Chase part: 11
A scream cuts through the building as the owner of it is cut down. Azure stands in the lobby of Bela's last obstacle before this world falls. Everything else had been handled. Azure had been ordered to whip out the old leaders of the world. And that's what he was doing. He moved quickly towards the top where they were struck hiding like mice. Grim thoughts flew through his mind as he ascended the buildings staircase cutting down the guards. Normally he'd keep them alive. Yet you could not this time. Orders. He jumped over a guard cutting his head off in the process. Landing he moves shooting another in the face, never even pausing. He'd gone through so many ups and downs, yet it still made him feel dirty to be doing this in this way again. Suddenly he skids to a stop. He'd reached the door. Behind it sat twelve horrified world leaders. Bela had told him about their failure to save the world they lead. But Azure saw through it, they were trying to do what was right. They were just going about it in the wrong way. They didn't deserve death. Yet here he was.
Azure kicks down the door shooting them down one at a time, a few stand up in an attempt to get away. None of them even make it a foot before a bullet finds them. Their bodies topple to the floor one after another.
"Twelve bullets and twelve dead. I'm so happy to have you working with me." It was Bela. He stood in the doorway watching Azure look at the bodies littering the floor. Azure didn't respond. His eyes swept the room. He'd killed countless monsters in his life, rapists, terrorists, and murderers. He'd done all that very purposely. Never before had he killed people he deemed innocent of his own free will. Until now.
Silvia walks through the building, using a spell to alter her clothing to a more appropriate setting. "How do you people deal with clothes like this?" She asks, stretching the tight jeans against her legs.
"What do you mean? It's so much easier to move in jeans and jackets." Azure says glancing down the halls. They seemed to be alone. That other Silvia, the one that had saved him and that guy Viridian hadn't said a lot. But that green guy wanted Azure to also handle a few side things while they were rescuing their Azure.
"I'm more used to the openness of my robes," Silvia replied cutting into his thoughts. "
Heh. Well this is much better I assure you." Azure says.
"If you say so." She rolls her eyes. "So where exactly are we going?"
"Uh fair question. Where do you think we should start? Destroying the organization or saving the not as awesome me?"
"Save the other Azure," she answers, looking around the corner of a hallway. "And I'm sure you're right about you being better. When I first met him, he was an obnoxious liar." She motions for him to follow, as the coast was clear.
"Aw well thanks. It's nice you like me so much."
"I'm just getting used to you. Now if I were keeping a prisoner captive, where would they be?"
"The cells." Azure says. Silvia nods and points to a directory. The two walk over and check it out.
"Well, I don't see cells on here. But I see detention holding facility. Probably for the security of the building."
"Ugh well I guess that'll work." He says heading off in that direction humming slightly.
"So we're from the same world then?" She asked, eyes kept forward.
"Yup, never heard of you though."
"Nor I you. But in Viridian's world, we know each other." "
Mm. Very well to. If you catch my drift." He says winking, the he frowns slightly "are you sure you haven't heard of me? I'm famous, in a way." Her eyebrows furrow.
"I think I heard something about you in the news. Aren't you called the Dragon?" He perks up slightly.
"Close. Dragoon." A look of confusion crosses her face.
"Why Dragoon?"
"Pf. Don't ask me. Ask the press. What kind of melodramatic bitch do you have to be toy give yourself a name like Dragoon?"
"Fair enough." Silvia says smiling slightly. They reach some stairs. Azure points down the stairs.
"Welp this is the way."
"I'll lead," she replies as she heading down the steps.
"Well duh. Ladies first." He says following her down. Silvia carefully walks down, head held high in case they ran into anyone. She reaches the bottom and looks around. "You see anything?" She asks, making room for Azure at the bottom.
"I don't think so. Let's keep going I don't think we've hit the holding area yet." Silvia nods.
"Just keep your guard up." She continues forward, making a list of spells in her mind for certain scenarios. The two walk, the silence pressing in on them as they move forward. Silvia suddenly stops walking, a strong wave of familiarity flows through her body. She holds her head, eyes squinted in focus.
"Headache? Take some Aleve."
"No. I sense something magic related." She lifts her head. "Something's wrong." She starts picking up her walking pace, using the magic within her as a guide.
"Uh okay?" Azure mutters following her as she speeds up. Maybe this is it. Viridian mentioned Azure was staying for a reason. Is this is the reason? Silvia skids around a corner and stops. "Oh my god." Silvia whispers. Before her was a girl just like her, strapped to some kind of contraption.
"Oh hot damn. What's that?" The girl lets out a scream as the machine makes a noise. Some purple essence made its way through tubes from the girl to the machine.
