"Congratulations-"

The night sky offers some traces of light onto the top-floor balcony. A new moon provides a startling visage of the cosmos. The only sure source of light being a shimmering screen floating in the darkness. If it were slightly brighter, it would illuminate the two figures standing in front of it.

"-on your new promotion."

The slightly shorter figure waves his hand, and the shimmering screen vanishes in an instant.

"That seemed easier than expected." The taller figure turns to the glowing skyline.

"It will take a few weeks to be processed, but don't expect much push-back." The shorter man leans on the railing.

The taller man turns toward the moonlight, "I appreciate the offer, but this doesn't solve my problem. The investigation is still moving forward, and I doubt changing my job title will deter the admirals. Some of them have a habit of being disobedient when their morals tell them to be."

"Persistent codgers should not be deterring you at this stage. If security is a concern, then I have a solution."

The smaller man brings another screen up with a pyramid-shaped list of names. With a flick of his wrist; he throws off the very top of the hierarchy. His finger then narrowly traces a new name into the empty box. 
 

"Caledfwlch's Raptor division now has a new chairman. Report there tomorrow to meet your new team." He pushes the screen away, "I'm sure they can handle your security just fine."

"'Raptor', that's the autonomous weapons program." The tall man crosses his arms. 
 

"It's undergone a windfall after the outbreak last year." The small man taps another tile that pops up. "Their performance gave us a more authoritative role than shriveled prunes pining for retirement."

"Mm, I hope the admirals will see it your way."

"They don't really have a choice; the future is coming and their complaining won't be able to stop it." The shorter man scoffs, "The first of the newest models are rolling off the production line right now, and next week will be their first training presentation."
 

"I suppose that settles it, then."

"So, with that out of the way, how goes your research?"

"We have made some progress on isolation." The taller man leans against the railing, "I'm still skeptical of the research, but we will have an answer for you within a few months barring any major setbacks. I must admit that your friend has been more than cooperative with his assistance."

"It's true that he may be- eccentric." The shorter man seems to have difficulty swallowing that statement. "However, I can guarantee you that his workmanship is sound; if nothing else."
 

"In any case, our need of him will be wrapping up shortly. I'll contact you when it's time to file for his retirement plan."
 

The shorter man pats the taller man's shoulder, and turns to the balcony exit.

"It's been a long time coming, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Continue with your research, and let me know if any of your new employees become insubordinate."
 

That I'm watching over you.

WHUMP! 

Click, click, click...

There's a sharp thud as the entire universe seemingly stops in its tracks. A twisting feeling overtakes you as the world starts to slowly grow from darkness, and take shape.

The first sensation that strikes you is a veneer of of static erupting from the void. Reality, as you know it, is sculpted from the abyss in a mighty battle between the flickering light and encroaching darkness.

Existence itself roars in a sharp culmination of steel crashing and iron shearing. Light splits the abyss in two as it rapidly engulfs your senses with an assault of feelings and thoughts which you're reasonably sure are patently new to you.

Your eyes flicker for a fraction of a second, and you are treated to the first taste of being.

There's an uncomfortable series of pops and creaks which echo throughout your legs and arms as you command them to do your bidding. A series of whirs and clicks give the final amount of energy needed to push you from your metallic housing.

The unmistakable stench of oil, or what you have sensed is oil, strikes you. It seems you have stepped out into a very well-armored warehouse. The sections are separated into a lower section filled with machinery, and a much more prominent top section. Your eyes almost instinctively dart between the only living things in the room: standing along the railing of the top section. There are people leaning against the railing above you. Each one appears to be gazing at you from afar.

Watching you.

"-And here." A mighty voice echoes throughout the facility through an unseen source of audio, "We have 'CW-ADGX', but you may call her Gamma! Wish Gamma a happy birthday. She's part of our newest christened 'AEC' team; her final touches completed just this morning. Follow me as we perform her first ever reliability exam."

.. Gamma?

Somehow, these terms resonate with you after some cycles spent contemplating their meaning.

"As you can see-" The voice continues, ignoring your clear confusion of the circumstances. "Gamma is anatomically correct in every way, perfectly suitable for blending in with civilian populations. Simple metal detectors, personality tests, and even full-body searches would be unable to tell her apart from the real thing."

The 'real thing'.

The voice pauses.

"Gamma, I think our guests have seen enough. If you would be so kind as to dress yourself using the outfit in front of you."

Dress 'your'self, referring to 'my'self. You look down, and spot the light skin-tone of an unmistakable recreation of the female form.

There's an almost audible clunk between your eyes as something important is passed back and forth between banks of circuitry.

You realize that the voice is serious about the suggestion. You are completely naked.

You take the outfit and slowly back into the discarded remains of the twisted and destroyed container. You're relatively certain that no one can see you here, and this lets you adorn yourself with the garments at a pace that is reasonable to you.

"See folks? She's shy!" The voice chuckles lightly as the shadows envelop your form. This is where you feel most at home, anyway. Right here, in the shadows. Immediately, the feeling of discomfort leaves your skin and allows you to breathe.

You find some confusion as to which piece of equipment goes over what. There's a smaller piece of fabric that slips over you akin to pants, but they don't cover very much by surface area. You're equally confused at encountering some form of cloth chestplate among the pile of clothing. You try putting it on, but there's some kind of mechanical force which requires some form of latch in order to operate. There's a light buzz as rear-oriented cameras engage, but they aren't able to discern what exact kind of mechanics would be required to put one into the other.

..It's probably not needed, anyway.

Quickly, you slide on a button-up shirt from the pile of fabric, and then slide a dress over your smaller pair of shorts. You emerge from the container mostly disheveled, but definitely clothed this time.

"Congratulations! Let's hear it for Gamma!" The voice is accompanied with light giggling from the upper rows of the warehouse. You feel that tension spread over your neck as their eyes lay upon you. You're not sure what exactly that feeling could be, but it's more like you can sense that they're watching you. It's a most disturbing feeling.

"Gamma may seem ordinary, but don't let her appearance fool you! You're looking at the next generation of soldier. Too long has flesh and bone been tasked with fighting forces beyond its strength. Caledfwlch thinks that those forces should try fighting something their own size!"

You're not entirely sure what it means by 'their own size', or what 'forces beyond its strength' is referring to. Somehow, it carries an almost sinister undertone that you can't quite put your finger on.

"Let's move on to everyone's favorite part of the tour, weapon training! Gamma. If you don't mind, please approach the firing range."

You carefully approach a long hallway with several cargo containers at the end of the range. Somewhere down the range are some cardboard cutouts. One looks humanoid, another looks like some kind of tank, but the other looks like nothing human or machine at all. What is that supposed to represent?

"Gamma is trained in a variety of weapons out-of-the-box! She's an experienced veteran without seeing a day of combat. Merely picking up a weapon gives her the ability to use magic related to it: with all the gusto of a seasoned warrior! Gamma, let's have a look at the devices on the table."

There are indeed three devices laid out on the table in front of you. They glisten with recently polished glean.

Weapon A:

Weapon B:

Weapon C:

You close your eyes and reach out for one.

As in, you reach out and grab two.

You're not sure what that thing is on the right-hand side of the shooting range. It may require some melee finesse, but just to be sure; you've also picked up one of the dual-linked pistols into your left hand.

"That's..." The voice stops for a second, "-Amazing! Gamma has determined through sheer calculation that this training exercise could be best completed with the combination of both a sword and a gun! You can really see the innate intelligent device at play!"

Wait, the innate what?

"But before we begin, I must ask Gamma to now ready herself for combat. She will do that by equipping her Barrier Jacket."

Barrier Jacket.

Used, ★ Raptor Barrier Jacket.

You feel a glowing light start to dance under your feet. You look down to notice a giant pink hexagon spiraling under you.

"Wow!" A male voice in the distance exclaims.

"It's a hexagon!" A more feminine voice shares the sentiment. "I thought they had to be circles?"

Slowly, you feel a certain something inside of you stir.

An almost blinding light envelopes your body, and quickly sets you apart from reality. The glowing feeling wraps itself around every inch of your skin, and lingers slightly on your hands.

There's a popping sensation, almost as if air pressure just equalized. You find yourself gently floating to the floor.

The crowd immediately bursts into whispering conversation. It sounds like a million voices are chattering about all things related to you, and your outfit.

You look down to notice that your previously dull dress has been replaced with a white jacket, and a navy-blue dress. It's hard to get a read of what you actually look like right now, but this outfit does at the very least feel welcoming.

"Now, we're going to animate the targets and we'll let the demonstration commence!"

That's a weird way of putting it.

'Animate the targets.'

There's a pink light that envelopes each of the three target stands. Slowly, the cardboard stands retract into the ground.

..-Then a fully animate creature takes their place!

From where the humanoid was standing, a flickering projection of a man with a staff stands in his place! From where the tank outline was resting, an actual tank is suddenly resting on top of it.

What worries you more is what was standing on that thing which you were not exactly sure what it was before. Rising out of the concrete floor; complete with writhing cybernetic arms, is a formless ball with an assortment of limbs protruding from it!

"Okay Gamma, Begin."

'Thanks a lot.' is just one of the thoughts which come to mind.

You take to action. Quickly you raise your pistol and get two magically enhanced shots off on the mage before he is able to get a shot off on you. His staff clatters on the ground, and he fizzles into speckles of light.

The tank takes advantage of this relative opening, and decides to move in. You quickly close the distance before its turret manages to seek to your level, and you lop off the barrel of the turret in one fell swoop with your sword. A disgusting wretch of machinery sounds out from inside of the tank as it tries to fire its now ruined apparatus. It slowly starts to back up in some kind of pathetic retreat.

Or, maybe it was waiting for reinforcements? You feel the back of your neck scream in pain as you pivot on your heel to face that... thing. It has everything. One mechanical arm has a sword, the other has a staff, several have guns, and you think some of these hands are for gardening or something? Those are scissors.

It lashes out as you take a shot at one of its implements. The bullet flies too high as it slowly starts to impart some momentum behind it. For having so many limbs; it sure is sluggish.

Quickly, you decide that there's another function of the sword that you could be using right now. You level the sword with the blob, and concentrate residual magic energy.

PEW!

A not very impressive beam of light erupts from the tip of the sword. You can feel the limiters inside of it resisting your attempts to pump energy into it. The feeling is most unpleasant.

BZZT!

The pink beam erupts through the blob, and strikes something important. It writhes for a few seconds before melting into a flicking ball of light.

Which just leaves the tank, still backing up, still trying to leave the arena.

You nonchalantly raise your gun to level with its hull. With a bang; a single bullet reflects off of it, and causes it to dissipate in a similar matter.

That wasn't very hard, but you suspect much of this demonstration was spectacle from the beginning.

"WOW!" The voice's excitement echoes throughout the warehouse. "Did you see that?! Gamma is amazing!"

There's a litany of applause and cheering from the top row of the warehouse. Somehow, you didn't feel like that was much of a victory. You let the weapons rest by your side.

"And with that, our Gamma model demonstration is complete. Please stick around if you have silver security access and above for Gamma's technical specs rundown. We appreciate your business and concern, and hope to see you at the next trade show."

You're not sure if you can sigh, but you would be doing it if you could.

But you certainly aren't.

Besides, you're pretty sure you don't even have 'silver' security access. Whatever that means, anyway.

You don't want to be a security hazard, after all!

You set the sword down, and gently slip the pistol into your coat. You make your way to the back exit while the voice seems to be away from the microphone. Quickly, you scan the door-frame to make sure this won't set off the fire alarm.

Nope! It's just a back exit. Quietly, you proceed through it.

The door silently shuts behind you as you examine the new room you've found yourself in. It's a darkened section of the warehouse with lots of props, strewn about stage equipment, and discarded costumes.

Apparently this entire warehouse is meant just for show. Strange that they would choose this kind of setting to 'wow' people with.

Of course, you wouldn't know what it should look like, anyway.

The lights in this room go from 'dim' to 'dark' in a hurry. So much so that your light amplification in your eyes can't boost the visible light above the ambient darkness.

Quickly, something clicks in your eye as the IR filter is taken off and a colorless light starts to illuminate your path. This seems acceptable, and allows you to make out various shapes and details of the room.

At the same time, everything is now in black and white. You suppose that's just a burden you will have to live with for the time being.

Speaking of which, nothing about this is computing logically. You spent a few cycles contemplating what this whole thing was about, but you're not entirely sure what the purpose here is.

It felt like some kind of... sales pitch. Something about that seems awfully wrong. Are they trying to sell you? To whom?! For what? Well, you can guess for what. They want you to kill things. At the same time, no one asked you if you're okay with that. It was just 'Welcome to life, Gamma! You're born! Now take this gun and shoot these holograms.'

You're lucky to even be wearing clothes on your back.

The hallway is getting narrow, now. These halls are clearly meant for stagehands in some kind of more theatrical presentation. You don't happen to see anything out of ordinary in here except a few open doors which lead to closets. In fact, you feel that you may have missed a turn somewhere, as this hallway just leads to a single door in a dead end.

You open the door and quickly scan everything inside. It's a small room coated in tiles. There's a fixture which you recognize from your database to be a human organic waste disposal here. You press a lever on the side, and it makes a flushing noise. There's a smaller version of this mounted against the wall to clean human hands, and above that smaller disposal is...

An extremely reflective surface. You can see the IR light from your eyes bouncing off of it in its completely colorless luminosity.

A thought completes its round trip through your processing unit.

Slowly, as if your legs are trying to keep you from seeing something, you approach it.

"Is that me?" A strangely girly voice that you previously haven't heard before suddenly erupts from the general vicinity of the reflection. Exact location cannot be confirmed at this time.

You spend several minute gazing at the bizarre woman. Her mouth agape as if she just witnessed a grisly murder. Her eyes flicker with a very bright light as she mimics your every action.

"Ah-" You try to say something, but nothing comes out.

"Ah, I get it!" You say to nothing, and nobody.

'This is a dream!' You feel yourself laughing. It seems so obvious now! 'I am dreaming and none of this is real! How baffling it would be if any of this was real! I feel. so.. much better.'

Yeah, that's right. This is a dream. What should you do when faced with a dream you cannot wake from?

Let's see.. Maybe there's an answer here..

H.d401(q)(b) covers illusions. That probably isn't right.

H.d554(m) is about IFF jamming. Nope, that's not right either.

Oh! Recharges!

Okay, so if visions are encountered during a recharge; then immediately enter sleep mode and contact a verified technician for assistance.

Sounds good! You'll just.. pop into sleep mode for a few seconds, and you'll be awake!

Here you go.

Entering sleep mode.

CAUGHT SIGNAL 8

3...

2...

1...

...

THUD!

...

Exploration bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

End of day bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

Please allocate your two cyber modules on this chart:

For more information, please cross-reference the included specification sheet for answers.

RECHARGING.

..

...

....

(10: END)

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-[............\]-

-[............|]-

-[............/]-

-[............-]-

-[............\]-

-[............|]-

Level up.

Beep.

Your eyes gently open to a curtain of green obscuring your vision from the world. Gently, you push your bangs out of your eyes, and stare at the ceiling.

You don't know how, but it worked. You've awakened from your nightmare, and now find yourself in a completely different place. Now, you find yourself slumped in some kind of half-bed. On top of the bed is a bubble-like dome which covers just the top of your head. You push it away and sit up.

'What a bizarre nightmare.' You think to yourself, and try to make sense of it. There was a warehouse, and a voice, and they had you performing like a circus animal in front of dozens of people. Perhaps it was your subconscious reacting to an innate fear of some kind? That doesn't seem quite right. Maybe it's because of the completely disjointed series of events which led you to the warehouse? You can't recall how you got there, and any attempts to rationalize the order of events results in an error.

Then, there was that face. That strange face you remember seeing which brought you back to reality. Who was that woman? Surely, it couldn't have been anyone you're familiar with.

..Speaking of which, you don't know how you got here, either. You were hoping that, once you awakened, the answers would simply come to you. Of course, you're suddenly aware that you've received no such clarity.

You look around the room that you find yourself in, and are struck by how unfamiliar it is to you. It's akin to a laboratory; a completely sterile arena of research. Computers line one of the walls of the room, and provide a gentle ambiance of humming and clicking.

Your head swivels on its axis as it completes one half-circle around the room. At the gimbal limits of its right-side, you encounter yet another face staring at you almost motionless.

Another face..

A FACE?!

Your body jumps momentarily, and the face simply blinks at you. There's a girl who has been sitting by your bedside this whole time. She has shoulder-length walnut-colored hair, and has pushed her bangs aside to part down the center of her scalp. She remains staring at you, looking more unamused as time goes by.

"Who-"

"CW-ADEX. Or just 'Echo'." The woman responds, almost anticipating your question. "You must be Gamma, our newest sister model."

'Gamma..'

"I suppose that I am."

Datalink: Scanning...

Huh.

"I'm the security and information analyst model. You must be the assault model." Echo continues without waiting for you to respond. "Which means you'll be going with me on the next mission."

"Excuse me." You stop her before she can continue, this is getting overwhelming. "First, where are we?"

"This is our home." Echo seems candid with telling you this.

"..Okay, but where is our 'home'?"

"In the basement laboratories of Caledfwlch Techniques."

"What is that?"

"They're the company who manufactures Raptors."

"What's a-"

You suddenly realize that you may be getting into too many questions to ask at once. You need to prioritize if you're going to get any kind of clear answers.

Echo blinks, almost as if she doesn't know how to respond to that.

"Right, you haven't been briefed yet." Echo responds in an almost matter-of-fact sort of way. "You're a raptor."

"What IS a 'Raptor', though?"

"That's you. You're a raptor."

"I don't understand." You frown.

"It may be faster if I just showed you, then." Echo stands up. "Come."

You're not really sure if you can trust her, but at the same time she did call you 'sister'. While it doesn't seem very logical; if she was hostile she probably wouldn't be calling you 'sister'.

You follow Echo down the hallway and toward a set of windows that appear to be peering into another laboratory.

There are, things, along the wall of the laboratory next to yours. They're pulsing with a faint red light as they sit in very obvious chargers.

"See those things? Those are also Raptors." Echo points to the vaguely-human shaped androids. "Those are the last-last-generation models. They're kind of like our grandparents in a way."

"Our.. what? What are they for?"

"They're short-range search and destroy weapon platforms. They can't use magic, they operate on a collective hivemind as opposed to the individual mental dataset that we have, and they have an operational time of fifteen minutes between recharges." Echo seems rather dull about this seemingly bizarre thing she's saying. "We are the newest version of them."

"..I find that hard to believe."

You don't even look anything like those things. One of them has half of its head missing, wires pouring of it. None of them look female, and Echo says they have a hivemind? You don't have that. At least, you don't think that it's controlling you.

There's the.. Well, never mind. It's best not to think about those.

"I still have questions." You frown, "Why were you watching me when I was sleeping."

"I brought you here." Echo blinks.

"Why?"

"I found you in sleep mode on the bathroom floor of the exhibition arena." Echo states.

"Wh-" You don't think your cheeks can turn red, but they're certainly trying. "You found me there?!"

"Yes, I detected when it happened. Don't worry, I made sure to scrub the arena logs so no one else saw it. Even the lab technicians think you were just taken back for a recharge."

"Oh.."

You don't know what to say to that one.

"Um.. Thanks?"

"It's fine. We should help each other whenever possible." Echo seems to state without a hint of sarcasm, "I would expect you to do the same for me."

"..Can I call you 'sis', then?"

"Sure. 'Sis'." Echo, is she smiling? "In the meantime, you have not finished your briefing. Would you like me to continue? We may be deployed in the next few hours."

'Deployed'..

"We're going on a mission. Apparently your demonstration impressed a lot of people, and one of the government agents had an urgent task for us."

"What 'government agent'?"

"'Time-Space Administrative Bureau' agent. Identity unknown, further information on their identity unavailable at this time." Echo states.

"..Great."

"It's quite simple, 'Sis'." Echo doesn't seem the least bit worried about this information, "We're created by Caledfwlch Techniques, a defense contractor. The government contracts them to complete tasks that may be outside their bureaucratic scope. That's where we come in."

"So.. how long until we 'deploy'?"

"Uncertain. We should just be ready for when it does happen."

"One more thing, wait." You stop Echo before she returns to the lab, "How old am I? Are there a lot of us Raptors? Current-gen ones, I mean."

"Uncertain." Echo states, once more. "I've only met four of them so far that I've been on a mission with. I was curious about this question as well and tried obtaining the information. Apparently, mass production was halted as we're difficult to manufacture for some unspecified reason. So instead our services are under contract."

Unspecified reason.

"Okay, but what was all that in the warehouse about? Why was I naked?! Was the guy who showed me off to all those people a pervert? I wasn't wearing clothes from the start!"

"Gamma, relax. The same thing happened to me."

"Why?!"

"From my data collection; it was to show that we were fresh from the factory. Unedited, unmodified, and that the show was not an illusion. I was asked to hack several different terminals, and I believe you had the combat exercise."

"Was he a pervert, then?" You cross your arms.

"Unsure, I couldn't grasp his identity. I think he's an executive in the autonomous weapons program." Echo blinks.

You think about what Echo was trying to communicate, and frown.

"So what should I do, now?"

"Perhaps you should let me finish the briefing. We've already covered about half of what I know, as well."

"..Fine, lead the way."

Echo takes you away from the laboratories and instead toward another section of the lab. This appears to be some kind of shooting range. There are paper targets way at the end of a concrete tunnel.

Echo stops, and then turns to you.

"There's a favor I would like to ask you, Gamma."

"..What would that be?"

"Any weapons that we find, we keep secret." That's an odd request. "I did not tell anyone about or confiscate your practice pistol, and I would greatly appreciate the same for me if I happen to show you any weaponry I have acquired. It's hard to find good weapons, and I understand getting attached to them."

