X-Com Into Darkness

Chapter 7

Inadvertent Meetings Part 2

disclaimer: I don't' own Brynhildr In Darkness or X-Com Enemy Unknown/Within they are both the property of their respective copyright owners.

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-Kyoto Japan, Outside Astronomy Clubhouse a few moments earlier-

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It didn't take the team all that long to locate the Astronomy Clubhouse. It was relatively easy for the trio to spot due to the story and a half sized building with a domed roof that poked out of the tree line. However other than how easy it was to spot in the woods, the clubhouse made a pretty decent hiding spot.

It was a relatively decent distance from the city, hardly any people went into this particular area, especially at this time of the day and even if the place were to be attacked there were several dozen square miles worth of forest that one could either use as a kind of hideout or lose anyone who was pursuing them.

The three operatives kept their distance from the building so as not to draw too much attention to themselves. Lord knew that if anyone was in there with Hatsuna's, 'unique condition' they might think that they were with the organization that had been torturing them for years and scatter or even attack them.

Currently Mei was conversing or rather arguing with Lieutenant Richter about their recent discovery. "Sir I just think that we should talk to whoever's in there with one or two of us tops, rather than just go in with a large group. If we do that we may end up spooking them and causing whoever's in there to assume that we're hostile," she explained.

"Corporal the one we're looking for killed several people including a number of police officers. I very much doubt that she's going to give us a better courtesy. Command already has two squads on their way here now. So for the time being you are to wait until they get here and then move in to secure the target."

"But sir those 'cops' could very well have been more of the same hostiles that attacked Hatsuna and Abel back at the hotel. That girl could very well have just been acting in self defense."

"That's mere speculation corporal nothing more." Mei was about to start to make another counter argument when Abel joined in on the conversation. "Sir uh, what if I go in myself? I'm decently armed and Corporal Reznov can cover me with his sniper rifle's thermal scope so if I get into any trouble he can take a few pot shots with his penetrator rounds. Besides whoever's in there might get spooked if they saw three full squads of heavily armed soldiers heading for them.

And with all due respect given the public nature of that event and how our satellites picked so easily up on it, it's only a matter of time before our enemy figures out what caused it and sends in a team to investigate. By the time you and the other squads get here it may already be too late."

There was an annoyed grumbling noise on the end of the line of the comm. link and for several long moments Richter was completely silent. He was clearly considering the argument that Abel had just laid out. eventually though the leader of Echo squad finally gave his answer "It still seems that you're a very persuasive speaker Abel. Fine, you go in and recon the building but if the target is in inside the structure you are not to engage and if she seems like she's hostile, you are to pull back immediately. Understood?"

A smile appeared on both Abel and Mei's faces. They finally managed to get through to their CO "Understood sir, I'm moving in now," Abel declared as he got up out of his seat and loaded a new clip of ammunition into his assault rifle and pistol.

As the youngest member of Echo squad headed for the rear doors, he went and grabbed a small tranquilizer pistol from one of the weapon crates that the three operatives had brought with them. That way if the whole thing went to hell and Abel was put into a position where he couldn't pull back, he could at least try and take her alive.

Abel jumped out of the back of the truck even as Reznov loaded the penetration rounds into his sniper rifle and went prone onto the floor of the truck. From there the team's resident sharpshooter patiently waited for Abel to reach the front doors of the observatory.

The squaddie was just about to open the door to the observatory when Dmitri turned on what he considered his rifle's best feature. The thermal scope lit up and the surrounding area turned a mix of colors ranging from blues, yellows and even oranges as the heat signatures started to move. Dmitri was about to warn his teammate of the additional heat signatures inside the building when Abel opened the door.

"It's you!" they heard over the radio but it wasn't Abel's voice but instead it was that of girl's who seemed to have recognized him. Then Abel quite literally vanished into thin air and in his place stood a well endowed girl with long brown hair "What the fuck…" muttered Reznov as he watched as the girl slammed the door shut and according to the thermal scope ran back towards the group. The former Spetsnaz sniper looked on, completely dumbfounded as to what had just happened.

