Vaguely aware of the what was occurring, Fox narrowed his eyes in deep contemplation as he received updates of the situation.

-The evacuation door has been twisted shut.

-Half of the teams inside the school have been killed by Visette Thales according to the accounts of the students.

-Visette Thales is far more dangerous than expected.

-Charlie Wakefield and Visette Thales are missing, thought to have escaped.

-There may be a set of traitors as one group was apparently given “defective” weapons. When they attempted to fire at Visette Thales, all of their weapons malfunctioned at once.

-Jonah Locke failed to find an opportunity to recruit Visette.

-Councilor William Locke may have had his identity compromised putting the entire plan at risk.

“I didn’t see things proceeding like this,” Fox mumbled as he recalled every detail.

“So what do we do, Fox?” Hawk asked.

“Nothing for now,” Fox replied before elaborating, “There is enough food to hold out for a while and they can still use explosives to get access to the evacuation shelter.”

“We spent months digging a tunnel into that evacuation shelter but a large explosion might cave it all in. We’ll be in a lot of trouble if it all comes crashing down with those students and our people inside.”

“I’m not sure if our people are still ours, Hawk. What are the odds that every weapon would malfunction like that?”

“Impossible really, unless someone interfered with all of them.”

“So it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that we may have a mole?”

“Yeah, well, I still don’t think one of our people would flip so easily. Maybe Visette Thales got her hands on the stashed weapons and sabotaged them ahead of time?”

“That is also a possibility, but if she knew of the attack beforehand do you think it would’ve gotten this far?”

“Fuck, I don’t know, Fox...You're supposed to be the thinker, if there's anyone who might know what that girl is thinking, it should be you.” Hawk ruffled his hair in frustration.

"At the very least, we have avoided the worst possible outcome. If those explosive devices went off with our people inside, we wouldn't have a way to keep New Mayhall from attacking," Fox said with a sigh.

He gave some more thought to the situation at hand but felt there was much he couldn’t get a grasp on. Without any other alternatives, he gave the order for the Abnormals to stand by and ensure the students aren’t harmed. Before anything, the evacuation door needed to be pried open and the explosives needed to be set around the academy to scare off the DSF and military.

…

“Charlie!”

“Mom!”

Outside the academy, a reunion between mother and daughter occurred. Rachel’s eyes were filled with worry for her daughter and she sent Visette at a grateful look from beyond a safety perimeter.

“Focus up.” Lyn’s voice drew Visette’s attention.

They stood near an equipment truck filled with weapons and armor and went over a floor plan of the academy. Near Visette and Lyn, there was another squad of Abnormals but they numbered five in total while Visette and Lyn were a pair.

“So here’s the plan...” Lyn began speaking, “The Governor ordered we rescue the children of government officials at all costs.”

“How do you suppose we do that?” An Abnormal soldier asked from the side.

“We don’t, she will.” Lyn pointed to Visette.

“What?”

“Stop fucking with us, O’Hara.”

“You can’t be serious.”

They voiced their undisguised disagreement with her way of doing things.

“I am,” Lyn replied, continuing with a frown, “While you may not like it for different reasons, I don't want to put her at risk, but those are the Commander’s orders.”

“...So what the hell is one girl supposed to do?” The second squad looked at Visette who, with the exception of her beautiful features and white hair, seemed like a pretty ordinary student at a glance.

“That one girl is probably worth much more than you are. Unless you can sprout multiple Abnormal traits right now?” Lyn smirked.

She was far off on her estimation of Visette's worth though. Even an entire army of soldiers wasn't worth as much as Minerva's genetically engineered war machine.

“...Shit, when you put it like that, it's hard not to agree.”

“That’s right, now listen, we’ll have snipers up high watching exits. Visette will infiltrate first since she knows the location of the students and thanks to her…” Lyn lifted a radio into the air. “We can listen in on their plans. For now, it seems that their highest priority is keeping the students safe so they can use them as leverage.”

“That can all change in an instant though.”

“Yeah, that’s why we have to move immediately after Visette causes a big enough of a distraction. After that, we'll monitor the fleeing students from the east stairwell and move when it's necessary... There should be no problems, this isn’t the first time someone has been held hostage for a ransom, it’s just that there are a few more captives than usual. Now, if we all got it, get loaded up and get in position. We don’t have much time.” Lyn sent the second team away before bringing Visette inside the equipment van and closing the door.

