Snowdrops
Sylvan
Starlance
Sky Blue
avril
Hannah
Chronic
TokyoPewPew
MrSkimobileCollab with @BigPapaBelial and @Starlance
The two seemed almost a dynamic duo, a pairing that certainly the Scot wasn’t expecting to be back into. But it was what it was. And this was the riskiest thing she’d ever imagined they would do. The skyscraper opposite the park was a quick drop off after the car had dumped them around the corner, and Skye had stashed her gear on a rucksack, carrying it over her leather jacketed shoulder, concealing a kevlar vest and tactical equipment. The sort that would be anticipated from someone on the hunt. Skye had understood Rose had the same training- so therefore, they didn’t just have the same blood and genetics, they very much acted similarly.
“Follow my lead, Ban. Act like we belong here, and let’s stay undercover as long as possible.” Skye said, the shaven-head Scot resolute, the adrenaline pumping through her knowing they were going straight into a den full of tigers.
Armed with a G36 instead of her MCX that she pulled out of the bag before heading for the entry, the slightly more archaic weapon was a stalwart of the SAS, and a few other organizations in Britain back in the day, and perhaps was why Rose loved it so much. An iconic tool, and Skye no less had to look the part. It fit among, and Ban was in front, almost like a hostage.
With a walk inside of the building’s reception room, eyes turned, a few guards immediately coming out, guns raised upon seeing Skye, no, Rose, and Ban armed and tooled.
“Hands up!” One yelled, rifle raised, the unsuspecting Ban in front of her likely wanting to pull his rifle up and deck the two. Skye put a hand on the back of his shoulder, pulling front.
“Don’t you recognise your boss! Rifles down, lads. Get the verification.” She spoke with a convincing English accent, and toned back her mannerisms, pushing it all down. The Scot felt a little unsure, but fuck, this was something to do. Not so much impersonating someone else as the other half of her. The guards were still querying, as Skye, as Rose, sighed, walking in front, rifle lowered.
“This is Ban Kingo. He’s ex-Raven, and was harboring Skye Rosalind Lyons, but saw sense to join us instead. He is the one you fuckers couldn’t catch. Neither was she, despite my instructions! So I did some work of my own and and she’s now swimming pretty lifelessly in the Tokyo sewers. He’ll verify. While you bastards sat here, I had to get my hands dirty. Again.” Skye said, as one of them looked confused, but instead, came out with a device.
“I need a voice print and a code. I apologize….they are the security measures, Rose, as requested.” Skye shrugged in response to the guard, as she looked to Ban, reassured, the patch on her neck holding for now as she saw him pull the phone, holding it in front of Skye.
The voiceprint was easy, as she called out her name, Rosalind Lyons, easy enough. The code though, that was harder. She had to think. Actually, fuck. This was a problem. She kept thinking, thinking…..what was that date that they went to Porton Down? What was it? Rose was stuck on history. Skye wasn’t…..and she got it. Bam. And put that in. And to almost her entire relief, and shock, the six digit code worked, a bright green tick following. That shouldn’t have been so easy, but then again, maybe remembering a past was a good thing- something Rose didn’t gamble Skye would do so easily considering how far she’d run away, but since what had happened, Skye had made a mental note to remember it. Shit, this was the most awful cybersecurity she’d seen and no doubt Enri would find this the best joke of the year, but then again, Rose never looked over her shoulder. Never since now, at least. The guard nodded, and looked up.
“I apologize gravely, Miss Lyons. Welcome. Andros-san is not around, but you have full access. We have rooms upstairs for debriefing him.” His response was a Japanese level of affectionate apology, as Skye shrugged, looking to Ban, then back, the look of disappointment on her mug, almost you could call it a resting bitch face.
It was such a close thing, almost looked like they could get into the building just fine and through into other areas too. But of course no plan survives contact with the enemy. The guards approaching slows things. Ban hand slips under his long coat, hidden within his light short rifle, a HK derivative that had been shaved down to almost bare bones, barely 20 inches long all told, but could still hit like a brick shit house. But also in there, nestled just down the inside, his katana. The guards are so close, the rifle would be easy to make three pops each, the integrated suppressor would be helpful, but no his hand was just an inch away from the handle of his blade. Yes it was a close thing, and just as he felt the shark skin leather wrap…
Such a close thing.
Skye’s hand on his shoulder stops him.
Discipline, loyalty and Yakuza pride is the only thing that stays his hand and relaxes his body. Not yet.
He held still, trying to play the newly turned operative? That Rose/Skye had found him and come to fill him in? He huffed. He could work with that.
With a slow swallow he listened carefully. And that casual Japanese style familiarity, how often had Rose been here?
Ban quirked an eyebrow at Skye then made a little motion with his chin towards one of the lifts, and then a nearly imperceptible nod. It’s the best thing they could roll with right?
Skye nodded back to the guard, and stays assertive, like she owns the place, and leaves him behind, looking over her shoulder to break the silence.
“You did your job. And I did yours too, who knew. I suppose if I was Skye, she’d have had you killed a lot faster. I want more guards down here, tell Andros he’s going to get another visit from me if he doesn’t. Because I seem to be the only one hurting Raven and I am sick you don’t take it so seriously.” Skye ruthlessly responded, sighing as the guards barely replied, as Ban headed towards the elevator, Skye following towards, before they stepped in. Hitting the button, the doors shut, and the Scot looked over.
“Holy fuck. That actually worked. Shit, I was about a few seconds from giving you the double shoulder tap and we would have to ice everyone there.” Skye looked exasperated, yet giggling now, knowing Ban was no doubt freaked out by this version of Rose.
“So, let’s try and keep going. They think I’m here to debrief you. We need to keep playing this. We need to find a computer, get our friend on the network, then find the vault. And whatever is inside. Then, we really need to get out, fast.” Skye replied, the lift accelerating fast up as it went, Skye leaving the rifle slung on its strap, the alter ego she played holding true.
Ban walked to the lift and held the door as Skye finished her little tirade. He had to keep his face straight as best he could the whole time. Once the door closes he looks to make sure there are no cameras, finding none he lets out an explosive breath and sags against the lift wall, “Izanagi’s balls…how the hell did that work!” He caught his breathe carefully, “You are a born actor Kitsune-chan. I don’t think I could have pulled that off nearly as well as you did.”
He pulls out his phone on which the plans still rested, “Okay…uh fourteenth floor.” He looked over and pressed the button to set the lift going, “The network room should be up there. My mole here says that level is high enough there are fewer guards on a wider patrol. But they will all likely think you’re Rose, and we should have free reign.” He gives Skye a look, “This Rose…she seems like a iron-cold bitch. I have trouble see how you Kitsune-chan could even be remotely like her.” He gives her a good look over, “If I ever meet her i’m going to try and take her hands, Skye-chan does not deserve someone like that darkening your name.”
Skye chuckled, shaking her head, knowing this was addictive as all fuck. Holy shit, this was like Raven but way, way more toxic and worse in every single way.
“Hah, not before I get to her first, Ban. Enri’ll have a tracker on us. She’ll patch in when she needs to tell us anything, we’ll be on our own. Network room is first, then the vault after. Biometrics should get us in, which in this case, are easy. Hopefully.” The Scot replied, chuckling knowing full well Ban was probably enjoying this side, the more casual looking Skye knowing full well this operation hinged on selling that cover. Until it wouldn’t matter, they had to keep rolling that punch.
“Here we go. Good spot on the plans. Follow my lead..” Skye replied, as the doors opened, the office empty considering the evening hour, but a few guards waving to Skye, not even imagining she was the Scot but rather the elusive, secretive operative that had turned Artemis’s fortunes around. Rose was someone who didn’t want to be seen unless she had to be, and well, to be in person with an ex-Raven operative, who she seemed to be escorting, but well, rather than go direct for the rooms, they had half a detour to make. And they carried on, avoiding suspicion, and moving with an intent. A couple network engineers were in on the late shift, as Rose nodded to them, convincingly taking out a USB, as they looked on at her.
“I’ve got some intel off Raven. More for our supply. Have a peek. Courtesy of Ban Kingo. See, he likes our ideas. And this should be the final piece. I want to have him personally see what that means.” Skye said, the engineers standing at the sight, in disbelief that Rose would visit, the voice immediately identifiable from her various previous calls, slapping it onto the desk proudly. Skye knew this wasn’t going to be a simple one. They weren’t morons. They would check the USB first, and find it full of contents. But rather than hacking a laptop here, a CCTV system there, this was basically the central node. And it would be a couple more that would grant them access to a few specific controls, and they would be game, set and match.
“Oh, hello….Miss Lyons, we were not expecting you? And this is a great pleasure. Let us check.” One engineer took it off the desk that Skye placed it down on, returning to his computer, as she replied.
“Yes, well, when you have my capabilities I don’t want to be known, do I?” Skye replied, fully, totally leaning into Rose now, yet almost, to you dear reader, making it almost clear she was indulgent in the sarcasm now. There was reason for that. Walking across the room, she nodded to Ban, the other engineer peering away as she gave a pull on her throat, as incognito as she could.
And behind that other chair, she gave it a second, just a moment, before…..oh, well, his check wasn’t going to be a long one.
A hard kick to the back of the chair sent him squishing against the table as she reached forwards, pulling him down and onto the floor, pivoting him around and pulling, holding, holding, and holding, feeling the guy start to go limp as he kicked out, her stranglehold choking him out as she felt him try to kick and grab her, yet to no avail. Skye had done this a lot. Rose probably, too. And bit by bit, she felt him calm, and eventually, drop out.
“Fucking hell. Okay. Are you good?” Skye asked, looking over from her limp guard, towards Ban, who would have his person to deal with.
Ban looked at Skye and edged to the side, coming up behind the other man carefully, slowly. The pair of engineers bent over the console. He waited, watching Skye out of the corner of his eyes. And moved in near perfect sync.
The pair of engineers were looking at the contents of the USB. One of them let out a soft urp as Skye took him back and down. The second man was just beginning to turn, when the Kingo Family sword slithered up out of the coat, the scabbard still over the blade. And Ban locked the hard wood and leather scabbard over the front of the second man’s throat, and he pulled up and away, walking back slowly backwards. The engineer reaching up and trying to scratch at the scabbard then back at Ban. The former Raven soldier, renewed Yakuza using a very gangster style take down.
Ban stepped back and back and back until the engineer’s movements slowly came to a stop, his face purple from lack of air and maybe blood flow. Ban eased off and then gently laid the man on the floor, reaching down to check his pulse, “He’ll live, but will feel this pain for awhile.” He nods, “Good.” He looks around to make sure no one saw that take down, “We best hurry, I can’t imagine that this room isn’t on a pass by patrol or a physical patrol check.”
Skye nodded, in response dragging the body out, sliding him under the desk, and propping him up against the wall, having a moment’s realization. She ran quickly to the other side, finding what was one of the tech’s hoodies, and slid it under, before putting the chair underneath.
“There. Well. Sort of. Yeah, let’s make a move. First though.” Skye shrugged, knowing Enri would appreciate this. Going to the tech’s work station, she slid the USB in and saw it override all the security measures, automatically tapping past the internal security like a breeze.
“Outflaw, keys are yours, start the download if you can and tap into their network. We’re going to continue.” Skye replied, and with it, leading on Ban, knowing this would be a tense one, but still all on plan. They had a timeframe now, and that focussed things a bit better.
In a hotel on the other side of the city, a ping interrupted the bored hacker. About time, she was shit at Minesweeper anyway. Cracking her knuckles, Enri opened several windows across the three screens she had brought in, the young Yakuza buck tasked to do it occupied with a laptop near the suites door in case security was needed. Not likely. Not only did Enri set up a VPN beforehand - and as YouTube ads would tell the laymen those were bulletproof, she thought with a snicker - the entry team had taken her words about choosing targets well to heart. Almost before she had time to connect the programs she was going to need, her creation was already reporting near-total control of the target site’s communications.
