"Now, then." Alex muttered, taking a step back and returning to his fighting stance. "Where were we?"
The girl stumbled backwards, her hand shooting up to the back of her neck. "You... you hung me up?"
"Yeah." Alexander said, fists up. "You want to try fighting me without your magic?"
"No, you... You could have ejected me? Why didn't you?" She asked, sounding confused. "I am your enemy? Why didn't you..."
"You're not my enemy anymore." Aex said. "You're my prisoner. Now, will you come quietly, or will I have to knock you out?"
"I... you can't take me anywhere." Audacia said, sounding strangely detached. "I have a beacon attached to my Harnest. As soon as they realize that I failed, they'll remotely eject me."
"A beacon?" Alex said. "Can I see it?"
Hikari had said something about beacons being used to control witches, but she hadn't been very specific. She said they needed to get it off to stop the witch from attacking them, but Alex had managed to do that just fine by hanging her up. Still, a captive witch could be a valuable intelligence asset, if they could preserve her.
"Fine." Audacia said, turning around and pulling her hair up away from her Harnest.
There was a large circular device surrounding her Harnest, forming a circle about two inches thick around it. It was made of reflective metal, and a small arm extended from the device to touch the eject button of her Harnest.
"Oh." Alexander said. "I'm not sure how to get it off. I'm sorry."
He felt guilty about that, but he wasn't really sure why. This girl had been attempting to end his life moments ago. Seeing hers in mortal danger instead should have at least relieved him, but it didn't. Aud
"Alexander. There you are." Nathan said. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Audacia." Alex said. "She's... She's the witch that was trying to kill us."
Alex barely saw Nathan move, but suddenly his pistol was in his hand, and a fraction of an instant later, it was leveled at Audacia.
"Don't shoot!" Alex said. "She's non-hostile. I neutralized her powers, there's nothing she can do now."
"I know eight ways I could kill you from her position." Nathan said. "And eleven more to incapacitate her. Why shouldn't I just make the safe decision?"
"Because she could be as asset." Alex said, thinking as he spoke. "Hikari said that she didn't know much about the lab because she was a low-rank witch. Audacia is obviously more powerful. She might know more. More targets we could hit, or resources we could target."
"Fine." Nathan said, lowering his gun slightly. He reached into his pockets and produced a zip-tie cuff, then tossed it to Alex. "Cuff her, and bring her with us."
"Got it." Alexander said, gesturing for Audacia to give him her wrists. "But she's got a beacon on her Harnest. The lab is going to eject her if we don't get it off."
Nathan muttered something inaudible, then grabbed his head and grunted. At the same moment, Ishikawa entered the ruined lobby. Nathan and Alex glanced over at him, then began to explain the situation with Audica.
"So, she could be valuable, but we need to get this beacon off first." Nathan finished.
"Let us bring her to the secondary car." Ishikawa said. "I have an Explosive Ordnance Disposal kit there."
Alexander looked at Nathan and Ishikawa. "What's with you two?" He muttered. "You just happened to bring an EOD kit to this meeting? Just in case you needed to disarm one of Nathan's missiles?"
"I bought it as security against the possibility of having to remove a Harnest beacon from a captive witch," Ishikawa said, "Though I hardly knew that at the time. It simply seemed right."
Anna entered the lobby, still holding her rocket launcher. At almost the same time, Hikari exited from the stairwell, also holding the empty tube of her launcher.
"We need to dispose of the Jaegers." Nathan said. "Surveillance is down around here, but we need to hike a distance to get to the backup car."
"Place them in a storm drain." Ishikawa said, reaching into his pocket. "I reserved an incendiary for just this purpose. It will likely be days before they are found, and my device will fuse them into uselessness."
"Let's do that." Nathan said, turning around as his eyes scanned for the nearest drain. He gestured towards it, and the team began to walk toward it, Alex leading the cuffed Audacia.
Ishikawa removed the manhole cover from the service hatch of the storm drain, and the team members began disposing of their rocket launchers. When they were done, Ishikawa removed a largeish device from his pocket and dropped it into the hole, which he quickly covered with the removed steel plate.
