No one notices us as we fly over the fog-shrouded buildings towards the dock.
"Last ferry leaves in ten minutes," the conductor announces, then notices us. "Y'all hopping on? Kids get a discount."
"Rgh," I grunt, but Rurin stops me from protesting. "Discounts good," he whispers.
Turns out Ru is right. We got our tickets for half the listed price. Maybe it's a Chandonis thing? No one treated me like this in the Seaburgs. Maybe I should visit more cities. It would make for a fun social experiment.
Soon the ferry leaves the fog-shrouded city behind, chugging along under the starlit indigo sky.
"By the way, Angie. How do you sense magic and stuff?" I ask.
Angelina shrugs.
"You just kinda do it, huh?" I twirl a ponytail. "You sense any magic on me?"
"Your gauntlets," she replies.
I look at my armored arms. "Huh, that explains a lot, actually. What about Rurin?"
Angelina shakes her head.
"Mmm… did Verni have anything?"
"Yeah. A presence," she says. "But… hiding. It was doing that, so what it was, I couldn't tell."
"Weird. I wonder if it's a ghost."
We continue along into the night. A little while later, the ferry slows down as it approaches Tasmil's south dock.
Angelina suddenly straightens. "Oh! The energy web, we're through it. Nothing triggered," she reports.
"Phew," Rurin exhales. "We'll be good from here if we stick to the shadows. There's probably another dock or a hangar in the back of the building, since it's right on the windward edge of the island."
"So if it's open, we'll have our way in. But if it isn't, we'll go with my plan," I declare.
"I'm telling you, none of the guards will have clothes in our size," he protests.
"And I'm telling you, don't knock it 'til you try it!"
Beep-a-deep-a-deep.
"What the… oh, it's my gauntlet," I mutter, tapping on it. Vibroblades, communicator… if these things are magical, maybe they had other tricks hidden away.
"Oho! Told you this was the right frequency," says a voice I don't recognize.
"Well, color me impressed," someone else says. I recognize HIS voice…
"You! The Guy! What are you doing?! How'd you find me?" I yell.
"Aha. That's Kit, all right."
"Shut up! I told you not to call me that," I retort. "What're you calling me for? And who's your friend?"
The Guy sighs. "I'm working with your other comrades, you know. Have been since you split up."
"W-what? really?" I look over at Rurin, and he nods.
"I see I've got a lot to catch you up on," the Guy mutters. "Anyway, we can talk in person. We're in an underwater shelter with some people from Neocon."
"Neocon?! Neocon!"
"Uh… you good?"
I clear my throat. "Y-yeah! Yeah. What about the protoforms? Did you find them?"
"While we were at Metacorp, a fireman talked to Vernicia," the Guy explains. "According to him, they disappeared a while ago."
"Really… and you trusted him?"
"Don't worry. He's not the kind of guy who would lie about it," he assures me. "And plus, he was with this weirdo named Crano Mathis. He's Metacorp's armored exec. If you're headed that way, watch out for him."
"Crano Mathis… I bet he'll be a worthy opponent," I say. "I've been getting tired of fighting small fry."
"I thought Rurin explained an AE's power to you!"
"Oh, I know," I calmly reply.
"The ferry's docked, come on," Rurin calls.
"Shurikit," the Guy warns.
"Don't worry about it!" I close the connection before he can talk any more sense into me.
After we disembark, the three of us quietly jump off the back of the dock and fly around the south side of the island.
"Shoot. Forgot about the village," Rurin mutters, motioning for us to land in the forest. Veranti Village is still lit, with people casually walking about. I notice some of them are armed.
"Anything important here?" I ask, observing the buildings next.
"Nope, just a bunch of guards and researchers," Rurin replies. "It'll be a problem if we're spotted too soon, though. Let's just go over the forest."
Soon we land near Metacorp HQ. It's basically exactly how they described it, so sneaking around to the back is a simple task.
"Huh. Doesn't look like they fixed the sensors yet," Rurin notes. "Or maybe they don't know they're broken? Either way, good for us."
There's a pathway lined with trimmed bushes around the back of the facility, and just beyond it is the hangar. Its gate is covered with a makeshift metal mesh.
"Kind of a flimsy set of doors," I mutter.
"Blown out, they were." Angie points at the edge of the gate, where metal lies twisted and broken on both sides. "Big gun, maybe. From inside."
A side door opens, and we quickly hide. Out walks a pair of armored executives – one I recognize as Kisha, and the other is a tall man sporting much shorter but also puffy hair, dark brown skin, and thick eyebrows. But unlike Vernicia's triangular eyebrows, his are more like rectangles.
"Kisha Romanell and Crano Mathis," I quietly growl.
