C-Disc District 1

  Gemini, 12nd, 3033

  7:14 AM

  BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

  A sudden, loud, thunderous explosion could be heard from the other side of the street of C-Disc as the Lapi and Kikoho alike took notice of it. They then begin chattering to each other with pure fear in their voices.

  “By Charles, not another one.”

  “Are you serious…?”

  “Mommy… I’m s-s-scared!”

  Whatever it was they were chattering about, it made them scared out of their wits. However, among these people, one didn’t share the same feeling as them.

  A Lapi with long, purple hair and red eyes with a pair of long, white, fluffy ears, wearing round glasses and a golden star ornament on their hair looks over to the black smoke on the other side of the street. Their brows furrow as they walked towards the smoke.

  “Where is she going!?”

  “Probably headed to deal with that Altered, he is.”

  “Are you serious!? I know they just joined the A.A.D. about a week ago, but... I can't help but worry...”

  “They'll be okay. After all, those three are willing to do everything to keep us safe!”

  ━━━?━━━

  I continue to trot through the street with a grimace on my face. I let out a sigh as I began to wonder about how a peaceful time turned into despair and fear in the span of two months…

  on that fateful day...after the New Year ended, around Orion 1st, 3033, in a normally busy marketplace where everyone just buying groceries, would suddenly turn into a horror show.

  People witnessed a horrifying sight of someone turning into a nightmare—a nightmare we called…an Altered. What are they exactly? A monster that is mutated from Lapi and Kikoho alike due to some unknown force.

  Nobody knows how it happened; the only thing we know is that once someone becomes an Altered, they immediately become violent towards anything they see. That was what happened to the marketplace on that day, it became a wreck after the Altered completely trashed the place.

  People were severely injured, but fortunately, nobody died. It was a terrifying experience for those who were unlucky to be there.

  Ever since then, it had begun to spread to other regions, not just here in C-Disc. Let's just say it was the worst time for everyone, as people began to fear for their lives. They locked themselves in their homes, and closed their stores in fear as the Altered became a frequent problem.

  Until my father, Stein Knowledge, a well-known scientist that works at the Central Tower, created an agency department that my sibling and I just joined about a week ago.

  The Anti Altered Department, or the A.A.D. for short.

  As its name suggests, it is a department founded to combat against the Altered in order to protect the people. A lot of people join the A.A.D., my siblings and I included. But... at first, our father didn't approve of us joining the department. He thought it was too dangerous for us to be involved.

  We were quite persistent on joining the department because how the Altered make people feel unsafe, and because we desire to protect our people from the Altered. Our relentless determination made it impossible for him to refuse, so ultimately, he reluctantly allowed us to join the department.

  However, he told us that he had created an experimental weapon that could potentially defeat the Altered for good.

  My name is Delphinium Knowledge, Leader of the newly established Alter Trinity, and an eldest sibling.

  This is my story, our story.

  After walking for a while, I arrive at the street where the explosion occurred. A cloud of smoke was floating around the area, obscuring what likely is a damaged street. I take a deep breath and let it out of my lips, before calmly walking into the cloud of smoke as it fully engulfs me.

  I can’t really see anything in the cloud of jet black smoke, so I'll have to walk through it until my vision is clear. I assume the Altered causing this explosion is right around this street, perhaps even closer.

  So I decided to use my ears to get a good idea of where the Altered could be.

  BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!! BANG BANG BANG!

  Another thunderous explosion rang out, followed by rapid gunshot. Whatever this Altered is, it is likely to be armed to the teeth. Judging from the sounds alone, it is on the left.

  So, I walked to the direction of the sound, and when I came out from the smoke, and I can finally see what happened to the street.

  “What a mess.”I muttered in a calm, but dry voice.

  The street is in complete ruins; vehicles are bursting into flames, and buildings and houses are filled with bullet holes. The damage is severe. I scan the area to see any signs of casualties. Thankfully, nobody is around. It seems like the other member of the department managed to evacuate civilians just in time.

  However, I'm not the only one here; the Altered I was looking for is currently busy destroying people's property...

  “Seems like this Altered is the one making this whole mess… Definitely bigger than I thought.”

  The Altered in question appears humanoid in shape, resembling a tall robot with bright teal and pink colors, and featuring a single glowing red eye. Analyzing from how tall this Altered is, I suggested it was around three meters tall.

