Seiner stares deeply at the Reborn Allison, inspecting every part of her machinery, potential weapons attached inside and all sorts of specs to be expected from this kind. Even when twitching for a bit, Seiner makes sure to make every observation count if he wants to go for a new strike against her. 

"You're alone, right? Guess that makes it easy for the likes of me," Seiner says as he ignites his attached light wrist blades while emitting a smile. While shining brightly, the lights around the room flicker for a bit, likely from the energy drawn from each source, a sign of what could come among the two species. All while Allison only stares with a face as frozen as a statue. 

Human versus machine, now proven to new heights. 

"Bring it, scrapheap!" Seiner quips as he bolts toward Allison, ready to leave a swing targeted at her chest for a potential attack. Just as he swings vertically, however, Allison steps back with a leap backward, which leads to Seiner slicing a part of the computer console that is behind her. 

He stumbles a bit as he glances at both sides, but before he can turn to his back, Allison uses her boosters to sprint forward Seiner, hitting right in the back as they impact the wall behind Seiner, which while it doesn't break, it leaves some indentation, with scratches on the surface and cracks as well, but remains intact otherwise. 

Seiner groans and clutches his back as Allison steps back for a bit, as she lifts her left hand, revealing a glowing energetic cannon from it. Just as it fires, Seiner swiftly leaps to his left, which blasts part of the wall away, showing the rest of the facility's machinery and a set of windows as well as some elevator shafts. 

Despite this, Seiner scoffs as he activates the other wristblade, stretching his arms wide and going into his stance as he prepares another strike toward Allison. But again, just as he sprints forward and is ready to slice her, she moves her left arm, which when impacted by Seiner's blade, deflects it back with a blueish shield, causing Seiner to stammer backward for a bit. 

"C'mon! Is that the best you can do?!" Seiner asks with clenched teeth, still forwarding with his stance in spite of Allison's limitless powers. Allison only replies by sprinting forward and grabbing his collar. And before Seiner can react any further, Allison plunges her fist right into his abdomen, enough to make Seiner cough some blood in front of her face. 

And with one swift throw, Seiner is hurled to the other side of the room, crashing headfirst into the floor, while Allison prepares her blaster hands once more. 

"Want to play cheap, huh...!?" Seiner mutters as he presses a button from his right wristblade, turning into a cannon, which opens fire, the velocity being high enough to impact Allison's left hand and knock the beam away from her. This gives Seiner the window to get up as he rushes for the main consoles in order to disable the jammers. 

But once again, Allison uses her boost rockets from her feet to fly towards Seiner, with her once torn-down arm now shifting into a large blade of sorts. However, the noise is enough to make Seiner turn around and parry the strike with his right wristblade. 

He attempts to slash Allison around her chest and shoulders, but she evades most of them in quick leaps while also parrying a handful of Seiner's strikes with her transformed blade. Right as Seiner uses both wristblades to concentrate his strike on Allison, a few parries and such lead to Allison using her boosters again, impacting Seiner's chest head-on, which hurls him away and landing on the floor. And just as he's about to get up, Allison lands in front of him and stomps him near the chest, causing Seiner to groan. 

And as Seiner tries to get up with all the strength he can muster, he prepares to charge once more at Allison with a stab in the chest, she pushes her fists in his direction, which sends Seiner flying to another console in the room, breaking some keyboards and screens as he rolls backward from the force of the impact. He coughs for a bit as he holds to one of the consoles as he gets up, then clutching to the part near the bruised impact as he keeps his distance from Allison, still with a frozen expression on her face.

"Seiner, come in! What's taking you so long?!" Valentina's voice is heard from the eardpod in Seiner's ear. He puts his hand near it while breathing slowly and still clutching his chest.

"I've got one tough tin can to break," Seiner says with a growling tone while placing his hand near his holster where the golden gun is.

However, Allison glances at him and flickers the gun away from his hand as soon as he tries to take aim at her, then tries to slash his arm off. He makes a swift parry against her, and soon the clash between blades erupts once again, as both use every trick they have to gain the upper hand in this battle, parrying and striking at every open part that they can find, but almost to no avail, in spite of the physical prowess of Allison.