There was a rushing sound, then a small bang, and smoke began to pour out of the storm drain.
"Let's move." Nathan said, "Audacia, hide those cuffs. Last thing we need is to be confused with a bunch of sex traffickers."
Audacia complied, holding her wrists close to her chest, so the cuffs would be camouflaged against the dark silvery material of her costume.
The group moved at a steady clip. Ishikawa removed an device from his pocket and pulled up a map of the area, and led the team through a building and around the police barricade that was being erected around the evacuated portion of the city.
When they exited onto the busy street, it was like stepping into a different world, one without witches and mecha, spies and government conspiracies. They stepped back into a world covered by a facade of normalcy.
A few heads turned at the site of the group with dust on their clothes, but no one said anything. It was, after all, none of their business. A lot of strange things had happened that afternoon, after all, so what were a few more?
The group made their way to a small parking garage several blocks away from the police cordon. They rode the elevator up to the third floor, and where they walked down one aisle toward a black SUV, almost identical to the one that Audacia had destroyed only a few moments before.
"You know, I really wish you hadn't trashed my ride." Nathan grumbled. "I was really starting to like that car."
"I was under orders." Audacia said defensively. "They would have ejected me if I disobeyed."
"Why haven't they done that yet?" Anna asked suddenly. "I mean..."
"My handler would have been focused on leaving the area and getting to the rally point. I have a few more minutes until I'll be expected to show up and he'll send the eject signal.
"We can do something about that." Nathan said, climbing into the driver's seat and flipping a switch.
"This car is equipped with a jamming device to disrupt traces on the vehicle." Ishikawa explained. "However, it operates with sufficient energy to block most signals from handheld devices, such as would likely be used to eject you."
"I see." Audacia said, sounding doubtful.
"Ishikawa, you drive." Nathan said, climbing out of the driver's seat. "I don't really feel up to it."
"Why?" Anna asked. "What happened?"
"I hit my head while running from someone's stupid robot." He said, shooting a glance at Audacia. "I've been feeling a little dizzy ever since. I think I might have a concussion." He shook his head. "Anyway, we need to get out of here, and disarm the beacon on Audacia's Harnest. The EOD kit is in the back of the car. Who wants to try their hand at bomb disposal?"
"Can Alex do it?" Anna said, a reluctant note in her voice. "My hands tended to shake a bit when get nervous. I don't think I'm be any good."
"Fine." Audacia said, blushing slightly.
"Alright," Nathan said. "Nathan, get the kit and get in the back of the car with Audacia. Ishikawa, get us out of here."
BREAK
Alexander sat down in the back of the vehicle, Audacia kneeling in front of him, her harnest exposed. The beacon sat on and around it like a spider, legs extending toward each of the harnest buttons. There was an elevated circle around the harnest, presumably where the beacon's 'brains' would be stored, and legs attaching the beacon to the back of her neck.
"Alright." Nathan said, from where he sat in front of Audacia. "We have three tasks. Disabling the button-pushing mechanism, disarming the beacon, and detaching it from the prisoner, in that order. To complete any of them, we will need to remove the case from the beacon. Do you see anywhere that looks like a seam on the beacon?"
Alex ran his fingers around the edge of the beacon. Audacia shivered. He felt a few dimples in the side of the machine, likely where screws or other fasteners had been placed.
"I think I found a few screws." Alex said, opening the EOD kit. He began to withdraw a screwdriver, but Nathan held out a hand. "Stop. First, use the current finder to see if those screws are wired up."
"Wired up?" Alex asked.
"If they're connected to a circuit to trigger the bomb, beacon, when tampered with." Nathan explained, holding his head. "If so, we'll have to cut our way in. Use the current finder to see if there's a current running through the screws."
Alexander withdrew the current finder from the kit. It looked like a black pen, with a white plastic tip at the end. Gingerly, he placed it against the one of the screws. If failed to light up.
"That means there's no current." Nathan said. "Take the screws out, carefully, but make sure not to shake them too much."
