Over the park.
"What the hell are you doing, Chou!? Stop at once!" The incredibly enraged voice of the Captain rang out from behind the girl.
She didn't have much time to respond or acknowledge her superior officer's command though, as said officer had somehow managed to get up just behind Chou, grab the collar of her bodysuit and then performing a baseball-like pitch - with the girl in hand - she hurled Chou back and away from the spirit. While she didn't look physically all that different, the Captain was staring daggers at her subordinate, eyes that were saying that if she didn't do as she was told, she'd be thrown into the concrete road below next time.
"Are you a complete idiot? Shooting at and attacking someone who using your own comrade as a shield!?" The captainn boomed angrily, before turning around to face the Spirit. "Fine then, creature. We'll not attack you -" She raised her hand, and several of the AST girls flew up and encircled Reaper, keeping a certain distance from her and aiming their weapons at her steadily. "- as long as you release that girl. Now."
Reaper may have had a hostage, but she was now completely surrounded, and with further AST groups - from further away barracks - on their way to lend a hand, it was only a matter of time before she would become both completely surrounnded and have no where to run, as every path would be covered by someone with a lead-spitting tool.Yes, if she wanted to escape, now was probably the best time to do so...
... But just then...
"FIRE!"
The voice of a man, coming from below, rang out and shattered the stalemate silence. The Captain of the AST looked down to see who or what was going on, and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw a pair of rockets zipping straight towards her! With just the barest of movement, she managed to avoid the rockets narrowly, seeing them fly just past her and up a bit, before exploding in a fiery cloud. Next thing she knew, she was hearing the smattering of machine guns, and seeing that the bullets were not coming from her own soldiers, but from below! Now that the missiles had been dodged, she quickly swung her head to see what the hell was happening, and it wasn't good.
Several people had emerged from the subterranean buildings, wielding weapons of various sizes and types, though most of them were assault weapons. They were dressed in a strange, black and green uniform - with a scarlet staircase-symbol or emblemembroided on their shoulders and left chest. And for whatever reason, they were attacking the AST!! Not just the captain, but the other girls who had surrounded Reaper were now also under attack, being forced to break their formation in order to dodge the swarms and hails of bullets from the mysterious ground-forces.
"The hell is this?" The captain hissed. "Everyone! Regroup! Get out of range of those guns, then open fire on the guys shooting us from below!"
"But Captain, what about Naomi...!?"
"We have to make sure we aren't shot down before we can save her, now move it!"
Tjhe airborne combat mages began to regroup and reposition, abandoning their target, Reaper, as well as their captured companion. Several of them shouted back to the red-headed girl that they would come back and get her safely home though. While that was going on though, the man who had shouted earlier, on the ground, called for the Reaper.
"There! You're free! Hurry, Spirit-sama! Take this chance and get to safety, we can handle this bunch!"
Onboard the Ratatoskr Command Ship.
Mayumi and Suichiro had been teleported aboard their ship. They were now standing on the bridge, together with the other crew and a furious Kasumi. Her eyebrows were twitching and angry veins bulged from her temple. She was staring at the two, not saying anthing for a while, looking them over to make sure they weren't hurt. When the commander had made sure that they weren't injured, the long overdue scolding commenced.
"I told you to get away before the AST got there, didn't I?" She asked, not a real question of course. "You realise that some of them may have seen your faces now, right? They'll have that recorded, on footage, and will most likely spend the next few days trying to look for you, since they saw you talking to the Spirit." She was furious. It was quite obvious.
"Now, now, Commander!." One of the cremen chimed in, trying to diffuse the situation and soften the blows. "They were jumped by a gang of punks, it couldn't really be help-"
"Not be helped!? Of course it could have been helped! And even if that was the main problem, there's still no excuse for disobeying my orders!" She shifted her gaze to Mayumi. "I specifically told you to let Suichiro handle the Spirit, didn't I? I told you to back him up if he needed it. Tell me, Mayumi, did it look like Suichiro needed your help when he was talking the Spirit out of killing you both and calming her down? Did you think it was a good idea to suddenly have a change of face and blurt out what you did to an unpredictable and mentally unstable Spirit?" Again, she wasn't really asking. She took a breath, sighed heabily and rubbed the side of her in annoyance.
