The waiting silence hadn't been bad, though it had been rather brief in the end. It was perhaps inevitable that some kind of questioning would occur after the fiasco at the mansion, though that was perhaps being more harsh than it deserved. Or wanting to be less harsh than it deserved. She felt embarrassed at having been so useless in the latter half of the mission, and pinned down by a monster during the first. At the same time, she and at least some of the others were not exactly veteran agents. New, fresh, trained but not proven. Something they would need to overcome to enough of an extent to survive in the future it seemed. Still, the fact the training room had some damage and visible upgrades felt like a sort of glimmer of hope for improving her own skills at the very least.

Still, as her coworker piped up first it was not hard to stand in silent agreement on Lilliah's part. Took the words out of her own mouth for the most part, at least in hitting the major points. Even so, she did need to throw in her carefully weighted two cents worth at the very least.

"I concur with Samuel on that major point. Cohesion is something we seem to lack, decisively but at least not entirely so I believe. Learning and at least training to make use of our strengths and capabilities in cohesive ways would seem paramount, at least in my own opinion, to improving operation performance in the field for the future for us. At least within reason. We cannot be perfectly prepared for the unexpected.

We did not adapt to being separated by the enemy in the first half of the mission, much less have a response plan of any basic sort after entry, and in the latter half were disjointed and not cohesive in our response due to individual actions in kicking off combat with the other side out of the blue. Then there was the ice-using Freelancer who was able to pull of a basic tactic to get behind the 'front lines' and launch and surprise assault on us, without any kind of idea for how to respond in the rear due to the situation already being disorganized."

After speaking, the simian-like esper took a brief breath before continuing on in the most professional manner she could muster.

"Yet outside of general group cohesiveness, some actions we have made individually speak to other things that any team-building work and training would need to address for better or worse. I'll use just a few potential examples from the past two missions to try to illustrate what I mean:

Valkyrie's willingness to blindly focus on a target of her aggression, which left her blind to an enemy attack from across the street in the police station mission, and leaping into action with Breach without so much as half the team on-board with what was going on was harmful to our efforts in the latter half of this last mission.

Jacqueline's recklessness in general, and sudden desire to risk the use of blood magic despite the agreement with the blood mage in this last mission.

There was...also my own generally reckless attempt to assist Breacher in our defense in pinch in the first half of the mission, which further divided us and left myself generally incapacitated until that battle suddenly ended. Not to mention my slowness to act at first.

Then there was Breacher herself, kicking off our engagement with Maverick forces with barely Valkyrie's support without a proper plan or even frankly an attempt to recover helped in leaving us scrambling and disjointed and unable to gather ourselves cohesively in turn.

We can't change who people are, but if we are to work better as a team we need to at least be able to recognize what impulses and risks we each bring to the table as well. If nothing else so we can have some measure of self-awareness in critical situations, whether we can improve things or not in some major way at such times."



@BrokenPromise@FamishedPants

@BrokenPromise

Entering the van, a revelation of such prominence presented itself that only a braindead idiot wouldn't connect the dots. Valkyrie frowned deeply at the crate, finally, bingo; but not that she had any doubts in the first place. The gun-toting esper was about to examine the incriminating crate when she noticed a certain Japanese girl in a hurry, Aria...? the brunette cocked an eyebrow, wondering what's up with her, maybe she was late for something, but well, none of her business, she had a bigger issue to worry about, she could just tell Aria about her findings later. However, even her second try at examining the crate was again interrupted by a high-pitched shout. Urgh... what was it now?

Still, Silmeria didn't regret looking up as a scene unfolded before her. A kidnapping attempt? Classic... oh, wait a minute; the sniper didn't have time to carefully examine who the victim was, but she noticed the glowing thing held between her fingers, between that and the fact that she was being chased by a mafioso... Is that... a grimoire? Though there was no chance for the girl to be answering questions as things stood, so Valkyrie just figured that she'd create that chance herself.

Cracking her neck once, the sniper esper aimed as supernatural orange sparks surged through her muscles and nerves. Nigh-instantly, her grimoire-enhanced body was further augmented by Hermod the Swift's power as she veritably aim-botted the grease-haired man and unleashed three successive sabots, all aimed at his knees. Let's see him try running now after he's nico-nico-kneecapped.

Furthermore, just in case it mattered to the ever-observant Grand Magistrate, Valkyrie's normal shots were practically silent, on par with Hollywood silencers as the railgun only emitted short sparks - akin to a severed active cable - each time it fired.

---

_{@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants}

Fritzi nodded along with their observations while jotting something down on her “notepad.”

”Unit cohesion is it.” She smiled while drumming a stylus against her chin. Though she did look at Lilliah when she delivered her next part. ”Most of your examples of ‘recklessness’ just stem from agents acting on their own impulses.” Her smile disappeared. ”But while Breacher’s choice to press against the Freelancers was ultimately the wrong thing to do, It was justified. You’re dealing with freelancers who value money so much they are willing to work alongside murderers and kidnappers. They could have routed and killed you all if you did nothing. Breacher did have her issues during that operation, but that wasn’t one of them. Though maybe I’m just hesitant to criticize her because out of everyone, she scores the highest in cohesion. Not by much, mind you, and certainly not high enough to avoid having this conversation later.”

Fritzi guided the agents deeper into the test course. While they walked, the holographic generators kicked on and their surroundings changed. The white floors became gray tiles, broken obstacles turned into giant stones with roughly the same shape, And the walls sported rows and rows of stone frames. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon, painting the sky in hues of purple. They were in a colosseum, frozen in the first minutes of sunrise.