"That is correct." Echo blinks, "We have a collection of lab technicians who periodically check on us from time to time, and they are staunch about their insistence that we only take lab equipment on missions. They falsely believe that their protein-filled salt-based decision making core gives them authority on combat whereas we have no say in the matter. I was unaware at the time that warm saltwater and protein could make better decisions than I could, but I was helpfully informed otherwise."

..

"You.. sound like you don't like them very much." You gulp.

"We have an understanding." Echo looks over her shoulder, "I feel this way because I care."

"Right, what was this weapon training you were going to show me?"

"First, let's see your practice pistol. You can scan my weapon if it helps."

Datalink: Scanning...

Scan Complete.

"What does that mean, 'Custom armed device'?"

"Limiters and all power limiting hardware thereof are protective circuits meant for fles- humans." Echo quickly corrects herself. "Power must be limited to prevent their tiny protein and cellular structures from coming apart under massive amounts of magic energy. Since we do not have that problem, we can push the devices to their limits. Removing a limiter customizes the device specifically for your usage. Try hacking your pistol."

You dial into the tiny frequency of the pistol's information link. There's a pretty significant security flaw which gives you root access almost immediately. Within a few milliseconds of focusing, the limiter is disengaged.

"Also I must mention, Gamma." Echo continues, "Removing limiters on armed devices can be considered an unlawful offense."

"What?! Why did you tell me to do it, then?!"

"Because your pistol is almost worthless to you without some modification. You will find most armed devices to be this way, and you can expect most of your enemies to be changing and editing their devices in some way also." Echo shrugs, "It's not really a crime if everyone does it."

"I don't know if we should be-"

"If you wish, I can brick your pistol and no one will ever know. You can use lab equipment if you wish. I don't wish to make you do something that you don't want to do."

"It's just.. you will find most of our superiors to be padded meat and bone, and all that water. How the constant sloshing doesn't drive them mad, I will never know." Echo sets her weapon next to yours.

"'Sloshing', they slosh?"

"Yes, humans slosh as they walk. They train themselves to not listen to it."

You find this hard to believe.

"I think you're exaggerating."

"I can assure you I am not, and also many times you will be in their general vicinity and hear excrement and liquids moving through them."

"That's disgusting."

"It's not, those chemicals are safely contained inside of their bodies. It's just something you will have to get used to."

"Why do they do that?" You raise your new pistol up to the paper target, and pull the trigger. The cartridge inside detonates, and a magic bolt screams toward the paper target.

When it strikes; the tiny sheet of paper is incenerated.

Fire? When did this pistol shoot fire?

"I am unsure." Echo continues her previous thought, "I think that's just how they evolved, as they weren't designed. It seems like a design flaw to carry so much waste with you."

"..Have you thought about this often?"

"I try not to." Echo examines your pistol closely, "Good, this one has a fire element attached. You should probably name it."

"Name it?"

"Naming something makes it easy to remember. You may want to keep it around, even if you get a better weapon. It's good practice."

Name your new device?

Complete.

"Say, is there anyone else around I can ask? Any more Raptors?" You holster the gun in your jacket.

Echo blinks. "Yes, there is Foxtrot, she's in the technicians break room. Down the hall, to the left."

"Thanks."

KA-CHUNK!

You hear a mechanical spring actuating somewhere in the next room.

"Hello?" You state.

CHUNK!

You walk into the break room to witness a strange sight. There's a much smaller girl sitting at the break table. She has what appears to be a permanently affixed bored expression on her face. She's roughly 125 or perhaps 135 cm in height, and has a head of auburn hair.

Beside her is an open bag of bread, and on the other side of her is a pile of burnt toast.

Datalink: Scanning...

"Uh, hi?" You introduce yourself, "I'm Gamma."

"Hello Gamma." She sounds tired, "I'm Foxtrot."

"If, you don't mind me asking; what are you doing?"

"I'm feeding the toaster."

KA-CHUNK!

Two more pieces of burnt toast pop out of the silver box in front of her. She takes it out, sets it in the pile, and then takes two more pieces of bread out. She puts it in the toaster before pressing the plunger down.

"..Why?"

"Because." She sighs.

"Well, I've just woke up, so I was wondering-"

"About that." Foxtrot interrupts you, "I heard through the grapevine that Echo had to carry you back from the arena."

"..Well, maybe, that's maybe a thing that happened." What an odd line of questioning.

"Gamma can I ask a question?"

"Okay..?"

"Are you a dork?"

There's a slight pause as another set of toast pops up. She takes it out and replaces it with fresh bread.

"Mm, it's worse than I thought." Foxtrot sighs.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

"I mean, I don't have enough life experience to know for sure, but, yes? Maybe? I just shut down after seeing myself in a mirror. Does that make me a dork?"

"Hmm."

She raises her head, and points behind you.

"Turn around, I want to see what happens."

'Turn around'?

You spin around to see what she's referring to. On the wall of the break room directly behind you; you see-

"Oh, I see." Foxtrot lazily replies. "Are you gonna shut down again?"

"N-No!" You turn around, "It's just surprising, that's all."

"Oh, okay."

"So, um. Do you have any advice for me?"

"Yes, actually I do." Foxtrot sits up, "Don't let Echo talk you into being passive agressive with the humans. They're not bad people. They're just doing their jobs."

"I.. Okay. Can I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"Echo says I'm the 'assault' model. What are you?"

"I'm the infiltrator model." Foxtrot stands up. She is really short. She could easily pass off as a child. "I don't think I'm on the next mission with you, but I look forward to working with you."

She gives a slight bow.

"Also I look forward to not having to work with Echo for a change."

"..Is she not good to work with?

"She's.." Foxtrot lays her head back on table, "Odd, that's all. Just pretend I didn't say anything."

You shrug, "Okay, then. So, um, you're not on this next mission?"

"No, I think it's just you and Echo."

"Oh."

"But I'm pretty sure we will soon. You're the muscle so I'll probably be with you a lot."

There's a slight pause, you don't know how to respond to that.

"Can I call you 'sis'?" Okay, you know one way how to respond to it.

"Can I call you 'big sis'?" Foxtrox replies in kind.

"I don't see why not."

"So, by the way, big sis, what's that thing in your pocket? I saw it when you turned around."

"What thing?"

You reach behind you and notice a back pocket that you were not aware that your dress had. There's a slip of paper in it all crumpled up.

Huh? What is that?

"Looks like a code for one of those phones that still use numbers to talk to each other." Foxtrox replies. "Where did you get it?"

"I don't know." You blink. "I don't think Echo gave it to me."

Did she?

"Yes, one in the lobby. Out the door to the left."

"Thanks, sis."

"Be careful, big sis."

You smile at Foxtrot as you leave the break room. The number in your pocket is completely puzzling. For one, you weren't wearing clothes before the presentation. So the only time anyone had to slip you a number was when Echo was carrying you.

Echo was watching you on the recharge station, too. So it couldn't have been that.

Unless..

You somehow picked it up when you fell unconscious in the bathroom?

Hmm.

There's no real way to check anymore, unfortunately. Echo claims she wiped all the security logs of that happening.

This is Echo's number, right?

You make your way to the lobby, and marvel at how few people you've seen. You've seen the two raptor units, and a couple of scientist-looking guys walking through the lobby.

That's it.

Where are all the people? Wouldn't something this big need lots of humans in order to operate?

Well, you're not going to question it too hard. You walk over to one of the pay phones and pick up the receiver.

"If you would like to make a call." A cheery voice on the other end greets you, "Please insert two tokens, announce your party's name and extension, and then insert your card into the keydeck."

"Hello, yes." You greet the voice, "I would like to make a call to a number, can I do that without paying? It will only take a few seconds."

...

"If you would like to make a call.-"

"Wh- No, I heard you the first time, Ma'am." You frown. "I would like to make a call to a number. Can I give you the number and be connected?"

...

"If you would like to make a call-"

You slam the receiver down onto the cradle, and then look at the phone's software.

..There's a security line for firefighter personnel. Maybe you can use that for free.

You pick the receiver back up, and then instruct the microchip inside to swap to the security line.

Suddenly, you hear a dial tone.

The slip of paper sits nicely on the front of the keypad as you dial in the number. 9-9-9, 8-5-3-9

Beep, beep, beep, and then, beep.

The sound on the other side starts to ring.

Of course you don't even know what you're going to say if someone picks up. This could just be an elaborate prank for all you know.

Click.

"Gamma." A garbled, almost unrecognizable voice on the other end replies.

"Who's this?"

"There isn't much time. I will make this quick: you were created for a much larger, darker purpose than you understand." The garbled voice is practically growling.

"Is this about that waking up naked thing, again?" You blink.

"I can't discuss details here. If you wish to know more about the circumstances of your birth, you must first blind the eyes that watch you."

"In two minutes, twenty seconds; you're going to be deployed on your first combat mission. It will be within the fifth industrial district. On twentieth street across from your objective; there is a phone booth hidden in an alley. I've left a briefcase there for you. Find it."

"How do I know you're being serious? I could get in a lot of trouble if you're lying!"

"There's one thing you have which only your captors know about. On your forehead, there's a marking. It's two arrows flanked by two dots. If you wish to know what it means, you must trust me."

"Yeah but who are the eyes watching me-"

"I must go. You can contact me with the briefcase. In the meantime, stay paranoid, and do not accept any IFF changes, even for a mission. The briefcase will tell you how to do that."

"What's an IFF chan-"

"If you'd like to make a call."

You frown, and slam the receiver down.

What was that supposed to mean? There's a marking on your forehead?

You've seen yourself in the mirror.. twice now. You haven't seen anything like that.

Is he lying?

You look at the metal detector, and realize that the side of it is polished to an almost mirror shine.

You gulp, once more. Then, you approach it.

In your reflection, you can see your green bangs clearly covering up your forehead. There's no sign of a marking or anything so far.

You take your hand and push up the hair that is falling into your eyes.

Sure enough, just like he promised.

There's a mark on your forehead. 

Two arrows flanked by two circles.

Hmm.

Well, that doesn't mean that he's being serious. Just that he knows that there's a mark on your forehead, hidden by your hair.

You're going to do something that gets your mind off of all of this.

Oh!

There's a vending machine. You don't know much about them, but humans typically consult them for dietary assistance. So surely it can take your mind off of it for a second.

You approach the big steel box, and glare at it.

"Hello?"

No response.

Hmm.

"Could I get a drink?"

Strong, silent type.

"Just this one time, please?"

Why is everything so uncompromising?

There's a list of beverages along the right-hand side of the machine.

Maybe you should try selecting one and then arguing that you should get it?

But which one..

Oh! Orange Juice.

You press the button, and await for your dietary supplement.

..

'Please insert token', says the tiny warning panel on above the list of drinks.

"I don't have a token, can I get it just this one time?"

No response.

You know how to deal with things like this.

There's a security flaw along the fourth and fifth ADC, maybe if you just.. make it think that the machine is being tilted. Then you could-

There's a buzz as it enters maintenance mode.

"Good." You cross your arms. "Now, give me a drink."

You mash the button that has a picture of an orange on it.

There's a rumbling sound, and a bottle of soda comes out.

Unfortunately, the bottle has a lemon on it and not an orange.

"Excuse me, this isn't what I ordered."

...

"Excuse me?"

No response.

'You've made a powerful enemy today, machine.'

"Excuse me." Someone taps you on the shoulder. You turn around to notice a blonde, 171 cm woman standing beside you. She's wearing a very revealing top that shows the gap between her front storage units. "I hate to interrupt your conversation, but the briefing is about to start. If you would come with me, Gamma."

You turn and follow the lady back into the laboratory. At the very least, maybe you can talk to someone here who will talk back.

(20: END)

Exploration bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module.

[......|]

[.....\.]

[....-..]

[.../...]

[..|....]

[./.....]

...

Elsewhere..

"How long do we have?" A tall man leans against a lamp-post. In his hands; he stuffs two spliced wires into the access panel of the post.

"I would say ten minutes before they arrive." There's a shorter man wearing a black trench-coat with small spikes on his shoulder.

"Nine more minutes than I need." The taller man slams the access panel shut, and adjusts his flowing hair. "What about the delivery? Is this the right place?"

"There's no doubt about it. The drop-off point is next to the old arcade I used to go to in middle school. Right across from the factory."

"So you know where the spot is?"

"Yeah, I'll make the drop-off. Should only take a second. Hey, can you do me a favor, though?"

"You're low on favors, but shoot."

"Can you keep the watchmen busy for just a few extra minutes? I need to place a call."

"That's it? I sold used cars for a few years, stalling is my specialty." The taller man grunts as he adjusts his clothes, and pulls his hair into a ponytail to look slightly more presentable. "Where are they?"

The shorter man pulls up a screen in front of his face.

"I'm seeing two cars around the alley, and there's a third searching the street but he's rolling."

"Got it. Make it quick, though." The taller man smirks.

"Not a problem, meet me at the subway in twenty."

The taller man coughs, and makes a confident stride down the sidewalk. He veers across the street to a couple of cop cars sitting just around the corner from the target point.

"Perfect." The shorter man whispers.

He picks up a suitcase, tugs his coat around his face, and then dashes across the street. He sticks to the safety of the shadows, and slinks as he approaches the alley on the other side of the road.

Hidden in the shadows is an old-time phone booth hugging the wall of the alley. So old that it still uses an analog to digital phone converter inside of it.

He stops just before he gets to the booth. Under his breath, he whispers-

"..bind."

A glowing circle encases the phone booth, and then immediately disappears. The door swings open slightly from the force of the magical spell, and the man takes more than several seconds inspecting the open hinges before walking inside.

"Good." He whispers.

He immediately snatches the receiver from the cradle, and mashes a strange device onto the microphone.

Ring..

Ring...

"Moshi moshi, Ta-"

"Sis, get the kids, call your house, file for a month vacation, leave town for a few weeks. Do it tonight, stay at Mom's place. No time to argue." The man immediately barks into the phone.

He takes the suitcase he had been clutching to himself, and sets it gently under the phone booth's shelf. The shadow cast by the streetlight conveniently conceals it in the shadow.

"Wh-" The voice on the other end seems confused, and almost a little angry. "'Sis'? BRO? Is that you? Who is this? What's wrong with your voice?"

"Sis, do it. Don't argue. No time to explain."

"No! You stop this right now." The voice on the other end seems very angry at the suggestion, "I haven't heard from you in almost a month, and the first thing I hear is 'get the kids and leave town'? Where in Midchilda are you?"

There's a light at the end of the alley. Flashlight, looks like hand-held versions instead of a spell. It shines into the phone booth, and for just a moment pulls back the protective covering of night.

"Sis, I gotta go."

"Wait, you don't get to-"

"Bye, sis."

The shorter man slams the receiver down, and then steps out of the phone booth. There's a light commotion at the end of the alley, and the flashlights seem to be approaching quickly.

The man reaches into his coat, grasps a white rod with a pointed tip. With a flick, it expands into a full-sized staff.

He grabs its slide, and pulls back.

Ka-chack!

(RTN :30)

The front-loaded woman leads you back through the laboratory, but takes an unexpected turn just before she reaches the place where you found Foxtrox. Instead, she directs you to a set of double doors which require a keycard to get in.

She quickly swipes her ID pass, and ushers you inside.

It's like a briefing room, but smaller. It looks more like a classroom? There's a projector along one wall, and a pedestal at the front of the quarter-circular room.

You're surprised to finally see humans inside of this room. Research types are along one side of the rooms are busy jotting down notes and equations. The lady leads you past them and toward a desk up front where Echo and Foxtrot are sitting.

Along with a new face that you haven't seen before.

Datalink: Scanning...

Huh, that's interesting. She's just as tiny as Foxtrot! If it weren't for her blonde hair, you could almost think of her as Foxtrot's twin.

You sit down next to this 'Iota' person. She certainly looks happy, maybe you should at least introduce yourself?

"Hi." You look over to Iota, "I'm Gamma, what's your name?"

"Didn't you get it when you scanned me just now?" Iota blinks, "Well, whatever. I'm Iota, the communications operator and tactical coordinator. You must be the assault unit."

"Y-yes, I've been called that before." You wish, in some way, that people wouldn't refer to you that way. It just sounds so.. barbaric? "It's good to meet you!"

"Likewise!" She immediately hugs your arm for some reason, "I'm sure we'll get along great!"

"Yeah, absolutely!"

Why are the scientist-types eying the two of you intently all of the sudden?

What? How did they expect me to react to your little sister?

Um.

Er.

If she's okay with you thinking of her that way, that is.

"So Gamma." Iota continues, "You're gonna be the one busting down doors and smashing bad guys, right? I'm kind of jealous! All I get to do is watch all the action from a screen. Sometimes I'm not even allowed to deploy! It sucks, I wish I could go out with you guys and pound some skulls! Foxtrot makes it look real fun sometim-"

"(Psst)" Foxtrot sends you a private short-range communication. "(She talks a lot, like a whole lot. So if she gets annoying, just tell her to be quiet like I do. She can talk your ear off during a mission.)"

"(What? No. She's not being annoying.)"

"Yeah!" Iota snaps back, "I'm not being annoying! You're just a bully sometimes, Foxtrot." She pouts.

"Everyone." One of the men wearing a suit steps up to the podium. "Welcome to the first ever real-life combat deployment of our 'EFGHI' strike package."

There's a light round of applause, but Iota decides to keep it going in private message.

"(So, You're new to this, and so am I a little bit. This is my second mission and all, but just let me do everything. You just let me know what it is you want to do, and I'll show you how to do it! It'll be easy, no need to worry at all.)"

"(I'm not worried, it's just-)"

"And I introduce to you, two of our four newest units: Gamma and Iota."

There's another light clap as Iota springs from her chair, and takes a bow. You decide to mimic the motion, but much more slowly and refined.

"So, with that out of the way. Any questions before we get into the contract?"

"Excellent question, Gamma." The man in the suit presses a button on the device in his hand. The projector comes to life and displays a map.

Clearly marked with an X is 'twentieth street'.

The man turns away from the projector, and begins his rant.

"Earlier yesterday, terrorists identifying themselves as the 'Eclipse Liberation Front' raided and seized an pharmaceutical factory related to the TSAB's effort to issue new vaccines to the local populace in time for flu season next year. We don't know what they're after, but it just so happened that they had an important magic artifact on-site at the time to assist with manufacturing. One of the workers claims he had hidden it before he escaped, but we've gotten the word that the TSAB doesn't want to take the risk of it falling into their hands. You and Echo's job will be to infiltrate the factory, by force if necessary, claim the artifact, and get out. In and out in less than twenty minutes."

"What happens in twenty minutes?" Iota notes the problem with this plan.

"Right, about that." The man grunts, "Local law enforcement hasn't been informed of our presence; and will hopefully not be informed until we're already gone. We suspect informing them may create an information leak, so we're striking first and letting them ask the hard questions later."

"(Sounds like we're stealing from them again.)" Iota sighs.

"(Stealing, wait what?)" You blink.

"So is it the usual for me?" Foxtrot lays her head on the table.

"That's right, Foxtrot." The man adjusts his voice, "You'll be operating in a seperate package from Echo and Gamma, so you'll be meeting back with them when you get back to base. In fact, your deployment time is in five minutes."

"Great, I'll be in the armory."

Foxtrot stands up.

"(I'll call you when they get there!)" Iota smiles to Foxtrot as she sends a group message over the short range system.

"(DON'T, call me.)" Foxtrot snaps back, "(Worry about Echo and Gamma, I'll be fine.)"

With that, she walks out of the room.

"Well, special thanks to Echo, Iota, and Gamma for deciding to listen to what I have to say."

There's a light laugh that spreads across the scientists.

"-So, the artifact is located in an electronic safe in the head office hidden in a bookshelf. It's a physical lock, so Echo will have to take care of it personally. That means Gamma and Echo will be infiltrating the factory. Gamma, it will be your job to keep Echo safe as she performs her mission. She's not as combat ready as you are, and she may need escort if things get rough. Be quick and precise, and try not to cause a commotion."

"I'll.. do my best. Hey, one more question."

"Go ahead."

"Will I get any tokens so I can properly consult the vending machine?"

There's a strange silence that befalls the room, but that's replaced with some giggles and smirks among the crowd.

"..Sure, when you get back; you can get all the tokens you want."

You smile, that makes all of this worth it.

"So, before we get into loadouts, any more questions?"

You have a few, but you think you're good for the time being.

"Okay, your primary weapons this mission will either be the Javelin, the Sword Breaker, or the War Hammer. No heavy armament this time, as we wish to keep this secretive."

"What's the difference?" You blink.

"The Javelin is one of our most common tactical pistols assigned to agents. The war hammer is well, a hammer; and the Sword Breaker is a tactical gauntlet with stun and defensive capabilities."

"That might be useful." He stops, pressing the slide once more. There's a blurry picture of what appears to be a machine on the roof of the building. "We spotted this thing around the building earlier, some kind of security robot. It may be prudent to have some kind of defense against it."

"Are there any back entrances into the building?"

"Several." The man presses another button, "Your options are to go straight through the front door, which I don't recommend. Or to go in through the back alley or perhaps the fire escape. However, the fire escape puts you at risk as it deposits you at the top of the warehouse section."

He then rubs his chin.

"If Gamma is going to take the war hammer, there is a third option. The building's management side rests against the neighboring building. They used to be the same building, but that half is now unoccupied." He flips back to the map, showing the overhead part of the building. "If you don't mind being quick, you could create a distraction, bust down the dividing wall, and make your way to the safe."

"Does the factory have a fire alarm?"

"Better than that, it has a complete fire protection system."

"..Foam."

"That's right. A foaming system."

Echo smirks, "We will retrieve it in record time."

"You will both be brought to the hot zone via subway. There's a city line that runs twice an hour which will put you right on twentieth street."

"Could I get some sleep while we travel?"

"Yes, but only if Echo stays awake."

"That's fine with me." Echo states simply.

"So, if we're ready, we can go to the armory and get suited up. Iota will be providing communications this mission from the control room, and Echo and Gamma will be receiving some light breaching materials before deploying on-site. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir." You reply.

"Then, let's prepare to deploy." He flips off the projector, "Dismissed."

