Disclaimer: I don't own anything here except the direct events…god, I wish I owned more than that, then…I would probably sell it to someone anyways.
Chapter Four: Discoveries and Memories.
Thirty minutes after the planning was done, Squad C was on top of a building, an arcade apparently, across the street from the Old Sewer System Control Center, waiting for the word from Squad B. Squad E stayed at the Presidential Residence, Squad D took over Squad B's position fighting outside Manitech Headquarters. Squad A was the only unit still actively hunting the monsters within the city. Squad B volunteered to take on detonating the aqueduct. They were all anxious, Keado especially.
The Old Sewer System Control Center was a surprisingly unimposing site. It look like an aircraft hanger that had been converted into a factory. It was roughly forty feet high and eighty feet from side to side.
"Anyone got a cigarette?" Keado finally asked, breaking the silence.
"Don't smoke." Delta answered. Hideo said the same thing.
"This is the last place for this, Keado." Marshal said, irritated.
"Well I could use one right now." The sniper barked back.
"Bring that tone up to me again, and I'll put you in the Disciplinary Room so fast-" Marshal was cut off when the communicators suddenly filled with static, then voices emerged.
"This is Squad B…found the spot…there were some ships here, but…and a few high level spells did the tri…could almost see there tails between their legs as they fle…got the detonators in place, will blow in five, four, three…one." There was no faint boom heard at all, though the noise from the battle at Manitech Headquarters could still be heard at this distance and might have covered it up. It was probably a good idea that they relieved Squad B of their position there.
"Well that was a little anti-climatic." Delta mentioned. Not even half a second after she finished saying that, a tremor shook the building slightly.
The communicators came back on. "Wahoo, that was…pretty good explosion…mighta used a little too much…ships are haulin', but there's still some monsters left…be taken care of soon enough. Over and out."
"I guess that's our cue." Marshal said. "You two take this side. Keado and I will take the western entrance in thirty."
"Insertion method?" Hideo asked.
"Full breach." Marshal answered, simply.
The Estharian sighed, and extended his hand to Delta in a gentleman gesture. "Shall we?"
She took his hand, and they both jumped off the building, landing softly on the ground. They ran up to the truck entrance sized double doors to the building, taking up positions on either side of the human sized entrance ways placed on one of the larger doors.
Hideo sheathed his sword at his hip, and pulled out his guns. "One, two, THREE!" He kicked the door open, shattering it to splinters thanks to his GFs, and jumped in, rolling across the floor. As soon as he got to his feet, he felt a buzz in his head, and instinctively got low as a few bullets flew over him. He quickly jumped over a steel table, pulling it over with him to use as a shield. Taking one of the three flash bangs he borrowed from Keado, he pulled out the pin, and tossed it. Two seconds later, a deafening bang resounded, accompanied by a blinding flash. Instead of wasting his bullets, Hideo stood up and cast three Thundara spells at the elevated platform where the men were shooting. The lightning bolts that shot out of his hand fanned out, hitting the people shooting at them, the surrounding tables, shelves, and then some electronic equipment, sending massive waves of sparks and burning papers flying everywhere.
Delta jumped through the door with a grenade at the ready.
There was nothing happening in the room, save the flying papers and crackling of circuits.
"Overkill much?" Delta asked.
"I think we just found some of the people who're coordinating these monsters." Hideo mentioned.
A quick look over of the inside didn't reveal anyone else, though there were plenty of places to hide. Beside the electronics and primitive mainframes that Hideo just fried (even primitive for Deling's level of technology), the building was a jungle of metal pipes and pumps. The old sewers were right below them, and just below that, the entrance to the aqueducts, where they expected to find a lot of monsters.
Then, another buzzing flashed through Hideo's mind. But this was different than what he felt moments ago, he didn't understand what the GFs were telling him. He saw a similar confused and worried look on Delta. Suddenly the buzzing intensified a hundred fold, and became near maddening. In a moment of confusion where the GFs inside Hideo took over, he grabbed Delta by the arm, and with a burst of speed he never had before, pulled her behind the steel table, and cast Protect on the both of them moments before the world around them exploded.
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Marshal was angry. Not only was he, as a Squad Captain, not making many of the decisions in what action to take, but he was also surprised and angered even more by how he was handling himself. For nearly ten years, since he first came to the Garden, he had dreamed of becoming a leader, someone others could rely on. He always thought he would have a cool head, patience, and a calculating demeanor. It felt like a slap to the face what he was really like.
"Hey, Marshal!" Keado said, breaking him from his reverie.
"Huh? Oh, yeah." They were outside the western entrance, a side door. "On three. One, two-" Suddenly, the door blew open, followed by flames and an invisible wall of blazing hot air that blew him and Keado off their feet and away from the door. The windows above them exploded, sending hundreds of glass shards raining far from the building.
It took a few moments before Marshal regained enough sense to sit up and figure out what the hell just happened. The explosion at the outlet couldn't have done this! He thought. He saw Keado trying to get up, but falling over repeatedly from disorientation.
Finally, Marshal got enough of a hold over himself to get up and drag his sniper comrade away from the building. There, he let go of his teammate and fell to the ground next to him.
"Hey!" Keado said, pointing to the building.
Walking out of the smoky ruin of the building was Hideo, Garden uniform and face black, carrying an equally black Delta in his arms. They were both coughing hard from the smoke. The blond Estharian finally collapsed onto his knees, setting Delta down as carefully as he could, then crashed down next to her, coughing his lungs out.
