Chapter 2: Espionage

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Amadeus' POV

My sister and I have always been content with having only each other as company. It was natural since both or our parents died young, which left me to take care of my younger sister, Minerva. We didn't particularly mind the lack of company, although we would meet up with some people and dealers when I buy machine parts and tools as well as raw materials for my inventions and machines, but that was different from having actual leisure and casual company. That's exactly why this situation is more than a little awkward...for me at least.

I was sitting on dinner table here in Planeptune's basillicom and in front of me were IF, Histoire, and Lady Nepgear. Nothing much has happened after I revealed myself in disguise, except for the fact that Lady Nepgear begged me to let her barrow the device with all too familiar sparkling eyes. Afterwards, we ended up here on this table with each of us having a drink of our choosing. They've already told me about what happened in the last three years and how Lady Nepgear managed to get out and they were just waiting for me to process the information. To be honest, I've already did and I was just thinking of a way to break the tense and awkward silence.

"So..." I started and all eyes were on me. I was simply stirring my drink passively, while looking downwards. Should I tell them about my further plans? I guess that would be the best option, but I'm not sure how they're going to take it. "I suppose now would be a good time to tell you about my Intel and further plans to dismantle ASIC from the inside out"

"Well, yeah. I mean were kind of on the same team here, so we should at least be on the same page" IF said matter-of-factly before correcting her posture. She did have a point. We're not entirely sure of what we're going to do from this point forward, but if we are going to be working together then it's crucial for us to know what the others know. Okay, since I don't have an argument anymore and it looks like I can trust these people...

"Very well..." I said before raising my head and looking them in the eye. "You already know that I've been working undercover in ASIC for the last three years, that I have a small machine factory/workshop, that I have little sister, and I already told you the current pandemonium going on with the ASIC distributors, correct?" They all nodded with their eyes hanging onto every word I say. "Then how about I show you my connections or rather my bugs in the ASIC headquarters" i said while ravaging through my floating suitcase before pulling out my laptop and typing in a few commands. I showed the screen to them, which was showing a grid of live video feeds in one of various ASIC establishments. It showed a variety of things from Heretics trying to sort through the 'bad' chips, the heretics trying to calm down the raging mob, a heretic trying to phone for help, a truck being tipped over by the mob before it can enter the building, etc.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What's with the silence?" Okay, so may be showing them something like this is a bit...silence-worthy, especially since IF's espionage network hasn't been able to get any info on ASIC or so I've been told. In any case, I was only showing them a live video feed from one of ASIC's headquarters. I can only show them several feeds from one of ASIC's base because I would need a multitude of screens to show them all the bugs I attached in every ASIC base, since I have several bugs in each base. "Okay, how about we listen in on their frequency" I said before tweaking a few things from my laptop and fiddling with the virtual tuner app. It took a few seconds until...

"...hey...are...y..ou...s...ure t..hi..s chips...are...cle...an?" The frequency was a little jittery since the bugs are having a hard time detecting their frequency, but we could still make out what they were saying.

"That's incredible so you managed to attach these many audio and video transmitters in one ASIC base?" Lady Nepgear was more than alittle enthusiastic to the point that I only gave her a nod in response.

"This would be a huge help, if we get the right Intel we might just be able to foil their plans before they even get off the ground" IF said in comclusion.

"Way ahead of you" I said before playing an audio file that I recorded a few weeks ago. "i managed to get this intel, while I was out a few weeks ago" I said, while fiddling with the laptop.

"...Don't forget we have a meeting in a few weeks" one man said.

"Yeah, I didn't forget. It's about our next move, right? Don't worry I've got it" another man said.

"Don't forget that we're going to meet up in room 4 before we go to the briefing room"

"yeah yeah"

"Don't forget alright? i heard one of the CFWs are going to show up"

I ended the file after that because what came after was just a bunch a of useless babble about how great the CFWs were. Blah blah blah. Several things that wouldn't be useful in the slightest.

"That meeting is going to happen tonight, I was planning on using one of my probes to get inside and listen in on their meeting since infiltrating the meeting would be..."

"But I'm sure that ASIC has started taking precautions, especially after what had just transpired today. So I doubt that you'll be able to listen in on that meeting as easily as you would have before" Histoire said with obvious concern and I just bit my lip and sighed. She was right, ASIC is going to be more careful now. Even as we speak, they may already be in the process of searching for my bugs.