  It's got two metal claws that could probably crush someone's entire skeleton at once. I can’t get a good look at its back, but it looks like it has some sort of shoulder-mounted booster? It can probably fly.

  With a little analysis, I had to draw this thing's attention away from the street. Thankfully, I have just the way to do exactly that.

  The people of Charles VI are generally known to be peaceful, however when it comes to survival, we have a means to deal with it, we call it Charm.

  Charms are a natural ability that individuals can have since birth. Like, for example, my charm is ‘Telekinesis’, an ability that allows me to lift anything in the air.

  In this instance, I lift my hand out to a broken car, a purple aura surrounding my arm as I raise my arm up, lifting the vehicle off from the ground. I clench my hand into a fist with sheer force, causing the car to be squeezed and crushed into a jagged metal ball.

  I aimed the ball at Altered and launched the object with a strong force as the metal ball rammed against Altered’s face so hard it caused the monster to stumble backward, almost falling before stopping itself. The Altered shook its head before turning its attention to me.

  Looks like I’ve caught its attention, and now it points its arm at me as that arm vomits out dozens of missiles locked on to me. Out of instinct, I performed a series of backflips so I don't get blown to bits.

  The missiles landed all over the place in different parts of the street, and each explosion was louder than the last. I regain my stance and use my charm to gather debris from around myself, creating a large arrow with the pieces and launching it at the Altered.

  The Altered blocks the attack with its forearms, shattering the arrow into bits upon impact. After that, the beast lifts itself into the sky, confirming to me now that there were indeed shoulder-mounted boosters behind its back.

  Pulling one of its clenched claws back and extended the other towards me, it reversed the boosters' thrust and slammed that clenched claw into the ground.

  I barely had the time to move out of the way as the sheer force of the claw caused a shockwave around the area and sending particulates and debris flying.

  “That was too close, I should get a good distance before—”

  Almost immediately after, the Altered swings its claw at me. Again, I successfully evaded by leaping backwards, getting myself some much needed distance from the thing.

  “...That. I’m lucky these things have such a predictable pattern…”

  The Altered let out a roar that sounded less like something coming out from a machine and more like a person in agony. Listening to it made me frown, knowing this thing is a person who is unlucky to be mutated.

  “Don’t worry…I’ll help you.” I said.

  I reached my hand in my jacket, pulling out my personal weapon, the Star Seeker. As I pointed it toward the Altered, who was already advancing at me, it soon jumped, pulling its arm back to deliver another punch.

  I immediately rolled forward as the Altered slammed its fist into the ground, creating a massive crater. Quickly flipping directions, I ran at the Altered from behind, striking it back with a single powerful slash.

  The attack made the Altered stumble forward like someone who almost tripped—it barely kept itself upright as it went into a spiral, trying to knock the Star Seeker out of my hand with a spinning punch.

  However I was quickly able to sidestep the Altered, the being narrowly having missed me as a result. It soon began to use its boosters to avoid falling to the ground, before making another dreadful roar.

  The Altered turned around in a snappy motion as it lifted its hand out and transformed into a seven-barrel gatling gun. It soon fired, unleashing a rainy hail of bullets towards me.

  I quickly darted at the Altered, narrowly avoiding the bullets it was spitting my way as I aimed Star Seeker at its face. Pulling the trigger, a barrage of bullets erupted from the barrel, which all hit the target squarely in the face.

  The attack obstructed its vision, the Altered reflexively trying to shield its face with its forearm to avoid being struck by more bullets. This presented a very wide opening for me to do some damage, which I immediately took advantage of. I let out a shout.

  “HAAAAAAAAARGH!”

  I tightly gripped my weapon as I jumped, beginning to attack the Altered’s chest with a series of quick and precise slashes. I followed this up with a quick thrust of my blade to hit against its body with a lot of force, sending it flying.

  Finishing the swift sequence, I made one last leap and slammed my blade down on the Altered. The being was sent crashing down to the concrete street with a metallic clunk, knocking it out cold.

  I landed on the ground safely with a single trail of sweat running down from my forehead. I was relieved, yet still on guard - I managed to knock the Altered out cold… though for how long it would stay down, I wasn’t sure of. I pulled out my flip phone to see how much damage I had actually inflicted on the thing.

