Perhaps playing at being Maverick isn't the smartest of choices to make, but that certainly doesn't stop Harpuia and Phantom from running with this horrible little joke. Things are a little different this time, though, as the brothers decide that something special is needed for their sister's capture. She is, after all, not a fan of their pranks, especially not with the recent upset to her life and the loss of her eldest and baby brothers.
It is rather un-Maverick-like to apologize, isn't it?
Also, we have wonderful news. Midnyght finally got a replacement computer and there is so much writing happening.
Five months without reasonable internet access is just brutal.
"Father?" Harpuia said, looking to his father, the Cyber Elf looking as if he was meditating, eyes closed as he hovered a bit above the bed.
"Yes, Harpy?" X said, wondering why his eldest sounded so nervous.
Harpuia looked to his father, remaining silent for a moment before looking to Phantom.
The Guardian nodded. "We need you to send a message to Shadow-sensei. We're going to get Leviathan."
X looked between his sons for a moment before nodding. Reaching across the link, 'Shadow, my sons say that they're ready to grab their sister. Were you informed of this?'
'I was. They're ready to leave immediately?' Shadow finished his other assignment, the one regarding Rock's need of reskinning, quickly. There was now a new box under Blues' bed and while Shadow understood that X pled with Blues to do it in the lab like a normal unit, he half-expected the eldest Robot Master to wait until X had retired for the night, then do the procedure in the bedroom.
Most of the Robot Masters already knew better than to argue against Blues' quirks.
'They are. Where would you like to meet them, or will you be coming to the room to gather them?' X was a little curious as to what the two had planned, though he didn't bother asking. He was fairly certain it wasn't anything he had to worry about.
Shadow answered X's question by materializing from a corner of the room, one eye closed as always as he looked the two Guardians over. "Are you ready to leave immediately?"
Both units stood immediately, bowing. "We are, Shadow-sensei," Phantom said. "We won't be long, Father."
"We'll be back with Levi before you know it," Harpuia said to X, looking over his shoulder as Shadow pulled him and Phantom into the shadows.
X facepalmed the minute he'd seen Harpuia's eyes, even as his sons disappeared into the darkness.
This running gag about actually being Maverick was going to get the two of them handed their asses if his daughter still responded to their pranks now as she had all those years ago.
"Shadow-sensei, we need to make a second stop in the city. There's something Harpuia reminded me that we need to get before we go after our sister."
Shadow glanced back at them. This was Harpuia's first time in this space while conscious, but he wasn't as disoriented as Shadow may have expected. He hadn't missed that the two Reploids were sticking very, very close to him and even closer to one another. "What do you need?"
Harpuia was a bit hard-pressed to keep up with both of the ninjas, Phantom's warning to switch his optics to their night-vision capabilities having been one of the only things that allowed him to keep himself oriented after being pulled through the shadows. His flight capabilities, of course, were what allowed him to keep pace with the two, coasting along through the broad expanse of empty blackness. "We need to get a mockup of our sister's ranseur from one of the factories, as we mentioned, but considering the way she'll likely respond to our maneuver, we're going to need to pick up a few chocolates as part of our apology."
Phantom smirked, though the glint in his crimson eyes wasn't able to be caught in the darkness that enshrouded them. "Make sure you get regular chocolates and the caramel-filled ones. She's going to be livid about this."
"I don't know who she's going to be more pissed at," Harpuia admitted, dropping a bit and moving closer to his brother.
Shadow was adjusting his speed so that the two Reploids would be able to keep up with him. Harpuia was holding his own just fine, though, so the three of them could focus on moving at an acceptable rate. "Chocolates?" He sounded amused by that. "Are you certain it's wise to antagonize her this way?"
"Probably not," Harpuia admitted with a bit of a chuckle. "Doesn't mean that we're not going to."
"She's eventually going to get used to the idea that we like pulling the occasional prank on her, serious as she tries to be about things," Phantom said, his own voice full of mirth. "Although, the more I think about it, Shadow-sensei, would it be alright to leave her ranseur in this dimension for the first few days? Her plus her main weapon may end up a little bit messier than Father might like."
"I could do that," Shadow told them, though he didn't know how much that's actually protect them: didn't these units know hand-to-hand combat? Rock was plenty dangerous even with his buster cannon disabled, and that said nothing of Blues' skill.
Most Robot Masters could generate new weapons, like he with his Shadow Blades, so perhaps it wasn't as much of an issue to him.
