Cortana's Elite finally arrived. The Jack, Jack Cooper, Blinx, Ryu, Kasumi, Dovakhiin, Shovel, Kaim, Kameo, Marcus, Spelunker and the Gunstringer made up a team that was supposed to take down as many of the Elite as possible, or something like that.

"Okay, we're here." Jack Cooper spoke into a small earpiece. "Great. Now, Cortana wants you to get into the basillicom and rewire the camera in the meeting room. Isaac has the instructions here." Since Cortana was instructing the mission in Ultratech City, Shepard was left in charge of the Leanbox mission.

"So we're gonna wiretap it or something?" Jack asked. "Apparently we already spy on them." She said. "Only problem is that we only have audio. So the idea is that this rewiring gives us video feed." Jack wasn't entirely sure why they'd need video feed, but then again, he wasn't the one calling the shots. If Cortana said she wanted it, then fuck it, she could have it.

"Alright then, what's the battle plan?" Jack asked. "Well, since the past visit we paid them, they've really stepped up their defensive front. It's almost impossible for anyone to get in. Two of the borders are against water, so that rules them both out...just checking here, looks like the Elite are mostly concentrated on one border. Try going around and getting in without alerting them to your presence." Shepard instructed.

Jack nodded. "Understood."

Hisako, 47, Booker, Elizabeth, Saya, Brutus, Gordon, Cooper, Ezio, Irisu, Nemesis, Vince and the Terrarian made up the defence force, along with Leanbox's army, all across Leanbox's land border. The advantage to defending the land border was how small the area to defend was. Leanbox was a massive city, but it only bordered land on two sides, and both of those were being guarded by Leanbox's military. The Elite were able to keep together while the military deduced where Cortana's side would attack from, making their task much much easier.

"Shouldn't be long now..." Booker muttered, very on edge. "I don't know guys..." The Terrarian muttered. "What if they managed to get in already?"

"I dunno, it seems borderline impossible to me." Vince shrugged. "But there's always the possibility they're gonna know where we are before we find out where they are."

"What makes you say that?" Booker asked. "Instinct." Vince replied. "You and I both have seen these guys before. They're serious about what they do." Booker had to admit, the doll had a point, but at the same time, he felt that alongside the Elite, they could definitely find Cortana's side. "Hey, I'm sure we can take 'em." Brutus reassured. "No matter who finds who first."

That was when the alarm was sounded. "REQUESTING BACK-UP IMMEDIATELY!" A voice rang out. With no words exchanged, the Elite all raced towards the site of the supposed breach, ready to shut down the threat before it could grow.

"Well, at least the alarm went off, huh?!" Vince tried to lighten the mood, but it fell on deaf ears. Getting to Cortana's Elite remained a number one priority.

"Jack, Vert's Elite are closing in! Advising you to split up your group to divide their attention!" Jack didn't need to be told twice. "Alright, everyone in pairs and split up!" He ordered. Jack went with Blinx, Ryu and Kasumi stuck together, the Jack stuck by himself, Kaim and Marcus went together, Kameo, Gunstringer and Spelunker went in the only three, and finally Shovel Knight and Dovakhiin teamed up.

Jack already found himself between a rock and a hard place when he saw that he was being pursued by a seriously angry looking mutated monster. The monster didn't really move too fast, being too unco-ordinated to move any faster than he was currently going. On the other side, something smaller was closing the gap. A hideous looking woman who was able to bend her arms and legs at impossible angles and crawl around in a way that would make anyone's skin crawl, something that made Jack glad he had the excuse of fighting the seven foot deformity known as Nemesis.

"Hey Jack!" Jack looked over to Blinx. "I'll take care of the ghost. You go take care of the camera." Jack didn't need a second invitation, rushing off like the wind to get to the Basillicom. Nemesis growled, giving chase as fast as he could.

Blinx had to steady himself before taking a look at Hisako. There was little he could say about her that wasn't obvious. Her very appearance was frightening, though Blinx couldn't let that get to him. He had to face up to the challenge now, and with a full bag of crystals for the TS-1000 on his back, there wasn't gonna be much of a challenge at all.

"Finally!" Blinx grinned from ear to ear. "I've been waiting to use this!" He flicked the switch on his time sweeper, seeing Hisako lunging at him.

Hisako was prepared to tear the cat to pieces in her blind rage, lunging and slashing at him. But then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. "Nani?" She seemed more amazed than startled, not knowing how he could have possibly done that. She had followed through with her slash, so it wasn't as if he was invisible, or else he still would have been hit. Then a projectile struck her back. Hisako was knocked on her face, though she was quickly back on her feet and facing her attacker. Blinx. So that was where he went, but she still had no idea how. "Anata wa shindeiru!" She yelled, throwing her Nanigata at Blinx.

