Sector 27: MRPA HQ-Hong’s Meeting Room [17:00]
Arisa was seated at her usual spot between Keiko and Aku around the display table set before Hong’s silhouetted display. The three girls had left Tenno academy and headed for the local movie theater. One of the ways they protected their identities, was to vary their activities and to be seen in public around their peers in their human, student disguises. Today that meant publicly announcing plans for a movie, walking through the popular shopping district, buying tickets for their movie, and then in the darkest corner of an empty theater Aku brought them through the shadow void and into her personal room in MRPA.
“I went through 013’s and my own report of the ‘Free’ situation and was able to narrow down potential suspects who may be involved in the same business as Durim,” Arisa had slid her display onto the table allowing it to display her data. 5 faces popped up along with their MRPA records.
Keiko tapped on a small display in front of her seat allowing her to look through the data via the omni-book connection.
“Still no idea where Durim was able to acquire his surplus amount of supply, but following up with these suspects might show us the answer,” Arisa let out a sigh of relief and looked up to Hong’s silhouette for his response.
“Good work 00,” Hong’s voice broke the slight silence, “For the bad news, as of an hour ago, all of the humans 013 encountered under the influence of Free at Durim’s place have been pronounced dead.”
Arisa gasped. Aku nodded her head softly at the news.
“Dead?” Keiko questioned.
“We can’t say for certain since we don’t have a human where we could run tests on ourselves- but it is very possible that MS is lethal to humans after as few as three doses. Darrius was able to look at some of the medical reports of the victims and he suspects the radiation levels of MS combined with the lack of omega cells in humans is causing brain decay at a rapid rate. STAM will no doubt consider this some sort of retaliation from us since they discovered MS. We must take care of this issue quickly, before they take drastic measures,” he paused for a moment, “013 you will find Shin Marcus and Simon Hardwell,” two of the suspects from Arisa’s list, “They have the most run-ins with STAM officers so let’s start there.”
Keiko nodded and focused on their files through the omni-book.
“014. You will find S. Masahiko along with HeeChul Xiao… as for Remmy Inui, I have records confirming his death from just a few days ago.” he cleared his throat, “00, you will remain here and tend to the nursery...”
“What?!” she cried out, “I’m the one who compiled the suspect list in the first-”
“This is too dangerous for you,” Keiko interrupted, “This is a high level threat. If any of these people really are involved in this, you think they won’t engage in combat?”
Arisa looked away, “But-”
“You haven’t been promoted yet for a solo level mission. You can participate once your promotion is finalized, is that understood?” Hong’s voice was definite.
She slumped back into her chair defeated, “Understood.”
Sector 1: STAM 18:15
“They died?!” Seiji yelled into his phone, surprised. All the agents were in the middle of their physical testing. Blood work, muscle graphs, radiation testing, power output- the works. Except for Shou. He had gone to the medical wing first to get an update on the victims from the club.
“The victims died?” Ryu asked, while squeezing hard on the stress ball.
Seiji was listening intently, “The damn mazoku are fighting back eh?”....”Alright.” he hung up the phone.
Kyou was staring at him seriously, “What happened?”
Seiji settled back into his chair and held out his arm for the doctor to take his blood sample, “The people in the club were all humans. Once the mazoku drug left their system they fell comatose and then died. They just started the autopsies but Shou said the scientists don’t think it took many doses. They think as little as one dose could be lethal.”
Kenji whistled, “Quite the weapon they just found.”
Seiji nodded, “A pretty big counter attack.”
“Does the media know?” Kyou asked before breathing into a tube.
“I think they want the autopsy results first before going public,” Seiji shrugged, “But it’ll go public since humans are being targeted directly.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ryu’s dog tags started blinking.
Ryu groaned, “Hiro-,” he pulled open the display, “black agent sighting in Sector 7. Let’s go.” They both stood and removed the testing equipment.
“Which one?!” Seiji called out as they left, “Is it the elemental?!”
Kyou sighed and looked at his own display, “We’ve got patrol through Sector 6,”
Kenji groaned, “More patrols? Why didn’t we get the black agent sighting thing??”
“They’re given on rotation. So next time a black agent is spotted it’ll be given to Rank 1,” Seiji stretched and stood from the chair, his testing finished, “It doesn’t happen very often though.”
Sector 27: MRPA HQ [18:49]
Aku had already checked out HeeChul Xiao and found nothing. He wasn’t involved in Free at all. Still, she collected his prescription and decided to stop by MRPA before looking for Masahiko.
