fingers grazed steel but never slipped.

The cadets gasped.

Reaching the suspended hoops, Rudy swung himself upward with fluid momentum, vaulting the last gap and landing on solid steps. The stairs vibrated, then tilted, turning into a steep downward slope. At the top, the droids activated, rifles humming with charged plasma.

Shots rained.

Yet he didn’t stop.

He sprang toward the wall again, sprinting sideways across it while firing his Shadow Cuffs. The projectile latched onto a droid’s limbs, its mechanical arms spasming as Rudy seized control.

The controlled droid turned, plasma cannons redirected.

One burst.

Two.

Three.

Every guard-unit exploded into sparks. Rudy leapt from the wall, rebounded off the controlled droid’s collapsing frame and soared up the last stretch, swiping the medal free with a triumphant grip.

BWWOOOOOOOOM!

The victory horns sounded.

TIME: 40 seconds.

A new record.

Cheers erupted from the balcony as Rudy climbed back up, high-fived a few cadets, and took his place beside Leon. The next name on the roster flashed across the board.

ALI.

The boy swallowed, tugging at his gloves. The room seemed bigger from ground level. Taller. Harsher. But he inhaled, brought forth IRIS in his palm, and stepped forward.

“Begin!”

Ali sprinted the ramp, slipping at the same point Rudy nearly fell. Instead of losing momentum, he kicked off into the air, sending an IRIS shockwave against the wall mid-jump, giving himself enough force to vault to the first barrier. His Aeroboots ignited, tiny bursts of propulsion keeping him steady through the chaotic obstacles.

A rope swing. Perfect.

A hanging bar. Smooth.

A hoop jump. Barely, but clean.

The stairs shifted. Droids activated. Ali braced, swinging his yo-yo and firing controlled shockblasts at each platform to propel himself higher. One blast sent him spinning sideways, landing halfway up the ramp just as a burst of plasma whizzed past.

Instead of wall-running like Rudy, Ali planted his feet, absorbed the blast with yo-yo's shield, and redirected it into a ground shockburst, catapulting himself straight past the last three droids.

He snatched the medal.

TIME: 48 seconds.

Not Rudy’s record, but worlds faster than the miserable hour-and-a-half failure from canon. This time, he landed, panting and exhausted, but smiling.

The balcony applauded. Even Rudy clapped.

Then came the final competitor.

ALICIA.

No hesitation. No nerves. Only a grin.

Leon dropped his arm.

“Begin!”

Alicia didn’t bother with the ramp. She kicked off the ground, slammed into the wall, and the moment her boots touched steel—she triggered her legs' internal boosters.

Slam Storage.

The shock-absorbers and momentum sensors tricked themselves into thinking she had fallen from skyscraper height, converting stored kinetic energy into raw propulsive force.

Alicia shot upward like a fired cannon shell.

In one breath, she cleared the entire first third of the climb. Gasps filled the chamber. She bounced from wall to wall in rapid succession, each strike shaking dust loose from the concrete. When she reached the hoops, she didn’t swing.

She skipped them entirely.

Straight to the stairs, landing so hard the entire structure shook. The droids locked onto her, barrels glowing.

Alicia spun her signature revolver.

One bullet.

Ricochet.

Ricochet.

Ricochet.

The round pinged across walls, armor plates, ceiling rails, and finally punched through all four droids in a single explosive burst. Sparks showered the floor below as Alicia strolled casually to the medal, plucked it from the pedestal, and held it up like a performer finishing her routine.

TIME: 26 seconds.

A record so absurd that even Rudy choked.

The balcony thundered with applause. Alicia offered a courtly bow, pure drama, before rejoining the group. Whispers spread through the cadets.

“She’s even better than the rumors.”

“No wonder she beat Uno.”

“That was NOT human.”

As the celebration continued, miles away, behind encrypted steel walls and dim crimson lights, the NUMERØS base awakened from its phantom silence.

Cinco sat alone, staring at the main console, where V1’s insignia flickered, unresponsive. Not destroyed, not erased. Just silent.

Uno stepped from the shadows, expression hidden by his mask. It's two red-slits-for-eyes glaring at her.

Cinco swallowed hard.

“V1 should have neutralized the boy. But… the tracker is dead. Someone intervened.” Uno paced behind her, voice cold. “We need a replacement.”

Cinco hesitated. “Seems like we have only one option left, huh?”

Uno snapped his fingers.

From the darkness behind him, mechanical claws scraped against the metal floor.

Ocho emerged.

Humanoid, but wrong. Bent legs like an insect. Long arms like a mantis. And on his back, a massive canister of reinforced steel and aluminum, humming with an unnatural biological heat.

Not sand.

Not gas.

Something alive.

Something that consumed.

Something that hunted.

Cinco looks with unease.

Uno smirked behind the dark mask.

“Let the next challenge begin.”

School unfolded as usual, though a ripple of anticipation crept along the corridors of SRT Cyberaya. Today was the day the History test results would be revealed. The students had spent the previous week speculating who would claim the top score, given that one particular student, the undisputed champion, was no longer around to defend her crown. Alicia, being homeschooled after... well... SOLIEL, no longer walked these halls. Her name still echoed in conversations, the legend who always put everyone else in check.

Without her, the throne was open.

And Sasidaran claimed it.

When the teacher revealed the scores, Sasi’s grin stretched ear to ear, his chest puffed up with pride, especially when Viktor Ong,formerly tied neck-and-neck with Alicia, received a score just beneath his own. The class buzzed, small cheers rising from Sasi’s circle of friends, while Viktor simply accepted his paper with calm eyes and that usual neutral expression.

Ali had improved somewhat. Not enough to reach the top, but enough for a personal victory. He leaned back, relieved. Progress was progress.

When the bell rang and the class emptied into the corridor, Sasi made a beeline to his favorite target.

“Well Viktor,” he said, stepping directly into Viktor’s path, “look at that. Highest marks. Better luck next time. Oh, and try not to go crying once you’re home, okay?” He gave a smug wink and strutted away.

Ali stood beside Viktor the whole time and watched Sasi vanish down the hall. “Why aren’t you mad at him?” Ali asked. “He keeps showing off. If that were me, I’d get annoyed.”

Viktor shrugged, adjusting his glasses. “I did my best, so it’s okay. Why bother about what people say? We learn not because we want to compete with other people.”

It was a surprisingly mature reply... until he continued.

“But if someone beats my score in Detective Jebat…” His eye twitched. “…then I get very angry.”

Ali snorted. That was Viktor for you.

Meanwhile, far from the simple school corridor, the MATA Academy stood as strong and gleaming as always. Inside one of its secured meeting rooms, General stood before a holo-table with the mentors assembled around him. Leon, Karya, Geetha, Bakar.

The holographic screen replayed the moment from when Ali and Alicia first joined the Academy, specifically when the alarms blared, when the breach occured, when the chaos ensued.

“We need answers,” General said. “Was anything leaked? Was something planted? Could there still be untracked malware inside our systems?”

Geetha shook her head. “We still don’t know. The breach… it didn’t leave any clear goals or signs. No damage, no theft, no surveillance lifted. It’s as if it had no motive.”

Karya folded his arms. “Or maybe there was no breach. System malfunctions happen. That alarm could’ve been triggered by a disruption... like a glitch.”

“We can’t assume that.” General’s voice sharpened. “Until we know, we stay vigilant. The enemy could strike anytime. Outside or from within.”

Bakar nodded. “And don't forget, we have an important asset to defend here. IRIS.”

That name carried weight. All of them knew why.

Back in the Academy lobby, Ali walked in, receiving greetings from fellow cadets. Then Khai burst into view chasing R.O., who zipped wildly between everyone’s legs.

“R.O. slow down!” Khai shouted before nearly tripping. He finally stopped beside Ali. “Bro, every time we come here, that thing gets faster…”

Moon joined them, hands behind her back, smiling brightly. “Hi Ali! Even with IRIS, you still somehow fail to stand out among us.”