Alexander didn't respond, but instead began to remove the first screw from the case. It came out easily. The screw itself was a small piece of metal a little longer than Alexander's fingernail. He went to work on the second screw.
After a few moments, he had removed all five screws from the device. "What now?"
"Carefully remove the case." Nathan said. As he spoke, Ishikawa drove the car out of the parking garage and onto the city streets.
Alexander froze as he felt the car jostle as it drove over a speed bump. He put down the current finder and grabbed the case of the beacon. Slowly, he pulled it off and placed it to the side, revealing a rat's nest of circuits and black boxes.
Nathan leaned over and looked at the inner workings of the beacon. "First, we need to remove the power supply and control circuits to the motor that pushes the eject button. If we do that, it should make it a little safer for us to operate.
"Alright." Alexander said. "How do I find the motor?"
"It should be a larger, solid component, connected to the arm that pushed the eject button." Nathan said. "The power supply should, hopefully, be a set of red and black wires leading into it. If not, use the current finder to find the highest voltage set of wires running into the motor."
Alexander looked at the black box on the bottom-left of the harnest. There was a green wire and a white wire running into it, alongside a black and red wire braided together. Alex picked up the current finder and checked each wire. There was a weak current running through the white wire, no current in the green wire, and a strong current in the red and black wires.
"Cut the braided wires." Nathan said. "That should do it."
Alexander drew the wire cutter, placed it against the red and black wires, and applied pressure. The sharp blades of the scissor-like device sliced through the wires, neatly severing them. Audacia winced at the sound, and Alex held his breath.
Nothing happened.
"Alright." Nathan said. "Now cut the white wire and then the green wire."
"How do you know?"
"White wire should be the control wire." Nathan said. Green is probably connected to a dummy system or a trap.
"Alright." Alex said. He took a deep breath, then cut the white wire.
Nothing happened.
Alex moved the cutters over and sliced the green wire.
Once again, the beacon did nothing.
"Alright." Nathan said. "Now, it should be safe to remove the motor that pushes the eject button. Use the cutter tool to carefully remove it."
Alexander drew the cutter tool and applied it to one of the struts holding the eject motor in place. The rapidly vibrating blade of the cutter tore through it easily. Alex slowly cut the other four struts, then wrapped his fingers around the motor. He took a deep breath, then pulled it out.
The beacon did nothing.
"Alright." Nathan said. "Now that that's done, the next step is to remove the power supply of the beacon. Do you see anything that looks like a battery?"
Alex pointed at a case with the cutter tool. "There are a lot of wires going into that case." He said. "Including the one we thought was a power wire. Could that be it?"
Nathan gripped the wall to steady himself as the car made a tight turn, the looked at the box in question. "That looks like it. Cut the wires, then cut it out."
Alexander switched to the wire cutter then began snipping the wires. As he broke the last one, the beacon buzzed and a red LED lit up.
"Cut the power, quick!" Nathan said.
There was no time to be delicate. Alex placed his left hand on the back of Audacia's neck, then grabbed the battery and jerked it out. Audacia grunted as he tore the battery free, and as he did so, the red LED went out.
Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. "There must have been a trap on the battery." He explained. "That got triggered when you cut one of the wires. Either it was on a delay, and we cut the power in time, or it was intended to trigger the eject function, which we already disabled."
"Okay." Alexander said. "What next?"
"We remove the beacon from that girl's neck. That should be easy now that the power is cut."
Alex took a deep breath and squeezed his fingers under the edge of the beacon, touching bare skin. Audacia gasped. Then Alexander pulled upward, and the beacon jerked free.
"Is it off?" Audacia asked.
"Yes, it is." Alexander explained, as Audacia stood up to a squat and turned around. Delicately, she took the hateful object from Alexander's hands and lowered it to the floor. She raised on foot over it, then began stomping it into the floor.
After a few seconds under her boot, the beacon was nothing but a twisted pile of metal and circuitry. Audacia looked up at Alexander, a strange look in her face.