"Uh, lieutenant I think we may have a bit of a problem, someone just…fuck, I don't know teleported Abel away. He's still in the structure but I can't get a clear lock on his heat signature." Reznov heard a frustrated growl on the other end of the communicator. "I knew I shouldn't have let that kid-" Richter started before everyone heard Abel's voice on the comm. channel.

"It's okay sir, they were just spooked. I'm fine!" he declared much to the team's relief.

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The instant that the girl declared "It's you" Abel knew almost immediately that these were the people that had helped him and Hatsuna escape that hotel. Before he could confirm his suspicions though he suddenly found himself in the middle of the room, with almost the entire group surrounding him. Abel turned around and saw the brunette, now standing where he was just a few seconds earlier. The girl quickly closed the door that lead outside and started to head back to rejoin her friends.

Before Abel could so much as ask what the hell had just happened to him, Reznov was already talking into the comm. channels; saying that he had lost visual on his teammate. Not wanting his squadmates to get the wrong idea about what was going on, Abel quickly assuaged any worries they might have. "It's okay sir I'm fine, I think they were just a little bit spooked is all."

After that though he looked at his new hosts and asked "So is it safe to assume you're all magic users as well?"

The looks that the group shared between one another pretty much told him all he needed to know before the only male in the group all but confirmed everything "Well, they are. I'm just trying to help them."

For a moment Abel was silent as if in contemplation, but he soon spoke up "Well this is just a borderline guess but I'm willing to bet that since your brunette friend over there shouted 'It's you!' the second I showed my face so I'm going to assume that you had something to do a certain escape Hatsuna and I had to perform earlier."

At first the group seemed reluctant to answer -in fact the pinkette of the group was sending her guilty looking friend a dirty look for spilling the beans- but eventually a girl who had been laying down the entire time on the sofa began typing onto a small machine with her right arm.

Within moments a voice came out of the machine and although it was in an emotionless tone, one could still hear the irritation coming from it "Of course we did you idiot. So you better at least say: 'thank you' to us for saving your life!"

That response was not what Abel had been expecting. Sure he thought that they might give some kind of reluctant confirmation or a denial, not what he had just heard. Besides he had at first thought that the girl with the voice box was some kind of doll considering how unmoving she was.

For a moment he just stared at the unmoving girl before dumbly uttering an "Uh, thank you?" Before he could say anything else though the almost unmoving girl started typing into her voice box again "And while you're at it why don't you just tell us who you are and what you're doing here!"

Abel turned to look over at the girl again before he pressed the talk button on his ear mounted communicator "Well sir?" he asked. There was a brief pause as his commander pondered his answer. Soon Abel heard a sigh from his commanding officer "Hand them one of your spare comm. links kid."

Doing his best to ignore the whole "kid" comment, Abel took out one of his spare comm. links and offered it up towards the group. Reluctantly the only male in the group took it and attached it to his ear. "So just who are you guys anyways."

"All I'm authorized to say right now is that we're part of a covert unit and we're here to help you. We're going to need you to take you all into a safe house." That alone sent alarm bells ringing in Ryouta's head. Sure they were fighting the lab but that was all that they really knew about them. For all they knew, they could be just as bad as the people that were hunting them. Hell they could even be the guys who had ordered the deaths of the other magic users when he had contacted them.

"Wait we don't even know anything about you people and you expect us to just do whatever you tell us to. Until we know for sure that you aren't going to try and hurt any of us, we aren't going anywhere!" he declared.

Abel seemed confused, they seemed so ready to save his and Hatsuna's life earlier and now they were all suspicious of them for some reason. Maybe they had thought that Abel was just some kind of tourist at first, but then if that was the case then how come they still tried to help even after he had used his earpiece to talk to his squadmates? And how would they even know that he was in danger?

