Chapter 2: Desperate chase
19:15 PM (Japan Time), Friday October the 15th…
"… Phew. Homework's over… Hum… Night is approaching. It'll be a slightly colder night than other years…"
"Subaru!"
"Huh? Harp. What's wrong?"
"Misora! She's gone!"
"Gone, you say!"
"Yeah! I can't understand it!"
"Calm down! Explain what happened."
Subaru had been looking out into Kodama Town from his bedroom's window when Harp suddenly showed up with the news: he gasped but then calmed down and put on a serious face.
"She left her room in Okudama Studios to go for a walk of 10 minutes while I went to search for news. But when I returned she wasn't there and I couldn't find her anymore. She'd locked the room using her ID card so it's proof enough that she hadn't returned! I requested of Urakata – san to let me see security footage from the Wave Station." She listed.
"And…?" Subaru asked.
"Two figures assaulted her but she fought them back with ease yet they then shot her with something which apparently drugged her or something: they then dragged her aboard a car with a weird symbol painted on it and fled. Those two talked in another idiom which I couldn't identify and Urakata – san couldn't either."
"Let's go see the Satella Police: if the car is really that peculiar then we could set up blockades given how it can't have gotten too far from Kodama Town yet and there are several controls given how there'd been a lot of smuggling goods using this area as a hub. Follow me, Harp! I won't let such bad guys get away with it!"
19:24 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Here we are… The Satella Police HQ! Let's go find Akatsuki – san and explain it to him."
"Yeah. He'll be able to help…"
"… Help finding a boyfriend for Misora? Mwah, hah, hah."
"Jeez."
"Come on."
War Rock had shown up in the midst of the vast outer yard and begun joking again to the exasperation of both Subaru and Harp as they were about to step into the gargantuan building.
"What's with the rush?"
"Misora – chan got abducted and we have to rescue her."
"Oho. So the classic "hero rescues princess" scenario happened and not the other way around which was back in the summer of 2204?" War Rock grinned.
"Shut up or I'll tell Boss." Subaru snapped at him.
"Che."
They rushed inside and past the empty reception counter: they climbed up the stairs next and turned left to head into the Satella Police HQ just in time to see Akatsuki Shidou yell at someone over the Hunter – VG while Acid looked on silence.
"… Sheesh! I dunno why you keep on ringing this number over and over again but let's settle this already: I AIN'T THE LOCAL BUTCHER'S! I AIN'T! I AIN'T! GOTCHA ALREADY YOU SILLY-HEAD?"
"Mr. Butcher, you must be stressed with all these requests of meat for Christmas and all…" An elderly man could be heard replying.
"Christmas? We're in October! Don't you have a calendar and don't you read the newspapers or what?"
"Ah? We're in October? I could've sworn we were in December. One's memory isn't what it used to be…"
"I AIN'T THE LOCAL BUTCHER! IT'S NOT LIKE I SPEAK IN SOME UNDECIPHERABLE DIALECT, IS IT? I SPEAK STANDARD TOKYO PREFECTURE JAPANESE AND YA DO AS WELL! DO YA HEAR ME, MISTER?" Akatsuki yelled at him.
"My niece tells me people nowadays are stressed by work..." The elderly man kept on saying.
"By all the…!"
"I believe he must be mistaken in his perceptions and would need attention from the social services." Acid deduced.
"Jeez! Alright, mister! Have a cold shower: it's good for the head! And now good evening and good luck!"
"Wait, Mr. Butcher! What about…?"
Akatsuki cut the call and grumbled something while he picked a "Sweet Candy" and began to chew at it.
"Acid! Block this number."
"Roger. We have visits, by the way."
"Huh? Ah. Subaru, War Rock and Harp… What's wrong?" He greeted as he looked over to them.
"Akatsuki – san, Misora – chan has been abducted!"
"What!" Akatsuki gasped.
"The culprits fled in a car with a strange symbol drawn into it and it hasn't been 30 minutes even! Harp! Can you describe the car?"
"Green… The crest showed a hand with an eye drawn into its palm… Colored red… Looked spooky… The attackers are foreign women with black tunics and hoods…" Harp described.
"Good! Acid!"
"Roger. I will go retrieve the security footage from the Okudama Studios Wave Station." Acid confirmed.
"Try to be fast! Let's radio this description to begin with and then we'll supply the footage." Akatsuki rallied.
"So, Akatsuki. What have you done today? Start up a war in the Middle East, perhaps?"
"Jeez."
"Ah! Queen Tia – sensei…"
"Funny how you keep on addressing me in that manner even though I ceased being your teacher time ago…"
Queen Tia had walked in while looking totally unimpressed and Akatsuki didn't like her sarcasm: Subaru nervously greeted her and she merely lifted the right eyebrow.
