Purple lightning streaked across the horizon as icy rain fell. A deep rumbling thunder boomed as it finally caught up with the brilliant flash of light that briefly lit up the world around her. She walked through an absurdly long bridge, pulverized glass crunching beneath her feet, crossed an empty armory, and tentatively stepped into a narrow and dark alleyway. The alley was peppered with the tattered remains of fallen United Earth Defense Force soldiers. Their blood was splattered onto the brick walls of the alley and it gave off a nauseating metallic odor. She pulled her infrared visor down and hurried along, pushing her steel toed boots through her slain comrades with fierce determination. Her eyes shone green for a moment as she aimed down her scope to look for any signs of the enemy. She was the last soldier standing, and she had to complete her mission even if it meant giving up her life in the process. There would be no calling for reinforcements this time; her backup all laid on the concrete behind her.

"Heaven Chariot, Heaven Chariot, this is Angel One. I am nearing the objective. How copy? Over."

There was no response as static crackled in her earpiece.

"Copy, Angel One. Mission parameters remain the same. We are seeing enemy movement near your location. In fifty meters, open the door to your left and continue your mission. Over."

She sighed a breath of relief as she heard Haven Chariot through the radio. She wasn't as alone as she thought. Angel One looked up into the dark skies and caught a glimpse of a drone circling overhead from behind the cloud cover like her own guardian angel.

"Ten-four, Heaven Chariot. Angel One out."

She cautiously moved forward and turned her head to look at one of the soldiers on the ground beside her. He was young like her, and couldn't have been more than a day over eighteen years old. Handsome too. Ever since the Earth entered into its sixth major ice age almost two hundred years earlier, populations around the Earth began to drop significantly. The only people left capable of joining the military were fresh meat like them. Perhaps in another time and place, she would have even asked for his name and go on a coffee date. Angel One closed her eyes in sadness and recalled why they were here fighting a war that should have never happened.

What initially started as a mission to save mankind became something much darker when the uncontrolled S.O.L. Project scientists began to play God. They took it one step too far and conducted unethical genomic experiments to forcibly push humanity to a new stage of evolution by mixing human and alien DNA. The United Earth Alliance attempted to shut down the project, but it was too little too late. The genocidal war against the unenhanced people of Earth had already begun.

She opened her eyes again into the abyss before her and shuddered. A dying fluorescent light bulb flickered on and off above her with a slight buzzing sound. She drew in her breath and wondered if her fate belonged in an alley somewhere as well, forgotten in the concrete permafrost.

Angel One activated the suppressor on her light pulse rifle and kept it at the ready as she reached for the door. She opened it slowly and spotted a dozen or so enemy forces lounging about the courtyard beyond the room. Something crunched and her blood froze as she turned to see two soldiers headed her way. Luckily, she ducked behind the nearest cover she could find and activated the active camouflage right in the nick of time.

The enemy soldiers continued past her unaware and she decided to seize that moment to strike. The active camo didn't work too well on biological eyes, but it worked well enough to give her the element of surprise. She pulled out her blade and closed the distance to her prey. Like a silent phantom, she rose up behind them and slit the throat of the soldier on the left. As he grasped his gushing red throat and fell to the floor, his comrade turned around to shout.

Too slow.

Angel One covered his mouth with her gloved hand and pushed him against the wall as she drew her silenced pistol from its holster and shot him three times in the stomach. By all accounts, the textbook move was executed perfectly, but the soldier reflexively pulled his trigger as he slumped to the ground and alerted his comrades. Almost immediately, the other units in the area began converging their fire on her location.

"So much for stealth," she grumbled to herself.

Her mind raced as she scrambled for cover. She sent out a radar pulse and spotted fifteen remaining infantry and five exosuits in the surrounding vicinity. Angel One was outnumbered twenty to one, and she had to figure out a way to get through all of them. She checked her wrist interface and saw that she still had three minutes until she could call Angel-Fall.

Three minutes. I just need to survive three minutes, and then it will be over.

