Author Note: Ahhh sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Busy holiday and lots of homework getting in the way of my creative flow .
But I'm back, presenting you with chapter fourteen. Hope you guys like it! And I'll try to get the next chapter to you soon! :D
Chapter Fourteen: World Crisis
ARCADIA POV
"So why are we at the police station?" A voice whispers. Pressing a hand against my forehead and stand in silence for a minute.
"We're here to get information LEYTE. I already told you this." I mutter to him. He scratches his head and shrugs, not fully understanding.
"The PDA's from infantryman are here. If we can get our hands on those I can hack into them and access GALAHAD's files. That way we'll know exactly what we're up against and what to expect if anything is sent in our direction." I reply, hoping he gets the idea.
"Yeah but... doesn't the PDA's get wiped remotely if anything ever happens? How are you supposed to get any information from them?" I laugh, knowing he would ask that question. Lightly punching him in the shoulder I motion for him to follow me.
"I have my ways LEYTE. I've learnt a few things during my lifetime." I smirk and leap across the street, softly landing on the roof of the police station. Turning around, I wave to LEYTE to follow. He takes a few steps back and vaults across the street.
Walking across the roof, we find a door. Swiftly picking the locks, the door opens and I sneak into the police station while checking for any personnel.
"I take it your distraction worked." LEYTE whispered, causing me to smirk. Prior to reaching the station, I may have caused a bar fight involving a few broken limbs and a few stitches.
"Of course it worked. Do you see anyone around?" I ask sarcastically. LEYTE shrugs in response and creeps forward. He stops for a moment, looking from left to right, then back at me.
"Umm... which way do we go?" He asks sheepishly. Shaking my head I turn and head to the right and down the stairs, LEYTE scrabbling to catch up without making too much noise. Although most of the police were out from my distraction, there were still a few left behind. Namely the one standing out the front of the evidence room.
"Ahhh what do we do now ARCADIA?" LEYTE sighs, flopping down to sit. Looking around the room, I notice the guardsmen had full view of the area, a camera sat in the far left corner of the room and another just above the door. The guard was playing around with the PDA's and some of the other equipment from the squad.
'Damn, they can see us from every direction. I have no idea who's seeing those camera's and I don't want to kill the guard. At least the PDA's are close so maybe we could just quickly jump in and get them.'
Feeling a nudge in my left rib, I snap my head around and glare at LEYTE, he quickly raises his hands.
"I just wanted to let you know I have tranquilizers with me." He murmurs, flinching slightly as I lowered my hand that I didn't even realise I had raised. Putting my hand out, he rummages in his pockets before producing a few tranquilizers and handing over one of his handguns.
"You should probably get one of those." He mumbles but I ignore his comment, loading the gun with the tranquilizers. That was step one complete.
"Okay LEYTE." I whisper. "I need you to take those camera's out. While you do that I'll take out the guard. Whoever's watching the camera's will notice them shut off so we'll need to be quick. We're going to jump in and grab the PDA's and get out as fast as we can. Think you can handle that?" He scoffs and reaches for his second handgun.
"I'm not that stupid, I can handle it." He smirks.
With that he whips his arm around the wall and shoots the camera above the door, then moves his aim to the left, taking the second camera out. As the guard stood up, I aim for his neck and fire. He stumbles, grabbing for the desk to try and steady himself before finally collapsing to the floor. Dashing across the hall I unlock the door, LEYTE keeping an eye open for anyone coming our way. Grabbing the PDA's and stuffing them into a bag, I grab the laptop on the desk as well.
'Might have something useful on it.'
"That's everything, let's go." I call out to LEYTE. Turning around and heading for the stairs, voices could be heard coming from behind.
"The camera's near the evidence room suddenly went down." Said a distant voice.
"Hyaaa they're coming." LEYTE points out.
"There's nothing to worry about. We can make it out in no time." I chuckle. Silently running back down the hall and up the stairs, closing the door and locking it on the way out, we head back to our apartment.
LEYTE POV
Trudging through the door, I shrug my gear off and flop down on the couch. I watch as ARCADIA does the same, grabbing her laptop as she did. Turning it on, she promptly begins connecting the PDA's and hacking into them.
"Will you even be able to get into them?" I ask dubiously. "I mean, GALAHAD goes to a lot of work to keep people out." ARCADIA turns and gives me a skeptical look.
"I know how their system works. I can easily access their files remotely from here and find out what their up to." She says plainly, an underlying tone of annoyance from my earlier comment of doubt.
Her fingers danced across the keys in an intricate pattern, windows flickering on the screen, then swiftly disappearing again. Firewalls begin to pop up in a futile attempt to stop the deft movements of her fingers. This continued for a few minutes before a sound of success rang from the laptop. A smile forms on her lips as she begins to access the files, delving into the many secrets of GALAHAD.