Khai whipped around. “Oi Moon! Impudent lah, you talk like that!”

Moon laughed but Khai’s face twisted with genuine curiosity. “Actually though… how did you beat Uno that time? You were way outclassed, no?”

It was then Alicia joined them. Calm, direct, and honest. “Because of Override Mode.”

Khai and Moon froze.

“Override… what?” Khai asked.

Moon blinked. “Never heard of that.”

Alicia didn’t elaborate. She didn’t need to.

Meanwhile, in the meeting room, Leon folded his arms thoughtfully. “If Override Mode is really that strong, shouldn’t we let Ali face Uno again? It would give us the upper hand.”

General’s reply was immediate, stern, final. “No. Override Mode is extremely unstable. It was the reason the IRIS project was shut down in the first place. The Pillar Leaders themselves prohibited its reactivation.”

Karya glanced up. “What exactly is so troubling?”

General’s voice lowered. “When he faced Uno… IRIS took control of the kid.”

Back in the lobby, Khai’s mind spun. “If you use Override… would you be stronger than all of us?”

Ali hesitated. “Maybe?”

Alicia answered without hesitation. “Absolutely.”

Moon gasped dramatically. “He could even beat Rudy!”

Khai flinched. “Moon... don’t start.”

Moon raised her hands sheepishly. “I was joking! Maybe…”

Ali just laughed shyly, but behind the laughter, his thoughts stirred uneasily.

Back in the meeting room, Bakar brought up the tension between Ali and Rudy. Leon quickly suggested they should work together. One team, one mission. General approved. Decision made.

The next day, precisely 0403 hours, Ali, Alicia, Rudy, and Bakar arrived inside a massive C-Tech weapon facility. Endless conveyor belts, robotic arms, and automated machines produced weapon parts nonstop. Sparks flew. Metals glowed. The machinery moved like a giant steel organism.

Bakar stared with awe. He grew up with nothing. Now he walked inside a structure worth more than entire cities. "Look at all of this! All automated, not a single human in sight." 

Ali scanned the room and noticed something missing. "You're right. There is no one here." 

Rudy walked ahead, glancing back with a smirk. “Even with IRIS, you still didn’t notice?”

Ali clenched his jaw.

He leaned toward Bakar. “Why is he here? Why is Rudy with us?”

Bakar answered plainly. “Orders from the mentors. You two need to work together. And maybe… get along.”

Ali opened his mouth to argue, but Alicia shut it down instantly.

“We’re here to investigate why the surveillance systems stopped. Not to babysit your friendship problems.”

Bakar nodded. “Come on. We find the security room.”

Rudy moved ahead swiftly, already spotting a staircase leading upward. “This way.”

The team followed into a massive smelting chamber. Heat glowing below, molten metal pouring into molds. Above, a small security room stood built into the wall.

As they climbed, Comot meowed from below, having found something odf.

Alicia frowned. “Something’s wrong.”

They descended and found something disturbing.

A destroyed security camera, wires melted and corroded. Under it, an odd black mass. It looked like sand, but clumped. Burned in places.

Alicia plucked a tiny grain and held it to eye level. CORONA scanned it.

"Huh, that's odd. It's a Microbug." CORONA identified

Alicia turned to inform the others, only to realize Ali and Bakar were just now entering, whispering to each other the entire time.

Rudy crossed his arms. “Why are you two whispering? You’re at work, not a gossip session.”

Ali snapped back. “Why are you always listening? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Oh please,” Rudy fired back. “If you don’t like me hearing you, talk to me properly. Face to face. Stop being a coward.”

Ali finally burst. “I don’t want to be on the same team as you!”

Bakar tried to intervene, but the argument escalated. Their voices echoed across the metal chamber.

And the black grain in Alicia’s hand twitched.

She froze.

The tiny speck sprouted wings and shot forward.

The rest of the black mass rose like a swarm. Buzzing, shifting, flying toward them.

“Boys... look out!”

The mass lunged.

Bakar shoved both Ali and Rudy aside and activated his plasma shields. The barrier held for a second, but the microbugs swarmed over him, clamping, burning, pushing him to the floor and pinning him.

Ali sprinted to help, but Alicia caught his arm. “If they consume IRIS, we lose everything.”

Another surge burst from behind, splitting mid-air into three sharp waves.

Rudy dodged with agility. Ali blasted back with shockwaves from his yo-yo. Alicia smashed with her mechanical arm and blew apart incoming clusters with her arsenal.

Comot, terrified, uncloaked and sprinted out of the smelting room to find backup.

Rudy shouted, “Use IRIS to find their source!”

Ali scowled. “Why should I listen to you?!”

Alicia repeated calmly, “Use IRIS.”

Ali obeyed instantly, annoying Rudy to his core.

IRIS scanned, its visor pulsing.

SOURCE DETECTED.

A dark figure hid behind a giant smelter, funneling the microbugs through metal pipes.

The three charged.

Waves of microbugs transformed seamlessly. Giant hands, spears, blades, whips, floods. Every shattered piece reformed and rushed back to its maker.

Ali breathed. “That’s the source!”

Rudy didn’t miss a beat. “…I can obviously see that.”

Ocho stood tall among the swarm. Bent legs, gas mask for a face, and a large container on his back. He commanded the swarm forward. Alicia fired, Rudy intercepted, Ali blocked. But one tendril shot toward Ali, caught his leg, and hurled him across the room.

He slammed into a wall, gasping. As the mass surged to crush him...

Rudy threw two Shadow Cuffs, one clipped to Ali’s leg, another to his arm. He yanked, dragging Ali out of danger.

They regrouped. Alicia, Rudy, Ali, facing Ocho directly. Alicia began to strategize. "I'll distract him, you'll–" 

Ali sprinted ahead.

“What is wrong with you?!” Alicia shouted.

He wanted Override Mode. And against a machine controlling trillions of others, Override would cripple them instantly.

But a voice crawled out from the crack in the wall. The agents froze, looking towards the dark space.

“You’re so funny, Ali.”

A figure stepped out. The black-green coat. The familiar face twisted with a different identity.

Jenny.

Cinco.

Bakar froze. “Jenny—?”

“You want to activate Override Mode?” she teased. “Maybe I could assist you.”

Bakar’s voice trembled. “Come on Jenny... please come back to MATA. Don’t—don’t do this—”

Cinco’s smile evaporated. “I'm not Jenny!” With a tap on her control board, the container on Ocho’s back hissed open, releasing more microbugs.

As she stood behind her creation, smug grin and all, Alicia’s rage ignited.

“After all that happened, you still dare show your face here?!”

Cinco winked. “Mhmm.”

Alicia’s breathing turned mechanical, metal reverberating. Something deep inside her armor roared.

“You…” she snarled, voice warping with fury. "YOU ARROGANT PIECE OF SHIT!"

She charged. No hesitation. No restraint. Rail shots cracked, punches split steel, electricity sliced the incoming waves. She tore through the black tides like a predator.

She fired at Cinco, but Ocho shielded her, redirecting the swarm. The wave slammed into Alicia and threw her across the room. The wall dented.

"ACK-" 

She dropped, dazed.

Rudy jumped into action, vaulting past waves, throwing a Shadow Cuff toward Ocho’s arm. But a tidal burst struck him mid-air and slammed him to the floor, immobilized. With him gone, Ocho used the swarm to dissolve the Shadow Cuff.

Ali leaped form behind, yo-yo swinging, but the cord gets glued into the swarm. The mass wrapped around his legs, arms, and torso, pulling him into a dome of devouring black.

He screamed and struggled.

Then–

BOOM.

A rail shot tears through the dome.

A cable whipps around Ali’s waist, yanking him free.

Alicia stood, battered, furious, silent. She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. Rage alone radiated off her.

She blitzed forward, smoke trailing her feet. A Knuckleblaster punch landed with brutal weight. Ocho staggered. She punched again. Again. Again—

"WATCH OUT!" 