"Then why did you help save Hatsuna and I back that hotel? Hell for that matter how the hell did you even know we were going to be there?!" Abel demanded already thoroughly confused as to how everyone in the room had been acting. For a few moments The group was silent before finally the girl in the Lolita outfit used her voice box to speak again.

"Well seeing as how you already know who we are I guess that there's no harm in telling you, I had a prediction where you were killed in that elevator and Hatsuna was taken back to the lab and killed!" she declared much to a befuddled Abel.

'Could this day get any more bizarre?' he wondered.

Before he could ask what in the hell the girl meant by prediction (though his money was on that she had probably somehow foreseen Abel's death at the hands of the people who were attacking the hotel) he heard what sounded like a helicopter's blades whipping through the air. Ordinarily this wouldn't be much of a cause for concern, but judging by the sound it appeared as though the helicopter was very close.

Judging by the reactions on the faces of the inhabitants of the observatory, this probably wasn't a good sign. Within moments this was confirmed when Dmitri's voice came over the radio again "Sir we've got an unknown chopper landing nearby, it's military make and there are several heavily armed foot mobiles disembarking. I recommend we extract the kiddies now and head back to safe house 1."

Abel immediately turned back and opened the front door of the observatory just a crack. Peering through the opening he saw that Reznov was right, there was a Chinook military transport helicopter that bore the markings of the JSDF (A/N: before anyone asks yes I know that the Chinook is a US transport chopper but the Japanese have imported a few of them for their military). Of course it was doubtful that these people were really with the Japanese military. In all likelihood they were probably part of the lab that these people had managed to escape.

The youngest member of Echo squad spoke into his earpiece as he unconsciously flipped the safety off of his rifle and got it at the ready. He turned back to look at the rest of the group and saw that the pinkette was giving him and the only other male in the room "You mind telling us what the hell is going on?" she all but demanded.

Before the brown haired boy could so much as utter a syllable Abel said "We've got company and it doesn't look like they're the friendly kind!" he declared even as the team's sniper spoke into comm. channels.

"He's right sir, plus I got eyes on that white haired girl the Intel guys found slaughtering those cops earlier. She's got a pretty messed up look about her, like a predator that's about to go in for the kill. Almost everyone is staying as far away as possible from her. There's also another guy, he's got short white hair and looks like he's the one in charge of the group, he's the only one staying close to the girl." The former Spetsnaz said describing the situation to his leader "What are our orders?"

The communication's channel was silent for a few seconds before Richter was heard again. "Alright kid, listen up. The situation has changed. We're pulling out of there, now you can come with us and I promise you that we can guarantee the safety of your whole group, or you and your friends can take your chances with these guys. What's it gonna be?"

The brown haired kid turned to look over at his friends who were looking at him expectantly. He knew he had to make a decision and he needed to make it now. Anxiety filled his voice as he said in a resigned tone "Alright, we'll go with you," he declared.

The pinkette of the group spoke up again "Are you sure we still don't-" she started but was cut off by the blue haired girl "We don't have a choice, we won't last long against armed soldiers!" she all but yelled. While the pink haired girl looked like she wanted to argue further against going with a group of heavily armed strangers, she realized that her blue haired friend was right. This was something that they couldn't fight against, at least not under these circumstances. They literally had no other alternative than to trust these people.

With no small amount of reluctance the pink haired girl nodded resignedly.

Meanwhile Richter began speaking over the comm. channels again "Reznovdo you have the girl in your sights?" the leader of Echo team asked.

"Yes sir."

"Take her out!" he ordered.

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When Dmitri pulled the trigger on his rifle, there wasn't any excruciatingly loud "boom" like with most sniper rifles or anti-material rifles. Instead there was a small somewhat audible "phht" as the AM rifle's built in suppressor did its work. However the suppressor was unable to stop the ridiculous amount of recoil that stained against the sniper's shoulder. But it was a feeling that Dmitri had felt numerous times before during his career in Alpha Group and had long since grown accustomed to feeling it. Though that rarely did anything to help with the irritating ache he would feel in his shoulder afterwards.