“You made good time.” She quipped to announce her presence on comms, “They’ll need a crystal ball to find our transmissions, we can talk freely. I’m setting up the data mine now, give me two minutes for cameras.” if they had them. If you were doing shady stuff, you wouldn’t want records of it, she thought as she set the wheels in motion, feeding security data back to her main servers where an AI would determine areas and events of note and bring them up to a human operator to sort out. She quickly opened a communications window, a disheveled man in pajamas on the other side. “FastByte, we’re beginning.” He did not waste time answering, the man and his two brothers regular contractors Enri had met in university. In the meantime, another AI was already sniffing out every last byte of what Kitsune might be interested in. One jack-of-all-trades would’ve worked, but smaller, specialized programs were her whole schtick. It sold better and usually worked faster, too.
The guards from earlier were gone, as they got back to the lift, and tapping the button, the lift came up, the doors opening again and the two back inside. Skye knew
“Floor 24. This one might be a bit more tense. But let’s find out what the hell is going on.” Skye commented to Ban, turning to face him, knowing she had some explaining.
“I don’t know what we’re going to run into. But apparently, whatever the cure to this neurotoxin is, it’s here. I imagine you could burn it off just as easy. But, there may be some reason she’s kept it in her locker. And I don’t think we’ll understand it fully until we do. There are going to be a lot more questions than answers, Ban. You really don’t want to know what Rose is like. But you wouldn’t have signed up for what we did if you didn’t believe that. Trust me. I appreciate this more than my life is worth right now..” Skye said, knowing Ban was fully in on this ride or die shit right now, but that was the way the game would go. Checking herself over, she coughed a little, brushing off the fact she’d just choked someone out barely minutes ago, and readied up, another floor, another job.
Ban checked around the room once more, then hid his katana again in his coat. He picked his way out moving along in sync once more with Skye. Moving back to the Lift. He nodded again and hit the button for floor twenty four. The lift began again. Ban leaning on the wall lightly, he turned and smiled as the woman began to speak, “I watch and listen and see this as yet another dark thing we have to excise from the soul of this world.” He smiled brightly, “I still don’t fully understand what is happening, but I would not have joined you in this if I didn’t believe in you.” He nods, “Rose sounds like a true bitch, and if we can get something up on her without her truly knowing, then I believe in we will know eventually. And hopefully we can get you back to your family exonerated.” He looked up as the lift reached floor nineteen, “You have a life rich of experiences, and it is worth more then royal gold.” He faces her again, “And I’ll lay down my life if I have too to make sure you get it all back.” He gave her a bow, then straightened as the lift neared their next destination.
Skye nodded, hopeful, glad at least someone was on side. Oracle certainly wasn’t- whilst there was no doubt it would be painful to do something to her, precautions would need to be taken. She hoped the team was okay, at least, somewhat holding up. They would be. She wouldn’t have recruited them if she hadn’t, for now, the only thing that mattered was this. Whatever the fuck the cure was, whatever the hell they were looking at after, and what it meant. It would be an olive branch, a way back in and at least, it would put a dent in her plans. Creating dilemmas rather than nice choices, Skye perceived it as. Rose would do the same. Exactly that, like in New Zealand- perhaps forcing a choice of staying and fighting, or retreating and losing. And now they had to make this pay. Make this work.
“Glad you trust me. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, I would say the same, but, I’ve killed the hag twice and she’s kept fucking coming back. Not going to lie, it doesn’t make it any easier to kill the person who has your face.” Skye quipped back, the lift slowing, as they came to it. This was it. This was the floor that scared Skye, somewhat, but she had to push through that fear. The doors opened, and with it, the two emerged, a much higher density of guards here now. They all recognised Rose, the security check at entry passed as they knew what she was here for.
“Miss Lyons, you are a surprise to see here. You move in shadows, but it is a pleasure. I know you like to check on things, but I wasn’t expecting something so soon.” One asked, the German woman standing from her desk, not following the others in bowing, aware of Rose’s presence here, her mannerisms, her way here.
“That I do. I need to show this man something. Something rather important to our cause…and to me. Can you open the vault for me, please?” Skye asked, the girl looking up and down Ban, moving aside from the desk.
“This is Ban Kingo? We checked on him. Amagi Clan, pachinko parlor operator in Kiyose City. Rose….what does he serve us, if you don’t mind me asking? Not my place, but I am curious where he fits. You know me, I’m just curious about too much.” Skye sighed, knowing the question was an honest one, but chances were, Rose had built up a relationship with this person. It’s odd, because Skye is playing her out to that end.
“He knows how they work. And once I worked my magic on him, he gets it. He’s clever enough to figure out why Skye lied to him, lied to all of them. And I’ll say it in front of him….I think he was disillusioned with it all. Probably why he ended up out. How he didn’t get his head washed up, I don’t know. Whatever that shit they get up to get people out…..means he’s useful. Just needs a little proof though. And he’ll be hunting the rest of Raven by tomorrow morning.” Skye said, chuckling, a wry smile on her face, not unlike her usual own, but very much leaning into Rose’s.
“Well, fine. We’ll open it up. All yours, Rose.” The guard replied, and with it, instructed a group of her team to make way, headed to a panel. Mental note, that needed hacking too, but for now, Skye played her part, guiding Ban.
“Well, let’s go see what we have. Ban, you may be wondering if anything I said was true. Let me show it to you personally.” Skye felt odd to lead him, considering she was leading him to something of proof, but instead, they were going in to steal, or at the least, work out what the hell was on the other side. The metal door on the outside of the lab opened, and beyond that, an even larger door hissed open.
Ban smiled and winked at Skye then fell into place as they exited the lift. He paced just a step or two behind Skye and to her left. He slowed and stayed in the rear, crossing one arm across his chest, trying to appear casual even with the number of people around now. He was starting to get a little antsy now. Old instinct perhaps.
He turned and looked at the German woman, his eyes narrowing then doing his best not to growl. She knew quite a bit about him it seems. His Clan, his family, where he worked and the location of it no less. Everything in him screamed at him to shut her up somehow and make sure that information never got out. His hand briefly twitched and went for the katana in his jacket, it’d be so easy to, a swift cut, and she’d be silenced. But discipline again stopped him. He took a deep breath and bowed, “Many things have been revealed to. The perfidy of the woman who I thought my friend and mentor has been revealed.” One of the other people in the room saying something about it was bound to happen, even to the best.
And to anyone really familiar with Ban, Skye at the very least in the room, it’s clear the Yakuza is planning just how he could kill everyone in the room except for Skye as quickly and cleanly as he could. But before he could finish the doors open and beyond the vault doors hiss apart.
Ban takes a deep breath forcing his want for violence down, and follows in Skye’s wake.
And with it, Skye walked through, the vault doors opening up and revealing inside at first, a blinding white light, with sample after sample along the walls, various chemicals, a but all vialled, all contained. This seemed strange. Like a bloodbank, but something else altogether stranger, that nobody here was quite qualified to understand, well, aside from the techs, scientists, and maybe Rose herself. For such a secure whiteroom, the containment was clearly clear, and well, Rose had been here before. Skye couldn’t exactly say why, but it felt almost like her marks, her trace were over this. The Scot looked over the vials, looking back to Ban, curious. They were alone, the techs left at the start, and leaving them behind as the room illuminated in purple and blue light, revealing a lab, vaults of samples and what you would typically be expecting to see in a biochemistry set.
“These look similar. Odd. They’re somewhat a green compound, then the burgundy ones over there.” Skye commented, tsking, walking up to one of those claret ones in particular.
“So, she carried this with her in Patagonia, wanting to stab me with it in a syringe. Then she did. Clearly some sort of sorted neurotoxin….called “Hestia”. That’s the same thing Pavel said. That is weird.” Skye wouldn’t have known the details that Raven knew now on top of her own historic knowledge, but the other side, the green ones, that she recognised more as she walked over.
“Okay. So, that’s the opposite. Sol. That’s the sun.. I don’t get it. So if that thing there should kill instantly, why make this as a sample? Strange…and why is Pavel saying both when he’s drunk out of his ass?” Skye said almost the more obvious thoughts in her mind out loud, looking to Ban, then looking across the far end. She took one of the vials out, the reinforced polymer in hand as she carried it, then peering across to Ban, who probably looked very, very confused.
“Oh, right. Long story. There’s something to tell you at the end. Shall we have a look? Outflaw, we are pushing further into the vault. I’ll see if there’s anything we can can get you into.” Skye asked, almost a telling voice, her curiosity piquing. The temperature in the vault was cold, making her shiver, the translucent plastic blinds hiding something.
The yakuza stepped into the vault and looked around. Then had to lower his head and rub his eyes, “Ahhh so bright…” He looks up again to make sure there are not cameras, well none that Enri hasn’t already taken. He nods at the pair in the room, “Can you see this Enri-chan? This place is…I don’t know…both disgusting and far too clean to be real. I feel like this is another world entirely.” Ban paced to one of the walls and made his way slowly down, looking at the vials, and the beakers and all the glass containers, “These names mean almost nothing, but each one, feels like a disaster waiting to happen.” He reaches up almost touching a vial with some stange blue powder within. But stops himself before his fingers rest on it, “Rose, have probably used each of these, or tried too. But schemes could someone have for these powders and liquids.”
Turning he nodded and caught up with Skye, “Yes, we should, maybe we can find the thing that is likely to cause the most problems.” He edged over towards the other end of the room carefully, looking back at the vault door they came in through then back towards Skye, catching up with her finally, “Let’s hope.”
"No eyes on the inside. Let me see…" She fired up a search engine on a different screen, “Hestia, Greek goddess of hearth and home. And sacrificial fire, that's ominous. Sol was... the Roman god of sunlight. Hm, probably unrelated then?” She’d hoped whoever this ‘Rose’ person was she’d be stupid enough to assign meaningful codenames. And while the initial security would’ve been laughable were it not sad, no such luck here, or at least she couldn’t see the connection if there was one.
Skye replied to both, knowing Ban was no doubt confused by it, and so too would be Enri. It made sense, well, the fact none of it really did. But beyond the plastic? There was an allure. A pulling of the feeling, the sense as she knew that Enri would have unlikely seen beyond, and Ban neither.
“Copy. Yeah, this is weird. Maybe this connects to something.” With both their thoughts in mind, Skye peeled back the plastic, and stepped on through.
There’s a deep, horrid sinking feeling that hits her, as she saw the room, as long as the skyscraper must have been wide, and nothing really could have even given her any preparation for it all. There’s nothing she can say, as the lights flicker about, Skye walking past one, after another, after another. The horror persists on her face, as she looks back at Ban, the one moment likely he’s just seen the color drain out of her. She knew this had to exist….but seeing it was like a fucking nightmare come to life.
Calling it a gigantic plastic bag would be an understatement, but inside of it lay what looked to be the identical copies of Skye herself, one, after another, after another, mounted in what looked like hardpoints on the low ceiling and their own little bubbles, above a padded and reinforced panel below that upon activation, would rupture and dump into, also explaining the grate and the fluid that possessed the insides of the bags, making them turgid to the touch.
No umbilical cord, just a pipe in each of their throats, and probably what kept their lungs and internals sealed, with a wire protruding from the top of the sack into the neck of each body, the translucent material revealing a fully grown human being, not some child, not some toddler, but right now, age for age, like for like, Skye fucking Rosalind Lyons times about thirty, aged thirty-one, red hair, everything else. There’s this incredible feeling of every piece of Skye’s own humanity feeling like it sank, bit by bit, piece by piece, as she walked up, looking into the closed eyes of her own self. Rose was strange, this was straight up hurting her own sense of self, because every single one of them could be her. Someone with feelings, emotions....it wasn't like looking in a mirror, it was like looking in a mirror and being able to physically touch her own, plastic lined body.
“This is fucked…….I knew we’d have to see it sometime. Doesn’t make it any easier. Jesus…..it’s like a fucking doll in a supermarket. Ban, this is me. Or Rose. And it’s how she comes back from the dead. Holy shit. This is……this is insane..” Skye said, her Scottishisms coming through now, despite her vocal patch, a deep, husky sigh coming out of her, as she took air back in.