"But it's even riskier for me to go to that meeting, I already had trouble navigating through the base, while keeping an eye out on those heretics and adjusting conditions on my laptop before, it'll be even more dangerous if we..." Before I could finish me sentence and make my point clear I was interrupted by IF.

"Well what if you only had adjust the conditions in the background, while you guide someone else out of the heretics' way?" Basically she's suggesting that I should just focus on what I do best, background work to find info and managing the situation through my machines, while someone else will infiltrate the meeting.

It would greately increase the chances of success if that were the case because I wouldn't have to multi-task and divide my activities to achieve the most efficiency, but where would I find someone to willingly go undercover and go behind enemy lines just to...

"You're not..." She can't be suggesting what I think she's suggesting.

"I don't see what the problem is." She said with a shrug. "If I was the one who went in there and infiltrated ASIC then Amadeus can concentrate on getting info and controlling the situation, while Gear, Compa, Red, Nisa, and Gust focus on increasing planeptune's shares"

"That's easier said than done, IF" Thank you, Histoire. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but she's in way over her head with this.

"Afterall, I can only make you look like an ASIC employee, but you'll still have to act like one" And that's not even the greatest danger of all.

"I think I can handle that, how hard could it be? All I have to do is act like I hate the goddesses and worship Arfoire." IF said with a shrug before she crossed her arms and her expression soured a bit. "Okay, I'll have to throw my pride faraway to do that, but we don't have much of a choice. We have to hit them hard, while they're still busy trying to calm down the riots"

"IF, we can't possibly ask you to..." Lady Nepgear was then interrupted by IF.

"It's the best option we got left, Gear" I hate to admit it, but she's right. As of right now, messing with ASIC and learning their plans, while they're still vulnerable would be the best move to make. Focusing all our efforts on gathering shares won't be in our favor in the long run, ASIC will just reclaim the shares like how they did before. In other words, infiltrating the ASIC meeting and getting Intel is the option we need to take for the odds to beneficial for us in the long run.

Any way you put it, we got our hands tied behind our back, but even so...

"Look at it this way" IF clearly sensing the apprehension everyone was feeling. "We've been trying to gather up faith for the least three years and so far that hasn't worked, so if you have a better way of doing it, then i think we should take it"

"Would sending you undercover to infiltrate a highly secured meeting with no experience at all, a high potential of getting caught and a slight chance that the Info won't be of any use be classified as better?" I asked with worry and concern clearly shown in my expression.

"Well, it's a little dangerous" a little? I thought that IF was supposed to be a bit more level-headed than this. "But this is our best bet right now and while we sit around here arguing Nep and the other goddesses are probably..." I didn't give her the chance to finish that sentence of hers. Truth be told, even if I didn't interfere she still wouldn't be able to say anything because her voice was getting more and more strained with each word she uttered.

"Alright" I reluctantly agreed in a quiet voice and looked IF in the eye; seeing my own desperation and dread looking back at me. "We'll go with your idea...but, if you're going to do this, then you're going to play by my rules and take the necessary precautions" I said still a little reluctant with going along with this. She seemed a little relieved and a bit exasperated.

"Okay fine..." She said with smirk on her face and I didn't need to look at Histoire and Lady Nepgear to see that they were asking the same thing that I was

Will she be okay?

...

"Okay, if you're going to go along with this, you'll need to be prepared"

"And by prepared you mean?"

"equipped with afew of my stealthier and discreet machines of course"

IF and I were currently in my shop, where I am going to provide her with what she'll be needing for her mission tonight. Lady Nepgear, Nisa, Red, Gust and Compa were out doing quests to gather up some shares, while Minerva was helping Histoire devise a few ways to put the odds in our favor given the situation. She may not look like it, but my little sister is pretty intelligent too, however, she often lacks the confidence to show it. She's more verse in textbook theories and while she may be smart, I'm still smarter than her.

The shop was filled with not-so-discreet machines, but these machines were only for show, so that nobody will suspect me to be doing such undercover work and reconaissance missions. The shop had a range of brass-colored machine-like devices; from the 19th century-designed telescopes, to the multi-layered goggles that zoom in and out manually, but anybody who knew this shop knew just how unique these machines actually were. At any rate she seemed unimpressed as I led her through the shop and into a more private room in the workshop, which was behind a door with a vault-like lock on the outside and several scanners on the side.