"I'm finally free of them." She said. "I... I thought this day would never come." She looked into Alexander's eyes. "You saved me. I hope you realize that after this, I would do anything for you."
"Yes." Alexander said. "You're welcome. I don't know what I could ask you for-"
Nathan looked at him.
"Actually, I would like to ask if you would be willing-"
"I was hoping to take it slowly." Audacia said, "But if that's-"
"NO!" Alexander said. "I wanted to ask if you would help us in our mission. You have a lot of firepower, and that probably won't be our last clash with lab forces. If you'd join our cell, that would mean a lot to me."
"...Oh." Audacia said, sounding faintly disappointed. Then she brightened. "Of course I'll help you with that, especially if it means getting another shot at those Lab pukes."
"Cell firepower increased by 1643%." Nathan muttered, then looked at Audacia. "Welcome aboard, I suppose. We've got plenty of Death Suppressants, so don't worry about that, for the time being. I'm sure we can find some money in the budget somewhere to pay you. How does a hundred sound, for the time being."
"You don't pay me a hundred-" Alex began, but Nathan wave him to silence.
"A hundred yen?" Audacia said. "That's not very much, but seeing as I wasn't expecting anything-"
Nathan sighed. "A hundred thousand dollars a year, Audacia." He said. "That translates to something like eighty-five thousand yen a month."
"You don't pay me eighty-five thousand yen a month." Alex said. "If I knew that we were getting out the checkbook, I would have-"
"We don't pay you eighty-five thousand yen a month, Alexander," Nathan said, "But you don't have a giant robot either, so be quiet, please."
"I don't think the robot is all she can do." Alex said. "She was really strong when we fought, before I hung her up, anyway."
Audacia blushed as he said 'hung up'. "That's my personal telekinesis." She said. "I can generate a powerful force inside my own body to increase my strength and jumping ability. With my power, I can even run on walls."
Nathan whistled. "That's pretty impressive." He said. "And that's in addition to summoning a giant robot?"
"Yes." Audacia said. "I wouldn't be able to do the robot thing for a few more hours, though, even if I wasn't hung up. In any case, I'm a AA+ rank Witch hybrid. That means I have two types of magic, my robot thing, which is A+ ranked, and my personal telekinesis, which is B ranked."
Anna's head popped up from behind the high seat back separating the back from the rest of the car. "If you guys are done." She said. "We've got to find some place to hide. The local cops are out in force, and they're looking for answers."
"And there's no telling how many of them are on the Lab's payroll." Audacia said. "We need to get out of here."
Hikari's head appered next to Anna. "Nathan, do you know any safe houses in this area?"
"Yeah, but they're all in the city limits." Nathan said. "And I don't think we want to stay there. We want to blend in with the crowd feeling the city and the obvious terror attack. That make us harder to associate with the event. Anyway, keep driving. I'll think of something."
"I'll start looking too." Anna said, then disappeared back behind her seat.
Nathan pulled out his phone and started looking at something. Alexander looked at Hikari nervously, not sure what he could do to help.
After a few moments, Nathan spoke. "I've got a place." He said. "Its remote, nearly abandoned, and only one person ever goes there. Ishikawa, I'm sending you the directions."
Break
Ichiro Sato walked into the main room of the observatory, carrying a tray of drinks. "What's going on?" He asked, looking around. The whole astronomy club was present, though none of them appered to be doing anything. Ryouta was sitting at his computer, looking at something.
"Not much." Kazumi said. "Things have been kind of quiet since the raid on the Dresden Facility. The second one, I mean."
"Not for everyone." Ryouta said, pointing at his computer screen. Look at this.
Ichiro put down his tray of drinks and walked over to the computer screen. "Terrorist attack in Tokyo?" He read. "Mass bombings in the Akihabara area? Casualties unknown at present, massive destruction." He shook his head. "Who could have done this?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Ryouta said. "Kazumi and I went to Akihabara not to long ago, so its possible that the Lab has something to do with this. but I'm trying to figure out what. What would they have to gain by attack a random area, that we just happened to visit not to long ago?"