”Speaking of freelancers, I commissioned one to spar with you today to help you learn cohesion. It’s full contact sparring, so you can get as rough as you like, but make sure to keep your defenses up.”

Not long after that, a metal gauntlet gripped one of the giant stones and shoved it out of the way. It bounced end over end across the arena floor. This revealed a gritty looking knight. His armor was covered in scratches, his sword crooked from countless battles with durable foes. His armor was scratched all over, and his cape was tattered and faded by long fights under the sun. His blade and armor were stained with blood, likely that of his adversaries. His helmet had become misshapen after numerous close calls. This was clearly a veteran of combat.

And his armor was colored pastel pink.

“Alright, I know you guys wanna fight me, but leave MAGICAL DREAM PRINCESS out of this!” The knight’s voice boomed before he cast his arm towards the tiny princess behind himself. She too wore a lot of pink, and even had pink hair. She was sitting behind the knight, lightly sobbing.

“Pwink Pwowndah! Dwont get huwurt! UwU” She handed the knight his shield, which unlike the rest of his armor, was in pristine condition. There wasn’t a single blemish on his shield, which had an image of the princess herself on its face. It was shiny and refracted the light like the paint job on a new convertible. “Pink Pounder” held the shield with pride.

After hearing Gale’s rather brief and exceedingly vague description of her abilities, Ashley couldn’t keep from frowning in slight puzzlement. Tactical loadout? she repeated to herself. Aren’t all espers geared for combat in at least some aspect? The Maiden was far more forthcoming, even going so far as to conjure twin ice pendents for her teammates’ use.

“Thank you very much!” Ashley told the elegant young woman as she took the offered pendant, clearly surprised by her generosity. “I can see how these might really come in handy,” she added with an approving smile. “Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, but my Genre’s element is Light, so I can prevent a target from employing a melody to conceal themself, as well as defend against poisons, curses, and similar effects. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to any movement manipulation abilities, but I should be able to protect at least one of you from the brunt of Sofron’s initial attack. It will take some time for me to charge the melody up in order for it to hopefully be strong enough to match the power you say Sofron possesses, so please let me know in advance when you’d like it cast and which one of you it should be applied to.”

Turning to look at Gale, she added, “I normally don’t like to pry, but would you mind sharing your elemental affinity as well? I mean, if we’re serious about taking on a foe as powerful as Sofron apparently is, then I think it only makes sense for us to be fully aware of each other’s capabilities.”

---

_{@SilverPaw@Majoras End}

Not quite what she expected. The entry hall looked clean on a quick glance. It was all pretty high tech too, just the kind of places Pax Septimus could use more of. But as clean as everything was, there were a few things that didn’t add up. The front door was locked at an unusual hour, and despite being closed, there was still a receptionist present. Maybe she was doing some “late night” bookkeeping, but it still seemed strange. The clinic was almost too clean. All the same, the last operation Su was in had too many civilian casualties. If there was a possibility the receptionist was a civilian, she didn’t want to shoot her. Though Su’s squad always came first. She might be reaching for a gun, a silent alarm, it didn’t matter. They couldn’t take her presence lightly. It was unfortunate that the lot of them looked like a bunch of gang members. Aside from her horns and the fact that her vest read “GEMINI,” She probably could have passed as a member of SWAT. Which was fitting, because…

“Back! Step Back! Away from counter!”

It didn’t really matter what the receptionist was doing. Su already had her gun drawn, so it was unlikely she could access anything before su could fire. And Su did fire, but it wasn’t a bullet. She fired a melody at the woman’s arm, which would cause all the garbage in the nearby waist bin to bind her arm.

“Make sure she not thrall! Detain her!” Su kept her gun aimed at the receptionist, should she reveal herself to be a thrall or worse. Since they came in expecting to detain the doctor, all of the espers should have received a few pairs of handcuffs for this mission. As one of her allies (ideally) moved in to cuff her, Su inhaled and spoke again, this time with a calmer tone. “Where doctor?”

---

Luna did not do a whole lot to prepare for the meeting with this stranger. Aside from going through her morning routine and talking to the other Mavericks, all she really did was all the basic preliminary work to make sure she wasn’t stepping into an ambush. Scout the location, have some lookouts, stuff like that. But even with all the preparation, she did have to get inside that car eventually. Her luck with working with people outside of Maverick had been pretty dismal as of late. It would be just her luck for the door to the car to shut and lock as she was smothered by a pillow, hit with knockout gas, or whatever typically befell cute girls that got in vehicles with strangers. But as soon as she got inside the car, Luna breathed a sigh of relief. She figured there would be a burlap bag over her head by now if something bad was going to happen.

The nun asked her question. Jezebel being referred to as a bird without her talons was a little disheartening. Maybe she was without her grimoire, maybe she was missing something else. But answering the question was easy. ”I think it’s worth it.” She almost added “good friends are hard to come by,” but that was too corny to tell someone she just met. ”As for questions, how about you tell me what to call you, where we’re going, and why you’re helping me for starters. .”

---

---

The first thought Jacqueline had as they entered the clinic was that maybe they’d locked down the place for lunch just to prevent anyone from stealing all those neat monitors of theirs. It looked like a treasure trove for looters, really. She wasn’t a fan of the incense, but the place did have an overall healing vibe. Unlike the building’s exteriors, its interiors were fully playing onto people’s expectations as to how such a place should look like.

Of primary concern was the receptionist, however. Jacqueline tensed when the woman reached for something underneath the table – an alarm? – but thankfully Breacher had it handled. As soon as the woman was prevented from doing what ever it was she’d been intending to do, Jacqueline moved in to detain her, as Breacher had ordered. If the receptionist was a human, it was probably pretty menacing for someone with a war pick to advance on her. Just in case that she was an innocent civilian, Jacqueline kept her expression calm.