"Whatever it is, it's hurting her. Help me get it off her!" Silvia crys running to her side, trying to rip off the restraints.
"Wow wait hold up. Look we can't just rip it off of her! We don't know how it works. Give me a sec." Azure slips behind the machine and pulls off a panel and starts working on something.
Silvia glances over at him, silently praising him for keeping cool. She instead tends to the girl, checking her pulse. She tries to use magic to help re-energize her, but finds her spell cut short. "Why is my magic not working?"
"Well what does it feel like the machines doing to her?" She watches as another pulse of purple rushes through the tubes. She feels a strong essence coming from it. Only when she places her hand on it does she pull back in disgust.
"This is magical essence...," she manages out.
"Uh interesting. Um I mean horrible. Yeah horrible." Azure shakes his head at his own idiocy. "This is advanced stuff right here. It might take me awhile." Footsteps are heard in the distance. Silvia spins around in horror.
"Crap! Azure use the semblance Silvia gave u- Wait, that's magic based! It might not work!" Silvia started to grip her hair in panic.
"Okay well what's your semblance? Can't you fight?" She looks over, worry filling her eyes. "I can fight."
"Can you? Don't sound to sure." He says yanking on some wires.
"My semblance is darkness and shadows," she replied, looking away from him. "It's nothing I'm proud of, I don't like to fight. Not if I don't have to."
"Sounds very useful, I don't see the problem. Either way you'll have to, my hands are full." A small group of armed guards arrive. "Hey look your playmates." Silvia looks back at the girl in the machine screaming in pain. Azure was right she had to fight. Filled with determination, Silvia stepped in front of her defensively. "You will not be getting near her." The men exchange glances, one presses a button on his gauntlet. The rest draw guns and aim at Silvia. Azure glances over for a second to watch. This is going to be tight. Just a little bit more and he'll have it. Silvia closes her one fist, darkness enveloping all of the men before her. Blinded, she proceeds to melt into the shadows. She appears next to one, disarming him with an elbow to the chin. He grunts and stumbles back. The others turn as one, two punch at her. By the time the punch lands, she's gone, taken over by the darkness. She appears behind one and kicks him in his groin and pushes him over. Her eyes start to glow an inhuman shade of red. Several more men are running down and joining the fight. A few are attempting to shoot her. The one closest grabs her and throws her into the wall. Silvia lets out a grunt as she crumbles to the floor. Rage like no other fills every fiber of her being. She forces herself up, both fists clenched. A relatively large group has arrived outnumbering them ten to one. Suddenly the machine groans and the girl falls out. Azure catches her quickly and leans her against the wall. "Hey kids!" Everyone turns and looks at Azure. He whispers to Silvia out of the corner of his mouth. "They're blocking me. You can get out. I can't. Plus I have a little trick I can't do with you here. To dangerous. Just go to the floor above us. I'll be up in a second." She looks back at him.
"You think I'm leaving you behind?"
"Well I can't do my trick if you don't. Take the other girl and go." Her face softens for just a moment, before being replaced with a sad smile. "You're a pain, you know that?"
"Well I could've told you that. Trust me I'll be fine." It's hard for Silvia to trust someone, but for once, she actually believes what he says, she grabs the girl.
"I know you will." Silvia looks back at the guys, then at Azure. She scoops up the girl and steps into the shadows on the wall. Azure glances around and smiles at the group of men.
"So you're probably slightly confused. I don-" one of them fires at him and he curses rolling behind the machine and taking cover from the gun fire. "Okay then be rude." He focuses as the men approach slowly firing on him. He holds up his hands sensing for the water pipes. Slowly the pressure rises and the walls start to shake. The men stop and look at each other. Suddenly a huge explosion of water bursts through the wall quickly filling up the floor with water. Azure has no problem moving through the water, he moves quickly knocking their guns away and swimming towards the stairs knocking people out on the way. He quickly ascends the stairs and gets to the next floor up. He's complete dry.
Silvia fuzzed to life at the top of the stairs, looking down as she was water fill the floor. She sighs. She shouldn't have doubted him. As she starts to run, she begins to panic. Where was she going to go? If that was where they held the girl, where was that other Azure?
"Uh. Didn't she wait? Dang it." Azure glances in both directions. Then sighs and runs down the hall in the opposite direction. He heads back the the detention cells. Azure smiles. Now that he was alone he could do what Viridian had asked him to do. Sliding to a stop next to a door he looks inside and saw a bed and toilet. He presses a few buttons and found what he was looking for. Pressing the enter key the door starts to shut. He jumps inside before it closes fully. As soon as the doors shut the cell starts moving. The cell finally stops and the doors open. It was Bela's office. Running into the empty room he glances around and got to the computer. "Hello computer."