While some might feel at least a little bit of hesitation in shooting what appeared to be a small child, Reznov was certainly not one of them. During several missions he went on alongside his comrades in arms, he'd had to deal with rebel groups that liked to employ child soldiers within their ranks. Sometimes they were used as pint sized death squads, while other times they were used as explosive "martyrs" for whatever idiotic cause or religion they were supposed to be blowing themselves up over. Dmitri had learned quickly that to spare a child soldier meant that you would probably have to sacrifice one of your teammates. That alone convinced him never to hesitate, especially when your friends lives were on the line.

The instant after the round flew from the barrel, everything above the white haired girl's chin exploded in a red mist, splattering brains, bone and blood in every direction. The soldiers were all taken completely by surprise and they immediately reacted by taken cover in whatever piece of cover was nearby. The only one in the group who didn't react at all was the white haired man who was standing just a few feet away from the girl. he didn't so much as flinch as the head of the girl was just two or three feet away from him exploded like a watermelon. This alone struck Dmitri as very peculiar. Judging by his attire man obviously wasn't a soldier; in fact his clothing was more along the lines of that of a scientist. This meant that he probably wasn't very used to the battlefield, considering that he didn't so much as bother to put on a bullet proof vest. And yet in spite of the fact that he had just watched a kid die in front of him, and now had her brains splattered all over him, he didn't so much as flinch. That alone was very unusual, and rather disturbing.

However Dmitri couldn't worry about such things at the moment. He had to take care of the helicopter next; after all it wouldn't do to have those assholes follow them all the way to the safe house now would it. Dmitri took aim at the Chinook's cockpit, more specifically the spot where the pilot was currently sitting and pulled the trigger. The result was one helicopter pilot who no longer had a head. With that done, Dmitri turned his attention to that of the vehicle's copilot who was currently unstrapping himself from his seat in the cockpit and looked as though he were about to make a run for it. He didn't have a chance as Dmitri fired off another round. This one struck the helicopter's copilot directly in the chest, leaving quite the mess to be cleaned up.

Dmitri then heard several gunshots back in the direction of the observatory. The sniper turned his attention back towards the small building and saw that Abel had already started to open fire at the enemy soldiers with his assault rifle and had already taken one of them out. Deciding to help thin the enemy ranks, Dmitri aimed his sniper in the direction of the other enemy soldiers. He when he started to get his sights on the hostiles he saw something that should have been impossible. The girl that whose head he had just blown off, was back on her feet and her head was regenerating!

She hadn't regenerated the whole head, as her new skull was still regrowing some of the skin, but it was enough that Dmitri noticed that she had a very, very sadistic expression about her. "Uh, boss I just took out that girl like you asked but now her head is growing back!" he said into his comm. link. "You're fucking kidding me right?!" Richter demanded in complete and utter disbelief at what he had just heard.

"Nyet it seems as though this girl has similar regenerative abilities to that of Hatsuna, I recommend that we extract now!"

While Dmitri was saying this, the blue haired girl ran forward towards the door despite everyone else's protests. "Lady what the hell do you think you're doing?!" demanded Abel as he fired another burst at the enemy soldiers. This time hitting one several times in the chest, sending him falling backwards onto the ground with several holes in his body. The blue haired girl didn't say anything at first, instead she saw the white haired girl and muttered the word "Valkyria," with a fearful look in her eyes. However she managed to snap out of it, and she looked at each of the enemy soldier's weapons.

Much to Abel's shock, each and every last one of their rifles broke apart! Sure the enemy troopers would still have their pistols or whatever other sidearm they had on hand but they wouldn't be nearly as much of a threat as they were just a few moments ago. Abel kept firing his rifle, not even turning to look at the blue haired chick as he remained focused at the enemy just outside the door "That's really impressive lady. Now get back to cover before you end up getting yourself killed!" he ordered.