"No offense, but how exactly do these machines fit in with the crowd here in Planeptune?"

"None taken, and while my inventions and machines may have an old-fashioned design, they're more advanced and unique than some of the machines in the Gamindustri expo" I stated as I used the finger print scanner.

"Yeah, I guess you did prove that, when Gear's eyes suddenly sparkled when she saw them"

"I take it that you know a lot about Lady Nepgear?" I said casually with a smile on my face. I know a lot about IF now. A few years ago she was one of the people who helped Lady Neptune, when she still had Amnesia, helped her fix the problems in the other nations, helped Neptune gather the ancient weapons, recruited the other goddesses and a whole lot of other things.

"Yeah, we've known each other ever since she was born" She said with a nod, looking deep in thought; maybe she was reminiscing some memories. "At any rate, why are we going through all of this, we could just recruit the other CPU candidates and their mascots. That way..." I cut her off, when I shook my head, while turning the combinations on the lock. I knew where she was going with this and I can tell right now that it won't work.

"It wouldn't work, just charging in like that?" I saod the last part with headshake.

"Why not? If we get the other CPU candidates, then I'm sure we could..." She trailed off when I looked at her with a blank expression on my face.

"IF, a war, or any sort of competition cannot be won using brute force and brawn" I said because it was a fact. "Any battle can only be won with the use of knowledge and intelligence"

"What are you talking about? ASIC didn't use wits to capture the goddesses, they just used the most powerful weapon they had..." I looked at her with the same blank expression that made her trail off.

"IF, a superpowered weapon is useless if you don't know how to use it" I said, while turning the dials multiple times

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"IF, 3 years ago ASIC didn't even exist because the enemy knew that they wouldn't be able to sustain such an organization, unless the goddesses were out of the picture" I said distantly as my mind thought of how ASIC managed to get this far; how they managed to cripple the nations to this point. "If this were a game of chess, I would say that they were too focused on beating the king and ending the game as quickly as possible, but they didn't realize that they actually entered a pin. Once that was done, they were taken out one by one; leaving their nations queenless. From that point on, it would be child's play to put the nations in a checkmate"

I turned to IF as the final lock of the door is released. She was clearly in wide-eyed surprise as she listened to my explanation.

"ASIC had the foresight to see what would happen once they captured the goddesses, they planned their strategy carefully to lure them into a trap that would make that happen." I said distantly. It felt like I was only there in body while my mind continued to think out loud. "As of now, we can't afford to waste any efforts nor can we lose any valuable pieces. In other words, we can't afford a direct attack that will put any of our allies in danger. So the best thing for us to do now is to find out where and how should we place our allies for the most efficient counterattack"

"Like I said before..." I said before opening the door. "Any competition is won by using one's intelligence"

The room behind that door looked like a marriage between a 19th century steampunk novel and a mission impossible movie. The platforms and walls still maintained their brass color and machine-like texture, but it had gaps and lines that were glowing; suggesting that whatever was behind it was advanced in more ways than one. I flipped the lightswitch on and the walls opened; revealing a wide array of unique machines that belonged to a spy movie and familiar. All of which still maintained the steampunk theme, but the whole room had several brass-colored glowing lines.

We walked on the now translucent brass panel on the floor that were slightky glowing and faced the right wall, which had a variety of alarmingly small devices that looked like normal everyday items.

"Here" I said as I attached a small pin-like device onto her collar. "This will serve as a way of communicating with me. Put this" I said as I gave her a small earpiece that fit right in her ear. "in your ear so that I can communicate with you"

"So, you made all of this, while working undercover for ASIC?" She was clearly in disbelief.

"You'd be surprised how much free time I have" I said not looking at her because I was too busy reaching for the next gadget. "This pen will serve as my way of knowing where you are in the building." I said while handing a seemingly normal pen. She took it before examining it thoroughly. I thought that her line of work was espionage? I guess she wasn't used to doing her espionage missions with such level of complexity.

"You know I've never worked intelligence with this many gadgets before" she said nonchalantly.

"That's because you won't be exposed to this much danger before" I said, while bringing out another device. "This will allow you to capture an image of what you're currently seeing, that image will be printed in a briefcase that you would be carrying. This will also give you access to the records of any ASIC employee you might see." I handed her a pair of seemingly normal glasses that had a steampunk motif and a seemingly normal briefcase. "This will come in handy in case you come across any valuable documents. Blink twice to take a picture, blink three times to begin a live stream of what you're currently seeing. Also you can click on the side button of the briefcase to hide the printed documents." I'll only see her location in the building and the possible threats, as well as, hack the security cameras to know her situation, just in case my bugs can't enter the meeting room it would be good for her to have that. The side button will just drop a fake layer on the documents.