“We’re with GEMINI’s special forces,” she told her as she went to cuff her. “The doctor here is suspected of cooperating with a monster. One Justin Carnage, if you’ve been following the news any. If you’re uninvolved, you better make it clear now so we can get you out to safety before we move further in,” she explained. Jacqueline held the restrained woman, carefully observing her. Depending on what she said or did, she had to be ready to attack or defend; as Breacher had said, there was the possibility that this was a thrall.

She wanted to investigate the desk, its drawers, and the computer, but since she was occupied guarding the woman, she briefly addressed Finnegan. “Fable, wanna check that out?” she questioned, indicating the receptionist’s set-up with a tilt of her head. “Might be some interesting info for us there.”

---

---

Yeah, that made sense. Marrie took one of the brooches from the aqua-girl and sighed. What was she even doing? Was it worth hiding her abilities from potential enemies if it meant hiding them from her allies too? Sure, she didn't have any experience working with anyone from the start like this, but how was she supposed to get any if she shied away from the opportunity when she had it? At the very least, she wanted to keep Apexer Predator hidden until it was required, but she could at least answer the other Knight's question.

"Wind, is mine. Light, Water, Wind... Not a bad combination." She lowered her voice so that the other two would have to strain to hear her. "I could probably fly one of you in through the window, but if he's stereotypical, he'll be looking out of it for the whole night." Her voice came back to the normal whisper she had been talking in. "I can handle the SMG. But I'll leave the strategizing to you two."

With that, she looked over at dancefloor. How many of them were aware of what was going on?

---

"Snoopity snoop."
Current Location: The Aspiria Refuge, Front Desk

As he went to try and open the door, Breacher went over their strategy before anything further happened. Which was basically stick together and don't kill the doctor. Specifically she told the Timekeeper to not run ahead. After the last time he tried that? ...He shuddered at the dreadfilled memory. Yeah, maybe she had a point. Seeing as the door wasn't opening any time soon, Fable stepped aside to let Jacqueline pick the lock with her weapon. The door unlocked and swung open, revealing-

The sudden whiff of incense caught his attention before the interior did. It wasn't too strong to where he had to cover his nose, but wasn't that subtle either. Still a bit of a surprise. Especially, since the inside of the building looked pretty nice compared to outside! The atmosphere gave off more of a spa vibe than a clinic, and the lack of windows was subsituted for fake electronic ones. Then again, this could only be a facade for the rest of the building. They just had to head down the lone corridor to find out.

Oh. And the receptionist was still there too.

There could be many theories as to why she was still here when the clinic was supposed to be closed, but that'd be a waste of time to sit through. Fable tensed up once he realized the receptionist was reaching for something, but as much as he wanted to, he held back from acting first. It was probably better that the more experienced two handled this than him. Breacher restrained the lady with a melody, and Leroux cuffed her, explaining why they were there and such. Whether or not the receptionist was a threat, she seemed too skittish to be a thrall. At least from what he could tell.

The Timekeeper's brows rose when Leroux asked him to search the front desk. "Oh, yeah, gimme a sec!" He nodded, walking over. He'd start searching through the computer, then work his way around the other corners.

Light and Wind, hm? That made things a bit more interesting. KoT was, for one, squaring up to be both their source of major damage, as well as their supporter. It wasn’t ideal, of course, but having a cannon was better than nothing. Gale’s Flight spell definitely opened up more options for a breach, however, and Klava closed her eyes briefly, recalling the exterior of the club, the options she had for getting around. Her sashes swayed to a non-existent wind and she opened her eyes again.

Honestly, the best option would be to just to block the apartment’s door and then burn the whole building down. Call it poetic justice if she needed to smooth over her conscience. They could position themselves outside afterwards and pick Sofron off from the exit points, if the smoke inhalation and physical fire doesn’t take him down first.

That was all manners of fucked up though, so she went for the second plan.

“Alright, I’ll trust you can handle that then, Gale.” She rounded them up conspiratorially, more like three girlfriends sharing some inconsequential, scandalous rumors rather than three Espers plotting an assassination. “KoT and you go up the stairs. Do a knock and all. Diversion away from the window, which I’ll go through with the help of your Flight. It’ll be a double-layered ambush, but if the window doesn’t work, I’ll Blink back to you two and we’ll play it by ear from there.”

She swung back her head and shot a wink at the bartender.

“If no one’s got any questions, let’s stay frosty and hope for a smooth sailing~”

“Good friends are hard to come by, hm?”

The woman smiled, then twisted the ignition, firing up the SUV’s engine with a roar. The seats thrummed with the restrained power of the engine, and she backed out soon after, eye glancing at the truck’s digital clock. “Scheduling’s tight, so let’s talk on the way,” she spoke, pulling out into the road.

“Call me Lenny. GEMINI’s headed out of Pax Septimus with an armed convoy, y’see, to one of their black sites down south. Can’t hold any Maverick for long when ol’ Black’s around, after all, so long-term detainment’s happening elsewhere. And that’s the opportunity.” As they turned out onto the interstate freeway, she turned on the radio, and chatter surged up. Men and women, professionals, reported positions and status to each other regularly, using lingo that rendered it near unintelligible. But it was clear that it wasn’t just a radio station either. “So we’re hitting them on the road. And as for why? Well, balance is nice to have, and a country with only GEMINIs is a shitty one. Like trusting an oil company to solve global warming.”

Lenny flashed her teeth, shark-like.