"Maybe there's someone else working against the Lab." Kazumi said idly. "Maybe someone other than us is being attacked for a change."
"Or maybe this has nothing to do with the lab." Kuroha said. "It could be that this is just a terrorist attack."
"Still, what are the odds of that?" Ichiro said. "All this crazy stuff starts happening, and suddenly now there's a major terrorist attack?" Ichiro walked over to the computer and looked at it for a moment. "Plus, look at this. No major terrorist groups have taken credit for the attack. That points to it being suspicious, if nothing else."
"Yes." Ryouta said. "But what we need to figure out is how this affects us. What can we gain from this incident?"
"I don't know." Kuroha said. "How could we use this to get more Death Suppressants?"
As Ryouta opened his mouth to answer her, there was a loud knocking at the front door to the observatory. Nothing happened for a moment, then there was a loud series of clicks, and the distinctive sound of the door sliding open.
"What the-" Ryouta sprang out of his seat and was halfway down the stairs when a group of people waked in the front door of the observatory.
All but one of them were dressed in plain street clothes, but they moved like soldiers as they entered. Or at the very least, the first two in the door did. The four behind them moved gracefully, but not with the elegance of the first two.
One of the intruders, a young caucasian man, spotted Ryouta. He raised a hand and pointed at him.
In an instant, pistols were in the hands of the first two men.
"What are you doing here?" One of them, an older-looking Japanese man, demanded, in Japanese.
"What am I doing here?" Ryouta said, somewhat indignantly. His grace with people pointing guns at him had increased somewhat in previous weeks, but he was far from comfortable with it. "This is my Club's observatory. What are you doing here?"
"You are the sole member of your school's astronomy club, correct?" The second gunman, a white man, said.
"No." Ryouta muttered. "There's me and three others, plus our mascot."
"Great." The young man who had first spotted Ryouta groaned. "More witnesses."
"Can't we just kill them all?" The oddly dressed girl said.
"No, that would be wrong." The boy said, then looked at Ryouta. "You're Ryouta Murakami, correct?"
"Yes." Ryouta said. "Now, why are you in my observatory?"
"We're hikers. We got lost and came here for help." The Caucasian man said.
"They why do you have pistols?" Ryouta demanded. "That's illegal, you know. And I'm pretty sure I can see your car parked over there under those trees. Who are you, and what are you really doing here?"
"You want the truth?" The Caucasian man said. "Fine. We're a team of spies on a mission to investigate and disrupt the activity of an organization engaged in immoral human experimentation involving the supernatural. There, you happy?"
"Really?" Ryouta said, hardly believing what the man was saying. "Are you-"
"Naturally, you don't believe me, because everyone knows there's no such thing as magic, or Witches, or any of that. But that's-"
Ryouta made a snap calculation. None of the Lab assassins had stopped to talk, and this team looked like it was made up of professionals. Whoever these people were, they probably weren't from the Lab.
"I believe you." Ryouta said. "I have four Witches with me right now."
"Seriously?" The man said. "What do you mean? Is this some sort of cult?"
"I think he's telling the truth." The young man said. He turned to the Japanese girl with him and whispered something in her ear, then turned to face Ryouta. "If you invite us in, we can discuss this like civilized people." He said.
"Fine." Ryouta said. "Put the guns away and come upstairs. But If you make trouble, my Witches will end you."
It was a pathetic bluff, but these intruders didn't have to know that. As Ryouta led strange gruoup up the stairs, he was struck by a sudden feeling that his life was about to become much more complicated.
Again.
[x]
As soon as the boy settled the team on his benches, he began the conversation.
"Who are you?" The boy began, "And why are you here? If you don't tell me-"
"Calm down." Nathan said. "My name is Smith, and we're a team from MI6-"
"No, you aren't." The boy said. "I know when someone is lying, and you are."
"Thought I was better." Nathan mumbled. "Fine. We're CIA, and we're investigating some creepy lab that's been doing human experiments. They sent one of their Witches after us, and we trashed a couple blocks of Tokyo fighting her off. Now, we're befriended her and we need someplace to lie low until the heat burns off. Now who are you?"
