Isaac's Rddhi activation tore through the bottles lining the shelves behind the bar. Now that he was Circuit 2, he felt an immense sort of energy, as if the engine powering him had been replaced wholesale by the newest model. The electric blast of the Fist of Anji rocketed from his hand, blasting away one Restorationist before he could even activate his own powers. The other three had time to do so, but Reed twirled and sliced through a man's stomach with her sword. A sword wave deflected away a fireball, and she ran an elbow into her opponent's gut.

The remaining Restorationist revealed a superpowered sickle. Scarlet lights flashed through the iron material as she swung wildly. Isaac backpedaled, wanting to let the woman tired herself out, but she seemed made of energy. He kicked a stool at the Restorationist; the woman destroyed it in a single blow, but the distraction allowed Isaac to get to her side. He plucked one of the wooden shards out of the air and plunged it into the woman's thigh. As she cried out, Isaac punched her into a table, sending her straight to the ground.

Isaac removed the shard as she fell, intent on helping Reed with it, but his friend blasted the last opponent into a wall. As the dust settled, Bill himself rose from behind the bar counter, a shotgun in his hands. Isaac flung the wooden shard through the air, striking Bill in the forehead. His limp finger hit the trigger; the shotgun blasted the ceiling as he collapsed.

The fight had been so short that the pair didn't even need to catch their breath. They would be facing far tougher opponents along the way to Babs; this was just a warm-up. Still though, Isaac issued a silent prayer to the deceased before departing. It wouldn't do him any good to think of his opponents as mere practice, no matter how noble his intentions in the end were.

Isaac closed the blinds on the tavern's front windows and then peeked through them. Much to his surprise, the streets were crawling with people. Fortunately, Naval Police officers were in the minority; most of them were Cartwright construction workers. And from the looks on their stubbled, tired faces - most of them wouldn't pay attention to two people walking confidently, walking like they belonged, especially through the mountains of rubble that could block lines of sight entirely.

"Act natural," Isaac instructed.

Reed nodded. "Acting's my middle name."

The second they stepped outside, Reed walked like she had a stick up her ass. Isaac gave her a side-eye; she just frowned. "Look, I'm sorry. The second you told me to act, something clicked off in me. I'm walking manually right now."

Isaac wiped his face, but the construction workers only paid attention to the efforts of a crane operator lifting a large steel beam off the ground. Seeing the opportunity, Isaac headed down the sidewalk with his head down and hands in his pockets, acting like he had every reason to be there. The workers paid him no mind, not even noticing him before he slipped behind a huge pile of discarded concrete and now that Reed had settled in, the two blended into the scenery in plain sight, nearly all the way to the depot.

With a few more blocks to go, a black car rumbled down the street, then slowed behind them. Isaac and Reed exchanged glances; sparks ran in his hidden hands while she placed her hands along the scabbard. The car advanced and pulled alongside them. Just when the two were about to make a move, the bearded face of Lieutenant Derry appeared through the window.

"Get in. Now." This wasn't Checkers Derry, this was Serious Business Derry.

Once inside, the car drove off, maintaining a slow, casual speed, as if belonging to a construction inspector. Derry sat in the back seat with them; a marine drove while another kept his submachine gun hidden at his side. Reed seemed to recognize them and exchanged brief nods.

"The General gave me the rundown," Derry began before Isaac could ask about it. "A shame about that Babs business. I vetted you two with our ten-hour checkers session after the Melusine raid. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to play against her. A man's soul bleeds into his actions during a board game, after all."

He said all of that with a straight face. The driver took a corner and headed toward the on-ramp of an expressway. A checkpoint guarded the entrance; Isaac tensed, expecting Naval Police officers, but conventional marines of the Combined Fleet - the same branch Derry and his two marines belonged to - manned the barricade. A brief flash of the driver's ID later, the marine let them through without even checking the backseat.

"Admiral Broadhurst is a smart man," Derry said. "He took both the rail depot and the Fore River port. Acting Commandant Spinelli's been trying to insert his men there, but Broadhurst says he can't until the city is totally secured. There's still fighting around a few train stations and at Four Eagles."

Isaac frowned. "That's where Babs likely is."

Derry explained the situation. "The State Police has been besieging it since Amien gave his address the other day. That ghetto is a maze and filled to the brim with samurai and Restorationists. Stockham said Babs has some kind of superweapon down there. If we're going to stop her, we need to get in there somehow."

"There's underground routes we can access through pre-Unleashing subway stations," Reed recalled.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The lieutenant shook his head. "The State Police captured all of the Zhanghai properties over them. They control the underground pathways in and out of Four Eagles. But something must've gone wrong, since the Zhanghai flag still flies above their facility in the heart of the ghetto."

"Maybe there's been heavy fighting below ground as well," Isaac said. "Getting in will be tough. We might have to find another way."

Derry smiled. "We have one. We're on route to it now. In two hours, we'll be at the scenic village of Obscot, where Dai Hong has an estate that serves as a safehouse."