“But hey, you don’t need to worry ‘bout that. You’ve got a friend in need, after all.”

…

Thirty minutes later, on an empty stretch of road crisscrossing through flattened forests, the convoy was in sight. Two unmarked vehicles flanked a well-armored prison truck, and upon spotting the Jeep, one of the vehicles slowed down, using its positioning to force Lenny to slow down as well. There appeared to be no reason for them to engage otherwise, but the radio chatter made it clear that the Patriot was spotted and marked for observation.

“Well, Tetrad, I’ll handle the driving, so you do the magicking.”

She cracked her knuckles sequentially.

“But do make it flashy.”

---

_@Izurich

Silmeria’s coilgun fired with hardly any sound. A light “poot,” like a business executive discreetly farting in an elevator filled with his lady friends. No one would hear it.

What they would hear, however, would be said gangster crying out in pain. Three shots from anything was a lot of hurt, and the gangster let it all out with a lion-like roar before falling onto his chest.

Both Silmeria and the mobster looked up at Mika, who had turned around. She still held the keychain in her hand, which was glowing brighter and brighter.

”It’s happening!” She called out, as the keychain had disappeared under the veil of light. ”It’s happening!!” Her voice got louder as the shine got brighter. And then, and then…



It died down.

Mika lowered the keychain so that she could look at it. The attached charm looked like a tiny knight now that it wasn’t shining. ”Why isn’t it happening?” She shook the charm, but it did nothing. Even if the charm was a grimoire, it would not activate for just anyone. After all, grimoire’s “chose” their espers, and would not activate for another esper so long as its chosen esper still lived. Silmeria was not going to get backup from Mika.

Regardless of what Mika did, the weretiger still had its legs attached. The trio of shots were just enough to break the skin. It rolled over onto its back and lunged for the sniper’s throat.

Silmeria wouldn’t have enough time to line up a second shot, as her footing started to become unstable. Another weretiger had approached the front of the vehicle and lifted it over its head. The crate in the back of the van slid into Silmeria’s back, pushing her closer to the incoming monster.

---

_{@SilverPaw@Majoras End}
The receptionist yelped as Breacher’s gun flashed, a beam striking one arm as paper, drawn like iron dust to a magnet, converged upon it, locking one arm in place. Whatever the other arm meant to do didn’t matter when Leroux converged upon her, pinning her against the table and twisting her arms behind her back before slapping down a set of plastic ties. Whatever words the woman used however, failed to calm the receptionist in any way. Her breaths came in heavily and rapidly, the last bits of her rational mind keeping her from acting on instinct and struggling. Who knew what these maniacs would do to her otherwise?

“GEMINI? Monsters? I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She sputtered. “Who even a-”

While the receptionist’s anxiety spiked and spiraled, Timekeeper went over the desk as well, eyes scanning over the dual-monitor setup at a rapid pace. One monitor was on an Excel document that tracked finances, jumbled columns of numbers that he couldn’t immediately draw anything out from. Another monitor was a split screen that had a list of upcoming appointments, as well as a Youtube video with closed captions on, featuring a Swedish parkour artist cavorting over the tightly-packed rooftops of Indonesia. It looked, by all accounts and purposes, that the receptionist was just in the closed clinic to do administrative work. But perhaps there were other files to filter through. Darker dirt to dig.

Those remained, however, as hypotheticals.

As the receptionist continued to ramble near-incoherently, panicking over a scenario that made no sense, where weapons-bearing cosplayers broke into clinics without immediately demanding money the power in the clinic cut off.

The monitors, all monitors, blinked out.

Not more than three seconds later, the emergency power supply turned on, fluorescent spotlights illuminating the corridor. And with the emergence of those lights bringing the trio’s gaze upwards, they saw it too. An opaque half-sphere embedded in the ceiling. A security camera, observing them silently, anonymously.

It was enough too, to stun the restrained receptionist into a confused quiet.

---

_{@The World@Ponn@ERode}

The bartender looked more and more cross as the espers continued to discuss how they were going to break into the penthouse. They were either deranged or using some weird gamer language to mask the seriousness of their intentions. The three officer-looking people who came in with them called for the bartender’s attention, but he would not be swayed.

These nut jobs needed to go.

He walked to the back of the bar while flipping open a cell phone and soon disappeared from view. Marrie noticed a few new faces enter the club. They weren’t hard to spot. A trio of big men with imposing frames that had the physique of a cartoon character. Bouncers, more than likely. They were dressed better than most present, and didn’t appear to be part of the costume party. It would take them a moment to reach the bar, but not terribly long.

”We didn’t even get to dance yet!” The smaller, vested police-officer pounded the counter. ”We should have ditched this job and gone to the rainforest! At least we’d be leaving in an ambulance!”

The masked man raised a finger. ”We may still leave in an ambulance.” he added with his eloquent voice.

The woman in the trio was too busy downing her glass of Jack Daniels to respond to anything. With the bartender gone, that meant that all refills were essentially free so long as she didn’t get caught. Not like she had a problem having other people paying for her drinks, but if the bar suddenly became self-service, you couldn’t really fault anyone for thinking it had become a drinking buffet.

She spun in her stool until she was looking at the espers. ”Anyone want a shot before they head off?”

Whelp. So much for leaving it to the other two. Bouncers were here, and fighting normal people was not going to fly. She didn't have time to wait and see what the others said. To Marrie, it was either time to act or time to start over with their planning. Seemed stupid to go in, potentially show themselves to Sofron, make a plan where they could be overheard, and then just leave.

...