She raised her pulse rifle over the trashcan she was hiding behind and gave herself some covering fire as she ran for one of the street vendor carts that rotted away in the war-torn courtyard. Hopefully, it was sturdy enough to withstand the incoming fire. She glanced up and saw a giant hotdog spray painted onto its metallic gray side. Certainly, life had proven to her more than once that it loved to screw her over, but getting killed by an exploding hot dog stand was definitely not how she wanted to go.

Angel One peeked out from behind the weathered cart and immediately regretted that decision as a dozen bullet whizzed past within an inch of her face. Bluish-white sparks flew and bullets exploded into a billion tiny fragments as they impacted the cement ground around her. The telltale sound of a rocket locking onto her chimed in the distance, and she shook her head at herself. She was definitely not dying by a hot dog stand and resolved to do what she always did when she was backed into a corner. Angel One decided to try something... radical.

If I die, it sure as hell isn't going to be cowering behind a gigantic hot dog. I'm taking these bastards down with me.

She mumbled a prayer to any god that would make her bulletproof, activated her visor and rushed out into the open with guns blazing. She dodged the incoming barrage of bullets by using the jump jet on her back and managed to take out four enemy combatants in a satisfying four-pulse burst from her rifle. A rocket hurtled past her into the hot dog cart and ruptured the propane tank inside it. The cart exploded and sent burning shrapnel flying in every direction. A blistering sliver sliced her thigh, but she had to keep moving to avoid being hit by much worse projectiles.

An exosuit suddenly rushed out and tried to grab her, but that was going to be its final mistake. Angel One slid underneath the legs of the fumbling yellow exoskeleton and jumped onto the rear of the unit. She ignited one of her incendiary grenades and stuck it into the exposed wiring just above the gyroscope sensors. The enemy unit exploded just as she boosted off it and a notification popped up in the upper right-hand side of her visor. Angel-Fall was ready.

"Lucifer, activate," she whispered into her helmet as Heaven Chariot sent a fireball hurtling down at her from low Earth orbit.

Lucifer Danger was an Angel-class Leviathan created under the Akari Initiative to defend the Earth against the possibility of a second alien invasion. However, they didn't came back and probably never will.

What the hell would the Elves want with a snow globe? snorted Angel One.

Now, it was used to defend humanity from whatever was left of itself. Lucifer Danger was the culmination of three hundred year's worth of research and development into hybrid alien technology, and Angel One wanted to be one of its Pilots more than anything else. She just needed to find a copilot that was sync-compatible with her. But that didn't matter today.

The ruby colored mecha crashed into the center of the courtyard and crushed three more enemies with its impact. It's two ocular sensors flashed a deep purple like the lightning above them and its onboard AI came online. Lucifer Danger opened fire as it unlocked its cockpit and welcomed Angel One onboard.

"Good evening, Angel One. My weapons are at your disposal. As you may have noticed, you are lacking a navigator today. Therefore, I will be assuming the copilot's responsibilities. Don't look so worried though, all the ladies say that I'm a safe driver," quipped a soothing male voice in a British accent. A hologram of a lightly bearded man in a billowing white open-chested shirt winked at her as it materialized in the navigator's seat.

While the original Leviathan retrieved from the Roswell site probably only needed a single pilot, the Angel Leviathans were created as copiloted mecha with one weapon specialist and one navigator. The scientists at 51 couldn't figure out how it distributed the mental capacity necessary to operate the mecha with only one pilot without breaking down the mind. So, they decided to split the psychic load by having two pilots operate opposite hemispheres of the Leviathan much like how the human brain worked. The pilots' psyche connected through a neural bridge and operated the three-story behemoths in perfect synchronicity.

"Initiating pilot to pilot synchronicity protocol. Do tell, how have you been, Angel One?" asked Lucifer as it flashed a holographic smile.

"It's been going good Lucifer, absolutely swell. But can we get to the formalities later, please? You're going to be in my head in a few seconds anyways," laughed Angel One as the neural bridge between her and Lucifer established through her armor's spinal interface. "We have quite the situation on our hands."