“Outflaw, standby. This is uhhh……fuck, quite a hard one to explain.” She said, cutting herself off, the usual confidence that had emerged a few minutes ago now sapping, but still, she pushed on.
“Console at the end. This could be it, Ban. Maybe it’s all of them. Or just a sample. Let’s go find out. Though fuck me, I don’t know if I want to. Oh well. Not like we have a choice.” Skye retorted, walking slowly on the metal grate, no obvious computational power here but instead, an array of networks, all pointing to one singular node.
“Outflaw, we’ve found an extension to the facility. Likely no way in for you on the plans, but there’s a terminal. We’re going to see what it comes up with.” Skye walked slow, taking deep huffs, trying to contain herself. Holy shit. Maybe this was it. Rose’s bodies were just all here, they just needed to pull the plug, and done. It may not have been, but what was here, that would be crucial.
Ban stepped forward but choked as he saw what lay there, some kind of plastic container? Bags? No, this is something else entirely. He gets closer. Then without really thinking draws his sword from within his coat. Staring at them laying there. He looked between the bodies and then at Skye, “They look like you Kitsune-chan. Nandayo…Fauru.” He holds his sword one handed, and waves his other hand in front of his face as if to clear a foul smell, or clear his senses of something he never wanted to see.
After a bit the yakuza soldier shakes his head, “This is foul, to play with the human body, and keep this in storage. An affront to everything sacred and fair.” He slowly slides his sword away, “Everything in me says to end these things here, deprive Rose of what they can be used for. But even I am not dark hearted enough to just kill something that could become someone. Even if it is your bitch of a noppera-bo. What do we do with them then?”
Skye shook her head, knowing this was beyond bonkers. Even his question felt difficult for Skye to swallow, considering the context of what this was. They weren’t alive, but shit, they were her, many, many versions. None of this idea of was she even real, no, that felt a little bit stagnant, it just felt like were any versions here? Just shells, chassis, carcasses that just had a potential to be inhabited, yet had no soul, purpose, direction? They weren’t even drones, something you could fill, the only thing that could do it was one person and that person was a split of the person that could do such a thing. It hurt her head, with Skye staying quiet, silent even, as she walked to the end terminal. Before she mustered up the words to reply, finding it harder, but....rationalising. Trying.
“The only thing they can become is Rose. The only thing they are is her. There’s nothing in there. No soul, no person, no consciousness. Nobody’s waking up if you rip that bag open. Nobody’s in there……though fuck, it feels wrong. On a level I can’t even really understand. We need to stop all of this. But we need to know how this works.” Skye added in reply, bringing up the terminal, and tapping in. A password, but again, through Skye’s biometrics, it sort of passed by easily enough. And then it was in. This wasn’t a system connected to anything in the building, or the servers, anything at all. It seemed to be connected to some sort of cloud network, out of building of course, but this was just a host point. Skye looked over at the data, pulling up a few bits she could do from here, knowing Outflaw must have been screaming to get in. For a relatie few seconds, Skye had to know herself. Had to see this.
“Oh, shit. That makes sense. Those hoses. They’re not just cutoffs. They’re sucking blood out of her and pumping nutrition in. Fuck me. Why are they doing that?” Skye said out loud, looking to Ban, realizing…..ahhh, shit. That was why. The neurotoxin. The work Spectre was doing. Shit, this was a factory. They were harvesting her.
Her blood was the last piece for the drug’s activation, an amino acid and protein compound that enabled the last building block of a complex biochemical weapon that turned it from a tame sarin-like substance into a complicated, human-focussed poison. That became clear because every interface was suggesting it now, and it all aligned in her head. The toxin targeted strands of specifically human nodes, given Rose’s blood linking it in. Hestia. The hearth, the fire. And that meant….Sol was a pacifier. The sun, the light. A way to keep Rose’s bodies in check, and what stopped the neurotoxin from just killing her straight away like Skye's experience had given, and likely, a byproduct of separation kept aside. That bit that Sophie mentioned…..Rose’s DNA was deteriorating with every copy and so left the bodies alive with maybe a decade to live at most, so now that made sense. But this was all a fever dream. And her head was spinning, even Skye’s intelligence hurt and she could barely make sense of the ringing in her ears, the fuzzy feeling of every footstep, her own heart thumping and clattering.
She could barely even explain this to Ban, or Enri, but it would in the data coming out of this later. If Raven had the tails of how the biochemical weapon worked, then right now, Skye, Ban and Enri were now seeing how the nuts and bolts worked. She had everything ready bar the deployment mechanism. And that would kill millions, if not more done right.
With a turn of the AR-enabled console, Skye plugged in one of her last remaining USBs, bringing it into focus for Outflaw.
“All yours.” She uttered, still bewildered, in shock and trying to get her head around it all. There was no way Outflaw was going to be able to hack everything here, and well, it was an encrypted network she’d likely not be able to understand, and nodes poked it off, given this wasn’t the server, but one of the offshoots. It was the peering eye inside of the mechanism that did this all, from the simple system to the one that basically turned Rose into someone who could respawn. And there it was again. Hestia Sol. Both together now. That was it. The AI, the bit that parsed the memory, the cutoff that Rose had mentioned. She mentioned it all as if Skye would follow. Why? And fuck, how long did they have now? There was insight to see perhaps where the node went, but it would be complex, and likely, not yield much in the way. It was blocked off enough as a pathway that it’d only give an indication of the central server, where Rose’s mere fucking existence would come from and into here. So maybe it was the only one, or maybe there were more. No answers there, but well, perhaps this wasn’t it. But it was useful enough. Cutting that off would sever this whole place, but likely, there would also be a killswitch here too for the bodies, and Skye looked for it as Enri did and Ban would have the chance to take it all in.
With the entry team moving deeper into the vault, Enri busied herself with the data mine and understanding the security features of the building in case things went sour until she got pinged by FastByte, a location and two associated cameras. A pair of guards approaching the desk where Skye and ban took out the two engineers. “Fishsticks…” The hacker muttered, sifting through the security system. Security lockdown, no. PA, no. Fire alarm. Picking out an office, far enough away to distract them but close enough to make sure those two would respond, she triggered the annoying buzzer, the two turning on their heels and making for the disturbance. Whew, crisis averted, or at least delayed.
Right on time, as Skye had just plugged in the second infected drive. “I see it.” Enri confirmed, skimming what she had access to now. Not even intending to pretend she understood any of it, she just bumped it up the data mine queue, figuring they could sift through it later at their own pace. “It will take some time, but on the plus side I can pretty much make the building dance a tango if we feel like it, so there’s that.”
Skye heard the reply, the muttering of Enri back, knowing she was puzzled, but, creative as ever.
“That is good. We may need that. Though….Outflaw, get a look at this. It’s a killswitch. Drowns them basically. And….I’m not pressing that. It’s alarmed, has to be.” Skye muttered, noting the reality of this. She hurt a little, because well, this is possibly the most fucked up thing to do. Killing one person in hot blood, then in cold, now, thirty? Fuck that. This was beyond wild.
“Wait. Rose’s old body got snatched, because of the tracker. And those bags are likely alarmed too….and her bodies may be tracked. So….that means….okay. This might be insane.” Skye said, looking to Ban, with a glint in her eye.
“I may have an idea. But we’ll need to be quick. Outflaw, I got one more for you. We may have a way to kill something else in the system while we’re at it. Make this one your priority. Can you sever the tracking link to the…..uhhh, body in Bay 15? Let me know when ready.” Skye added, knowing Enri was likely one hell of a busy girl, the guards distracted below, and all of this. And she sent across the routine, that linked to something else in particular. The very blood being sucked, and recirculated out of the bodies. The tracking nanites were at availability here, and well, any tampering was going to be hard-wired to set the alarms. Skye had something up her sleeve. They needed to die, the bodies needed to, and they were taking Rose with them. One Rose.
The yakuza curled an eyebrow, looking at Skye curiously, then back at the bodies, “So your yokai bitch of a copies body was taken. And here we sit and wonder.” He hums softly, “A puzzle then. How do we fuck with her and her ponzi’s?” He looked about then back at Skye, “An idea? Well apart from that time in Hong Kong where you let me fall into a pit, your ideas haven’t led us astray yet.” He cocked his head over and turned to the vault down, narrowing his eyes, “I feel like we may be running out of time though. We may wish to begin to hurry.”
Skye nodded, knowing that no doubt, Ban would need to trust her. Even if what she was proposing was about to be wild.
“It’s really stupid. But, so far we’ve been pretty good so far. Make your way over there, Ban, and cut it open. When you do, I’ll hit the killswitch. Grab the body, and we are going to run like fuck out of here. I’ll shoot, you keep a hold. I think you could probably use her a shield, but….try not to get her TOO riddled with bullets. We have our way back in.” Skye smiled, knowing fuck it, if she’s gonna die, well, may as well be this way.
“Let’s see, bay 15… 15…” Enri muttered absent-mindedly. She took maybe twenty seconds to understand how it worked. It was stupidly simple actually, military software at its finest. However advanced, it still has to be simple, rugged and understandable by a conscript. With near total control of the communication systems and the laboratory computers, making one of the other bodies send two sets of packets, one of its own and another masquerading as body 15 and silencing the true 15, wasn’t hard. “15’s a ghost, what now?”
Skye nodded to the invisible Enri on the comms, picking up the call.
“Okay, perfect. No more tracking for her there via that bloodstream. Okay, Outflaw, check the vault door and keep it open for us as long as you can. We may need some distractions in the building, we need as much as possible on the ground floor, ideally sprinklers or something else to set it off….or something else creative. Ban, you ready to cut Rose down from her bag? Moment you do, I hit the switch, this place severs all the bodies, alarm goes off, and we steal one of me. I’ll shoot, you hold and run.” Skye chirped, taking a deep breath. Fucking hell, she thought. This isn’t an average day out, as she brought up the killswitch routine, and with it ready to go, knew the alarms would be set off the moment this triggered. There was even a risk that the vault would shut, and she half hoped that this would work.
Sprinklers… thermally triggered, builders were smart. But the high sensitivity areas ran on a halon system to avoid water damage. Team didn’t have SCBA gear, but that just meant she had to plan carefully where she’d trigger them. Figuratively paving a path for the two to take. Next, for proper confusion, lights. Once again, the team didn’t have NODs. Once again, she took a bit of time to exclude lights in the sections along the way from her scheming. Fire and security bulkheads, those would serve nicely to trap any responders in conjunction with having subjected the cameras. Vault door, failsafe of course, built to close if things went wrong. No manual release on the inside as far as she could find, but here the location worked in their favor, the heavy door needing to close slowly to avoid stressing the building. “You’ll have thirty seconds to get out of the vault, after that it should be smooth sailing.” ENri hesitated a bit before asking the next question. “What I’m about to do on your mark could kill a lot of people in here. Do we? If not, I’ll need a minute or so.”
“Do it.” Skye replied, cold in her turn, and looking with eyes over at Ban, ready and in position, and well, moving to position. Enri had their path set. They had to run. Elevator, drop down, and then, through the lobby, and back out. Fuck me, she thought. This was going to be interesting without the exo. But that meant she just had other tricks up her sleeve, and Enri right now was playing a blinder, as was Ban with his carbine weapons and a human shield MADE of Skye. She ripped her patch off her neck, the device coming close to the end of its battery, and now switched to her normal, Scots tone of an accent. No need to impersonate, a spare would be available if she really needed, but they were going to be blown.
Ban paced over to bay 15, looked inside then drew his sword once more, “Alright, so the alarms should be off yes? Then…” He stepped forward, and slide the tip of his sword into the side of the bag whispering, “Kurinkatto…” As he slides the blade carefully up from the bottom of the bag towards the head. Tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he made the cut carefully. And when he is done and no alarms go off he gives the blade a flick, habit to clean the blade before sliding it back into the scabbard, “Alright, hello there bakemono…” He says again as he slides his arms into the bag and pulls the look-alike body out of the bag, “Hah O kinodoku ni, a pity that a silent form like this would be used by such a monster.” He heaves the body up over one shoulder, taking his sword ing the other hand, “Alright, now what?”