Which, actually, made that the perfect plan, she realized. And hey, if the three who came in with them were any good in a fight, they might be able to take the bouncers and cause enough of a disturbance for the espers to go upstairs. Speaking of... She waved at them and smiled. "Thanks for the help, you three." She turned back to the other two espers. "Bouncers are coming, if you have any neat tricks, now's the time to use them. Preferably non-magical.

---

As evidenced by the existence of his notes on it, unit cohesion was something Samuel had been ruminating on even since their last operation. Everyone, especially himself, could use practice and simulated encounters to improve their teamwork capabilities. It wasn't difficult to see where Fritzi was going by leading them further into the course and Samuel was becoming more eager by the moment to begin working on the weak area they had discussed.

While he wasn't grinning, he did give off the impression that he was in a good mood. That mood slightly dampened when Fritzi mentioned Freelancers, but it didn't exactly sink until he had seen what he and his fellow agent Wukong would be going up against.

"Ah." Utilizing his years of experience in the cutthroat world of working in an office building, Samuel almost flawlessly feigned complete indifference in how the knight appeared, and how his voice seemed... 'off'. "Pink Pounder and... 'Magical Dream Princess', it is a pleasure ot make your acquaintances." He even courteously offered his hand to the knight, offering a stern look. "There is no benefit to sparring with the unwilling. If they are merely a spectator, then I wouldn't dream of doing any such thing. So will it just be you sparring with us, then? I imagine you must be a knight of some calibur in that case." It was a compliment Samuel meant, although mostly due to Fritzi warning them a second earlier. He wouldn't underestimate an Esper Freelancer regardless, but he did take Fritizi's word quite seriously.

Whether the knight replied to his offered hand with dismissal or his own, he would introduce himself while retrieving his domino mask that had been settling in the pocket inside his coat. "I am G.E.M.I.N.I agent Silhouette," he held the mask between the eyes and strengthened his grip until it seemingly snapped into two pieces, which then turned into his Instruments. Quickly, a dark misma engulfed his body and when it disappated, left the demonic visage of his Esper form, wielding his two blades.

Turning to his fellow agent, he spoke. "Before we start... This is a chance to become familiar with our abilities in a competitive environment without the threat of imminent death, but without as much hesitation that might be prevalent in sparring involving familiar faces. I would make the most of this opportunity to better our, well, cohesion." his informative preamble was naturally echoed by his form's Style. "To that end," he continued. "I ask if you prefer dictate the pace of the battle or leave that to myself. You were quite independant in the last operation but rather than make assumptions, it would be more beneficial to hear the truth from you, Wukong. I do not have a preference, so we can use yours. Alternatively, we could simply throw ourselves at him and pick apart our performance after the matter."

Ashley listened intently as the Maiden explained her plan, which sounded like a good one, all things considered. The only question she had was upon whom she should bestow a protective melody. The Maiden seemed like the best choice, being the most experienced member of their little team, and the one taking the biggest risk, but it didn’t hurt to clarify. After all, good communication was a vital element to a successful operation. However, before she could say anything, Gale spoke up, noting that some bouncers were heading their way…

Glancing towards the door, Ashley saw the three burly men in question. They would have to move quickly if they wished to maintain at least some semblance of initiative, and despite Gale’s slightly puzzling remark about using non-magical tricks, the Knight of Tomorrow knew that engaging the bouncers in any way was out of the question. Speed was of the essence here. They couldn’t afford to get bogged down in what would ultimately be a meaningless scuffle.

“We should stick to the Maiden’s plan,” Ashley said firmly, before turning to address the young woman in question. “Now that we’ve been spotted, I don’t think I’ll have enough time to charge up a melody, but I can still provide you with a basic defensive shield if you think you need it.”

---

_{@SilverPaw@Majoras End}

Lights out, lights on, eyes up, camera on.

The power had been shut off deliberately, but the reason why was unclear. Su believed the power was cut to prevent access to the computer's files, but that was a hunch and little more. What was evident was that they were being watched. A mastermind was waiting in the shadows, monitoring their actions and plotting countermeasures. They needed to be careful moving forward, but they also didn't want to be so cautious that their mark fled before they arrived. The time Silmeria radioed her in to deal with some weretigers was still fresh in her mind. By the time she showed up, the tigers had all but fled. They couldn't give the doctor the chance to do the same.

But what to do with the receptionist? If Su was being totally honest with herself, she was almost completely sure she wasn't involved. The safe option be to call in the extraction team and have them recover her, but extraction was pretty small for this operation. Just two police officers and their undercover cars. It didn't make much sense to cram every employee they came across into the back of the cars. Doctor Manuel Sycamore was also a thirty-eight year old man, so it wasn't like the receptionist could have been him barring some very convincing magic. It was probably best to just leave her there for now.

Su looked around for a map of the place. It wasn't uncommon for clinics to have maps of their establishments to help patients and new nurses learn the layout. She doubted they would display a security room or something equally incriminating, but it did help to know the layout of the place before diving in.

“Finish up here, I look ahead.”

Breacher made her way down the hall with her shield raised. Ideally, the hallway wouldn't fork too many times before they came across something interesting. Her primary concern was getting routed/ambushed from behind.

---

The nun seemed… nice enough. Though with all the betrayals she had to endure, she hadn’t put it past one-eye here to do something later. Though Luna would be lying to herself if she didn’t think the nun was pretty bad ass for wanting to stand against Gemini. Likening them to a greedy oil corporation was enough to get her to smile.

But as fun as it would have been to continue talking, the job was here. If this was a Gemini laid trap it was a pretty convoluted one. They deserved to catch her if they were going to let Luna assist with attacking their own men.

”Flashy, huh?”

