So here we are, the fight of the century! Not really, but we need some hype. So now, won't hold you up, here's the chapter!

Gio had entered the makeshift cafeteria, looked at the food choices, and grabbed some cereal. He thought back to last night. After the movie finished, it was too late to send Kanzashi back to her room. She asked to stay, and since Ichika was asleep, Gio let her. Of course, the two had a quick 'cuddling' session, but nothing serious. As Gio looked at the food that was present, he realized he didn't really know what Kanzashi liked to eat for breakfast, so he grabbed her an apple. He was walking back when a very energetic lady ran by, who seemed to be looking for Houki. He shrugged it off, not putting too much thought into it. He walked back to his room, and opened door. Kanzashi was standing near the mirror, wearing one of Gio's t-shirts, which covered whatever she might be wearing underneath it, and was fixing her hair. Gio's perspective was that she only had the shirt on, and that was it. Gio almost dropped the food, and had to stop a nosebleed. Kanzashi turned around, and noticed Gio was staring. For an awkward moment, the two stared at each other. Kanzashi broke the silence first.

"Not sure why you're staring. Remember, you saw me in my underwear last night." She said.

"I...am not sure either. Last night was my first time sleeping with a girl." Gio responded, "You want some breakfast?"

"Yes please." She walked towards him, and grabbed the apple. "So, let me guess, you think I'm naked under this?"

"Yeah…" That got Kanzashi to laugh. She pulled up the shirt, and revealed she had some track shorts on, emphasis on short. Gio sighed in relief, and walked to his bed. He sat down, Kanzashi sat down next to him. They ate, and conversed on some random topics. Eventually, they just laid on Gio's bed, watching another movie. They almost finished it, when Ichika suddenly threw the door open. He was in his IS suit, and turned to Gio.

"You need to come with me, Chifuyu wants to speak to all IS pilots with a personal IS. Something about a rogue IS."

Gio arrived with Kanzashi at a makeshift headquarters. It was a large tent, with an antenna set up on the back right corner. He entered the tent, and Chifuyu was talking to Houki about something. There was another girl beside Houki, and Gio recognized her instantly.

It was Tabane Shinonono.

Gio, unfazed, walked next to Chifuyu. He tapped her on the shoulder, signifying that he was ready for anything. She nodded, and turned around to look at him and Kanzashi. She filled them in on the story: an autonomous IS developed by Israel and the US has gone rogue. The IS was called Silver Gospel. It could learn about its enemies and adapt to their strategy to fight it more effectively. Gio sighed, he was bored of those IS types. Hammond had built some, but Gio and the other Hammond pilots showed the scientists that these IS were useless. Even the 'smart' IS types were easy. Gio mulled over a strategy, this IS would need to be dealt with precise attacks. However, unpredictable actions were needed as well. Gio went over to where Ichika was standing, and Houki joined them. Chifuyu gave them the rundown, the team was Ichika, Houki, and Gio. They were the only ones with an IS that could counter Silver Gospel's speed and weapons. Gio nodded, and turned to Houki, congratulating her on getting an IS. She nodded, thanking him for the congrats. Ichika turned to Houki as well, saying he needed to talk to her after this. Chifuyu dismissed the team. They had 4 hours to prepare.

Tabanae was walking from the tent when she heard footsteps rapidly approaching. She turned around, and nearly was hit with a fist from Gio. She jumped back, shock evident on her face.

"Now why did you go and do that?" She asked.

"I don't know, maybe because my country is still cleaning up YOUR mess. The Middle East heist ring a bell to you?" Gio responded.

"Oh yes, the trouble over there. Well...wait. Did you say YOUR country?" She asked, her voice going from her regular song-like self to almost questioning with a hint of fear.

"Yeah, my country. Hammond. And I lost friends in that war, and Hammond lost good men and women in that war. The war YOU started." Gio snapped back as his response, anger becoming more evident in his voice. "So I will ask you once, did you hack Silver Gospel?"

"Yes, why does it matter? I want to test Houki and Ichika-"

"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF YOU WANT TO TEST THEM! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GODDAMN GENIUS, NOT SOME TEST OVERSEER FOR YOUR LITTLE SIS! I SWEAR TO GOD, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HACKED?! THAT THING COULD KILL HER AND ICHIKA EASILY IF SOMETHING AS LITTLE AS ONE LETTER IN ITS CODE IS SCREWED UP!" Gio shouted at her.