While the blue haired girl seemed reluctant to move at first, she quickly complied with Abel's orders "Alright, be careful," she said before running back to the rest of the group. "This is Mei, we've already started to move towards the rear entrance of the observatory, everyone head back there, now!" the team's medic ordered.

Even as the brown haired kid and the blue haired girl picked up their paralyzed friend from the nearby couch, Abel remained at his position by the front door. Taking pot shots at whatever enemy soldiers got too close to the building. "Come on!" the only other male in the building shouted. Abel didn't respond at first, instead he stuck his head back into cover and slapped another magazine into his rifle. "Get going, I'll cover you until you reach the truck!" he ordered as he took aim at the advancing soldiers and fired off several more rounds.

"But-" the teen tried again before Abel took cover once again and glared at the boy "I said: "Go!" I can handle these goons by myself!" he yelled over the sounds bullets impacting the walls nearby. Even though it was obvious that the brown haired teenager wanted to try again to see if he could get Abel to come with them, he instead relented and headed towards the back entrance to the observatory.

Abel peered back out and saw the white haired girl marching straight for him, completely ignoring the fact that her clothes were completely soaked in her own blood and organs. The girl's head was now fully regenerated. She was looking down at the grass underneath her, her bangs completely obscuring he eyes and part of her lower face. Trailing behind her was the almost expressionless man from earlier. Abel aimed at the girl and while he wanted to pull the trigger he found himself hesitating. With those soldiers it was different, they were working for a group of psychotic scientists that were experimenting on children anyone in their right mind would want them dead. But this kid, she was a victim of that lab just like the other magic users were, there had to be some kind of a way to reason with her, maybe they could help, despite Reznov's interference from earlier.

That thought was promptly thrown out the window when he saw the girl raise her head and look directly at Abel. The look in her eyes was one of pure sadism. In fact she almost looked like something that came out of one of those slasher movies that Abel had seen a while back. Immediately Abel brought up his rifle and opened fire at the girl. Unfortunately unlike with Reznov's sniper rounds, Abel's bullets bounced off some kind of barrier.

"Oh fuck me," Abel muttered before he got up and started to head towards the rear entrance of the observatory. The rear door was still open and Abel could see the truck a few meters past it and the magic users were probably already inside the vehicle. He was just about to start running for the door when he heard a loud groaning noise coming from up above. Abel looked up and saw that the oversized telescope had somehow been damaged during the fighting and was now starting to fall towards the rear exit.

"No, no, no, no!" he yelled as he tried to make his way to the door before the machinery blocked his only way out. Unfortunately Abel couldn't' get their fast enough. The observatory's telescope had fallen directly in front of the building's rear entrance.

Abel frantically looked back and forth, searching desperately for another way out of the building. There had to be some sort of an exit! "Uh, everybody, I've got a bit of a problem!" Abel declared into his headset, his voice on the edge of panic.

"What the hell is going on Jackson?! Why aren't you getting out of the observatory?!" Demanded Mei.

"The telescope just collapsed inside the observatory and now my only way out is completely blocked and that white haired girl from earlier is about to enter the building with her friends!" Abel yelled almost hearing the enemy getting closer and closer to his position.

Abel heard Richter's voice next "Alright, Kurosawa; I'm going to need you and Reznov to drive towards the front of the observatory and lay down covering fire so that Squaddie Jackson can make his way back to the truck." The youngest member of Echo team shook his head as he raised his weapon as the footsteps grew nearer and nearer to him.

"Sir that's not gonna work, the girl, she can deflect bullets now! You have to get out of here now, if you try and come back for me you're just gonna get killed. I'll find my own way out, just make sure that everyone get's someplace safe!"

When the leader of Echo squad finally spoke once again, Abel found that his voice sounded rather strained or even subdued "Kurosawa, get those kids back to the safe house, now."

needless to say this did not go over well with the team's medical officer "Sir we can't just leave-" she tried to interject but it was pointless Richter wouldn't even let her finish the sentence "That's an order medical officer! As for you Jackson, we will not abandon you out there. That's a promise."

