The King of the Reaper Squad

"What is that doing here?" Isrina pointed at the bird-shaped trash buddy.

"What's wrong with it?" Niode buckled Mivangeline and Shien's unconscious bodies on the chairs. "It's Lansen! I brought this adorable little bird as soon as the UICA sponsored your cute invention!"

"Konnichiwa!" Lansen waved his puny wings to Isrina. "Me, Lansen! Hajimemashite!"

"Get that thing out of here!" Isrina demanded.

"Why? He's our trash buddy!"

"Isrina, can Lansen stay? Please?" Tetsuyin, Niode's wife, gave Isrina a sad puppy face.

"No!"

"Please?"

Isrina didn't want to see the invention that made everyone call her cute, but she couldn't say no to Tetsuyin's sad face. "F-Fine."

"Yay!" Tetsuyin clapped. "We love our trash buddy!"

Isrina groaned.

"Mrs. Niang! Mrs. Niang! You must be my creator!" Lansen waddled his way towards Isrina. "Thank you! Thank you for making me. Arigato, Desert Robin!"

"It's Desert Cardinal! Why did I even bother to make you? Nobody respects me anymore!"

Niode drove the ten-wheeled geococcoid runner shaped like a roadrunner's head across the town.

"Alright, if I'm not mistaken," Niode steered the wheel. "My good neighbor, Rahim, should be here! What the?"

He stopped the runner abruptly, sending Isrina, Tetsuyin, and Lansen flying.

"Niode!" Tetsuyin hugged Mivangeline's body. "What happened?"

"Get off me you stupid trash can!" Isrina kicked Lansen off her leg.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Lansen transformed back into his cylindrical trash can form. "Itai!"

"Niode! What's wrong with you?"

"What's that?" Niode pointed.

Isrina and Tetsuyin walked to the cockpit, spotting a gigantic purple portal opening in front of them.

"Not good," Isrina frowned.

"I can hear something from that purple thing!" Niode listened. "It sounds like clanking metal."

"Niode, turn this runner around, now!"

"But this is the fastest way to Rahim!"

"Just do what I say!"

A large metallic shark head swam out.

"Holy crap!" Niode swerved the runner in a U-turn.

Niode frantically sped the vehicle away from the mechanical object. He then quickly parked behind a corner away from the portal's path. The group gulped, witnessing the shark-shaped warship squirm out of the purple miasma. The mechanized behemoth shone white lights all around the streets.

"What the hell is that?" Niode panicked. "Did that just happen?"

"What was that? What was that?" Lansen walked behind the cockpit. "Look like a big shark."

"That was a chimaeriforme battlecruiser."

"Talk about crazy," Niode breathed rapidly. "I can take the longer way to Rahim."

Niode turned the steering wheel to find another route. The group saw more chimaeras emerging from purple portals as Niode wildly detoured across the town. The runner barely dodged a chimaera's large fin.

"I didn't sign up for this!" Niode made an abrupt stop.

Everyone watched the chimaeras attack the nearest WARBLER Center with their battleship fin cannons. The civilians cheered with their pro-Kneapexist signs as the UICA were being persecuted.

"Serves the UICA right!"

"Fanghui is our savior!"

"Why are they cheering for Fanghui?" Niode grimaced. "We didn't trap the players in the game! Maika did!"

"It's called propaganda, Niode," Isrina couldn't watch the public curse the UICA and worship Fanghui.

"This isn't right!" Tetsuyin cried. "Why are the people praising the evil side?"

"Fanghui promised the players' freedom, and the people fell for it."

"That's so bad."

"No cry! No cry!" Lansen snuggled into Tetsuyin's lap. "Me here to make your day. Happy! Happy!"

Although the trash buddy was an invention Isrina felt embarrassed about making, she couldn't help but smile at Lansen.

"Almost there, ladies!" Niode almost hit a car. "Whoops! I think we're clear from those sharks. Rahim should be on this street."

"Everything will be fine," Isrina rubbed Tetsuyin's back. "Your husband has this in the bag. Our kids are going to be alright."

Tetsuyin nodded as Lansen climbed onto her shoulder to wipe her tears. Isrina watched her son while Tetsuyin watched her daughter, both unconscious in the Syanic Earth.

"Woah! Something black just passed by," Niode blinked.

"Where?" Isrina walked to the cockpit. "I don't see anything."

A man landed at a distance in front of the vehicle. The spiky-haired man wore a gray metal mask with seven red eyes along with a dark suit and cape. Isrina recognized the man, the one who murdered her husband.

"Not him!" Isrina spun the wheel to steer the vehicle away.

The shadowy man drew his pistols and combined them to transform into a long cannon. He fired a giant plasma bolt that sent the runner flying.

"Is everyone alright?" Isrina huffed.

"Tetsuyin?" Niode shouted through the smoke. "Isrina?"

"Trouble! Trouble!" Lansen flapped his little wings to clear the debris.

Tetsuyin cried as broken glass pierced her face.

"Hey, you're going to be alright," Niode checked on his wife. "Isrina, there's a first aid kit in the cockpit."

Isrina grabbed the small case from the cockpit and gave it to Niode.

"H-how are the kids?" Tetsuyin mumbled.

"Thank goodness, they're alright," Isrina unbuckled Shien and Mivangeline from the inverted orientation.

She sat them down as Niode tended to his wife.

"It hurts," Tetsuyin touched her husband's chin.

"You'll be fine! God is good!" Niode rummaged through the medical kit. "I assume I would have to remove the glass with tweezers, right?"

"Glove first! Glove first!" Lansen smacked Niode's hands. "For safety! For safety!"

"Oh, right."

Isrina looked around cautiously for the man in black. He was nowhere to be seen.

"What?" Niode felt Lansen slap his hand again.

"Use this! Use this!" Lansen shook his wing at a small bottle of alcohol. "Disinfect first!"

"Whoa, Lansen. How do you know this stuff?"

"I installed emergency medical programming in the trash buddies to save lives when possible," Isrina brushed the dust off Shien's head.

"Sweet!" Niode smiled.

All the time everyone joked about my invention, I never thought it could help someone. Isrina observed Lansen. I guess my trash buddy isn't as bad as I thought.

"Rest! Rest!" Lansen sat on Tetsuyin's lap.

As Niode listened to Lansen's instructions, Isrina saw something black swing by the windows. The group heard a loud stomp on the runner.

"It's him," Isrina's eyes narrowed with rage.

"Wait, who?" Niode questioned.

"The King of the Reaper Squad."

A cigarette fell through the cracked windows.

"No!" Isrina grabbed the ticking cigarette.

She threw the bomb away letting it explode outside.

"Holy crap!" Niode screamed. "What was that?"

"Stay here with Tetsuyin!" Isrina drew her red blade and cut her way outside. "I will handle this."

She rolled out to find the masked man laughing.

The tall man hissed. "Not bad, Desert Cardinal!"

"You sick man, Hernamidos!" Isrina growled at the Reaper Squad leader.

"Why the long face?" General Hernamidos smoked a cigarette. "Oh, right. Taking care of your Little Chickadee alone without Jinhai's love?"

Isrina gnashed her teeth with hot tears boiling in rage as the chimaeras scanned the wrecked WARBLER Center for survivors.

"You'll pay for making my life a living hell!" She lunged her blade at the General.

"Aw, tough birdie wants to play rough, huh?" Hernamidos threw the cigarette bomb at Isrina. "I think it's time we set the playground on fire. The baby chickadee is about to lose his mommy too!"