RYAN found himself back in the war garden, but it felt different… not as real. The woman in black was gone, but someone else was there in her place, someone he wasn't as pleased to meet.
"Yo, Ryan." Drake greeted. He looked exactly like Ryan, except that his skin was pale, his hair was gray and his eyes were red.
"What are we doing here?" Ryan sighed, "Where'd that cute girl go?"
"Don't worry about her, she probably has better things to do than babysit you." Drake mocked, then he turned serious, "We need to talk,"
"So, what do you want?" Ryan asked suspicious.
"To cut to the chase; we were robbed." Drake said
Ryan raised his eyebrow, "What did they steal?"
"Us," Drake answered simply, "or at least a piece of us."
"That harvesting thing?" Ryan asked, "hurt like a bitch,"
"Yeah, when they did that, they stole a piece of my essence thinking it was magik. If they are planning on using it how I think they're planning, then we need to stop them."
"Why?"
"Because the stuff that makes me, well, me isn't for everybody… or anybody for that matter. Putting that into another living creature will be disastrous."
"It'll kill them?"
"I wish, it'll drive them mad until they've kill everything else." Drake said, "You're fine because you're a lucky accident."
"We need to stop them."
Drake nodded, dead serious, "We need to stop them by any means necessary. I don't want others copying my shtick. I left a little something in your pocket."
"What?"
"Something to even the odds, when the time comes," Drake grins, "But we are going to need to work together,"
"A partnership?" Ryan asked apprehensive, "I don't know… I don't really trust you, with you trying to snuff out my soul and everything,"
"Fine," Drake sighed, "As a show of good faith, I'm allowing you access to some of my abilities. It's heavy stuff so take it easy,"
"I thought we were basically the same?" Ryan said
"Yeah, but when mom did what she did, the good stuff was pushed to me by default," Drake said, "ever since our birthday, some of it has been seeping over to you,"
Ryan instinctively knew that he shouldn't trust Drake. He was basically Ryan's evil, born from the darkness within him. But then again, he was still Ryan in some messed up way.
"Alright, truce." Ryan said, as the two of them shook hands, wondering how long Drake would hold up his end.
Ryan woke, gazing up at Mac's chest.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything… but why am I resting on a girl's lap looking up at a pair of C-cups?" Ryan asked,
Mac's grinning face peered over the horizon, down at him, "Actually, they're B, but points for trying to boost my self-esteem."
Ryan sat up, with him and Mac was Angela and one other guy and a girl. "Uh, hi?"
They nod a reply at him
"Right," Ryan says "Where are we and what's going on?"
"We're in an Area 51-type place run by Branch 0," Mac explained, "Jasmine and the others went to go bust us out."
"Sounds like fun," Ryan said as he got up, "let's go."
"You're gonna need this," Mac said, handing him his black jacket, he had been resting his head on it
"Thanks." Ryan said,
"Yeah, they stripped us and put is in ugly hospital gowns," Mac said
"I hate those things," Ryan said as he put on his jacket, "so how'd I get fully dressed?"
Mac smirked, eyeing him up and down, before giving him a thumbs-up, "Nice work."
Ryan blushed a bit at the conjecture, "So, shall we be off?"
"We're coming too," Angela said.
"You sure?" Ryan asked
"Staying together is how we stay safe," the guy declared, he looked sickly, but Ryan could tell he could hold his own in a fight.
"Oh, and I guess you'll be wanting these back?" Mac said, presenting Ryan with his wand and Draxonn.
"Sweet," Ryan said retrieving his stuff, "let's go."
… )]≥( …
Shortly after Ryan passed out, the sage box had informed them that the lockdown for this section was lifting. Jasmine, Mira and the few other combat magi knew what that meant; guards would soon flood the area to contain the situation. This also presented the opportunity for them to escape via the hangar bay.
The first thing that had to do was to keep track of the enemy's movements, which, thanks to the sage box, was partially possible. But they needed more intel about guard movements and the general situation, for that, they needed to take a guards' badge.
[Badges are more than just identification and communicators, they were linked to ARGUS's primary networks and could access ARGUS databases in real-time. Branch 0 was not connected to any primary network, but they'd have their own internal network that their operatives had privilege to.]
The lockdown had just lifted and the blast doors that sealed them in had receded. They made their way out of that section and towards the next one.
"So once we get to the hangar, what then?" one guy asked, "Does anyone know how to fly a warbird?"
