Darling in the FranXX: The Lost Prodigy

Chapter 26: Looming threat

The "doctor", now revealed to be an Umbra unit in disguise, thrusts his right arm forward and spins on his heel.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The APE officer that was standing behind him and the two soldiers fall limply to the ground with holes in their heads. Umbra looks directly at Papa with a deadly gaze and aims the palm of his right hand at him.

"Futile!" Papa declares as he pushes a button on his armrest. The ground below the council, on which Umbra stands on, crackles with electricity. The shock alters Umbra's aim slightly to the right, causing him miss Papa and hit Tarsier instead. The man's mask cracks and blood splatters on his seat as the shot hits home and he ceases all movement.

Error: Critical system failure.

By now, the cloned flesh on the Umbra unit is being charred by the increasing intensity of the electric shock. Umbra tries to take aim at Papa again, but this time only sparks come out of his hand.

Error: Weapon malfunction. Diverting power.

The door to the council chamber opens and several APE soldiers stand in the doorway, safe from the dangerous hazard on the ground inside the room. They begin to take aim as Umbra takes a slow step forward and begins to build up momentum.

The soldiers open fire and a hail of bullets tear into Umbra just as he reaches the center of the room and was preparing to lunge forward in a final attempt to strike Papa.

Power core failing. Experiencing total shutdown...

The Umbra unit collapses on the ground.

Enemy must not get any information from this unit. Activating failsafe. Deleting data banks.

"Wherever you are, Werner," Papa states as he looks down on the crumbling Umbra unit that looks like Dr. Franxx, "I know you are listening. Whatever it is you hope to achieve, you will fail. You and your rebellious children."

Erasure complete. Short circuiting systems...

The unit twitches one last time before the glow in its eyes goes out.

The Vice Chairman looks over to Tarsier before speaking up, "That was close." "Too close!" Gorilla exclaims, "How did that thing get past our scanners?"

"You three," Marmoset orders the soldiers who enter the room after the ground hazard has been deactivated, "Grab that android and send it to the nearest lab for analysis." "Yes, sir!" the soldiers reply.

Baboon taps something on his armchair and a screen pops up in front of him, "Activate the Spectres!" "But sir, they are not quite ready yet!" the voice on the other end replies shakingly. "I don't care," Baboon responds, "I want them standing by outside the blast radius of Hringhorni so that they can raid the vault immediately when we give the signal." "Y-Yes, sir!" the assistant on the other end answers before the transmission ends.

"How soon can we fire?" Papa asks the Vice Chairman, who responds, "12 hours from now."

"I wish I could be here to see it, unfortunately, I must depart to oversee the first transfer towards Valhalla," Lemur remarks as he lowers his seat to the ground, "If you'll excuse me."

XXXXXX

Meanwhile at an undisclosed location

"Nooo! I almost had him!" a white Umbra unit cries in an overly dramatic fashion as he sinks to his knees. It is reminiscent of a scene you'd see in a movie.

"Good grief, you've seen too many movies, Umbra," Dr. Franxx sighs as he leans back in his comfortable chair, a wall of screens in front of him, one of which was streaming the events that happened at Kosmos station mere minutes ago.