  Machine Altered

  Type: Machine

  Health: 75%

  “It seems like father and Histoire is not exaggerating about the Altered becoming even more stronger than the Altered from two months ago.” I said before letting out a sigh, slamming Star Seeker into the concrete ground.

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  Over the past month, the Altered had been getting stronger and stronger. This raised a lot of questions when it started, many more than what could be answered. If the Altered transformations were the result of a virus, it would make sense for a virus to mutate further. However, such a theory was easily debunked, as it doesn’t work like normal viruses; it is not contagious, nor could it be spread by physical contact.

  The most perplexing aspect of this is the unpredictable nature of becoming Altered. Whatever the true cause of the mutations are, its victims seem to be picked at random. When this abrupt strengthening started, that random nature quickly led to widespread paranoia and fear among my people.

  I can't exactly blame them for that… even I remember, it was terrifying to me at first. But I didn't want the people around me to be shackled by fear and despair. I want to give them hope by casting the shadow away with my light.

  While I had been thinking about what led me to be in this situation, the Altered began to show visible signs of life. It had awoken and was slowly getting back on its feet, despite its chest already being littered with several slash marks. I would have continued to fight normally—however, I briefly considered that if the fight went on longer, the Altered would probably cause further damage to the wider area.

  "I might just need to defeat it fast… looks like it's time for me to use that power."

  I take my glasses off my face and look at the Altered with a glare.

  “Altered, I won't let you bring fear into the lives of everyone here… and I’ll make sure to save the person inside you!”

  I took off the star ornament from my hair as I spread my right arm out with the golden object in my grasp.

  “ALTER CHANGE!”

  , the gem at the centre of the golden star shone a brightly red glow, a robotic voice declared:

  ALTER SYSTEM ONLINE.

  A dome barrier formed and surrounded the lapi as their body and clothes peeled off, revealing a wireframe of their own body. Their form started to shift as new skin began to form around their wireframe body.

  While this is happening, the Altered eventually stands up and assaults Delphinium with a barrage of bullets from its gatling gun.

  However, the shots simply bounced off the barrier without causing damage or stopping the lapi's transformation.

  The Altered’s gatling gun reverted back to its metal claws, and it immediately charged in toward the lapi, raising its leg in an attempt to break both the barrier and the lapi inside. Before the Altered could reach it, the dome suddenly exploded, unleashing a powerful shockwave that knocked the Altered backward with sheer force. Soon, the Altered had fallen on its back, lying on the concrete ground with its eyes to the sky.

  When the dome burst apart, it revealed a new being that is now standing in Delphinium's place.

  The figure is tall and slim, its appearance a blend of organic and mechanical elements, and wearing a cropped sleeveless white jacket over a black bodysuit.

  On their legs are a pair of sleek black mechanical stilt-like legs—their forearms are also mechanical, and are also slightly longer than normal. Their hands have three fingers, which all look like the claws of a claw machine.

  The most distinct feature on them is their golden helmet, which has a star-like mask on the front, showing a single red eye. They have four pairs of jet-black wings on their back, giving off a very angelic vibe.

  The figure closes their eyes, taking a deep breath, before declaring themselves with the familiar voice of Delphinium Knowledge.

  "The time rabbit!" They spread their left arm out, posing. "Nova Star!"

  , put their left arm down as they pulled the Star Seeker off from the ground. They followed this by entering a hanging right guard stance. Their single eyes look intently at the recovering Altered as it gets back up, staring back at the transformed lapi.

  …..I hold the handle of my weapon with a strong grip as I let out a calm breath.

  I felt a massive surge of power running through my veins - heightening my instinct and reaction time, along with my hearing, stamina and strength.

  My body is standing there stiffly as I keep looking at the Altered for what feels like a long, drawn-out staring contest.

  The silence is abruptly shattered as the Altered activates its booster, charging towards me rapidly. It clenches its claws, pulls back, and then thrusts its fists forward in an attempt to deliver another powerful punch.

  But I block the attack with a strong roundhouse, the Altered stumbling backwards on impact. It gave me the opportunity to dash at the Altered and use a strong sidekick to slam against the mechanical titan's chest. I then followed up with a round kick that nearly knocks the Altered to its knees.

  Seizing the moment, I tightly gripped the handle of my sword and spread my wings out as I began to make a rapid advance toward the Altered, readied the weapon to deliver a strike.

  But it seemed like the Altered quickly recovered, and unleashed a wave of countless missiles and bullets. Even though the attacks were about to reach me, I wasn't afraid.