Tabane quickly paled at this. She managed to recover, and laughed it off. "There's no way I messed up the code. Houki and Ichika can handle it, I just needed info on the new IS. They'll be fine, relax!"

"I swear to god almighty, if you are wrong…I personally will lead a goddamn war raid to your hideout and burn you inside of it." Gio promised, his voice evident that he was stating fact to Tabane. He walked away, not before pouring salt on a still fresh wound.

"Just remember Tabane: Hammond will always be ahead of you. Just look at the Middle East."

And with that, Gio walked away. Behind him, was an angry Tabane. She was already forming how she would get him back for that.

Gio walked back to his room, changing his IS's hand weapon from the 40mm to the XO-16 chaingun, with an extended clip making it 90 bullets, via the TCC. He was heading back to his room when shiver went up his spine. It was a quick one, so Gio dismissed it as him being cold in a quick breeze. He walked into his room, and began changing into his suit. He was took off his shirt, and looked around for his pilot suit, but it had seemed to be gone. He looked all around his room, and couldn't find it. He was about to just give up and use his pilot armor when a certain someone called him out.

"Looking for this?"

Gio turned around, and saw Houki holding his IS suit. Gio sighed in relief, and walked up to grab it. He thanked Houki, and went back to change when Houki grabbed his shoulder. He turned to see what was up when he got hit with a surprise.

Well…more accurately he got hit with Houki's hand, she had slapped him.

"Why? What was the reason for yelling at my older sister?" She asked.

"Oh..that. I don't like the game she's playing here." Gio responded.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she's obviously the one who hacked Silver Gospel. And she only did the to test the new IS she gave you. I don't think she is aware of how dangerous an uncontrolled Smart IS is. Those things are kept on a metaphorical leash at all times to make sure they don't kill anyone or level cities. As I said with Tabane, if one thing in the code is messed up, even as little as a misspelled word or a wrong process is present, the leash gets put away." Gio explained.

Houki nodded, now she understood why Gio was yelling at her sister. Silver Gospel could injure, or even kill her and Ichika. There was no way of telling what it could do, it was an uncontrolled robot. Unlike with Gio when he went berserker mode, where the only way to get him to stop was recalling his sanity, this opponent would require the ultimate shutdown: it had to be destroyed. Houki, satisfied with the explanation, walked away. Gio sighed, and went back to changing.

5 hours later…

"Seriously, where the hell is this thing?" Gio shouted to Ichika.

"Should be around here...I think." he responded. The team had been flying for around an hour, and Gio was getting impatient. He really wanted to destroy this piece of crap and go home. A Smart IS was no more dangerous, if coded correctly, than a regular pilot. Gio, on the inside, was hoping this was going to be a hard battle. While flying towards the IS, Gio had gotten a good look at Houki's IS. It was red, and had two swords. It flew a bit faster than Ichika's, but slower than Gio's. It held a sort of majestic feeling with it, like it was made for a noble swordsman.

Or in this case, a noble swordswoman. The IS was made for Houki, and Gio knew it. Now the question was: Could she use it effectively? They would find out. They neared the area, and that was about that moment that everything went wrong.

Ten minutes earlier...

Back at the HQ, Tabane was steaming mad. Gio's comment had really gotten to her, and she wanted to get back at him. She pulled up the Silver Gospel's coding, and played around with it. She made it more deadly, but suddenly, she was locked out. She raised an eyebrow, and tried to get back in. She couldn't get in, she tried again and again. She was locked out, and she was unable to get back in. She paled, she had just done what Gio had warned her about. The team was now in deep trouble, and grave danger.