“Yours to carry!” With that, Skye clapped the switch and suddenly, all hell broke fucking loose. Skye watched as with a simultaneous trigger, every body of Rose’s left just dropped limp, the hose released, a few bodies breaking their sacks and splashing into the floor and grate with what was like a weird amniotic fluid everywhere, and well, Skye took the chance to run past those. Ban was in position doing what he did, and Skye ran in front, G36 now brought back into hands, the alarm suddenly blaring off, the pace of Skye bolting through like every dump of adrenaline had recharged again, running towards the lab sector at the front, rifle raised as a few men ran inside, Skye sliding behind one of the lab bulkheads. With a turn, she clattered one in the head, and slid across the desk with a leap above her whilst holding the G36 tight, even in spite of the length of the rifle clattering one more, breaking into a pace and clapping one more running in, the vault slowly closing. They had neurotoxin in here, but were paying no mind. They knew the threat. Fuck, their lives were irrelevant if what had happened just happened. Not that Skye cared too much, right now bigger priorities were at stake here.
“Shit, run!” Skye yelled to Ban, covering outside, the German guard nowhere to be seen as she flicked a new mag in as the vault began to start swinging shut, moving to a corner as she heard more come. With a look, Skye let the men run from out of the dark into the bright light of the lobby, and using it, ambushed them, pushing one rifle aside and letting his weight charge into her, using his rifle to clatter one man, before rolling across and using his knife to shank him, knowing even if physically she wasn’t on him, she was still here, still fighting. Standing up, she looked to Ban and well, Rose being carried? They needed to get down to ground level and out of here, and with that, Skye hailed the elevator up, knowing they needed to leave, now.
“Lift’s coming.”
To Skye and ban, not much will have changed. Everywhere else in the building, security doors slammed shut, lights switched off and the fire alarm started blaring. On the topmost floors, the pandemonium was made complete by the halon gas extinguishers. Enri tried not to think about the people trapped in a dark place quickly running out of oxygen, though in a past life she used to know at least one person who would’ve approved of an efficient use of time.
Quickly Ban hiked the body up once more then braced, before making a swift run out of the vault. Keeping in Skye’s shadow, as the Scotswoman started to fire, cutting guards down. The yakuza was not idle though. As some guards managed to flank the strange trio. Ban seeing them as they flicked out riot batons. But even one handed the Kingo family sword is very sharp indeed. The first baton to try and strike him is caught on the flat of the sword, then with a skilled turn the baton goes flying, and a short flick the guard drops back holding his hand where the mono-edge blade had just opened his forearm almost to the bone. Another guard trying to capitalize gets kicked in the chest, sent reeling and over the security desk, and landing with a crash behind it. A third and a fourth slowing. Even an encumbered Ban is dangerous. He grins, “Hey…catch!” And throws the body at the other two who scramble to catch it.
Ban grins taking two quick hopping steps, jumping and spinning, his right leg coming up and smashing both guards across the faces. Landing just in time to take the body back from their crumpling forms.
And off he goes again running for the lift, “I am surprised this has worked this well so far!” He shouts as he comes sliding into the lift.
“Good timing.” Skye replied, as the door dinged open, and with it, Skye kept to a side. Two men charged out, more guards. Shit, they were intercepted. But, not exactly hard as they saw Ban first, with Rose in hand, and that meant Skye at the side just pointed the barrel at one man’s head with a grizzly pop, before the other managed to turn, Skye had already dived onto his leg and with a gentle turn, pulled her legs into him and stabbed. It must have been something for Ban to see, Skye Lyons hadn’t really lost her edge at all. If Adam was good as an operative with a team, the Scot just didn’t really relent here at all, even without her exo, it felt more like she had to use ambush tactics rather than pure force and clearly struggled more, but the guards were rushing and Skye was ready. Standing to that, she got inside, sighing, hitting for Ground Floor, and looking over to Ban.
“Well. We’re not out yet.” Skye huffed, exhaling hard, yanking the mag out of the G36 and loading a new one in, shaking her head as she cocked the rifle.
“I’m gonna have fucking nightmares now. Fuck. How do you unsee that?” Skye rhetorically asked, looking down at Rose, with a couple of rounds.
“Oof. Okay. This bit is risky. Outflaw, we’re nearly at ground. When we hit, trigger whatever last tricks you have. We’re going to make a pace for the nearby parking garage, and get out of here.” The Scot commented, looking then to Ban, holding the very naked, very slippery, bullet round having copy of her own fucking self.
“As human shields go, you could have picked one with bigger tits, Ban. But we can’t be picky.” Skye chirped, the dark, black humour a fucked way of coping from the Scots lass, but well, what didn’t kill you, actually…..well, best not to think on that analogy. She was as crude as ever, perhaps probably the only way to keep her spirits up considering what she saw would turn most people inside out.
“Lobby’s a no-go, everyone I couldn’t contain is flooding out that way. Go right from the elevator and then take the second right, stairwell down, looks like an exit through a maintenance room.” Enri offered, finally making sense of the situation and being able to focus on the cameras. “Do I leave the trojans active or do I kill their whole local network?”
“Kill the link, we have what we need. You have what you need, if the flow is in order for the rest of the data you’ve taken already. That’s what’ll help us put two and two together. Also, this….thing, person? I’m not sure. There’s something in there too. Cheers for the advice. We’ll go on your move.” Skye commented back to Enri, readying up, sighing deep.
Ban cackled, and reached up, “Breasts are all well and good.” Then palms the bodies ass, “But I like them round down here then up there.” He cackles and gives Skye a wiggly eyebrow moment, yes he’s being playful and maybe a little lewd as he spanks the body’s rear, “Ah if I were younger and less repressed.” She shrugged, “Now is not the time.” He lowered his hand off the bare posterior. Pressing his back to the lift wall, to be out of the way immediately. By now any guards on lower floors would likely know that who they thought was Rose is now the Real Skye deal, and he’s not here to join them. If they don’t try and get them to surrender they are just going to try and riddle the inside of the lift with whatever they had.
“Dirty bastard. I mean, she’s not exactly Barbie. I’m so fucking glad my father didn’t think so. Not unlike some people we worked with.” Skye retorted, referring to herself, or Rose somewhat for the former, and well, the others could be imagined from the diverse team of Raven in the latter.
Enri set up the commands to execute, setting the window aside. “It’s dead the moment you’re outside. Two guards twenty meters ahead, three seconds to a corner.” She guesstimated.
The doors opened, and the guards readied to fire, unsure however, but Skye had the rifle pointed direct forwards, and shot first through the crack as it opened and blindly fired, picking one, then two, bolting out and covering Ban, at a direct pace. They moved direct to the corner, immediately out as other guards started to flood out from the side of the lobby, Skye covering his six as she shot rounds back, using cover and keeping her head down as rounds flew. Moving from pace to pace, she ran down the stairwell, covering a man flanking Ban with a tap to the head, reloading with a frantic energy, charging down the stairwell. They could run through the maintenance room and out to the street, then out of there.
Carrying a naked woman and her exact twin would be the most surreal thing Nagoya was seeing tonight once they may be out, yet somehow Skye was not entirely ensure it was the weirdest thing she’d ever seen even in the last two minutes.
“Keep fucking running!”
Ban waited for the first two guards to be hit, then he blazes out of the lift, and into the corner for cover, peeking around to see how far to the stair well, “Yosh, right…” And takes off again, thighs bulging within his pants as the augments within them push him forward at high speeds. He leaps a desk, weaves around a table, and hits the stairwell slamming his shoulder into the door to it, slamming it open. He’s about to take the stairs down, when he spots something up a level, “They’re in the stairs!” He shouts back, his voice loud over the comms link, “Ahhh it’s alright.” His sword flashed, and he caught the ankle of one of the guards on the flight leading up. Then he’s down, taking the stairs two at a time. Crying out as he slides down the last few steps and comes to a stop on the wall, beside one of the doors, “Kitsune-chan?” He shoulders open the door beside him and steps out into the next area.
“Well so much for locking it behind you.” Enri let slip a rare annoyed groan in the presence of a member of the Family, “One way for you to go, two doors and a tunnel and you’re out.”
Skye followed on that, no reply coming back considering how manic it is, running as she clapped the guard on the flight coming up, as he struggled for his weapon, running over him and back down, running through the cabinet-filled maintenance store and towards where he shouldered the door, nodding back to Ban.
“Yep, all here!” Skye didn’t really stop, charging past him, a bit rude, but checking the last room, and then letting Ban in, before moving across and dragging a pallet up to the door heaping it onto the door mechanism, pulling it so that it would be a bastard to open. It wasn’t great, but 20 seconds of bullshit was enough.
“Copy that, we’ll be going.” Skye added, and with it, moved to the next. Sweep, check, and nobody there either. Shit, this may be it. Had to be.
One last door now. With a pull, Skye couldn’t hear anything, and moved through, the service tunnel heading out into the street, and well, with it, their way through, the cold concrete contrasting the warm fire inside of Skye’s head.
“Okay. This is us. We’re moving through the tunnel now, headed to the way out. Great work, Outflaw. Saved our skins there more times than I thought. And if you have questions, believe me, this one is going to hurt your brain. We’ll move to find a vehicle and get out of dodge.” She called back, looking back to Ban, still shouldering the body, looking to him.
“Holding up okay?” She asked, checking her vest and her general arms and legs over as she moved, no rounds taken yet aware that hadn’t it have been for their work, she’d have been a goner. Rose had a bullet hole in her ribs, but it didn’t seem to be pissing out anything bar remains of blue fluid, mixed in with blood.
Ban pushed up behind Skye smiling a bit, “I feel almost young again. Like old times with Raven.” He taps the comms ear piece, “Well done Enri-chan. I’ll be sure to let the Oyabun know just how much help you were. This was not an easy task.” He looked up at the hole in Rose’s ribs, “Well, I’m surprised it’s only that.” And as things slow he coughs and pulls his coat aside, staring down at a hole just under the vest he is wearing under it, having just missed the plate down there, “So that’s what’s pulling.” He moves his arm, “Ah it’s fine. I can feel it moving in muscle not bowel.” He grits his teeth, “Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve had enough for one night. There should be an Amagi car waiting to take us to a safe house, then we can head back up to Kiyose once things have calmed down, I can’t imagine that this situation hasn’t reached the local police by now.” He picked up the pace heading for the far end of the tunnel and their way out.
“And that’s the building down.” Enri reported, the building behind them going completely dark as the trojans deleted everything and then themselves, the only trace left being two blank flash drives available at any electronics store. “Arigato, Kingo-sama. I’m packing up to go.” With the team out of immediate danger, the usual chipperness was coming back to Enri’s voice full force, “I’d never done this live support, just been in the room with the guys who did, this was fun! Don’t be a stranger, Kitsune-sama, we love repeat customers.” the hacker almost beamed.
Skye nodded to Ban, knowing it really did feel like old times. A strange return to form, but well, they had a way to go. Needing to get back home would be tricky, and well, it may be that
“The fact they pulled you up is of concern though. Let’s see how it plays. Keep the smoke long enough, they’ll lose direction. And they have bigger fish to fry now they have some attention deficit here.” Skye commented, as they kept on, and would soon be hitting light.
Enri’s comments felt similar, leaving the dead network behind, taking the data they needed and covering their tracks. It may have been good to grab more data, but they had what they needed, no point getting greedy. With any luck, the encrypted, scary-looking network that connected the bodies of Rose to the central node would be viable, as would
“Arigato to you, Outflaw. I am sure we’ll be working together again soon.” Skye replied, a smile on her own face, glad that a complete stranger merely hours ago had been the reason they’d made it out. She wondered if it was going to be worth ever properly explaining. Maybe it would be already. But if it wasn’t for her, this snatch wouldn’t be possible. The twin samples, a body, and the data they had. If there was ever a way to respond, Outflaw had without knowing, turned the fortunes of a team that was chasing into one that was now back in control.