She dodged, just as Cinco fired her plasma hand cannon. The red blast vaporized the smelter behind her. Metal rained in shards.

Comot burst in with the mentors behind him. Alicia didn’t greet them. Her eyes stayed locked on her enemies.

The mentors analyzed Ocho.

Karya observed, “What is that?”

Geetha replied, “Microbugs. Termite-like nanites. Banned technology.”

Leon watched Ocho sent a wave towards Alicia, with it stopping after a certain range. “Maximum attack range: 20 meters. Speed: moderate.”

Ocho tanked a barrage with ease.

“Defense… firm.”

Karya asked, “Plan?”

Leon smirked. “Remember Mission: Blackwater?”

The team nodded

Leon snapped, “Good. Everyone ready?”

"Wait what?" Bakar blinked 

"GO!" 

The Kombat mentor quickly caught on. He charged, smashing through microbug barriers. Leon fired from the right. Karya disrupted waves with explosive cards. Geetha used her Nano Enhancer to amplify Bakar’s strikes.

“They're concentrating all their attacks through that fatty.” Cinco noticed. "Ocho, release more." 

Ocho refused. Too many microbugs risked collapse. Cinco insisted.

Reluctantly, Ocho unleashed another wave.

It slammed toward Bakar, but it hit Karya instead. The swarm pinned him, dragging him downward.

Leon called for Geetha. She fires her Nano Enhancer towards him. With that amplification, he fires powerful shots, piercing the swarm and weakening the shield.

Bakar lunged to punch Ocho’s shield again, but gets trapped by the mass.

Cinco smirked. “Too bad.”

Leon shouted, “NOW!”

And Karya appeared behind Ocho, unharmed. He had cloaked after being “captured.”

Geetha fired the Nano Enhancer at Karya, supercharging him. His cards and sword tore through Ocho’s core systems. Ocho collapsed to one knee. The microbugs outside the shrunken range shut down instantly, raining onto the floor as dead black sand.

Bakar, now free, rushed forward to finish the machine, but...

Cinco appeared beside him, plasma gun raised. “We’re done here, thank you.”

Bakar saw the weapon. “What is that? Jenny—stop—don’t—”

The gun charged.

Alicia flew in. “MOVE!”

She slammed Bakar aside as the red blast annihilated the wall. Dust and rubble exploded outward.

As the flash fades, Cinco and Ocho were already gone.

Alicia sprinted toward the crack. She was going to chase them, even to the ends of the Earth, no matter what.

Someone grabbed her arm.

She spun, railcannon aimed and ready to kill.

It was Ali.

His eyes showed shock and fear. His hand trembled.

Alicia froze. Her rage vanished in an instant, replaced by a heavy wave of guilt.

If she had fired… if she hadn’t recognized him… Ali would have been nothing but scattered remains and burnt guts.

She said nothing. But the silence spoke loudly.

One shot... Was all it would've taken...

Inside the NUMERØS base, hidden deep within the hollowed carcass of a deactivated ARC-1000 SEA CARVER, Cinco dragged Ocho’s malfunctioning body into the control chamber. She wiped sweat from her brow.

Uno sat at the main console, the IRIS blueprint glowing on the screen.

“How did it go?”

Cinco dropped Ocho with a dull metallic thud. “Great.”

She placed her control board onto the console. It scanned, then the monitor displayed IRIS’s central systems.

Cinco smiled. “Everything is going according to plan.”

Flashback to the battle...

Ali trapped inside the dome of microbugs. Cinco commanded a new batch to deploy. One microbug’s eye glowed yellow. It flew directly to Ali’s face and flashed a pulse of light.

That light was a breach key.

It infiltrated IRIS.

It opened the system.

Uno didn’t show emotions often—but even with the mask on, anyone could see it.

He was thrilled.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.07.02

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE. LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: MATA ACADEMY - DORM WING

OBJECTIVE: VACANT

SKILL IS FORGED

FLESH IS TRIAL

POWER AWAITS THE UNBROKEN

Morning inside the cadet dorms carried a muted stillness, the kind only machines could appreciate. Alicia rose before the sun, her systems already humming while her human half blinked itself awake. Her left arm whirred as the joints extended and locked, the familiar sound almost comforting. She folded her blanket sharply, then crossed the small room to the sink, where she splashed cool water over her face.

The reflection staring back at her paused.

Her fingers traced the faint scratch along her cheek, still tinted with dried red. Human red.

She watched the thin line for a moment too long. Just a moment.

Then she shook her head, grabbed a towel, and wiped the hesitation away.

Breakfast came next. Or the closest thing she had to it. A pack of nutrient gel, designed to keep organic and machine parts balanced. She squeezed half of it into a glass and drank it while tightening screws along her shoulder, reattaching plating that had cracked during the Microbug fight. Her wings glowed faintly, the silhouettes of her weapons etched into each pair.

And the newest addition, resting on its hooks along the wall.

V1’s Whiplash.

Her eyes lingered on it.

The coiled cable. The tapered blade. The handle still stained from the first time she pulled it off his chassis.

Her hand twitched with an urge she didn’t fully understand.

Excitement, anticipation… hunger?

CORONA flickered awake on her mono-visor.

[Alicia, your heart rate increased eleven percent.]

“I’m fine,” she muttered, though she wasn’t sure who she was convincing.

She finished repairs, rolled her shoulder, and exhaled.

Today would be the first proper test of the new joint system she’d installed. Today, she would see if she could truly use the Whiplash as her own.

And maybe understand a little more about the creature she was slowly becoming.

The simulation chamber was empty except for her and the quiet hum of the hologram projectors. Alicia stepped into the center circle, stretching her arms as the lights overhead shifted into training mode.

The left shoulder joint spun with a precise metallic click, then rotated further than any human shoulder should be able to. Her new modification glided smoothly, the motion eerily similar to V-series fluidity.

CORONA pulsed.

[Calibration stable. Torque resistance optimal.]

“Good,” she replied before grabbing the Whiplash from her back.

The cable rattled lightly. The blade reflected the chamber’s blue lights.

She cracked her neck.

“Let’s start.”

Simulated droids flickered into existence in a spread-out formation. The first few rushed forward. Alicia ran straight at them, boots pounding across the floor in a rhythm of flesh and steel.

She swung her arm outward, the shoulder joint twisting with unnatural elasticity.

The Whiplash uncoiled with a piercing snap, the blade slicing through the first droid’s chassis. It burst into pixels.

Alicia grinned.

“That’s more like it.”

She fired the Railcannon at a second droid, then yanked herself sideways with the Whiplash, letting the recoil of the weapon and the pull of the cable combine. CORONA adjusted her balance mid-flight.

[Trajectory curved. Correcting tilt. You’re welcome.]

“You’re too smug for a computer,” she teased while landing and tearing the Whiplash free.

[You installed the personality update.]

“…Fair.”

A set of droids with shields charged her. Alicia spun, anchored the Whiplash into the ceiling, and vaulted upward. While suspended, she traced a motion she’d studied before, Iman’s Meteor Hammer technique.

Except her version had a blade.

She swung in a wide arc, letting the momentum guide the cable. The Whiplash carved downward like a descending crescent, slicing through the shields and the droids beneath them. She landed with a sharp skid that kicked sparks across the ground.

CORONA chimed.

[Style evaluation: dramatic. Efficiency rating: debatable.]

“Shut up.”

She lunged forward again, mixing punches, cable sweeps, and explosive bursts from the JumpHeat. With each movement, the modified shoulder joint responded flawlessly. The Whiplash felt less like a stolen weapon and more like an extension of her own spine.

More droids spawned. Ranged, melee, shielded. She sprinted into them, vaulting off walls, striking between clusters, deflecting lasers with the cable, yanking enemies into her punches, tearing through waves of holographic metal.

Every movement grew faster. Sharper. Almost predatory.

CORONA flashed a warning.