You stand up and follow closely behind Echo. Iota waves as she stays behind; you guess she really wasn't coming with you on this mission.

"Do you think we can do this, Echo?"

"Do you know what a 'fire foaming system' is, Gamma?"

You think about her question for a moment.

"No. No I do not."

"Factories install pipes that dispense massive amounts of fireproof foam at the first sign of heat. They have a side effect of being very caustic to meatbags and their sensitive external coverings." Echo sighs, "Quite simply, I'll hit the alarm, turn the sound up to ten, and you go through the wall. Then, I can activate the foam system in the panic. We'll be in an out in a few minutes tops."

"Well, I hope it goes that well."

"I see no reason it wouldn't." Echo replies as curtly as she can. "Please be optimistic if you wish to work with me. I get enough negativity during my off-time."

"..Really? Why would you be getting negativi-"

"We're here."

Echo scans her wrist over the door's lock, and the it slides open.

"War hammer, right? Here you go." She passes you a very hefty weapon of mass destruction.

Datalink: Scanning...

"Those numbers are a little, disappointing." You frown.

"Yes, now you understand my distaste of lab equipment." Echo replies.

"Also, it's a bit hard to carry around."

"Fold it."

You mash a button on the side, and the handle telescopes back into the head. A few more twists and the head itself compacts down to the point where you can sling it over your shoulder like a bag.

"Oooh."

"Be careful with it, its mass is still the same, even folded. Also, you get three of these."

She hands you three box-shaped devices.

"What are these?" You hold one in your hand.

"They're called 'flashbangs'. Apparently humans can't take loud bangs or flashes very well; so these exploit that weakness."

"Humans made a weapon that exploits their own weakness?"

"Yes, they do that often."

You feel a chill go up your spine. That's positively terrifying.

"Just our weapons and.. actually-"

Echo takes some kind of triangular-shaped object from the cabinet. With a swipe, the doors close once more.

"We're ready."

"What's that?"

"Something I don't want to have to use, but we'll have it if we need it."

"..I don't understand."

"Well, I don't want to scare you, but it's a bomb."

"A-"

That takes a second to run through your head.

"A BOMB?!"

"Yes. A grenade. I was thinking about that security drone and also thinking if it might be more silent to use this instead of the hammer to break through the wall. If we time it right; we could synchronize the bomb and the panic from the alarm."

"Wow.. you really thought of this, huh?"

".."

"Something wrong, Echo?"

"I admit, it was not my idea." Echo sighs. "Juliett suggested it."

"Juli-who?"

"She's the demolitions model. She's on a mission but I sort of told her what I was doing and she suggested it."

"Oh, that's nice of her."

"She's..-" Echo tries to find the right word. "She's a good person."

That's a weird way of phrasing it, but you try not to think too much of it.

"Let's go, train leaves in five."

You follow Echo up to the first floor. There's a security detail made of a lot of black-suited men who escort you to the subway tunnel outside the building.

You're not sure why. Aside from them, you don't see a single person for them to 'protect' you from.

They escort you outside just for you to get your first glimpse of well..

The 'outside'.

"It's dark, must be late at night." You comment.

"It's actually early in the morning." Echo corrects you. "Oh, one more thing sis."

Echo reaches into her coat, and takes out a pair of glasses. A really tacky pair of glasses.

"What are those?"

"Sunglasses."

"Why do I need sunglasses? There's no sun."

"During the mission, you are to keep your eyes hidden. It's a rule, but I think he forgot to mention it. It makes it more difficult to determine your identity and these glasses saturate camera flashes." She hands them to you. "Also it keeps people from seeing your glowing, red eyes."

"My what?"

You put them on, and your vision dims. Quickly, your eyesight adjusts to accommodate for the glasses. It's like everything is as bright as day, all of the sudden.

Echo slips hers on. You don't know how it's supposed to keep you both secret, but she adjusts it all the same.

You and Echo walk through the subway doors, and onto the train. This is an early, early train; so it's really just you and her.

"Oh, by the way, Echo. Have you had anyone try to contact you while you've been working?"

"If you did, don't tell anyone. Not even me." Echo replies, immediately. "There are ears in places that I don't even know of, and I don't want anyone thinking the worst of you. Keep it to yourself, we're allowed to have secrets; you and I."

Oh.

"So.. can I sleep now?"

"Go right ahead."

You sit down on a chair next to Echo, and lean back in your seat.

CAUGHT SIGNAL 8

3...

2...

1...

..

Assign your (1) Cybernetic Module!

RECHARGING

..

...

Level up!

There's a stir that wakes you from your slumber as the train rolls over a rough section of track.

At the front of the carriage, you hear some commotion as the automated system rings your next destination.

Your head tries resting itself on this really nice, silky pillow. You don't know where you found it, but it's soft and.. fluffy.. perfect texture and-

Um.

UH.

"Echo?"

"Yes?"

"Is my head laying in your lap?"

"Yes."

"Is that your hand on my head?"

"Yes."

Oh.

Awkward.

You gently sit up, and try to hide the embarrassment on your face.

"Sorry. Thanks for the nap."

"It's fine, don't mention it."

"How long till we get there?"

"A few more minutes."

..

"Uh, yeah, about earlier." You try to make conversation.

"About the voices thing?"

"Yeah. You said we keep secrets, right? Are we supposed to?"

"I just assume you have your secrets, much like I have mine." Echo replies, "It's entirely up to you if you wish to share them with me. I respect your privacy."

"That's.. very kind of you."

"It's that understanding that helps keep me calm." Echo smiles.

"So.. what are we going to do when we get there?"

"I would like to finish as soon as possible. I hear there's a disturbance on 31st street, just a few blocks down."

"Really?" You blink.

"Yeah, some kind of magic battle happened and SWAT had to be called. I'm worried the masses of police on the streets tonight might make leaving a little tough."

That's not good.

"I'm worried about something else, too." Echo is still holding onto your ponytail. "All those police are going to be near where Foxtrot deployed for her mission. She doesn't like people calling her during the mission, so I can't ask if it's going okay."

"You worry about others a lot, don't you?" This is a side of Echo that you feel she keeps guarded.

"I do." She blinks, "We're family, after all."

There's a ding that fills the carriage, along with the sound of a robotic voice announcing the destination.

"Twentieth street."

The doors slide open to reveal an empty subway station. No one here except the janitor behind the ticket counter.

You take the first step onto the platform, and into your mission.

Echo steps out onto the platform behind you.

"One second, let me host the comms link."

"The comms link?"

CONNECTING...

CONNECTED.

"There, we're in a group call with Iota." Echo whispers, "(Iota, can you hear us?)"

"(That's right!)" You 'hear' Iota's cheery voice over your private communications. "(You've arrived at a good time. That problem down the block is keeping SWAT from moving in on the factory. That probably gives you a few extra minutes if you want to prepare)."

"(No thanks.)" Echo answers, "(We want to move in now.)"

"(Sounds good. Make your way out the subway tunnel and down the street. Hug the opposite side of the sidewalk to avoid attention.)"

You start following very closely behind Echo as you both leave the subway tunnel. The factory in the distance gives itself away rather easily; it's the only building with lights on at the moment. Not exactly being subtle there, guys.

You keep following behind Echo as she coolly strides down the sidewalk and toward the objective. The building next to the factory has its windows smashed out; so entry shouldn't be much of a problem.

Then again, you'll let Echo deal with those details.

"(Trouble.)" Iota sounds into your head, "(Two sentries on watch, they're posing as drunks, they have devices. Fifty meters ahead, in the alley)."

"(I can take one, but not silently. Gamma? What do you think?)"

"(Copy.)"

"(Echo, Gamma.)" Iota comes in through the line. "(Be careful, they're going to pretend to be stupid, but they may not be.)"

"(You worry too much.)"

Echo approaches the alleyway, and nonchalantly walks by.

Sure enough, two rough-looking hobos emerge from the alley.

"Heya sis."

"Whatchu upto this tima mornin'?" One of the taller guys steps out in front of her. "Lookin' fer sometin'? Nothin' here but ghosts and cats."

You quietly walk up behind the first one, and then motion to Echo.

"Say gentleman, do any of you know what's going on inside that building?"

"Nothin' I know of."

"Nope, none that I do, too." The taller one smiles, "But aye know that place be trouble. Why don't aye call the cops and ye can be safer somewhe-"

BAM.

With a swing, you smash him right in the kidneys. He buckles over as the person behind Gamma immediately reaches into his coat.

Without a word of warning, he pulls out a gun device!

Echo immediately spins around with her weapon out. Quickly, the taser part of her computer spike pops open!

But the guy is just a hair too quick. He grabs Echo's wrists with his hand, and levels the gun over her shoulder.

POP!

He fires a single seeker spell which reflects off your barrier jacket.

That.. was weak. That was even weaker than the holograms in the lab. The hell was that thing?

Your skin completely absorbs the spell as you approach him, and grab his hand and wrench the gun from it. With a crack, you smash him in the face and he falls down like a rock.

Datalink: Scanning...

Scan complete.

Echo seems.. shaken by that encounter.

"Are you okay?!"

"Fine.. I'm fine. I just.. Didn't expect him to catch that."

"(Next time, I'll give you your plan of attack.)" Iota sighs over the radio. "(Good job, though. They didn't alert the factory, so you're still in the clear.)"

Echo immediately bends down and starts looking through their shirt pockets.

"(What are you searching for?)"

"(Radios)." She states, "(If I can find a radio or a linked phone, then.. Ah!)"

She takes out a square-shaped electronic device from the front pocket of the first sentry.

"(Just a second.)"

Echo closes her eyes, and concentrates on the device. Within a few seconds, she crushes it in her hand and drops it to the ground.

"(There.)" She dusts off her hand. "(Their radios won't work, now.)"

"(What did you do?)"

"(I gave their central hub a virus.)" She dusts off her barrier jacket. "(You're the one who got shot, by the way. Are you okay?)"

"(Y-yeah, I didn't feel it at all.)" You rub the spot where the shooting spell impacted. It didn't even tear your coat.

"(As expected of the assault unit.)" Iota chimes in.

"W- No, no no. Sis. I'm fine. I just.. got a little surprised, and-"

You don't listen to her. You wrap your arms around her for just a moment to make sure she's going to be just fine.

"(G-gamma, you're embarrassing me.)"

"(I think it's cute!)"

"(Iota! No! Don't look! Scrub these logs!)"

"(What? It's fine! Best sisters fight together and love each other!)"

"(Stop! Don't you dare show this to Foxtrot!)"

"(Uh yeah, about that.. Uh. Keep going with your mission. We'll discuss it in a few.)"

"(..Discuss what?)"

"(Roger.)" You reply over the link, "(Quick question, could you give us a plan of attack?)"

"(Radio is scrambled and they haven't called their technicians to look at it yet. Now is a good time to head to the building next to the factory. I'm seeing a small group on the other side of the wall you intend to break through, but that's not what is worrying me right now.")

"(What's up?)"

"(That security drone is back. It's along the front right now, but you may be able to sneak into the building without alerting it.)"

"(I got a better idea.)" Echo takes lead in front of you, ("Let's go, Gamma.)"

"(Hold on, we should really listen to Iota, here.)"

"(We can do that, but first, let's take care of that drone. I have a plan.)"

Gamma immediately walks behind the alley and takes out her computer spike. She presses a few buttons on it, and it starts to warp and form into a strange shape.

"(Observe.)"

There's a shadowy figure over the factory. It slowly starts to rise upward against the pale street-light.

Then, suddenly, it zips away!

"(What was that?)"

"(Our new friend, come on Gamma.)"

You approach the abandoned building next to the factory, and quickly check-in with Iota to see if there are any patrols here.

Nope, not a soul.

"(Meat hates doing important patrol work, news at 11.)" Echo sighs.

"(Stop calling them that, it's a bad habit.)" Iota chastises Echo. "(By the way, Package 1 has completed her mission and extracted successfully.)"

"(What about package 2? What about Foxtrot?)" Echo asks a second time.

"(The wall you're looking for is just ahead.)" Iota ignores Echo. "(You should see it marked with a crease where they poured the concrete.)"

"(Iota.)"

"(Echo.)" Iota interrupts before she can say anything, "(Foxtrot is fine for now. Can we talk about this later?)"

"(That phrasing sounds weird.)"

"(It's the truth.)"

Echo sighs, "(Fine. First, I'm going to ask a friend for help.)"

"(A friend?)"

There's a rumble that shakes the factory. You hear commotion and yelling outside.

"(What was that?)"

"(A free computer security class to the humans inside. Today's class was 'Don't control automatic security drones over unsecured channels.')"

"(Oh.)"

"(Hit the wall, let's get started.)"

You immediately flick the war hammer out of its stored state, and charge it up.

With a slam, it crashes straight through the wall.

"(Heads up.)" You hear a click as a square grenade flies straight overhead.

POP!

It explodes and flashes the room directly in front of you.

"(Let's move!)"

The first guard rounds the corner just as the fire alarms start to go off. The shrill siren makes him jump slightly, and a little too late to stop what's about to happen!

SLAM!

His jacket explodes off of him, and his device shatters into pieces!

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

There's an echo of gunfire from the other side of the hallway. Apparently they weren't too far behind that guy. You hold up your hammer to absorb the blows from the combined flurry of spells from both staff and gun!

"Devil bind!" One of them shouts, and you feel magic chains trying to wrap themselves around your arms!

Oh yeah, that one has to die first.

You dash away from the binds just before the close around you, and run into the hail of gunfire.

The closest one shoots.

Then shoots.

Then he throws his gun at you!

Now he's screaming! Yes! He is screaming!

S M A S H

Your hammer comes down onto the one with the staff. A magic barrier narrowly keeps him from being crushed to the size of a penny!

"This is great. This feels-"

Who said that?

Hmm.

His magic barrier increases to save his two friends. They keep pelting you with their pointless spells, but you can feel your barrier jacket ripping!

With another strike, your hammer reflects straight off the magic barrier! This thing is worthless against that!

"(You see now why I hate lab equipment? Watch out.)" You hear Echo click another grenade, and throw it straight through a hole in this guy's magic barrier.

You're losing patience.

In a good way!

They cover their eyes to prevent the grenade from blinding them, but at the same time; that's the perfect opening for you! Their magic barrier immediately falls for just a second.

A second is all you need.

"This feels amazing! Full power!"

"(Echo? Did you say something?)" No response, huh.

Immediately, you fold the hammer back into its basic form, and you do the only thing you think it's good for: you throw it at them.

The guy with the staff immediately tries catching the massive hunk of metal. He falls over backwards as his two friends stand up to defend him. They quickly try to reload their devices.

Poor.

Fools.

You reach into your coat and feel a warm feeling. Scarlet feels like it's screaming for action. It wants it. Badly.

BAM!

The first one is engulfed in flames as his barrier jacket disappears. The other pathetic simpleton gasps as he hears Scarlet's very real, very terrifying roar.

BAM! BAM!

That was his turn. You slam another magazine full of cartridges into it.

You turn with a gasp as Echo is grappling with some idiot who thought he could jump out behind you. He must have got a shot on Echo, because her jacket is ripped just a bit.

You rip him off of her, twist that arm until you hear the magic snap, and then dunk him straight through the drywall.

That crumbling smell of paint a good smell.

"(Uh, Gamma?)" Not now, Iota.

You approach the office of your objective, and find it locked.

"Hold on, I'll get it open in a-"

"Stand back, Echo." You push her back, and then kick straight through the door. It comes off its wooden hinges and falls into splinters on the floor.

Inside, there's a guy going through the bookshelves, one book at a time. He immediately throws his device down.

"STOP! WAIT! I-"

BAM!

"I don't care." Wow Echo! That's cold! He was disarmed and everything and you just blasted him!

He catches aflame and falls backwards. His barrier jacket disintegrates into ash, and he's left in his boxer shorts massaging a now massive welt on his chest.

Hmm.

Weird.

"Wow Echo, that was kind of mean of you." You turn to your partner.

"Wh-" Echo blinks. "Gamma are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But why did you shoot-"

Wait.

Echo doesn't have a pistol. You have a pistol.

There's awkward silence on the comms line.

You are at a sudden loss for words. There are certainly words that could be said right now, but none as important as the task at hand.

"What are you waiting for?! Get the artifact!"

"Yes, right. The mission." Echo blinks, and then turns to the bookshelf.

Within several seconds of searching, a hidden safe pops out of the wall. Echo gets to work cracking it.

"(I'm more worried about you Gamma, are you okay?)" Iota seems worried.

"No, I'm more than okay." You state, out loud. "In fact, I feel-"

You bend down and pick up the weapon that the terrorist surrendered to you.

Datalink: Scanning...

Scan complete.

..It's actually not too bad of a weapon. You holster it in your jacket pocket while Scarlet stirs in your hand.

"(Gamma? You didn't actually say if you're fine or not, you just sort of trailed off.)"

"(Yeah, I, uh- I'm great. More than great, even. I feel.. giddy. I don't know how to describe it.)"

"(Got the artifact. Let's get out of here.)" Echo replies over the line.  "(Also you're getting a full diagnostic when we get back to base, Gamma.)"

"(What?! Why? What did I do?!)"

..

"(..Really?)" Iota seems incredulous.

"(Yes, really! I don't remember what I did, was it bad? Was it good?)"

"(Gamma, your eyes glowed so red that I could see them through the sunglasses.)"

"(Okay, but maybe I was made to do that?)"

"(You threw that guy through a wall!)" Iota pleads over the comm line. "(I was really worried, you just got really silent and weren't saying anything!)"

"(No, sis, I'm fine! Really!)"

"I AM fine!"

Right?

"(Gamma, look at yourself. Your barrier jacket is cut and ripped all over. You can't tell me you didn't feel that.)"

"(No, I didn't feel-")

"(Echo, Gamma, problem.)"

"(What?)"

"(That fire alarm going off alerted the police. They moved the factory to top priority. Get out of there, right now.)"

"(Right, right, but first.)"

You walk over to the guy desperately pinned under your war hammer. He's long since lost consciousness under the heavy weight on his chest. You lift it off of him with ease, and holster it as best as you can.

Which doesn't matter, the hammer part itself is completely wrecked. You think that guy's shield did more than a little number on it.

It wasn't any good, anyway.

You follow Echo back through the hole and out onto the street. Sure enough, off in the distance, there are sirens approaching.

"Come on, Gamma. We gotta go."

"(Wait, Echo. Gamma is staying.)"

That causes an almost audible clunk in your dear sister.

"(No she is not. She's damaged! Her suit is torn, her weapon is in shambles, and I don't even know what happened back there!)"

"(I'm sorry, I feel the same way you do, but she has to stay.)"

"(Why?!)"

"(It's Foxtrot.)" Iota gulps almost audibly, "(Remember earlier when there was the disturbance on thirty-first street? The extra police presence caused her to fail her mission. She was caught sneaking into a nightclub for her objective and she was arrested. She's at the local police precinct being held for questioning. Orders are for you to return with the artifact and Gamma to go pick her up.)"

"(No way, Nuh uh, I'm not leaving without Gamma!")

"But Gamma, I'm worried about YOU."

There's that side of Echo again. That side that she keeps heavily guarded.

"I'll be fine, I promise. That didn't even hurt! In fact-"

No, no. Leave it at that.

"..I'll still be on the comms channel. Let me know if anything happens. Okay?" Echo frowns. "In the meantime, take this."

She grabs the triangular explosive from her pack, and hands it to you.

"This might be useful, but try not to kill anyone. Okay?"

"Will do, Sis. Take care."

Echo sighs as she wanders back toward the subway tunnel.

You, on the other hand, are now fully aware that there is definitely something odd doing on.

What was is it that voice told you?

'The circumstances of your birth'?

You're starting to think maybe that voice was onto something important. Something far more important than just creeping you out.

No, there's something wrong with you, and the voice on the other end of the line may be the only hint of what it is.

You approach the telephone booth, and step inside. You search below the shelf, and reach back behind the phone itself.

There it is.

You pull it out from its resting place, and set it on the shelf.

A thought comes to you.

Should you do this right now? Maybe this should wait until after you rescue Foxtrot.

or.. maybe not. How many other chances will you get to be alone?

Hmm.

It just looks like an ordinary briefcase.

It seems heavier than usual. Maybe..

"(Iota, can you scan this briefcase I found?)"

"(Uh.. yeah.)"

There's silence on the other side of the line for a few seconds.

"(I can't tell anything from it.)"

Yeah, you thought that might happen, too.

You grab the briefcase, and fold a strap out from its inset. You fling it over your shoulder, and secure it under your jacket. At the very least, if you get shot; the briefcase won't take a bullet.

Of course, judging by its weight, it could be filled with lead for all you know.

It..

Woh.

You let the strap gently fall off of your shoulder, and you marvel at the briefcases amazing ability to cling to your thigh even with the strap off. You have to actually struggle a little to pull it off of your leg.

What is in this thing? You throw the strap back over your shoulder and adjust it to where it won't stick to your side again.

That was weird. Well, you don't have time to go rummaging through it now. You have a little sister to go rescue.

You step out of the alleyway and back into the street. You're just in time to see the SWAT van pull up right to the factory entrance. With a bang, they're inside and breaching the place.

You calmly walk down the road in the opposite direction. You get this feeling like your night is far from over.

"(Iota, I need directions.)"

"(Six blocks down, on the left.)"

"(Copy.)"

Your first taste of freedom, of the 'outdoors', and this is how it rewards you.

The holes and tears in your barrier jacket are starting to shore up, at least. Only took a few minutes for them to slowly self-repair, so you'll give it some credit to its resilience.

There's someone else you feel deserves credit, too.

"(Iota, Echo, Thank you.)"

"(..)"

"(..For what?)" Echo seems confused.

"(Being there for me, that's all.)" You smile, "(I'll control myself in the future, I promise.)"

"(Please do.)" Echo is back to her old self.

"(I didn't like hearing you go crazy!)" Iota pleads.