A thought occurred to Phantom and he looked over to Harpuia. "When we get within range of the transmission towers, I want you to stay off the net. Shadow-sensei and I can cloak effectively, but the Zan'ei would be able to tell you logged on without a hitch." He opened a local wireless link with his brother. 'Besides, we can communicate effectively enough like this that you won't need to be on the networks anyway.'
'I'll keep that in mind,' Harpuia shot back. 'Any chance you'll ever teach me how to fully cloak like you do?'
'What, and give up one of my awesome ninja secrets to you? Not a chance, Harpy.'
"We'll be on the city's outskirts in about fifteen minutes," Shadow said, not remotely tired out despite the long trek. It was nice to not be human. "Which district do you want to hit first?"
"Let's get the mechaniloids started on the ranseur, but hit the commercial district first. It's late enough that the stores should be closed, so grabbing the chocolates shouldn't present too much of an issue. We can grab the weaponry and get out soon after, although I'm going to have to hack into the databases, see where the city posted Levi, while we're there."
"How long do you think that will take?" Harpuia asked.
Phantom shrugged, "Maybe about four or five minutes just to make sure I don't set off any of the security alerts, even if the system should still be open to my signal."
"Because Copy X never bothered to block your signal?" At that, Harpuia frowned. "Now that you're likely marked as truly Maverick to the city, wouldn't your access be blocked?"
"That's like saying that locking my door meant that I couldn't leave the room," Phantom retorted.
Harpuia laughed a bit at that. "Father was rather annoyed when he found out you'd snuck out after being grounded."
Shadow had a feeling that Phantom was going to be using this opportunity to show Shadow how much he'd grown since their last raid. It was good that Phantom was such a conscientious student. "I can issue the orders to have the ranseur built without needing to visit the manufacturing district first, so pick your chocolatier and we'll be on our way."
Shadow knew enough of females to realize that drug store chocolates wouldn't do. No, they'd be doing this the right way, and that meant getting the good stuff.
"I'll send you a highlighted map for the city once we're on the networks," and Phantom really wondered if there was a way to set up a local wireless link with the Robot Masters when there wasn't an available network. Actually…
"Shadow-sensei, I realize I should have asked this earlier, but I've been kind of stuck on the link that you and the other Robot Masters have with my father. Do you have local wireless capabilities?"
"We have a number of ways to establish connections, but yes, we do have a local wireless capability." The tech wasn't the same kind the Reploids used. "Proto Man gave a program to X that permits him to link to us in his current form, but he and Zero both were built with us, the Robot Masters, in mind. They have included capabilities, or would have had they had their original bodies."
"So that's a no for now," Phantom noted. "Well, that's not a problem. We'll be on the net shortly and it won't take long to position ourselves and get everything together."
A short while later, Phantom and Shadow were logged on the city net, Phantom waiting for Shadow to reach for him and establish the communications link.
Shadow established the link and partitioned the network in one swoop, the Robot Master moving about like he belonged there, the system acknowledging him as the highest kind of authority, someone whose movements needn't be reported to those below him. It wasn't their business, wasn't their place to question this user's decisions. Just like they needn't know about the new order put in through the manufacturing district.
Shadow always thought that the civilians wouldn't want to know, anyway. It was like the stagehands in a play: the audience didn't want to see the set being changed for the next act. They just wanted to see the next scene. What went on behind wasn't something they needed to know or understand, wasn't something they wanted to see. They always just wanted the results, never the process. Perhaps that's why they were so helpless when left to fend for themselves.
The moment the link went active, Phantom sent the map over, marking the store they were going to grab the chocolates from, as well as verifying on the net that the store was indeed closed for the night. Last thing he wanted was to get caught by the store manager doing the final credit count for the night or locking up.
Quite unlike a Maverick to be concerned with something as trivial as chocolate, after all. It wouldn't do his perceived reputation any justice.
Even if the chocolates were rather delicious.
Once the transfer had completed (not that it had taken long), Phantom was diving into the military section of the net, looking for any sign of where Leviathan was currently posted so that he could get coordinates and…
"Oh, crap," he muttered aloud, thankful that they were still safely tucked away in Shadow's hidey-hole dimension.
'What's wrong?' Harpuia sent over their link immediately.
Phantom sent the message along both lines of communication. 'Leviathan and Fefnir are full-linked,' he said, 'and Fef's been keeping a ridiculously close eye on her if…' And his eyes widened further. 'Oh, this is going to be fun,' and that last word was said with equal parts apprehension and excitement.
'What?' Harpuia was not used to being out of the loop regarding anything, especially linked as he had been to the comm net, even if passively, during his time in the city.