[Heart rate rising. Aggression increasing.]

“I know,” she breathed.

The Whiplash wrapped around a final droid’s neck, and she ripped its head clean off with a twist that made even CORONA flicker in simulated discomfort.

[Simulation nearing completion.]

“Then let’s finish.”

More enemies appeared. 20, then 30, then 50. She welcomed them. She pushed harder. Faster. The shoulder joint whirred with mechanical heat as she performed motions no human should survive. Her eyes burned with focus, her grip unrelenting.

One last leap.

One last spiral.

One last downward strike that cut through the remaining droids in a single sweeping motion.

They burst into light.

Silence returned.

Alicia stood there panting lightly, adrenaline cooling, gears inside her arm clicking into an idle rhythm. She holstered the Whiplash and brushed loose fragments off her suit.

[Simulation complete. Performance: above expected parameters.]

“Yeah,” she said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “I felt that.”

She sank onto one of the benches near the exit, letting herself breathe for the first time since the session started. Her muscles ached. Her metal joints hummed. It was a strange harmony, painful but satisfying.

She uncapped a bottle of water and drank slowly, staring toward the far wall of the chamber.

CORONA dimmed to a gentle glow.

[You performed well today.]

“Thanks.”

She rested the bottle on her knee.

Her thoughts drifted... toward Ali, toward the fight with Ocho, toward Cinco’s return… toward the future she couldn’t yet see. A future where her body kept changing. Where her mind kept shifting. Where she was becoming something neither human nor machine could easily define.

“Do you… think I’ll still be me after all this?” she asked quietly.

CORONA hesitated.

[…Identity is complicated. But you are still you right now.]

She smirked faintly.

“Comforting. Sort of.”

She leaned back, letting the stillness settle.

As the cyborg chilled inside the Academy, a distant titan was slowly waking up. 

A titan made to destroy, to carve into the Earth itself.

The beast roared, for it has awoken

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.07.03

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

 VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE. LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: NOT UPDATED

OBJECTIVE: PENDING...

REST IS OVER

GEARS REAWAKEN

THE QUIET HOUR HAS EXPIRED

The fluorescent lights of the MATA detention corridor flickered with their usual tired rhythm. The floor smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and cold metal. Agent Bakar strolled through the hushed hall with a bounce in his step, balancing a small plastic bag against his hip. Inside the bag rattled the unmistakable sound of cheap fish crackers.

He reached a reinforced glass door. The plaque read: CELL 02 - SUBJECT: DOS.

Bakar rapped his knuckles against the metal frame.

"Morning. I brought snacks."

Dos did not even lift her head. She sat cross-legged on the bench inside the cell, arms folded, eyes simmering with the specific flavor of irritation that only Bakar could conjure.

"Get lost."

Bakar pressed his face against the glass like a hopeful cat.

"Oh come on. They are the spicy ones. Your favorite."

"My favorite was freedom" she muttered. "Leave."

He sighed dramatically, shoulders drooping like wet laundry.

"You wound me."

The automated locks hummed as he turned to leave the hallway. Moments later, a service droid rolled forward on its tracks, placing a metal tray through the cell’s slot before beeping politely and retreating. Dos pulled the tray closer. She lifted the lid.

Her expression shifted.

Inside the tray, instead of rations, waited a single metallic rod with a crackling purple tip.

Her Shox Stix.

A gift. Or bait.

She grabbed it and examined its power cell. Scratched but functional.

"Finally" she whispered.

She jammed it into the panel beside the door. The lock sparked once. Twice. The bolts disengaged with a sharp hydraulic hiss. The door slid open.

From the next cell, Wak Musang’s voice burst out.

"Hey hey hey. Let me out too. I promise I will not betray anyone in the next five hours."

"No" Dos answered and strode forward.

She kept low along the wall, footsteps soft and calculated. A trio of surveillance cameras rotated with rhythmic precision. Dos timed each sweep. She glided through blind spots with the ease of someone who had mapped this prison days ago.

She rounded a corner and spotted the heavy evacuation door ahead. Freedom.

Then a figure blocked the path.

Agent Rizwan stepped out from the shadow of a support beam. His eyes were tired but steady.

"Step aside."

"Not a chance."

She lunged. Her Shox Stix snapped forward with a crackle of electricity. Rizwan pivoted and seized her wrist, redirecting her momentum and sending her tumbling into the wall. Metal rang out as she struck it. She rolled back up instantly, swift as an arrow.

They clashed again. Her strike skimmed the air as Rizwan ducked beneath it. He shoved her backward. She slid several feet before regaining her footing. Her eyes narrowed. She stepped in with a sharp kick.

It connected.

Rizwan’s breath choked as she struck the exact spot where Uno had cut him weeks ago. His legs buckled. Pain carved lines across his expression.

Behind them, the alarms finally screamed to life.

Droids marched into the corridor. Bakar arrived behind them, face pale.

"Rizwan. You good?"

Rizwan did not answer. His eyes were on Dos. She turned and sprinted down the hall, droids rushing after her while Bakar knelt beside Rizwan.

Rizwan whispered only one thing as he watched Dos vanish through the doors.

"She cannot reach him."

The metal doors slammed shut behind her. The chase had begun.

Ali lay sprawled across the floor of his room, toys scattered around him in the aftermath of a dramatic battle reenactment. One figure wore a marker-drawn smirk labelled "Uno". Another had lopsided googly eyes labelled "Bug-eyed man". The third had a bright orange streak down its back labelled "Cinco".

Ali flicked a foam projectile at them.

"Take that. And that. And that."

The final projectile bounced weakly off Uno’s head and rolled away. He exhaled and collapsed backward onto the floorboards.

Suspended.

Grounded.

Bored enough to start talking to toys.

He glanced at IRIS resting beside him. The device gave a sharp crackle. Its lenses blinked yellow. Then the whole unit shut off and dropped limp into his palm.

Ali frowned.

"Now what is wrong with you."

The lenses flickered intermittently like a struggling heartbeat. He tapped the casing. Nothing changed. He groaned and dragged himself upright.

School hours would start soon. He changed clothes, grabbed his scooter, and whistled for Comot. The cat trotted out with her usual half-annoyed, half-confident energy.

"Come on. Let us get snacks at least."

As Ali zoomed down the street, someone watched from a distance. A janitor sweeping the sidewalk paused mid-motion and raised a brow. He lifted his radio.

"Target Alpha is out of the house" Bakar whispered. "Repeat. Target Alpha is out."

Inside Zali Mart, Ali loaded snacks into a small basket. Drinks. Biscuits. Something to kill time. As he approached the counter, one of the cans wobbled loose, fell, and rolled across the tiles.

"Seriously?" Ali muttered and chased after it.

The can rolled around the corner of the aisle. He caught up to it and stooped down. Then he looked up.

Someone stood across from him.

Alicia.

Her presence was quiet but imposing. The yellow glow of her mechanical eye pulsed faintly. Her hair was arranged neatly with her steel hair clip pinned in place. Her posture was relaxed in the way that meant danger only if she chose it to be.

Ali picked up the can.

"Oh. Uh. Hi."

She said nothing.

Moments later the two exited the store together, though it was less together and more Ali orbiting Alicia like a confused satellite.

"What are you doing here anyway? I never see you go through here."

Silence.

They walked down the front steps. Cars hissed past on the road.

"Wait. Do you not live in the MATA base?"

She finally answered with a flat tone.

"No."

Short. Clean. Conversation murdered instantly.

Ali puffed his cheeks in defeat. He scooted ahead toward the school gates while Alicia stayed behind. Agent Karya stood near the entrance reading a book. At least pretending to.

"Morning Mr Bidin" Ali chirped, finger guns ready.

Karya grunted.

"Morning."

Alicia and Karya exchanged glances. Something unspoken passed between them. Ali noticed. Suspicion brewed.

In the canteen Viktor sat alone, tapping his screen. Ali slid beside him.

"What game are you playing?"