She found it ridiculously funny that Lucifer was programmed to look like the devilishly handsome doctor that created him. She also loved the fact that Lucifer's humor standard was calibrated to the doctor's own personality. Angel One couldn't deny the fact that she had the tiniest crush on the British doctor.

"Lord have mercy... I don't have taste buds, but that MRE pack looks absolutely unpalatable to the utmost degree," laughed Lucifer's hologram as it cruised through Angel One's memory of her meal earlier that day.

"Be grateful you don't. But Luce, please. We are getting shot at, remember?"

"Of course, of course. A most lamentable predicament indeed," quipped Lucifer with a tinge of disdain, "I shall engage these unsavory characters immediately." 

Lucifer Danger targeted the remaining enemy infantry and launched a flurry of rockets, bullets, and lasers. Everything was either dead or disintegrated within the next minute. 

"Splendid. It would seem that they are no more."

"Not splendid, because it looks like someone's about to crash our party. We aren't clear just yet," Angel One said. She looked above and saw that the enemy had launched a fireball of its own towards them. It crashed a hundred meters ahead of Lucifer and activated with a brilliant flash of green from its horned head. This hulking black Leviathan definitely seemed to be more advanced than the exosuit she had blown up earlier.

A crackling sound came through her earpiece again.

"Angel One, this is Heaven Chariot. Your mission parameters have been updated. Eliminate the enemy Leviathan at all costs. Do not allow it to enter the inner city. Do you copy? Over."

"Wilco, Heaven Chariot. I read you loud and clear. Proceeding to engage the hostile Leviathan. Angel One out."

From the smoking crater, it withdrew a yellow energy sword from behind its back and began to attack. It charged at Lucifer with blinding speed and force without so much as a warning.

"Lucifer, evasive maneuvers!" shouted Angel One as she grabbed the controls and jumped into the air. The enemy mecha's sword almost hit Lucifer, but she maneuvered out of its reach at the very last second. Her heart pounded as she felt that adrenaline begin pumping through her veins.

This was not supposed to happen, thought Angel One, and what the hell is with the sword?

Lucifer leaped out of the constricted confines of the courtyard and hid behind one of the surrounding buildings. It turned around the corner and aimed its heavy munitions rifle at the enemy mecha. It was slowly walking towards them and began to charge up for a second attack.

She couldn't believe what was happening. At this point, she felt more insulted than scared. Walking slowly and toying her with a damn sword of all possible weapons. She furrowed her brow as she decided what to do.That cocky bastard.

"Lucifer, I want you to scan it for any weak spots in the armor. I'll take it out with one bullet," Angel One said with an icy determination to be feared. After all, she was the best marksman in her class.

"Aren't I glad I'm not on the other side of your gun. Scan complete. I believe the weakest point of the enemy unit is the head, where the cockpit is located. I have taken the liberty of calculating the optimal trajectory while factoring in the current wind speed. Please feel free to fire at will," Lucifer chimed.

"With pleasure," Angel One replied in a growl. The trajectory ring circled on screen around the black Leviathan until it zoomed in on its head and locked on. She planted Lucifer's feet firmly beneath her and pulled the trigger. Angel One watched as the bullet ripped through the sound barrier and raced toward the enemy.

Gotcha.

However, at the very last second before impact, the dark Leviathan sliced the huge bullet in half and the fragments exploded into two of the buildings behind it.

What? That can't be possible.

"Well, that went smoothly. Perhaps it's time for plan B. Wait, you have a plan B right, Angel One?" asked Lucifer as Angel One stared in shock. "Oh... great. I'm your plan B, aren't I. That's absolutely fantastic."

She ignored Lucifer's snide comments and continued to stare at the enemy Leviathan in disbelief. Angel One couldn't believe her eyes. It should have been a direct hit, but instead, it sliced her bullet clean in two.

"My turn," came a deep booming voice that reverberated between the buildings.

It brandished another sword and charged at Lucifer again. It seemed almost to be flying in an obsidian streak. Angel One blinked out of her confusion and tried to escape out of its strike once more, but was a second too slow this time. A deafening crack rang through the icy air as it cleaved Lucifer's left arm right off and almost took the head too.