"Okay so you're good, I'll give you that." I remark in awe.
'She really is the best, most hackers would've failed or taken hours to get through all of those firewalls and passwords.'
Moving the mouse around the screen, she scans through the files, looking for anything that may be of interest.
"What do we have here?" She murmurs to herself. Looking over her shoulder I find a list of service records, ranging from the lowly infantryman to highly specialised units. I watch as ARCADIA selects a file called "SENTRY" and watched as the names scrolled across the screen.
"Hey, that's your name." I exclaim, looking at ARCADIA for answers.
"Yeah, what about it?" She replies in a monotone voice, pausing for a brief moment before turning around to face me. "Didn't you see the file name? SENTRY is the name of the GE soldier unit."
"It is?!" I blurt out, a flicker of surprise pass through ARCADIA's eyes.
"You really didn't know that?" She asks dubiously. "GALAHAD really is getting slack these days if they can't be bothered telling their soldiers what unit they belong to." She turns back around and jumps out of the file and scans through the others, abruptly stopping at another file.
"A restricted file, interesting. I think I'll take a look at that." A small chuckle sounds from her as she begins to work her magic again. When she gained access, a new list of files quickly popped up onto the screen.
"Well hello there, interesting stuff here." She laughs and points at the screen. "Look, new weapons developments, medical research, organisation proposals... and a new project." My ears perk at this new information and my attention immediately snaps on to her.
"Another one? That'd make a third generation to the SENTRY unit, how many are they planning on making." I moaned, leaning back into the couch. This wasn't right, they couldn't just keep making more after practically killing off the last generation. ARCADIA was the last of hers and I don't know how many of mine are still alive.
'I wonder if DULUTH is still alive?'
While we were both stronger than the others, you never know when someone might get get lucky. But it didn't really matter anymore, we were on opposite sides now and she was just as twisted as the scientists. DULUTH had always had a taste for killing, got a real kick from it. Like it was a game, a game she always won.
'Well almost always, she still can't beat ARCADIA... but then again, can anyone?'
It was something that had always been on my mind, from the first moment I met her I knew she was different. While she doesn't intentionally do it, ARCADIA just radiates power even though her appearance is fairly innocent.
"Oh my God. Those crazy bastards." Lifting my head up, I look at the file on screen. All emotions quickly faded, leaving me feeling empty. Plans for a mass production of third generation of SENTRY soldiers to be used in an upcoming operation.
"I never thought I'd see the day where GALAHAD would attempt world domination." ARCADIA grumbles, face twisted in disgust. Personally I never saw it coming. I hadn't been around long enough to truly know what they were like, but to attempt to overthrow the UN and gain world domination? It was insane and inconceivable.
"Well I doubt they'll have much resistance." ARCADIA muses. "The UN doesn't have as much power as they once did and many countries have been having issues with each other lately. It's the perfect time to strike, hit them while they're all preoccupied with each other. Since GALAHAD's trusted by many of them, they'd never even see it coming... the perfect plan." Sighing, she stretches, relieving the tension in her muscles.
"What are you talking about?!" I scream, jumping off the couch. "You can't say stuff like that so casually, we're talking about war here! No, not war, a massacre. A massacre is what it is, because those countries wont be able to stand up against and army of SENTRY soldiers." Fists clenched, my nails dug into my skin drawing blood in the process. Chest heaving from anger, I attempted to calm my breathing before continuing. "We still have time, we can still stop this. If we can get the others to join us we have a chance of stopping all of this. This isn't just about getting back at them, this is about everyone now." She slowly turns her head towards me, eyes deep in thought.
"I know, but it wont be easy. Even if we do manage to get supporters it's gonna be one hell of a fight. I doubt many will survive from what I've read of these reports." She quietly replies.
And she was right, not many would survive if GALAHAD were to get away with creating their army. 15,000 is a fair amount to go up against, that's not including the other units. If we could get the other SENTRY soldiers behind us we could win and having ARCADIA also gives us an edge. Hearing ARCADIA stand up I look at her, waiting for her next response.
"We'll we better get started then." Nodding, I stand and grab my gear.
"What do you need me to do?" I ask, waiting on bated breath for her orders.
"Contact anyone you think can be trustworthy, tell them everything, GALAHAD, the experiments. Give them the truth. Send them evidence if they don't initially believe you but get them over here. There have also been reports of others deserting so fins them as well. I'll work on making identities, securing a base and supplies while keeping an eye on their movements. Take this so we can keep in touch." Handing me a PDA, I take it and move to leave.