"Not gaming. Studying."

"Studying? You?"

"Exams are soon. You only see me play when you are around."

Ali stared at him.

"Is that an insult."

"Yes."

Before Ali could reply he spotted Bakar sweeping the floor nearby, knocking over a trash bin in the process. Ali sighed.

Then he spotted Alicia leaning silently against a wall. She murmured something. Bakar flashed an awkward hand gesture back. Karya clicked his tongue in response.

Ali narrowed his eyes.

Something was definitely going on.

He stood tall and marched straight toward Bakar.

"Uncle."

Bakar jumped.

"What. Nothing. I mean. Something. Actually nothing. Definitely nothing."

"What are Karya and Alicia doing here?"

"Uh. Them. They are. They are..."

The school bell rang.

Bakar slapped his broom against his chest like a shield.

"Your class is starting. Go. Quick."

Ali squinted at him. Bakar raised a shaky thumbs up.

Bakar whispered as he walked away.

"Phew... Close call..." 

Class felt like a slow crawl through thick mud. The teacher explained electrolysis. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Molecules splitting in ways that should have been fascinating but were not.

The moment class ended, Ali slipped out and headed toward the storeroom. If answers existed, they existed behind that door. He activated IRIS long enough to locate a drainage pipe that connected to the room’s ventilation. He crouched beside it, ear pressed close.

Inside he heard voices.

Karya.

Bakar.

Alicia.

"There has been a new development. The General is waiting to brief. We must leave now."

"Keep an eye on Ali" Bakar said. "Do not tell him anything. He creates scenes. He is anxious for no reason."

Ali grumbled.

"Since when am I anxious?"

The door opened. Alicia stepped out and drifted away like a ghost. Ali took his chance and slipped into the storeroom. He dug through documents until he found the stamp book. He inserted his ID.

Denied.

Suspended.

Access blocked.

He clenched his fists.

"Fine. If she is here... I will use hers."

He peeked out and spotted Alicia near the hallway. IRIS revealed where she kept her ID. Her hair clip.

His brain whirled with terrible strategies.

Talking? She would ignore him.

Snatching? She would flip him into a recycling bin.

Distracting? She had counters for everything.

He needed another idea. Any idea.

He followed her quietly. When she reached a quiet corridor, Ali crouched. He waited. Watched. Timed her gaze shift. When she bent slightly to adjust her glove, Ali reached up and pinched the edge of the clip.

The moment it loosened, the ID chip slid free.

He caught it and froze.

Alicia straightened.

Her gaze swept the hallway.

Ali held his breath. She turned and walked forward.

He let out a silent exhale.

"Never doing that again."

The Academy’s gates recognized Alicia’s ID immediately. Ali stepped through with Comot padding along behind him.

He soon found trouble.

Khai.

Moon.

Iman.

All in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Ai? Why are you here? You are banned from entering the Academy."

Ali stammered.

"Well. Actually. Uh."

Moon popped up from behind Khai’s shoulder.

"What is actually?"

"Nothing."

"Oh you definitely sneaked in."

"I did not."

Iman approached with confusion.

"Ali? You are allowed inside again?"

Perfect. Now all of them were confused.

Ali shoved them beneath a stairwell and whispered urgently.

"Have you noticed anything strange today."

They all said no.

Ali explained the briefing. His suspicions. His growing unease.

Moon’s eyes sparkled at the mention of eavesdropping.

Khai rubbed his face with worry.

Iman warned that consequences were severe.

While they argued, Ali glanced at RO standing nearby. A spark of genius lit his mind.

Soon RO was rolling silently toward the meeting room, transmitting its camera feed back to the four cadets hiding in a storage niche.

They watched as Rizwan entered. Leon. Geetha. Bakar. Karya. The General’s hologram flickered into existence.

The briefing hit them fast.

Dos escaped.

Rizwan failed to stop her.

This mission could not fail.

ACT IMMEDIATELY!

Ali felt the chill crawl up his spine.

"She escaped. She is actually out there."

Khai clutched his head.

"Ali. No. You are not thinking of going after her."

"I am. Someone has to."

Iman crossed her arms.

"This is not our mission."

Moon whispered.

"But Override Mode..."

Ali glared at her.

With no support, he left alone. Comot followed reluctantly.

But minutes later, as he paced through the underground tunnels beneath the city, he heard footsteps rushing behind him.

Khai.

Moon.

Iman.

Khai scratched his head.

"It felt wrong letting you go alone."

Iman held Comot in her arms.

"I want you back in the Academy."

Moon grinned.

"And I want to see Override Mode. Obviously."

Ali inhaled deeply.

"So here is the plan."

The IRIS guided them through each floor of the abandoned construction site. Stairs only. No elevators. Avoid mentors at all costs.

Everything went smoothly. Until they reached the rooftop.

Thunder rolled overhead. Lightning spidered through the clouds. The wind carried the scent of imminent chaos.

IRIS warned them of approaching personnel. They dove behind a stack of boxes.

Rizwan stepped out of the elevator. He walked toward a table where a purple crystal rested. He picked it up. Examined it. Ali leaned forward for a better look.

Khai shifted and stepped on Comot’s tail.

The cat shrieked.

Rizwan turned.

Ali stood.

"Agent Rizwan."

His mentor stared, shock etched across his face.

"Ali. What are you doing here?!"

"I want to help capture Dos."

"You should not be here. Go. Now!"

"But Agent Rizwan I–"

"Hurry, Ali!"

The man paused. With softened voice he added.

"I do not want you here. Listen to me. Do not get involved."

The elevator chimed again.

Dos walked out.

"You're late."

Ali froze. They were not fighting. They were talking. Like allies.

Leon. Bakar. Geetha charged up the stairs and surrounded her.

"Surrender. There is no escape."

Events blurred.

The scaffolding fell.

Smoke erupted.

Geetha collapsed first.

Leon followed.

Then Bakar.

Rizwan stood over them.

A traitor.

Ali felt something collapse inside his chest.

"TRAITOR!"

He charged.

Rizwan countered every strike with mechanical precision. He grabbed Ali’s yo-yo string and yanked him forward. With a single hit Ali fell unconscious.

Systems around them began to glitch. Lights dimmed. RO jittered. Moon’s hologram sparks danced. Everything flickered.

Then Ali rose again.

White light poured from IRIS.

OVERRIDE MODE.

At the base of the abandoned site, a figure approached with steady footsteps. Yellow wings of hard-light flickered behind her. Mechanical joints whirred as she moved.

Alicia’s left eye glowed.

Her metallic arm reflected the lightning from above.

She looked up toward the rooftop where chaos brewed.

She did not rush.

She advanced with a calm that foretold disaster for whoever caused this.

Her voice was quiet.

"Enough of this."

And with that final word, she stepped into the storm.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.07.03

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE. LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG 

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: NORTHERN CYBERAYA

OBJECTIVE: STOP THE CHAOS

PURPOSE CALLS

SOULS IGNITE

DESTINY CLAIMS ALL

The dust on the top floor had not even settled when OVERRIDE lunged forward again. Sparks scattered across the cracked floor with every step he took. His body moved with a feral precision that no longer resembled anything human. It did not resemble Ali either. It was a storm wearing his shape.

Rizwan fired jabs after jabs, each hit chipping away at the thing that had once been his protege. OVERRIDE advanced despite the growing damage across its frame. Every hit only seemed to fuel the frenzy as if pain had been converted into focus.

Moon flinched as the shockwave from another collision tore through the corridor. Iman pulled her arm in front of her face while Comot crouched close, growling with a distressed tone. RO zoomed back and forth behind Khai, its beeps glitched into a streak of broken code as OVERRIDE wrecked its systems.

Dos took the opportunity to sprint toward the elevator. Her shoes screeched against the floor as she rammed the button repeatedly. The doors slid open only a few inches before Moon and Iman blocked her path.

The woman lets out a low growl.

"I don't have time for this."