The car hit opened road. The cityscape gave way to suburbs; smoke rose in ominous clouds from various points in the urban jungle. The car changed lanes to allow a column of snarling tanks to pass by, heading in the opposite direction towards the smoking buildings of the capital. Isaac felt the hair on the back of his neck rise; these were State Police tanks, black as the night, and the only units within that organization that used tanks were military ones, not ones doing police work. The Armed State Police divisions rarely made an appearance in the cities; they mostly stuck their training camps up north and west in the wilderness.

Derry watched them go by and relaxed as they receded into the distance. "Dai Hong's in a tough spot. If he flees back to Zhanghai, they'll likely imprison or even execute him for a failure of this size. If the State Police or Army captures him, they'll likely extradite him back to Zhanghai as a token of goodwill, since that country is no doubt thinking of punitive measures right now. He's no longer useful to anyone, so everyone's gunning for him. Who else did he had to turn to?"

"The man he negotiated shipping off atomic material with," Reed realized.

"Indeed," Derry confirmed. "We can't make too much of a fuss with the State Police and Army searching for him, so only this small team has been assigned to extract him. We'll ship him off to a neutral country in the south, and in exchange, he'll tell us how to sneak into Four Eagles before he goes."

Reed raised an eyebrow. "Is that a fair trade?"

Derry grinned. "We control his rail depot, port, and a significant chunk of his merchant fleet now. And I personally plan to turn his estate into my vacation villa once this is all said and done. As for you two - he might have a nice kitchen full of food there."

A prospect like that made Reed vigorously nod in agreement. Isaac couldn't help but recall the tanks. The country wasn't formally at war, and hadn't been in decades, but the growing tension and uncertainty in the air resembled everything Isaac had heard about the start of an armed conflict.

The car eventually took an off-ramp and headed down rural roads. The trees no longer bared leaves of any kind; their naked branches swayed in the wind. Similarly, the farming fields they passed by was filled with death and decay now that harvest season had passed. Even the patches of sunlight couldn't lift the somber mood of a country buckling down for a harsh winter. Occasionally, plumes of smoke rose from far off farmhouses - Isaac suspected those were Zhanghai-owned fields. The fields soon gave way to crowded forests; their quiet stillness stood in sharp contrast to the earlier conditions of war on the horizon.

The road rose in elevation. Up ahead, a chain of rolling hills stretched before them; villages stood at their bases, with a few wealthy homes up on the hillside. Derry pointed at one in particular - that would be Dai Hong's hideout. The car passed by rustic cottages; the inhabitants stared suspiciously through the blinds of their windows, a few of them holding antiquated guns and hunting rifles.

"They must be scared of the chaos," Derry surmised.

Reed tapped on her scabbard. "Or somebody beat us here." The marine in the passenger seat ran a hand along his submachine gun at that.

The car passed through the first village. Everything stood quietly, not a person in sight. All the blinds were closed, reminding Isaac of when everybody battened down the hatches before a tornado rolled into town.

Come to think of it, aren't we the tornado? Or is one already here?

His question was answered as they arrived at the village below Dai Hong's estate. A single road cut through the middle of the hamlet. This village was busier than the last one; trucks carefully parked across the road served as a makeshift barricade along with hastily-deployed sandbags. Armed men in plain clothes stood guard; a few of them ran red sparks down their arms as the car approached. On the surface, they looked like a civilian militia protecting their homeland, but their movements to stop the car carried military precision.

"Think they'll let us pass?" Derry jested. The answer was obvious.

"I don't think so," the marine in the passenger seat muttered. The driver punched the gas as the other marine rolled down his window and stuck his torso through the opening. Right before the Restorationists opened fire, a sharp burst came out of the marine's submachine gun. With precise targeting, multiple Restorationists dropped to the ground, disappearing in clouds of red.

The driver peeled the car off the road with only one hand on the steering wheel. With the other, he opened fire with his own submachine gun. More Restorationists crumpled, while others opened fire from behind their barricade of trucks. The car, now off the road, screeched to a halt next to a cottage on the village outskirts. Derry tossed a smoke grenade out the window as everyone exited the car.

Isaac assembled with everyone on the far side of the car. He eyed the two marines, who held confident, sharp looks on their faces. "These guys are good."

"They're the best," Derry corrected. The two marines with him gave confident nods, and Isaac realized they appeared oddly familiar. "Not only did they survive the raid on the Melusine, these two were the ones who charged with Reed at the train battle and took out the tank with the Stovepipe. They got a bone to pick with the Restorationists, as do I."

When a cultivator charged, one of the marines shot him through the head.

As bullets clanged off the car, Derry observed the situation. "We'll stay here and draw their fire. You two, head around the village up the estate." The marines handed them spare submachine guns. "Try not to use your cultivation for as long as possible. Otherwise, the cultivators will direct their attention towards you, especially once they figure out none of the three marines at the car can use the Rddhi. Hell, the whole opposing force might decide you're the priority target."

Derry saluted the duo. "We've fought twice together already. One last push. Let's go!"

Isaac and Reed eyed each other, then raised their fists.

"By her sword!"