"I know." Jasmine and Mira said at the same time,
"Warukunai," Mira said looking at Jasmine with admiration, "Anata-tachi tsuiseki-sha taipu no hito wa jimen ni tomaru no ga sukida to omotte ita nodesuga?"
"Chōkanzu ga areba kari wa motto tanoshiku narimasu." Jasmine replied, as they entered a large area, the entire room was massive but empty and, as cliché as it sounded, it was quiet… too quiet.
"I don't like this," Jasmine said "Mira, you—"
Jasmine go quiet when, suddenly, everyone fell to the ground, all stricken with a crippling fear that that paralyzed them. This was the work of a Mind type user.
A team of eight crows appeared from the other side.
"These are the ones that escaped." One in a bear mask said
"Lord Crowley said they were no longer of use." Said another wearing a wolf mask.
"He does not need any loose ends." A third wearing a Japanese oni mask says
"The four of you, go after the others, we will take care of these five." The first said taking a blade out.
Jasmine tried to process the situation, but the haze of terror and disorientation she was being assaulted by clouded her mind, inhibited her from even speaking, all she could do was lay on the ground, huddled in the fetal position.
Then, the crows that had gone off to hunt the others flew in from the tunnel and collided with their comrades.
"From the way they're all on the ground like babies, I'd say it was Fright Bind," Mac said walking towards them, "Nasty piece of work, paralyses its victims with an uncontrollable sense of fear."
"Can you do anything for them?" Ryan asks, kneeling next to Jasmine.
"I don't know, this is the sort of thing that hollows people out if they're exposed too long." Mac said, "Maybe, if we can disable the caster, the cast will lose power. They don't look like they've been under it for long." Mac explained, she looked at the recovering crows, "Which one of you is the mind type user?"
They stood silent.
"Bloody crows, give me the creeps." She muttered under her breath.
"Why are you doing this?" Angela demanded of them, "You're all ARGUS, we're on the same side. You should be helping us stop this madness."
She was replied with a knife thrown at her head, but Ryan was quicker than the blade and deflected it with Draxonn.
"ARGUS is weak." A crow snarled, "All you do is fight and bicker and scheme against one another. We are not like you, we are nothing like you."
"We serve Lord Crowley only," another continued, "the current ARGUS is his enemy, and as his loyal crows, we will destroy the ARGUS that you all follow, even if we have to kill every last one of you!"
Ryan grinned, "So… you're enemies?"
"Of course we're enemies." The first crow hissed
"Good." Ryan said as he raises a fist and it crackles with electricity
"Lightning type; Super Shock!"
The glyph glowed on his fist and he launched it directly at Jasmine.
"Ryan, what are you doing!" Mac demanded as the white haired girl convulsed.
When Ryan stopped, Jasmine sat up abruptly, "What happened?"
"Just a hunch, really," Ryan said as he helped Jasmine to her feet, "When your mind is clouded by fear, a clear head is the best thing. Just had to cook you a little,"
"Thanks," Jasmine said, she looked at the crows, "So, you guys are enemies, right?"
"How many times do we have to get it through your thick mutt skulls?" a crow snarls, "We will murder every last ARGUS branch until lord Crowley gets wh-"
The crow was interrupted by an arrow embedding itself into his face, not far away, Jasmine held her bow, Orion, having recently fired.
"Right now, I'm in a 'shoot first' sort of mood." Jasmine said,
The other crows attacked without further interaction, Ryan readied Draxonn as he parried attacks from the blade wielding crow and Mac went after another, "We need to find the mind type caster."
The crow that was engaging Ryan was swift with her blades, but Ryan was just as swiftly dodging all her attacks. A jab from her knife left a thin red line on his cheek, a slash from him left a line on her arm. As their deadly dance continued, Ryan grew more used to her fighting style. Deciding to end it quick, Ryan poured all his power into one final slash, his blade hummed through the air before it broke her defense and sliced through her armor and flesh like butter. The eruption of blood from the mortal wound was promptly absorbed by Draxonn. As the blood flowed into the blade, scarlet glyphs glowed, emblazoned onto the black metal.
Ryan felt it, the power within the blade, a command suddenly appeared in his mind that he felt compelled to utter.
"Feed."
As the last syllable left his lips, the solid black blade erupted into a shadowy mass, with the red hieroglyphs flowing along its mass.
"Ryan," Mac called as she was cornered by two crows.
All these different ideas flowing into Ryan's head, as soon he moved his sword, the mass divided into two and impaled the crows surrounding Mac.
"Thanks," she said, "Look out!"