Back at the fight…

Gio slashed at Silver Gospel. The IS dodged, and quickly flew up. It lashed out its hand, and small beams of light plasma. The beams spread out, and flew at the team. They hit all around them, causing a smoke screen. Gio flew through the smoke, and slashed at the area where he thought Gospel was. The smoke cleared, and he found he was wrong. He looked around, looking for Gospel, when he heard Houki scream. She had been hit by Gospel's short hand sword. Ichika flew in ,and slashed at Gospel. It dodged, and went in to slash as well. The two duelled, but Gospel came out on top. Ichika was hit away by Gospel. Suddenly, Gospel went still. Gio eyed it, unsure what it was doing. Then, as suddenly as it had shut down, Gospel started up again. It quickly spun around, and launched a halo of beams at the team. This damaged the whole team, and they all hit the ground. Ichika, Houki, and Gio struggled to get up, when Gospel launched a large beam at Houki. Houki, struggled to get out of the way. Gio, suddenly aware of what had just happened, jumped in front of the beam. He deployed his flame shield, and absorbed the beam. He launched the energy back at Gospel, which caused it to fly it away. Gio nodded, he needed the quick break.

"Listen up. The IS just lost its leash. Gospel is going full train at us. You two need to leave, now! This is no longer a search and destroy mission for you two, this is escape and survive." Gio told Ichika and Houki. They nodded, and they flew off. Gio turned back to Gospel. He pulled out his broadsword, and focused hard. Suddenly, he appeared in his Canto 34 suit. He shot straight to Gospel, and quickly slashed. He scored a hit, and quickly launched two railgun shots. Gospel was hit by the first shot, but caught the second shot. Gio raised an eyebrow at this. Gospel threw the shot back, and it hit Gio straight in the shoulder. What was worse, the shot went straight through the armor, severely wounding Gio. He held his shoulder, and saw Gospel powering up another shot. Gio weakly raised his hand, but the shield wouldn't power up. He watched as the beam charge, and fly straight at him. Gio knew that this was it. He was going to join his friends, finally getting to see them again. The beam hit, and the world imploded on Gio.

The same moment in HQ…

"NO!" Kanzashi screamed.

She had just watched Gio get obliterated by Silver Gospel. The rest of the crew looked down, unable to comprehend what just happened. The Hammond Representative Contender, just died.

And everyone knew who did it.

The duo IS pilots…

Ichika and Houki had watched the final fight. Gio's body fell from the explosion, hitting the ocean water. They knew he was dead, but they couldn't mourn now. Silver Gospel turned towards the duo. They flew away at quick speeds, escaping Silver Gospel.

Later…

"HOW?! HOW COULD YOU!? I'LL KILL YOU TABANE SHINONONO! YOU KILLED HIM!" Kanzashi was screaming at Tabane, who was being protected by Laura, while Charles and Cecilia held Kanzashi and her IS back. The whole school had heard what happened, and we shocked, to say the least. The Hammond pilot, dead? No, this was a bad dream, he was coming back. It was a strategy, right?

No, he was dead. Ichika and Houki had confirmed it to Chifuyu, describing the fight and Gio falling to the ocean. Kanzashi was silent when hearing this, and suddenly had gone berserk. Charles and Cecilia had barely kept her back from Tabane, and now were trying to calm her down. Tabane just looked on in shock. Gio was right, Smart IS could kill. She was lucky Houki and Ichika had gotten away safely. Gio wasn't lucky, he had covered the two's retreat, and died for them. Houki was being held by Ichika, and crying. Ichika's face darkened, he was going to destroy Silver Gospel, right after he punished Tabane. Kanzashi had finally calm down, and had started crying on the floor uncontrollably. She was never going to see him again.

Gio had been finally defeated, and his loss cost him his life.

Alright, now the story is over! We can go back to Hammond v UNSC!

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JK! Why would I do that? I like writing this story, so Gio is not dead. All is well! Unless you don't like the story, but now I must go write the next chapter. You all probably want to see what happens to Gio next! So until next time!

Sneak Preview

Chifuyu watched, mesmerized by the look at the IS that had just appeared. It was black, holding two black swords, one in each hand, and wreathed in fire. The IS was in full Legion suit, and was giving off a dark, red hue. Even Silver Gospel stared, and seemed to fly back a bit. This IS was unfamiliar, until it spoke.

"Dante made his way from Inferno, being led by Virgil. On his way up, he came upon a creature. This creature seemed to push everything away, just by the creature being near another. This creature was a sin, made by the Lord Himself. I, the one who stands before you, am that creature. I am the embodiment of the story, the epitome of Canto 34. I am INFERNO."