Skye Rosalind Lyons
Ban Kingo
Outflaw
Hisaya-odori Park, Nagoya, Japan
1800 Local Time
A Scots and Japanese Whiskey Blend
The two seemed almost a dynamic duo, a pairing that certainly the Scot wasn’t expecting to be back into. But it was what it was. And this was the riskiest thing she’d ever imagined they would do. The skyscraper opposite the park was a quick drop off after the car had dumped them around the corner, and Skye had stashed her gear on a rucksack, carrying it over her leather jacketed shoulder, concealing a kevlar vest and tactical equipment. The sort that would be anticipated from someone on the hunt. Skye had understood Rose had the same training- so therefore, they didn’t just have the same blood and genetics, they very much acted similarly.
“Follow my lead, Ban. Act like we belong here, and let’s stay undercover as long as possible.” Skye said, the shaven-head Scot resolute, the adrenaline pumping through her knowing they were going straight into a den full of tigers.
Armed with a G36 instead of her MCX that she pulled out of the bag before heading for the entry, the slightly more archaic weapon was a stalwart of the SAS, and a few other organizations in Britain back in the day, and perhaps was why Rose loved it so much. An iconic tool, and Skye no less had to look the part. It fit among, and Ban was in front, almost like a hostage.
With a walk inside of the building’s reception room, eyes turned, a few guards immediately coming out, guns raised upon seeing Skye, no, Rose, and Ban armed and tooled.
“Hands up!” One yelled, rifle raised, the unsuspecting Ban in front of her likely wanting to pull his rifle up and deck the two. Skye put a hand on the back of his shoulder, pulling front.
“Don’t you recognise your boss! Rifles down, lads. Get the verification.” She spoke with a convincing English accent, and toned back her mannerisms, pushing it all down. The Scot felt a little unsure, but fuck, this was something to do. Not so much impersonating someone else as the other half of her. The guards were still querying, as Skye, as Rose, sighed, walking in front, rifle lowered.
“This is Ban Kingo. He’s ex-Raven, and was harboring Skye Rosalind Lyons, but saw sense to join us instead. He is the one you fuckers couldn’t catch. Neither was she, despite my instructions! So I did some work of my own and and she’s now swimming pretty lifelessly in the Tokyo sewers. He’ll verify. While you bastards sat here, I had to get my hands dirty. Again.” Skye said, as one of them looked confused, but instead, came out with a device.
“I need a voice print and a code. I apologize….they are the security measures, Rose, as requested.” Skye shrugged in response to the guard, as she looked to Ban, reassured, the patch on her neck holding for now as she saw him pull the phone, holding it in front of Skye.
The voiceprint was easy, as she called out her name, Rosalind Lyons, easy enough. The code though, that was harder. She had to think. Actually, fuck. This was a problem. She kept thinking, thinking…..what was that date that they went to Porton Down? What was it? Rose was stuck on history. Skye wasn’t…..and she got it. Bam. And put that in. And to almost her entire relief, and shock, the six digit code worked, a bright green tick following. That shouldn’t have been so easy, but then again, maybe remembering a past was a good thing- something Rose didn’t gamble Skye would do so easily considering how far she’d run away, but since what had happened, Skye had made a mental note to remember it. Shit, this was the most awful cybersecurity she’d seen and no doubt Enri would find this the best joke of the year, but then again, Rose never looked over her shoulder. Never since now, at least. The guard nodded, and looked up.
“I apologize gravely, Miss Lyons. Welcome. Andros-san is not around, but you have full access. We have rooms upstairs for debriefing him.” His response was a Japanese level of affectionate apology, as Skye shrugged, looking to Ban, then back, the look of disappointment on her mug, almost you could call it a resting bitch face.
It was such a close thing, almost looked like they could get into the building just fine and through into other areas too. But of course no plan survives contact with the enemy. The guards approaching slows things. Ban hand slips under his long coat, hidden within his light short rifle, a HK derivative that had been shaved down to almost bare bones, barely 20 inches long all told, but could still hit like a brick shit house. But also in there, nestled just down the inside, his katana. The guards are so close, the rifle would be easy to make three pops each, the integrated suppressor would be helpful, but no his hand was just an inch away from the handle of his blade. Yes it was a close thing, and just as he felt the shark skin leather wrap…
Such a close thing.
Skye’s hand on his shoulder stops him.
Discipline, loyalty and Yakuza pride is the only thing that stays his hand and relaxes his body. Not yet.
He held still, trying to play the newly turned operative? That Rose/Skye had found him and come to fill him in? He huffed. He could work with that.
With a slow swallow he listened carefully. And that casual Japanese style familiarity, how often had Rose been here?
Ban quirked an eyebrow at Skye then made a little motion with his chin towards one of the lifts, and then a nearly imperceptible nod. It’s the best thing they could roll with right?
Skye nodded back to the guard, and stays assertive, like she owns the place, and leaves him behind, looking over her shoulder to break the silence.
“You did your job. And I did yours too, who knew. I suppose if I was Skye, she’d have had you killed a lot faster. I want more guards down here, tell Andros he’s going to get another visit from me if he doesn’t. Because I seem to be the only one hurting Raven and I am sick you don’t take it so seriously.” Skye ruthlessly responded, sighing as the guards barely replied, as Ban headed towards the elevator, Skye following towards, before they stepped in. Hitting the button, the doors shut, and the Scot looked over.
“Holy fuck. That actually worked. Shit, I was about a few seconds from giving you the double shoulder tap and we would have to ice everyone there.” Skye looked exasperated, yet giggling now, knowing Ban was no doubt freaked out by this version of Rose.
“So, let’s try and keep going. They think I’m here to debrief you. We need to keep playing this. We need to find a computer, get our friend on the network, then find the vault. And whatever is inside. Then, we really need to get out, fast.” Skye replied, the lift accelerating fast up as it went, Skye leaving the rifle slung on its strap, the alter ego she played holding true.
Ban walked to the lift and held the door as Skye finished her little tirade. He had to keep his face straight as best he could the whole time. Once the door closes he looks to make sure there are no cameras, finding none he lets out an explosive breath and sags against the lift wall, “Izanagi’s balls…how the hell did that work!” He caught his breathe carefully, “You are a born actor Kitsune-chan. I don’t think I could have pulled that off nearly as well as you did.”
He pulls out his phone on which the plans still rested, “Okay…uh fourteenth floor.” He looked over and pressed the button to set the lift going, “The network room should be up there. My mole here says that level is high enough there are fewer guards on a wider patrol. But they will all likely think you’re Rose, and we should have free reign.” He gives Skye a look, “This Rose…she seems like a iron-cold bitch. I have trouble see how you Kitsune-chan could even be remotely like her.” He gives her a good look over, “If I ever meet her i’m going to try and take her hands, Skye-chan does not deserve someone like that darkening your name.”
Skye chuckled, shaking her head, knowing this was addictive as all fuck. Holy shit, this was like Raven but way, way more toxic and worse in every single way.
“Hah, not before I get to her first, Ban. Enri’ll have a tracker on us. She’ll patch in when she needs to tell us anything, we’ll be on our own. Network room is first, then the vault after. Biometrics should get us in, which in this case, are easy. Hopefully.” The Scot replied, chuckling knowing full well Ban was probably enjoying this side, the more casual looking Skye knowing full well this operation hinged on selling that cover. Until it wouldn’t matter, they had to keep rolling that punch.
“Here we go. Good spot on the plans. Follow my lead..” Skye replied, as the doors opened, the office empty considering the evening hour, but a few guards waving to Skye, not even imagining she was the Scot but rather the elusive, secretive operative that had turned Artemis’s fortunes around. Rose was someone who didn’t want to be seen unless she had to be, and well, to be in person with an ex-Raven operative, who she seemed to be escorting, but well, rather than go direct for the rooms, they had half a detour to make. And they carried on, avoiding suspicion, and moving with an intent. A couple network engineers were in on the late shift, as Rose nodded to them, convincingly taking out a USB, as they looked on at her.
“I’ve got some intel off Raven. More for our supply. Have a peek. Courtesy of Ban Kingo. See, he likes our ideas. And this should be the final piece. I want to have him personally see what that means.” Skye said, the engineers standing at the sight, in disbelief that Rose would visit, the voice immediately identifiable from her various previous calls, slapping it onto the desk proudly. Skye knew this wasn’t going to be a simple one. They weren’t morons. They would check the USB first, and find it full of contents. But rather than hacking a laptop here, a CCTV system there, this was basically the central node. And it would be a couple more that would grant them access to a few specific controls, and they would be game, set and match.
“Oh, hello….Miss Lyons, we were not expecting you? And this is a great pleasure. Let us check.” One engineer took it off the desk that Skye placed it down on, returning to his computer, as she replied.
“Yes, well, when you have my capabilities I don’t want to be known, do I?” Skye replied, fully, totally leaning into Rose now, yet almost, to you dear reader, making it almost clear she was indulgent in the sarcasm now. There was reason for that. Walking across the room, she nodded to Ban, the other engineer peering away as she gave a pull on her throat, as incognito as she could.
And behind that other chair, she gave it a second, just a moment, before…..oh, well, his check wasn’t going to be a long one.
A hard kick to the back of the chair sent him squishing against the table as she reached forwards, pulling him down and onto the floor, pivoting him around and pulling, holding, holding, and holding, feeling the guy start to go limp as he kicked out, her stranglehold choking him out as she felt him try to kick and grab her, yet to no avail. Skye had done this a lot. Rose probably, too. And bit by bit, she felt him calm, and eventually, drop out.
“Fucking hell. Okay. Are you good?” Skye asked, looking over from her limp guard, towards Ban, who would have his person to deal with.
Ban looked at Skye and edged to the side, coming up behind the other man carefully, slowly. The pair of engineers bent over the console. He waited, watching Skye out of the corner of his eyes. And moved in near perfect sync.
The pair of engineers were looking at the contents of the USB. One of them let out a soft urp as Skye took him back and down. The second man was just beginning to turn, when the Kingo Family sword slithered up out of the coat, the scabbard still over the blade. And Ban locked the hard wood and leather scabbard over the front of the second man’s throat, and he pulled up and away, walking back slowly backwards. The engineer reaching up and trying to scratch at the scabbard then back at Ban. The former Raven soldier, renewed Yakuza using a very gangster style take down.
Ban stepped back and back and back until the engineer’s movements slowly came to a stop, his face purple from lack of air and maybe blood flow. Ban eased off and then gently laid the man on the floor, reaching down to check his pulse, “He’ll live, but will feel this pain for awhile.” He nods, “Good.” He looks around to make sure no one saw that take down, “We best hurry, I can’t imagine that this room isn’t on a pass by patrol or a physical patrol check.”
Skye nodded, in response dragging the body out, sliding him under the desk, and propping him up against the wall, having a moment’s realization. She ran quickly to the other side, finding what was one of the tech’s hoodies, and slid it under, before putting the chair underneath.
“There. Well. Sort of. Yeah, let’s make a move. First though.” Skye shrugged, knowing Enri would appreciate this. Going to the tech’s work station, she slid the USB in and saw it override all the security measures, automatically tapping past the internal security like a breeze.
“Outflaw, keys are yours, start the download if you can and tap into their network. We’re going to continue.” Skye replied, and with it, leading on Ban, knowing this would be a tense one, but still all on plan. They had a timeframe now, and that focussed things a bit better.
In a hotel on the other side of the city, a ping interrupted the bored hacker. About time, she was shit at Minesweeper anyway. Cracking her knuckles, Enri opened several windows across the three screens she had brought in, the young Yakuza buck tasked to do it occupied with a laptop near the suites door in case security was needed. Not likely. Not only did Enri set up a VPN beforehand - and as YouTube ads would tell the laymen those were bulletproof, she thought with a snicker - the entry team had taken her words about choosing targets well to heart. Almost before she had time to connect the programs she was going to need, her creation was already reporting near-total control of the target site’s communications.