"Oh and one more thing." She began. "Be careful okay." Smiling I open the door and head towards the nearest GALAHAD HG, stuffing the PDA in a pocket.
'Don't worry ARCADIA, I won't let you down.'
Castiel POV
Two weeks later
"You want to go to the beach?" The question was totally out of the blue and why she was asking me confused me even more.
"Why not? We could all go! Come on Castiel, you know you want to see Yuzuki in a bikini." The thought immediately popped into to mind, but was quickly dismissed soon after.
"Even so Iris, do I really look the type of person that goes to a beach?" She really must have issues with her eye sight.
"No... but you could always use a tan. You're way to pale." Frowning, I turn to leave and make my way over to my locker, ignoring her calls after me. Weaving my way through the crowd, I put my books away when suddenly a figure grabs me from behind.
"Hey Yuzuki, how'd your research go? And don't say you didn't do anything because the news reported that some evidence went missing from the police station a while ago. Not to mention you and Robbie have been disappearing every now and again, care to explain?" Turning to look at her, I smirk at the pout that had made it's way onto her face.
"Well it was good and bad." She grumbles.
"How so?" I query. A moment of hesitation and uncertainty pass between us, Yuzuki keeping quiet. "What happened?"
Biting her lip, she flicks her gaze to me. "Well the good thing is we found something. The bad thing is... well I can't say it here but lets just say it's BIG, I haven't been around much because I'm looking into it some more." I open my mouth to protest but was cut off. "No not here. I promise I'll tell you and the others soon, just not right now." A small frown settles on my lips but I keep my silence.
"Alright, I'll wait. In any case what were you planning on doing during the holidays?" I ask, trying to change the subject. She shrugs and mumbles something, before I could ask her to repeat, an overly annoying but familiar voice calls out.
"Yuzuki! There you are! Hey I know this is sudden but what are you planning on doing these holidays?" Iris asks, completely oblivious of my presence.
"Well I may have a few things planned, why'd you ask?" Yuzuki asks, a hint of wariness in her tone.
"I'm planning on getting everyone to go to the beach. Robbie's welcome to come too and I don't care what you say Castiel you're coming whether you like it or not. Don't make me drag you there." The comment catching me off guard, I failed to make a come back.
"Well if Castiel's going I guess me and Robbie will go too then." Yuzuki replies and Iris squeaks in joy. Myself on the other hand, begins to bang my head on my locker door.
'Damn it Yuzuki no! I can't say no if you're going and now I have to hang out with Iris.'
I was beginning to think Yuzuki was trying to kill me. She already knew I wasn't a fan of Iris, not that she was a bad person or anything but our personalities just don't really mix. Not to mention I found her annoying as all hell.
"Yay, I'm looking forward to it. Don't forget to pack your cutest bikini okay. Oh wait do you even have one? Oh my God, if you don't we can go shopping." She gasps, looking like she was going to faint at any moment.
"Ah no I don't. Bikini's weren't exactly something we needed for my previous profession." Yuzuki replies sarcastically.
"Oh my Lord, you are coming with me. Castiel, I'm stealing your girlfriend. I would say come along but I think this should be a surprise since I'm forcing you to go. Now Yuzuki, to the mall, we've got some shopping to do!" Iris declares, dragging Yuzuki behind but not doing so well from Yuzuki's superior strength. As they disappeared around the corner, I let out a breath and began making my way out of the building.
'Shit, I really need a smoke.'
I head for a nearby park, sitting down on a bench and light a smoke, inhaling it's soothing smoke.
'I really shouldn't smoke but I've never been one for self restraint.'
Time ticks by as I sit, watching as people come and go. Parents out and about playing with their children, the kids tugging on them, begging for ice cream. It was strange watching them, myself never having spent much time with my own parents because of their jobs. I couldn't care less about it, but a small part of me has always envied other children who had moments like these, that they had some happy memories with their parents whereas I didn't. At least not many of them.
'But I'm not the only one who doesn't have them.'
ARCADIA didn't have them either, hell she didn't even have a family. She's more alone than I am, I at least have kin, someone to call family but she doesn't. Unless you include LEYTE, they're at least the same, just not related.
Putting my cigarette out, I shift my position to make myself more comfortable. Eventually my eyes begin to feel a little heavy. I didn't get much sleep, too late night band practices with Lys have begun to take it's toll on me. Add in the warm sun and you get a very sleepy Castiel. Resting my head on the seat, I start to drift off to sleep. I was almost asleep before a hand smacks me on the stomach and I grunt in both slight pain and surprise.
"Nice to see some people can fall asleep anywhere they want. If that were me I'd probably be dead." My assailant teases before sitting down next to me.