The time sweeper made no effort to get out of the way, simply looking at the buttons on his high-tech vaccuum cleaner, before pressing one that said pause.

Immediately, the Nanigata stopped in mid-air, right before Blinx's face. He then stepped out of the way, and moved towards Hisako.

Hisako's war face would probably give him nightmares, but Blinx was more concerned with setting up his next attack, as time would soon run out.

As soon as it resumed, Blinx smacked Hisako with the TS-1000, knocking her to the ground. Hisako had a look in her eyes that showed she was absolutely incensed, but also trying to figure out how Blinx was doing what he was doing.

Hisako then disappeared underneath the ground, giving Blinx very little time to react. He was then pulled to the ground and pinned down, with Hisako beginning to throttle him as he pressed more buttons on his sweeper. Since he was in big trouble as he was, there was no chance of a simple time pause doing anything for him, so he had to resort to other tactics.

He pressed the rewind button, watching Hisako fly backwards, back under the ground and then returning to her original position. He then let time play again, loading the TS-1000 with a fresh batch of crystals before pressing the button with a stop and play symbol on it.

Hisako didn't really understand why there was one Blinx standing still, but the other Blinx was currently moving towards her, making him a far bigger threat. Hisako swung again, being blocked by the Time Sweeper the first time, but then she found an opening on the other side, cutting through Blinx easily. 'Blinx' disappeared in a green flash, appearing back where he started. Hisako watched as two different time sweepers ran out in seperate directions, one normal looking and one green. The green one was mimicking the movements Blinx made before while the ordinary one seemed to act on its own. Hisako remained vigilant for both of them, knowing either one could attack. Speaking of attack...

Hisako spun around and slashed through the Blinx clone, successfully eliminating it then and there. That was close, being close to another attack. But wait. Where the hell was Blinx?

Blinx had just one little thing to take care of first as it turned out. It didn't take him long to catch up to Nemesis, and once he did, it didn't take him long to find a place to put his plan into action. He was passing a fence on slightly elevated ground which had some oil barrels stacked up behind it. Blinx made sure the TS-1000 was fully loaded before stopping time. He activated the vaccuum on the device, uprooting the fence entirely, before stepping up and pulling out one barrel. All the rest remained in place, but now with the pile unbalanced, it was sure to fall. Time resumed as Blinx got away, returning to his battle with Hisako.

Nemesis was unable to stop himself from falling over the barrels and landing on his face. He roared as the oil spilled everywhere, making it hard for him to even stand up. Where did the barrels even come from? Even with his tiny brain, Nemesis knew the barrels couldn't just appear out of thin air, something had to be at work. But what exactly? Nemesis had no idea, and the fact that more barrels were falling on top of him only made it more difficult to think.

Jack had made it to the Basillicom without any trouble after that, ready to give Cortana the video footage she wanted. "So I gotta ask, how did Cortana get the opportunity to do this?" Jack asked.

"Apparently it was a precautionary measure. Cortana was worried something like this would happen someday." Shepard explained. "She went with just audio because at the time it would have been the most compact option. To intercept video feeds like that would take something more noticable, until now of course." Jack went over to where the camera was, pulling it out and seeing where he could put the new installment.

But before he could do that, he heard a loud cough. The cough was very loud to say the least, it nearly made Jack jump out of his skin, but at least it alerted him to this person's presence. He could see a bunny ear sticking out from behind one of the walls, which was clearly that person trying and failing to hide. He pulled out a pistol and went looking, not in the mood for any bullshit. "Hey, come on out! I see you hiding!" That was enough to draw Irisu out of hiding, with her stale bread roll and stuffed sock. "Mind telling me what it was you were gonna do if I hadn't heard that cough?" Irisu didn't respond. "That's what I thought." Jack muttered. "I'd love to just do my job and get out of here, but if you're here then I can't work. So I'm gonna have to get rid of you." Jack extended his arm, making his invitation clear. Irisu knew what to do, forming the X with her stale bread bat and taking them both into a fight.

