Rei groaned as he shook the cobwebs out of his head. He’d hit the wall of the elevator when, without warning, it had suddenly dropped. He assumed it had hit the ground, and was thankful that, whatever had happened, it had waited as long as it did. The total shaft was over a hundred feet, and a fall could very easily have been lethal.

“Is everyone alright?” He asked. The compartment was dark, forcing him to feel around for the wall, and hopefully the door. His hand landed on something softer and warmer than the simple elevator.

“You are most definitely not my type.” muttered Takeda from underneath him, Rei jerked his hand back.

“Sorry. I was feeling for the door.”

“I’ve found it, but I can’t get it open.” Noriko spoke up from behind the disoriented men. Rei shifted, and guiding himself by finding the Siren’s shoulder. By following her arm down he found the door, and the crack down its center.

He closed his eyes, concentrating for several seconds. His fingers tingled and he felt them shift, the structure of his finger’s nails, much like the hair of a Kitsune, being still vital and easily shifted.

His claws slid into the crack, and with a grunt and straining of well tuned muscles, he pulled the doors most of the way open. He froze when a half-dozen guns were pointed at his face.

“Stop! Stand down!” Kay’s voice called from somewhere behind the barrels of the guns, but Rei didn’t dare look up. They had his full attention until his sister stepped between him and death.

“Holster them!” Kay commanded, before she spun to face her brother. “Oh my god, Rei. Are you all right?”

“Just bumped… and angry.” Rei growled the last part, surging forward towards Alexander who was standing a few meters behind his sister. Kay barely caught him, pulling him back and holding him away from the Siren.

“Look, I know you’re pissed, but we need him! What are you doing back down here… and who are they?” she asked, finally having realized there were two other people in the car with him.

“These are Takeda and Noriko. They’re part of Natalia’s team. It seems that Marigold must have found some private little death party at the hospital, since they reported she had stolen a bio-weapon or something. Natalia’s up above getting it all cleared out but we need Marigold to turn evidence.”

“And what about the Deep?” Kay asked.

“Natalia didn’t even mention it to her bosses.” He looked up, blinking at the sparking cables hanging from above. “What the hell happened to the elevator?”

“Most likely? Natalia’s boss.” Alexander stated calmly. “We’ve heard reports of baby Siren being destroyed at most major hospitals in the Federation. This isn’t a localized event. They were most likely keeping the truth from their precious crèches since they know what would happen if so many well trained personnel found out, and didn’t like it.”

“What are you saying? They blew up the hotel just to cover up a dead baby? That would have killed dozens of innocent bystanders! There’s no way they would.” Takeda stated, crossing his arms.

Noriko, who had focused more on communicating with the surface, choose that moment to reel. “Oh my… no… He’s right.” She said, gasping. “There are… easily fifty people up their dying beneath the rubble. They… I think they dropped a Leo gondola on the building. One of the big, administrative facility ones.”

Takeda could only stare at his partner in shock, so Rei asked desperately “What about Natalia? The rest of your team?”

“I… I can’t hear most of them. I think their dead. Natalia, Shido, and Saki are on their way down on repelling lines. Shido’s injured.”

Rei snarled, while Kay ordered one of the security men with her to run to the clinic and get her a medical kit. “The evacuation will have to continue, they’ll find the shaft, and the Deep, soon enough.” Alexander stated, crossing his arms.

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“I know.” Kay agreed. “How long till you’re people get down here. That things going to be a monster of a climb.”

“Five minutes.” Noriko concentrated again, communicating with her team mates. “Saki say’s she slapped some door buster charges on the elevator shaft above them. The only places she could see light from the surface sealed up when she blew it.”

Alexander nodded. “That’ll buy us some time. They’ll be sweeping the area, killing anyone they find, for the next hour at least. We’ll have time to pull more supplies into the escape tunnel before collapsing it.”

“Good.” Kay said, turning to her squad. “I want you to head for the evacuation point, and grab as many able bodies as you can to start clearing out the emergency food stores and medical supplies.”

“What about here?” One of the men asked, looking up at the hole. “I mean, are we sure these guys were really betrayed? It could be a trick.”

Kay grimaced, and opened her mouth to reply, but Alexander beat her to it. “No. I feel the three minds in the elevator shaft. They’re saddened, angry, and very nearly panicked though their training is preventing fear from taking over.” He nodded at Noriko and Takeda. “Their surprise was also natural. They have most definitely been betrayed.”