"just in case you get into any unavoidable trouble use this..." I said, while handing her a brass watch, I pressed a button and the face of the watch shot up with a cross hair screen. "It will shoot a dart that will make the victim fall asleep, only use it when absolutely necessary and when there are no witnesses. I don't think it'll be necessary since I'll back you up with some of my probes, but it's better to be safe than sorry" I said matter of facly and IF was clearly looking more than a little overwhelmed.

"I feel a little..." She struggled to find the right words. So I ventured a guess.

"Confused"

"Actually...I feel sort of good" She said with a smile. "in the last three years, I've never felt so prepared, I feel like we actually have a shot of taking ASIC down."

"Well, I guess that's true" I said with a shrug before walking to table in the far side of the room. "I mean it would be more efficient since there's two of us now, but it's still dangerous" I said matter if factly, while the table suddenly whirred to life before displaying a translucent glowing screen on the surface that had a lot of inscriptions and technical details. The machines visibke gears also had the glowing brass lines on the whole exterior; maintaining the steampunk motif and the whole room smelled like a an isolated office with a thermostat set at a low temperature setting.

"How could it be dangerous? I mean it could still be dangerous if they prepared a few counter measures for these devices but..." That's not the danger I was refering to IF.

I placed a USB on the table and the table showed a loading screen before showing a detailed blueprint of tonight's plan. It was showing the plan on the translucent surface with brass-colored lights and lines; showing the first phase of the plan, which was the motel.

The motel itself looked simple enough; just one L-shaped building with 8 rooms, manager room included. The motel rooms are organized from left to right and highest to lowest. The motel location itself was secluded so there wouldn't be any trouble with any interference. I still haven't found out if the manager is in on the whole thing, but it's highly unlikely.

"Okay so here's what's going to happen tonight." I said, while the display automatically progressed according to what I was saying. "at 1900 hours our target is going to be meeting someone in room 4 to discuss a few matters that we don't know, before they leave for the meeting. If either one of them managed to leave and makes it to the meeting or alert any of his allies, then it's mission failed." I said and the table reenacted everything that I said with a 3-D hologram, before displaying a 'mission failed' caption.

"Our mission would be to stop the target from getting to the meeting and for you to take his place" I said as the whole setup rewinded to start over. "First of all, the target will be entering a specific room, however there's a posibility that they have already been to the motel before, so changing the room signs or creating a fake room would be out of the question and we don't know exactly when our target's associate will arrive in the motel. Also we'l need to amke sure that they don't suspect that their meeting was compromised, which means that we can't be late for the rendezvous. Our best bet is for you to impersonate the target and meet up with the associate before our he does"

"Okay, so I switch with the guy he's supposed to meet, got it, but what will we do with the original target"

"I'll be stalling him for as long as I can, once you're out of the motel and headed to the meeting, I'll subdue him"

"Okay, once you subdue him...what happens afterwards, ASIC is going to suspect something when someone like him suddenly disappears"

"Unless, of course, he doesn't" she just looked at me with a raised eyebrow when I said that. "Look, what you said is true, which is exactly why somebody will need to pose as our target until we can safely release him; bringing us to the second phase of the plan, which is for me to hand you any necssary identification documents from the target, which will avert any suspicion once you get to the final phase of the plan"

"Then what if he asks me for an ID or something, while were still at the motel?" I've spent the last three years planning this out, IF. There's no situation you can aske me that I won't be prepared for.

"Leave that part to me, I've already got several tricks up my sleeves for any...drawbacks" she just nodded at me with a confident smirk on her face. "Finally, you will compromise the meeting and will use the glasses to take any necessary pictures and stream a live broadcast to me in the basilicom, after that you make your escape and we plot out our next move"

In chess, you must always plan out your next moves ahead of time, while reading your opponents next moves in the process and that's exactly what I'm doing now.

I am putting IF in the most strategic position where she will be hiding behind enemy lines unnoticed and untouchable while positioning several countermoves to take out any of the enemy's possible countermoves. Not only that, but I also managed to plan out my next moves ahead of time; by letting the girls gather up some shares to build up planeptune's shares. With the girls gathering up some shares, this will limit ASIC's non-risky options and thanks to my little stunts they're too busy to notice all of this.