Unfortunately, Luna was not really geared for combat, or at least not in a Jeep Patriot.

Firstly, there were all the inherent problems of being inside a Jeep Patriot. The Jeep name might bring images of the jeeps that American soldiers used in WWII, but the army has been using AM General’s humvees instead of Jeeps for about forty years. The change was justified, as humvees are practically bomb proof while jeeps are cheap, light vehicles that are just a touch better than putting a motor and some wheels on a litter box. Seriously, Jeeps are cheap vehicles that have almost every problem you can imagine. The seals around the windows leak, the gear boxes leak, and they are prone to rust. While you don’t need a sports car to catch up to an armored truck, jeep motors weren’t exactly fast as their motors were fairly underpowered. There was a reason why the jeep patriot was discontinued in 2016*, and it should have happened earlier in Luna’s opinion. Truly, she should have taken her motorcycle. At least she would only be risking her own life while trying to maneuver her hula-hoop-shaped weapon. The tiny interior of the Jeep was not going to work for Luna.

_{*There are a few 2017 Jeep Patriots, but that is only because they start selling next year’s model in fall.}

Fortunately, if there was one decent thing about the Patriot, it was that it had some cross bars. Better would have been a full rack, but it at least meant that Luna could climb onto the roof without having to worry about falling off immediately afterwards. But it was still a bit early for that. She wouldn’t need pit boss for this next part.

”Alright, might want to get us some distance.”

Regardless of how tough or heavy a passenger car was, it was still supported by four wheels that only weighed a fraction of its weight. Of those four wheels, two of them pushed the vehicle forward. Thus, stopping one of the wheels would result in a loss of control

Luna rolled down her window and tossed a card at one of the back tires. If everything went according to plan, the card would cause a blowout, causing the car to swerve one way or the other. But this was Luna’s magic at work here. Nothing ever went as planned. As soon as the card struck the tire, the wheel lit up with neon lights, and showed a pair of clock hands spinning towards midnight.

”Might wanna, move to the other side, heh!”

Her first melody wasn’t too flashy. There was always the next one!

“A shot sounds lovely,” Klava chimed, leaning over to swipe a bottle of gin and orange juice from behind the counter. She filled up her own shot glass with it until it was up to the very brim, and then downed it in one go. Lovely stuff. One had to fill their bellies up with fire before fighting a pyromaniac, after all. She let out a sigh, then extended a hand out to her partners-in-crime.

“Won’t have time for timing it properly, so we’ll just go in as soon as possible.” Her gaze turned to Gale expectantly, waiting for the Flight spell to be passed over. If it didn’t though, it was no big deal. “Let’s rock n roll this shit up.”

The bouncers were coming soon, but Klava herself had already hopped off the stool, readying herself for a quick, magically-assisted exit-ascent-enter. Upon reflection, it may have been a smarter idea to have talked all this out before entering the nightclub, but hey, it was all good. What was another fire at a nightclub, if not panic at the disco?

---

---

“Hm, oh, I guess that was too much for a civilian,” Jacqueline muttered to herself when it became clear the receptionist lady had no clue what she was talking about. Somewhat louder, she clarified, “Let’s just say we’re government agents, part of a branch specialized for detaining dangerous individuals.”

Then the power cut off. Jacqueline tensed, and didn’t quite loosen up when the emergency power kicked in. She looked up, where a camera was now clear to their sight. “So…something on that computer they didn’t want us to see, or just that confident that they want us to know they’re watching,” she speculated.

She nodded when Su made it clear she’d go scout. “Got it,” she agreed. When she and Fable were left alone, she briefly turned to the boy. “I’ll be right back. You can check if there are any relevant physical files, I guess.”

Then, she escorted the captive woman outside. At the entrance to the clinic, she freed her from the zip-ties, but didn’t yet release the grip she had on her. “Okay, now, just listen calmly. If you fear for your safety, or want to have a debriefing on this situation, there are two police officers in an unmarked car not too far away. You just have to take this street here, then turn left there…” she described the shortest path the woman would have to take to get to the car, and what the vehicle looked like, including its license number.

“Tell them Leroux sent you, and they’ll be able to deal with you. This is just a suggestion though – you are also free to go home or wherever else you want. Just don’t interfere with out work at the clinic,” she advised. With that, she gave the woman a light pat, headed back inside, and closed the front door behind her. Then, she returned to the receptionist’s office, where she expected to rejoin Fable.

To the child esper, she said, “Alright, that’s dealt with. Unless there’s anything you wanted to finish up here, or if you’ve a report on new findings, we should follow Breacher asap.”

Once she got his response, she’d lead their way down the hall, Havoc raised, on the lookout both for Breacher and for any potential trouble.

---

---

"We're not gonna have to fight through samurai, are we??"
Current Location: The Aspiria Refuge, Front Desk

"Nothing, nothing, she looks clear to me!" He called out. At a quick glance, he'd guess she was doing some last minute bookkeeping as the last one to leave. And judging by how overwhelmed the receptionist was reacting, she probably was innocent. That or the doc didn't keep her in the know about things. Poor lady. Fable looked back at the computer, there had to be more that he could find. "I'll see if there's anything el-"

Before he could search any further, the power cut off. The younger agent tensed up, his hands left hovering over the keyboard. Three seconds. Three seconds that felt too long for the emergency power to activate. Leroux didn't relax yet, and neither did he. All of them turned their heads towards a camera they failed to notice before.

They were being watched.