'They bought it. They think I killed you,' and Phantom smirked a bit. 'I think it'd be in our best interests to double up on the chocolate order, though, just for some added insurance.' Which meant eight boxes of chocolate instead of the originally-intended four.
'Your brother will know the instant she becomes distressed, then.' That she was posted so far out from the city was beneficial, then: he wouldn't be able to reach her in time. Shadow was leading them to the chocolatier now, heading downward in the dimension as the floor beneath their feet suddenly began descending, as though in response to the Robot Master's whims.
'Where is Fefnir now anyway?' Harpuia asked.
The Reploid had linked Harpuia's local wireless into his feed with Shadow to ensure that the older ninja was kept informed of all communications without having to repeat the message, and he sent back, 'He's with Copy X, from what I'm hearing,' and there was a coldness in his voice, a repressed anger at something he'd heard. 'Harpuia, I'm going to need you to get into the chocolatier's. I've got to do a little reorganization with the units, try to get Aztec off of Leviathan's patrol route.'
'They reassigned my lieutenants?' That was a shock, especially with his 'death' having happened so recently.
'They reassigned mine as well. Kraken, Ourobockle, and Hekelot have all been shifted to the Meikai.' He was going to have to get pretty creative with patrol orders to clear them out of the Pacific waters Leviathan was in at the moment. Another map was transferred to Shadow, this time of the Pacific Ocean, a small yellow line marking off the borders of Leviathan's patrol area. Well, no time like the present…
"They're keeping very close to her," Shadow noted: the units were behaving more like a guard, more like an escort, than like subordinate units on patrol. That was likely encouraged by Fefnir, Shadow thought, although for all he knew, Leviathan could have ordered it herself, or the lieutenants were doing it on their own.
Ah, but now, Phantom's orders were beginning to take effect: false reports of supposed 'Maverick' activity, altered routes, official orders. The lieutenants would be stripped from her side, one by one, until she was quite isolated, alone in the Pacific. Phantom also hacked into the nearest Trans Server, ensuring it would glitch and refuse incoming teleports: there would be no swift aid. Of course, if everything went as Shadow intended, that precaution wouldn't be necessary. She'd be gone before they knew it.
Harpuia had to be guided out of the shadow space, cutting his boosters off long before Shadow had provided him with a way out of the dimension. "Aren't there cameras?" he asked Shadow quietly, even as he dared to peek out through a shadow cast in a far corner.
"All disabled," Shadow reassured him, standing just behind Harpuia, his red-eyed gaze falling out, into the little shop. Well, not so much disabled as being fed with a feed of the shop with no one in there. There would be a time lapse, of course, but no one would see any intruder over the security cameras.
Harpuia still ducked as he entered the shop, careful to keep his motions quiet and steady, not wanting to draw any attention through the glass windows at the front of the store, even with the street mostly abandoned save for the occasional passerby. Reaching for one of the display cases, he cursed a little beneath his breath, finding the unit locked.
That, at least, Phantom had taught him to deal with, and the lock was released, the Guardian careful not to trip any possible alarm codes beneath the main lock code. Looking through the collected boxes for a moment, he withdrew four boxes, then another four, before tilting his head. He considered the choice for a moment, shrugged, and grabbed another set of four.
It only took a moment longer to get the candies into a small bag and the lock reengaged on the case. Harpuia frowned a bit at the thought that a commodity such as chocolate had to be locked up like this at night.
Then again, it wasn't as if credits were as easy to steal as candy. The currency of the city was just as digital as the rest of their exchanges.
'I got what you suggested, and then some,' Harpuia said, looking to Phantom.
Phantom held up one finger, relaxing after a moment. 'If it weren't for the fact that Fefnir would panic, I'd be putting a communications block between them, but they'd notice it regardless of how cloaked I am. So, what extra did you get?'
'They had raspberry cordial,' Harpuia replied.
Phantom smirked a bit at that. At least Leviathan would be decently distracted by the sweets, even if they wouldn't serve as a permanent blockade between her anger and them.
Shadow was only half paying attention to the two Guardians, closing the entrance off once Harpuia reentered, his head tilted as he monitored that factory in the manufacturing district. "The mechaniloid units report that the ranseur will be ready in three minutes," which meant that they were right on schedule.
"Then we should get moving," Phantom said, Harpuia taking to the air with a soft thrum.
