Baldric was getting treated, with his head being cleaned up by Annie. Tinkerton-G was beside Max, who was still asleep on the bed, while Solomon, Shinaki, and the syndicate lieutenants had turned their room into an office where they discussed plans on what to do next.
"Lord Solomon!" An enforcer burst into the room, interrupting their meeting. "The scouts have found an opening! We have reports that a convoy is on route. It will be fully armored, but it is our only chance! They are going to pass through one of our controlled routes, and we can hit them there with a well-placed ambush!"
"Which truck will she be on?"
"We confirmed that she will be in a truck with heavy iron and britus plating. But they will have a tank and walker escort."
"What if we set up a blockade?" One lieutenant suggested.
"That would take too long. What if we-"
"Lord Solomon!" Another syndicate enforcer came running in. "Lady Luna is gone!"
"What?!" Solomon stood up and the man who brought in the bad news cowered in fear.
They rushed to the storage room they were using as a holding cell and found that the guards had been knocked unconscious. The large metal door had been destroyed, with the door covered in bloody handmarks. Baldric went inside and found Shiny and Willow staring at him. One of the enforcers stirred awake, and Solomon lifted the man up with one hand.
"What happened?! How did she escape?!" Solomon roared.
"My lord, she destroyed the door using only her fists..."
"Shinaki tell them to check our weapons and see if she took anything! Maybe she is still close enough that we can stop her! Order everyone to be on the lookout and be prepared to move out!" Shinaki bowed, then left.
"Solomon, do you really think she needs anything?" Baldric said, with the ball of light following him.
Solomon cursed as he looked at the hallway. "Baldric, can you fight?"
"I can do more than that." Baldric ran down the hall.
“Ibino, Message Vhlad and tell him we need an immediate evacuation of the hospital immediately! Nikia, Do a head count and make sure no one will be left behind!” Two knights bowed and left. “Dammit Luna!”
=0o0=
Crushing rain fell heavily as a full convoy of steam tanks, armored trucks, walkers, and decimator class golems entered into the already over-fortified compound. Suvorian and her assistant, who held an umbrella, went out so they could inspect the vehicle they would be transporting the princess in. As soon as she gave her approval, dozens of guards went inside the warehouses and started to load the barrels of chemicals into the trucks.
"Be careful with that chemical, you idiot!" Suvorian said to one guard that pushed a barrel that almost felled over. "That is worth more than your life."
"Doctor, we still have two more we need to empty." A nurse reported to her as they headed inside.
"How long will it take to empty the vats?"
"It could still take an hour."
Suvorian checked her pocket watch. They were late but the process cannot be rushed. "Tell them to be careful in emptying the vats. Do not waste a single drop, understand?" The nurse nodded and left. "And for Maker’s sake, tell them that it’s volatile!" The sky flashed and the crack of thunder roared. Suvorian just shrugged it off as she and her assistant headed into the warehouse to get the princess ready for departure.
Stolen novel; please report.
=0o0=
Luna watched all this from the roof of a building in the distance. The moment she saw Suvorian through her binoculars, she tightened her grip so hard that it cracked the metal handle. She gritted her teeth as she remembered the doctor who enjoyed watching her victims suffer.
There were many doctors in Skyguard, and each one of them was maliciously diabolic. The most heinous among them was Doctor Suvorian. As the second director of the prison, she was the one who started performing operations on fully conscious and awake patients, and the more the victims suffered, the crueller she would become. Suvorian was also the one who personally ordered for the augmentations to be performed on her.
The doctor even forced her eyes open so she could not look away as they were dissecting her. Luna prayed for death on the operating table, but somehow, even through the pain, she did not die, or rather could not die. Luna’s healing serum, known as amber, was one of Suvorian’s inventions, which killed every other subject she tried it on, but worked on Luna alone.
When Suvorian noticed this, she brought it to the lead scientist of Chimera, Doctor Pygmalion, and both of them operated on her without mercy. Time lost all meaning, and through it all, they did not see Luna as a living thing but rather a piece of meat to be dissected. The torture alone would break anyone, but Luna maintained her sanity by directing all her consciousness into anger. Hatred at both Suvorian and Pygmalion and the things she would do to them when she broke free. And finally one night her chance came.
On the night she had her first taste of Venom and committed her rampage, Luna returned to the prison to find that she had killed everyone but not the two people she needed to see dead. Pygmalion and Suvorian were not in the facility that night, but they left their research work in a vault. Luna memorized all of Chimera's research in the facility, which ranges from augmentations, serums, concoctions, and experimental biological weapons, by heart.
She became a bounty hunter solely for the purpose of gathering information and destroying Chimera. And now, after thirteen years of evading her grasp, it was finally time to exact her vengeance on the woman who had turned her into a monstrosity. Luna felt someone creeping behind her as she put on the horned mask and prepared to attack the compound.
"Surprise, surprise. The princess of bad ideas is at it again."
It was Ada who had managed to follow her, in a body of a combat automaton.
"Please tell me you are just here to observe them. Please just this once, prove me wrong, Prove to me you actually have a brain in there! Surprise me please Luna just this once."
"Are you here to stop me Ada?" Luna did not even look at the automaton.
"Stop you? We both know that once that thick head of yours is dead set on something, no one can stop you. Luna, as your guardian, I am telling you right now, you cannot win."
"Do you know who is down there, Ada?!" Luna confronted her and pointed to the compound in the distance. "The woman down there who is in charge of that warehouse is Suvorian! She is incredibly dangerous! And every moment we let Elizabeth near her, I guarantee you she is torturing the child as we speak!"
"So what is it that you plan to do? Hmmm? Go down there alone?!"
"That is exactly what I am going to do! I will sneak in, get Elizabeth and get her out before anyone can notice."
"By the architect, you are a halfwit!" Ada approached her and blared right at Luna’s face. "You cannot win! You are outnumbered!"
"I will not let her be tortured like I was!"
"Wake up! You are not a hero, Luna! You are just a mentally unstable woman playing dressup, hiding behind your trauma to make the world pity you! If anything, what you need is therapy or a lobotomy! Tell me how you will save the child when you can't even save yourself?!
I have watched you ever since I joined your merry band of idiots, and every time you get yourself into danger, someone else always saves you from the mess you created! Baldric! Max! Tinkerton-G! Even Annie and Elizabeth! They always have to save you from your own mistakes! For once, Just this once! Think!"
Luna remained silent. The only sounds were the rumble of thunder and the crackling downpour of rain, as they both stared at each other. Instead of responding to Ada, she simply turned around and prepared to jump off the roof when Ada grabbed her arm. The GEA resisted Luna's attempts to move. She attacked Ada when a bolt of lightning struck the sky, but the automaton was already aware of her movements. Ada deflected every strike without letting go of her arm. She thought the GEA was playing with her because Ada didn't even try to attack, which irritated her.
Her attacks began to pick up in ferocity, and soon Ada was feeling the malice behind her strikes, as Luna landed hits on the GEA’s metal hull. The rain made the floor slippery and Luna used it to trip Ada, and once she was exposed, with one powerful kick, she managed to separate them both, with Ada rolling as she landed.
A horn blared in the direction of the compound, and Luna realized she had lost precious time, but as she prepared to leap off, Ada, who struggled to stand, called out.
"You personally gave me a purpose to protect Elizabeth. If we lose the child because of your arrogance, know that I will hurt you a hundred times more."
When another flash of lightning lit up the sky, Luna was gone.