The front door to the observatory started to open and Abel immediately began to open fire with his assault rifle. Brass casings fell onto the floor as the weapon was unleashed on full-auto, all the while Abel was screaming at the enemy soldiers "You want a piece of me?!" he shouted over the gunfire of his rifle "Come and get it mother fucker!"

For the next few seconds bullets riddled the doors that led into the observatory all the while Abel continued to almost constantly scream obscenities at those who were outside. Eventually though something rather happened, Abel's rifle stopped firing and instead simply made a very disappointing click. Rather than try to reload the weapon, Abel immediately went for his pistol. After all, his dad always told him when they went hunting together that it was faster to go for your sidearm than try and reload the weapon you already had in your hands.

By the time he got the pistol out he felt a slight pinching sensation in his neck. It was almost like someone had pricked him with a needle or something. Before Abel could try and reflexively reach for whatever was there, his legs buckled and the youngest member of Echo squad found himself collapsing down onto the floor.

As he fell, his grip loosened on his pistol causing it to fall out of his grip and slide a short distance away after he hit the ground. Abel's vision was starting to swim and darkness was starting to creep up on the edges of his vision. Whatever drug they put into that dart was doing its work beautifully. He struggled to keep himself conscious even as he heard the door open.

Abel was able to make out the figure of that doctor from earlier as well as the girl he was with and one of the soldiers that he had been fighting earlier. "Good shot," said the doctor in an almost robotic tone while the soldier just nodded his head "Thank you sir." Abel didn't have much time, he started to reach towards the pistol that was just out of his reach.

His hand was nearly there when he saw the scientist guy put his foot on the weapon and kick it out of the way "I don't think so boy. You're not going to be playing: "Hero" today," he declared as he started to kneel down and grabbed Abel's head by the hair and pulled him up to look at him directly in the eye. The man looked to be in his late twenties, early thirties but with the way he looked he could almost be considered older. The most disturbing feature though, were his eyes. They were like those of a dead man's, lifeless and uncaring.

"You cost me quite a bit of time and effort, and for that you will wish that you were killed, boy," he promised in a cold robotic yet at the same time, venomous tone.

Abel put all of his strength into his lips as he spat in the man's face "Kiss my ass, motherfucker!" he declared, relishing the look of shock on some of the other individuals in the room even as he lost all consciousness.

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Chisato let go of the boy's head and wiped the saliva from his face. His expression was one of pure irritation. The other soldiers in the room appeared completely shocked at the sheer display of defiance that was just perpetrated by the boy. As far as they knew, no one had ever acted so audaciously in front of one of the chief researchers. Chisato however ignored the near mindless grunts and instead turned to look over at Valkyria who appeared positively murderous at the gall the boy had shown.

While it may end up proving to perhaps be mildly entertaining to watch one of the lab's most effective test subjects reduce the defiant little brat into nothing but a puddle of blood and organs, he needed the boy alive for the moment. After all, one couldn't interrogate someone or even use them as leverage against their friends if they were nothing more than a pool of blood and gore.

"I'll kill that worthless little-" she started, her hair looking as though it was rising in defiance of gravity for a few seconds before Chisato put his hand on her shoulder "No, Valkyria, that one will live for now." The white haired witch looked over at her master completely aghast at his declaration. "But he was stupid enough to defy you. He deserves to suffer and die!" she almost screamed.

Chisato nodded "Yes, he does. But not just yet though. He can still provide us with valuable information before you kill him. It would take too long for us to search for his friends and the other subjects and they might end up leaving the city before you can sense them. No he is much more useful alive."

Valkyria looked reluctant to accept Chisato's decision but ultimately relented to her master's wishes.

Chisato knelt down again and pulled the tranq dart out of the boy's neck and spotted a rather curious little piece of machinery in his ear. Taking it out the Bluetooth shaped device he examined it in his hands for a few moments before he pocketed the device 'Now this gives me an idea,' he thought already thinking of the possibilities in his head.

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to be continued.