The walk down was silent and slow. They had to be careful with where they step as the stairs were old and not completely sturdy. Niara kept the light on while Eva used Twilight to check the steps as they go. After a few minutes, they managed to get to the bottom.

Looking around, they found a lot of boxes stacked in the corners and plenty of other old things all over the room.

"I'll look for a light switch." Niara said. Eva nodded and started heading for the boxes.

The blonde reached to pick one up, but just as she managed to get a hold of it, the Russian flicked the lightswitch on, revealing over a dozen LBXs hidden behind the boxes.

"Whoa!" The blonde stumbled back, dropping the box, making all of its content spill out.

"What happened?!" Hugo's voice came from Niara's CCM.

"Apparently, we walked in on some trap someone set up." Niara replied dully.

"You wha-?! At your own house??" It was Kirito this time.

"I don't know, man. This is my first time down here. Dad never allowed me to come." Niara said. "Now, please hold. We have a few LBXs to take down." Without letting them answer, she ended the call and let out Zeema Drezion.

Eva scattered to her side, right as the other LBXs landed by where her feet were. She let out Twilight and Mizel scanned the situation from her wrist. They're all Gladiators, Kunoichis and Hunters. It should be no problem for you two.

"You say that, but with this many..." Eva muttered back. "Not to mention, how good the LBX is doesn't just depend on specs. The player is the one we need to look out for."

"I don't know what Mizel said to you, but it doesn't look like they have players to control them." Niara stated.

"And they're not rampaging either." Eva said. "So they're probably moving automatically?"

"I legit had no idea we had this many LBXs down here." Niara said as she set Drezion into a fighting stance. "I didn't even know what an LBX is until I was like... What, eight? More maybe?"

"Maybe someone set them up here just recently?" The blonde suggested, having Twilight float a little.

"Maybe."

And with that, the battle began.

~~~~~

"That's a lot of LBXs..." Ami said worriedly as she watch the battle from her seat in the shuttle.

"Hey, are you sure we shouldn't go out there and help them?" Asuka turned to Cobra, who shrugged.

"You just want to go and battle, right?" Ran teased the younger girl.

"Well, I mean, just look at that! There's so many of them, it's making me itch!"

Jessica wanted to make a comment, but noticed how silent a certain long haired boy was. "Yuuya? Are you alright?"

Everyone's eyes turned to the shy boy, who jumped in surprise. "Oh, uhm... I'm fine... I just..."

Kousuke, who sat alone at the back, read through him easily. "It's the younger Kaidou, isn't it?"

Hesitantly, Yuuya nodded. "He seemed so... Frustrated... I wonder if something's wrong..."

"Everything's currently going wrong, Haibara." The blonde replied. "It's weird how none of you have reconciled with each other and yet here you are working together to chase some sort of ghost."

"So then, why are you here?" Kazu asked tauntingly.

"Because it's interesting." The devil smirked at him. "This chaos is interesting. Playing an ex-villain-anti-hero in a story is also interesting. Everything about this is very interesting." He took out Lucifer and showed it to them. "We look forward to see the outcome of all this."

~~~~~

Ban, Hiro and Kirito were watching the battle commense on their CCMs and they were getting more than a little nervous. "Um... Shouldn't we go help them?" Hiro asked the other two.

Ban wasn't sure. "Kirito, what do you think?"

The blonde clicked his tounge. "Well, we could, but-"

"Hey! Have some faith! We live in an era where gender equality is a thing!"

"... But Lev's gonna be against it."

"Yeap. I am not gonna swallow my pride over something small like this!"

"Thought this isn't really a small thing..." Came Eva's voice.

"Chill out. They haven't managed to surround us. As long as we can keep this up, we'll be fine. And my health bar's still at 80%!"

"Mine's at 65%... And there are still more coming-!"

More sounds of gun fire, break overs and explosions were heard. After a while, Niara's voice was heard again. "So uh... What kind of key are we looking for?"

"Shouldn't you just be focusing on the battle first?" Kirito retorted.

"We kinda got used to the pace and I figured we could have Mizel scanning around while we battle." Eva replied.

Hugo had Sirius scan the lock system. "We're looking for some kind of compressed data packet. Like the code in the orb inside your body."

~~~~~

"Alright then. Mizel?" Eva called for him softly.

Working on it. He scanned the entire room and got a read on one spot. The red Kunoichi on the far right. Get close to it.

Mizel travelled from his watch form  to Eva's CCM and transfered himself into Twilight's program, but he didn't interfere. Eva got him closer to the Kunoichi and when her staff hits the opponent on its side, a green light broke out and Kunoichi broke over. Mizel got himself back into his watch form. I have it, but I can't send it to Sirius. The snow is causing interference.

"Then we'll have to get out of here." Eva muttered. "Niara, come on!"

"You first!" The Russian girl ordered.

Eva carefully walked backwards to the steps as Niara continue to slice the other LBXs. Suddenly, their optics started blinking and they switched from blue to red. That's when they began rampaging.

"Whoa, what the hell-!" Niara was cut off when one of the bullets flew right past her.

"Niara!" Eva turned to help, but was also nearly shot.

"Holy shi-" Niara dodged another bullet.

"Get down!" A new voice suddenly joined them. Triton came in with a riding saucer, shooting at the enemy with a missle launcher.

"E-Eh? Jin, you-"

Not letting the blonde finish, Niara pulled her along and began dragging her up the stairs. "Not the time, Eva. Gotta scram!"

Eva called Twilight back and Niara did the same with Zeema Drezion, continuing to run up the steps as Triton covered them. As soon as they all made it out, Niara had shut the doors to the basement and barricaded it.

After a moment of just watch the doors being banged on by the LBXs, the Russian nodded to herself. "Yeah, okay. Let's just get that thing unlocked and get out of here."

Locking the shed, they ran out and back into the cottage. Jin still had Triton flying beside them, not saying a word, which made Eva more than a little nervous. They hurried out the back door and met up with the other four.

"Mizel." Eva called out.

The boy got out of his watch form and bent down to touch the door. As soon as he did, it opened to reveal a box.

"Mission accomplished then." Ban said happily.

"What are we waiting for? Let's take it out." Hiro said, excitedly.

"Wait, Hiro, don't-" Hugo wasn't able to stop him. As soon as the blue haired boy pulled out the box, a small red light began to blink.

"Okay. That ain't good." Niara said, backing away.

"You think?" Kirito knew it wasn't the time, but old habbits die hard.

"Back to the shuttle, everyone!" Hugo ordered.

They all made a break for it. They ran out the back door and headed for the front, before Eva turned to enter one of the rooms.

"Eva, get back here!" Ban called, but she made a signal for the others to go on ahead.

"Hugo, shouldn't we-" Hiro tried to protest, but was cut off.

"Trust me, I wanna go back for her too, but she must have a reason. We just have to trust she'll make it out alright."

Jin wasn't convince and flew Triton back to find her. Inside one of the rooms, he found her looking through bookshelves. "Eva, what are you doing? That thing could explode any minute now."

"I'm not letting it destroy everything! I have to find an album at least! For Niara's sake!"

"You barely have any time-"

"Say this was the fortress about to get blown up. I can't imagine either of us leaving without grabbing anything first."

Well, she's got him there. "Alright. Let's make this quick."

After a couple of minutes of searching, they finally found one. Eva quickly skimmed through before nodding to herself. "Okay. Let's-"

"Eva, watch out!"

He lost the signal.