“You made good time.” She quipped to announce her presence on comms, “They’ll need a crystal ball to find our transmissions, we can talk freely. I’m setting up the data mine now, give me two minutes for cameras.” if they had them. If you were doing shady stuff, you wouldn’t want records of it, she thought as she set the wheels in motion, feeding security data back to her main servers where an AI would determine areas and events of note and bring them up to a human operator to sort out. She quickly opened a communications window, a disheveled man in pajamas on the other side. “FastByte, we’re beginning.” He did not waste time answering, the man and his two brothers regular contractors Enri had met in university. In the meantime, another AI was already sniffing out every last byte of what Kitsune might be interested in. One jack-of-all-trades would’ve worked, but smaller, specialized programs were her whole schtick. It sold better and usually worked faster, too.
The guards from earlier were gone, as they got back to the lift, and tapping the button, the lift came up, the doors opening again and the two back inside. Skye knew
“Floor 24. This one might be a bit more tense. But let’s find out what the hell is going on.” Skye commented to Ban, turning to face him, knowing she had some explaining.
“I don’t know what we’re going to run into. But apparently, whatever the cure to this neurotoxin is, it’s here. I imagine you could burn it off just as easy. But, there may be some reason she’s kept it in her locker. And I don’t think we’ll understand it fully until we do. There are going to be a lot more questions than answers, Ban. You really don’t want to know what Rose is like. But you wouldn’t have signed up for what we did if you didn’t believe that. Trust me. I appreciate this more than my life is worth right now..” Skye said, knowing Ban was fully in on this ride or die shit right now, but that was the way the game would go. Checking herself over, she coughed a little, brushing off the fact she’d just choked someone out barely minutes ago, and readied up, another floor, another job.
Ban checked around the room once more, then hid his katana again in his coat. He picked his way out moving along in sync once more with Skye. Moving back to the Lift. He nodded again and hit the button for floor twenty four. The lift began again. Ban leaning on the wall lightly, he turned and smiled as the woman began to speak, “I watch and listen and see this as yet another dark thing we have to excise from the soul of this world.” He smiled brightly, “I still don’t fully understand what is happening, but I would not have joined you in this if I didn’t believe in you.” He nods, “Rose sounds like a true bitch, and if we can get something up on her without her truly knowing, then I believe in we will know eventually. And hopefully we can get you back to your family exonerated.” He looked up as the lift reached floor nineteen, “You have a life rich of experiences, and it is worth more then royal gold.” He faces her again, “And I’ll lay down my life if I have too to make sure you get it all back.” He gave her a bow, then straightened as the lift neared their next destination.
Skye nodded, hopeful, glad at least someone was on side. Oracle certainly wasn’t- whilst there was no doubt it would be painful to do something to her, precautions would need to be taken. She hoped the team was okay, at least, somewhat holding up. They would be. She wouldn’t have recruited them if she hadn’t, for now, the only thing that mattered was this. Whatever the fuck the cure was, whatever the hell they were looking at after, and what it meant. It would be an olive branch, a way back in and at least, it would put a dent in her plans. Creating dilemmas rather than nice choices, Skye perceived it as. Rose would do the same. Exactly that, like in New Zealand- perhaps forcing a choice of staying and fighting, or retreating and losing. And now they had to make this pay. Make this work.
“Glad you trust me. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, I would say the same, but, I’ve killed the hag twice and she’s kept fucking coming back. Not going to lie, it doesn’t make it any easier to kill the person who has your face.” Skye quipped back, the lift slowing, as they came to it. This was it. This was the floor that scared Skye, somewhat, but she had to push through that fear. The doors opened, and with it, the two emerged, a much higher density of guards here now. They all recognised Rose, the security check at entry passed as they knew what she was here for.
“Miss Lyons, you are a surprise to see here. You move in shadows, but it is a pleasure. I know you like to check on things, but I wasn’t expecting something so soon.” One asked, the German woman standing from her desk, not following the others in bowing, aware of Rose’s presence here, her mannerisms, her way here.
“That I do. I need to show this man something. Something rather important to our cause…and to me. Can you open the vault for me, please?” Skye asked, the girl looking up and down Ban, moving aside from the desk.
“This is Ban Kingo? We checked on him. Amagi Clan, pachinko parlor operator in Kiyose City. Rose….what does he serve us, if you don’t mind me asking? Not my place, but I am curious where he fits. You know me, I’m just curious about too much.” Skye sighed, knowing the question was an honest one, but chances were, Rose had built up a relationship with this person. It’s odd, because Skye is playing her out to that end.
“He knows how they work. And once I worked my magic on him, he gets it. He’s clever enough to figure out why Skye lied to him, lied to all of them. And I’ll say it in front of him….I think he was disillusioned with it all. Probably why he ended up out. How he didn’t get his head washed up, I don’t know. Whatever that shit they get up to get people out…..means he’s useful. Just needs a little proof though. And he’ll be hunting the rest of Raven by tomorrow morning.” Skye said, chuckling, a wry smile on her face, not unlike her usual own, but very much leaning into Rose’s.
“Well, fine. We’ll open it up. All yours, Rose.” The guard replied, and with it, instructed a group of her team to make way, headed to a panel. Mental note, that needed hacking too, but for now, Skye played her part, guiding Ban.
“Well, let’s go see what we have. Ban, you may be wondering if anything I said was true. Let me show it to you personally.” Skye felt odd to lead him, considering she was leading him to something of proof, but instead, they were going in to steal, or at the least, work out what the hell was on the other side. The metal door on the outside of the lab opened, and beyond that, an even larger door hissed open.
Ban smiled and winked at Skye then fell into place as they exited the lift. He paced just a step or two behind Skye and to her left. He slowed and stayed in the rear, crossing one arm across his chest, trying to appear casual even with the number of people around now. He was starting to get a little antsy now. Old instinct perhaps.
He turned and looked at the German woman, his eyes narrowing then doing his best not to growl. She knew quite a bit about him it seems. His Clan, his family, where he worked and the location of it no less. Everything in him screamed at him to shut her up somehow and make sure that information never got out. His hand briefly twitched and went for the katana in his jacket, it’d be so easy to, a swift cut, and she’d be silenced. But discipline again stopped him. He took a deep breath and bowed, “Many things have been revealed to. The perfidy of the woman who I thought my friend and mentor has been revealed.” One of the other people in the room saying something about it was bound to happen, even to the best.
And to anyone really familiar with Ban, Skye at the very least in the room, it’s clear the Yakuza is planning just how he could kill everyone in the room except for Skye as quickly and cleanly as he could. But before he could finish the doors open and beyond the vault doors hiss apart.
Ban takes a deep breath forcing his want for violence down, and follows in Skye’s wake.
And with it, Skye walked through, the vault doors opening up and revealing inside at first, a blinding white light, with sample after sample along the walls, various chemicals, a but all vialled, all contained. This seemed strange. Like a bloodbank, but something else altogether stranger, that nobody here was quite qualified to understand, well, aside from the techs, scientists, and maybe Rose herself. For such a secure whiteroom, the containment was clearly clear, and well, Rose had been here before. Skye couldn’t exactly say why, but it felt almost like her marks, her trace were over this. The Scot looked over the vials, looking back to Ban, curious. They were alone, the techs left at the start, and leaving them behind as the room illuminated in purple and blue light, revealing a lab, vaults of samples and what you would typically be expecting to see in a biochemistry set.
“These look similar. Odd. They’re somewhat a green compound, then the burgundy ones over there.” Skye commented, tsking, walking up to one of those claret ones in particular.
“So, she carried this with her in Patagonia, wanting to stab me with it in a syringe. Then she did. Clearly some sort of sorted neurotoxin….called “Hestia”. That’s the same thing Pavel said. That is weird.” Skye wouldn’t have known the details that Raven knew now on top of her own historic knowledge, but the other side, the green ones, that she recognised more as she walked over.
“Okay. So, that’s the opposite. Sol. That’s the sun.. I don’t get it. So if that thing there should kill instantly, why make this as a sample? Strange…and why is Pavel saying both when he’s drunk out of his ass?” Skye said almost the more obvious thoughts in her mind out loud, looking to Ban, then looking across the far end. She took one of the vials out, the reinforced polymer in hand as she carried it, then peering across to Ban, who probably looked very, very confused.
“Oh, right. Long story. There’s something to tell you at the end. Shall we have a look? Outflaw, we are pushing further into the vault. I’ll see if there’s anything we can can get you into.” Skye asked, almost a telling voice, her curiosity piquing. The temperature in the vault was cold, making her shiver, the translucent plastic blinds hiding something.
The yakuza stepped into the vault and looked around. Then had to lower his head and rub his eyes, “Ahhh so bright…” He looks up again to make sure there are not cameras, well none that Enri hasn’t already taken. He nods at the pair in the room, “Can you see this Enri-chan? This place is…I don’t know…both disgusting and far too clean to be real. I feel like this is another world entirely.” Ban paced to one of the walls and made his way slowly down, looking at the vials, and the beakers and all the glass containers, “These names mean almost nothing, but each one, feels like a disaster waiting to happen.” He reaches up almost touching a vial with some stange blue powder within. But stops himself before his fingers rest on it, “Rose, have probably used each of these, or tried too. But schemes could someone have for these powders and liquids.”
Turning he nodded and caught up with Skye, “Yes, we should, maybe we can find the thing that is likely to cause the most problems.” He edged over towards the other end of the room carefully, looking back at the vault door they came in through then back towards Skye, catching up with her finally, “Let’s hope.”
"No eyes on the inside. Let me see…" She fired up a search engine on a different screen, “Hestia, Greek goddess of hearth and home. And sacrificial fire, that's ominous. Sol was... the Roman god of sunlight. Hm, probably unrelated then?” She’d hoped whoever this ‘Rose’ person was she’d be stupid enough to assign meaningful codenames. And while the initial security would’ve been laughable were it not sad, no such luck here, or at least she couldn’t see the connection if there was one.
Skye replied to both, knowing Ban was no doubt confused by it, and so too would be Enri. It made sense, well, the fact none of it really did. But beyond the plastic? There was an allure. A pulling of the feeling, the sense as she knew that Enri would have unlikely seen beyond, and Ban neither.
“Copy. Yeah, this is weird. Maybe this connects to something.” With both their thoughts in mind, Skye peeled back the plastic, and stepped on through.
There’s a deep, horrid sinking feeling that hits her, as she saw the room, as long as the skyscraper must have been wide, and nothing really could have even given her any preparation for it all. There’s nothing she can say, as the lights flicker about, Skye walking past one, after another, after another. The horror persists on her face, as she looks back at Ban, the one moment likely he’s just seen the color drain out of her. She knew this had to exist….but seeing it was like a fucking nightmare come to life.
Calling it a gigantic plastic bag would be an understatement, but inside of it lay what looked to be the identical copies of Skye herself, one, after another, after another, mounted in what looked like hardpoints on the low ceiling and their own little bubbles, above a padded and reinforced panel below that upon activation, would rupture and dump into, also explaining the grate and the fluid that possessed the insides of the bags, making them turgid to the touch.
No umbilical cord, just a pipe in each of their throats, and probably what kept their lungs and internals sealed, with a wire protruding from the top of the sack into the neck of each body, the translucent material revealing a fully grown human being, not some child, not some toddler, but right now, age for age, like for like, Skye fucking Rosalind Lyons times about thirty, aged thirty-one, red hair, everything else. There’s this incredible feeling of every piece of Skye’s own humanity feeling like it sank, bit by bit, piece by piece, as she walked up, looking into the closed eyes of her own self. Rose was strange, this was straight up hurting her own sense of self, because every single one of them could be her. Someone with feelings, emotions....it wasn't like looking in a mirror, it was like looking in a mirror and being able to physically touch her own, plastic lined body.
“This is fucked…….I knew we’d have to see it sometime. Doesn’t make it any easier. Jesus…..it’s like a fucking doll in a supermarket. Ban, this is me. Or Rose. And it’s how she comes back from the dead. Holy shit. This is……this is insane..” Skye said, her Scottishisms coming through now, despite her vocal patch, a deep, husky sigh coming out of her, as she took air back in.