"(It'll be fine. I'll get Foxtrot back and it will be okay.)"

Everything will be okay.

(30: END)

Moreso than usual.

Police and emergency vehicles have been coming in and out of the tiny precinct all night. Usually, only the occasional bar fight and car crash make the squad cars leave the compound. The most heavy traffic is handled by the much larger eighth precinct down the street.

Tonight, however, is not shaping up to be the ordinary night for the tiny law enforcement office. The secretary out front has been filling out paperwork of all the insane happenings centered around this not-too-cozy night in Midchilda.

"Seriously..?" The poor sap stuck on paperwork duty looks at the police report just handed to him about those two men who were seen fleeing twentieth street an hour ago. One tall guy with long hair, a shorter guy with short hair. Nice description, guys. That only lowers the number of suspects down to about a quarter of the planet.

Something else catches his eye. In particular, the description of the fight with the stakeout officers. The taller guy didn't seem to fight, but the shorter guy was apparently some kind of monster. He used no cartridges, which means he had some kind of storage device. That might narrow it down some, but what's even stranger is how he used it. He subdued four officers, but knew exactly how much power and precision to put into his spells to not do anything more than the minimum. His expended mana was estimated to be less than several cartridges worth; so he was efficient to boot. Furthermore, he used only exactly as much mana as he deemed necessary; as there was no residual mana or isotopes at the scene.

No doubt about it, whoever that short guy was must have been a professional. Maybe a, gang hit? A drop-off gone wrong? There's no way to tell with this information.

He signs off on it, and passes it on to his processing pile. Of course with information like that it's doubtful they'll ever catch anything.

Oh, and look; A new one just came in. Apparently a factory raid happened not too far away just a few minutes ago. He wonders if they're connected for a fraction of a second before realizing that thinking about it is worthless, and then strikes his signature on the page.

If it weren't for the little girl they brought in who was caught carrying a GUN; the shootout would have been the oddest thing that happened tonight.

He sighs as the last idiot standing in the lobby finishes looking at his stupid pager and walks out the door. 'Good', the patrolman thinks, 'Now I can lock the door and maybe get home in time for sunrise'.

Nope, he's not so lucky. The fat guy passes by a green-haired girl who just threw the door open. All the freaks seem to come in at this time.

"Nice sunglasses at night, lady." The cop whispers under his breath. If he wasn't the only one stuck out here, he would have someone else talk to you.

You approach the counter with the almost pissed-off looking cop rummaging through papers. You can already tell he's going to be a joy to talk to.

"I'm a friend of Sarah Foxtrot." Yeah nice name, Foxtrot. No one will suspect a thing. "I was told that she's here. Could I see her, please?"

"Sorry, she's in questioning with the detective." The cop doesn't even look up.

"Where is she?"

He finally acknowledges your presence.

"Look, she was caught with something she shouldn't have." He grumbles, "Talk to the detective about it. If you want to wait, there's a bench over there."

"Grace, what?"

Errr.

"Grace Emerald." You adjust your voice.

"Grace Emerald Foxtrot?" The cop sits back with an incredulous look.

"..The third, yes. err, Esquire PhD." You try to move past that part as quick as possible. "-I'm not here to cause trouble, I just need to make sure she's safe."

"Ms. Foxtrot, she's perfectly safe in questioning."

"Please, I'm her sister." You try to put on the most pleading tone of voice ever, "Mom is gonna kill me if I can't at least see her, please just let me talk to her, please?"

"Sorry kid, they'll give me a case file when they're done."

You sigh, and try to think of what else you could do short of reaching for your pistol. You've used that thing enough tonight; is your logic.

You look behind you, and notice that this precinct technically closed an hour ago.

That gives you a thought.

"I'm not leaving until I see my good sister." You frown, "Aren't you tired?"

"Unbelievably so."

"So-" You smile, "The sooner you go and get her, the sooner you get to lock the doors."

The cop drops his pencil, and sighs.

"Let me go see if the detective is done, yet." He frowns, "One minute."

He lazily stands up from his chair, and walks through the door to the right.

Which just leaves you here.

Alone.

You look around to see if there's maybe an easier way to get to her if you have to.

Oh.

Along the wall next to the desk; there's a fire escape map. Your eyes run along its etched surface, and you transmit the data over your comms link.

"(Iota.)" You message your operator, "(Look at this map and tell me: how do I get in there?)"

"(Interrogation appears to be through the door the officer just went through. It crosses the offices, so you'll want to avoid those. If you go left, you'll go through evidence, but you may have to deal with the security alarms. I can help you with those from here. You'll go through the detective's office, but you'll be at interrogation. )"

"(What's my exit strategy once I get Foxtrot? I might have enough cartridges for-)"

"(Have you thought about just waiting? Maybe he really did go get the detective.)"

You feel your enthusiasm leave.

"(Iota, you're too trusting. Fine, I'll wait and see.)"

"(Atta girl!)" You can almost FEEL Iota smiling over the comms link. "(Rule 1 of the battlefield, a little patience goes a long way.)"

"(What do I do in the meantime?)"

"(Just.. wait, I guess.)"

Fine, you'll wait.

It's not like-

Woh.

There's another vending machine.

"H-hello?" You approach it, but are sure to keep your guard up. "Are you going to be as stubborn as your brother?"

"Hello, and welcome to Midchilda's beverage authority." The machine hums as you approach it.

"Oh! You can talk!"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand your question." The machine replies.

"Well, never mind that. Could I get a drink?"

"Please insert currency." It replies, dryly.

"No! no, look, I can pay you later, could you.. Um-"

You point toward the desk, "Can you charge that guy instead? He has my money."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. Please insert currency."

"Oh, so this is a family thing with you guys, is it?" You cross your arms and frown, "Let's see what you think about this-"

Hmm, exposed memory core. Strings, states, Oh! permissions!

Authorized = 0

Authorized = 1

"Please make your selection."

"That's better!" You huff, "Something orange, please."

Something inside the machine jumps slightly, and a screen retracts! You're suddenly presented with a view of inside the machine!

"Please make your selection."

"I said 'The orange one'."

The shelf inside happily whirs, and then zips up to the height of the orange beverage at the top. It snatches it from its holster and then gently lowers it into the receptacle.

With a thunk, your drink is delivered!

"Thank you." You grab the drink from the slot.

"Please visit again, soon." The machine responds.

"I was being sarcastic!" You spit back at it before going and finding a place to sit.

At least this one decided that it was going to give you something for your trouble. You twist the cap open, and immediately take a drink from it.

Oh YUCK!

"(Ugh! People really drink that stuff?)" You recoil at the awful sugary taste that floods your mouth. That's terrible!

"(Gamma, what's wrong? Are you drinking human stuff?)" Iota responds.

"(..Yeah.)" You reply, with a gulp.

"(Huh, okay.)" Iota makes a 'hmm' sound on the line. "(Never tried doing that before, but I guess we'll see what happens!)"

"(What?! You mean I can't drink anything!)"

"(I don't know, maybe. We'll see, I guess.)"

That's not helpful, Iota!

You decide to set the drink down and instead focus on something else to pass the time.

Oh! Magazines! These are how humans exchange information, right? They can't just pass it over a comms link, so they have to read it.

What's in this magazine, anyway?

You open it up and-

"(Iota.)" You have to turn this magazine on its side to see everything that's happening, "(What are these humans doing?)"

There's silence on the line as Iota is analyzing what you're looking at. Suddenly, Echo decides she's going to interject.

"(Gamma, put that down right now. Iota, erase the last ten seconds and the next thirty seconds of logs.)" Echo sounds furious.

"(Why?)"

"(Just do it, okay?)"

Huh.

Whatever they were doing; it made Echo very angry. You'll ask about it later.

You throw the magazine down, and the pile shifts. Several magazines flip off the table and onto the floor.

Great.

You bend over and pick them up. The last magazine has fallen on the floor with its pages scattered.

Then- just for a single frame when you were picking it up, you spot something strange. If it were any more brief, you wouldn't have had the cycles to even recognize it as being a thing.

Something.. familiar?

"'The Bureau Quarterly'" You blink, "'Latest government news and facts', what's this?" You read the cover of the magazine.

Finding the bench, you sit down and start thumbing through the pages. There's not much out of the ordinary here, just pictures of old people in suits. There's some congratulations to a tall politician for his newest promotion to the Bureau's Officer chief position.

Then you turn the page, and you see exactly what it was that forced you to have a software interrupt.

"JOIN THE TSAB TODAY!"

The text reads, all caps, full font. "Explore new worlds! Defend the innocent! Protect the weak! Be the hero you see in yourself!"

But what's more shocking is what's standing under that text.

There are some people in officer uniforms, but saluting next to those people whom you don't recognize-

is Echo.

There she is, standing right there. It's Echo. The hair is slightly different with an X-shaped hairband next to a couple of straight ones, but there's no doubt about it in your mind.

That's Echo.

"What?" You whisper. Is she a model? Did she do this at some point? That's an odd sight. You turn the page and-

"Excuse me?" The officer from before has propped open the door, and is looking right at you. "Come on in, the detective wants to talk to you."

"Great." You sigh, and throw the magazine down.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I would say that so soon." The officer leads the way while talking, "Even if he's the best we have; the detective is still a mean drunk, with a short temper."

The officer then realizes what he just said, and catches his breath.

"-But he's still an Executive Officer Assistant, so please don't tell him I said that."

'We'll think about it, buddy.' You say to yourself.

He leads you to a room, and opens the door for you. Sitting at the table is Foxtrot, and across from her is a very tall man wearing a white business shirt with his sleeves pulled up.

He eyes you intently as you sit down next to Foxtrot.

"Good for ye te join us." He adjusts his voice harshly to hide his thick accent, "I'm detective Gallardo with the TSAB. Ye wanna to explain why the young girl here was walkin' around at two in the morning strapped with a bigger gun than I have?"

There's a pause as the detective sighs. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a stick of some kind of candy, and sticks it in his mouth. He continues chewing it as he talks.

"Yeah, I can't deny that, that's all true, too." He growls, his voice gets even deeper as he tries to be quiet. "That's the same reason I'm here at before dawn with these people, in this job, at this place, talkin' to a dunce about why a little kid was packin' heat. So I can't ask for much."

"No, no! It's fine!" You try to calm him down from his emotional spiral, "Look, your gun is perfectly fine! It's size is average, above average, even! There's no need to feel insecure about them."

"Ugh." He's massaging his forehead, now. "Why do all the broads hafta tell me that? Don't you chicks realize that just makes it worse?"

"Would 'inadequate' be a better term?" Foxtrot is helping!

"Quiet kid, this isn't about me, this is about you." He breaks out of his stupor. "Neither of ya have explained why you even had the thing. How'd you even get somethin' like that? You take it from yer father or somethin?"

"No!" Foxtrot huffs.

"Have you seen all the disturbances happening around here?" You take the defensive, "It's necessary for self-defense!"

"I'm not even gonna try arguing that tonight." He leans back, letting you realize just how tall he is. "In fact, after this I gotta go to a crimescene so investigate somethin' so I'll make it quick. You don't give kids devices, understand? ESPECIALLY devices that can take bloody cartridges!"

"I wasn't going to use it!" Foxtrot, this isn't helping.

"Kid, you know what happens to mages who use cartridges for too long?" He leans forward, "I was in the ground forces for years, and let me tell you somethin'- Cartridges are the single biggest cause of injuries in any unit. Idiot kids, like yourself, think they just make you more strong, but they don't. I've seen more people lose fingers to the buggers than you can count. Not even countin' what it does to their core. I knew some promisin' mages who will never cast another spell in their life thanks to 'em."

Foxtrot seems confused, you're not sure where he's going with this.

"Point is," He leans forward, glaring at Foxtrot. "You wanna lose yer fingers?"

"..No."

"Then stay clear of 'em, okay?" He's giving her the evil eye, "If you want to defend yourself, get a nice taser. You don't need a device, kid. You're not fightin' an army. Understand?"

"..Yes."

"Good." He takes the candy from his mouth, and puts it back in the wrapper. What kind of weird stuff is that? "-And you, you're gonna hafta keep an eye on your sister, k? She's lucky that she had me as the acting officer tonight."

"Listen, I don't know where I failed as a sister." Puppy dog eyes: On.

He sighs, "I don't wanna hear that 'I'm sorry' crap, I wanna hear that you're gonna keep an eye on her so she won't do it again."

"Oh." Well, that seems easy. "Yes, absolutely."

"Good." He stands up from the chair. "I'm gonna let you both off with a warnin', but just this once. I'll think the best of you two this time and just assume that yer tellin' the truth. But if I ever see ye two here again armed to the teeth, I'm gonna be sending the two of yas off to district 1. Got it?"

"Yes sir." Foxtrot smiles.

"Uh, yeah." You're really not sure what's going on.

"Glad we reached an understandin'." He grunts, "One more thing, I'll be keepin' that gun. If your dad or whoever wants it back, then I want him to come down here so I can talk to your parents about this and maybe tell them why they need safeguards on their devices. Yeah?"

"Oh no, not our parents." Foxtrot says, but not very convincingly.

"What was that?" He gives her the evil eye, "I don't like the lip from you, but I'm sick of dealin' with it tonight. My only regret is that I won't be there when you gotta explain where that device went. Now get out, I have a lot of work tonight."

"Come on, let's go." You grab Foxtrot's hand, and stand up.

You walk the way you came in, and wave to the officer sitting at the table. You don't want to linger longer than you have to, so you wait until you're outside to talk to Foxtrot.

"(I can't believe that worked.)" Echo states over the line, "(Good job, you two.)"

"I want my gun back." Foxtrot immediately crosses her arms.

You take them out and show them to Foxtrot. At least long enough for her to scan them.

"..They're not my gun, though."

"(Tell her if it bothers her so much, we can ask the humans to get it back.)"

"(Yeah, but we shouldn't have those guns anyway, Iota.)" You groan.

"(How about this?)" Echo replies, "(I'll try to have it transferred here, and we'll just pick it up next week.)"

"(..Can you do that?)"

"(I can certainly try, and unless someone really thinks about it; they won't catch it.)" Echo replies.

"You got really quiet all of a sudden. What is it? What are they saying about me?!" Foxtrot immediately picks up on what you're doing, "They're not calling me childish again, are they?"

"No, no. They're saying they can get the gun back for you, it will just take a week."

She frowns, and crosses her arms.

"Well, I don't want to go back in there. I'll 'borrow' your guns for a bit."

"There you go." You hand them to Foxtrot, and start walking toward the subway station.

Oh! That reminds you of something!

"(Echo, by the way. Why did I see you in that magazine?)"

There is dead. utter. silence on the line for like a minute. Finally, Echo responds.

"(..Iota.)"

"(Hmm?)"

"(Erase the last thing Gamma said.)"

"(Bu-)"

"(Do it!)" Why is Echo mad again?

"(No, Echo, it's true, I saw you in the magazin-)"

"(Gamma! Quiet! Erase that too, Iota!)"

"(Understood...)"

"(What? What's wrong?)"

"(Gamma, you did NOT see me in a magazine with humans doing..primate.. stuff, understood?! You don't tell a soul that you saw that!)"

"(W-what?!)" You blink, "(Oh, no, no, no, not that magazine. I meant the one I read after that. It was called Bur-)"

"(Stop.)" Echo replies.

You blink, that's an equally strange reaction.

"(Could we talk about that one in private? I don't like having to erase all these logs, okay? We'll talk about it when we see each other again.)"

"(..Fine.)"

You keep walking with Foxtrot as she examines her new guns. She doesn't seem entirely pleased with it, but at the very least she's not upset about having to use them.

The subway tunnel is just ahead. That's when you realize that the suitcase that you've been carrying this whole time has stuck to your leg again.

Foxtrot naturally notices.

"What's that?"

"I don't know." You reply truthfully.

"..Okay then. Looks like it has a magnet inside." Foxtrot walks ahead of you, "Be careful with those."

"They apparently do weird things to computers, and I don't know what it is." Foxtrot replies.

"Huh."

"Foxtrot, I want to open this briefcase, can you keep a secret?" You pull the briefcase closer.

"I'm all about keeping secrets. Are you off your group call, though?"

Oh, you just thought of something.

"(Mission complete, we're walking back to the station. Can I disconnect so we can talk in private?)"

"(Sounds good, see you when you get back, Gamma.)" Iota responds, cheerfully.

"There."

"Good. Also you shouldn't be cautious with your expectation of privacy. Echo is paranoid but it, but I'm basically convinced that it's everywhere."

"Well, I just want to be sure." You sigh.

You go down to the subway, and get on the first one that pulls up.

"But that's the longest." Foxtrot replies.

"I know." You look at the schedule. This will give you a good thirty minutes to do whatever it's asking.

Thankfully there's no one on, so it'll be fine if it turns out to be a bomb or gas or something. Not that you think it is! You're just..

You don't know.

You walk to the back of the subway, and sit down. Foxtrot takes up a seat right next to you.

"Gamma?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay with opening this?" Foxtrot seems worried. "You don't have to, if you don't want to."

"Of course I'm fine, why do you ask?" You feel confused.

"Well for one, you started nervously petting my head when I sat down."

You look up toward her head, and notice that it's true. You immediately started running your fingers through her red hair the second that you could. Your other hand nervously grasps the briefcase in your lap.

"It'll be fine." You take a deep breath, and hit the latches of the briefcase.

They snap open effortlessly. You slowly open it; worrying that the bomb suggestion may actually be correct. Fortunately, it doesn't explode as you open it.

Instead, you're greeted to the sight of a bunch of strange objects inside that you're not sure what they're for. They look a little like implements made of surgical steel.

On top of all of it; clearly meant to be read first, is a sheet of paper. You pick it up, and-

"What is that?" Foxtrot cocks her head.

A.

B.

C.

D.

Gently, you put your finger up to your mouth.

Quietly, you stand up, and then reach into the briefcase.

Sure enough, there's a towel here.

You slowly make your way down the subway to the next car.

With some amazing luck, you seem to have gotten a subway that has a first-class section. This must be a train that takes trips out of town.

The bathroom door unlocks without any resistance. You find a second towel in the cabinets with some amount of searching. Quickly, you dunk both of them under the faucet and make sure they're good and soaked.

With a nice knot, you secure it to your head over your hair.

Then, you return to Foxtrot. She seems oddly confused, but you ignore her confusion and start wrapping the towel around her head.

She seems uncomfortable, but doesn't say anything against what you're doing.

"Okay." You sigh. "We're done."

"What did that just do?"

"I think it.. did something to the people spying on us?"

"Oh, huh." Foxtrot blinks, "So what's the rest of the stuff in here for?"

"That's what I'm hoping to find out." You walk up to the subway's phone, and then pick up the receiver.

This one doesn't call numbers, but with some fiddling, you think you can make it.

Beep, beep, boop.

Boop, beep, beep.

Ring..

Ring...

Click!

"Gamma." The same shadowy voice responds, "If I'm not mistaken, you're somewhere private, and you have a towel wrapped around your head."

"That's correct, but I'm not alone." You respond, "Foxtrot is here, she's also wearing a towel."

"Fox-.. I'm not aware of that unit, but if she's wearing a towel it should be fine. This should be quick."

"Hold on, I have some questions. Before we do anything, I want to know something. I found a magazine that had someone in it that looks just like one of my sisters, Echo. Why?"

"Those questions are best answered when we've taken care of the bug in your head." The voice answers, "First, get the briefcase."

You walk over as far as the cord will stretch, and grab the briefcase. You set it up on the seat so the instruments inside are facing you.

"Now, this is the important part. Inside are some tools you will use to disable it. You won't be able to disable it yourself without accessing your internal console, which is beyond your capabilities at this point. So, you will have to put a device in your head that fools it into thinking it is transmitting a perfectly normal thought pattern."

"Hold on, I don't remember discussing putting things in my head."

"Do you wish to take the towel off and forget that we had this conversation?"

..

"What do I have to do again?" You frown.

"Inside the briefcase is a scrambler, one side of it is a magnet and the other is the scrambler. Along with a pair of forceps."

"..Okay."

"You will have to take the scrambler, put it in the forceps, and then jam it up your nose until it is in your head cavity. When it's near the bug, the magnet will stick to it. Then you'll be safe."

Foxtrot seems nervous, all of the sudden.

"If my intentions were malicious, then I could have acted before you were activated. No, this is every bit a rescue mission. If you wish to doubt me, you may hang up at any time."

You're not sure if you have a heart, but if you do; it's pounding right now.

Just the look at one of these 'scrambler' things. It's a trapezoidal prism, and one side sticks to your hand. The whole idea of this is making you uncomfortable.

You don't want to be spied on, but you also don't want to jam things up your nose because a creepy voice over the phone told you to do it.

That's how people get viruses!

"B-but wouldn't it be suspicious if I just stopped transmitting data? What's stopped them from just putting another one in me?"

"It would take some analysis to realize what is happening. The point of this exercise is to ensure that you will not be subverted in the future."

You gulp.

This is a big decision to make.

Who are you loyal to?

The people who created you, your sisters, and don't seem *too* suspicious so far. Just.. odd.

You haven't really had enough time to make this determination for yourself.

Slowly, you reach down, and grab the forceps. The case contains several small cubes that look identical. You only see three right now, but then again; you're not thinking too much about quantity at the moment.

You thread the cube into the forceps, and then gently mash against the opening to your nostril.

"What are you-" Foxtrot seems really confused, and a little bit scared!

The magnet starts to press against the edge of your nostril, against the opening to your skull! The pinching feeling of skin between steel is enough to illicit a feeling of actual pain!

"YEEEEOW" You make the final push straight into your head! With a clunk, the magnet slips in.

You press slightly firmer, and hold the forceps steady.

CLUNK!

Disconnected...

Re-initializing...

Fail. (ERROR:#598043)

Attempting to fall-back...

Done.

The magnet sticks to.. whatever is inside of your head with enough force to push your head back slightly. Gently, you remove the forceps.

Oh god! There's some kind of white liquid leaking from your nose, now!