As Ryan turned, he saw a crow stab at him, but the blade was deflected off his dragon scale jacket, then, on its own, the mass bit into the attacker, ripping him in two.
When the fighting was over, six of the eight crows were dead, the remaining two knelt bound and gagged at the feet of the recovering rangers.
"What do we do with them?" Amanda asked, she and the other non-combatants had stayed back during the skirmish.
"Sorera wa atoato shōgai ni naru dakeda," Mira said, "Ima sugu koroshite owari ni shimashou ka?"
Jasmine translated her words for the others.
"Now hold up, I wanna try something." Ryan said as he crouched in front of one of the girls, with her mask removed, she looked pretty; auburn hair, almond shaped hazel eyes filled with hatred and a bit of fear, she also had freckles and dimples.
"Hello, I'm Ryan." Ryan said in a friendly tone, "I want to ask you a few questions, and I need you to be cooperative, so they can let you live."
The girl just knelt there, glaring daggers at him.
"Anyway, what's your name?" he asked before taking off her gag. She immediately spat in his face.
"Scum," she hissed, "You think you can intimidate us? We have been trained to withstand any form of torture your weak minds can come up with."
Ryan wiped his face, then, stared at her, "Torture you? Who said we were going to torture you?"
Jasmine took a cautious step forward when she sensed the dark aura return around Ryan, "Ryan, what are you doing?"
"Just trying to have a conversation here," Ryan said over his shoulder, he turned his attention back to the crow, "You still haven't given me your name."
"I'm not telling you anything." She snarled
"Maybe you're right," Ryan said, "Maybe something is wrong with ARGUS, but the way you're handling it, things will get worse. If you really want to be on the side of justice, start by telling me your name. We can talk like civilized people and come to a compromise." He said in his friendliest voice.
The look of uncertainty in the girls' eyes was obvious but surprising to Jasmine. She could tell that Ryan was getting to her, but he shouldn't be this convincing, especially to someone trained to be immune to such tactics, if he could do this much now…
The girl looked at them, "I'm called…Calico."
Ryan grinned, "Nice to meet you Cal… I can call you Cal, can't I?"
Cal shrugged; it didn't really matter to her.
"So, Cal, why are you so dead-set on risking your life for Crowley?" Jasmine asked
Before she could answer, the other girl lunged, looping her bound arms around Cal's neck, with a quick jerk she broke the neck her fellow captive.
"Damn," Ryan said as Mira and Ross dragged the other girl away from the body, "and we had just started getting somewhere."
All of a sudden, shutter gated slid down the two entrances of the chamber,
"It's a trap!" Jasmine stated looking at the restrained girl, she had a satisfied look on her face.
"Damn." Mac said as she grabbed one of the gates and felt a jolt, "It's electrified. There's no getting out of here."
"You're kidding right?" Ryan asked
"I was just playing it up for her," Mac smirked, "she looked so accomplished having trapped us here,"
"Ryan, you're up." Jasmine ordered
Ryan walked up to the gate and grabbed handfuls of it. His hands sparked, as it did its job and electrocuted him, but after a few seconds the electricity died away.
"That's one hurdle down." Ryan declared, waving his smoking hands, he then drew Draxonn and slashed into the gate, tearing it apart. He looked over at Jasmine, "You were about to steal a warbird?"
"Yeah, we should get back to that." Jasmine said
Taking a black badge off one of the bodies of the crows and accessing the Branch 0 internal network, they now had a pretty good idea of how the guards in the facility were moving and where the hangar bay was.
… )]≥( …
The facility known as 'The Farm' was impossibly complex. It spanned a vast distance with different sections connected by tunnels, some tunnels were even so long that they needed an internal tram system. While all the shenanigans were going on one end of the facility, with the electrical failures and fires and whatnot, another end was completely fine.
Crowley stood in an observation chamber of the operating room within that other end of the facility. He watched as the ten candidates entered their individual operation chambers— large cylindrical tanks the size of shower stalls.
The lab assistants were hooking the subjects up to their various IV lines and monitors. The five men and five women stood in the chambers in their underwear, poker faced and stoic as they were probed and prodded by the assistants. As a last step, the subjects were given breathing masks.
"We are ready, lord Crowley," Dr. Lanstrum stated
"Begin the procedure," Crowley ordered,
The chambers were sealed and a fluid solution that submerged the subjects
"Purging original magik print," one of the lab technicians said
Suddenly, each of the chambers were filled with a bright light, followed by the sound of screaming as their magik was being neutralized.
"Starting the new magik inscription now," a doctor said.