It took fewer than three minutes to get to the manufacturing district. Shadow stepped out to accept the weapon replica from the mechaniloid units, assuring them that they did well before disappearing back into the darkness. The Pacific Ocean was a wide expanse, but given that they had Leviathan's patrol route and that either of her brothers would be quite provocative bait, Shadow wasn't worried about locating her. She'd come to them, they just had to get in range.
Harpuia had been given the map of Leviathan's patrol route when Shadow had stepped out to grab the ranseur, the wing crests of his helmet dipping a bit as he took the weapon from the Robot Master.
"You still okay with this?" Phantom said: they'd been planning this for the past week, but if Harpuia wanted to back out now, he'd accept that without complaint.
"It's not that," Harpuia said, looking to his brother, the map passed back along their link. "The area I highlighted, there's a very small bit of land there. It's probably a little further north of where she's at, but I know how to get her attention," had known since they'd started planning this little trip.
"What's wrong?" Phantom asked. There was something bothering the eldest AXR.
"We're going to have to siege Neo Arcadia with Fefnir poised on the wrong side of the battle," Harpuia admitted. "He's not going to be happy at all about us taking Levi, especially if he thinks that we killed her," and his grip tightened on the weapon he carried, the bag of chocolates dangling from his right wrist.
"Let Father show up within his visual range and Fef will switch sides faster than I did." Phantom smiled as he rested his hands on his brother's shoulders, "Now, let's go get our sister and hope we got enough chocolates to convince her not kill us." He turned to Shadow then. "Shadow-sensei, we're ready."
As if to emphasize his brother's point, Harpuia handed the chocolates off to Phantom, taking to the air once more.
It turned out that Neo Arcadia was relatively close to the ocean when you were moving through shadowspace. It only took an hour or so to get far enough out to be in Leviathan's patrol pathway, although without actually going out there and looking around, it would be difficult to locate her. The lieutenants were far from her now, too far to respond quickly enough, and the Trans Server was unusable. She was completely vulnerable, completely without backup. All they required was that she take the bait.
Harpuia handed the ranseur off to Phantom before stepping out of the shadows in a small grove of trees. Still under orders from Phantom to stay off the net, the Guardian hoped that he'd been right in his guess about getting Leviathan's attention.
Even if it involved him going swimming.
Sort of.
With a resigned sigh, the unit took to the air, quickly losing himself to the exhilaration of unfettered freedom granted in open skies. After a few moments of idly floating along the thermals and wind currents, Harpuia tucked his limbs close to his body, gunning his thrusters and aiming for the water below.
He leveled out only inches above the water, hands dancing over the cool water, before he dove beneath for a second with a loud splash, pushing himself back above the water and back into the air soon after.
He only hoped that his antics would draw his sister's attention.
In the ocean, waves were normal. There was no such thing as still waters. The wind blew on the surface, creating currents, and deeper down, with changing pressure…well, everything was in constant flux, everything affected by the ebb and flow of the tides. The moon, the weather, it all affected the world's oceans. What wasn't normal was, well, splashing. A little bit, yes: a whale breaching, for example. But the kind her mechaniloid scouts were reporting? No, that wasn't normal at all. Almost lazily, she changed direction in the water, even as trepidation filled her. No, she didn't want anything abnormal to be happening. Abnormal was the last thing she wanted, but she didn't post the change to Fefnir quite yet. She wanted to move in a little closer, get a little bit more data, before sending him into a paranoid tizzy.
With how he'd been, an errant gull might be enough cause for him to come out here himself, even if he was supposed to be guarding Father.
Breezing through the air fast enough to dry himself (at least most of the way), Harpuia was thankful that he'd seen a few smaller mechaniloids darting around the waters where he'd been making such a ruckus for the past quarter of an hour. That meant Leviathan would be notified—or already had been—and that meant he was no longer required to be diving. Now all he needed to do was keep flying around the area and wait for Leviathan to notice him.
That, of course, meant a lot of aerial acrobatics, and Harpuia couldn't help but laugh as he snapped a hard banking turn and darted through the sky. It'd been years since he'd last been able to fly this free, what with the Maverick scourge and his military assignment taking up so much of his time.
Especially considering his last four years had been spent in blind servitude to a twisted mimicry of his father.
It took her nearly ten minutes to actually get out to the location—why weren't there any other patrols in the area?-but she didn't surface. She stayed well below, well out of sight, and scanned. What her scan returned sent a cold feeling through her, like she'd been punched in the gut. Slowly, she rose: her vision was attuned for underwater patrolling and combat: it was a setting she had that her siblings did not, and so she did not need to fully surface to have visual confirmation on just what was causing the ruckus.