"Don't you know it's rude to hit people in their sleep? Or didn't they teach you that at GALAHAD?" I growl, thoroughly annoyed by my sudden awakening.
"But you where just so vulnerable I couldn't help myself. If you had been a target it'd be the easiest mission ever, but enough about that, where's Yuzuki?" Robbie asks.
"You wont be getting anywhere near her for a while. She's been hijacked by Iris and not even God knows when she'll be finished with her." I reply, Robbie laughing soon afterwards.
"Do I want to know?" He laughs. "Actually don't tell me, now that I think about it, I really don't want to know. I'll just have tell her later." Raising an eyebrow, I observe him out of the corner of my eye.
"Tell her what?" I ask suspiciously, making no attempt to hide it either. I wanted to know what was going on with ARCADIA and LEYTE, why they were sometimes disappearing.
"Yuzuki said anything?" He asks and I shake my head.
"She wont tell me anything other than it's big." LEYTE chuckles at this, shaking his head in amusement.
"She's not kidding either. I can't tell you everything since she hasn't discussed it with you but lets just say it's on a global scale, in a literal sense too." He stands up and looks up into the sky. "A storm is coming Castiel, two sides will clash and your girlfriend is the only one who can stop it."
I stood to meet LEYTE's gaze, trying to figure out what he'd just said. What he was saying, did he mean a battle was coming? Were they really going to take GALAHAD down? They said they would but he made it sound so much more than that.
"I don't understand, what do you mean by two sides will clash?" I ask dubiously.
"If you want to know more then you have ask Yuzuki." He replies with a smile and starts to walk away leaving me behind with my thoughts.
'I don't understand, why do you guys always do this? Why do you always hide things from me?'
With each second that ticked by, my frustration grew. Stuffing my hand into my pocket I grab my phone and select ARCADIA's number. Tapping my foot on the ground, I wait for her to answer. I needed answers and needed them now, screw waiting. The way LEYTE made it sound was not to my liking.
"Hey Castiel, why the sudden phone call? Did you really miss me that much? Your timing's pretty good, I just finished shopping with Iris, I think you-"
"Yuzuki what are you and Robbie doing?!" I cut her off, I was over waiting. "Don't tell me you'll tell me later, I want to know right now. No bullshit, no excuses, just the facts." Silence followed my question, putting me even more on edge.
"Alright, I'll give you the facts. GALAHAD plans on world domination, LEYTE and I are going to stop it." She replies, her once cheery voice now slightly agitated.
"You intend to take them on by yourselves? Are you insane? There's only two of you, how many will you have to cut down in order to stop them?"
"As many as it takes. I care how many, I'll kill them all if have to if that means you'll be safe." Stunned by her remark, I went quiet. She was going to go so far in order to keep me safe? Put more blood on her hands so that I'll live?
"GALAHAD is ruthless. If gain control they'll do what ever they want, the world will become their personal science field. I don't want you or the others to go through what I did. The pieces are falling into place, the board will be set and the game begins, I'll be damned if I let them win. Castiel I know you worry about me, that's something I really appreciate, I really do. But this is something I have to do."
Was it really something that she had to do? Couldn't someone else do it? In a way I do understand, they created her and made her the way she is now but at the same time, she was just trying to live a normal life, to put the past behind her.
"I can already tell that nothing I say will change your mind. So I guess I can only support you from the sidelines but if you need anything tell me. I may not be of huge help... but I want to help you in any way I can." I knew I couldn't offer her anything big but I couldn't let her do this alone.
"Thanks Castiel. I'm glad to know your there with me. Meeting you has been the best thing that's ever happened to me... I mean it Castiel. I don't know where I'd be if I never met you." A blush formed on my face. Never in my entire life have I heard anyone say something like that, having it directed at me made me both happy and thoroughly embarrassed.
"I have to go now, I'll talk to later Castiel... I love you."
"Yeah... I love you too, ARCADIA." I quietly reply, hearing the beeping tone shortly afterwards.
Putting my phone back in my pocket, I start to head home. I found it kind of strange, when we first met we were at each others throats. Now we were together and ARCADIA was willing to go to such extremes to protect me. I was flattered but my pride was ruined, I know she's enhanced and such but it was still a bit embarrassing hiding behind a girl. It was my job to look out for her, not the other way around.
'It doesn't matter who's protecting who, just as long as she comes out okay I don't care. I don't want her to get hurt because of me. I'd never forgive myself if she did.'
Quickening my pace, I ponder on possible ways I could help out. The only thing I could think of was going with her, but I didn't have the kind of training that she had. I'd only be a hindrance unless I asked her for help, to train me how to fight.
'If ARCADIA is willing to fight for me then I want to do the same. I want to stand beside her through both the good and the bad.'