Every swipe is answered by a block or evasion, then with attempted stabs and slashes in every corner, yet no clear upper hand between the two. With one tricky placement, he grabs a hold of a round desk chair and then proceeds to clubber Allison's face with each strike getting harder and rougher as Seiner growls. On the fifth strike, it's enough to scrape off a piece of flesh from her face near the forehead and while flinching from every impact, she turns like it was nothing.

"Bloody hell, you're so annoying, more than Tany," Seiner says as tries for another swing, yet Allison counters with a fist to the right shoulder then grabs his face and pummels him to the ground with each repeated stomp.

His visions spin in blurriness while gasping and crying out for air as Allison lets go of him, with many bruises around his cheeks and forehead, with a bleeding nose to boot. It seems no matter what he can do, Allison seems to be one step ahead of him, in every shape and form in terms of abilities.

No... You won't take me just yet... His eyes narrow, teeth clenching and everything. Despite everything that is thrown at him, no matter how big or small it can be, he will not back down from the fight, not one single bit. 

Some moments earlier. 

Rian runs through the railed bridges, split from the other women in an attempt to divert the attention of Zlocan troops heading their way, using every ounce of strength he has to pass through each of them as the alarm blares in the background. With every step, Rian inspects every corner of the room, in anticipation of a surprise Zlocan attack, and yet no report on the jammer's deactivation yet. What's taking the team so long? 

He places his hand near the earpod, some contact is needed. 

"Valentina, what's the hold up with Delta Team?" Rian asks. He is answered by a brief sigh and some sound of blaster fire before she answers back. 

"He talked about breaking a tin can or something. Just give him more time, will ya?" Rian only sighs as he continues his run across the rails of the facility. Sounds of faint blaster fire are heard in the distance, yet nowhere close to reach him, something he notices as he continues to run across the floor. 

But just as he heads downstairs, he turns to the right and sees a glimpse of two certain figures on a platform surrounded by machinery.  Even when far away, one could discern a distinctive shape inside, a particular male getting pounded like hell at every second of their life, and what seems to be something Zlocan. 

From the looks of it, Rian deduces it, then his eyes widen as the realization dawns on him. 

Seiner... are you seriously...? 

Not the best moment to catch him like that. For a supposed genius with every sort of gadget at his disposal, a mere cyborg is too much for him? So many thoughts run through Adrian's mind over this while looking back and forth in both directions. His interactions with the EWs were certainly not the greatest, but especially not Logan, and yet, to just leave him like that would mean so many things to everyone, not just for them, but also the rest of the UEF and even Rian himself. 

Then after some consideration, he clenches his fists while pinching his lips together before letting out a heavy sigh in response. It can't be helped it seems.

"Can't even do a basic mission right. Sheesh," Rian mutters in response, closed eyes and such before deciding to sprint towards the platform where Seiner is trapped with. He can boast about what he is, alright, but if he needs that wake-up call that he intends to have, he'll give it to him whatever means necessary, and regardless of the situation or when it happens. 

As he heads downstairs, sounds of stomping are heard from the outside, which makes Rian grimace in response over the implications, and is enough to make him stop dead in his tracks from going further upstairs. But he inspects his belt and checks a few more of the electrical grenades he has at his disposal. As he unloads one while sighing, a makes for a quick yet hard throw near the shattered window above him, hoping that it could land where it intends to, and hopefully save Seiner from this trouble that he has. 

"Hope this can be the saving spark for you, jackass." 

***

Allison holds Seiner through his collar, ready to slice the throat near the blade from her right arm. Breathing heavily while swallowing what remains in his blood inside of him, there must be something that could surely spring his friends to rescue him in the spring of time. And yet, it all seems so distant and far away for him. It seems that this is the end of the line for Seiner, nothing else seems to be coming for his rescue and to potentially die all alone like this, it's surely a sentiment one would never like to have in such passing moments. 

But just when it seems that it's all gone for him, a grenade falls near Allison's feet, which makes her turn around to spot it. And just as she's about to pick it up, it detonates a big flow of electricity around her, which causes her to shake heavily as she drops Seiner, her arms and legs trembling and getting even more disjointed from the force of the electric shock thrown at her. 