“You’d be the expert.” Rei growled.

“That’s enough!” Kay snapped at him. “Look, I know you’re pissed, and I agree you have good reason, but now is not the time.” The doctor turned to the security team. “Go, and get everything you can. Now!”

As they ran off, Kay cracked open the large medical bag, and began examining Takeda. “So… how, pray tell, did you meet an InSec team leader in the first place, much less end up dating her?”

“You’re asking me this now?” Rei stared at her, incredulous. “When they just collapsed a building on top of us?”

“You’re on the razor’s edge of anger and panic, and these two aren’t doing much better.” Kay commented calmly, dabbing an antiseptic pad at a cut on the albino’s forehead. “Anything to prevent focusing on it right now should help.”

“I saved her from a group of Ferals.” He replied.

“The way I hear it, you helped her smack them around. What’s this about saving her?” Shido’s voice was a surprise, and the five people looked up to see him being lowered by a rope. He looked dizzy and battered, but he had a wan smile on his face.

“Shido!” Takeda yelled, brushing off Kay’s ministrations and climbing the ruin of the elevator car to help guide him down. Kay, shrugging, gestured for Rei to help him and moved to examine Noriko.

“What the hell happened?” Takeda demanded, taking hold of the Kitsune lieutenants improvised climbing harness and brute forcing him away from some jagged metal and into Rei’s waiting hands.

Shido sighed, and grunted as his butt hit the ground. “Talia called the boss, and told him what happened. He said… He told us he was sending back up and that he was going to help! Instead they dropped a freaking gondola on us, and Saki said they were ordering Leo units in with a shoot on sight order for anyone not wearing Leo blue!”

“They’re trying to sanitize the situation.” Alexander’s dry voice commented, the older Siren having moved closer to listen to Shido’s report. “It’s easier to cleanse your team than to try and convince them it’s all a big misunderstanding.”

“Cleanse?” Natalia’s voice drifted down from above their heads. Unlike Shido she wasn’t wounded, and the pounding in her head was momentarily forgotten in rage. She released her rope and dropped down, trying to tackle the albino from six meters above his head. Alexander managed to dodge, and take a defensive, martial stance.

“Would you prefer I use the word kill?” Alexander sneered. “Our mutual, former employers were so fond of euphemisms after all. I didn’t want to push you too hard into your new life as rogue agents.”

“Our employers?” Natalia was brought up short, as was Shido and the two younger Sirens.

“Oh yes. I’m formerly of the organization as well. I wasn’t Law and Order division, though.” His smile was down right feral, and strange to see on his careworn face. “I was black ops. A trained assassin.”

“Black ops doesn’t have any Sirens.” Takeda argued. “We aren’t an optimal choice for hard missions.”

Alexander smirked, though his eyes remained dark and angry. “We used to be. Then I happened. I had no idea they’d stopped using us for InSec dirty work, though. I feel strangely proud of myself.”

“Gee, I’m sure that’s hard.” Rei commented dryly.

Shido choose that moment to interrupt the tense standoff. “Guys, what are we going to do now?” He demanded.

Kay, who had been bent over him, bandaging several severe cuts, replied. “We get you a stretcher, and we move to the escape tunnels. Natalia, please tell me you didn’t report Rei’s bolt hole to your boss.”

“No… Why?”

Rei groaned, piecing together the hint. “Because I’m about to get a titanic amount of house guests. Unexpected house guests I might add.”

“Oh.”

“Hey guys?” A high pitched, feminine voice called from above. The whole crowd looked, with Rei and Kay blinking in disbelief and Alexander freezing.

“Who the hell is that?” Rei demanded.

“Saki.” Natalia replied, humor and pain mingling in her voice.

The pixie like Kitsune girl, complete with pigtails, looked down the barrel of her non-standard issue assault rifle at Alexander, the barrel not drifting in the least, in spite of her dangling seven meters off the ground by a single rope. “So… Does this mean I shouldn’t shoot him?”

Rei opened his mouth, but was punched in the gut by his sister. “Yes! It means you don’t shoot him.” Kay called out.

“Yet.” Natalia corrected her. Both women ignored the dark glare directed at them by the Siren.