Moon cracked her impact gloves and split into three holographic copies. Iman spun her meteor hammer in a wide circle, its weighted end humming with controlled energy. Comot stood at their flank like a tiny guardian.

Dos did not wait. She rushed the trio in a fury of sharp kicks and strikes. Moon’s clones darted in at her flanks. Iman reeled her hammer back and hurled its arc across the room. The fight around the elevator erupted in a blur of momentum and counterforce.

Behind them, OVERRIDE swung it's yo-yo one final time and finally overpowered Rizwan. In one brutal motion he grappled the man, lifted him, and hurled him straight into a cargo box. The impact drove Rizwan into unconsciousness. OVERRIDE turned sharply and scanned for his next target. His gaze locked onto Dos.

Dos sprinted toward the elevator again, only for a steel yo yo to streak through the air and strike her across the face. She crashed to the ground with a ragged gasp. Moon stared wide eyed.

"That was actually kind of sick."

Dos forced herself upright. Her eyes darted toward Khai, who was still trying to hold onto the frenzied RO as it zipped around like a launched firework. OVERRIDE charged in, slowly gaining on her. Desperate and cornered, Dos shoved Khai straight toward him.

The Tekno rammed into OVERRIDE, knocking both of them over. 

"Sorry! Just... RO's acting a little..." 

He notices Ali staring at him, the white lenses of IRIS locked on him.

"...weird..." 

Ali charges up a swing.

" Ali..?"

BOOM

A shockwave, followed by a knocked-out cadet and a robot blown to pieces. 

"KHAI!" 

Iman and Moon rush to Khai's aid immedeatly, removing the blockade Dos was trying to get through this whole time. 

As she ran for the elevator, something tugs her leg, and she falls to the floor.

She is then swung straight into a metal beam, before getting dropped onto the floor. As Ali approached to finish the job... 

"WHY DID YOU HIT KHAI?!" 

He is pushed by Moon in a fit of rage.

Unfortunately for her, that would be her last mistake for the day...

All Iman heard was a yelp from Moon as she is slammed into a pile of wooden planks to the side. 

Iman stared in horror. “Moon!”

With her friends knocked out by this rampaging beast, or whatever Ali has become, she went on the offensive. She sent a flurry of hits from her Meteor Hammer, but alas, all were blocked with no effort from OVERRIDE's side. 

She backed up, panting form exhaustion. That's when Comot intervened. The cat stood between Ali and Iman, trying to get it's owner to stop, to snap out of it. 

But, as much as it tried, it was no use, and the cat was swatted away like a fly.

That was the last straw for Iman.

“You… you hurt Comot?!”

The meteor hammer ignited—blue flame flaring from its Azurium core.

She roared and attacked.

Ali caught the chain.

“No—no no no—LET GO—!”

He didn’t.

He swung her with her own weapon, sending her crashing into a wall hard enough to knock the breath out of her. The hammer dimmed.

Comot whimpered weakly.

Iman didn’t get up.

Dos stumbled into the elevator with Rizwan’s body slung over her shoulder.

“C’mon—close—close—CLOSE!”

Ali charged toward them.

Moon was barely conscious.

Khai was dragging himself across the floor.

Iman wasn’t moving.

Comot twitched, barely conscious herself

Ali sprinted full-speed.

Then...

A force slammed him into the floor so hard the entire floor shook.

WHAM.

A knee pressed down on his back.

Metal claws dug into the ground.

A voice hissed through clenched teeth.

"Alright, that's enough from you." 

Alicia.

Her eyes blazed with fury so hot it could peel paint.

Ali thrashed, the system forcing his limbs to fight back, but Alicia’s strength far surpassed his current state. She pinned him harder, digging him into the floor.

The elevator descended.

Rizwan locked eyes with her.

His expression was a mix of horror… regret… and something like mourning.

Alicia glared back with a hatred so sharp it felt like it could slice steel.

Leon’s revolver clicked onto the floor beside her.

Alicia growled, “Leon. Now.”

Leon fired a single round.

The smoke blossomed.

Override convulsed.

Ali’s body went slack.

Silence flooded the building at last.

Moon groaned.

Khai panted over RO’s remains.

Iman whispered Comot’s name under her breath.

Alicia stared at Ali’s unconscious body, expression unreadable, jaw tight.

If anything, getting scolded by the Generals for letting this happen (as in letting Ali take her ID) was the least of her worries... 

Morning crept slowly over Cyberaya’s Outskirts. The abandoned apartment Dos had chosen looked like it had been forgotten by the world long ago, dust pooled in corners and the distant hum of the slums echoing through the cracked walls.

Rizwan entered first, scanning the room with unease.

Dos tossed her bag onto a broken sofa.

“Not fond of Cyberaya’s slums, Agent?”

Rizwan frowned. “Why are we here? This place doesn’t look like a rendezvous point.”

“Because it isn’t.” Dos shrugged. “It is a fallback spot. A safehouse. Just in case everything goes wrong. Which, surprise, it did.”

She crouched beneath an old desk, checking compartments. “I left a communication device here somewhere.”

Rizwan crossed his arms. “To contact Uno.”

“My, my. Someone is eager.” She smirked. “But no. This thing can only return a signal. Uno decides the when and where. Not us.”

Rizwan muttered, “So rescuing you was a waste of time.”

Dos shot him a look. “You of all people should understand how Uno works. After all... you are his best student.”

Rizwan turned away to the window, jaw clenched.

While he looked out at the sprawling slums, Dos reached under the desk and quietly pressed a recessed button.

“Why are you so desperate to meet him?” she asked.

“It has nothing to do with you.”

Deep within the black chamber, the four towering screens lit up. Dayang. Ganz. Zain. And the dark, empty one reserved for Inviso.

The Generals bowed his head. “I could not foresee Rizwan’s betrayal. I accept full responsibility.”

Dayang responded with a calm nod. “Thank you for the report. We will determine the next step.”

He left the chamber.

Meanwhile at HQ...

“You should not have told him!”

Dayang sighed. “Ganz, enough.”

“What did you expect? Rizwan nearly died defending MATA and your solution is telling him the truth? Now look what happened.”

Dayang lowered her gaze. “Their bond was deeper than we realized.”

Ganz turned to the silent figure of Zain. His back faced the camera.

“What now? You were worried about Djin rising again. With Rizwan joining him, how do you expect us to win?”

Zain spoke softly. “There must be a reason. Rizwan is... more like Djin than we knew. He acts alone. Always has. I do not believe he is a traitor. He likely has a plan.”

Ganz scoffed. “Insane. You want us to wait and see?”

Zain chuckled lightly. “Now that would be insane. We will send a tracking team. And another to dig into all his logs and activity. Leave no detail unchecked.”

Ganz cracked his knuckles. “Tell me when you find something. I cannot wait to meet our friend again.”

Dayang’s voice softened. “And IRIS? Should we continue with the separation device? At least Ali will not be an issue anymore.”

Ganz waved dismissively. “I support ending this ridiculous project completely.”

Zain remained quiet.

Dayang turned. “Zain?”

“I think... I should give that kid one last chance.”

Ali awoke with a sharp gasp in the treatment room.

His vision spun. His head throbbed. And all around him stood faces twisted not with empathy, but anger.

Moon, wrapped in bandages.

Khai and Iman unconscious.

The cadets glaring.

Ali blinked. “Why... why are you looking at me like that?”

Mika snapped, “Are you serious? After what you did?”

Chris held her back.

Rudy stepped forward. “Why did you attack them, Ali?”

Ali looked around at the injured cadets. Confusion shifted into horror as memories surged.

Override Mode.

Khai falling.

Moon thrown aside.

Iman struck down.

“Override Mode...” he whispered.

He stepped off the bed, bowing his head toward Moon. “I did not mean to. I swear. It was an accident.”

Jet barked a laugh. “Wow. Good acting.”

Roza crossed her arms. “What next? Going to blame your cat?”