Harpuia. That was Harpuia up there. She was incredibly relieved, but just for a moment. That cold feeling settled back down when she realized what this would have to mean. Had Harpuia survived the attack with his mind intact, he'd have come straight home. He hadn't. He was out here. Her hand touched the saber sheathed to her side. He was out here.
What happened. Phantom's kunai, through his sabers. What was he doing. Just flying around, disturbing the surface to gain her attention? Leviathan had the advantage out here; Harpuia had to know that he was a sitting duck in the water. Even as children, he'd hated swimming, would never go with her.
The same way flying frightened her.
Slowly, Leviathan rose, finally breaking the surface, bobbing along with the choppy waves, blue eyes gazing upward, at the sky, her gaze finding and trailing Harpuia. A sick feeling coiled inside her because this was not right. Something was terribly off and even though she was at an optimal temperature, she trembled.
Harpuia had felt the scan the moment Leviathan had initiated it, smirking to himself even as he bit down the urge to set up a local wireless link with her. Instead, he sent to Phantom, 'She's scanned, so she knows I'm here.'
'Try to lead her toward the island,' Phantom responded. 'We'll be waiting.'
Harpuia moved a little closer to the water, still keeping a safe distance, still staying out of range of her weapons. Letting himself dance through the air, he started off towards a small island in the distance, darting around every now and again, as if ensuring that Leviathan was following, even if he made no overstated motions that that was what he was doing.
She could keep up with an airborne Harpuia so long as she was in the water. That had never been an issue. He darted around like a dragonfly in the summer, zipping back and forth, but didn't make any real attempt to lose her. She didn't mirror his darting around, instead moving in a more-or-less straight line, occasionally flipping over onto her back to reconfirm visuals.
Phantom felt the tremor in the link just before Fefnir established contact, and he linked to Harpuia immediately. 'Harpy, Fef's making contact. We may need to move just a bit faster, even with the Trans Server down.'
'I'll see what I can do, but if I break off my flight pattern now, she's going to know,' he returned, still angling his wild darting a little more carefully, drawing him closer to land just a bit faster than he'd been going.
'Levi,' Fefnir's voice sounded through their link, and it was tinged with worry, 'you didn't report in. Is everything okay?' Even it had just been a minute past, she'd kept to the schedule for the rest of the time, so what was the holdup now?
Leviathan's eyes widened and she actually slowed her pursuit: she'd missed the update. She should have posted to Fefnir about this immediately. 'Fefnir…' she responded, and her voice was sick with grief and confusion, 'Harpuia's out here. I…Fefnir, he's alive.' Alive and whole, but what was he doing out here? Her body began trembling again and she had to force herself to move a bit faster. Harpuia was getting too far ahead.
'Harpuia's what?' That he was shocked was beyond an understatement. 'Levi, are you sure?'
'Of course I'm sure,' and she almost snapped there. She'd know Harpuia even if she were blindfolded in a dark room. 'I haven't tried to link with him,' she wasn't that stupid, 'but I am in pursuit. He's just…darting around, out of reach.' At the lowest, he was just out of reach of her weapons. 'He knows I'm here.'
'That sounds like a trap,' Fefnir warned, 'if he's staying out of reach like that, you need to be careful.' He looked over his shoulder where X was, the unit idly running a hand over his holo-screen, looking somewhat distant, as if the reports displayed weren't even really being read. Looked over, yes, committed to visual memory databanks, but his attention? 'I can't leave Father's side right now, not without informing him of this,' and he sounded torn by that admission. 'Where are the lieutenants? You're not alone, are you?' and a message was sent out to the four units that should have been near his sister.
Phantom was quick to piggyback onto all four signals, blocking the communication even as he responded along Hyleg's signal, dangerous though it was to do so to another of the Zan'ei, 'I'm on my way back now, Guardian Fefnir. I've taken care of the Maverick unit and apologize for separating from Guardian Leviathan.'
'ETA?' Fefnir requested.
'Seven minutes, sir.'
Fefnir nodded slightly. 'Good,' he said. 'The others should be returning in short order as well. Levi…' and the communications had been limited back to his link with her, 'stay safe. If…If he's out there after what happened with Phantom, he's…he's likely…' The Guardian couldn't bring himself to say it, hand drifting to the saber held fast against his leg. 'Levi, if it looks like things are…if it gets bad, run. Don't fight him. I know we have our orders, but please,' he didn't want her to fight, even if the lack of his sabers meant that his electrical attacks weren't available to him. 'Don't try to take him on until backup arrives.'