Her face and tone immediately became graver as she spoke, “I’ve spoken to the Commander about Jonah Locke and if that kid is working with the Abnormals than his father probably is too. I suspect that he’s the reason for Roslin sending that group. He probably helped arranged this entire thing too.”

“How will he be handled?” Visette inquired as she began to remove her academy uniform and equipped the military infiltration gear lining the inside of the vehicle.

“Well, the Commander doesn’t want to spook him just yet but there’s a team in place to capture him. As for Jonah Locke?” Lyn shrugged. “We’ve been told to capture him alive in order to gain William’s cooperation, but I say the only good traitor is a dead one. If he ends up dying during your fight I doubt you’ll get much heat for it.”

“Understood,” Visette responded as she equipped the last piece of equipment, a metal face mask that was good for protecting against Corrupted claws as well as low-caliber bullets.

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She grabbed a combat rifle and equipped a suppressor to it before doing the same to a semi-automatic pistol usually used by the DSF.

“Hey, maybe you could try to leave some alive for interrogation this time, Vis.” Lyn said as Visette headed back toward the building. She was referring to the incident with Demetrius and the fact the Visette killed them all even when she didn’t need to.

“I will do so if it is possible, but I cannot guarantee it,” Visette replied.

As always, she would opt for the complete elimination of all targets designated as enemies.

…

Unlike her exit, Visette reentrance into the academy was silent and stealthy though she didn’t intend to keep it that way for long. Her mission was to eliminate all targets she deemed to be hostile. Her rifle hung onto her back while one hand held a pistol equipped with a suppressor and the other held a combat knife.

As entered into the silent building, she immediately ran into an Abnormal who was busy rummaging through a student’s locker. He was too busy looting to notice her so she aimed her pistol at his head and fired a single shot before moving past him as he fell limp against the locker.

She advanced through the halls, picking off straggling Abnormals and loose groups patrols that were already on high-alert but at the same time, didn’t think that Visette would re-enter the school.

She paused briefly to drop an empty magazine onto the ground before loading in a new one.

[Visette, do you read me?] Lyn suddenly radioed in.

“Yes,” Visette answered.

[I can confirm that there are explosives in the west corridor. I don’t how you’ll go about getting rid of them, but try to take out enough of those bastards so we won’t have to worry about the entire building coming down.]

“Understood.”

As Visette finished speaking, she kicked the door of a classroom and fired three muffled shots, striking three Abnormals caught unaware. The students inside sat frozen in terror, still recoiling from the sudden deaths that just occurred.

Paying no heed to their feelings, Visette began speaking, “Go to the east stairwell.”

She didn’t stay to give an explanation and headed toward her next destination. Just as she was about to head down another hall she sent out a psionic pulse ahead of her and came to a stop.

“None of you even fucking look at me!” An Abnormal with a short temper screamed at the students who were arranged in a line, their eyes pointing at the floor out of fear of upsetting the clearly violent men armed with guns.

“Calm down a little,” An Abnormal who carried a wide machete said.

“Calm down? How the fuck do we get to the evac tunnel? I got enough to worry about let alone the feelings of some fucking brats. I say we just kill a few of them and be done with it, lighten the load a little.”

“Hey, you heard Fox’s orders, we have enough food to last for a while if need be so just-”

A suppressed gunshot interrupted the machete-wielding Abnormal as he felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest, he looked down to see a fresh bullet wound and before he could do anything else, another shot pierced his skull.

“Shit!” His aggravated companion grabbed a male student, pulling the frightened boy in front of him to use as a human shield. “You take another step and I kill him!”

He shouted before he even looked at his enemy, an individual wearing black tactical gear with a mask that hid their appearance.

His threat gave his enemy pause, seemingly carefully considering the repercussions, at least, that’s what he assumed until his body became frozen stiff. An unknown force locked his body in place and right as the terror truly began to set in, a bullet freed him of his plight.

The would-be hostage jolted as a warm splatter of blood caked his face.

“Go to the east stairwell.” Visette left the students with a single sentence before moving on.

Whether they made it or not wasn't her concern.

…

Visette left a silent path of death as she grew closer to the main gathering of students, the auditorium. Once a play where staff gave speeches, students enacted plays, and a multitude of other activities occurred, was now a room for hostages.

A dozen or so Abnormals guarded every exit while several more were constantly patrolling the rows of students who were tied up and clearly afraid.

Visette scanned the interior before contemplating the execution of her attack. With so many non-combatants she needed to take certain precautions as a misstep would put them at risk. If she didn’t have to worry about stray bullets hitting the students, she would’ve cut the lights and rushed in, using her psionics as she pleased. She was certain she could kill the Abnormals in a few seconds, but she was not confident in her ability to protect dozens of students that were all grouped together. That went doubly so when they were likely to panic in a dark room with a hail of bullets raining down.