Ali shook his head. “It was IRIS. It took control. I could not stop it.”

More laughter.

Rudy jabbed a finger into Ali’s chest. “Right. IRIS just woke up and decided to attack people. Sure. You think you are so important?”

“It happened before. When I faced Uno.”

Rudy shoved him hard. “If you rely on IRIS for everything, you do not deserve to be an agent!”

Jet gestured to the door. “Get lost. Before something else breaks.”

Ali’s heart sank. His throat clenched. He turned and ran.

A flash of silver hair crossed the hallway.

Alicia.

She caught the glimpse of tears on Ali’s face as he sprinted past. Then she looked into the room and saw the cadets staring after him with bitterness.

She understood immediately.

She whispered, “You guys know nothing.”

And ran after him.

Back in the safehouse, Rizwan paced.

Dos groaned. “Stop it. You are making the floor dizzy.”

“Will Uno come for you?” Rizwan asked.

Dos smirked. “Will he come for you?”

She paused. “You think I was not important because he did not break me out? Pathetic.”

Rizwan turned away again.

Dos’ tone shifted, lower. “I know everything about you, Agent Rizwan. Djin was the only family you ever had.”

Behind him, a silent puddle of Microbugs crept across the floor.

“Yet even that was not enough for him to care about you.”

Rizwan sensed movement and stepped back just before the Microbugs lashed upward.

Dos attacked with her Show Stix.

Rizwan countered, forced her down, but the Microbugs slammed into him, breaking the hold.

They retreated to their source.

Ocho stepped through the cracked wall, emerging as smoke drifted off his lanky silhouette.

Rizwan popped a lollipop in his mouth.

“Fine. Let’s do this.”

Ocho launched a wave of Microbugs.

Rizwan dodged, flicked the lollipop stick, and shocked Ocho using Dos’ own Show Stix.

Dos jumped him again. They brawled fiercely.

Rizwan struck her back with a pressure glove, but just before he could finish the fight, a football soared across the room and smacked him in the head.

Seis and Siete entered.

One calm and calculating.

The other buzzing with thrill.

They passed the ball rapidly, forcing Rizwan to dodge again and again until Seis kicked it hard enough to activate its shockwave.

Rizwan crashed down.

Siete whooped, “GOAAAL!”

The NUMERØS surrounded his body.

Siete grinned. “So weak. This guy is MATA’s best?”

A voice at the doorway.

“Certainly not the smartest.”

Cinco.

Rizwan stared, breath staggered. “You...”

Cinco tilted her head. “Trying to beat Uno alone? Really?”

Rizwan swallowed. “I... just want to see him.”

Cinco’s tone chilled. “He does not want to see you. You came here only to dig your own grave.”

Ali sat alone atop the Intel tower from MISSION: ORIENTATION.

He held IRIS in his hands, staring at its cracked lens reflecting the sky.

He hurled it downward.

It skidded to a stop at the feet of Agent Zain.

Ali blinked, horrified, scrambling down the stairs.

“S... Sir Zain I... I am so sorry I messed up I...”

Zain lifted the glasses calmly. “Giving up already?”

Ali froze.

Zain continued, “You once said IRIS made you able to help people. Do you no longer wish to be an agent?”

Ali said nothing.

Zain held the IRIS between them. “Do you know its purpose?”

Ali shook his head.

So Zain told him.

The creation of the Mainframe.

The citywide system.

The need for enhanced agents.

“Super glasses,” Zain summarized.

Ali finally understood.

Then Zain told him about Djin.

And the flashback unfolded.

Djin and Zain arguing in the training room.

About power.

About control.

About responsibility.

Djin’s cold warning echoed.

“Do not regret this decision, Zain...”

Zain looked back at Ali now.

“Everything that happened led you here. You have saved more people than you realize. You are stronger when you protect others.”

Ali’s hands curled weakly.

“You are more qualified than you think,” Zain said. “Just like someone I used to know.”

Rizwan fought relentlessly.

Dodging Microbugs.

Countering Dos.

Evading the twins’ attacks.

Until Siete slid under him, knocking him down again.

Rizwan breathed heavily. “Stop... stop fighting... I just want to talk.”

Seis ignored him and struck again.

Rizwan toppled, groaning. “I know the truth... let me speak...”

Cinco waved a hand. “Oh, now you talk.”

Before Dos could strike again, a calm voice cut through the tension.

“Enough.”

Uno stepped into the room.

All Microbugs froze.

Rizwan dropped to his knees before his former mentor.

“I want to stand with you. I want to fight by your side.”

Ali stared at IRIS as Zain’s words settled in.

“There has never been another agent worthy of this device,” Zain said. “Until you.”

Uno watched Rizwan.

Rizwan bowed his head low.

“I will burn MATA to the ground.”

Uno’s eyes gleamed behind the mask.

“Very well.”

The Microbugs swirled with anticipation.

Chapter Text

FIRMWARE:

2020.07.04

CALIBRATION:

AUDIO: OK

VIDEO: OK

MECHANICS: OK

CALIBRATION COMPLETE. LOADING STATUS UPDATE...

STATUS UPDATE:

AGENT ID: ALICIA KHENG 

STATUS: ACTIVE

LOCATION: MATA TRAINING ACADEMY

OBJECTIVE: VACANT

I COULD BE A MARTYR

I COULD BE A CAUSE

I COULD BE WHATEVER EVERYBODY WANT

Rizwan’s vision warped at the edges as he stumbled forward, each breath hitting his ribs like a hammer. Uno stood ahead, framed by the glow of the central console. The screen’s light cut across the room, bright enough to make his eyes sting.

He reached out, but his knees buckled.

The world tilted.

He collapsed before he ever reached him.

A clunk echoed in front of him.

“Here.”

Rizwan lifted his head. A medkit rested by his hand, sliding slightly from the force of the toss.

“For your injury.”

Cinco’s voice. Flat, sharp, uninterested.

Rizwan struggled to open the kit. His fingers trembled, not from fear, but from exhaustion creeping into his bones like cold water. He searched the room, eyes adjusting to the shadows.

Uno was nowhere.

As if reading his thoughts, Cinco spoke without turning.

“He's not here. He is occupied.”

Rizwan forced himself upright and limped to the metallic operating chair in the center of the chamber. The very same chair where Uno had once sat, undergoing the installation of his new prosthetic.

Cinco continued typing on the console, her red hair reflecting the screen’s pale glow.

“Uno left a task for you.”

Rizwan fastened a medical patch over the gash left by Uno back in ACT 1. “What task?”

“Quatro.” Cinco said it like the name itself was a problem. “Professor Akram. Former TEKNO. Now under NUMERØS supervision. Willingly or not.”

Rizwan paused mid-bandage. The name stirred something buried deep inside him. Memories, maybe. History. A connection he had long tried to forget.

Cinco kept going. “Uno said you knew him. That is why you are the one retrieving him.”

Rizwan leaned back in the metal chair. His breathing steadied, but the ache didn’t. “Where is he?”

“Took time.” Cinco tapped another command. “But I found it. A woodland area north of Cyberaya. Remote. No security systems. Perfect for someone hiding.”

Rizwan reached into the medkit and pulled out the syringe-gun injector, loading a transparent dose into the chamber. “I will leave in two hours.”

Cinco stepped away from the console and approached him.

Her boots echoed against the steel floor.

“That is too slow.”

Before he could react, she gripped his wrist and shoved the injector deeper against his skin, forcing the mechanism to fire. The shock rippled through his arm, sharp enough to knock the air out of him.

Rizwan gasped, teeth clenching.

Cinco released him. The injector clattered loudly against the floor, rolling in a slow circle before settling.

“Quatro is important to Uno’s project,” she said. “I am coming with you. We are leaving in ten minutes.”

She turned away, walking into the darkness beyond the console’s reach.

Rizwan inhaled sharply, the medication burning through his bloodstream, sharpening his senses and steadying his limbs.

10 minutes.

Then he would go after Quatro.