She walked past the nursery and saw that Arisa wasn’t there. Her heart sank slightly. Arisa was trying hard to prove herself as an agent but Hong and Keiko were too protective of her to even give her a chance. An ability like hers could be extremely useful for any number of missions.
She’ weak. She’ll make you weak.
Aku made her way to the pharmacy and saw Arisa sitting with Ms. Mary.
“It’s not fair!” Arisa cried, “I found the suspects! But I’m not allowed to go on the mission?!”
Ms. Mary nodded, “How could they? You worked so hard!!”
“I know!! I spent all night looking up those suspects and trying to figure out who could be involved!!”
Ms. Mary leaned in, “Who were they anyway-”
“00!” Aku interrupted.
“014..” Arisa tried to hide her pouting and teary eyes.
“Come on,” she pulled Arisa away from Ms.Mary and led her up the stairwell.
“014! What’s going on??”
From her corner of the pharmacy Ms. Mary called after her, “Bye, bye Zero-chii come back soon!”
Aku dragged Arisa around the corner then stopped on the stairs and turned to Arisa, “I can’t believe I’m doing this...” she shook her head a few times, why you carin’ fur this nobody?
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” she blinked a few times, “You’re already back?”
Aku waved off her questions with one of her own, “Can you shift into Durim?”
Sector 7: A Residential Apartment Block[19:03]
Keiko was in Simon’s apartment. It was wiped clean. She sighed. Marcus’ apartment had looked just the same. Filled with furniture and food spoiling in the fridge. While it was possible both of them had run away to hide, perhaps in Sector 27- she knew what the more likely possibility was. They were captured by STAM. She had found nothing. No MS. No trace of life. She wondered if Aku was having any luck with her suspects. Before leaving the apartment she changed the status of both Marcus and Simon in the MRPA database to “Missing” with a few blinks.
She had just locked the door to the apartment when she was pulled to the ground and dragged by her ankle in and down the stairwell. Her body slammed into the stairs and she quickly used a gust of air to regain her footing. She looked and saw the thin metal string wrapped around her ankle and cursed, “Hiroto!” She propelled herself down the stairs to avoid being dragged by the string.
From the front of the lobby Hiro was pulling the string with Ryu beside him. Ryu whispered as not to break his concentration, “You caught her right?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you use just enough current to make her pass out?”
Hiro rolled his eyes, “I’m the disposer remember?”
“Well don’t kill her!”
Hiro moved to tap his dog tags but Keiko came flying from the stairwell and threw a gust of air at Hiro crashing him through the glass wall of the lobby. Ryu braced the strong wind only sliding back a few feet. With Hiro no longer maintaining tension on the metal string, she slipped from the ankle bind and turned to run but was suddenly tackled by Ryu.
The air slammed from her lungs at the impact. Ryu wasted no time and tightly held her arms behind her back, his gloves burning her skin.
Keiko hated fighting Ryuichi. He was built like a tank, and his anti-mutant weapon was dangerous despite looking like a pair of padded gloves. The more his hands made contact, the more burns she would receive. Darrius had explained the science behind all the ant-mazoku weapons used by STAM, but all she bothered to remember were the effects. And Ryuichi’s made it difficult for oxygen to move through the bloodstream. If she took too many hits, she would pass out and it would be over. She slammed her leg into the back of his head with a gust of air supporting the movement, pushing him off her. Scrambling to her feet she saw the burns on her wrist and felt light headed. She gasped trying to force more air into her already shaky lungs. Her back seized at the pressure of trying to simply breathe.
Ryu got to his feet, “You feeling OK?” he punched his gloves together sending small sparks, “A little dizzy maybe?”
She glared at him and from the corner of her eye she saw Hiro return to his feet. She bit down on her jaw.
Sector 6: The Warehouses [20:00]
“Durim!!!” A middle aged man wearing wooden sandals, cut off jeans, and a loose kimono top clapped Durim on the shoulders happily, “I’m surprised to see you! I heard about Purple Hat getting busted!” he clenched down on Durim’s shoulder as he led him into the warehouse, “I imagine you’re here for an emergency supply?”
Durim nodded with a nervous laugh, “You got me.”
The man laughed and ran a hand through his disheveled copper hair, “Say no more, I would never leave you high and dry,” a guard opened the door to the warehouse and Durim’s mouth hung open. There were hundreds of boxes with the MRPA crest. All no doubt containing MS.
“What are you thinking? 600 doses?” he grinned darkly, “Since you’ll be needing new clients now.”
Durim was still staring at the contents of the warehouse blinking, Holy crap Aku we have a huge problem.