The sun had long set, ceasing its basking light of the city to wither as the moonlight paved its way down the surface of what makes the city's view. The clouds now darkened, painting the midnight sky with another shade of its dark, the sweet caress of dusk now present after the dawn.

Busy streets now adorned with warm streetlights that lit the path of streets with illuminate glow. People in groups or in pairs walked the luminated path of concrete. The vehicles slowly turned among corners and paused to give way for pedestrians to reach the other side of the busy streets which now ceased to casual walks.

However, at a certain island far off the harbor where a proud, dome-like facility remains standing—the Academy, nightfall symbolizes tasks are in need to be accomplished. On one particular area, just where the outdoor training arena was. Four individuals stood under one of the many trees that adorned the arena, with the base point just a few steps away from where they are. There includes an agent in red, one in monochrome, the other themed blue, and one adorned with black and yellow.

The neuro agent eyed each and every one of her team members. "I apologize for calling you all this late and thank you for answering my call." She began, her voice calm with serene in adverse to her previous stern voice.

The other three agents eyed each other before the one in blue smiled. "Of course, you're our neuro, after all." She spoke, understanding what the other has to say. It was already obvious as to what the other has intended, it was fairly obvious as it is.

"So, looks like we're breaking rules again, huh?" the one in monochrome cracked his knuckles, a sheer smirk of mischief evident in his expression. "I like the sound of that." He commented.

The one in red just shook his head and pushed his glasses back up. "Whatever you're planning, just make sure its plausible enough for us to risk disobedience." He urged, his principles just splitting his viewpoint on whether or not to follow the female before him.

The neuro agent gave a nod, "I understand your concerns, but rest assured I have a reason, Khai." She inhaled a deep breath before clasping her hands together, facing her team mates as she breathed out. "I don't trust that M.A.T.A. will be able to handle the situation, especially with the existence of Zero. I want to at least know the boy under the mask before things get out of hand." She explained, hoping for everyone's approval.

Rudy stretched his arms. "You're far too impulsive, Alicia." His expression slowly changed to one of his signature mischievous smirks. "Let's do it." he replied without anymore further ado, his stance showing how he's ready to break some rules.

Despite Khai's obvious hesitation, he still ended up agreeing in the end. Iman didn't minded it as well, since she too understands the point at to what Alicia was pointing at.

"That settles then. We'll retrace our steps and find any evidence on who Zero is. Considering how they're keen on protecting that warehouse, there should be clues on who Zero is and what their next plans are. If we can recover the Azurium crystals, then we will, which could hinder their progress due to lack of resources." She urged, giving then a brief idea on what she plans to commence on.

A series of nods were received from the respective agents.

"That settles then, let's go." She lead forth to where the supposed path towards the underground shuttle should be for easy transportation back to the city, and the rest followed behind.

There was a hinge of determination was evident in Alicia's expression, yet a hint of uncertainty was lingering at the back of her head. She doesn't know why but at some point, there was a hint of familiarity, like she knew him at some point. The voice changer within his mask was similar to Uno's, but at the same time, it was not. Could it be Uno's son? Or a relative? Someone that was never revealed to them before when Uno was still prevalent?

She couldn't figure it out.

Her footsteps were inaudible as they headed down to where the shuttle was, only mechadroids and several tekno agent roamed the area without much of a care as to glance down at the individuals who made their way to the place of transport.

One of the pods were open and awaiting patrolling, Alicia went in first before the other members entered and took a seat as well, the pod just big enough to fit all of them and even more. The shuttle closed its doors upon Alicia's input in the systems as the pod gave somewhat of a tremble for a few moments before accelerating to zoom through under the water's surface.

The travel was short-lived, and the shuttle soon stopped by one of the underground M.A.T.A. safe houses where they were able to gain access to the city. The neuro agent of the team checked the time on her wrist watch, showing how it was two hours away from midnight. The time was almost dragging along fairly quickly despite the quick travel they undergone.

Their travel towards the rendezvous point where they usually meet up was fast, and they were in a circle formation before they knew it. Alicia gazed forward towards the warehouse which looked exactly as how they first arrived with it, clean with the absence of suspicion and damage.