The boy blinked. "Really? You're fighting the Lab too? What are you doing here?"
"Like I said, we're investigating and disrupting their activities. Now tell me who you are." Nathan said.
"Also." Alex said. "What are you doing involved in something like this?"
"I'm Ryouta. One of the of the Witches transferred into my class." Ryouta said. "One thing led to another, and I started protecting these girls."
"I see." Alexander said.
"Tell me something." Ryouta said. "We you the ones who attack the Dresden facility the second time?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the U.S. Government in any such activity." Nathan responded.
"Oh." Ryouta said, frowning. "I was hoping that you'd have some Death Suppressants. They are pills that Witches need to take to avoid dying."
"We're familiar with the substance." Nathan said. "And we have a supply of the pills."
"Really?" The Dark-haired girl sitting next to Ryouta said. "How many do you have?"
"We have two witches of our own to sustain." Nathan said, gesturing to Audica and Hikari. "So we will require something in trade in exchange for access to our limited supply of the pills."
"Fine." Ryouta said. "You can say here, if you give us Death Suppressants. Ten pills per person per day."
"Five." Nathan said. "And we only have fifteen pills for each of our witches on us at present. I can arrange a delivery for more, but that will take time."
Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills. "How many pills is this worth?"
Ryouta's eyes narrowed as he looked at the cash. "You can stay for two days on that. And you need to cover your own living expenses.
"Three days, and we pay you to bring us food." Nathan said.
"We need the pills. I'll agree to that if you throw in five pills now." Ryouta said.
"Fine." Nathan said. He casually tossed Ryouta the stack of bills. The boy looked through them for a moment, then nodded.
"Keep your guns away, but make yourselves at home." Ryouta said. "You can sleep on the ground floor. I think we have enough futons for all of you. Stay away from the girls, and don't leave the building."
Break
"So what do you think of our new guests?" Ryouta said. The guests in question were moving into the lower level of the observatory, while the residents were discussing on the top level.
"I don't know." Kazumi said. "I've run a quick check on them, but I couldn't find much. They've had someone who knows what they're doing wipe a lot of their records, but I found a deleted message in a CIA database mentioning the boy. I think they're for real, but I don't know about their intentions."
"I don't like it." Ichiro said. "I mean, we need Death Suppressants, and then someone who has them just walks in the door? It feels like a setup."
"But what would their objective be?" Ryouta said. "No matter how you slice it, we need those pills, and the ones they gave us already bought you guys another day of life."
Break
Alex held his finger to his ear as he listened to the conversation in the room above. It was a bit muffled, but he could make out Ryouta say that they needed the death suppressants.
"What are you doing, Alex?" Hikari asked, looking at Alexander.
"Nothing." He said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I was just thinking about everything that happened." He sighed. "It's been pretty crazy."
"I've been wondering about Audica." Hikari said. "I mean, I don't like her for some reason. I think she's a spy."
Alexander sighed. "We're all spies."
"I think she might turn us in to the lab." Hikari said. "She switched sides so easily..."
"Wouldn't you do the same, though?" Alexander asked. "I mean, you said that the Lab treats you pretty poorly. Why would you have any loyalty to them?"
"I don't like her either." Anna said, entering the room.
"Why not?" Alex asked.
"I don't know!" Anna said. "I think-"
"Hikari already accused her of being a spy. Or a double agent, I guess." Alexander said.
Anna shot Hikari a glare.
"Still. The way she was acting toward you..."
"What are you talking about?" Alex asked. "I don't think she was-"
"Who are you guys talking about?" Audacia asked, sticking her head in the door. "I was just helping set up the futons."
She walked into the room, elbowed past the other two girls, and stopped next to Alex. "We're one short, though."
"Well maybe we can have Ryouta-" Alex began.
"You want to share with me?" Audica said. "That's a bit forward, don't you think? But I'm fine with it, I suppose."
"That wasn't what I was proposing!" Alex said, almost shouting. "Anyway, I think dinner's almost ready. We need to make our next plan."