Silvia had come upon a room labeled Azure. "That was easy." She muttered to herself pushing open the door, a ball of darkness in her hand. Her body relaxed when she saw no one was inside. "What the hell? Where is he?"
Azure's hands moved quickly. He pulled up all the security cameras. He spoke to himself as he worked. "Uh let's see, do we need these? Nope." He hit a few buttons and it sent a shutdown code. Then he flipped a switch and looked through the files. They really didn't have anything on that other Azure. Viridian wanted him to take this place down. Shouldn't be to hard. A quick search told him this place was currently lightly manned. Weird. He stood up and started walking to the door but stopped. He pulls out a knife and sticks it in the desk. Then he runs out the door.
Silvia searches the room carefully for any clues as to where Azure would be. They needed to find him soon. The guards could be notified of the magic device any moment. Azure stands near the last floor in the building breathing heavily. He'd gone through the building setting charges from the office he was just in all the way down. Now he needed to get the other two and find Azure and go. He starts climbing again. He remembered seeing Silvia on the cameras before he'd shut them down. After a few minutes of searching he finds her. "Hey Silvia! You find him yet?" She panted for air, her brow slick with sweat. "I haven't. Have you?"
"No. He wasn't on the cameras either. I don't think he's here."
"Where the hell would he be then? He has to be here!"
"Well maybe he's been deployed? He's being forced to work right? Come on we have to go. They won't be able to find us anymore or send out alerts but we don't have much time." she scans his face.
"Okay let's go." She adjusts her grip on the girl before heading for the exit. Nodding he leads the way out of the building. A few people attempt to stop them but Azure knocks them out before they get to far. They burst out the doors.
"We need to get as far away as possible!" Azure calls back.
"Why? It's not like the building is going to blow up!"
"Wellll..." She shoots him a look. "You did, didn't. You?"
"Hey I was told to!" He yells back defensively. "But yes." She groans.
"Shit, fine" He chuckles as they get farther away. When they're far enough away he turns around.
"Okay let's do this." He pulls out a button smiles and presses it. A series of explosions starting from the top and going down come from the building it shakes and glass shatters. The building starts to sway as fire starts billowing from it as more explosions come from inside. Silvia watches, the explosions lighting up her face. "How many did you set?"
"Hopefully enough. The explosions from the knives aren't big. But put them in the right places and they do a lot of damage. Viridian wanted me to destroy the building. He said it was important. Something about psychological warfare or something." She sighs. "Guess it's a good tactic. We need to lay low. Maybe we can get information out of her when she wakes up."
"Yeah, yeah you're right. The forest probably." Casting one last look at the building slowly falling apart they run off again.
"This worlds about to be mine. How does that make you feel Azure. Knowing the part you played in it." Bela asked Azure who stood off to his left. The two were standing at the top of a skyscraper. The room was filled with the dead bodies of the people who once ran the world's government. Azure doesn't answer. "Silence? About right I suppose. I've been working on this for a while now. Setting up the groundwork for a complete shift of power. All that was left was, well." He finishes gesturing at the bodies. "Thank you for that by the way." Jade comes strolling in. He looks around with a smile on his face before speaking.
"Sir. I need to speak to you." Bela turns and gestures for Azure to leave. Is stoic expression in place Azure walks from the room.
"Yes what is it?"
"Apparently someone is attacking the main building in the main world." Jade tells Bela.
"Oh really now?"
"Yes. Two new people. A different Silvia and Azure."
"We know who sent them."
"They found… her."
"Did they now? Very well. This news doesn't leave this room. Go remove anyone else who knows."
"One more thing."
"Yes?"
"The building, they destroyed it. There are no confirmed survivors." Bela takes a slow breath at these words.
"Very well. Go. Do what I told you to." Bela turns back to the window as Jade walks out. So Silvia and Viridian had come up with a plan to help their beloved friend after all. The loss of the girl isn't horrible. That can be worked around. However the building. Very troublesome. This'll be the work of Viridian. Very few people seem to realize how dangerous that boy is. Physically his nothing impressive or unique. But he has a good mind. Far more strategic than Azure. The building will be his idea. Destroy it and remove the symbol of fear it represented in that world. Now the people have seen the foundation get hurt. Someone has damaged that image. Many of the men and women he brought to help take this world will be shaken. If he hadn't been prepared for this, it might have destroyed him. Yet Bela was prepared, and ready to ditch the pretense of the foundation all together as is. Viridian's game of chess won't play out how he hopes.