“Outflaw, standby. This is uhhh……fuck, quite a hard one to explain.” She said, cutting herself off, the usual confidence that had emerged a few minutes ago now sapping, but still, she pushed on.
“Console at the end. This could be it, Ban. Maybe it’s all of them. Or just a sample. Let’s go find out. Though fuck me, I don’t know if I want to. Oh well. Not like we have a choice.” Skye retorted, walking slowly on the metal grate, no obvious computational power here but instead, an array of networks, all pointing to one singular node.
“Outflaw, we’ve found an extension to the facility. Likely no way in for you on the plans, but there’s a terminal. We’re going to see what it comes up with.” Skye walked slow, taking deep huffs, trying to contain herself. Holy shit. Maybe this was it. Rose’s bodies were just all here, they just needed to pull the plug, and done. It may not have been, but what was here, that would be crucial.
Ban stepped forward but choked as he saw what lay there, some kind of plastic container? Bags? No, this is something else entirely. He gets closer. Then without really thinking draws his sword from within his coat. Staring at them laying there. He looked between the bodies and then at Skye, “They look like you Kitsune-chan. Nandayo…Fauru.” He holds his sword one handed, and waves his other hand in front of his face as if to clear a foul smell, or clear his senses of something he never wanted to see.
After a bit the yakuza soldier shakes his head, “This is foul, to play with the human body, and keep this in storage. An affront to everything sacred and fair.” He slowly slides his sword away, “Everything in me says to end these things here, deprive Rose of what they can be used for. But even I am not dark hearted enough to just kill something that could become someone. Even if it is your bitch of a noppera-bo. What do we do with them then?”
Skye shook her head, knowing this was beyond bonkers. Even his question felt difficult for Skye to swallow, considering the context of what this was. They weren’t alive, but shit, they were her, many, many versions. None of this idea of was she even real, no, that felt a little bit stagnant, it just felt like were any versions here? Just shells, chassis, carcasses that just had a potential to be inhabited, yet had no soul, purpose, direction? They weren’t even drones, something you could fill, the only thing that could do it was one person and that person was a split of the person that could do such a thing. It hurt her head, with Skye staying quiet, silent even, as she walked to the end terminal. Before she mustered up the words to reply, finding it harder, but....rationalising. Trying.
“The only thing they can become is Rose. The only thing they are is her. There’s nothing in there. No soul, no person, no consciousness. Nobody’s waking up if you rip that bag open. Nobody’s in there……though fuck, it feels wrong. On a level I can’t even really understand. We need to stop all of this. But we need to know how this works.” Skye added in reply, bringing up the terminal, and tapping in. A password, but again, through Skye’s biometrics, it sort of passed by easily enough. And then it was in. This wasn’t a system connected to anything in the building, or the servers, anything at all. It seemed to be connected to some sort of cloud network, out of building of course, but this was just a host point. Skye looked over at the data, pulling up a few bits she could do from here, knowing Outflaw must have been screaming to get in. For a relatie few seconds, Skye had to know herself. Had to see this.
“Oh, shit. That makes sense. Those hoses. They’re not just cutoffs. They’re sucking blood out of her and pumping nutrition in. Fuck me. Why are they doing that?” Skye said out loud, looking to Ban, realizing…..ahhh, shit. That was why. The neurotoxin. The work Spectre was doing. Shit, this was a factory. They were harvesting her.
Her blood was the last piece for the drug’s activation, an amino acid and protein compound that enabled the last building block of a complex biochemical weapon that turned it from a tame sarin-like substance into a complicated, human-focussed poison. That became clear because every interface was suggesting it now, and it all aligned in her head. The toxin targeted strands of specifically human nodes, given Rose’s blood linking it in. Hestia. The hearth, the fire. And that meant….Sol was a pacifier. The sun, the light. A way to keep Rose’s bodies in check, and what stopped the neurotoxin from just killing her straight away like Skye's experience had given, and likely, a byproduct of separation kept aside. That bit that Sophie mentioned…..Rose’s DNA was deteriorating with every copy and so left the bodies alive with maybe a decade to live at most, so now that made sense. But this was all a fever dream. And her head was spinning, even Skye’s intelligence hurt and she could barely make sense of the ringing in her ears, the fuzzy feeling of every footstep, her own heart thumping and clattering.
She could barely even explain this to Ban, or Enri, but it would in the data coming out of this later. If Raven had the tails of how the biochemical weapon worked, then right now, Skye, Ban and Enri were now seeing how the nuts and bolts worked. She had everything ready bar the deployment mechanism. And that would kill millions, if not more done right.
With a turn of the AR-enabled console, Skye plugged in one of her last remaining USBs, bringing it into focus for Outflaw.
“All yours.” She uttered, still bewildered, in shock and trying to get her head around it all. There was no way Outflaw was going to be able to hack everything here, and well, it was an encrypted network she’d likely not be able to understand, and nodes poked it off, given this wasn’t the server, but one of the offshoots. It was the peering eye inside of the mechanism that did this all, from the simple system to the one that basically turned Rose into someone who could respawn. And there it was again. Hestia Sol. Both together now. That was it. The AI, the bit that parsed the memory, the cutoff that Rose had mentioned. She mentioned it all as if Skye would follow. Why? And fuck, how long did they have now? There was insight to see perhaps where the node went, but it would be complex, and likely, not yield much in the way. It was blocked off enough as a pathway that it’d only give an indication of the central server, where Rose’s mere fucking existence would come from and into here. So maybe it was the only one, or maybe there were more. No answers there, but well, perhaps this wasn’t it. But it was useful enough. Cutting that off would sever this whole place, but likely, there would also be a killswitch here too for the bodies, and Skye looked for it as Enri did and Ban would have the chance to take it all in.
With the entry team moving deeper into the vault, Enri busied herself with the data mine and understanding the security features of the building in case things went sour until she got pinged by FastByte, a location and two associated cameras. A pair of guards approaching the desk where Skye and ban took out the two engineers. “Fishsticks…” The hacker muttered, sifting through the security system. Security lockdown, no. PA, no. Fire alarm. Picking out an office, far enough away to distract them but close enough to make sure those two would respond, she triggered the annoying buzzer, the two turning on their heels and making for the disturbance. Whew, crisis averted, or at least delayed.
Right on time, as Skye had just plugged in the second infected drive. “I see it.” Enri confirmed, skimming what she had access to now. Not even intending to pretend she understood any of it, she just bumped it up the data mine queue, figuring they could sift through it later at their own pace. “It will take some time, but on the plus side I can pretty much make the building dance a tango if we feel like it, so there’s that.”
Skye heard the reply, the muttering of Enri back, knowing she was puzzled, but, creative as ever.
“That is good. We may need that. Though….Outflaw, get a look at this. It’s a killswitch. Drowns them basically. And….I’m not pressing that. It’s alarmed, has to be.” Skye muttered, noting the reality of this. She hurt a little, because well, this is possibly the most fucked up thing to do. Killing one person in hot blood, then in cold, now, thirty? Fuck that. This was beyond wild.
“Wait. Rose’s old body got snatched, because of the tracker. And those bags are likely alarmed too….and her bodies may be tracked. So….that means….okay. This might be insane.” Skye said, looking to Ban, with a glint in her eye.
“I may have an idea. But we’ll need to be quick. Outflaw, I got one more for you. We may have a way to kill something else in the system while we’re at it. Make this one your priority. Can you sever the tracking link to the…..uhhh, body in Bay 15? Let me know when ready.” Skye added, knowing Enri was likely one hell of a busy girl, the guards distracted below, and all of this. And she sent across the routine, that linked to something else in particular. The very blood being sucked, and recirculated out of the bodies. The tracking nanites were at availability here, and well, any tampering was going to be hard-wired to set the alarms. Skye had something up her sleeve. They needed to die, the bodies needed to, and they were taking Rose with them. One Rose.
The yakuza curled an eyebrow, looking at Skye curiously, then back at the bodies, “So your yokai bitch of a copies body was taken. And here we sit and wonder.” He hums softly, “A puzzle then. How do we fuck with her and her ponzi’s?” He looked about then back at Skye, “An idea? Well apart from that time in Hong Kong where you let me fall into a pit, your ideas haven’t led us astray yet.” He cocked his head over and turned to the vault down, narrowing his eyes, “I feel like we may be running out of time though. We may wish to begin to hurry.”
Skye nodded, knowing that no doubt, Ban would need to trust her. Even if what she was proposing was about to be wild.
“It’s really stupid. But, so far we’ve been pretty good so far. Make your way over there, Ban, and cut it open. When you do, I’ll hit the killswitch. Grab the body, and we are going to run like fuck out of here. I’ll shoot, you keep a hold. I think you could probably use her a shield, but….try not to get her TOO riddled with bullets. We have our way back in.” Skye smiled, knowing fuck it, if she’s gonna die, well, may as well be this way.
“Let’s see, bay 15… 15…” Enri muttered absent-mindedly. She took maybe twenty seconds to understand how it worked. It was stupidly simple actually, military software at its finest. However advanced, it still has to be simple, rugged and understandable by a conscript. With near total control of the communication systems and the laboratory computers, making one of the other bodies send two sets of packets, one of its own and another masquerading as body 15 and silencing the true 15, wasn’t hard. “15’s a ghost, what now?”
Skye nodded to the invisible Enri on the comms, picking up the call.
“Okay, perfect. No more tracking for her there via that bloodstream. Okay, Outflaw, check the vault door and keep it open for us as long as you can. We may need some distractions in the building, we need as much as possible on the ground floor, ideally sprinklers or something else to set it off….or something else creative. Ban, you ready to cut Rose down from her bag? Moment you do, I hit the switch, this place severs all the bodies, alarm goes off, and we steal one of me. I’ll shoot, you hold and run.” Skye chirped, taking a deep breath. Fucking hell, she thought. This isn’t an average day out, as she brought up the killswitch routine, and with it ready to go, knew the alarms would be set off the moment this triggered. There was even a risk that the vault would shut, and she half hoped that this would work.
Sprinklers… thermally triggered, builders were smart. But the high sensitivity areas ran on a halon system to avoid water damage. Team didn’t have SCBA gear, but that just meant she had to plan carefully where she’d trigger them. Figuratively paving a path for the two to take. Next, for proper confusion, lights. Once again, the team didn’t have NODs. Once again, she took a bit of time to exclude lights in the sections along the way from her scheming. Fire and security bulkheads, those would serve nicely to trap any responders in conjunction with having subjected the cameras. Vault door, failsafe of course, built to close if things went wrong. No manual release on the inside as far as she could find, but here the location worked in their favor, the heavy door needing to close slowly to avoid stressing the building. “You’ll have thirty seconds to get out of the vault, after that it should be smooth sailing.” ENri hesitated a bit before asking the next question. “What I’m about to do on your mark could kill a lot of people in here. Do we? If not, I’ll need a minute or so.”
“Do it.” Skye replied, cold in her turn, and looking with eyes over at Ban, ready and in position, and well, moving to position. Enri had their path set. They had to run. Elevator, drop down, and then, through the lobby, and back out. Fuck me, she thought. This was going to be interesting without the exo. But that meant she just had other tricks up her sleeve, and Enri right now was playing a blinder, as was Ban with his carbine weapons and a human shield MADE of Skye. She ripped her patch off her neck, the device coming close to the end of its battery, and now switched to her normal, Scots tone of an accent. No need to impersonate, a spare would be available if she really needed, but they were going to be blown.
Ban paced over to bay 15, looked inside then drew his sword once more, “Alright, so the alarms should be off yes? Then…” He stepped forward, and slide the tip of his sword into the side of the bag whispering, “Kurinkatto…” As he slides the blade carefully up from the bottom of the bag towards the head. Tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he made the cut carefully. And when he is done and no alarms go off he gives the blade a flick, habit to clean the blade before sliding it back into the scabbard, “Alright, hello there bakemono…” He says again as he slides his arms into the bag and pulls the look-alike body out of the bag, “Hah O kinodoku ni, a pity that a silent form like this would be used by such a monster.” He heaves the body up over one shoulder, taking his sword ing the other hand, “Alright, now what?”