In each chamber, small needles began inscribing magik formula into the skin of each subject, written in magik ink infused with the stolen magik from the purebloods.
"Magik bonding is strong, each subject's magik web is accepting the hybrid glyphs." Another doctor said
"Infusing new magik print… now."
Each subject then had their magik web infused with a magik serum derived from extract from the purebloods.
"The process will be complete within ten minutes." Dr. Lanstrum said,
"Good," Crowley said as he stroked his beard, "so tell me doctor, what's going on here?"
"W-well my lord," Dr. Lanstrum, "First we purged all the candidates of their original magik type with a special process I devised, then we inscribe a hybrid script onto their bodies, that incorporates the different magik types we harvested, then we introduce a synthesized magik serum into their magik web, so that their bodies acclimatize to the scripts faster."
"That is impressive," Crowley praised, "I knew you were a true genius when I found you,"
Dr. Lanstrum blushed and bowed, "You honor me with your praises lord Crowley,"
Ness walked into the observation room and bowed at Crowley, "Forgive the intrusion, lord Crowley, but we are getting reports about a security breach."
Crowley scowled. Of course it would happen at a time like this.
"Alert all security personnel; these intruders are to be detained, alive if possible."
"If they're escaping," Ness guessed, "they're best bet is…"
A guard rushed in,
"Let me guess; they're going after a warbird?" Crowley asked, cutting the guard off, the guard nodded
"Well, do your best to slow them down, then let the entitled brats have it." Crowley ordered
"S-sir?" the guard stammered confused
"Did I stutter?" Crowley growled, "Relay my message."
The guard saluted and rushed out to deliver the message
"I have you right where I want you, Ryan Reins," Crowley smirked as a plan came together in his head, "Someone patch me through to Branch 1."
… )]≥( …
In the hangar bay, they found stealth warbirds, similar to the ones that attacked on the Summit. One in particular caught attention.
"I know that warbird," Angela said, "that's the Basilisk, Crowley's personal craft."
"Crowley's here?" Mac demanded
"Feel like pissing him off?" Jasmine asked
"Wait… who's Crowley again?" Ryan asked
As Jasmine and the others made their way to the docked warbird, she was caught off guard when a crow burst from the empty shadow to her right and nearly stuck a knife in her eye. What saved her was Ryan's quick and ruthless counter that left the poor crow headless.
He was beginning to worry her; the stomach to stand the weight of taking a life is not easily grown, it was something that took her months to master after becoming a ranger and she knew others also had to get used to it. But Ryan took to killing like a vragtor took to the cold. There was no hesitation, no doubt and no remorse, it was truly shocking for a sixteen-year old to accomplish. Since he woke up he'd been shrouded in dark aura and the new ability of his sword didn't seem to help ease her concerns.
He struck with such vicious efficiency; it was like Ryan Reins was born for the sword. Sometimes Jasmine couldn't tell if that was a good thing or bad.
As they made their way to the Keeper's warbird, they found their progress surprisingly steady.
"Is it me, or is this too easy?" Jasmine asked,
"Jasmine-san," Mira called, "Teki ga chikadzuite kite imasu. Watashitachi o tojikomeyou to shite iru noda to omoimasu."
"Damn," Jasmine said biting her fingernail, "no time to dwell on it now. Everyone, prepare to cast off."
"I'll hold the gangplank," Ryan said
"Okay," Jasmine nodded, "Mira, with me. The rest of you, strap in."
Jasmine ran down to the bow, once in the cockpit, Jasmine found two seats with handholds protruding from both armrests on each seat. In front of each seat was a circular console facing the seat. Jasmine got in one seat and Mira got in another, they both grabbed the handhold controls and the circular console before each of them lit up with avionic information. The entire craft shook as the large engines at the back fired up.
"Kōkū denshi kiki wa jōshō shi," Mira said as she scrolled through the list of diagnostics on her console. "Buki mo onrainda. Seiatsu shageki o shikakeru zo."
The ship rocked as the small guns fired warning shots.
"Okay, I'm taking us out now." Jasmine said as she slowly applied pressure onto one control while easing up on the other.
They craft slowly drifted upwards, where massive hangar doors lay shut. Mira fired a round of missiles to blow a hole big enough for their escape.
Their escaped did not go unimpeded, the guards had brought out the heavy artillery and began firing magik blasts and energy cannons at the warbird. All of this did nothing to slow their ascent, and once they were high enough, they picked up speed.
They had gotten away.
Or so they thought.