Alicia turned to gaze at her team, "Just like our initial plan, I'll infiltrate alongside Rudy. However, I'll take Iman with me to get the Azurium crystals out. If you find any suspicious activities, Khai, tell me immediately." She looked at the tekno agent with a stern expression, Rudy already disappearing among the sea of leaves as he disappeared towards the warehouse. To what tactic he will use, it's up to him since he himself is keen to doing things in his own way.

Khai merely nodded and tapped several commands on his wrist communicator, letting R.O. to zoom forth and connect itself to the warehouse's security systems. "They enhanced their security protocols, but the window at the back has no detector fields. You can enter through there." He mentioned and looked up at where the warehouse was. "But be careful, something doesn't look right."

"I know, if ever something goes wrong, I'll send Iman out immediately." Alicia spoke calmly as she prepared herself for a sprint, taking the first lead to where they will enter the warehouse from, and Iman following suit from behind.

Khai merely gave a perplexed look before checking on the security feeds, freezing them by command to give the others time to get what they need. As long as there is no encounter, they won't get in trouble.

Alicia used the nearby trees to get up to the windows, as high as the secondary floor. She took out what looked to be a small cutter device, placing the device at the glass, the suction material clinging onto the smooth surface of the window as the retractable cutter expanded up to three feet in diameter before slicing against glass by default. The neuro agent held onto the device, enabling her to pull the removeable part away and laid it onto one of the branches.

"Come on." She called out to Iman before jumping in the new, clean hole created, easily landing onto the metallic beams that acted as support for the upper roof area. Her balance was stable enough for her to use the beams as a stable platform.

Iman went in next, though hesitant at first but balanced her hands and gave Alicia a firm look of determination as the neuro agent turned to look back at front. The area was a mess with metallic debris littering the ground as dents were present as a remainder of what happened last night. But what caught her attention the most was the door leading to where the control room was, under the small space beneath the door itself emitted a sinister glow of red, someone was there.

She turned back to glance at Iman, giving a certain look before glancing at the door to give her an idea on whats on her mind. The Kombat agent gave a sigh and tied the end of her shawl on the beam where she stood. Once secured, she made a leap backwards, holding onto a portion of her shawl to prevent the fall. She tugged her shawl to detangle from the beam as she landed safely on the group, her hands clenched onto her shawl where a dagger is connected.

The neuro agent needed not to stay, knowing that Iman is there to take care of things when something goes south.

Instead, she headed to one of the numerous computers that were displayed up front. There, she placed a flash drive at the receptor and began typing to bypass security measures. If information was stored, its definitely going to be here.

She managed to enter the systems without a problem, confidential files of all sorts met her eyes as her gaze narrowed on few.

One file contained information on... M.A.T.A.?

Several security feeds of various bases and the academy itself were shown. Is this how they were able to monitor their moves? They were being watched?

Her brows furrowed as she memorized the position of where the feeds belonged to, for her to personally check when she gets back. Automata droids and their core structure were present in the bin of information that Alicia never knew that the enemy has.

So, this is how they were able to control these entities, especially with how several are still inactive at this warehouse.

She shook her head and searched until she found a certain camera feed. This one was long recovered, the data information dating back to several months ago—the date oh so familiar.

She opened the video file to observe. What was met with her hazel black eyes was... the scene before Agent Zain died.

In the clip, Agent Zain was holding onto the wound created by Djin's weapon, the two individual standing there in eerie atmosphere. It showed how it was merely seconds away from the island exploding, the moment before everything came at a silence.

But in the corner, she could vaguely see Ali, holding his injured arm as he limped towards a certain area where the camera could only view his backside. Djin glanced at Ali for a second before looking back down at where Agent Zain was now on his knees, weakened from his wound. The audio was vague, as only debris, the alarms, and the countdown was heard.

Though her eyes widened when she heard him.

"... I understand everything now."