Elsewhere, the fight was escalating rapidly to the point where there would soon be no one left to keep fighting. Ryu had just defeated Ezio, Cooper and Vince were both defeated by Kasumi, and Brutus had lost to Shovel Knight. On the other side of the coin though, Kameo had lost to Saya and Spelunker had been beaten handily by Booker and Elizabeth. The fighting raged on with no heed paid to the surrounding environment. The soldiers were on hand to evacuate people from the areas where people were fighting was taking place, and assist Vert's Elite in beating back the threat of Cortana's Elite. Despite their best intentions though, Cortana's Elite wouldn't go down to simple gunfire, and any other weapons would cause massive damage to Leanbox. With that in mind, it was best to leave the fighting to the Elite and just focus on getting the people to safety.

Back with Blinx, Hisako was still standing, her formidable tenacity being the only thing that prevented her from falling over. Hisako had been unable to break down Blinx's strategy, and so she succumbed to it. Blinx was insanely clever with his time stopping too, he knew how to react to situations in an instant, always picking the correct time mechanic to get the best out of often shitty situations. Nemesis hadn't done much better in getting himself out of the oil, failing to get up onto his feet due to the now slippery surface.

Hisako propped herself up with her Nanigata and glared at Blinx, smugly whistling to himself as Hisako's glare intensified. "Y'know, you are pretty creepy. But creepy alone ain't enough to beat me, you gotta be smarter than me too." Hisako clearly hated the taunts.

"Go...to...hell!" Three english words from Hisako's otherwise extremely limited english vocabulary that carried some weight. Blinx was caught off guard, but he didn't show it for long.

"Huh?!" Blinx began to panic as Orchid put Blinx in a chokehold, lifting him off the ground. Blinx began to struggle for breaths of air as Orchid continued to hold him in the chokehold, eventually letting go and throwing him to the ground. She then wasted no time, crossing her arm with the TS-1000 and taking both of them to a battle.

"Huh?" Blinx was confused. "Why would she take me here?"

"I noticed you weren't using your time stopping abilities to start fights. You were using them to avoid a fight at all costs." Orchid explained. "Eh?" Blinx took a step back. "So, Blinx. Since you're so clever with your time stop, beating up a girl with one arm should be a synch, right? Or is that too much for the kitty-cat?"

Blinx's expression hardened. "That's right, no trouble at all!"

Orchid was first to rush in, swinging her eskima stick. She connected once, but after that, Blinx started to take advantage of her one obvious weakness. He backed out of her range and fired a piece of trash at her, knocking her back and forcing her to use her arm to stay upright. Blinx pounced as she did so, getting in at least three solid scratches before Orchid kicked him away. "You little bastard..." Orchid muttered under her breath. "I heard that!" Blinx shot back. "Takes one to know one I suppose!" Neither wasted any more time on insults, preferring to focus on the fight. While Blinx having two arms provided him an advantage, Orchid had far more range with her one arm than Blinx did. He had more attacks from distance though, and that was something he aimed to take advantage of. Blinx aimed into the air above Orchid, firing a 16T weight into the air. Orchid quickly performed her Blockade Runner move, charging forward quickly enough to close down the gap before Blinx could react, then getting enough kicks in to build up to her first special move. Blinx fell to the ground in unceremonious fashion, though he was quick to pick his TS-1000 up and aim at Orchid, firing a blast of sand into her face and prompting a coughing fit. Blinded and confused, Blinx fired another 16T weight into the air, which came down on Orchid this time. The amount of damage Blinx had managed to deal was more than enough for a special move, and he was close to his second by this point. Why not go for it? Blinx ran up to Orchid as she tried to pick herself up, attacking her with claws and a swing of the TS-1000, building up successfully to a second special move.

Orchid immediately closed down the gap again and attacked, ending the attack with her spinning kick, before Blinx activated his special move. He moved around the field for a bit, attacking thin air, no doubt it had to do with his time manipulation abilities, but Orchid couldn't figure out what.

Things returned to normal a few seconds later, with a green Blinx mimicing every action Blinx had taken over the past ten seconds without fail, while Blinx himself attacked Orchid. "You're clever, but that's not going to be enough against me!"

"Tch!" Orchid scoffed as Blinx backed her into a corner. "You're assuming a lot there. You so sure about this plan of yours?"

Blinx was certain of himself though, not buying into anything Orchid would say to throw him off. "Fair enough." Orchid stood up straight, smiling as the green Blinx was inches away from her face.

Orchid might not have been physically as good as she once was, but her Fire Cat was still as strong as ever. The cat soared through the Blinx clone, straight towards Blinx himself. It was satisfying for Orchid to see the look on his face as defeat set in, immediately before the cat attacked, knocking him into the air and then throwing a grenade up, which kept Blinx airborne. He was finished by this point, Orchid knew that. All she had to do was put the final touches on the fight.