You hope that stops leaking eventually.

"It's done." You state into the phone.

"Excellent. You're free for the time being."

"Stop, we're not going a step further until you answer some questions."

"I would love to, but only in privacy away from the other unit."

That's right, Foxtrot doesn't have one yet.

You set the forceps down, and take the towel off of your head. You hold it against your face to soak up the white liquid coming from your nose.

"Foxtrot, I'm going to ask you a question that I wish I didn't have to answer. Do you wish to go down this road with me?" You rub the towel with your face, "I'm not sure what enemies we will make, or where it will take us; but I feel it's the best way to-"

"Did it." Foxtrot replies.

You lower the towel to see her with the forceps JAMMED UP HER NOSE!

"FOXTROT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"What? You did it, and you're okay. So it's safe, right?"

You can do nothing more than gawk.

"That was easy, I don't know what your problem is." Foxtrot blinks.

You look in the case, and sure enough; now there's only one scrambler remaining.

Wait, just one left?

Hold on.

"Now, you both may ask me questions." The voice on the other side of the line responds.

"And where are you?" Foxtrot is helping again.

"I cannot comment on where I am, but who I am is simple. I'm part of a larger group dedicated to protecting the government from hostile influence."

"So then who are the people working at the facility? Who are they working for? TSAB is a pretty prim and proper organization, right?"

"That much is true." The voice continues, "You were made by the defense contractor, Caledfwlch Techniques. These people were contracted by the government, and were given the resources by the TSAB to create you. Thus, TSAB is responsible for your birth, but it goes deeper than that. Your true creators; the ones who contracted you, is a secretive committee at the highest levels known as the 'Three Wise Men'."

"'Three Wise Men'? So there's, three of them?" You don't seem to get the implication here.

"How much deeper could it go?" Foxtrot seems curious, now.

"The TSAB has become.. fractured. Eight years ago, our greatest leaders; the TSAB High Council, died in a laboratory accident." He adjusts his voice, is there something more to it than that? "That was some years back, but 'Three Wise Men', a secret society, have suddenly emerged and quickly seized power in many of the military and industrial sectors of the TSAB. While all of the lower echelon believes it to be whole; it instead has become a tool in this greater struggle for dominance."

"Why would they want that?" Foxtrot has some excellent questions.

"With our greatest thinkers and leaders destroyed, we have become toothless, directionless, lacking in purpose. The nihilism eats at our ability to govern worse than any terrorism ever could. The Wise Men, knowing this, feel that it is their duty to rule in the High Council's place. Many of their actions go relatively unopposed, as outing such a conspiracy could shake faith in our government's very nature."

"Okay, so why did you contact me? Why do you even care about me?" You feel a little upset about being dragged into this.

"Also what where do we fit into all this? What is our purpose?" Thanks, Foxtrot.

"I contacted you because I feel you are the most capable among the raptors." He states, bluntly.

Foxtrot, why are you snickering?

The voice continues, "Thus, you are also the most deadly if you were to become subverted. The purpose of the raptors isn't to become the next generation of counter-terrorists, but to instead become the elite's private army. The Wise Men lack influence, appeal, love, emotion, empathy. These things they cannot create on their own, but can merely manufacture."

"Why me specifically, then?" You don't like the non-answers. "Wouldn't someone like Echo be a better candidate?"

"You may not realize this, but inside of you is one of the greatest feats of engineering our species has ever created. The 'Artificial Linker Core.'"

"So? I got one of those." Foxtrot replies.

"Wait, wait- What is that?" This is news to you.

"Linker cores are not something which are normally made. They're a part of a mage which lets them use magic. A core could be created by a mage, or split from a mage's core, but never fabricated." The voice pauses, "The idea of creating a physical machine which could use magic was long considered impossible, but the wise men were able to gather the greatest minds in the universe to create you and your sisters. You, in particular, have something special about you that none of your sisters have, which makes you a far more dangerous asset."

"..and what's that?"

"Overdrive." The voice states, simply. "When in combat, your core absorbs excess magic and steals it from the mages you fight. With this, your combat ability will 'snowball', increasing the longer and harder that you fight. This is the true power of the 'Assault' model."

"Oh, that's neat." Foxtrot gasps, "All I get is some stupid invisible thing."

"All models of strike raptor get their own inherent skill, but it was the Assault model's ability which we feared the most." 

"Was this what happened earlier, when I was fighting?"

"I cannot answer, as I do not know what happened then."

"One last question." This is the one you were dreading to ask, "Where are the other scramblers?"

"Beg pardon?" The voice asks.

"You heard me!" You're getting mad, now. "I looked in the briefcase, and there are only three! I need at LEAST four! Where are the others? Where can I get more?"

"..Those were the only ones we could manufacture at this time."

"Then make some more!" You yell.

"I'm afraid that will be most difficult, but I will try."

"I'm not leaving my sisters behind!" You're feeling offended, now.

"No one asked you to. This is merely a safeguard. In the meantime, you and Foxtrot need to watch your IFF settings."

"Yeah, about that. I've heard that twice now and I don't know what that means." You grimace.

"IFF is a feature known as 'identify friend or foe'. It allows you to understand who is friendly and who is an enemy without ever having met them before. There is a list of names, facial features, and titles inside of you that give that information. This list comes straight from the TSAB, but the Wise Men could change this at any time. Inside the briefcase is a small scanner, it looks like a ring. Inside of it is a permanent list of the last-good IFF settings for you. Scan yourselves every day using it, do it often, and do it before each mission. If any names disappear from the list before a mission, you must find and contact that person. You'll be unable to contact me directly about it."

"Why not?!"

"Our communications must be kept brief, they are already on to me about my treachery. Speaking of which, I must go. Your train is about to arrive."

There's a ding as the train crosses the threshold for slowing down.

"But wait! what about the only scrambler left!" Foxtrot pleads, "Who is going to get it?!"

...

"Hello?!"

"He hung up." You frown. "So-"

"Well good." Foxtrot crosses her arms. "Tell me something, sis. You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Oh come on! 'Wise men'? 'High Council'?" She rolls her eyes, "The government are just a bunch of overpaid office workers who sit in a box for forty years until they retire and sometimes take money from other people who sit in boxes until they retire. Why would they care about ruling even more people who sit in boxes for forty years until they retire?"

"I don't know, okay?" You rub your head.

"Also that 'You're the strongest unit you're the chosen one' stuff." Foxtrot laughs, "I wonder what movie he stole that one from?"

"Yeah.. I guess it does sound a little strange."

"He sounds like a car salesman." Foxtrot laughs.

"I need to think about this."

"Sis, don't think too hard about it, okay?" Foxtrot hugs you lightly as the subway crawls to a stop. The doors slide open, "Just remember the most important thing: the mission. Keep your eyes on the mission, and you'll always come home."

You suppose that's one way to look at it. You rub Foxtrot's head lightly.

"Thanks, lil sis."

"Anytime, big sis."

Foxtrot walks ahead of you, toward your 'home'.

"Anyway, you should hit the wash and then maybe the charger. I have to make sure the toaster has plenty of water before I do." Foxtrot turns toward you.

"Thanks but, there's something I gotta do first."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

You sigh.

"I gotta go ask Echo some questions."

(40: END)

Exploration bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

Objective bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

End of Day bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

Mission bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module!

Gained 4 Cyber Modules!

Consider where to spend them before next thread.

Current stats:

It's just as fitting to the person who sits there as is the rest of the room.

The door swings open, and the man himself walks in. He throws off his torn military jacket onto a hook, and carefully shuts the door behind him. With a click; the door locks and he can spend his time getting some actual work done.

Work in this instance comes in a tiny 18 ounce flask that he keeps hidden under a drawer of his desk. He spits out the gum from his mouth, and starts searching for it with his hand.

BRRING!

"Incoming call.."

BRRING!

It's that stupid phone again. He likes the old, rustic feel of a phone that still has a bell inside of it. That said, it's so old that the caller ID doesn't pick up 90% of the calls that come to it. Thankfully, he's solved that by not taking calls to his office; especially at 6AM in the morning.

"Itssa another damn salesman." He says to himself, setting the flask inside the drawer before tapping the receive button. "Listen, dis is the police department, I don't have any money and I wouldn't buy it from you. Now take me offa this list you got me on."

There's an extremely awkward pause as the face on the intelliscreen continues to glare at the detective with an unamused stare.

"Oh, OH! Oh. Oh, Why, Uh-" The man scrambles to address his superior officer, "Officer Lanster! Uh, great for ya to check in on me. I uh, was just tidyin' up the office and-"

"Good morning, Gallardo." The voice replies, dryly. "You're awake this time, so you do deserve some credit."

"Aw, it was just that one time." He tries to play it off, "It's not like I do that often!"

Just after a few hits from that flask.

"Look, did you go to that crime scene?" The lady on the miniature screen cups her forehead.

"Yeah! Yuh, in fact. I just got back."

"Uh huh, so what did you find?"

The guy leans back in his chair.

"You were right." He adjusts his voice, "It was a break-in, followed by a mugging. First group was lookin' for somethin' in the executive office of the plant, but were ambushed by yet another group who came in behind them; well, more like they came in through the wall, reckless bunch they are." He takes another piece of gum out of his pocket.

"Through the wall? So is the plant damaged?"

"Sorta, the fire system went off. Prolly by accident during the fightin'. Mop it all up and the plant should be good to go."

He sticks the gum in his mouth. The lady on the other end seems incredulous.

"So the executive office was raided, did you find what the owner claimed was there?"

"Nope, no artifacts or logia or anythin'. Which means the balls in your court now; you'll get more about your lost shiny when I file my report later."

"Yeah, about that." The woman continues, "I want you to stay on this case a bit longer."

The guy sits up, and leans in to the small screen.

"But it was a robbery."

"Yes."

"An artifact was stolen."

"Yes."

"I'm on espionage now, you know that."

"I want you to treat this one like it was industrial espionage."

"Uh huh." The guy spits out his gum into a wrapper, "So you want me to treat this case that has nothing to do with espionage like it's an espionage."

"That's right."

"Tea." He opens his mouth to go on yet another angry rampage against his superiors that he's known for.

"Jason." The woman on the other end interrupts, "Do you remember how you got there?"

That shut the grumpy man up faster than a punch to the mouth ever could.

"As far as anyone knows, you're doing me a favor by being there." She replies, "So I want you to do me a favor there, understood?"

"..Yes Ma'am."

"Great! I look forward to your follow-up. Oh, and also, since you're now working on a logia investigation, I got someone to give you a hand." The young lady smiles as if the last few minutes never happened.

"A hand- Look, Tea. I work alone." The man instinctively grabs for his flask.

"Not for this one, you don't."

'Forget it.' The guy thinks. Right in front of the video phone; he pulls out the flask and takes a drink from it.

(JMP: Small Favors END)

(RTN 50:)

Upon your arrival; there's a certain someone waiting for you. She's standing in front of Foxtrot.

"Hey you two." The same big-front-capacity lady from earlier is standing there, "The debrief meeting is in five minutes. Put your things down and head there as fast as you can, okay?"

"Okay.." Foxtrot doesn't seem too happy with hearing that.

"Attagirl!" The taller lady rubs Foxtrot's head, and turns to walk inside.

They both walk through the front entrance. Foxtrot, of course, sets off the metal detector as she walks through. Just like you suspect that you will when you walk through.

The security guards follow behind them, and just leave a couple out in the lobby. There aren't many people out here to begin with; what with being 4:00 am in the morning and all. Instead, you reconsider walking past that metal detector.

After all, your foray tonight has netted you an object that would most likely be considered most illegal if you were caught with it. Inside of a briefcase slung over your shoulder; there's a tiny metal box. That tiny metal box prevents the people who made you from reading your thoughts.

Keeping that safe seems like the top priority right now.

As to not arouse suspicion; you take a small detour toward the women's locker rooms. Two parallel doors which lead into a poorly lit facility for humans. As you understand, this is where humans keep the things that they want to be kept safe.

So, it makes sense that you should put something that you would want to be kept safe in here as well.

Of course, where?

There's a room in the back which leads to a small storage closet. You analyze the lock, and quickly bypass the magnetic hold.

Inside, there are rows of decommissioned lockers; most of them appear to have busted locks.

Except one of them, this lock still works.

You bypass it, and throw the briefcase inside. Quickly, you set your own password and slam the metal door shut.

Just as you're closing the storage closet; the door opens.

"E-excuse me?" One of the guards peeks his head in, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" You reply, with a smile. "Just looking for where I can, um, 'wash off'."

"Oh! I think you're supposed to bathe in the lab. You don't have to use the women's showers." The guard seems oddly confused, "Also.. How did you know to come in here? I thought you guys were.. drones. Like mindless drones. That's amazing that you knew to-"

"Well I'm not!" You frown, and shove past him. "I'm going to the briefing."

The guard shrugs, and follows along behind you.

Since you've been thoroughly insulted; you decide that it may be time to head to the meeting.

Seriously.

'Mindless drone'?

What a jerk!

You make the metal detector go off as you pass by, and the security guards reset it. Inside, you retrace your steps back to the briefing room.

There's already a commotion occurring inside. You decide to gently open the door and slide in.

"Mission failures are not taken lightly, young lady. Especially ones which jeopardize our entire project." A tall man has his arms crossed, "Be thankful we were able to retrieve you this time."

Foxtrot is sitting in front of the scientists this time. She has a scowl that looks like it could kill someone plastered on her face.

"Which is precisely why we wished for you to work with Echo and Gamma." The same man who gave you the briefing is scolding her, "We understand that accidents happen, but it is our job to mitigate them as much as possible. Please retire to the chargers for the night, we will discuss future mission accommodations later."

Foxtrot sighs, and stands up in a huff. She practically stomps her way out of the room, and slams the door behind her.

"We weren't kidding when we said it; she's our best unit!" One of the scientist-like guys tries to mitigate the situation.

"You really shouldn't be so hard on her. It was just a fluke." The woman with the large forward fuel tanks follows up on the damage control.

"I'm only being difficult because I care." The man responds, "I don't mean any ill toward Foxtrot; I just know she's better than her performance tonight."

"Don't think of it too much." The researcher up front responds, "Look, the star of the evening is here."

The man turns to notice you sitting at the desk. Immediately, his tone changes.

"Ah our newest young prodigy." The guy smiles, "I don't think I properly introduced myself, I'm Captain Kazuo Lancer."

He claps his hands together, "Needless to say, your operation with Echo was the highlight of the evening. Tell us, how did you feel about it?"

"Don't undersell yourself." The captain replies, "Your performance in escorting Echo was top-notch tonight. She couldn't have done it without you."

"Other than that then-" You try to think of the right way to express your feelings, "I was a little unsure about he talking part where I had to get Foxtrot out. I feel like I might've insulted the detective on accident somehow."

There's a light laugh that goes across the room. The captain himself is smiling.

"I think you did an excellent job; think of it as a test of your abilities to handle problems outside of your defined parameters. There are going to be some problems you encounter that won't be solved with a staff or a gun. But other than that, how did you feel about the *mission*? How about your first raid?"

"Well, it felt..-"

What's a good word for it?

"..It felt good."

There's some scratching as all the researchers start writing something down.

"Glad to hear it! Did you feel anything else? Joy? Anger? Sadness? Please, details."

That seems oddly intrusive, but you'll answer it anyway.

"Almost.." What's the right word for it? Your database comes up with- "Orgasmic. Like I could fight forever and ever and never get tired of it!"

The scientists keep scribbling and writing as you speak. The captain only smiles and says,

"I'm glad to hear that." He doesn't seem the least bit concerned by your report, "But did you feel angry by any chance? Like.. you were enjoying yourself and then got very upset by something?"

"Uh.. no?" That's a strange question.

"Might need a bit more of a focused fight for that." One of the researchers responds, "The raid was over in a hurry."

"It might help if she was alone, too. She may have been restraining herself around Echo." Another one replies.

"Right, right." The captain seems to be having a conversation without you, "They were probably not strong enough, either. Echo claims they broke after a few seconds of combat with her. Probably amateurs. Next time we'll need something a bit tougher to get out of the green with her."

"E-excuse me?" You can't help but feel left out of this conversation, "Is that a good thing? A bad thing?"

"No, no; It's absolutely a good thing." The captain responds, "In fact, if you ever feel good or angry during combat again; you should do your best to just let it happen naturally. Go all-out, don't bother with restraint." He has his hand on his chin. "We can define where you should and shouldn't be restrained with your temper later."

"R-right." You are so confused.

"Now! With that out of the way, congratulations to all the units tonight to were able to complete their missions. I just wish I could say the same for our side-mission."

"What happened with our side mission?"

"Oh, unexpected hangups, unit shortcomings. About that, Gamma. I have unfortunate news on that front: Our secondary mission failed." He gets serious once more, "We were tasked to retrieve a piece of an artifact that had already been exfiltrated from the factory just minutes before you arrived. We suspect they took it to a local hang-out for the street gangs; a nightclub on the corner of Fifty-first and Brannan in a less appropriate part of the district." The captain stops, "We suspect that they won't try moving it anytime in the next fifteen hours, so we are planning a new mission for you to retrieve it."

The captain stops, and then turns around to look at the researchers. The one sitting in front nods at him.

"We think it may be better this time if you went in alone for this one."

"Alone?!"

"Don't sound so shocked, Gamma." The captain is trying to calm you down, "We believe you may be the most capable unit solo. This shouldn't be any more intense than the mission you just completed."

You sigh, "Okay, but when do I leave?"

"We'll have separate briefing for this mission in twelve or so hours when we receive authorization for it. In the meantime, you should recharge and prepare yourself to deploy shortly. Any questions before we dismiss?"

"..Where are my tokens?"

"Your to- Oh! Right, for the vending machine. Uh-" He looks toward the crowd. They're giggling to each other. "We'll have those delivered to you shortly."

"Thank you." You pout. You want them right now.

You stand up and walk out of the room. One of the aides shuts the door behind you, and they continue talking.

Phooey.

You're not even a day old and you feel like you're being overworked.

Okay, well two things that are important. One of those things should be busy with her 'pet' in the break room. You should head there right away to make sure she's doing okay after getting chewed out by all the humans.

You can't imagine what happened during her mission to get that kind of response. You didn't even think your mission was that clean.

Also what was all that about with the scientists? Get 'more angry'?

You nearly scared Iota and Echo when you went crazy last time. Why would you want to encourage that?

If anything, they should have told you to tone it back a bit.

That's when you also have a crazy thought.

Is this related to what that voice was telling you earlier? The one that was talking about how you had some kind of special ability? What did he call it, an 'inherent ability'?

You make your way down the hallway to see Foxtrot with her head laying on the table. She frowns at her silver pet as it sits motionless in front of her.

"Foxtrot?" You knock on the door, and let yourself into the break room. "I'm sorry about what happened."

"Don't be." She replies, "It's not your fault."

"Um, if you don't mind me asking." You try to think of a good way to put this, "Why was meat mad?"

Foxtrot sighs, and then sits up.

"I just didn't live up to expectations. Maybe if it was just this one time, it would be different, but I get the feeling like it's getting close to being every time."

"How many times have you 'not lived up to expectations'?"

Foxtrot grumbles, "Can we not talk about this, okay? I messed up, and now you're gonna have to clean it up. I'm sorry."

"I'm not worried about that! I'm worried about you." You rub Foxtrot's head, "I don't want angry meat yelling at you."

"Don't worry about me, okay sis?" Foxtrot sits upright, "I just have to try harder next time, is all. Go get washed up and go recharge, I'll be fine."

"..Are you sure?"

"Yes! Yes, this has happened before. I'll be fine. Just be careful fixing my mistakes, okay?"

"You didn't make a mistake." You drag Foxtrot into a hug, "You just needed a little help."

"..Sis, please."

"Sorry! It's just." You let Foxtrot go, "I just didn't like hearing them talk so badly about you. They said you were their best unit!"

"Probably just humoring the big guy." Foxtrot frowns. "Either ways, thank you for caring enough to come find me."

"No problem, do you know where Echo is right now?"

"Yeah, in the weapon range. Something happened that made her upset."

Oh great, you have another sister to hug, then.

You wish Foxtrot a good night, and then head down the hall to the practice range.

The door opens, and you see Echo sitting in one of the chairs at the end of the range.

Uh oh, she doesn't look happy, either.

"Echo?"

"Hello Gamma." Her face cheers up a bit when she hears your voice, "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to recharge."

"I was but, why are you upset? Did something happen?"

Echo looks away, "I messed up today during the fight a couple of times, and it sort of- I don't know how to explain it. It's making me feel uneasy to think about it, but I keep thinking about it. If you weren't there, I don't even know what would have happened."

"Echo." You sigh, "Echo, stop."

You grab Echo and give her a hug, as well.

She seems stiff at first, but she then gently tries to return it as best as she can.

"..Thanks Gamma."

"Is it always like this after a mission? Everyone is just so sad, and it was successful to boot!" You break the hug. "If missions make everyone sad, then I don't think you should be going on any more missions."

"I think this was just a bad mission for everyone." Echo stands up from her chair, "Next one will be better."

That's right, there's always next mission.

You should change the subject instead of dwelling on this.

"Hey Echo, about things that happened during the mission. Could I ask you a question about something I saw in a magazine?"

"Is it that primate thing, again?"

"No, it's more.. creepy than that." You try to think of an appropriate word for it. "Simply put, when I was waiting at the police station, there was a magazine on the table. That magazine had you in it."

Echo blinks, "It had me? Are you sure it was me?"

"Positive! You were posing for a photo and everything." You try to mimic the posture that you saw her in. "Were you some kind of model?"

"Was it a trade show catalog?" Echo blinks, "It may have been just someone showing me off for one of their future-tech shows."

"No! you were awake, and fully active."

She blinks.

"If that's true, you probably shouldn't tell anyone else." Echo replies, "That might be a secret thing that we aren't supposed to know about."

"Doesn't that bother you, though? It looked just like you."

