Extraction Point

As Zora closed his door, Rachael immediately inspected the body.

"Oh, good!" smiled Rachael in relief, "She's not dead!"

"Who did you even hit?" asked Zora as he came over.

"I don't know. She has a duck suit on so I'm assuming that she's a furry."

"Why would a furry be near this place?"

"I don't know. I didn't fully read the mission statements and who we're supposed to be targeting."

"Well that's already your first problem," stated Zora as he looked away, whispering, "But I guess I didn't too so that makes the two of us..."

After putting the body into the corner of a nearby dumpster bin, Zora and Rachael entered through the laboratory by patching a C4 into the wall. The two then traveled through the laboratory, but were closer to the center than expected.

"Hey," mumbled Rachael, "You don't have a Rad-A right?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are you going on such a dangerous mission? I mean... I'm pretty much invincible so I can do anything. Why're you just going willy-nilly being an on-field agent and sacrificing your health?"

"Wha..? Because.. I want to do my best to just help I guess. You see, Christina is my girlfriend and even though she's immensely stronger than me because of her Rad-A... I still want to support her. You could say it's a crazy act of love, but really, it just makes me feel good. A genuine act of kindness."

"Humans are such strange creatures."

"Don't act as if you aren't human either," replied Zora as he pretended to bonk his hand on Rachael's head, "Aren't you doing the same thing? I heard you yelling about wanting to marry Yato outside."

"We'd be the perfect couple right?" sung Rachael with hearts in her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Zora, "However, Rachael, I think you're going about this all wrong. I mean... even though I do fight to support Christina, I'm still looking out for myself and making sure it's for the best outcome for me.

As for you, you shouldn't put yourself out there for love and love only. You've got to think independently. You're the main character of your story and the rest of the people in this world are side characters. Just a little thought. I know that sounds a bit narcissistic, but you shouldn't put yourself in front of others too much."

"...sorry I wasn't listening," chuckled Rachael lightly, "There's been something wrong ever since we entered this place... I think it's been affecting people with radiation in their body since you haven't been noticing it..."

"What's wrong?"

"It's like my Rad-A has been... dampened.. I feel a little weak."

"We'll have to plow through.. just hang on tight. Derek and Christina told us we couldn't contact the others because they had someone who could detect not just radiation, but signals that produce waves for communication."

It was then that Rachael and Zora reached the center of the laboratory, known as the Heart, a sphere core in the air that produced lava spewing around it. It had a vat underneath that evaporated into a thin layer of mist, due to the energy transference. Baretti had thought up of this design after his laboratory was once burned down. The use of heat to produce energy was one of his greatest inventions, but the production of said heat was more expensive than first imagined.

That was when Baretti had created the experiment that suddenly blast forth from the sphere, landing near Rachael and Zora who had dodged the lava ball: Sidius.

He was a rocky golem-like creature, with lava spewing from his "heart." He spat out lava and walked very slow. Rachael began to cough, with Zora taking notice. It was clear that she was in no condition to take hits. Zora looked around the room once more to find a girl sitting by the ledge of a balcony in the third floor. He had recognized the face to be Marie Armaya. She had looked nervous to be here.

"You're the detector, aren't you?" asked Zora.

"So what if I am..?" mumbled Marie, "You have to die anyway... Reo said so! I can see everyone who enters the lab and I can dampen their Rad-A as I please..."

"So she's the dampener as well," thought Zora, "This wasn't in the files when we first saw her. Could her radiation abilities have been enhanced..?"

There was no time to think, for Sidius had already towered above the two. He slammed his fist down, with Rachael and Zora barely dodging this time. Zora took off his black coat, which had caught on fire from the lingering lava that spewed from Sidius' cracks.

"God damn it!" yelled Zora, "I paid for that coat, you know!"

"There is no escape from Sidius," announced Marie.

It was then that the lava that had spilled on the floor formed into smaller versions of Sidius. They leapt at the two, who had nowhere else to go.