"Status report, NOW!" she yelled as she danced out of another dual bladed attack. Warnings and alarms were ringing and flashing throughout the cockpit and things did not look good. She definitely did not expect that.

Dodging the behemoth building-sized swords was getting rather difficult for both her and Lucifer. She needed to find a way to neutralize this Leviathan immediately, or things would go south really fast. In fact, things already went south, but any further would be most undesirable.

"My left arm has been completely severed," replied Lucifer as charcoal colored oil spewed from its torso and sparks flew everywhere. All traces of humor left his voice while he continued the status report. "Weapon systems one to three are offline. Shields remain at forty-five percent capacity. Rerouting power to remaining online weapon systems and mobility package. I recommend that we retreat to a safe distance to regain a tactical advantage."

Lucifer was right, and she knew it. They had to get out of the enemy's reach. However, Angel One wasn't going to retreat. That wasn't her style. Her opponent might be able to slice bullets at a distance, but she doubted it would be able to repeat the feat with her gun jammed into its face. She just needed to find a way to close the distance and get in even closer.

"Switch to explosive rounds. Let's see how our new friend here enjoys smoking."

"Copy. Swap complete and weapon reloaded. New trajectory has been calculated and locked. Fire at will."

The round whistled through the air and the black mecha took the bait. It sliced the bullet in half again, but this time it exploded into a brilliant flash of light and inky smoke. The onyx mecha reeled backward for a second, and Angel One took that opportunity to rush through the smoke towards it. Lucifer closed in on his enemy and rammed the obsidian Leviathan into the building behind them. It tried to raise its swords, but Lucifer knocked them away and jammed its rifle under the chin where its cockpit was. Whoever was piloting the enemy Leviathan was about to have a very, very bad day.

"Didn't expect that, now did you?" Angel One snarled through her gritted teeth. She pulled the trigger three times for good measure and jumped back a couple steps. The sword wielding Leviathan fell to its knees before collapsing to the snow covered ground beneath it.

Go to hell.

Lucifer turned around and walked back towards the courtyard as the enemy Leviathan erupted into a giant ball of fire behind them. The explosion flattened three of the brick buildings around it and its energy swords faded out of power. Despite suffering heavy injuries, Angel One had won.

"Heaven Chariot, this is Angel One. Enemy Leviathan has been eliminated. Lucifer Danger has sustained heavy damage and requires immediate exfil. I am in need of medical assistance as well. Over."

"Copy, Angel One. Angel-recall teams and medevac en-route. Standby. Heaven Chariot out."

She took off her helmet and wiped the blood out of her eyes. Angel One stepped out of her oil covered Lucifer and looked at the beautiful night sky. If there was one good thing that came out of the ice age, it was the clear skies and the brilliant stars that shone through them. The thunderstorm had dissipated and she focused her gaze on one of the many twinkling stars. How she longed to travel through the heavens one day and explore the many worlds left undiscovered.

Suddenly, the stars began to fade and a hexagon pattern laced through the sky. Angel One looked around and everything began to disintegrate into white pixels. A robotic voice rang out beside her.

"Congratulations, Angel One. Final round complete. You have successfully finished the Trials with a ninety-eight percent Synchronicity efficiency. You are now the highest scoring Pilot in the Akari Initiative. Terminating Simulation."

A smile curled on her lips as she brushed a lock of her long blonde hair behind her ear. She had waited her entire life for this moment, and it was finally here. They would have no choice but to give Lucifer Danger to her now. As for her copilot, she didn't really care who they chose as long as he or she could keep up with her. After having to bear the pain for so long, she finally had the chance to do something about it.

Angel One now held the highest score for completing the Trials, but she didn't plan to stop there. On the contrary, Aeris Lauren had only just begun.

~~~~~

This chapter is dedicated to ZiyandaLauren13 for her efforts in crafting the beautiful book cover that allured you to this story. Thank you, Ziyanda. :)

~AHui