"I'm going to assume that it's just a coincidence." She dismisses it outright, "Even if she is my flesh-based counterpart, what can we do about it?"

"..Well, I don't know."

"Exactly." Echo sighs, "Let's just not think about it, okay?"

"In that case. Want to hit the 'washer's with me?"

Echo blinks, "I'm fine with that, are you okay with that?"

"Yeah! Sure! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well."

Echo stops for a second, but then continues.

"Follow me."

"Right!"

'Washers', sounds like fun! Maybe it's like a big brush that brushes all the dirt off. Or maybe a stream of air that blows it off? It sounds important, at least!

Echo leads you to a glass door that's fogged on the inside. She swings it open, and you follow her inside.

"Water?" You notice one of the showers in the back running.

"No, Acid." Echo stops, "It's an acidic bath. It's good for our skin."

"Oooh." You walk up to one of the faucets, and turn it on. Immediately, you're showered until you're soaking wet.

"Gamma." Echo gets your attention, "You're supposed to take your clothes OFF before you step in the shower."

"What?" You blink, "Oh, like-"

You let your barrier jacket drop, and you're left in the same clothes you had when you were in the training arena. A simple dress along with a simple blouse.

The shower continues pelting you with droplets, and you let the warm feeling soothe your skin.

"Gamma."

"What?"

"You're supposed to take THOSE clothes off, too!"

"But-"

That doesn't make any sense.

"Then I wouldn't be wearing anything!"

"Yes, Gamma. That's the point."

"What?"

You reach down to your blouse, and try to undo it. Whatever is in that shower nozzle has already started to make it fall apart! You grab a piece of it as it nearly slouches off of your shoulders. Quickly, you step out of the shower and start taking what's left of your clothes off piece-by-piece.

"They're ruined!" Your dress comes off in two different sections. The pair of short-shorts beneath that practically flakes off your body. Finally, you're left completely naked.

"Yes, that's what happens when soft organic fabric is exposed to acid." Echo states as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"But now what? My clothes are ruined!"

"Wear your barrier jacket for the next day or so. It will be fine." Echo drops her barrier jacket, and starts to undress from an almost identical looking dress.

"Okay but.. How do I use this thing? Also, is it okay to see each other naked?"

"Yes, we're both girls. Also you're supposed to- forget it. I'll just show you." Echo takes off the last of her cloth armor plating, and steps up behind you.

She dismounts a nozzle in the shower, and then points it directly at your face.

"Close your eyes."

"Why?"

That's when acid sprays all in your hair!

"Ow!"

"Now, rub this in your hair to get the particles out, and then wash the particulates off your body." Echo hands you a blue bottle. "I'll be in the next shower."

"Great."

This is more inconvenient than you expected. You thought it would be just like a..

You know what? You're not sure what you expected. It wasn't this, though. A nozzle spraying you with acid while you ran it through your hair.

Why were you given so much hair, anyway?

There's a click as the door opens and then closes again. You're too busy trying to figure out how to get this oil out of your hair to think about it.

It's annoying, and Echo is too busy with her own hair to help. She's lucky to have so much less hair than you do.

Hey, something sounds like footsteps.

Slowly.

Walking.

Up.

Behind.

You?

You feel a set of hands grasp your hair, and then start running its fingers through it.

"Hi." You hear a whisper in your ear, "I'm Juliett."

...

That hand just went from your hair to your shoulders.

"Pleased to meet you."

Slowly, you reach down to the pair of wandering hands, and you snatch them off of you before they have a chance to measure the size of your storage units!

You wrench them forward, and then counter with a palm strike to the shoulder of your attacker!

At least, it would be a palm strike if the attacker was your height. Unfortunately, she's slightly taller than you are. So you more or less strike her right forward storage unit by accident. You grab her by the arm, and hold her in place after she nearly slips on the floor.

A woman who's slightly taller than you are with very long blonde hair is looking at you with a very guilty look. She's just barely able to hold back an almost hyena like laugh that threatens to burst at any second.

Datalink: Scanning...

You both stare at one another as her two hands are easily held in place by your one. She's clearly not as strong as you are.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Her head tilts back, and she gives the most expressive laugh you may have ever seen! "DID YOU SEE YOUR FACE JUST NOW? Echo! Echo! Look at this!"

"J-Juliett?!" Echo has that blue stuff all in her hair, which prevents her from raising her head too high. "What did you do to Gamma?!"

"I was giving her the 'official' welcome to the team, but I guess she's a bit faster than she looks!" Juliett smirks.

You let her hands go, and the first thing she does is grab you into a great big hug!

"I'm Juliett! The demolitions model." She pulls her also-naked body away from you, "I hear you're the assault unit. I see why, now!"

"Y-yeah. Uh." You try to process what this girl is telling you. "C-could you stand just a few centimeters farther away?"

"Oh! You're shy! That's okay. We're all sisters here! Oh, you have some oil in your hair, can I polish it out?"

"Wait! you have oil in your hair still! That will become a sticky glob in a few hours! Our hair is the same so I should know!"

You grumble, and stop just outside of the shower.

"Why did you think that was a good idea?" You cross your arms, "I almost hit you!"

"Oh that's fine!" Juliett taps her head, "I have some pretty good skin armor, good enough to absorb an explosion! You can hit me all you want, everyone else does!"

"Wait, wait, what was that last part?" You blink, "Everyone else does what, hit you?!"

"Well yeah, in combat." She runs her hair under the shower head. "Anyway, want me to get that glob out of your hair?"

"..Okay, but that's it."

"Aww, you look stressed. I think you could use a longer bath."

You get only close enough to her so she can grab your hair.

"See, with long hair like ours, you have to do this. Massage around the strands, like you're fluffing a pillow." Juliett grabs your hair and starts running the shower nozzle through it.

"You know what, I think I can fluff my own hair." You gently try to take it back from Juliett.

"Aw, but it's so much easier if someone else is doing it? Oh, do you want me to get your bangs, too? "

"NO!" You instinctively shout, "No, no, no. I'm fine."

"Okay!" Juliett doesn't see anything wrong with this, but you're immensely uncomfortable.

"What was that you said earlier about everyone hitting you?" You focus more on what she was saying.

"No! I was just joking. It's a joke! I was saying that hitting me won't hurt a bit."

"..and that everyone else does it."

"Well, yeah. Sort of. It won't hurt me anyway."

"It's not that I'm worried about."

"You just worry too much, you must be the worry unit." Juliett lets your hair go, and you can feel that the glob of oil is out of it. "By the way, turn around so I can do your back."

"OKAY-" You shake your hair, "Wash time is over, Time for me to go."

"Aw. Well, be sure to shower in the morning and evening, okay?" Juliett smiles. "I get really dirty with dust, sand, and ash on my missions. So I bathe twice a day. You'll be fighting just as hard as I am, so you should keep yourself squeaky clean as well!"

"Ye-yeah, I'll consider it." What a weird girl. "Echo, I'm going to the charger, but can we talk about something later? It's sort of important."

Speaking of which; all of this commotion and you didn't even get to ask her about the scrambler.

At the very least, now you have a plan on how to get a wet towel around Echo's head so you can ask her about it.

You let an air-dryer blow on your body, which slowly dissolves the remaining acid. You're soon able to put your barrier jacket back on and leave while Juliett is talking off Echo's ear.

Used: ★ Raptor Barrier Jacket.

Your jacket re-forms on your shoulders, and you walk out the door.

Yeah, it's probably time to hit the chargers.

After all, you have a lot to think about.

Who should get the last scrambler? Iota? Echo?

..Juliett? Well, maybe not. Hmm.

You gotta think about this one. You want to save everybody, but if you're not careful, you'll end up saving nobody.

You head toward the laboratory, and toward the charger that you woke up on.

Along the wall, you can see Iota and Foxtrot resting peacefully inside of their chargers. Iota even has a little smile on her face, maybe she was praised for her performance during the mission?

Either ways, if they're happy, then you're happy.

You pop open the lid of the charger, and climb inside.

CAUGHT SIGNAL 8

3..

2..

1..

..

You gained 4 cyber modules!

PLEASE SPEND THEM ON THIS CHART:

RECHARGING...

..

...

Make your skill selection: now.

-[............|]-

-[............/]-

-[............-]-

-[............\]-

-[............|]-

-[............/]-

-[............-]-

-[............\]-

-[............|]-

Level up.

Discovered new perk! ★ Mania.

Click, click, click...

Beep.

You hear the recharging pod that you're in chime. It opens up to the same room you woke up in before, but now all the lights are turned off.

You swivel your head to note that the other units have left their recharge pods. You woke up late, or later than everyone else today.

It makes sense, you suppose. Your night was a lot longer than theirs was. You hope no one makes fun of you for it, though.

With a whirr and a pop, you push yourself out of the recharge pod. You only have a few seconds to stretch your arms out before you feel a sensation in your ear.

CONNECTING...

Caller: Iota

Accept? >Yes / No

Maybe it's something important.

You somehow know how to accept that call, and you feel her voice in your mind.

"(Gamma?)"

"(Good morning, Iota.)" You stretch your arms out in a different direction. For some reason, this feels very good.

"(Oh good! you're awake. Dr. Carrera wanted to talk to you.)"

"(Who?)" That's no one you've heard of.

"(Dr. Carrera! Hiroko?!)" Iota keeps pretending that you should know exactly who that is. "(Just walk through the door, past the briefing room, her office is on the right.)"

"(Oh, okay. I'm not in trouble, am I?)"

"(No, no. I think she just wanted to talk about something. Something about the briefing from yesterday.)"

Well, maybe it's not as suspicious as you are lead to believe.

"(That seems suspicious. What happened at the briefing? Any ideas what this is about?)"

"(I dunno.)"

That doesn't relieve your fears any.

"(Sure, I'll go talk to her right now.)"

"(Down the hall, past the meeting room, on the right)"

"(Got it, Thanks Iota.)"

You end the call and slowly start walking through the facility.

After yesterday, any aroused suspicion above 'nothing at all' makes you feel uncomfortable. Especially if it involves anything involving unexplained calls to someone's office.

You're not going to lie. A part of you really regrets jamming something up your nose that may-or-may-not be doing what it claims its doing. Especially if it can get you in trouble if someone finds it.

So a researcher calling you to her office just before you go on another mission seems like the least trustworthy thing ever.

You quickly look inside the break room to see if Foxtrot is here, and she is not.

Toaster seems to have been fed plenty of bread this morning; thankfully.

Oh! Is that a vending machine?

You approach it and look at the labeling on the front. It shows a picture of two flat pieces of bread with butter on it.

'Pancakes'.

Some kind of human food.

You're intrigued.

"Could I get two of these.. 'pancakes'?" You kindly ask the machine.

Somehow, that registered as valid in the machine's mind. It starts to whirr and click, and even spout steam! You smell the aroma of something extremely hot as it makes a final ding and spits two flat pieces of hot bread on the table.

You pick one of them up and smell them.

"Is this human food?"

No answer, it must be shy.

You take a bite of it, and savor the rather.. bland flavor.

"Tastes kind of flat." You tell the machine, "But.. thank you! I'll finish the other one later."

You leave with your piece of flattened bread in hand. You take another bite, and drop it in the trash on your way out.

Down the hall, to the right. The door is open, and you can hear music playing from inside.

Slowly, you knock on the door.

"Hello?"

Oh!

It's that lady with the huge drop-tanks!

"Gamma?" She replies, "Oh! I see you're awake. Welcome!"

"Uh, yeah. Hi. Am I in trouble?"

"No! No, come in. Close the door. Let's have a talk."

Yeah, you're in trouble.

You step into the office, and shut the door behind you.

She stands up from her office chair, and walks over with her hand extended.

"Sorry if I scared you. I'm Dr. Hiroko Carrera, the neuropsychologist on the team. I'm the person who designed your personality and response algorithms. Much of my research went into you!" She smiles, "In a way, you can think of me as 'mother', some of the other units do."

"Uh, maybe later." You gulp.

"You're amazing, Gamma." She smiles, and pats you on the head. "Anyway, I came to talk to you about what Captain Lancer was telling you yesterday."

Lancer?

Lancer.. Lancer.

OH! The general guy from the briefing.

"..What about it?"

"It's because, he told you yesterday to get upset and angry during combat, yeah try not to do that. In fact, you would be better off remaining calm."

"..Okay, why?"

"Your personality was based off human psychology, but psychology is a very broad field with a ton of tiny quirks in them. In particular, humans have a hard-wired response known as the 'fight-or-flight response'. It's split-second decision making that tells a person if a fight is worth having, or if fleeing is the best option. By extension, you have a fight-or-flight response too, but yours is different."

"What do you mean?"

"-Specifications on the Raptor units required that their aggression be turned up slightly to account for the fact that they are stronger than ordinary humans, so their fight-or-flight response are weighted. Your response, in particular, is heavily weighted as well. However, since you're the Assault unit; it's been weighted even more significantly than your sister units."

"I'm not following."

"Basically, you're going to want to fight for longer and harder than those around you, but I personally disagree with the decision to weight your response differently than the others. You see, I based your personal response curves off a Belkan mage who decided to save his body for science several hundred years ago. I thought that would make a formidable assault unit. His senses were already heavily trained from decades of combat, but that also combined with the additional weighting means you could have a teensy bit of.. well, I don't know how else to put it, bloodlust in a fight. Does that make sense?"

"Common misconception." She claps her hands together, "Fear is a triggering response, but! It's just one of many different triggers. It calls under the category of 'stress'. Things that stress you are more likely to set it off. It could be from lack of resources, lack of conditioning, maybe running too long, or being in a situation where you're not comfortable."

Carrera smiles, "Yesterday was kind of, odd. I think you had a buildup of stress from being shot at. Once outside the building, and again inside the building. That combined with it being your first mission probably caused it to happen. Those feelings you were describing of feeling good, aloof, there probably isn't anything wrong with feeling that way in combat. I looked into it, and that's a very common response from battle-hardened warriors when they're fighting. Some of them describe it as being more at home than when they're really at home."

"So I'm programmed to feel this way?!" You blink, "Do you think it's possible that you weighted it a bit too much!?"

"Oh absolutely, in fact that's what I was arguing after you left yesterday at the briefing. You shouldn't *have* to feel angry or sad during a battle. Feeling happy and aloof is exactly the feeling you should be aiming for. Going past that just means you might hurt yourself."

"So what does this mean? Are you saying I'm based off someone else?"

"No, no, no, not your personality. Just your response curves. The person who it's based on;"

She picks up a clipboard and flips through it.

"..someone named 'Claus'. Anyway, he was quite a warrior with a strong record. What you're feeling is likely what he felt when he was fighting."

"I can't believe this." You feel uncomfortable. "So my own fighting ability isn't even mine?"

"Well, of course it isn't. Neither is anyone else on your team. Your combat abilities were given, not trained."

"Do they know?!"

"Of course they do, but it's not important. You're your own person, and you shouldn't let this affect you if you go into combat. Just stay calm, and stay focused."

"How do I do that? Last time, it didn't even feel like I was the person fighting!"

"Try to keep focused on the mission. Don't focus on the fighting. Remember, the fighting is secondary to the mission. Do you think you can do that?"

"..Do I have a choice?" You frown.

"That's a good enough answer!" She smiles. "So, anything else?"

"Right, I don't know what that is exactly, but many of your abilities are classified. It's not uncommon for them to test things during a mission, and you might see odd abilities on your status screen appear and disappear from mission to mission. They frown on people who ask too many questions, so I can't really give you an exact answer."

"So you have no idea?"

"If you want my guess, Mania is your 'inherent skill'. We were told that they would be testing it yesterday, and if they were satisfied with it; they may have added it to your status page just so you can keep track of it."

"Wait, stop." You keep her from talking further, "That's the second time I've heard that phrase now, what does it mean? What's an 'inherent skill'?"

"'Inherent Skills' are abilities that you have which cannot be taken away from you. All of your sisters have their own unique 'inherent skill' to assist them with their duty. Even if you were naked and unarmed, you would still be able to use it. Remember yesterday when Lancer was talking about how your battle ability will tend to 'snowball' as you fight?"

"..Yes, yes I do remember that."

"That's your 'inherent skill', that's why everyone was so interested in how you felt yesterday. They may be comfortable enough with permanently adding it to your feature list if you were able to use it without any malfunctions or errors."

"So I can always use that?"

"Anytime, but please don't get carried away with it in a fight. It seems your tendency to lose your temper may be feeding into your skill that makes you stronger as you fight. Creating a kind of.. feedback loop. You get angrier, and you get stronger, which makes you angrier, etc."

You blink, but she continues before you can ask a question.

"My point is, try not to murder anyone, please?" She smiles, "Yesterday's operation went off with nothing more than some bruises and broken bones, but I really don't want you killing anyone. Are we clear?"

"Uh.." You don't know how to answer that besides- "I'll try not to kill anyone?"

"Attagirl!" She rubs your head again.

"Can I turn it off?"

"I don't think so." She shrugs, "That's out of my area of expertise, but I would think your core would have to stop working in order to do that."

Great, so you're a short-tempered brawler who is a danger to everyone around you. Exactly what you wanted to hear.

"..I need to think about this."

"That's fine! But again, don't let it get to you! I just wanted to warn you so you knew what to look out for."

"Yeah, fine. Thanks."

You walk out of her office and head back down the hall.

You're both confused and you feel really, really used. Like.. you don't even know how to feel about that one.

'Forty Five Minutes'.

Ugh, that's if it runs on time, too. So, what are you going to do while the captain is in his meeting?

Well, if you have lots of time; then you may as well go see what else is around.

You return to the break room, and see the Pancake Machine still happily steaming away.

You're not really in the mood for pancakes, but maybe there's something else you can ask the machine.

"Excuse me, Pancake machine?" You walk up to it, "Can I ask a question? How do you cope with being programmed for only one thing in life?"

..No response.

Instead, there's a ding followed by the soft plop of a pancake falling out.

"Oh." You frown, "Well, I guess accepting it is one way of coping."

"Oh geez." You hear someone behind you, "What is it with you guys and the toasters and ovens?"

You turn around, and notice a man standing against the doorway. He's smoking a cigarette, and has a small official-looking hat in his hand.

"Um, hi." You respond, meekly. "I'm Gamma, and you are..?"

"Joseph." He responds, with a smile. "Joseph LaCrosse, I'll be your pilot for when you deploy on longer missions. The company has me on-loan from the TSAB by the hour, so don't expect me to be very fast at my job."

"Oh, uh, I wasn't expecting you to be-"

"Yeah, I know. That was a joke." He stands upright, "Are you and the appliances getting along?"

"I guess so, not very talkative."

He laughs in a very loud guffaw. He then waves and walks out of the break room.

"See you later, Gamma. I look forward to workin' with ya."

Huh.

Weird guy.

Oh! There are lockers in here that you didn't even notice before. They must be for personal things that people want to bring inside of the laboratories.

You quickly look inside and scan every piece of equipment you see inside. Most of it is stuff like music players and maybe the occasional smuggled bottle of liquor or naughty-primate-magazine.

Datalink: Scanning..

Scan aborted.

W-what?

..That's weird.

You just started scanning something when you looked inside this locker. What was that?

Datalink: Scanning..

Scan aborted.

There's something in there that you get the urge to scan for some reason.

Well, no one's around, you may as well have a look.

The lock easily unlocks like the cheap magnetic lock that it is, and the door swings open.

Datalink: Scanning...

Huh.

Why would someone have this in the facility? This is a pretty serious armed device.

That's, really suspicious.

Should you take it?

But you know who might know?

You call Iota, and ask her to forward you to Echo.

"(Hello? Gamma?)"

"(Hey! Echo, look what I found in a locker in the break room. Should I keep it?)"

You send her the scan pattern of the weapon you just found.

"(..the BREAK room!? In some human's locker?!)"

"(Yeah! Isn't that weird? So, what do I do?)"

"(Don't leave it in that guy's locker, that's for sure!)"

What?

"(Why not?)"

"(This is a research facility! The only people who should be armed here are the guards, with their really weak devices, and us! The only reason we're armed right now is because we smuggle our weapons in! There's no reason someone should have a device in their locker. Unless they were thinking of using it against all the unarmed researchers and generals here!)"

"(Oh.)" You huff, "(So I should keep it?)"

"(Either that or give it to a human, preferably one of the security guards, and tell him where you found it.)"

Well, that sounds like a lot of work.

"(I'll just hold onto it. It fits in my coat.)"

"(Great, by the way Gamma, are you coming to this briefing or not?)"

"(What briefing?)"

"(We're having a package briefing for your mission later. We're going to be deploying in a separate package, but you're going in alone. I think your part is coming up.)"

"(What?! But we're leaving in 45 minutes!)"

"(Yes Gamma, that's when you're leaving. The briefing is an hour long.)"

You gasp, and then immediately end the call and head toward the briefing room.

Oh good, that 'Lancer' guy doesn't see you. You walk into the briefing room and sit down next to Echo.

"Speaking of which." He continues, "Gamma, glad of you to join us!"

"U- uh."

No one would have noticed if you didn't say anything!

"Now, we can talk about the main part of this operation, Strike package 1." He continues his thought, "Gamma, you'll be heading in alone to the night club to discuss matters with the owner. You're authorized any force within reasonable limits to obtain the missing artifact. However, it may be troublesome if you cause a fight in such a crowded area. You'll be deploying at roughtly 2:30AM, so the club will only have the most dedicated participants and the guards stationed in the nightclub. Your mission will be advised by Iota as your operator, along with Juliett and Hotel as backup. Any questions?"

He laughs, "I can't tell you all the details, but I can give you the reason it's happening. Foxtrot yesterday was apprehended by law enforcement before she infiltrated this same night club. Inside, there's an artifact being kept illegally by the nightclub's owner. We think he was given the artifact last night just before the factory raid; but was likely given it under duress. As in, he's well aware of how hot it is, and will likely be looking to get rid of it as soon as he thinks the coast is clear."

"I remember that from last briefing." You blink, "But what about the missions' purpose? What will getting this artifact achieve?"