With Breacher scouting on ahead, Leroux went to escort the receptionist out. That left the Timekeeper to search through the rest of the desk. Physical files that could hopefully be of use to them. He was tempted to try and reactivate the computer with a melody, or knock out that stupid camera, but he didn't want to waste energy before they faced anything worse. That, and there was a chance he could also break the computer in his attempt. Eh, whatever. If he did find anything of importance, he can tell Jacqueline as they regrouped with Breacher.

The robotic esper walked close behind her, ever on his guard.

_{Crusader Lord@FamishedPants}

The giant armored man shook Sam’s hand with narry a word, only a low growl escaped his helmet as their hands briefly touched. As soon as the shade stepped back, the knight’s sword was soon in his hand.

”I’ll be watching from the distance.” Fritzi waved to her espers before departing. ”Put on a show.”

But Lilliah was just frozen. She had no idea what to tell Samuel, or what such an intimidating opponent could do. Her hands trembled as she tightened her grip on her staff, the flames from her last big fight still fresh in her mind.

But the duel had been delayed enough, and the Pink Pounder did not plan on holding back any longer.

“Let's make this fight one to remember!”

Shield raised and sword charged with a melody, the Pink pounder lunged for Samuel, crooked steel arcing over the knights shoulder in a direct path with the esper.

But it would be intercepted.

Lilliah had, without warning, decided to press her attack as the Pink Pounder slid towards Silhouette. There was little he could do to capitalize on the attack, as it came so suddenly and without warning.

Blade struck staff, and the knight should have been left open, but that was not the case.

Lilliah’s staff was pushed off to the side by a powerful melody, all while another surge of energy pushed back against the pounder’s blade. Though while the Pink Pounder’s blade was pushed back, he was able to pivot on one foot and allow his other to slam into Lilliah’s rib cage. Not six seconds into the fight and Lilliah was already doubled over on the ground.

So much for the team work exercise. Sam could feel Fritzi’s eyes burning into his back.

But surely he would not give into despair. Not with the session having just started, not with an able foe before him. If he could not fight the Pounder. Then what would happen the next time he encountered Lenore?

Magical Dream Princess could only watch, tears of worry streaming down her face. But she did not remain idle either. From her position on the floor, she pointed her star-tipped wand at the heavens, and magic gathered.

---

A melody was spun, and then, mere moments later, a car was spinning too, an abrupt cry sounding out from inside the vehicle before it spun out into the forest, smashing back first into a ditch. There was no time to ruminate on the success of Tetrad’s first spell, however. Even as the radio burst out into a flurry of messages, they were already hundreds of meters away from the destroyed vehicle, the Patriot’s engine roaring, the wheels of the remaining escort squealing as it spun around to face them, now driving in reverse as it changed lanes to cover the armored car’s back.

What was the point of that though? What tactical advantage could be offered by spinning around backwards, exposing the car’s engine to direct enemy fire?

Lenny soon found out and let out an incredulous laugh.

The hood of the car split open, and a minigun attachment revealed itself. In the roar of the wind and the static of the radio, it was hard to hear it, but Tetrad could almost barely make out a muffled ‘Say Hello to my little friend!’ coming out from the distant car. And then, after that, there was nothing else to be heard, but the jackhammer blast of hundreds of bullets unloading towards them. Sparks flew and the chassis was ripped apart as the eyepatched woman made as evasive of a maneuver as she could down the empty freeway.

“They got a James Bond budget!”

If it kept up, they wouldn’t have a car left before those muzzles melted.

But that was just how it was, as a Maverick Esper.

---

_{@SilverPaw@Majoras End}
The receptionist, after having gone through way too many emotions over the past minute or two, only favoured Leroux with a dazed glance before slumping to the sidewalk, staring at nothing in particular. Perhaps it would take a while longer for her to recover from whatever had actually happened, or perhaps she’d be able to get the help she needed soon after. Regardless of what fate ultimately befell her, however, Leroux didn’t stick around to find out, re-entering the clinic immediately.

Timekeeper’s report on the physical documents that he was able to flip through during the time she was gone didn’t come up with anything particularly useful. There were folders that contained information on patients, written in a way that made the layman’s head spin, and there was a schedule posted up that showed when the day’s patients were to arrive, with most of them looking to arrive during the evening hours. He found the small, satisfyingly geometric device that was dispensing the aroma as well, but more importantly, the rapier-wielding Esper found the basic blueprints of the clinic as well, the veracity of the information proven quickly once he followed after Breacher.

The corridor, broken up into intervals of shadow and light, contained two smaller rooms on the right, where patients could confide in private with Dr. Sycamore, as well as a larger room to the left that looked to allow for some light physical activity. At the end of the singular corridor, there would be a door leading to the staircase that should just go to the second, residential floor. And yet, there was something else at the end as well.

An elevator.

There was no display indicating where the elevator itself currently was, but the ‘up’ and ‘down’ buttons glowed gently with an amber light.

---

_{@The World@Ponn@ERode}

The police woman gave Klava a nod of approval as she served herself a drink. ”Hell yea sister! Rock and roll this shit real good!”

With their course decided, the espers sprung into action. Marrie passed on a silver flight melody to Klava before running up the stairs with Ashley. That left the police to deal with the bouncers.

”Alright guys, just like we practiced!”

As the bouncers approached, the police woman stumbled towards them, seemingly drunk out of her mind. Not a terribly difficult opponent, but what was going to make things more interesting was what the other two guys did. They immediately whipped out their cell phones and started filming her as she stumbled over to the bouncers.

One of them cussed under their breath.

”Very well…”

…

…

…

The novice espers hurried up the stairs to distance themselves from the bouncers. Maybe they rushed the door, maybe they gave it a gentle turn first as to not allert anyone. But the result would be the same, they’d enter the sweep.