Her current plan was as follows, draw attention to the side of the auditorium with the least amount of students present, from there, she needed to take one Abnormal as a shield so she could use her psionic distortion field and redirect the trajectory of bullets without drawing suspicion. After that, it would be extremely easy to pick her targets off from a distance, though the gunfire would send most of the Abnormals toward her position.

As it stood now, she had made it to the center of the academy within a few minutes. The time for patrols to check could only be several or so minutes away so she was sure to be discovered regardless. It was up to her to decide which manner the discovery would occur.

Visette tapped on the door and an Abnormal cautiously approached, but, before he could open it, she kicked it ajar and rushed in. She buried her knife under his ribcage and slightly lifted him off the ground slightly with the blade still within him.

“Shit! Someone’s here!”

It went without saying, but the commotion drew the Abnormal’s attention and they fired on their own ally without a second thought.

The bullets ripped through that unfortunate Abnormal’s flesh, spilling his blood onto the floor, but Visette remained unharmed as she concentrated her distortion field toward her front. One hand gripped the handle of the knife and kept the Abnormal up as her shield while the other squeezed the trigger of her pistol, each shot hit true and knocked an Abnormal down without missing.

Her streak of perfect accuracy continued and the Abnormals quickly caught on.

“Shit! That’s an Abnormal!” One of them shouted as he dove behind cover.

There was only a handful left by the time the realization came, but nonetheless, they reacted well, hiding in cover. Visette fired off a few more rounds, attempting to strike them behind cover but the bullets were unable to penetrate much. She soon heard a click, indicating she had run dry, and released the mag, letting it fall to the ground.

“That asshole is out!” A perceptive Abnormal shouted.

“Well so am I!”

“Shit, ammo check!”

“Out!”

“Out!”

“Dry!”

“I’m out too!”

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Seriously?! Who thought that a single mag would be enough for this fucking job?!”

“Well, even the almighty Fox couldn’t predict such a big fuck up! Now, get your weapons out and let’s jump this bastard! On three!”

Visette pried her knife out of the Abnormal’s body, letting his sponge-like corpse fall and holstered her pistol.

“Three!” The Abnormal leaped at her from all sides, brandishing blades, batons, and poles.

She knew that the rifle on her back could deal with them at once, but she decided not to waste any ammo when a firefight would surely ensue when she finished.

She dodged an Abnormal who swung with too much force, leaving himself open for Visette’s counterattack which was much more efficient, a blade sunk into his soft abdomen and tore horizontally while he screamed in agony, grasping at his entrails before collapsing.

Another Abnormal struck while Visette’s back was turned but she spun around quickly, temporarily reinforcing her arm with psionic energy and deflecting the blow before stabbing the knife into his throat.

She was forced to let go of her own blade as two other Abnormals arrived, one thrust a knife forward but Visette caught his arm and redirected his path toward his friend. He could only drop his jaw in horror as his knife was guided into his own ally’s throat.

“You fucker!” He yelled but Visette paid no heed to the insults, filling her arm with psionic power and striking at his ribs with quick, powerful, strikes, before adding a heavy straight to his sternum and delivering a single high kick to the side of his head for good measure. His body rolled a few meters before becoming still, if there was still any doubt to whether he was alive, his bloodshot eyes and indented skull dispelled it all at once.

Visette immediately resumed a combative stance but found all of her enemies were dead. She released some of the tension from her body and recovered her knife, and removed the combat rifle from her back.

The combat knife came with a bayonet fixture so she took a few seconds to place it onto the barrel of her rifle before checking the magazine and flicking the safety off.

“Go to the east stairwell.”

She knew that she had to move quickly so she left the auditorium while a shout rang out on the intercom.

[All available teams! Head for the auditorium hallway and shoot anything that moves! Half of our patrols have gone radio silent which means whoever was just shooting is wiping us out! Kill them before this entire thing goes upside down!]

Perhaps, if Visette was capable of feeling joy, she would derive some form of it from knowing her enemies were panicked. But that feeling wasn’t able to manifest itself inside of her and instead, a cold, hardened, resolve that was devoid of all emotion, filled in for it.

Hostile targets needed to be eliminated and that’s what Visette would do. So, she held her rifle with an iron grip as she headed down the hallway to intercept her enemies with the intent of wiping all of them out.