Life As A Commander

Chapter 70: Wisdom

"Heh. Why're you all so surprised?" Tester smiled. 

Acro's wisdom cube fell to the floor with an audible clink. His riggings disintegrated into thin air as he fell to the floor. Tester bent over to Acro's bleeding body and sighed.

"I wish I could stay and help you, but I know you would just come back and stop us again." Tester gave him a bitter smile as she went over to pick up Acro's wisdom cube.

*BANG*

Tester had been shot through the hand as Javelin slowly walked over to Tester. Regenerator simply watched on as she saw this unfold. She felt conflicted.

"What...Are you doing Tester?" A teary eyes Javelin stood over Tester as he spear glowed a bright blue.

"Hum...Guess you still have some fight in you. Even after witnessing all of that." She sighed.

"Not another step." Javelin fired off a warning shot.

This caused Tester to take a step back, to avoid the shot. Javelin took this opportunity to pick up the wisdom cube and toss it over to Ayanami who was still keeping a keen eye on Regenerator who was just standing there with her focus elsewhere. 

"Well, that's certainly not preferable." Tester sighed as she wrapped a bandage around her wounded hand. "Regenerator."

Without a second to waste, Regenerator already kicked Ayanami 's blade away and gave her a palm strike to the chest that sent all of the air out of her lungs.

"Cough...Ugh." Ayanami stumbled back to her feet as she tried to grab her Sword.

Javelin twisted her body, just quick enough to block Regenerator's attack and with one big push, she managed to get Regenerator off of her case. As she ran back to where everyone else and the wisdom cube was, a purple laser blocked her path.

"Not so fast!" Tester shouted as one of her cannons glowed orange purely from the heat that was being emanated from the cannon. Behind Javelin stood Regenerator. "End of the line." Tester sighed. "You really didn't have to make it so difficult for us...Regen-"

*Slap*

"Ugh...Cough." A bloodied Acro weakly slapped Tester on the face, causing the laser to dissipate. "Tester...You-Ugh."

Tester caught Acro before he could fall down into a puddle of his own blood. "Aww...You can rest now...Maybe in another life, we could all live in harmony like you always wanted. But I'm afraid that Zero has different plans." 

Tester then refocused her attention back to Javelin and the... "What!? Where's the wisdom cube!?"

Javelin looked over to where she saw it last and saw that it indeed had gone missing. 

"Rose! What did you do!?" Lily had her hands on Rose's shoulders as she vigorously shook her. 

"I-I don't know...I was trying to hide it." Rose said. "Cubes don't just disappear like that."

"Hmmm~?" Tester raised an eyebrow as she saw this. 

Suddenly, Rose began to glow as she began to materialize a set of riggings along her waist. 

"W-What?" Rose looked at her newly summoned riggings. It was grey with blue icicles poking down the bottom of each cannon. "U-Umm...Take that!" Rose pointed at Tester.

Her cannons fired a barrage of shells at Tester and as it impacted the ground, it left a huge cloud of smoke. But that wasn't the end of it. Her riggings began to glow as giant icebergs began to fly into Tester's direction completely trapping her and Regenerator within a sea of icebergs.

ACRO POV

Everything burns...My chest hurts...I feel empty. Everything feels so dark...and cold. 

"Ugh..." I opened my eyes to see that I was in a puddle of my own blood. "W-What happened?"

My vision was blurry, everything hurt my eyes. I felt so weak. And yet I still got up. And that's when I saw it. There was a large mass of ice in the middle of the school courtyard. I could barely see Rose, Ayanami and the others. I slowly walked into their direction.

"A-Acro. Come here!" Javelin helped me walk back to everyone else.

"Acro...What is this?" Rose walked up to me and to my surprise I saw that she had a set of riggings.

"How...Did..." I clutched my head in pain. 

"I-I touched your weird glowy cube." Rose sheepishly stated.

"...What?" My eyes widened as I heard this. "No that's not important. Can you try and give it back to me?"

"U-Um okay, I'll try." Rose closed her eyes and after a few seconds, there it was. My wisdom cube.

I wasted no time in taking it back and absorbing it. I felt as if I had regained a part of my strength as I began to feel whole again.

"Thanks...I'll take it from here." 

"No you are not! That is absurd." javelin exclaimed.

"I command you to stand down...I'm not taking no for an answer." I didn't bother to wait for her reply as I walked towards the iceberg.

Just after a few seconds the ice cube burst into millions of pieces, revealing Tester and Regenerator. I wasted no time in summoning my gun as I fired off a line of ace of spades into Regenerator's direction, leaving a line of flames in front of her, preventing her from making any advances.

"What are you gonna do huh?" Tester taunted. 

I didn't reply as I fired four card in quick succession, pinning her to the ground. 

"Don't move." I said in a commanding tone. "I'll deal with you later. Ugh..." I clutched the bloody hole that was stabbed through my chest.

"Acro, I don't want to hurt you anymore." Regenerator said in a pleading tone as she held up her hands. "Just give up."

"In your dreams." I laughed. "C'mon fight like your life is on the line."

Regenerator sighed. "fine." She slowly began to walk to my direction. Her walk slowly sped up to a dead sprint into my direction.

I took in a breath of air as I gripped the handle of my gun tighter. "Ignore the pain..."

I leaps in into the air and fired off a barrage of Aces of diamonds in Regenerator's direction. Piercing right through her but was quickly regenerated. But I wasted no time in recalling the cards as the flew back through Regenerator's body and bringing her flying towards me.

As she flew towards me, I gave a roundhouse kick to her face sending her down to the ground.

"Ugh..." Regenerator stumbled back to her feet, only to fall back to her knees. "My head."

As she was regaining her bearings, I slowly walked over to Regenerator. On my right arm was a cannon, similar to the ones that the rest of the siren's used. I placed it's cold barrel upon her head.

"Checkmate." A bright laser evaporated Regenerator's head as her body fell to the ground. "Javelin. can you deal with Regenerator...I'm going to deal with Tes-Huh?" Tester was nowhere in sight. She had completely vanished out of thin air.

"Acro! Are you okay?" Lily and Rose rushed to my side to support me from falling over. "And what is all of this?"

"Look...I'll tell you all...Eventually." I could feel my consciousness begin to slip as my vision began to go blurry. 

Somewhere  

On a nearby rooftop stood Tester as she observed the aftermath of their battle. 

"Hmph...You really roughed me up there." Tester sighed to herself as she gripped her bleeding hand. "Heh, you're welcome Acro." A portal appeared behind Tester.

"It's so hard to play for both sides." Tester walked through the portal.