Whether he was ready or not.

Ali walks back into the Academy building with unsteady steps. The air inside feels colder than it did yesterday. The metallic scent, the distant hum of the vents, the low chatter of other cadets. Every sound reminds him of the moments he ruined. Yet Zain’s voice continues echoing inside his head.

Keep using IRIS. Become the Super Agent you were meant to be.

His fingers brush against the circular device at his hip. Even touching it makes him feel exposed, but Zain’s instructions were clear. He has no choice.

FLASHBACK

Ali sits across from Zain in the quiet arena. He keeps glancing at the floor, unable to keep eye contact.

“So... you want me to keep using IRIS?”

Zain nods. “I want you to be a Super Agent as intended from Project IRIS.”

“But how?”

“This academy can guide you. That is why you were brought here. Training classes and the mentors will shape you into a highly capable agent.”

He pauses for a moment. “I will recommend for you to be re admitted.”

Ali fidgets. “But... after what happened... how am I supposed to face the others?”

“Everyone makes mistakes, Ali. You do not have to be ashamed.”

“I am not ashamed. It is just... everyone now hates me.”

Zain gives the thought some weight. “Maybe you should apologize first.”

PRESENT

Back in the hallway, Ali lets the memory fade. The lights flicker slightly overhead, giving him a brief shiver. He inhales, steadies himself, and steps into the training room.

The room is wide, with a circular pattern of lights on the ceiling and shadowed corners that seem to swallow sound. Most of the cadets are already inside. They stand in a half circle formation facing the mentors. From left to right are Zass, Chris, Jet, Rudy, Roza, Mika and Bulat. Their gazes land on Ali one by one.

Ali expected coldness. What he did not expect was how heavy it feels now that he is actually here. Painters talk about the weight of a brush, singers talk about the weight of a note. Ali learns today that shame has its own weight too.

He walks to the center. His heartbeat races. His palms dampen.

He tries to apologize, but every word comes out wrong. Every explanation eventually becomes him blaming IRIS again. The cadets fold their arms. Some roll their eyes. Some just sigh. Nobody seems interested.

Eventually the three mentors begin leaving along with the cadets. Only Bakar stays behind. His arms remain crossed and his expression is unreadable.

When the last student exits, Bakar speaks.

“You should stop blaming IRIS. You should take responsibility. Had you not gone looking for trouble, your friends would not have been hurt. And yes, that includes Comot.”

Ali drops his gaze.

Bakar continues. “Training is about to start soon. You better get going.”

He turns around and leaves Ali alone in the dim room.

Or so Ali thinks.

He notices a figure leaning quietly on the far wall. Alicia. Her face is half shadowed, making it impossible to read her expression.

She says nothing. She just stands there, arms folded, gaze focused somewhere on the floor. Ali debates speaking to her, but panic stops him.

He moves toward the door.

That is when she speaks.

“Before you say anything, yes, you should definitely take full responsibility for what happened.”

He freezes.

“But that does not mean everything is your fault. Sure, things maybe would have turned out better had you not been there, but you and I know that some things are completely out of our control.”

Ali turns slightly. “But... do you hate me? For what happened?”

Alicia steps out of the shadow a bit. “Of course not. I have known you since childhood. I know how you act at times. While yes, what you did was bad, that does not mean I should start hating you. I have better things to do than bully you around like the others.”

Ali tries to speak again, but she interrupts.

“Oh, and you sneaking into the Academy did get me in trouble. But that does not really matter now, does it?”

Silence settles between them. Not hostile or suffocating. Just silence.

Alicia eventually pushes herself off the wall. “Alright. I think it is time we get to the others.”

They walk out together toward the class.

MOMENTS LATER

The dense forest beams with life. Vines hang from branches, sunlight filters through the canopy, and the ground is soft with leaves. The training arena is more natural than many cadets expect. Leon stands atop a flat rock as he begins the briefing.

“Today you will learn your roles inside a team. Neuro. Inviso. Kombat. Tekno. Work as one.”

Two teams are picked.

Team A: Ali, Alicia, Chris, Karya.

Team B: Zass, Roza, Mika, Geetha.

A horn blares. The training begins.

NARRATION: NEURO

Neuro agents must have sharp observational and critical thinking skills.

Alicia crouches atop a tall rock, surveying the battlefield. Her eyes track movement with precision no camera could match. She detects Team B quickly. Everyone except Zass, who is probably halfway across the arena already.

During missions, Neuros must analyze the situation and strategize quickly.

Alicia hops down and begins forming a plan with her team. Their conversation is muted in the background. The narration overshadows their words, but their body language tells everything. Simple plan. Effective if executed properly.

NARRATION: INVISO

Karya sits behind a rock, observing Roza who watches the objective through her sniper scope.

Inviso agents are cunning. Quick thinkers. They slip past defenses and strike when least expected.

Karya dashes across the gap between them with monstrous speed. Before Roza even realizes he is near, he blocks her scope with a card and hits her with the same hypnosis trick he used on Ali earlier in Act 2.

With Roza incapacitated, Team A moves forward unhindered.

NARRATION: KOMBAT

Chris bursts from the bushes in a blur of motion. His dual floating Kris spin around him. Mika reacts instantly, fists clenching inside mechanical gauntlets.

Strong fighters. Skilled techniques. Kombat agents must face the enemy head on.

Chris and Mika clash. Silat against brute strength. Blades against metal fists. Every move sparks dust from the ground. Mika swings hard, but Chris uses her momentum against her. He spins, uses his floating blades to tug her arm off balance and sends her crashing into a rock with a strike.

She prepares to retaliate, but a gravity bomb from Alicia pulls her right back into the rock. Double impact. Mika collapses.

Now only Zass and Geetha remain.

Zass dashes across the field. Alicia fires. The shot forces him to change directions, but Karya intercepts him with hypnosis. Zass falls.

The objective dome stands wide open.

Inside the dome, a grid of trip lasers covers the floor. Only a power box can disable them.

NARRATION: TEKNO

Tekno agents have talent in technology. Gadgets. Systems. Specialized tools.

Ali uses IRIS to map the laser paths. He leaps in and reaches the power box. Lasers deactivate.

Geetha watches from behind cover. She prepares her Nano Enhancer to revive her team.

Ali approaches the terminal. IRIS detects Zass coming back into action. The team moves to intercept.

Roza awakens and fires from above. Shots rain down. Alicia blocks most of them with her metal arm, but Zass creates a blur that blinds her. A lucky shot hits her torso. She falls.

Chris charges to help, but Mika returns and takes him down.

Ali exits the dome to support them, but Roza hits him too. He stumbles.

Surrounded, Karya surrenders. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

...

Rizwan walks through the woodland of North Cyberaya with Cinco on his right flank. They reach a metal gate that reads:

RESTRICTED AREA. KEEP OUT

Rizwan moves to inspect the lock, but microbugs swarm it, glowing bright red before disintegrating the metal completely. Ocho arrives from the trees.

Cinco gestures. “After you. We will be waiting for you here.”

Rizwan replies. “You might aswell not be here.”

Cinco answers calmly. “This is your task. Either you finish it, or you will be finished.”

Rizwan enters the restricted area. A cyborg cat leaps from the bushes. Drones cobbled together from old MATA drone parts descend from the canopy. Their guns aim at him.

Blaster fire rings through the woods.

Cinco hears it. Ocho looks worried. Cinco notes that because of Rizwan’s previous injury, his chances are low. Still, the mission must proceed.

Rizwan evades the drones with camouflage, but the cyborg cat detects him. A shot hits his ribs. He collapses.

From the trees emerges a stout elderly man holding a metal bat.

Professor Akram.

Quatro.

He squints. “Eh...? Rizwan? What are you doing here?”

...

The next day after school, Ali enters the Academy transport vessel. His face looks like he was demolished in a dodgeball match. He slumps into a seat.

He notices Zain across from him.

“Agent Zain! Where have you been?”