In other words, I managed to put a knight behind enemy lines with minimal threats, prepared several countermoves to eliminate any potential dangers, prepared my next moves ahead of time, while drawing the enemy's attention to my little stunts.

Like I said before, any battle is won with knowledge and intelligence.

I pushed my glasses up with my middle finger and looked at IF.

"Alright, commence operation: Identity Thief"

...

Third person's POV

The plan was set and the operation was going so far so good. The target was moving as anticipated and the two spies were in position for the whole operation to go down.

Time left before the arranged rendezvous: 40 minutes

The target, Diego Raslaeigh, was on his way to the rendezvous; getting ready in his apartment. He was already getting dressed and preparing to head out to his car. What he didn't know was that things won't be going the way he planned.

Few minutes later he stepped out of the apartment and went into his car, just as Amadeus anticipated. The target stepped out of the car and popped the hood trying to check what's wrong, but he wasn't going to find anything in there because the reason why his car wasn't starting was a machine being thrown casually up and down in the air by Amadeus who was standing in a nearby street, disguised as a regular bystander, watching the scene unfold with a smirk on his face. He brought out his slider phone and pressed the call button.

"Hello?" A voice in his earpiece asked, it was IF.

"Target has been delayed. What's your ETA, IF?" He asked casually in a whisper, while observing the target from across the street. Amadeus was leaning casually on a lamp post; posing as a bystander reading a newspaper.

"About 10 minutes from the motel. How long do you think it'll take for the guy to get there?"

"About 30 minutes tops, what's your location?"

"10 minutes away from the motel, I'm near the guild right now" He started to analyze the situation carefully.

IF was 10 minutes from the motel, the rendezvous is supposed to happen in 40 minutes and it will take the target 30 minutes to get to the rendezvous point.

That gives him 20 minutes to get the identity documents to IF and after that he'll have to stall the target long enough for IF to finish the rendezvous and get out of there, before the target arrives. This was becoming more and more of a mission impossible situation by the second.

He was brought out of his tboughts when the target kicked his car, before grabbing a briefcase and walking into the busy streets of planeptune. Amadeus immediately got up and began following the target inconspicously.

"Target is on the move" Amadeus said, while following the target into one of the travel tubes here in Planeptune. He still maintained a visual on the target and proceeded to the next phase of his plan which was to find any identity documents that IF might need.

Amadeus mimicked a pedestrian who was running late for a meeting and 'accidentally' bumped into Diego, spilling the contents of the case, revealing several documents and an ID. Amadeus immediately bent over to 'help' pick up the documents when in reality his glasses were analyzing the information on the documents and tranferring the date to IF's 'glasses'.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I'm such a clutz, let me help you with this" Amadeus acted convincing and the target didn't seem to suspect anything because the target seemed to accept the act.

"No, it's okay. You running late for something?" The target asked and Amadeus was quick on the reply still keeping his gaze on the documents in a spot on expression of a man being too busy arranging papers to look up at someone.

"Yeah, my boss said that if I don't get there in time, I'll get the boot"

"I know how that is" the target agreed, while looking sympathetically at Amadeus.

Finally, Amadeus found an ID card and with a quick and subtle motion he hid it in his sleeve and planted a fake ID card in the briefcase. Afterwards, he handed the briefcase to the target and proceeded to run out of the travel tube, which ended in a location that was a few minutes from the motel.

Once he was out he used his phone to hack the travel tube system. He find the tube that the target was in and out it into an emergency stop, which confused a lot of people, but he did see the target run to the end of the travel tube as well. He crossed the street and started walking; keeping an eye on the target the whole time.

"IF, I got the ID, where are you?" Amadeus asked, while monitoring the target, who was about to cross the street as well. Amadeus used his phone to hack the traffic system and turn the lights green and almost immediately a dozen vehicles crossed the road; preventing Diego from crossing the street.

"I'm a few meters away from the motel, where are you?"

Time left before the arranged rendezvous: 15 minutes

Amadeus rushed to IF's location, while monitoring the target's progress through his phone. The target still had five minutes before he can reach the motel. The deadline was so tight and time was of the essence. He needed to distract the target after he gets the documents to IF.