  I held my hand out and spread my palm forward as I said a single word.

  “Reverse.”

  The world suddenly stopped, the bird no longer moved, the Altered was standing frozen like a statue, and the missiles and bullets that were inching closer to me were now stopped.

  For a moment… the world started moving again. However, instead of moving forward like normal, time started to run backward, like a video being rewound. The attack was retracting and returning to the Altered, as if it had never occurred.

  As the effect wore off, the Altered was stunted, looking rather confused and disoriented. Taking advantage of the Altered’s confusion, I launched an immediate assault, unleashing a flurry of slashes from my sword at a relentless speed.

  The Altered was helpless to defend itself as it absorbed damage from all sides. Then, I launched into the sky, diving down toward the ground below. My right leg was extended forward, while my left leg was bent at the knee.

  The Altered looks up to see that I'm descending down, and the mechanical titan activates its shoulder-mounted booster to launch into the sky, and fires its gatling gun in an attempt to shoot me down.

  But the momentum that I built up was enough for the bullets to miss me completely, as it was greeted with my foot piercing through its chest like a fast-moving harpoon, leaving a massive gaping hole behind.

  I landed on the ground, sliding across the concrete before using my hand to stop myself.

  “Checkmate…”

  The Altered crumpled down on the street, creating a massive crater when it hit the ground as the mechanical titan exploded in a dome-shaped manner, its life now wiped from existence.

  With the Altered defeated, I ran over to the crashing site, on the crater where the Altered just crashed down and is now replaced with the victim that the Altered mutated from, a female lapi who looks a little worse for wear, but she is perfectly uninjured.

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Thank goodness…”

  I leapt down on the crater to pick up the unconscious victim from the ground as I leaping back on the street, placing the lapi down carefully on the ground.

  I detransformed, returning to my lapi form, and put my glasses back on.

  I took my flip phone out of my jacket to dial a number and put the phone close to my ear. The recipient soon answers, and a young, but sweet, high-pitched voice can be heard at the other end of the line.

  “Oh hey, big sis Delphy~! Do you need anything?”

  “Delphy” is a nickname that my sibling had given to me a long time ago, mostly due to the fact that my name was so long… it took a while, but it grew on me.

  The voice that comes out of the phone was my little sister, Lilium Knowledge, or Lily for short.

  “Yes, Lily, I needed your help. I managed to defeat an Altered that was located in the shopping street of C-Disc, and I need you to come here to check the victim’s health, just in case.”I explained, sounding slightly tired.

  “I got your cover big sis, I’ll be there!” Lily replied as I can tell that she is probably smiling.

  “Thank you, Lily. Oh… and make sure to inform Histoire about the damage; it is a huge mess…” I said, looking around at the wreckage of the battle. What once was a normal street had become one giant pile of wreckage.

  I can hear her giggle through the speaker.

  “Well, it wasn’t that hard to figure out! I could see that giant explosion from here… but yes I’ll make sure to do that!”

  Lily soon hung up her end of the line. Throwing my phone back into my jacket, I carry the unconscious victim, setting them down against a nearby bench that had seemingly sustained little to no damage from the battle.

  In the meantime, I lean my body against the wall of a building to rest a bit, given that my shoulder is feeling a bit stiff from swinging Star Seeker all over the place.

  “I need a massage someday.”

  ━━━?━━━

  , an ambulance arrived - the delay no doubt due to the impacts these Altered had been causing on the region’s infrastructure. The unconscious lapi was set down on a stretcher, then rolled into the back of the vehicle, soon beginning its way back to the hospital. I am currently sitting on the bench, talking to my little sister about my altercation with the Altered.

  Lily is a short girl with medium, purple hair and red eyes, and she has a pair of white, fluffy, long ears. She is also wearing a white nurse's uniform and cap with a heart symbol.

  While she looks like a normal Lapi, under her leg, her thigh looks like a stick, and her calf looks like an oversized boot. These differences are a result of Lily being a hybrid of a Lapi and a Kikoho.

  Lily’s the youngest sibling in my family and the third member of the Alter Trinity. Known for her kind heart, she is always willing to lend a hand to those in need. However, she has her quirks. She can be incredibly feisty when she gets incredibly angry. I witnessed what she did to an Altered during one of those moments—I truly feel sorry for it.