And Phantom jumped signals, piggybacked off another. 'Guardian Fefnir, I am on my way back to Guardian Leviathan,' he said with the voice of Azure Falcon. 'My ETA is nine minutes.'
'Good. The more of you, the better.' Though he remained silent about why he wanted them back, leaving them to think it was simply the matter of his assignment that they stay near Leviathan without being too overbearing.
'I know, Fef. I know that he's…that he's probably fallen the same way as Phantom,' and Leviathan's voice shook there: she wasn't dealing well with any of this. Not with Phantom's infection, and certainly not with Harpuia's death. Now, to think that this unit was just that twisted program using her older brother's body as a macabre puppet? This, she realized, was something Father had to contend with over and over again, over the course of decades. Centuries. She didn't want him to know, not until this was over and done with. 'Stay with Father,' Levi told Fefnir. 'He'll need you near him.'
'Be safe,' Fefnir said across the link, hating just how torn he was between all that was left of his family.
Phantom was careful to remain in shadowspace, linked though he was to Harpuia, to avoid any of Leviathan's scans. 'How close are you and where is Levi?'
'About two minutes out and right behind me,' Harpuia responded. 'How's the link?'
Phantom was about to ask what Harpuia meant, but realized he was asking about the communications link between their middle siblings. 'Levi's sure you're a Maverick, but she's not noticed that I'm here yet, which gives us a distinct advantage. They're still under the impression that that thing in the city is Father, so Fefnir's refusing to leave his side, which Levi's backing.'
'Emotional support, I'm guessing?' Harpuia started to level out in his flight, dropping low but remaining just out of Leviathan's reach.
It was a moment before Phantom responded. 'I would figure as much.'
'I'm on approach now,' Harpuia informed him, even as the unit banked into a wide turn that would bring him to a landing just outside of the copse of trees where Phantom was hiding.
Leviathan slowed considerably when she realized where Harpuia was headed, and when he banked for a landing, she stopped completely, still in twenty feet or so of water, clearly hesitating. He wanted her up on the land, out of the water. She was torn between rushing up there and asking Harpuia what the hell happened? and staying here, in the water, where she was considerably safer, where she had the decided advantage. She knew he was likely Maverick now, that Harpuia wouldn't just want to chat. She floated backward several feet, clearly recalculating. If she was killed or captured, Fefnir would be alone.
Harpuia landed with the same elegance and grace he'd always had, coming to a full stop near one of the taller trees and sitting down next to it, resting against it, eyes closed. He knew it would be difficult for Leviathan to make the choice to approach him, but if he looked nonthreatening? Maybe that'd be enough.
If it came down to it, though, he'd try to establish a link. If he was willing to talk, maybe she'd misread that as not being infected. Maybe that would be the push she needed.
When Harpuia landed and just settled with his back to one of the trees, like it was just another day, Leviathan's heart broke. She knew that Mavericks were able to expertly impersonate the person they were masquerading as, that they could be walking around in that person's body for weeks before being found out. This gesture meant nothing. She scanned again, reaching outward, checking to see if he was truly alone. He didn't have his sabers, but she had her ranseur. But to approach this way…there was no way he had peaceable intentions. Mavericks did not try to negotiate, they only killed. Infected and killed.
It was taking a while for her to make her mind, and the more Harpuia thought about it, the more he was sure that she'd reject a link and bolt, thinking he would try to pass the infection along those channels. For a moment, he idly wondered if that was possible, then shook his head, pulling off his helmet and setting it in the sand beside him. He wouldn't call to her, not aloud, wouldn't let her know for certain that he knew she was there. 'She's not buying it,' he sent to Phantom.
'Give her time. Knowing Levi, she's got herself tangled in an internal argument between the logical choice of running the hell away and the emotional choice of seeing if you're somehow not Maverick.'
Phantom was right: Leviathan was weighing her options, knowing that if, by some chance, Harpuia wasn't Maverick…no, he'd have come home if he weren't. What happened? There was no way that he hadn't felt her scans, no way he hadn't recognized it as her. Harpuia was a lot of things, but he wasn't stupid. He knew full well she was there just as she knew full well that he was luring her. He was the bait, but to what end?
She realized that if she left now, she really might never see him again. If she left now, he could leave and go attack people, kill people, and whose hands would that blood truly be on? Wouldn't she be at least a little bit accountable because she let him get away?