In other words, in five minutes the target will reach the motel, which is also the amount of time IF will have after she receives the ID

Conclusion: He needed a distraction and he needed it now.

He looked around from side to side, but there wasn't anything he can hack to cause a delay. All he saw was citizens going about their daily lives now that ASIC has taken over. What could be a good distraction? He was clearly starting to panic. This wasn't part of the plan at all. He never meant to enter a location where there would be nothing to...

SPLASH

Amadeus looked behind him to see an open manhole that cwas quickly closed and locked, as well as, a seemingly normal pedestrian hanging up on a phone and leaving the scene quickly. IF must've called in a favor to one of her friends, which was really resourceful of her.

He didn't think twice he just walked to where IF was. This would be more than enough of a distraction for him to get to IF in time.

"Your friend's work, I presume?"

"You can thank Otome later, right now you need to get here as quickly as possible"

"Copy that"

...

Once he saw IF he subtly handed her the ID card, while passing her by casually. Afterwards IF turned on her disguise, since there were no witnesses around and approached the motel and entered room 4, disguised as Diego Rasleigh.

On the other hand, Amadeus was already planning out the next phase of the plan, which is to get the target out before anybody from ASIC recognizes him because if somebody did, then that would compromise the mission because he needed to make the enemy think that IF was Diego, therefore ASIC members seeing the same guy in two different places is out of the question.

That's why he was current going down a ladder to the sewage tunnels, which still looked advanced. The dark tunnel walls were lit up with purple glowing lines that kept pulsating every now and then and the smell was similar to that of new car. The pulsating lights were the only thong lighting the tunnel up and the floor on the side of the river of sewage had pulsing lines as well.

he brought out his slider phone and brought up the layout of the sewage tunnels. Using his memory of where the target fell, he managed to pinpoint the location of the target and was currently heading towards him. He also disabled his disguise because he could easily pass for a mechanic fixing up the sewage tunnels with his outfit.

He started walking through the sewage tunnels using his phone as a map and the pulsing lines as a his mainlight source, since his phone offered little light to guide him.

The lights reminded him of something that he was trying not to worry about.

Lady Purple Heart; Neptune.

As he trudged through the tunnels he can't help, but think about what was happening to his goddess now. Histoire told him that Lady Neptune and the rest of the goddesses were being held captive in the gamindustri graveyard and that they needed the power of a sharecite to free them. They didn't give out any details about how their condition was, which he understood considering that they might not want to dwell on the negatives, but he was still desperate to find out how his goddess' condition was. What could ASIC possibly be making them go through?

"ugh..."

He was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice that he was already a few meters away from the target that he's supposed to hide for who knows how long. He turned a dial on the ring that he was wearing on his finger, which exposed as tiny pin one the part of the ring that faced his palm.

He walked to the target in the best immitation of concerned citizen he could muster.

"Hey buddy" his voice turned out hoarser than he expected, like he had just finished crying. "Do you need a hand there?"

"huh? Oh yeah, do you know the way out of here, my phone got soaked so I can't call for my colleagues" Perfect, that means that there's a slim chance that nobody from ASIC knows he's here.

"Yeah, I could show you the way if you like" Amadeus said, while approaching the target who was now only a few feet away from him. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Oh, it's nothing I just fell through a manhole. This is probably a stunt pulled by those goddess lovers" the target said with a nonchalant wave. It doesn't matter anyway, this country's goddess along with the other goddesses will die in the hands of the deity of sin, Arfoire" the target said before confidently and coldly. Amadeus' eyebrows twitched.

"..." He offered the hand with the ring to pull him up from the river of sewage with a smile on his face. "Is that so?" He asked before the target grabbed his hand tightly before Diego suddenly flinched and jerked away his hand in surprise. A few seconds later Diego suddenly swayed back and forth before falling face first on the floor unconscious.

"What you don't know is that I'm slowly leading ASIC into a checkmate" Amadeus said before pulling the man out. "So I wouldn't get my hopes up, buddy"

...

At the meeting IF learned new Intel about ASIC's future plans. Specifically about their shipment schedules, their sales promos for the new chips, the alloted funding for the creation of more distribution centers, the fact that they'll be deploying some troops to stop the rioters, and the update on Arfoire shares. The meeting venue looked like a typical ASIC dungeon; nothing special and everybody was just sitting randomly in the first place they can sit.