The video ceases when those words were mentioned by Ali, the feed ending, no longer giving information on what happened after. The neuro agent was rendered silent as she shifted her gaze away from the file. There was nothing left other than that, and no longer can she sees what happened after that.

She sucked in a breath-- her breath shaky as she released it. She took a moment to process things in her head, does that mean Ali died when the facility self-destructed? Was he... blown to ashes just like how Djin and Agent Zain did? She could barely imagine what had happened back then, her fingers were shaking when she exited the file, her brows furrowed and a lump was forming at her throat.

It took a moment before she was alright enough to open the most suspicious file in the screen, entitled '1520_Zer0'.

Upon clicking the file, there came a prompt, 'Enter Password:_ _ _ _ _ _' which was required to access the contents within. She furrowed her brows further and tried entering several words that makes the cut for the required number of characters, only to get a blank in return.

"Just why..." she nearly cursed and tried typing other names similar, but either they were too few, too much, or simply was not the case at all.

Until she paused, her fingers trembling as she tried another input.

'ALICIA' she typed, hesitating before entering the password. When she did, bewilderment painted her expression when the password was... accepted?

Notes, other files, video clips, and many more littered the screen, but what raised her brow was Ali's name being on the subject path of almost all these files. However, as she was just going to open one of the files present, a crash was heard, making her jump in a flinch with her hands freezing from movement.

She whipped her head back to look at where the noise came from, and what met her was another active mechadroid, with his ballistic fists ready to attack those nearby, including Iman and Rudy.

In alarm, she abandoned her task and took her blastique from her holster and aimed at the mechadroid, throwing the projectiles of steel bullets to impact against the robotic being, and minimal damages were evident. However, the mechadroid's attention now shifted to gaze towards her instead.

She narrowly dodged to avoid an incoming laser from the robotic being, the unit destroying the computer she was using just a moment ago, making her cuss a word as she wasn't able to get exactly what she needs.

"Alicia! Take cover!" she heard Khai shout from the other side as she initiatively ducked down while Khai's own lasers blasted towards the mechadroid from R.O.

The damage was not extreme but should be enough to incapacitate the enemy.

But that wasn't the case.

The enemy must've been alarmed since more of the said mechadroids rose from their positions and began in commencing their attacks.

Though before she could launch an attack of her own, she heard a voice. She glanced at the direction with her blastique ready for assault, but no one was there, but the door to the basement where the Azurium crystals was open.

She took one glance at her team, seeing them managing to gain the upper hand, giving her the sense of trust that she could leave them for a while. She made a dash towards where she heard the voice. She knew that voice, but she couldn't find it in the back of her head on who.

Instead, she followed suit as she kept her blastique ready for anything that may surprise her. It was becoming quiet after the went down the flight of steps, and silence remains other than the blurry voices and sounds of the fight ongoing above. She tensed when she heard the door from upstairs close, making her whip her weapon on any possible direction. Her stance was getting uneasy, "Something's wrong..." she mumbled to herself while biting against her lip.

Movement was heard, making her face forward with her blastique and slowly progress forward to where the sound could have originated, but the silence that followed made her remain in a state of pure unease.

Her eyes darted from various areas, awaiting for any sound to meet her ears where the commotion upstairs were rendered dull. Then there it is again.

She made a dash down the hallway after hearing what seemed to be quick yet agile footsteps. Her own were resounding, but not enough to silence the sound she kept hearing from the end of the hallway. She ended up in what looked like a room of some sorts, dark with no lights but monitors were open, camera feeds showing the commotion upstairs.

The neuro agent slowly took her blastique down and approached the monitors, making her brows furrow to assume that their movements were long found since earlier, and it seemed that the enemy was watching them all along.

"Why didn't I notice this before..." she mumbled lowly, eyes narrowed as she watched the live feeds of what's happening upstairs.

Though as her eyes remained glued to the feeds, footsteps came from behind, some of which she failed to notice at hand.

Before she knew it, her eyes widened as she felt a cold gush from behind.

"You never should've come back."

Pain once again course through her backside as a sharp hit was taken from the back of her neck, her stance became unstable as everything began to blur from around her, and thus, along her consciousness.