To the sight of Sofron sporting a SPAS-12.



Not that it would be easy for the novice espers to tell exactly what type of shotgun he was using, but it was quite relevant. The SPAS-12 had a special foldingt stock that was usually folded up in the videogames and movies it appeared in, which was a waste really. With the stock down, it could absorb a lot more recoil from the self-loading shotgun. Some versions had a hook end on the stock that was useful for holding and firing the shotgun while driving. While Sofron wasn’t behind the wheel of a car, he did have this brace on, and had no difficulty firing it single handedly at the espers. Ashley’s shield would block most of the pellets, but Sofron wasn’t just laying down suppressing fire. There was a melody in his off-hand.

Baleful Undertow!"

It would take Klava a moment later to fly in front of the window, but not much later. Silver flight was about as fast as she could normally move, and it wasn’t like the emergency exit was out of reach. Though it seemed like Sofron had planned on escaping out the window, as the glass was starting to slide out of the way. The air was filled with the hum of several electric servos, slowly but surely moving the window out of the way. Though standing at the mouth of the window wasn’t aSofron, but a squirrel girl.

”Seems we got somebody pe-can on us!”

The rodent woman grabbed the dining room table and threw it out the window, spinning end over end as unfinished meals and a tablecloth was whisked into the air. Klava had just enough time to see her brandish two tonfas, but that was before the tablecloth obscured her position. Though her screaming made it apparent that she was coming closer to the frost maiden.

As it happened, the Maiden declined Ashley’s offer of additional protection, and, after receiving Gale’s flight melody, raced off, leaving the Knight of Tomorrow alone with the blue-haired esper. “Come on,” she instructed as she headed for the stairs. Moving swiftly, they were soon standing before the door to Sofron’s suite. In an effort to maintain as much of the element of surprise as possible, Ashley took hold of the handle and gave it a small turn. Luckily, it was unlocked. Unluckily, Sofron was waiting for them…

Her shield already raised in preparation for such an eventuality, the Knight of Tomorrow had also activated a melody just before opening the door, a glowing green aura, which sheathed her body in yet another layer of protection. Even so, the high-tech heroine knew that such defenses wouldn’t hold for long, especially under the assault of both shotgun and melody…

“Gale, quickly!” Ashley told her teammate, while employing her techno-wand to fire a glowing arcane bolt at Sofron’s head, which would, at the very least, distract the esper enough for Gale to close in for the kill…

---

_{@SilverPaw@Majoras End}

No hostels, no abnormalities. Well, aside from the well timed loss of power.

The tension in the air seemed to grow thicker with each passing second. The calming incense did little to ease the agent’s nerves, as she was expecting something to lurk around every corner. They were being watched, their advisory was plotting something.

But she was put at ease, if only a bit, when Jaquiline and Finn arrived. She wasn’t sure what was taking Jackie, but figured she had decided to remain behind so that Finn could finish searching, or to calm down the receptionist before departing.

“You find map? Let see map…”

Su was no architect, and she had no intention of wasting a lot of time looking over the limited information the blueprint supplied. The second floor seemed to just be a bunch of residential quarters. Though what brought the validity of the documents into question was the presence of an elevator that the blueprints didn’t have accounted for. There were a few reasons why such a feature could exist. The elevator may have been installed after the fact, but the clinic had been opened recently and it seemed unlikely that they would have gotten an upgrade so soon. The elevator could have been illusionary, but that seemed a little silly, and would have needed to been erected on short notice. Another possibility was that the floor plan was incorrect, either it was submitted for a different hospital or a way to fool the general public. Regardless of how it had come into being, it was a curious feature. Especially if the staircase only lead up and the elevator seemed to go to some lower floor.

“Hmmm… Elevator not right.” Su approached the elevator. “I try bringing it up. ” She raised her hand and prepared to summon the elevator. Or that was the hope. “Probably best only I go down first. They cut power, maybe they cut backup too? Not good.”

Of course, just because Su decided to be more assertive this time around didn’t mean the other espers couldn’t voice their opinion. There was an entire floor above them they hadn’t investigated yet, which might have other inconsistencies besides the elevator.

---

There were certain eventualities that all espers should prepare for. But government agents utilizing mad max style hidden weaponry was not it. Was there even room for a gun like that in the engine compartment? Eh, just one more reason the Patriot was one of the worst cars on the market. She should have taken her motorcycle with her.

Though Luna was too busy scrambling to get out from in front of the chaingun to worry about how the whole thing functioned. The survival reflex in her brain kept screaming “Staying here bad, getting to armored truck good.” so naturally, that was what Luna decided to do. She figured she didn’t have to tell Lenny what to do. So long as she kept the armored car between herself and the mad-max inspired vehicle, she should be fiiiine.

Luna reached her arms outside the window and forced herself out of the passenger seat. The only reason why she fit was because she was wearing Pit boss around her shoulder and hip. She crouched into a sprinting position on the window sill, and kicked off.

Human strength wouldn’t be enough to jump to the next car, but her melody had made her weightless, and gave her an extra boost in the air. A pop followed by strings of confetti and glitter pushed the gambler forward. While Luna soared over the open road, she held up pit boss and rained a hail of fire on the oncoming car’s windshield. And the gun, and the motor if it even had a visible motor.

The one part of this whole thing that Luna hadn’t thought out was how to land. They were driving pretty fast, but the only thing that could really hold Luna back now was wind resistance. She might be able to reach the armored car, but with her weightlessness lasting about six seconds, she could drift backwards towards the patriot. Provided she hadn’t been turned into swiss cheese by that point. But whatever, pretty standard stuff for a Maverick really.