She let out a shuddering breath, not quite a sob, but it was obvious she was distraught. She had to take a moment to steel herself. She had a duty to carry out, a duty to Neo Arcadia, to those people, human and Reploid alike, that lived there. Her hand brushed the wrecked saber at her hip as her grip on her ranseur tightened in the other. She drifted forward, the seabed rising up below her, closer and closer, until her booted foot hit the sand, and she rose from the sea, dripping with saltwater, pausing when she was about knee-deep. This was her first good look at him without the water's surface between them.
Now that was a bit more reassuring, Harpuia thought, and he reached out for Levi with a scan, wanting to make sure she was okay. Quickly recoding his eyes, he let them open once they were his familiar green again. "Hey," he called out softly, smiling a bit at her.
Leviathan did not smile back. The look on her face was indescribable, though it was obvious she was keeping her expression as neutral as she could. If she had to pick an emotion, then it would be anger that was foremost, then grief. Then anger again. If he was out here, if he was out here and didn't even have the decency to be Maverick…
She was going to kill him.
Still gripping her ranseur tightly, though she wasn't holding it in a battle stance, she stepped forward, out of the surf. She didn't leave the wet, packed sand, however, though the tide was low enough that it didn't reach her when it lapped forward. "What are you doing, Harpuia?"
Harpuia shrugged. "Not all too sure. Staying the hell away from the city, I know that much. No one responds well to a unit being attacked by a known Maverick, and I didn't want to have to go back and explain to Master X that I couldn't carry out the order." He pushed himself to his feet. "And part of me is hoping you'll at least forgive me for the silence and the deception. I don't want to end up retired over something as…messed up as all of this is." He noticed the armaments on her legs then. "My saber? Levi, what…?"
Yes, anger would be the emotion of the day. Before, she'd been trying to at least keep her face neutral, but now? She hadn't been so angry in…she didn't even know when. Fueled by grief, the emotion fired through her body like an electric crackle. "You were dead. Harpuia, you let us think you were dead?" She wasn't even yelling. Her voice was low and shaky, her shoulders trembling with the barely-contained emotion. "Why do you think I'm wearing your weapon?" When it was broken beyond repair, when she barely knew how to hold a saber, let alone wield one.
"I would have been good as dead with the way Master X is running that city," Harpuia countered. "I…What was I supposed to do, Levi? I can't kill my own brother. He's…" The Guardian looked down. "I know that his being infected would mean that it's not him anymore, but…what was I supposed to do?"
"You should have contacted me, Harpuia. Or Fefnir. You need to be tested. Fefnir and I underwent extensive testing, you need the same." He needed to be quarantined in the meantime. He needed to not be talking like he hadn't just hurt her. She trembled again. If Harpuia wasn't positive for the virus…well, they could have spun the tale to say that Phantom managed to get away. Originally. Now? "You've incriminated yourself by staying away, Harpuia." Her mind was racing, trying to decide what would be the best course of action from here. Assuming he wasn't lying through his teeth about not being Maverick.
She reminded herself once again that more than likely, this was not her older brother, not any more.
"So I'm screwed either way," Harpuia sighed, rubbing at his eyes as he let out a tired sigh. "And here I thought taking some time to myself would let me clear my mind and the air instead of making the problem worse." He sagged a bit where he stood, his body language all but asking her for a hug. "For whatever it's worth, Levi, I am truly sorry."
Leviathan gripped her ranseur tightly and she had to force herself to not take a step back. She was agitated, exhausted from grief, from the roller coaster ride her emotional matrix had been taking her on for the past few days, and right now, she knew she couldn't afford to trust Harpuia. "I'm sorry, too, Harpuia," or whoever he was. "I am going to ask you to stay right there. I am going to call my lieutenants. You need to be tested." And really, they should be here by now. But she wasn't going to transport Harpuia alone. That was far too dangerous.
That was the second time she's brought up testing. "Tested? Tested for what?" And the look on his face a moment later meant that it had registered. "Levi, we're immune."
"Phantom was supposed to be immune, too, Harpuia. Stay there." Her voice had begun to take on the tone she used when addressing those ranked below her in the Meikai army.
Harpuia looked absolutely taken back by her comment, and the confusion was evident on his face. "Levi," and he sighed. "Levi, I fought him. I fought Phantom and I've fought Maverick units before, those truly insane because of the infection," and he shook his head. "I don't think Phantom was infected. Despite the order out against him…he's not Maverick because of a virus, because of an infection." Harpuia hazarded a few steps toward Leviathan, concern and remorse written over his features. "Levi…"
Leviathan's eyes widened and she froze. "Are you trying to imply that Phantom went Maverick of his own will?" She sounded affronted, offended on Phantom's behalf. "Do you think I'm stupid?" Did he honestly think she'd buy that? When he began to step toward her, her expression shifted instantly, from confusion to anger, and in one fluid motion, she was in an offensive stance and swiped at Harpuia with her ranseur, a warning rather than an attack with intent. "Stay where you are, Harpuia!"