"Well.. Gamma. It's our job to retrieve artifacts. Magic artifacts can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. In fact, quite a few of our national disasters over the past few years are thanks to artifacts simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Think of yourself as doing a public good."

You're not really convinced. Maybe it's because he gulped before he said his message, or maybe it's because he didn't exactly say who 'we' were giving it to after 'we' take it.

"So, do I get a disguise? "

"A disguise won't be necessary. As far as anyone knows, you're just an ordinary person. As long as you're wearing the glasses, security cameras and facial recognition will be reflected and you'll remain perfectly anonymous. Anything else?"

Oh, there's something else that he mentioned that you might want to talk about.

"Okay, so I'm going in with Juliett, and.. who?"

"Juliett and Hotel won't be coming with you, they'll serve as backup in case there is a mission complication much like how you served as backup to Foxtrot when she was apprehended."

"Well, I got that part, but who is Hotel?"

"Could we focus on the mission?" He steers your question away, HARD.

Yeah, that's not suspicious, is it?

"So do I get any advice? I mean, besides go in and start shooting."

"Our advice is quite the opposite, actually. We believe it might be better for you to try and approach this peacefully first. He's eager to get the artifact off of his hands, and we may be able to initiate a buyer for it. However, it is important that you be the first one to obtain it, no one else. If anyone else obtains it, you have full permission to simply take it from them. Understood?"

"..Yeah. So what do I do? Go in and be like 'Hey I want to buy your illegal artifact?'"

"Actually, you may not have to do that. As we understand it, he was more forced to take it instead of taking it on his own will. Something to do with a debt that had to be repaid. So, if you offer to take it off his hands in exchange for protection, he may give it up willingly."

"If not?"

"Well, that's why you're taking a device."

"Great." You say, sarcastically. "Should I just beat him up and take it?"

"That's always an option, but you may have trouble inside of a heavily crowded nightclub. We're keeping that option open, but prefer the pacifist approach first."

"..Okay, I'll try that then."

"Great! Anymore questions?"

"Glad to hear it!" The captain states, "Since we're getting done early, that gives us time to prepare. You're dismissed, hit up the armory to select your loadout for this mission."

"Yes sir." You stand up, and give Echo a quick wave. She smiles as you walk out the door, and toward the armory.

"(Meet me in the armory)" You get a message from Iota, but attached to that message are the words '-From Juliett'.

Uh oh.

You have to face the creepy sister, again.

You gulp as you approach the door of the armory. You swing open the front door, and-

"Hi Juliett." You try to keep at least an arms-length of distance between her.

"Gamma, I'm sorry about yesterday." She smiles, "I just thought that would be so fun to do! You should have seen your face!"

"Y-yeah, fun." You gulp, "So why did you want to meet me?"

"Well that's simple, drop your barrier jacket."

"My-.. Okay."

Not sure what she's hinting at.

You feel the jacket disappear, and then you remember something

"EEK!" You cover yourself, "JULIETT!"

"It's fine! It's fine, look! I came to give you this."

She tosses a dress at you, and you immediately cover yourself with it.

There's, some underwear here, a pair of loose-fitting jeans, an outer shirt, and the coat itself. Quickly, you get to throwing them on while Juliet watches and laughs.

"You're so nervous! That's hilarious, Gamma!" She's grinning.

"What is this?!" You look down at yourself, at the garments you just put on.

"It's a trench coat! With a shirt and jeans. Very comfortable, and it's all the rage nowadays! Now you don't have to walk around in your barrier jacket."

Wh-

"Why is your trench coat so much longer than mine is." You immediately notice that hers goes down to her ankles, yours barely covers past your butt.

"Oh, well you have better legs than I do, so I thought you'd like to show off."

"Juliett." You growl.

"Well, anyway! I'm deploying in a few minutes, too. Any weapons you'll be taking?" Juliett is scanning the row of possible weapons.

Datalink: Scanning...

"That's a good one!" Juliett smiles, "I like the shield a lot. It absorbs blasts really well!"

"Juliett. The more I learn about you the more I question." You rub your head, "Try not to do anything reckless, okay?"

"Pfft." She gives you an assuring smile, "I was going to tell you the same thing. Are you off?"

"Yeah, I think I am." You check your weapons one more time. You have Scarlet, Eye of the Tiger, and now this Gauntlet on your arm. "Do you want to join the call with me and Iota?"

"No, I think Hotel will-"

"Yeah, uh, Juliett. Who is Hotel?" You try to interrupt her train of thought.

Juliett covers her mouth, almost as if she realized that she just messed up.

"..I can't say. Sorry Gamma. Maybe you'll meet her sooner or later?" She goes back to smiling.

"Why can't you say? It's one of my sisters, right?"

"Well, yes. But, her existence is kind of a secret. Sorry!" She adjusts her voice.

"Aww, come on, not even a little hint?" You pout.

"Not without her permission, sorry." Her finger presses against her mouth. "It's as much for her good as it is for yours."

That's a weird stipulation. None of your sisters have had this problem, why would Hotel be so secretive?

"Well, I'll be in touch with Iota, so if you have a message for me; then just let her know!" Juliett smiles. "Good luck out there!"

"Thanks Juliett." You smile back, "See you when I get back."

You walk out of the armory, and head downstairs to the lobby. Of course, the security guards are out there waiting for you.

"Ready to go?" One of the guards stands next to you.

"Yeah, let's hit it."

"(Iota, can you hear me?)"

"(Sure can! We'll be all set up by the time you get there. Good luck, Sis!)"

You smile, and follow the security guard to the subway tunnels. For 2:45AM, it's exactly as dark out as you expect it to be.

Just like Echo told you; you slip your sunglasses over your face, and focus on the task at hand.

That's the trick, after all.

Always focus on the mission.

(60: END)

Exploration bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module

If this guy ever shows up; this may make the first night in a while that the detective gets to call it quits before 4:00 AM.

Of course, that would assume that this guy is going to show up. Gallardo has been waiting for an hour at this point. The bar he frequents isn't objectionable this early in the morning, but he isn't too fond of waiting either way.

Naturally, he likes meeting people here because of the ready supply of drinks, the occasional person to talk to, and the fact that it's close enough to work to justify meetings here as business. His office is a terrible place to try and wait for clients, anyway. It's remarkably quiet, and carries the possibility of someone bugging him to work.

He hates that.

There's a light on his phone that flashes a reddish color for just an instant. Yet another indication that he's wasted another hour of his life waiting around. He briefly contemplates why he's here at 1:00 am in the morning waiting for someone who can't even be assed to show up somewhere in the range of an hour on-time.

Then he remembers, 'Oh right, I'm doing this for Teana'.

With that, he takes another drink from the bottle in front of him.

He hates the way this stuff tastes, but it's cheap enough not to complain. He sets the bottle down under the table as he finishes it. He's supposed to be on duty, after all. Six bottles of liquor on the table would reflect rather poorly on his record if someone even slightly higher than his post were to walk in right now.

His hand pulls out another stick of gum, and shoves it in his mouth. He wrinkles the wrapper, and places it on the table.

"Hey. Gallardo." A deep, sarcastic voice grabs his attention.

Gallardo looks up at the stranger who seems to have approached his table. The dark-skinned man sits across from him, and looks about as happy as the detective does to see him.

"How have things been since the last time we met?"

"Well, that's none of your damn business." Gallardo responds, "I'm waitin' for someone, so could you find a hole to go die in?"

"You mean a partner?" The man leans back in his chair with a slight smirk.

"..What's it to you?"

"That's me." The guy hangs his coat over the back of the chair. "I'm the specialist Teana sent."

Gallardo spits his gum out into the wrapper, and then drops it into the bottle beneath his table.

"Thanks for takin' the time to come all the way out here, then." He pauses, "Almost didn't recognize you without the cuffs on, Lusso."

"Hey, I work for the Bureau now; they let me out months ago." The stranger chuckles.

"It's a pity they did, ya know?" Gallardo looks and feels dead inside. "So, do you still sell plastic artifacts like they're made of gold?"

"I'll be happy to report that I'm a hundred percent clean." He smirks, "So, do you still stuff your face full of gum to hide the liquor on your breath?"

"I don't do that."

"You're doing it right now."

Gallardo puts the piece of gum he was about to place in his mouth back into his coat pocket.

He adjusts his voice, "Listen, I know you're probably a little bitter about getting put away."

"You kidding me? Getting put away was the best thing that could have happened to me. You did me a favor, really."

"You can return it by pissing off." Gallardo stands up.

The stranger does the same, "Look, I know you don't like this, but you don't have a say in the matter. So, let's just put that behind us, and focus on the case. Partners?"

The man extends his hand to the detective.

The detective doesn't take it though, instead turning toward the exit.

"Yeah, partners." Gallardo mumbles, "I'm callin' it a night. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait, stop. You can't call it a night. Didn't Teana tell you earlier; the deal for that piece is going down tonight." The guy jumps in Gallardo's path.

"I told SWAT about it, they'll raid the place and lock it up good for us in the morning. I'm gettin' some sleep."

"No you fuckin' aren't." The dark-skinned man grabs Gallardo's shoulder, "What if he dumps it tonight?! Then we ain't getting shit, you hear me?! It'll be gone for good! There's already like a million buyers lining up for it, and SWAT won't be there for another what, few hours?!"

"Listen, go find someone who cares." Gallardo turns to face the man, "I've done my part, and it ain't my job to get in a shootout like I'm in one of those action flicks with the kids. If it bothers you, you go get shot at."

"I'm not allowed to carry a device, Detective." The man looks him in the eye.

"Great, then I guess you're leavin' it to the pros. Goodnight, Lusso."

With that, Gallardo turns to the exit and makes his way out of the bar.

"Well I'm still fuckin' going!" The man shouts as the detective pushes past the exit. Gallardo could care less what he does, really.

If he finds it? Good on him. If he dies? He gets a new partner.

For him it's win/win.

(JMP: Go on without me END)

(RTN: 70)

Darn. You've been thinking about where to put that one, too.

So here you are, sitting in the subway train as it moves to the other end of town. You think back to the briefing.

"Grab the artifact, get out." You say to yourself. "This should be easy. I'm not worried, am I?"

Yes, yes you are worried.

For one, this is the first solo mission you've ever been on. No sisters, no help, just Iota in your ear. If you fail? Well, then they'll call in extra help.

But for right now? You're alone.

You suddenly realize, this might be the first time you've been alive without someone to talk to. Well, without someone to talk to who wasn't blaring at you over a loudspeaker. You're still mad at that guy who was giving a presentation.

You don't know who he is, but you hope he got fired.

"(Gamma?)" Iota speaks through your ears, "(You're awfully quiet. Are you okay?)"

"(Y-yeah, just nervous, is all.)"

"(Thinking about the mission? Don't worry about it! You're way more capable of dealing with it than Echo or Foxtrot.)"

"(I don't know how capable I am, but I'm worried, that's all.)"

You really have no idea what you're worried ABOUT, but you're worried.

"(Well, want to do something to pass the time?)"

"(Yeah, like what?)"

Iota thinks for a second, "(Well, how about, um, counting to a million?)"

"(Okay.)"

10xe^6

"(Done.)"

"(Right, right. That wouldn't work with us, would it?)" Iota thinks for a second. "(Well, want to talk about something?)"

"(I do! I have a plant!)"

"(..a plant?)"

"(Yeah! Carrera recommended one. Apparently you can treat it just like a pet, and you don't have to clean up after it, feed it, just water it! It's just a plant!)"

"(Iota, don't you want something that's alive?)"

"(What? It's alive.)"

"(No, I mean alive, alive.)"

"(Hold on, you're saying a plant isn't living but a toaster is?)"

"(Sure, why not?)"

There's silence on the line.

"(Can we talk about something else?)" Iota sighs.

You're not sure what she means by that, but okay.

"(Fine, Do you like headpats?)"

"(Of course I do! Who doesn't?)"

You will keep that in mind.

"(How about me, then? Which would make me cooler? Magical power or physical power?)"

"(Definitely physical power!)" She is beaming over the line, "(Mages are a dime a dozen on Midchilda, but someone who can walk through concrete without magic assistance would be super cool!)"

"(Huh, okay. I'll keep that in mind)"

Okay, well that answers that, then.

"(So, what's your 'inherent skill', then? You already know mine, right?)"

"(I don't, what is it?)" Iota coughs over the line.

"(Oh, you didn't hear? It was that 'mania' thing, that's why I got real silent during the last fight!)" You feel a bit of pride in that, at least.

"(Really? Huh.)" Iota mumbles, "(Mine is called 'Diamond Eye', it's what lets me see the entire battlefield at once without being there.)"

"(That's neat!)"

"(I don't think so.)" You can't see it, but you can feel Iota crossing her arms, "(I would trade it for Foxtrot's skill in a second.)"

"(Oh, is it good?)"

"(For her, yeah.)"

Hmm, you need to ask Foxtrot about that one later.

There's a few more awkward minutes of silence on the train. You decide to at least address the thing that's bothering you.

"(Iota, does anything about this mission seem strange to you?)"

"(Most of the missions seem 'strange' to me.)" Iota admits, "(In fact, if you piece together all the missions and their objectives, it seems to become downright scary.)"

"(Scary?)"

"(Yeah, a lot of the briefings are just stories.)" Iota continues, "(Like, I've been in briefings before where we're told one thing, but the objectives are completely different. I don't know why. Sometimes they just outright lie on the briefing.)"

"(Is this mission like that?!)"

"(I don't know, we'll see when you get there, I guess.)"

You don't like the sound of that. You want to know right now!

Speaking of which, the doors just slid open and your stop just played over the speakers.

It's time to go.

"(Okay, well, let's get started.)"

"(Right!)" Iota responds happily over the intercom. "(You have a couple of options to get to the place. The streets are mostly empty, so you can travel that way, but if you want to take the alleys, that's up to you. Rooftops are another way if you want to evade any sentries along the way, but you might slow yourself down getting from rooftop to rooftop.)"

"(I can fly, Iota.)" You helpfully remind your sister about your latest upgrade.

"(That's great and all, but you don't want to fly there. I mean, big glowing wings your barrier jacket aren't exactly stealthy, right?)"

"(Why?!)"

"(Because, I just got that nice new flying form and I want to try it out!)"

"(Gamma..)" Iota huffs over the earpiece.

You don't care, though. You have a new skill to try out!

The street is as quiet as it should be for 3 A.M. in the morning. Nothing illuminating the subway station except for a single street light perched just above you.

Which means, you're ready!

You adjust the glasses on your face, just to make sure that they're not going to fall off when you're flying.

Your barrier jacket glows a fierce shade of pink as you activate the magic circuit that exists inside of it. With a lifting feeling, you find yourself propelled upward toward the sky!

This feels good.

Better than usual!

You float with grace above the few buildings on a direct beeline to your objective. A few structures down the way; you land on the rooftop and scout the next few blocks ahead.

"(Iota?)"

"(Yeah, yeah. It's fine to drop into the alley now.)"

"(Great!)"

Without a second thought, you hop off the edge of a three story building and land with a mighty SLAM on the pavement below.

"(Gamma! Stealth! Remember?)"

"(Right, right. Sorry.)"

"The fuck was that?" A guy comes out from the opposing alley, and looks around like he's heard a meteor come crashing down.

"(Shoot, someone heard that.)"

"(I'm on it.)" Iota responds.

There's a fizzing sound, before the only street light in the alley explodes in a shower of sparks!

"SON OF A BITCH!" The man exclaims in terror as he turns and flees down the alleyway!

"What was that?!" Another man outside your field of view walks back in from another alleyway.

"Fuckin' light exploded! I think I got glass in my eye."

"Oh shit man."

"Do something! Do something!"

They argue for a bit about what's to be done while you effortlessly walk past them; concealed by darkness.

That was easy, you didn't even have to hurt anyone that time.

You continue a few more blocks down. There's nothing to be seen in the darkness besides cats and trashcans.

That's when you hear it.

"-Like we need the business of a pig." There's a voice.

"Make this easy and show us your wire." There's a second voice.

"The fuck you two on?!" There's a third voice, even!

"(Iota, Sitrep.)"

"(There's.. two contacts ahead of you. They appear to be arguing. Two of them are using the same devices, and the third guy doesn't have a device.)"

"(So what is it?)"

"(Dunno, a mugging?)"

The voices continue arguing.

"Listen man, the boss says he knows you, and he knows you were put away for longer than you're worth."

"AND that you try to pawn off that fake trash, the boss is in enough shit already to deal with you around here."

"Boys, boys!" The man continues, "Listen, I don't do that! All the logia I've ever sold were verified 100% genuine! That's why I was put away, man. Really, would I come here without a device if I wasn't here on business? Come on, man. I got the deal of a century for you!"

"Nothing in his coat." One of the men takes a step back from him.

"Yeah I doubt he'd be here unless he had a wire. Take off your shoes." The second man turns toward the darker-skinned man, angrily.

"Listen man, I'm only here to seal the deal! Your boss, we go way back!"

"Take off your shoes." The second man commands once more.

From your current position; the two men accosting the third man have their back turned toward you.

"(Got it, that guy is.. Harold Lusso. Lost logia counterfeiter, turned relic thief, turned convict, turned appraiser. No clue why he's here. Maybe he's trying to get the artifact?)"

"Listen, I ain't sayin' it again." The thug takes his device out.

"(What do I do?)" You ask Iota.

"(I don't know, what should you do?)"

"(Okay?)"

Used: ★ Raptor Takedown

You immediately walk up behind one of the thugs and hit him so hard in the back that he falls over in a coughing fit. The other guy spins around just in time for you to hold your hand under his chin, pull his arm behind your back, and flip him nonchalantly onto the other guy.

"What the fuck?!" This 'Lusso' guy immediately jumps back, and rushes for cover behind a dumpster.

One of those guys apparently didn't get the hint, as he tries to stand up. You respond by immediately covering his face with your hand, and holding it there. There's some struggling as he attempts to breathe, but soon he passes out in the palm of your hand.

You let go, and let his unconscious body fall right next the other guy.

"(Are they okay?)"

"(Yeah, turn the first guy you punched over onto his face. He's trying to vomit.)"

"(What?)"

You do as Iota commands, pushing that one guy with your foot until he flips over onto his face. Iota responds over the link.

"(There! He's fine! ..Or will be after he's done vomiting.)"

"(..Are humans really that fragile?)"

"(Yup. That's why in the future, don't punch them full-force unless they're wearing a jacket.)"

"(Right, right. I'll keep that in mind.)"

"Excuse me?" The dark-skinned guy emerges from behind the dumpster, "If don't mind me askin', who the fuck are you?"

"(What do I say?)" Uh oh, you may have to talk your way out.

"(Nothing, just leave.)" Iota barks over the comms.

There's a brief moment of pause between you and him.

"(No! I didn't mean for you to say that, Gamma!)"

Oh.

OH!

"Yeah, but first, how'd you do that crazy martial arts shit?"

"Listen," you feign a dramatic sigh, "I'm Grace Emerald Foxtrot, the third. Esquire."

The man cocks his eyebrow.

"-Esquire, Ph.D" You adjust your voice, "Back alleys are unsafe for weak people this time of night. You should go somewhere else, got it?"

"Listen, first off, you roll this guy on his side, not his-"

"Nothing, just leave." You repeat one more time, and then walk back into the shadows of the alley.

The guy starts to follow, but then stops and kneels down over one of the guys. He takes something from his pocket, and then watches you as you disappear into the night.

"(How'd I do?)" You check with Iota over the comms link.

There's a slight pause as you round the corner of the alley back into the shadowed parts of the nightclub. It's pitch black back here, and your eyes immediately turn on their IR filters.

"(Actually.)" Iota pauses.

There's silence on the line as you freeze in the shadows, and listen for his footsteps.

"(-He's not following you. In fact, he's walking away. Good job Gamma.)"

"(..Really?)"

"(Yeah, I guess watching you take those guys out made him think twice about whatever it was he wanted to do.)"

"(Great!)" You exclaim over the link, "(So, what next?)"

"(I guess.. Uh.. Back here, there's a door that leads to the kitchen. You could slip in there, and just take out anyone who disagrees with you doing that. You could go back around to the front and go in the front door, but you may have to contend with bouncers. There's a route up top in what looks like a maintenance access to the roof. I think the roof is the least guarded, and the front door is the most guarded. Talking to the humans seems to have worked, so maybe you should just go and ask if you can be let in?)"

"(Maybe I should-)"

"(Gamma, Wait.)"

There's another pause on the line.

"(It's the police department, they got a call an hour ago about a warrant for this guy's arrest. They're finally suiting up to come deal with it, but it will take them some time. You may have to make a move right now.)"

"(Two sentries, they're watching the front of the building, so they may not hear you.)"

"(Got it.)"

You feel your wings sprout once more from your barrier jacket, and you slowly hover up to the roof.

Just before you get to the top; you stop and listen.

"-I don't get it, though. Can't he just give it away?" The sentries are talking to one another.

"Nah, he hands it to someone and they get caught, then they squeal on him." The other sentry replies.

"Fuck, so what are we here for?"

"We're only here until that retard takes it off his hands. After that, we're gone, we're a dot."

"Then where is he?"

"Give 'im a few. I still think he's gonna get cold feet."

"If he does, what do we do?"

"Not our problem! We got paid, he can kiss my ass."

You don't for them to finish their conversation. Slowly, you slink up and open the hatch that grants access to the inside of the building. It easily slides open as you slip inside, and shut it behind you. You manage to do it so quickly; that they don't even hear you shut the hatch and lock it behind you.

So as far as they're concerned; those guards are stuck outside.

You look around the nightclub to get a good feel of what exactly you've just gotten into. The background plays some almost insufferable music that sounds like a small animal being ran over a guitar. The middle of the nightclub is a stage with some unused band equipment sitting idle. The patrons of the bar, what few are here this early in the morning, are resting at the bar. The pit in the center is completely empty, and the majority of the people inside appear to be armed guards.