During the start of the meeting IF had activated the live video stream and had taken several pictures of the presentation slides with her disguised glasses. Amadeus was actually watching the meeting through his phone, while he dragged an unconscious Diego across an alley to a van that he has waiting for him.

"Did you get all of that?" IF asked with a smile on her face. Up until now, IF had never truly felt like she was doing anything to stop ASIC. It's true that she helped Histoire, Nepgear, and Compa gather shares, but they rarely got anywhere by just doing that, Planeptune only regained a fraction of it's shares. Even back then, she and Compa spent three years gathering shares and they haven't even left a scratch on ASIC.

But now that Amadeus was with them, IF actually believed that they have a shot of decimating ASIC and saving the goddesses and it was already starting to show.

"Yeah, I got it. Is the meeting done?" Amadeus asked on the other line.

"Yeah, were pretty much done. They just have some sort of 'show' to give us"

"Show?" IF was about to respond to his question when he suddenly replied in a frantic voice "IF, get out of there now!" Which was followed by the sound of a car door slamming closed and tires screeching in the sudden accelaration.

IF was confused by the request, but it was too late she turned her head and saw the goddesses on a projector screen; restrained and strung up by tentacle cords and wires. Their expressions and torn suits made it clear that they were in a great amount of pain. She had already seen them once, when they planned to save them before and was forced to leave them behind because of CFW judge and the broken sharecite, but seeing them again made her heart constrict painfully, what made it worse was that Amadeus was seeing the exact same thing right now, while he drove to a secluded location, where he would pick up IF.

Amadeus was curious about how the goddesses were, having that wish answered wasn't what needed right now. He knew that they were captured, but he didn't know that they were being held hostage so terribly. His vision was beginning to blur because of the stream of tears threatening to spill any moment. The accelaration of the car started increasing as his feeling of desperation engulfed him.

IF felt like time slowed down as she watched her long time friend, Neptune, in such a situation. She couldn't even hear the maniacal laughter of the rest of heretics in the meeting. He didn't even hear them proclaim

"All for the Deity of Sin"

She just froze in place with an expression of horror plastered on her face. She couldn't remember how to move her mouth and before she knew it tears started spilling down her face.

"IF, let's go" as soon as she heard that she stood up and went outside of the base; the heretics were too busy laughing to notice her leave. She navigated through the building based on Amadeus's instructions.

She saw Amadeus' van in front in a secluded alley a few meters away from the base and she immediately ran there.

Once inside she realized something.

The hardest part about this wasn't keeping herself from being discovered.

It was working with people who make fun of the her friends' pain, while maintaining her facade.

...

"C-Checkmate"

Minerva and Histoire were currently playing a game of chess after they devised a few possible strategies for their next move. Histoire had just lost again and was ckearky in disbelief as to how this young girl managed to beat her for the second time.

"For a little girl, you seem to be very intelligent" Histoire stated with a mixture disbelief and admiration.

"I-I'm not as s-smart as m-my brother" Minerva said shyly and nervously.

"Nonsense, you seem very skilled in startegy and your proved that during our little strategy session before"

"My b-brother w-was the o-one w-who taught m-me h-how to strategize, he's better at it t-than m-me" Minerva said, while fidgeting under the fairy's gaze.

"but right now, he 's doing something else, which means that yours eye for strategy has contributed quite a lot in this"

"I-it's not that hard, it's just like c-chess"

"chess?" Histoire asked, which made the girl nod.

"uh-huh" she said before grabbing a few pawns and positioning them in away that they were protecting each other. "Going head on with ASIC in terms of share gathering, won't get us very far, you see? We'll just freeze in a stalemate because we can't afford to sacrfice anything anymore." Minerva looked at the fairy who nodded with a thoughtful expression on her face.

She then grabbed a few official pieces and placed them in a way that her officials were behind enemy lines; backing each other up and in position to capture enemy official pieces. "Which is why the best thing to do is to anticipate the enemy's moves and strip them of their assets one by one without them knowing and with minimal risks, while their attention is focused somewhere else..." She said the last part by pointing to the pawns.

"By the time they realize that we were focusing their attention on the wrong problem, they would have already lost their assets" Minerva demonstrated by taking out several enemy official pieces. "Once they don't have any assets, we just lead them into a checkmate" Minerva demonstarted by cornering the enemy king into a checkmate.

"How..?" Histoire asked, clearly agape with what she just saw. Minerva just smiled at her like the child she was.

"Because this is what Big brother is trying to do"