Harpuia's motions were practiced and fluid, hand moving just inside of the arc of her ranseur's blade and stopping the motion of her weapon. Thankfully, her grip on the ranseur was tight enough that when he pulled, she followed, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. "I'm so very sorry, Levi," he said, nuzzling into her as his eyes recoded back to scarlet.
She began shaking again as tears began to fall despite herself, her frame trembling even as Harpuia held her tightly, her arm with the ranseur locked into place. She couldn't push him away effectively in this position, didn't have the freedom of motion to force herself out of his grip. Part of her didn't want him to let go, even as her rational side was screaming at her to get away from him. With her other hand, she felt along her hip, finding Phantom's kunai, the small blade the best option she had of getting free. She needed to get out of here, back into the ocean where she was safe and she knew what she was doing.
"I'm sorry, Leviathan, I really am," and Harpuia began to pull away from her, looking toward the ground, eyes catching the way that her hand was moving towards the kunai hanging from her hip. "It should have never come to this," and blazing red eyes snapped up to meet hers as his voice morphed into a low growl, "but we're here for you now, little sister."
Her own eyes opened wide and she gripped the kunai, unsheathing it and slicing upward, pulling back from Harpuia, her eyes locked on his. Red. Red eyes. The grief slammed into her anew, because now? There was no doubt. Harpuia and Phantom were both dead to her. And Harpuia just said that we were here for her now. Phantom. Where was he? She began scanning more broadly, her systems going into high alert: she needed to located that littlest brother, and locate him now. He wasn't an issue if he couldn't surprise you. She threw the kunai at Harpuia: even if small blades and thrown weapons weren't her expertise, she still knew how to do it well enough, and right now, she needed distance between herself and him.
A blur of black exploded out of a nearby shadow, cutting between Leviathan and Harpuia, Phantom coming to a stop a short distance away, kunai held tightly between two fingers. "Thank you for returning my weapon, sister," he said, sheathing the kunai.
Fefnir had felt the tremor in their link, a panicked cry unconsciously fired across, and he shuddered as he sent to her, 'Leviathan, what's wr—'
Phantom made a dismissive sound as he slammed a blockade on their connection. "The great Fairy Leviathan asking for help?" he chided, his tone derisive. "I thought you were a better fighter than that, sister."
"Perhaps she's getting soft," Harpuia teased, taking to the air and quickly moving so that Leviathan was trapped between him and Phantom.
Given the chance, Leviathan would have begun on the offensive, laying into Phantom first (mostly because he was in front of her and couldn't fly away), then moved into the water to escape much of Harpuia's wrath. Given the chance, Leviathan would also have screamed at both of them, her grief and anger overflowing. She wasn't given the chance.
Once Harpuia was in place behind her, Shadow materialized out of her shadow, catching her around the middle as he swiped a Shadow Blade across her neck, shorting her out and shutting her down. She slumped forward, but didn't fall to the ground. "Your brother will be livid," Shadow told the two of them.
Phantom grinned a bit at the thought, his eyes reverting back to their normal black as he shut down his connection to Fefnir and Leviathan's link now that she was offline. "Oh, livid is only going to be the start of it." Fefnir never did well with any sort of upset to his regimented lifestyle, and this? "You and I are going to need our Armored Phenomenon forms to handle just him when we take the city."
"You sound excited," Harpuia noted, following the two back into the shadows, only to have Phantom step back out with the mockup of her ranseur.
"Want to do the honors?" Phantom asked, unsheathing his katana and offering the weapon to his brother.
"Sure," and Harpuia tossed the weapon in the air, igniting the katana and slicing through the ranseur with practiced ease, the remains of the mockup falling to the ground in three pieces. Reaching down, he tossed the bladed section idly into the air.
A kunai effortlessly pierced the center of the ranseur's blade, a heavy thud sounding as the two pieces of metal embedded into a nearby tree. "Let's go," and Phantom was back through the shadows immediately, taking his sister's limp body from Shadow and waiting for Harpuia to grab the chocolates.
The items secured, the trio sped off through the emptiness back toward the Resistance base.