Orchid called in her Fire Cat again, and it had far too much for Blinx. The combo of hits wouldn't allow any time for the time sweeper to get any hits in. He was volleyed into the air, then struck again and again by the fire cat, sending him up in the air for one last hit.

Orchid wanted to charge up a projectile between her eskima sticks, but she knew that wasn't possible. She had another way though...

Long story short, Blinx might have lost, but it was a price worth paying. Orchid had used that tactic before, so it didn't really bother her too much.

As it had turned out, Orchid had too much for Blinx. She had only one thing on her mind after that: Separating Blinx from his TS-1000. She carried Blinx to the prison cells, finding one to throw him in without much trouble. She went back for the TS-1000, throwing it in the meeting room of the basillicom.

Wait. Irisu was there. "Hey, you alright in here?" She pointed to Jack Cooper. "He was gonna do something to the camera." She explained, before breaking into a coughing fit. Orchid tried to piece together what she meant by that, and it didn't take her long.

Once she was able to have a look at the camera, she could see clearly what was wrong. The camera was bugged. Orchid was able to see a small device in there that stuck out like a sore thumb. She recognized the device from her military training. But wait...

"You said he hadn't done anything yet?" Orchid asked. "Yeah. He was just going into the room when I started following him." Irisu answered.

But that would mean...it had been bugged for longer? But how? When? Orchid couldn't wrap her head around any of it. But right now, that was the only explanation that made any sense. Then...yeah, that would have made some sense. Green Heart used this room to plan her strategies before she announced them to the Elite, so that could explain how her Elite were always turning up at the same places that Green Heart sent them. Well, Cortana was busted.

"Jack...Jack, are you there?!" Orchid listened carefully to the earpiece. Once it went silent, she responded. "Jack is gone." She said. "The cat's gone too. Call off your troops and we won't chase you. Or else we'll kill every single one of them. Oh yeah, we also know about you guys bugging one of the cameras in the meeting room. No response. "You can kiss it goodbye, cause it's not gonna be around much longer, you get me?" She tried crushing the earpiece with her hands, but it was clearly made of strong stuff.

The Elite around the city started returning to the meeting room as one by one as Cortana's Elite retreated. Brutus, Cooper, Ezio and Vince were soon discovered to be captured, but on the bright side, Blinx, Kameo, Spelunker and Jack Cooper were all captured. Shortly afterwards, Vert arrived.

Orchid met her as she was returning with the Elite, and it was fair to say that she looked a little mad. "What the hell happened here?!" She demanded. "Cortana's Elite attacked. Fortunately we held them off, but we lost Cooper, Brutus, Ezio and Vince." Orchid explained. "Orchid!" Jago rushed forward. "Shouldn't you still be resting?" Orchid waved her arm at Jago. "There's plenty of time for that later." She said before turning back to Green Heart. "We also found out one of the cameras in the meeting room was bugged. We don't know when exactly it was bugged, but it's been that way for a long time now. If I had to guess, I would say it's been like that since the start." Green Heart looked like she was holding "They had a cat who could control time too, and he was the one creating all the problems for us. Once he was gone, it was easy to get the rest." Orchid explained. "These guys just keep getting weirder." She rolled her eyes, unable to imagine any other scenario in which she'd be doing anything close to this, but here she was.

Green Heart looked around, deeply hurt by the levels of destruction around Leanbox, but she ultimately decided against letting off an emotionally fueled rant, knowing that was the last thing anyone needed at that moment. What was best now was that they regrouped and prepared to go again, in search of better results.

"Right." Green Heart nodded, regaining her composure. "What we do is simple. We keep the room bugged for now." That was a pretty surprising decision. "Are you sure?" Orchid asked, thinking she heard Green Heart wrong. "Absolutely." She nodded. "I want her to know where I'm going next, so we can turn the tables on her once and for all."

Author's Note

So this is what happened while Vert was away, lol. Hisako getting stumped is something I find funnier the more I think about it, so here it is.

Hisako's Japanese is brought to you by the ever reliable source that is Google Translate, and Nemesis survives the oil barrels. He's got too thick a skull to be killed by forbidden juice.

Orchid gets a win after losing an arm and an eye, against the ever frustrating ginger cat. I know I might've lowballed Blinx a little, but eh, he was gonna lose in a one on one fight. His fighting style just works better when he has control of the playing field.

There's not really a lot left to say, we're inside the last ten chapters by now and I've got everything mapped out now, so I'm hoping to have all this done by the end of November.