"Lady Sunfire!" Roy voiced with a surprised smile, happy he didn’t have to deal with those abominations anymore.

Whereas, Master Abraham’s clone clicked his tongue and brought down his chainsword.

"Having a hard time, Black Zero?"

Sunfire floated down majestically, bearing a mocking grin. Everywhere in sight, white ash of the cremated abyss creatures floated about in the air, and irregularly shaped energy crystals were strewn about like trinkets.

"I didn’t need your help."

Master Abraham, as usual, was as stuck up as a statue.

Roy immediately dismissed him.

"That’s a lie. We totally did. He’s a clone of the original. Thank you!"

Sunfire scoffed and landed on the weathered concrete.

"A binary clone?" asked she, bearing an amused expression. The unoriginal Black Zero remained silent.

"I barely felt any heat. That skill is so broken! How do you do that?" Roy wondered aloud.

Sunfire only smiled mischievously and said, "That’s a secret. Anyway, I’m to take you both to the bunker."

"Both of us? At once?" Roy gave the clone a side glance and did a once-over on Sunfire’s build. She didn’t look like she could carry both of them at once and also fly. "And what about all these energy crystals?" He quickly added.

"Lucky for you, I am quite strong. And..."

Sunfire raised her left finger where a ruby ring in the shape of a skull rested. The skull suddenly opened its mouth, and, with a sucking force, the scattered energy crystals were drawn into its small, open mouth despite their size difference, and it swallowed them whole. It was a marvel to behold, but such items weren’t uncommon.

Roy looked up at the ring on Sunfire’s hand with blazing eyes, and she chuckled, noticing this.

"Tier 5 tool, traded it for an item of mine."

Roy’s eyes widened. Tier 5 was the ’Unique’ grade of items, right below Epic. "I can’t imagine selling off such a useful item."

Sunfire didn’t reply, but glanced at Abraham. "Well, shall we?"

"No thanks." Black Zero sheathed his chainsword and continued on his journey.

Sunfire chuckled and shook her head.

"...A mere clone, but you took his pride in its entirety."

Black Zero’s clone ignored her words and continued on his way.

"So..." Roy voiced, but Sunfire suddenly floated up, grabbed his hand, flew over to the clone, grabbed him by the leg, and went up into the sky.

"Dammit." Black Zero protested and gripped his black box tighter. He was dangling awkwardly in the air since Sunfire only held his ankle.

"Fight, and I’ll turn you to ash," Sunfire said to the clone with a meek smile.

"..."

They were already mid-air, moving at about two hundred miles per hour, but it was obvious Sunfire could fly a lot faster.

"Whooo!" Roy stretched out his other arm, acting like he was flying by himself as they ascended into the clouds.

Her flight speed was considerably fast, as Roy felt his face cut through the wind and fill his mouth with air. Extremely ecstatic, he tried to laugh, but looked weird as tears were pouring from his eyes due to the wind.

A buzzing abyss creature spotted them on their journey and attacked, but with just a measured glance from Sunfire, it turned to white ash before it got close.

Though the creature’s energy crystals fell, Sunfire couldn’t bother to stop to retrieve them.

They faced a few more airborne abyss creatures, but either Sunfire turned them to ash or Master Abraham used the hi-tech pistol to blast a hole through them.

Not long after, Sunfire flew down and dropped Abraham and Roy.

The clone landed gracefully, while Roy rolled on the grass a bit before regaining his foothold.

She landed shortly after, and Roy was looking around for the APC, but in this forest area, there were only tall trees with falling dry and yellow leaves. One could get lost in here, Roy imagined.

An elevator rose from the ground where none expected there to be anything, and the group of three boarded it.

Shortly after, they found themselves staring at a large, heavy, maximum security circular blast door. Even a mutated abyss creature would find it extremely hard to break in.

With a long grading, the door opened inward, and before them were Dr. Gretsch, who stood beside the original Master Abraham, and Wolfman standing behind.

"Executioner Sunfire," Dr. Gretsch said with an old smile filled with relief. "Thank you for your help. Nice to meet you."

"Same, doctor." Sunfire kept her words short when she could.

"And I can see you’re back and healthy, Roy. Thank goodness," Dr. Gretsch added.

’He knows about the grey snow,’ Roy figured, having read between the lines of his words.

"WELCOME!" yelled Wolfman, wearing a stiff face.

"..." Whereas the original Abraham looked at her with a measured gaze.

"Black Zero," Sunfire greeted.

However, Master Abraham simply nodded his head at her, causing her to hiss.

Black Zero’s eyes moved over to their group of three, including his clone, but settled on Roy, who stepped forward with a glare.

"Abraham, you put me up with a clone. What if something went drastically wrong?" Roy spoke disrespectfully on purpose.

However, the Black Zero standing before him disappeared like a deleted number on a digital screen, and everyone’s eyes widened and faced the one presumed to be the clone.

"What the—" Roy stepped away in shock.

"Oh?" Sunfire raised a pleasing eyebrow, a smirk appearing on her lips. She knew Black Zero loved such antics.

"You left your clone with us instead?" Dr. Gretsch asked, clearly astonished, too.

"AHAHAHAHA! I SUSPECTED!"

The original Black Zero, which was the clone, glared at the now-quiet Roy for a second before leading the way into the bunker.

"B-But why did you lie?"

"..."

Of course, there was no answer from him. Roy had long noticed that his master’s character seemed to become colder the further away from safety, his home in X-City, they were. He was a seasoned executioner, through and through.

"Typical." Sunfire scoffed.

"When did he even make the switch? I was watching him the entire time," Dr. Gretsch muttered.

From the blast door into the military bunker, there was a short hallway that looked just like a tunnel that led to the main area. The architecture was brutalist, meant to keep abyssal threats out, so there was a built-in air filtration system, a main console that viewed the entire area using a satellite, a water recycling system, and numerous shelves of high-calorie protein bars that could last a decade without needing refrigeration. Of course, all this is powered by an older EC-Power Converter, although bulky, it was silent and didn’t emit vibrations or waves that could lead abyss creatures here.

There was a small living quarters with three bunk beds, enough for the group, a weapons and explosives cache (albeit not blacktech), and a proper waste-disposal system.

The bunker was built to last for ages to come.

"Now you’re here, we need to have a meeting," Master Abraham voiced as he led them to the war room.

"Of course," Sunfire answered.

"Where’s Dr. Sally?" Roy asked.

"She’s sick." Dr. Gretsch answered, his expression turning grave. "We don’t know how it happened, but she’s infected."