"No… that man is someone else entirely," Rurin mutters, sounding worried. "Crap, how many are there?"
We silently move closer, keeping to the shadows.
"…never made it to any of the shores," Kisha is saying. "Not even the no-man's land!"
"And they didn't fly, either?" The man looks pensive.
"Nope. Well, none of our aerials saw them."
The man rubs his bearded chin. "Unbelievable… something stinks here."
"Yeah, I know this. But so far, nothing's come up," Kisha replies. "The mansion is still sealed, and the frogs already found the battle transport. Either they're REALLY good swimmers, or they're dead in the depths."
The man sighs. "I'm not really sure how to proceed from here, to be honest. This makes, what, two more dead aeronauts? And that Fusion boy, too. What a pain."
"Tell me about it," Kisha agrees. "I'm glad White Knight came willingly, at least. Maybe we can get him to convince the remaining runaways."
"I dunno. If they're all this unruly…" the man shakes his head. "Bah, never mind. I'm turning in. Report, then sleep… unless you want me to do the expense report for the gate."
"I finished that already! Workaholic." Kisha punches the man's arm. "Come on. Once we file everything, we're heading to Chandonis for a drink."
"But I'm tired…" They walk back into the facility. I guess they're on patrol or something.
"So Travis went and made his sometimes-nickname an actual thing… I guess I can respect his gall," I grumble.
"Let's head to the roof. They're probably expecting us to come in through the doors," Rurin suggests. Angelina and I nod our consent.
The facility's roof is flat, camouflaged to look like the earth below it from above.
"No vents or ports," Rurin observes. "Everything must go out of the sides."
I activate my vibroblades. "Then this really will be the best place to get in." I look at the roof, then back at my blades. "Um… keep watch, guys. I'm gonna try something."
Angelina and Rurin give me curious looks as I touch the roof with my vibroblades.
"Um. What're you…?" Ru starts to ask something, but then I find what I'm looking for.
"Aha," I say, then drive my blades into the surface.
POOMF!
My shock force causes a small portion of the roof to crumble and collapse and I tumble into the room below in a burst of dust and rocks.
"Oof. Haha, got it," I grin, getting up. I seem to be in some kind of storage room. Angelina and Rurin peek into the roundish hole I just made. Then they shrug and jump in.
"Didn't think you had it in you," Rurin remarks.
"Of course." I stand, dusting myself off. "I'm, ah… all about those tactics. And look! We can crawl through the vents from here. Super stealthy, yeah? Ahem, as I planned, of course."
Rurin shrugs. "Eh, whatever works. Let's do it."
The shafts are narrow and twisting. Any normal-sized human would definitely get stuck in these turns… and Jim wouldn't stand a chance at all. Score one for the small people, am I right? Bah.
Rurin peeks through a vent. "More guards out in the halls," he whispers.
"Expecting us to bust in all loud and proud, huh? Sucks to be them," I silently snicker.
There's a room we cross over that has no lights and a curious smell. I stop, now curious.
"Whoa, these vents are huge," Rurin says. "What's in there?"
"Let's take a look." I cut open the vent with a vibroblade, and we drop in, activating our night vision.
"The door and windows, they're lightscreened," Angelina points out.
"A restricted area, maybe? This door's locks are huge," I say.
"These canisters seem dangerous. Look," Rurin tells us, pointing at the sign on the back wall: WARNING – HIGHLY REACTIVE! OPEN IN CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT ONLY.
"Huh…" I lightly tap a canister. It vibrates ominously before settling again. Any more force would likely destabilize whatever is inside, causing a massive explosion. "This will do," I decide.
Rurin pulls out one of the explosives from Roy's bag and drops it on the floor. "I feel like we haven't learned much here, somehow."
"I-it's fine," I stammer. "No protoforms, our pals aren't here… and, uhh, firemen are fireproof, I'm pretty sure. Let's head back to the roof."
"Which way was it?" He looks up at the vent.
"Um… you know what?" I fly up to the vent, checking the ceiling above it. "Let's see here. Good thing this place is only one story tall."
I unleash another shock force into the ceiling, which promptly collapses on to me, knocking me to the ground in a pile of crushed rock. "Oof! Hehe, there we go."
"Nice." Soon we're back on Metacorp's roof, standing around the hole. The other hole I made turns out to be about a dozen meters away, not as far as I expected.
"You think the explosion will go out through this opening?" Rurin asks, holding up the detonator.
"Maybe? It wouldn't be optimal, but it would be funny," I reply.
"I'm on board. Click," Rurin clicks.
The air turns white, then orange, then electric blue for some reason, then it fades back into the colors of the night. My ears are ringing…
Oh! I'm airborne. The explosion was much stronger than I had anticipated, blowing a good third of the facility sky-high… including us.