  But despite that, she holds the family and the team together as one—she is quite literally the heart of the group, and I wouldn't change anything about it.

  “I know Altered can be creative, but a walking arsenal? That's dangerous!” Lily said with a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Yeah, it is…in fact, while it had a pretty predictable series of behaviors, its strength was something not to be underestimated… I just hope I don’t have to deal with another Altered that can put a bullet hole in my body.”

  I hope not, otherwise… it would be just ridiculous and annoying. Lily let out a giggle, finding my situation to be quite humorous to her.

  “Well, don’t worry! If that situation ever comes, you have Helly and I to work together to beat it down!” Lily cheered.

  I can’t help letting out a snort of amusement, but I appreciated the support from my sibling, since the three of us are inseparable. Even if we grow up and have jobs of our own, we’d still hang out and keep in contact with each other.

  That's what siblings do, at least for me.

  “I appreciated that, and let's just hope you and big bro Helly won’t face the same issue of almost having bullet holes in your body…” I replied, letting out a chuckle.

  “Oh please~, you know that big bro Helly’s alter form is like the fastest, and mine being incredibly tanky?” Lily remarked with a little grin.

  “Oh somehow that makes both of your alter forms better than mine?” I spoke up with a small playful smile hidden behind my turtleneck.

  “Hey, you know that's not what I meant!” Lily pouts, which I simply let out a slight chuckle.

  “I know, I know…” I said with a smile and Lily gave me a playful jab on my elbow.

  “You’re hanging with Big Bro Helly too much…” Lily quips… and she’s probably right. Helly quite loves having fun bantering, so his influence does stick on me a little.

  “But, it does lighten up the mood during this time, right?” I replied, Lily looked at me for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

  “....True, it saddens me that the Altered presence affected the people around here…” Lily said with a sigh.

  “Well, that’s why we’re the Alter Trinity. It’s not just about defeating the Altered when they come up, but we’re also bringing hope to the people...” I said as I looked up into the clear blue sky.

  “Well, as long as there's hope, our light will cast out the shadows.” Lily added.

  Then suddenly a chipper, but masculine voice can be heard from behind, joined in the comment.

  “As long as we do the right thing, nothing can stop us three!”

  Our ears perked up as we turned to see a male with unusually spiky, purple hair. He wore a black clothes with a rabbit-shaped necklace.

  He has a holster strap on his left thighs, which hoisted a black and purple lever-action shotgun with a scythe blade. His arm resembled a stick, with the exception of his forearm. While it was hard to notice at firs, his head was actually floating as well.

  This is my brother, Hellebore Knowledge, or Helly, as my sister and I call him. Helly’s the middle child of the family, and he’s known to be quite laid-back and friendly. However, he also has a nasty habit of getting himself in all kinds of sticky situations…

  Now, as to how the three of us are siblings, despite our vastly different looks… just accept that we're all biologically related.

  “Oh Helly, you finally arrived… and here I thought your charm could get you here a little quicker?” I said with a brow raised at the Kikoho whose height is almost close to mine, but still slightly short.

  “Hey, hey, hey now! Give me a break big bro, it is not easy to find shadows on this beeeeeeeeautiful day!” Helly replied, sticking his tongue out playfully.

  I roll my eyes at my brother’s display as Lily comes into the conversation.

  “So where have you been? Big bro Helly?” she asked.

  “Oh, you know…parkouring around the building and helping mama with groceries!” Helly replied with a big doofy smile on his face.

  I shook my head, as I was not surprised, since Helly has a thing for thrill-seeking, the kind that could get him hurt - or worse, killed. Even though he is skilled at avoiding danger… rather, despite that… he still does worry me.

  “Ihihihihi, never change big bro Helly.” Lily giggles, which Helly responds with a wink.

  “Of course, my adorable little sis! Why would I change myself~? I’m pretty much perfect!” Helly said jokingly, which got me snickering a little.

  “Crk—Alright, alright…you comedian. Anyway, we should head to the Central Tower so I can give the battle data of Nova Star to my father, and of course report on my fight." I said, pulling out my flip phone, as Helly and Lily did the same.

  I clicked the device’s button, typing in a keyword.

  = TRANSFER =

  CENTRALTOWER <

  ”””Transport!”””

  All three of us press down on our phones at the same time. The three of us being bathed in a teal light and vanish shortly thereafter.

  ━━━?━━━