"Too bad!" War Rock told her.
"Too bad… What?"
"Your target grew wings and flew!" He laughed.
"Is that so?"
"Jeez! War Rock! This is not a kidding business: Misora – chan has been abducted by two foreign ladies and we need to find out whom they are and if we can intercept them!" Subaru grumbled.
"Ah. Foreigners…" Queen Tia sounded like she'd been expecting it to happen all along.
"Yeah. And they fled in this fancy car." Akatsuki replied as he displayed a photograph of the car.
"The crest in that car…? Hmmm… I now have a feeling like I've seen it somewhere before, time ago." She muttered.
"Well! If not we can question them if it has any meaning at all or they are copy-cats." Akatsuki shrugged.
"This is Patrol 09 reporting from 45 km SSE of Kodama Town's eastern periphery where Okudama Studios are at… We're checking all recordings and one such car drove past this point 8 minutes ago. We've forwarded the message to the next control 15 km further on and to the one 30 km from here: given the average 2km per minute speed in this expressway then they can't have covered more than 16~18 km ever since it was lastly spotted. Besides, if what they want is a discrete spot then heading over to the coast is the logical course of action and they won't deviate from this current itinerary." A report came in.
"Good! We're already making progress."
"This Patrol 10… The car ran past out post 2 minutes ago so Patrol 11 will definitely intercept it given how there are no exits in this leg of the expressway… It has to be 4~6 km from our position by now and 11~9 km from Patrol 11's position… They will make contact in the next 5~6 minutes at their current speed. Given the low traffic today it's not being hard to force cars to brake and be checked up. Any descriptions of the drivers, by the way?" Another patrol requested.
"Black tunics plus hoods and gloves. You don't see people hiding their faces like that when driving." Akatsuki replied as he fast-forwarded the Wave Station security footage and stopped when the two of them carried Misora to the car.
"Roger."
Subaru sat down on a chair Akatsuki signaled for and sighed along with Harp while War Rock whistled something as if trying to make it look he had some degree of blame for it: Queen Tia merely folded her arms and directed a cold and hostile continuous glare at Akatsuki: he grumbled something and focused on listening to the footage.
"French. They speak French. So they're from France. And they have come just to do this, I'd say. They might have an illegal charter plane to fly out of the country as well… Or maybe not… Hard to say at this stage…"
"Hard to say if you are going to start up a war in France, Akatsuki, but it wouldn't surprise me if you did."
"Jeez. Tell that to Moon Disaster. He must bring "disaster" wherever he goes to!" Akatsuki grumbled.
"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. I got told the same thing a while ago by that one over there and then I told Moonie to go crown the Moon!" War Rock laughed.
"Please…" Subaru sounded as if he found the whole thing to be of very poor taste.
"Hello? Patrol 11? All ready? The car should reach you in another 1~2 minutes: they may be desperate and try to drive through, even. Do you have Wizards with you?" Akatsuki warned.
"Don't worry, Akatsuki! We brought two armored vans: and anyone with enough age to drive knows that it's suicide to crash against something at 120 km/h!" One officer reported.
"Good!" Akatsuki smiled.
"A normal car… Please halt. Show us the ID and open the trunk: routine control."
"Roger, officer."
"Hmmm? I can see it through the binoculars having parked in the emergency lane about 250 meters from us. The lights are blinking and the drivers are onboard. They have a Hunter – VG. Maybe they hadn't thought of this and are discussing what to do with a superior authority." Another office reported.
"Patrol 10! Is there anyone checking the opposite direction side of the expressway?"
"Of course. Patrol 20."
"Good. Tell them to be on guard: those two could be desperate enough to try to jump into the other lane and speed back the way they came so we have to be ready: there aren't any exits before any of the two patrols' positions so they can't do anything else but head seawards or inwards: 50/50 chance!" Akatsuki commanded.
"Quick thinking, Akatsuki! This is Patrol 11. They've jumped into the other lane and are heading back inwards!"
"Patrol 20! Get ready to stop them! Shoot at their hover engines to disable them or use an EMP device!"
"We happen to have one to catch speed-over people… And it's always loaded as per regulations. Ryuukichi, take it out!"
"Roger, Commander!"
"Those two should get there in about 3~4 minutes."
"We will be ready. Ryuukichi has good aim. Aim for the engine and set the EMP to the lowest power just to shut down their systems during 300 seconds before the auto-reset kicks in. But 5 minutes is enough of a time to make them come down and rescue the hostage." The Commander of Patrol 20 reported.