As I recover in midair, I feel my numb face. Yep, that's blood. My t-shirt and cargo pants are ruined too. Yeesh, talk about a lapse in judgement.
As I fly down into the nearby forest, another explosion rips through the facility. Just what was in those canisters? I guess it doesn't matter now.
I land on a tree to try and collect my thoughts. Angelina and Rurin… I know Ru is probably okay, but I have no idea how durable Gen 4 is. As long as she isn't dead, we should be fine, right?
"Over there! I told you they'd be smarter about it," someone yells. Then I hear metallic footsteps.
"I see. How boorish," someone else says, then I glimpse flashes of silver – the armored executives!
I jump down, landing in front of the AEs – Kisha Romanell and Crano Mathis. "You're too late, Metacorp," I gloat. "We slipped through your defenses like a foot through socks!"
Crano rolls his eyes as his weapon appears in his hand, its curved blade giving a chilling glow. "You scooberts are just so full of yourselves, aren't you," he says, sounding bored. "Well, we have the authority to eliminate intruders with extreme prejudice, so…"
"Don't do it, Mathis! You know what'll happen if another aeronaut dies," Kisha cuts in.
"Yes, yes, I know he wants them alive. But he never specified whether or not they had to be in one piece…" Crano eyes me with a bloodlust I've only ever felt from… well, myself.
I step forward, activating my vibroblades. I'd be remiss not to match his energy.
"Well, I'm heading back to start the new damage report," Kisha says, turning to leave. "There goes my plan for tonight… friccing deviant biotools."
Fine by me. I'll just have to take her down later. But for now…
I land on him with a flying axe kick to his cranium – CRACK!
Crano staggers a bit from the blow, but doesn't fall over. Weird, did I knock him out standing up? It's enough of a miracle that my attack didn't split open his head.
"Not bad." He slowly straightens, and I jump back in surprise. "That almost hurt," he grins. "Now, let me return the favor."
Crano's blade flashes, and I quickly raise my wings – ping! – But then the blunt end of the polearm nails me in the gut. I manage not to double over, though. Good thing, too – turns out Crano's blade can freely rotate.
Instead, I step up and deliver a powerful kick to Crano's grip, then another to his weapon a split second later. It flies out of his hands, its blade slicing straight through a nearby tree. As it falls with a crash, I'm finally able to close in with my vibroblades—
ZATCH! Sparks fly as I slash into his armor.
"What the–?!" Crano stumbles back, blood dripping from the gash.
"Haha! Did THAT almost hurt?" I triumphantly nail him in the chin with a high kick that knocks him to the ground. He quickly rolls back to his feet, his condescending smile now gone.
"I was wondering what was up with those gauntlets…" He holds out his hand, and the weapon I'd worked so hard to get rid of reappears in his grip. "All right, you daslilly. No more mister nice guy."
I dash forward, but suddenly there's a wall in my way. Before I can backpedal, BONK! I slam into its cold surface. As I reel from the impact, it shatters and I'm suddenly encased in the same stuff the wall is made of, restricting my movements and chilling me to the bone.
"What the… is this ice?!" I struggle fiercely, and cracks start to form in my translucent frozen binds.
"Credit where credit is due, I suppose," Crano says. "You did manage to surprise me. It seems we all underestimated you bereffs." He holds his polearm's curved blade to my neck. "It would be oh, so easy to finish this now, but alas. Rules are rules."
"Shut up! I'm not out yet, dammit!"
"Fortunately, we shouldn't need to worry if this is the best their leader can do," Crano figures, pulling back. "Maybe we can play for a while? Romanell and Burns will round up the others in due time."
"Grrrr!" I push as hard as I can, and the ice shatters. "Nice party trick, armored scum. Don't think I'll fall for it again."
"Oh yeah?" He lunges forward, sliding on a layer of ice below his feet.
His strikes are quick and precise, forcing me on the defensive in an instant. Between my wings and my gauntlets, he doesn't get in any hits with his weapon, but I can't hit him either – he's moving too quickly, keeping me at polearm's length no matter which angle I attack from.
As he moves, ice steadily coats the ground, increasing his agility. Then it happens – I land to try and stab him from below and slip on the ice, falling onto my back.
WHAM! Crano's metal foot launches me into a tree.
I quickly shake off the stars and launch into the air, charging my gauntlets with energy. Then I dive down to him, launching a full-power crosswave slash.
A strange bluish-white sheen covers Crano's body right before my attack hits, causing a chilly explosion that knocks me back a few meters. Then Crano launches a barrage of icicles at me, forcing me further back as they cut and stab and chill me even more.
I land on a tree a short distance away, trying to steady myself.