"You're both relievedf from duty for the next few days." She said this abruptly. "We don't know for sure if the AST will come looking for you, but chances are they will. You'll keep your heads down and stay out of trouble. That means no spirit-hunting, no spirit contact and no spirit-sealing for either of you. Keep yourselves out of trouble and lay low. I'll contact you when we need you. That's all."
The commander turned on her heels and walked back to her captain's seat, sitting down and brining up a monitor, going over information and date that was displayed. The other crew, after patting Mayumi and Suichi on the back - telling them they did a good job and thanking them for their work, and so on and so forth - slowly milled about and returned to their stations as well. The only person left behind with the pair was Chtiose, a warrant officer on the ship.
"Wow... She really chewed you guys out, huh?" The young girl said, making a face and wrinkling her nose. Chitose was what you would call the ship's gopher. She ran errans and did menial tasks and things that the rest of the crew either didn't have time to do, or didn't want to do. She was a sort of handyman or jill-of-alll-traes onboard, doing whatever needed to be done, from getting the other cremates coffee to entering boring logs and data into archives and storage.
She was a sweet girl though, well-liked by everyone and considered very trustworthy and loyal. She was kind and diligent, hard-working and never complained, as well as cheerful and considerate. Her staying behind tot alk to the two field-agents wasn't a surprise really, it was sort of expected of her to take care of them now, after all.
"Let's go to the canteen. I bet you don't wanna stand around here, right? Let's sit down and relax for a bit, okay?" She turned to look at them, her bright smile and clasped-together hands making it clear she really wanted to do just this.
At the shelter, bench.
The ma in the suit glanced over at the girl who had just sat down and talked to him. He cchuckled in amusment and began to neatly fold the newspaper he had been reading. Once it was neatly folded and put down on the bench, he turned his head and smiled at the girl. It was a friendly smile, the kind a gentle older brother would give his younger sister, not unpleasant in any way. The business man looked to be in his mid to late twenties, and he gave the girl a quick look-over before talking.
"Do I look that much out of place? Haha." He laughed good-naturedly. "I'm not lost though, no. I'm very familiar with this area, it's where I gre up after all." He smiled as he talked. "Though, it's true I don't live here any longer, I was just on a little business trip to one of my local offices, when the Spacequake alarms suddenly went off and I, like everoyne else, had to go to the nearest shelter. So here I am." He explained casually, like it was no big deal or trouble at all.
"Now, if you don't mind me asking." He continued. "Just why is such a pretty little lady approaching a complete stranger like me, hmm? I could've been someone dangerous, you know." He raised an eyebrow and looked at her inquisitively. "Cute girls can get into all kinds of trouble if you speak to the wrong guys." He warned sheepishly, joking of course.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the shelter.
"Hey, hey, onee-chan!" A little girl, probably the age of six or eight, was tugging on the headphone-wearing spirit's sleeve. "Why've you got those?" The girl pointed at aforementioned headphones. "Are they so you don't hafta listen to the alarms? You scared of those? Don't worry! Mommy says that as long as we're down here, the bad things can't hurt us!" SHe tried to, for whatever reason, reassure the older girl that they were safe. "Oh, I know!" She suddenly added, looking bright-eyed as only a small child can.
Reaching into the small, red school backpack she was carrying around, she pulled forth a small, colorful container. Holding out to the spirit, along with a plastic sppon, she grinmned happily as she announced. "You want some pudding? I always feel better when I eat something sweet! It'll turn that frown upside down in no time!" .... Apparently, the older girl's sour look had given this young girl the impression that she was scared ad troubled, and she was now trying to help her...