Now's the chance, Seiner activates the cannon in the wrist once more and aims for the area where the "heart" can be located while still clutching to the wounds in his chest. He takes the shot, with the blast piercing through the machinery inside of her which causes her to shake even more erratically than before. And from that alone, it makes her even widen in response. Seiner then aims for the left, blasting the abdomen of her body,  enough to knock her back as she stops shaking erratically, her mouth hanging open, and after some moments of twitching without end, that stopped as well. 

"I've got you..." Seiner mutters as he slowly stands up by hanging to a nearby console, and from there, he limps towards the main console containing the signals to the power station in Los Angeles.

Using his pad to inspect the schematics of the system,  he first cracks the password for the central interface, and once he's done with that part, he pushes some buttons by using the hacked password. A command code is shown on the screen, displaying the message: "Are you sure you want to shut down all functions?". 

With one sigh, he presses the Y key, and from that, the sounds of machinery start to slow down, up until the point that the sounds from outside like shouts and blaster fire are heard. Nothing else, just that. 

"Finally..." Seiner says with a whispery tone as he puts the pad back into his belt, then places his hand near the earpod on the left. "I've got it... I've got it..."  Those are the only words escaping from him before stumbling down to the floor, still sustaining the injuries from before. And just when someone kicks the door open, revealing no one other than Adrian, observing him in such a sorry state. 

"Oh man, Seiner?" He runs towards him and grabs him by his arms while pressing his hand as he carries him away. Despite this state, it's enough to make Seiner turn around to face him. 

"Adrian...?" 

"Eh, I was just passing through, nothing special." A chuckle is heard from Seiner despite this state. Even though he may want to admit it, this is something that he could really wish to appreciate Adrian's help in any way.

1 hour later 

Outside the facility, surrendering Inquisitors and Knights are placed in line by the arriving troops, while helicopters descend near the facility to either pick up the wounded, salvage some equipment or even deploy other soldiers around the vicinity for another mission. In spite of some difficulties, it seems that they managed to get to the second step. 

To ascend from darkness itself. 

Seiner sits in a slumped position near a line of crates, holding a red can of soda and surrounded by fellow Warriors who observe with smiles on their faces. Even on the verge of death, relief is the one thing they cherish the most when it comes to certain comrades of theirs. But just as Seiner lifts his head up, a certain someone leans near him, one enough to make his smile vanish from his face. 

"I think you gotta make more rapidly fast responses next time, Seiny," Tany says while giving a wink, which makes him sigh in response. 

"Whatever... It was a mere coincidence to encounter her in this state." Tany giggles in response while Logan chuckles for a bit. 

Amira then glances around and spots a certain lone figure walking near the rocks, hands in pockets and such, frowning even in spite of sunrays covering the figure. From that, she can spot who the certain someone is and walks near his position. 

"Adrian, care to have a second?" Amira says, which prompts Rian to stop dead in his tracks, yet doesn't turn around to face them, especially with someone like Logan present with them. 

"Yeah, what do you want?" 

"Nothing, I just wanted to say something for you. That on behalf of the-" Amira tries to explain, only for Rian to raise his hand. 

"Make no mistake. I didn't come here to save your asses or anything. I'm just here because I'm fucking pissed." Amira frowns for a bit over this alongside Logan, who turns away from him for a second. Knowing well of what he promised him. Yet despite this, he can't help but feel if there's something else within Rian that would show more than he is. 

"You sure about that, Rian...?" Logan asks. A period of silence follows from Adrian, who aside from a groan, doesn't do much else. The others wait to see if it'll mean Rian may spring up something or else. 

Then, these words come out. 

"Fuck around and find out." And from that, he walks away from them, ready to head into his own business, away from the Warriors and such. Despite this, Amira can't help but give a slight smile on her face over Adrian's actions from today, how despite everything that happened between them, for the moment Rian saw red when he talked with Logan the last time they met. He may not want to admit it, but this is something many would know. 

Maybe, just perhaps, their bond can be genuine after all.