"This is ridiculous… I can't believe Ru was right," I groan, trying to heat up my bleeding arms. With my vibroblades and raw skills, I'm just barely a match for one of them. But then they start using magic and suddenly I'm knocked around like it's playtime! And there are two more of them in the wings… this really is the big leagues, huh?
"Getting cold feet, little gerkinde?" Crano calls. He seems to be enjoying himself again.
"S-shut up," I retort. Should I just run? I'm half iced-over, but maybe if I can stun him somehow…
"I'm impressed," Crano continues. "Your instinctive spellcasting ability shows great potential. If you surrender and I don't maim you too badly, you can join up with White Knight in our special thing, how about it? I won't have you integrated if you agree to my terms."
"You mean Travis? Forget it. I bet you'll just sell me off somewhere," I snarl back.
"Whether you're sold off isn't my decision, ultimately. But if—"
WHUMP!
A huge piece of metal lands on Crano, pinning him to the ground under its mass. I can hear him grunting underneath.
Then Angelina descends, looking mostly unscathed except for her blackened lower body. "Hit confirmed," she says. "Kit, come on. Kisha and lots of Deltas, they're coming this way. Waiting near the shore is Rurin."
"Phew," I sigh, breaking the rime off my wings. "Yeah, I'm all for ditching this place. Let's jet before he recovers."
"Not killed, was he? It was massive, the metal."
I shrug as we fly into the air. "It's annoying, right? Didn't even knock him out."
Angelina gives a sour look, but doesn't say anything more.
Soon we meet Rurin on the north shore, looking just as rough as me.
"Great work, guys. Um, I think," I say as we fly out over the sea towards the city.
"The explosion wrecked the hangar too, so the only way they can chase us is with boats," Rurin reports. "This went way better! Have some confidence."
"Yes. Important is confidence," Angelina nods. "For morale and leadering."
"Right. I'm confident in my skills, so why not be confident in my… oh, that reminds me." I activate my vibroblades. "These bad boys can properly damage an AE. Cuts right through their battle armor."
"Really?! That's huge," Rurin says, sounding hyped.
"Right? If we can find more things like this, maybe we'll have a fighting chance next time we clash!"
"Ugh, next time…" Rurin deflates at that. "I still need a weapon, now that you mention. Angie, too."
"The stuff the weaponsmiths make probably won't be enough," I mutter. "And these gauntlets… right, they're one-of-a-kind."
"No choice but to backburner it," Rurin sighs. "Let's just… not head back to Metacorp before then."
As we approach Chandonis, I suddenly remember something. "Hey Angie. Is Jim really your uncle?"
"Yes," she replies. "My connection to him, you should know about it. My mother's little brother."
"He's weirdly stealthy for someone his size, right? It's not just me? Also, he said he was trained in assassination," I say. "Just what is his deal?"
"I'm curious too," Rurin cosigns.
"Not too sure…" Angelina crosses her arms. "A special agent, he told me he's one. But for what, I don't know. The same goal as us, though, is what he has."
"I mean, I know we can trust him, but he's so flighty…" We're suddenly shrouded in fog as we enter the city proper. "Eh, whatever. We should get back with the rest of our comrades. They said they were in an underwater shelter, but like, where is it?"
"Call 'em back and find out," Rurin suggests.
"Oh." I look at my gauntlet. "Might as well give it a go…" I touch its surface, and a small interface pops up. One of the commands reads call back. I tap it, and it promptly beeps twice.
Then I hear the Guy's voice: "Hey, it's her."
"Uh-huh, gimme that. Hey, Kit! What's shakin'?" Vernicia is now speaking.
"We blasted Metacorp for you," I tell her.
"Hey, nice. We're still in the place, you should chill with us," Verni suggests. "Uhm… wait, it's kind of hard to give directions to our exact location…"
Her voice becomes indistinct. She seems to be talking to someone else. Then she returns – "Dive into the sea east of Sheldoe. They said they'll guide you from there."
"Who will?" I wonder.
"Quill, probably. You'll see them soon," Vernicia says, then cuts the connection.
"Who… uhm, never mind. You guys heard all that, right?" I look at Ru and Angie.
"More or less," he says, pulling out a map. "Now, which way is Sheldoe?"
I look around and only see fog. "I hope it's close," I mutter.
"It is," Rurin confirms. "Twenty kiloms north from Bread Reef."
"Oh. That place." I remember Vernicia pointing it out once. Apparently cliff diving is big there. "Well, it won't be too long then."
"Should we stop for food first?" Rurin asks.
"Um… Sheldoe is a city. You can get donuts from there," I suggest. "Just make sure to eat them all before we dive."
"Hmm, diving. Maybe not," he sighs.