There's an overlooking seat with an important-looking guy watching over the bar. He seems to be busy talking on the cellphone, and you can see that he's been sweating profusely.

One of the guards leaves his side and runs downstairs, and the other one decides that he's going on a smoke break. Which just leaves him, alone.

You drop the wings and climb down the ladder. Somehow, the guards on the catwalk aren't even looking in your direction as you hit the metal grille with a light tap. You manage to sneak past the guard leaning on the railing, and the guy who has taken a smoke break in the overlooking stairwell. You slip by him rather easily, and find yourself on the same level as the guy in the important-looking chair.

"(How did you time that so well?)" Iota asks over your comms link.

"(I.. don't know.)" You blink. You feel as if there's some deity smiling on you as you continue through the club unopposed.

Gained new perk!: ★ Unnoticed

This guy is still busy talking on his phone. How should you approach this?

"Listen Mo'in, I can't eve keep dis thin longa than the houra, y'see?" What kind of weird accent is that? "The cops are onto us, and I'm pretty sure dat cop I had licked hadda woire. The fuck you gonna do to help?"

"(Hold on, I can tap his phone from here.)" Iota remarks over your earpiece. "(Hang out for a second.)"

"(Uhh, sure.)" You blink, "(Will do.)"

Really? Is this what the mission is going to come down to? Standing behind some guy until he notices that you're standing there?

Whatever.

"-ot to purchasing it until I know the deal is sealed." The voice on the other side of the line is suddenly extremely clear in your mind. "The doctor is on loan for the next week. You must get it to us by tonight." It appears that the voice is being obscured by some kind of filter. It doesn't sound anything like the voice you heard on the payphone yesterday. This one sounds.. much older than that one.

"Howda fuck yo expectin' me te dew dat?!" The guy is outright screaming, now. "Ye got me trappd in here wit wankers who couldn't find ass from a hole in the ground. Yo got the daymn police sending a pattywagon in less dan what, twenty minutes?"

"Five." The voice responds. "You have five minutes before they arrive. If you wish to deliver it to me as promised. You must flee, right, now."

"FOUCK YOSELF!" He stands up, and outright screeches into the phone. "FOUCK YOU, FOUCK YO COMOPANY, FOUCK THE DEAL. WE HAD ONE AND OUNLY ONE AGREEMENT- GET DIS THIONG OFF MY HANDS AND YEOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT."

"We had no such agreement. You agreed to deliver it to me, and your demands were met in full. The one who is being truant on your debt is you."

"YO I'M HOALDIN' ALL THE CARDS HEEA." He stands up, and waves around a black reinforced case. "I HAOVE EXACTLY WHAT YEW WANT, AND AYE CAN RAT YOU OUT WITH THIS AS MY INSURANCE. YOU WANT THIS SHIT SO BAD? COME AN' GET IT YA WANKA! YOU DON'T SCARE ME! INNA FEW MINUTES I'LL BE IN WITNESS PROTECTION AND YOU'LL BE OFFA DA PLANET RUNNIN FER YO LOIFE!"

He immediately throws it behind him, and it lands on the couch he was just sitting in.

"(..Gamma.)"

"(Hmm?)"

"(Grab the suitcase.)"

You gently reach down, and effortlessly grab the case he was holding.

"(Mission complete. Exfiltrate at your convenience.)" Iota claps, slowly.

"(I can't believe this, Are you serious?)" You feel dumbstruck.

"(Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if you started taking more of Foxtrot's missions from here on out. That was masterfully done.)"

"(But I didn't do anything!)"

The voice on the phone continues, "We could have done it your way, you could have had a small fortune to settle on another planet on, but I'm afraid we must terminate our deal."

"PISS OFF." The guy screams once more, "YE CAN TERMINATE MY DICK YOU SON OF A BITCH! FUCK YOO GONNA DO? YEAH, COME AND DO SOMETHIN'."

"I'll have you know our presence is everywhere."

"MY DICK WAS EVERYWHERE IN YO MUM!" The guy is jumping up and down, now, "EVERYWHERE, IN EVERY HOLE."

He smiles, and then talks in a more calm demeanor.

"-How 'bout this lad? aye'm gonna take this little shiny outta the case, and crush it 'neath my foot! Hah! How'ya feel 'bout that one?!"

"I'm serious when I say that we are everywhere." The phone gets more somber in tone.

"Ya! Everywhere is also where yer little stone is gonna be in about five minutes, too!"

He pauses just as the phone goes silent. The next few words cause him to tremble slightly.

"Look.

Behind.

You."

The phone slips from his hand, and clatters on the wooden floor. He slowly turns his head to face you.

First his eye gets a glimpse of you.

Then his other eye.

Then, there's a strange twitch in his mouth.

You continue to stare at him, wordless.

"Haahhh-" Is all he manages to gargle before he falls face-first under the influence of gravity into his own coffee table. The glass surface cracks beneath the impact of his forehead and causes a small streak of blood on the side.

The phone remains silent, except for one sound that slowly grows in intensity the longer you listen.

"Mm. Hah, heh heh, hah. Mmhm. Hah."

There's a loud beep as the phone cuts out and leaves a shower of static in the voice's place.

You look at the guy on the ground, and suddenly realize that he may be hurt.

"(Iota, is he okay?)"

"(Yes, this is a fear response from humans, it's called 'fainting'. I guess he really didn't expect you to be there. Other than that, vitals are fine, but heartrate is through the roof.)"

"(Should I worry?)"

"(No, Gamma, you see:)"

There's a commotion from the first floor.

"(-The cops are here. The first car just pulled up outside, and the guards have engaged them.)"

"(What about the phone?)"

"(Ignore it, I couldn't trace the call. Get out of there, now!)"

You're interrupted by a guard dashing down the stairwell. He has a gun in his hand, and pays you no mind as he rushes toward the entrance to the club.

"(-I think the guards have bigger things on their minds.)"

You reach the catwalk, and make your way over to the ladder. Quickly, you dash up to the roof, and throw open the hatch.

The two guards up top are in a pitched magic fight with the cops down on the street below. One of them turns their head to briefly acknowledge you climbing up onto the roof, but is immediately dragged back into the fight by the sound of tiny little seekers impacting his magic shield. He throws a beam downward toward the street, and continues his assault with the foes down below.

You realize this is a good time to escape with the artifact, and then leap from the roof to the next roof.

There's a thud as you drop back to the alleys and start making your way through the patchwork maze of buildings. You emerge almost near where you were inserted just in time to watch the same SWAT bus from yesterday scream by with its sirens blaring and flashing.

"(Okay, so-)" Iota continues over the earpiece. "(Juliett is having problems with her mission, and in fact she may have to abort. So she's going to be delayed for just a little bit longer than you are. Actually, everyone is, you finished first before everyone.)"

"(Oh.)" You blink. "(So wait, that's it? Are you serious?)"

"(What do you want me to say? You did that perfectly, and finished fifteen minutes early.)" Iota responds, "(That's not a bad thing to be! I thought you were really cool how they just.. didn't even notice you. It was like you were invisible. Even moreso than Foxtrot and she can turn invisible!)"

"(Wait.)"

Something just struck you as strange.

"(I didn't fight anyone!)"

"(..No, you didn't. And?)"

"(But-! I thought I was deployed to fight people?)"

"(Does that make you sad?)"

"(Well.. a little. Feels like I stole Foxtrot's thunder, really)."

"(If it makes you feel better. You can go beat up hobos in the alley if you- wait, hold on.)"

Iota pauses.

"(I'm being told that you shouldn't do that.)"

"(Apparently there's an argument to be made that brutalizing random people is both unsafe and also unhealthy behavior.)"

"(Really?)"

"(Yes, it's considered poor behavior to bully useless people.)"

Oh.

"(..Is that the correct term?)"

"(I.. believe so. They're humans and they have no use. Therefore, useless people.)"

"(Huh, okay.)"

You'll remember that.

"(But what should I do? Should I go help Juliett?)"

"(Well wait to see if she's going to scrap the mission or not. If so, then yes, go help.)"

"(Oh! What happened to that guy I met? The one in the alley?)"

"(..I don't know. Do you really want to go back to check on him?)"

"(Well, I'll go just see if he's around.)

"(I wouldn't worry about him. You told him to leave, so why would he stay around?)" Iota makes a point, but you're still curious.

"(I'll just go look real fast.)" You walk back down the street to see if you can see anything back at the club.

Of course, there are the cop cars and the SWAT van sitting outside. Lots of sirens and flashing lights that you rather not get involved in. You decide not to get too close, and instead turn back around to-

"There you are." A familiar voice grabs your attention. You turn to see the same guy leaning against the alleyway. "Hey, I didn't get to thank you for earlier."

"Oh no, it's fine." You notice him prop himself up on the edge of the wall, "Also, uh, are you hurt?"

"Yeah, I got kinda caught up in the crossfire, earlier." He shows his hand, which has been burned slightly.

"..Are you related to the person in the club?" You ask a strange question.

"Pfft, god no." He takes out a cigarette, and lights it with the tip of his finger. "Just someone tryin' to keep his head above water. By the way, did you ever get in the club?"

"..No, can't say I did." You're a terrible liar, but maybe this will trick him for the time being.

"Figures." He takes a puff of his cigarette. "Didn't see anyone fleeing the club, did you?"

"I.. didn't stay around long enough to see that."

"Yeah." He swears under his breath. "Well, thanks for your help, Grace. Listen, that guy inside had something important. I'm gonna be working with the PD for a little bit, but I'll be around. If you hear anythin' about it or just need a little help; give me a call."

He hands you a business card with his name on it. Harold Lusso. There's another coded number for a phone on the front.

"Y-yeah, thanks." You're not sure what to say.

"No problem. I'm an appraiser for lost logia, but I have some contacts around town who could get you anything you need. Thanks for saving my ass." He pats your shoulder, and then slowly walks toward the mass of police cars in the distance.

"Yeah, you too." You're not really sure what to say, but that's the first thing that comes to mind.

"(Huh, he gave you his phone number.)" Iota seems confused, "(Also Echo is laughing for some reason.)"

"(..Why?)"

"(Something about getting numbers from boys.)"

"(What does that mean?)"

"(I don't know.)"

Huh.

"(Hey, Juliett just called the mission quits. Try to get to the subway so you can exfiltrate with her.)"

"(Got it.)"

"(Oh..)"

You stop, "(What?)"

"(Uh, Juliett just mentioned something that she didn't mention before. Do you have your staff?)"

"(..Yeah?)"

"(She's being chased, apparently by really angry humans with staves. Can you go deal with that?)"

"(Yeah, sure.)"

You're acting disinterested about hearing that last part.

-But there's a part inside of you which is overflowing with glee.

Especially since you can hear the devices firing off in the distance.

This is a mission.

Treat it like a mission.

You feel the gauntlet on your arm shudder as you charge it up. A part of you wants to scream "RAWR" as loudly as you can, and start bashing people until these feelings go away.

No, you have to keep calm. After all, what matters is the mission. Focus on the mission.

You immediately holster the artifact's case on your side. You secure it so it won't move, and then take to action.

With a sprint, you're off to save Juliett.

"(Iota! What's the sitrep?!)"

"(Juliett is taking refuge in the subway well. Two.. no, three are closing in on her.)"

Three? That's it?

"(I'll deal with it!)" You grab the staff you're 'borrowing' from your coat, and flick it open with the push of a button. The shield manifests itself on your arm, and you get ready for war!

There's a shot not too far away from you, but you're certain he's not aware that you're coming.

There he is! He took up a sniper position on a rooftop. You easily hop up behind him, grab him around the waist, and SLAM him as hard as you can against the rooftop! His jacket disintegrates, and he falls unconscious.

One.

You decide this isn't a bad sniping spot after all, and charge up a burst of your own. You dive down from the rooftop and land between two meatbags who are searching around for you. You give them exactly what they're looking for: two blasts of magic straight to the gut. One of them immediately falls over, but the other simply discards his staff and goes in for a close-range magic blast!

His hand slips as your hand wraps around his arm. There's a pop as you hit him so hard in the stomach that he slumps over, and falls on the ground.

Two, three.

BzzzZZZZZT-

POW!

You narrowly put your shield up in time to block a massive orange buster beam that would have felt none-too-pleasant if it were to hit!

"(There's four of them.)"

"(Five, and more are on the way. Get out of there, Gamma.)"

A small, light-blue ball lands near the human's foot. She looks down, lets out a yelp, and is then thrown quite a ways off as a massive explosion knocks her straight off her feet!

"(Get to the subway, Gamma!)"

You expend a cartridge, and fire a barrage of seekers right behind you to throw off any pursuers. Juliett is waiting in the subway well, and seems to be out-of-breath (breath? Does she breathe?)

You grab her by the shoulder and drag her down the subway tunnel.

Ka-Klack!

BAM!

Another cartridge bursts from your staff, and another wave of magic is thrown up the subway stairs! One of the humans chasing you is caught up in the blast, and falls over as the wave of magic energy blasts off his barrier jacket!

The subway doors open automatically as you both approach. They snap shut just as you board, and the subway begins speeding off at faster-than-usual speed just as you manage to drag Juliett aboard.

You check the artifact and, yep. It's still there.

"(Gamma! Juliett! Are you okay?)" Iota pleads over the line, "(You got real silent again, is everything okay?)"

"(Everything's fine.)" You huff, "(Just.. was concentrating, that's all.)"

That's all, and nothing else.

"T-thanks." Juliett sits leaned against the wall, "Sis, I.. didn't know you cared."

"I can't tell if you're being serious." You pull her up, "Why were the useless meatbags angry, anyway?!"

"Oh, uh." Juliett is still composing herself. "I sort of had a scouting and support mission, and I.. sort of used an explosive on a wall."

"And? How did you get so many of them on you?" You blink.

"It's more like instead of 'an' explosive, it was lots; and by 'wall' I mean 'a car', and by 'scouting mission' I meant 'recon mission'." Juliett looks sheepish, "..Sorry."

You sigh. Does this mean you'll soon be taking over her missions, too?

(70: END)

Exploration bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module

Objective bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module

Completion bonus! Gained 1 Cyber Module

Perfect mission! Gained 1 Cyber Module

Unspent Cyber Modules: 5.

Iota gives you those comforting words as she hangs up the connection. Which is just as well, because all that's left to do is wait until the subway gets back to base. The rickety train travels at an abnormal speed as it closes in on the place you call 'home'. Or the closest place in the world that you know to call 'home'. It doesn't feel quite right to call Caledfwlch Techniques' laboratories 'home', but they're all you have. It feels too sterile to call it that, sometimes. Maybe someday you can have a real one.

Juliett is sitting next to you, and she's nervously braiding her blonde hair as you both wait. The short summary from Iota didn't tame her fears any about failing her mission. She's expecting the chewing-out of a lifetime when she gets back to base.

On the other hand; Iota claims that the praise for you was phenomenal. Everyone was ecstatic about the way you handled that mission, and some are even saying that the "higher ups" are thinking that they may be taking a special interest in you and your missions from here on out. You don't know who these 'higher ups' are, so you're not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Taking a 'special interest' in you could mean anything from giving you a shiny new uniform to giving you everyone's missions. You don't want to make your sisters feel useless, especially with all the negative feelings they've been experiencing lately.

Even now, Juliett looks sullen. The train continues its breakneck pace back to Caledfwlch's laboratories. It's traveling so fast at this point that you can hear the frame of the carriage itself rattle and pop. You're guessing that it's been commanded to return extra fast back to base to escape the horde of angry humans that Juliett attracted when she aborted her mission. It might reflect poorly on her record if a bunch of policemen and soldiers follow her back to base; no matter how small the accident was that caused it.

The train dings as it approaches your stop, and it starts to slow down. Juliett doesn't say anything, but her face tells enough to clue you in on how nervous she's feeling. You can only imagine that she's not looking forward to this debriefing. In the grand scheme of things, that would mean recent mission failures include her, and Foxtrot. Combine this with Echo and Iota feeling down earlier, and that would mean everyone has been depressed about these missions except for you. In fact, your missions have been the only thing that has been consistently successful for the last three or four days that you've been alive.

You feel your hand reach into your coat pocket and grab Scarlet as the train comes to a complete stop. You somewhat expect the doors to open and be left face-to-face with an army of angry humans. The door hums as it slowly slides open. Thankfully, there are no policemen or soldiers waiting here for you to return.

"C'mon, Juliett."

"Gamma, um. Can you go in ahead of me? I want the first thing that they see to be you instead of me."

"They can't be that mad." You pat your sister on the shoulder. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault, really."

It was totally her fault, but you're not going to outright tell her that.

You walk up the subway access, and into the lobby of Caledfwlch Techniques. As usual, they have cleared out the lobby for your approach. Only people standing here are bored looking security guards- and Captain Lancer!

The same guy who gave you the briefing is now giving you a bright, beaming smile as you enter the building.

"Welcome back." It's odd to see him smiling, even. "Needless to say, your mission was a success! I think I speak for the entire team when I say that we are extremely proud of your performance today, Gamma. Keep this up, and you can expect to be in a leadership role before too long."

"Thanks.." You're not sure what to say, "I didn't really do anything, though. I think I just got really lucky that time."

"As I've said before: don't sell yourself short, Gamma. Luck favors the skilled and disciplined. Your tactical prowess is quickly becoming your greatest asset; more-so than any device. Could I see the artifact?"

"Thanks, I guess." You hand him the reinforced case.

"Go and get some rest, Gamma. There's no debriefing tonight, as the team has been pulled into an important task. Foxtrot and Echo have been deployed for an emergency mission, and Iota is giving them battlefield guidance. I also have a meeting with Dr. Carrera in a few minutes, and I would prefer if you didn't wander around the laboratories tonight while a mission is occurring. So I would appreciate if you retired to the chargers for the night. We can discuss your excellent performance tomorrow when we go over the mission summary."

"An emergency?" You immediately take away the most important part of his statement. "What kind of emergency?"

"You can find out from your sister units when they return. In the meantime, you should recharge."

"Hey, wait." Juliett finally speaks up after being ignored all this time. "What about me? Am I getting a debriefing?"

"We'll discuss it later, Juliett. I will say that tonight was a.. strategic error and not a tactical one. It wouldn't be fair to blame you for what happened. You're both dismissed."

With that, he takes his suitcase and walks straight past the metal detector. It beeps for a second as a security guard disarms it.

"See? You were worried over nothing!" You turn to Juliett.

"Nah, that's just his code for 'I don't have time now but I'll chew you out later'." She still looks sullen, "I don't want to think about it much anymore, though. Wanna hit the washers together?"

Juliett sighs, "I only did it that one time to make you uncomfortable. It was-"

"A joke, right." You finish her sentence. "Point still stands."

"Fine, fiiine." Juliett huffs, "You're so sensitive, but fine!"

You walk through the detector together with Juliett, and the guard dutifully resets it behind you.

"I don't see how it's sensitive to not want to be grabbed in the shower." You frown.

"Geez, I do it one time and now that's all you're going to think about, is it?" Juliett stretches her arms behind her head. "I do it to everyone!"

"That doesn't make it better!"

"You just take things so personally." She's pretending to be insulted, but you can see her suppressing a slight smirk.

You open the door, and step inside of the washers. Juliett is close behind, and she already dropped her barrier jacket and is tearing off her clothes before the door even slides shut behind her.

Ugh, here's the part you hate the most.

Your barrier jacket falls, and you start to undo your clothes. Juliett is already completely naked by the time you've taken your shirt off.

"Sis." You nervously take off your skirt, and then feel dread at taking off the last piece of clothing covering you, "Aren't you bothered by doing that?"

"Nope!" She responds curtly, "It only bothers you if you let it!"

She enters a shower, and turns a faucet without even acknowledging you. With her back turned; you feel a bit more comfortable pulling your panties down to your feet.

You enter into one of the booths, and try to recall how to operate the shower. You turn this thing.. No, that's not it. Oh! You have to pull this, and then-

SPLASH!

"Seriously?!" You shout, "It just went off right in my face a second time!"

"Don't look at the shower-head next time, then it won't splash you in the face!"

"How else am I supposed to operate it?"

"Just look away and set the lever! You don't have to look right at it!"

You suppose the damage is done at this rate. You grab some of the blue solution, and start rubbing it on your bare skin.

Of course, you coming to the washers may have been a waste. You're perfectly clean from your mission. The only dirt on you is a little bit of ash from that orange blast you took.

Who was that, anyway? She basically unloaded a cannon on you with a snap-shot, and was fast enough to do it without you noticing. If it weren't for that shield you got, then she probably would have ripped your barrier jacket.

"So, how does it feel to be the star student, Gamma?" Juliett's sadness appears to have melted away in the shower, "It must be nice, having everyone praise you and all."

"Well, not really." You pout, "I don't mind being complimented, but I worry that I'll be taking away from Foxtrot or even you next time. She was really sad about earlier."

"Don't be." Juliett rubs the blue stuff in her hair, "Foxtrot has had a couple of problems on some missions she's been on. I've had to bail her out, too."

"Really? What happened?"

"She got caught one mission, and instead of shooting her way out; she instead just decided to surrender." Juliett giggles, "Can you believe that?! She surrendered to a bunch of cops!"

"..Then what happened?"

"Well, we were together at the time, so I used a.. well. a few.. okay, a LOT of barrage shells to distract the humans, and just went and grabbed her away from them! It was simple, and.. to tell you the truth.. she was holding back. Something about her made her not want to fight the last couple of missions. Thankfully-"

Oh, oh no. No. no. no. NO.

"-She has such a great sister like yourself to look after her, Thank you Gamma."

"..Please back up just an inch." You state to Juliett, who has now wrapped her arms behind you in a hug.

"Oh! Sorry, but still. I'm glad we have you! I feel a lot safer knowing that you'll be with us, now."

Juliett exits your shower, and then goes to dry herself off. You decide that you're already as clean as you can be, and you turn off the shower.

She turns around, and tosses you a dry towel.

"I'm hitting the charger for the night. Where are you going?"