“Yours to carry!” With that, Skye clapped the switch and suddenly, all hell broke fucking loose. Skye watched as with a simultaneous trigger, every body of Rose’s left just dropped limp, the hose released, a few bodies breaking their sacks and splashing into the floor and grate with what was like a weird amniotic fluid everywhere, and well, Skye took the chance to run past those. Ban was in position doing what he did, and Skye ran in front, G36 now brought back into hands, the alarm suddenly blaring off, the pace of Skye bolting through like every dump of adrenaline had recharged again, running towards the lab sector at the front, rifle raised as a few men ran inside, Skye sliding behind one of the lab bulkheads. With a turn, she clattered one in the head, and slid across the desk with a leap above her whilst holding the G36 tight, even in spite of the length of the rifle clattering one more, breaking into a pace and clapping one more running in, the vault slowly closing. They had neurotoxin in here, but were paying no mind. They knew the threat. Fuck, their lives were irrelevant if what had happened just happened. Not that Skye cared too much, right now bigger priorities were at stake here.
“Shit, run!” Skye yelled to Ban, covering outside, the German guard nowhere to be seen as she flicked a new mag in as the vault began to start swinging shut, moving to a corner as she heard more come. With a look, Skye let the men run from out of the dark into the bright light of the lobby, and using it, ambushed them, pushing one rifle aside and letting his weight charge into her, using his rifle to clatter one man, before rolling across and using his knife to shank him, knowing even if physically she wasn’t on him, she was still here, still fighting. Standing up, she looked to Ban and well, Rose being carried? They needed to get down to ground level and out of here, and with that, Skye hailed the elevator up, knowing they needed to leave, now.
“Lift’s coming.”
To Skye and ban, not much will have changed. Everywhere else in the building, security doors slammed shut, lights switched off and the fire alarm started blaring. On the topmost floors, the pandemonium was made complete by the halon gas extinguishers. Enri tried not to think about the people trapped in a dark place quickly running out of oxygen, though in a past life she used to know at least one person who would’ve approved of an efficient use of time.
Quickly Ban hiked the body up once more then braced, before making a swift run out of the vault. Keeping in Skye’s shadow, as the Scotswoman started to fire, cutting guards down. The yakuza was not idle though. As some guards managed to flank the strange trio. Ban seeing them as they flicked out riot batons. But even one handed the Kingo family sword is very sharp indeed. The first baton to try and strike him is caught on the flat of the sword, then with a skilled turn the baton goes flying, and a short flick the guard drops back holding his hand where the mono-edge blade had just opened his forearm almost to the bone. Another guard trying to capitalize gets kicked in the chest, sent reeling and over the security desk, and landing with a crash behind it. A third and a fourth slowing. Even an encumbered Ban is dangerous. He grins, “Hey…catch!” And throws the body at the other two who scramble to catch it.
Ban grins taking two quick hopping steps, jumping and spinning, his right leg coming up and smashing both guards across the faces. Landing just in time to take the body back from their crumpling forms.
And off he goes again running for the lift, “I am surprised this has worked this well so far!” He shouts as he comes sliding into the lift.
“Good timing.” Skye replied, as the door dinged open, and with it, Skye kept to a side. Two men charged out, more guards. Shit, they were intercepted. But, not exactly hard as they saw Ban first, with Rose in hand, and that meant Skye at the side just pointed the barrel at one man’s head with a grizzly pop, before the other managed to turn, Skye had already dived onto his leg and with a gentle turn, pulled her legs into him and stabbed. It must have been something for Ban to see, Skye Lyons hadn’t really lost her edge at all. If Adam was good as an operative with a team, the Scot just didn’t really relent here at all, even without her exo, it felt more like she had to use ambush tactics rather than pure force and clearly struggled more, but the guards were rushing and Skye was ready. Standing to that, she got inside, sighing, hitting for Ground Floor, and looking over to Ban.
“Well. We’re not out yet.” Skye huffed, exhaling hard, yanking the mag out of the G36 and loading a new one in, shaking her head as she cocked the rifle.
“I’m gonna have fucking nightmares now. Fuck. How do you unsee that?” Skye rhetorically asked, looking down at Rose, with a couple of rounds.
“Oof. Okay. This bit is risky. Outflaw, we’re nearly at ground. When we hit, trigger whatever last tricks you have. We’re going to make a pace for the nearby parking garage, and get out of here.” The Scot commented, looking then to Ban, holding the very naked, very slippery, bullet round having copy of her own fucking self.
“As human shields go, you could have picked one with bigger tits, Ban. But we can’t be picky.” Skye chirped, the dark, black humour a fucked way of coping from the Scots lass, but well, what didn’t kill you, actually…..well, best not to think on that analogy. She was as crude as ever, perhaps probably the only way to keep her spirits up considering what she saw would turn most people inside out.
“Lobby’s a no-go, everyone I couldn’t contain is flooding out that way. Go right from the elevator and then take the second right, stairwell down, looks like an exit through a maintenance room.” Enri offered, finally making sense of the situation and being able to focus on the cameras. “Do I leave the trojans active or do I kill their whole local network?”
“Kill the link, we have what we need. You have what you need, if the flow is in order for the rest of the data you’ve taken already. That’s what’ll help us put two and two together. Also, this….thing, person? I’m not sure. There’s something in there too. Cheers for the advice. We’ll go on your move.” Skye commented back to Enri, readying up, sighing deep.
Ban cackled, and reached up, “Breasts are all well and good.” Then palms the bodies ass, “But I like them round down here then up there.” He cackles and gives Skye a wiggly eyebrow moment, yes he’s being playful and maybe a little lewd as he spanks the body’s rear, “Ah if I were younger and less repressed.” She shrugged, “Now is not the time.” He lowered his hand off the bare posterior. Pressing his back to the lift wall, to be out of the way immediately. By now any guards on lower floors would likely know that who they thought was Rose is now the Real Skye deal, and he’s not here to join them. If they don’t try and get them to surrender they are just going to try and riddle the inside of the lift with whatever they had.
“Dirty bastard. I mean, she’s not exactly Barbie. I’m so fucking glad my father didn’t think so. Not unlike some people we worked with.” Skye retorted, referring to herself, or Rose somewhat for the former, and well, the others could be imagined from the diverse team of Raven in the latter.
Enri set up the commands to execute, setting the window aside. “It’s dead the moment you’re outside. Two guards twenty meters ahead, three seconds to a corner.” She guesstimated.
The doors opened, and the guards readied to fire, unsure however, but Skye had the rifle pointed direct forwards, and shot first through the crack as it opened and blindly fired, picking one, then two, bolting out and covering Ban, at a direct pace. They moved direct to the corner, immediately out as other guards started to flood out from the side of the lobby, Skye covering his six as she shot rounds back, using cover and keeping her head down as rounds flew. Moving from pace to pace, she ran down the stairwell, covering a man flanking Ban with a tap to the head, reloading with a frantic energy, charging down the stairwell. They could run through the maintenance room and out to the street, then out of there.
Carrying a naked woman and her exact twin would be the most surreal thing Nagoya was seeing tonight once they may be out, yet somehow Skye was not entirely ensure it was the weirdest thing she’d ever seen even in the last two minutes.
“Keep fucking running!”
Ban waited for the first two guards to be hit, then he blazes out of the lift, and into the corner for cover, peeking around to see how far to the stair well, “Yosh, right…” And takes off again, thighs bulging within his pants as the augments within them push him forward at high speeds. He leaps a desk, weaves around a table, and hits the stairwell slamming his shoulder into the door to it, slamming it open. He’s about to take the stairs down, when he spots something up a level, “They’re in the stairs!” He shouts back, his voice loud over the comms link, “Ahhh it’s alright.” His sword flashed, and he caught the ankle of one of the guards on the flight leading up. Then he’s down, taking the stairs two at a time. Crying out as he slides down the last few steps and comes to a stop on the wall, beside one of the doors, “Kitsune-chan?” He shoulders open the door beside him and steps out into the next area.
“Well so much for locking it behind you.” Enri let slip a rare annoyed groan in the presence of a member of the Family, “One way for you to go, two doors and a tunnel and you’re out.”
Skye followed on that, no reply coming back considering how manic it is, running as she clapped the guard on the flight coming up, as he struggled for his weapon, running over him and back down, running through the cabinet-filled maintenance store and towards where he shouldered the door, nodding back to Ban.
“Yep, all here!” Skye didn’t really stop, charging past him, a bit rude, but checking the last room, and then letting Ban in, before moving across and dragging a pallet up to the door heaping it onto the door mechanism, pulling it so that it would be a bastard to open. It wasn’t great, but 20 seconds of bullshit was enough.
“Copy that, we’ll be going.” Skye added, and with it, moved to the next. Sweep, check, and nobody there either. Shit, this may be it. Had to be.
One last door now. With a pull, Skye couldn’t hear anything, and moved through, the service tunnel heading out into the street, and well, with it, their way through, the cold concrete contrasting the warm fire inside of Skye’s head.
“Okay. This is us. We’re moving through the tunnel now, headed to the way out. Great work, Outflaw. Saved our skins there more times than I thought. And if you have questions, believe me, this one is going to hurt your brain. We’ll move to find a vehicle and get out of dodge.” She called back, looking back to Ban, still shouldering the body, looking to him.
“Holding up okay?” She asked, checking her vest and her general arms and legs over as she moved, no rounds taken yet aware that hadn’t it have been for their work, she’d have been a goner. Rose had a bullet hole in her ribs, but it didn’t seem to be pissing out anything bar remains of blue fluid, mixed in with blood.
Ban pushed up behind Skye smiling a bit, “I feel almost young again. Like old times with Raven.” He taps the comms ear piece, “Well done Enri-chan. I’ll be sure to let the Oyabun know just how much help you were. This was not an easy task.” He looked up at the hole in Rose’s ribs, “Well, I’m surprised it’s only that.” And as things slow he coughs and pulls his coat aside, staring down at a hole just under the vest he is wearing under it, having just missed the plate down there, “So that’s what’s pulling.” He moves his arm, “Ah it’s fine. I can feel it moving in muscle not bowel.” He grits his teeth, “Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve had enough for one night. There should be an Amagi car waiting to take us to a safe house, then we can head back up to Kiyose once things have calmed down, I can’t imagine that this situation hasn’t reached the local police by now.” He picked up the pace heading for the far end of the tunnel and their way out.
“And that’s the building down.” Enri reported, the building behind them going completely dark as the trojans deleted everything and then themselves, the only trace left being two blank flash drives available at any electronics store. “Arigato, Kingo-sama. I’m packing up to go.” With the team out of immediate danger, the usual chipperness was coming back to Enri’s voice full force, “I’d never done this live support, just been in the room with the guys who did, this was fun! Don’t be a stranger, Kitsune-sama, we love repeat customers.” the hacker almost beamed.
Skye nodded to Ban, knowing it really did feel like old times. A strange return to form, but well, they had a way to go. Needing to get back home would be tricky, and well, it may be that
“The fact they pulled you up is of concern though. Let’s see how it plays. Keep the smoke long enough, they’ll lose direction. And they have bigger fish to fry now they have some attention deficit here.” Skye commented, as they kept on, and would soon be hitting light.
Enri’s comments felt similar, leaving the dead network behind, taking the data they needed and covering their tracks. It may have been good to grab more data, but they had what they needed, no point getting greedy. With any luck, the encrypted, scary-looking network that connected the bodies of Rose to the central node would be viable, as would
“Arigato to you, Outflaw. I am sure we’ll be working together again soon.” Skye replied, a smile on her own face, glad that a complete stranger merely hours ago had been the reason they’d made it out. She wondered if it was going to be worth ever properly explaining. Maybe it would be already. But if it wasn’t for her, this snatch wouldn’t be possible. The twin samples, a body, and the data they had. If there was ever a way to respond, Outflaw had without knowing, turned the fortunes of a team that was chasing into one that was now back in control.