"Commander! I can see a distant flash, sir."
"Binoculars… Hmmm… Our clients. They're driving like a tornado was hot on their trail." The commander sounded slightly amused.
"What's the max distance that thing can shoot?"
"250 meters."
"It'll be close. If that car does 2000 meters every 60 seconds then it covers that distance in 13 seconds more or less." Akatsuki muttered.
"But once the car is hit then it will drop into the ground and lose all speed because there will be no hovering. All modern vehicles work like that, after all." The Commander told them.
"Closing in… About 750 meters from us by now… All systems green and I only need two seconds to pull the trigger."
"Get ready, Ryuukichi!"
"Roger, Commander.
"Come on…!" Subaru anxiously muttered.
"500 meters…! The actual blast only needs 5 seconds to hit the vehicle: they can't react to dodge because it's invisible and unless they're diabolically excellent drivers, then it's impossible to maneuver in 5 seconds except if you brake." The Command mutters.
"And braking won't help them either. 300 meters. I'm ready to fire upon command, sir." Ryuukichi added.
"Come a bit closer… 275 meters… Fire!"
"Roger."
There was a sound over the line followed by the sudden humming of a car's hover engines and a loud THUD as something heavy hit the ground all of a sudden.
"Good shot, Ryuukichi. Squad! Seize them!"
"Roger, sir."
"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah! What bothersome foolish people! Now I will take profit of this dramatic scene I've staged for and use this little girl as bait for Rock Man! Then I will defeat the gnat and be the most powerful man in the world!" A familiar voice rang out.
"By all the… You're not gonna tell us that's Phantom Black." Subaru actually cursed.
"… What do we do, Commander? We're not properly armed to face such an opponent!"
"Someone disable the car! Akatsuki! We need your help over here! Can you make it on time?"
"No need for Acid Disaster, ya see~! I'll handle things, Hyde Manor Owner!" Omega's voice rang out.
"At least someone recognizes my noble lineage!"
"Come on, Hyde… You didn't set any of this up. You just happened to roaming around at random and picked up the radio exchanges. And I'm sure he made that title up just to troll you…" Phantom sighed.
"Silence!"
"Fine. But he who warns a traitor is not."
There was a sudden sound like air being sucked off a room before several gasps came in.
"Huh… Shachou? You're not gonna like this."
"What did you do NOW?" Vadous questioned.
"It wasn't me. Someone activated the portal machine and has sucked the whole car inside of it."
"True! Some kind of purple rift opened and sucked it in. Those two had some kind of backup." One officer reported.
"But… Who? That technology is Top-Secret and I don't know anyone else apart from Boss who could use it and even less to suck a whole car and warp it elsewhere!" Subaru gasped.
"The GPS signal from Hibiki's transmitter vanished too so they warped somewhere underground… The machine to do that must be pretty big or they directed the exit spot at being the destination…" Vadous muttered with obvious annoyance.
"NO! My perfect chance is gone! Grah! I will have to take this frustration out into something!" Phantom Black cursed.
"Into your foreign valet?" Omega taunted.
"No! Into you lowlife!" Phantom Black roared.
"It's about to rain Hyde Manors."
"What?"
THUD! PATAF! BLOF! CRASH! WHACK! SMASH!
"Guah! Guo~h! Wo~h! Gya~h!"
"Behold my faster-than-light barrage of kicking and punching without any Star Trek techno-babble." Omega laughed.
"That was silly. Really." Vadous grumbled.
"Ask the Count of Hyde Manor." Omega joked.
"Stop with the Hyde Manor jokes."
"Ugh… Agh… Y-you lowlife… M-my ace in the hole w-will…"
"Your cloak will grow teeth?"
"I didn't mean that!"
"Your cloak will make you feel confident?"
"That's not my point!"
"Your valet has to go and sew together what will be left of it after I rip it to pieces with my saber?" Omega laughed again.
"Grfjtx!"
"Hyde… If you DO value your hide, I'd get outta here. Or else the valet will try to play the "threatening letter" tactic to the Prime Minister and that'll end up badly for you and me." Phantom whispered but was loud enough to be picked up by the microphone.
"I'll remember this!"
"Too bad. He was missing the Paddington 3:33 PM express."
"I know that punch-line already or whatever you name it. Get back here."
"Through DHL Express!"
"The situation has turned more serious. Who are those two French women and why did they abduct Misora? I hope it isn't something "ugly"…" Akatsuki muttered.
"Let's hope so, too." Vadous sighed.
"The crest… The crest…" Queen Tia muttered.
Subaru made a grimace and closed a fist.
I won't let the culprits get away with this!