"Are you two alright? You gonna be okay?" Marshal asked. Neither of them seemed to hear him. He then saw they both had blood coming out of their ears. Without saying anything, he cast Cure on Delta first, as she seemed to be taking it worse, and was about to do the same to Hideo, but Keado was already casting it.
"Hey, you alright?" He repeated. Delta rolled onto her side, still coughing and with her eyes closed, but she managed to nod. Hideo turned his head to Marshal, showing two tiny streams in the soot from his eyes, and quit his coughing fit long enough to say, "I think someone did our job for us."
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Some time later, he didn't know how long, Hideo took another breath of his oxygen mask, letting the pure O2 fill his lungs, as the doctor put a stethoscope to his chest. When they got back to the Presidential Residence, and the paramedics gave him the mask, the pure oxygen hurt just as much as the fumes he inhaled in the building at first, and brought more tears to his eyes than the smoke had. At least he could see and think straight again.
The doctor took the stethoscope plugs out of his ears and said, "You both were lucky you found shelter as well as you did. You both got very minor burns, and you should be good as new in a few days."
"Thanks, doc." Hideo said, weakly.
"Hey, I should be thanking you for protecting us." The doctor replied with a smile.
"Hey there." Marshal said as he entered the tent. "Great news. It seems we've got them all, finally. President Gulimbee said the regular military can clean out any remaining in the Old Sewers. I guess that means we can go home now."
Hideo looked over to the bed next to him, and smiled at Delta, who smiled back. "Thanks Captain. When do we leave?"
"We're all supposed to report in at the Presidential Residency Courtyard in one hour. Hey doc, will they be ready then?"
"I don't see any problem with it, though I would advise they not do any more roughhousing for a few days." The doctor answered.
"Great. What about the others."
The doctor moved away from the two Garden Students and addressed the others in the small, make-shift infirmary. "Well, this student will need to be on crutches until that legs heals, and this soldier here…" The doctors words faded from Hideo's fatigued mind. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth badge he pulled off one of the bodies in the Old Sewer Control Center. The image was that of a large diamond with the black silhouette of a behemoth's head roaring.
He had seen this image before. He knew what it meant.
Delta reached over and squeezed his free hand. He looked over and saw her smiling at him. He let his tired mind forget about the badge, and resigned to just let events play out for the moment.
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The Black Behemoth. He still couldn't believe it. It had been three hours since he had reported to Commander Leonhart directly what he knew about the secret society/crime syndicate.
Hideo let the water run across his tired muscles, letting it wash away the soot and sweat from the day. He was back in the Garden, in the shower of his double dorms. Any excitement he should have felt about getting into SeeD was overshadowed by this discovery. Is this why I was sent out here? He wondered. Did they know about the Black Behemoth before transferring me out of Esthar?
Stepping out of the shower, he looked at himself through the mirror. He looked over the scars across his chest and abdomen. A scripture of his life, forever engraved to keep him from forgetting. The gangs, the drugs, the violence.
He sighed. The past is the past. It's your future you should worry about now, Hideo. And if he were to have a future, he had to find a way into the Headmaster's files. He knew any chance he had would lie in SeeD.
He reached over for his spare, clean Garden uniform.
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Night had long since fallen, showering the land in starlight. In order to distract himself from the wait, Hideo tried to remember every detail of what the Garden looked like at night, in all it's majestic glory.
He and the nineteen other SeeD candidates who participated in the test were assembled in the second floor hallway. Many of them were pacing, some were talking, some were relating stories of what happened to them, often full of laughs from humiliating situations.
"Hey." Delta said, walking up to him. She had also showered and composed herself as well, but she still looked a little shaken up from what happened. Hideo didn't blame her, he swore he nearly saw his whole life flash before his eyes, and the fights themselves were continually replaying in his mind.
"Can't wait?" He asked her.
"No." She answered with a snicker to show she wasn't in a down mood. She then grew serious. "Rumor has it you know who those men were in the Sewers Control Center. Is that true?"
Before Hideo could answer, one of the Garden Faculty walked into the hallway. Heads turned in unison like a school of fish. The faculty member started reading out names. The third name he called out was Delta's. She laughed with glee, and after giving Hideo a quick hug, she ran off toward the elevator. The man then ran off two more names, then said, "Hideo Masters."
He stepped forward, knowing nothing would be the same again.
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In the first floor basement, converted into the Headmaster's office, the seven new SeeD members stood at attention.
"As you were." Cid told them. He then gave a speech about the glory of SeeD, and how it was their self-imposed duty to go against any sorceresses who wanted walk in Adel's footsteps. He then started giving out SeeD rank reports, and whispered something in each person's ear, usually making them smile with satisfaction.
Then, he got to Hideo, and spoke out loud. "I hope you are not the last Estharian to grace SeeD, and that our two great nations have a bright future." Hideo smiled and gave a slight bow. He took his rank report from the Headmaster's hands.
Cid bent over, and covered Hideo's ear so only he could hear him. "What you discovered out there, on those men," his next words were almost a hiss, "you saw nothing! Understand?" Hideo had to stop himself from inhaling. What the hell was going on?
Kramer stepped back and spoke aloud to the new SeeDs in his regular, jolly voice, "Great jobs, everyone. I hope to hear great things from all of you." Hideo could have sworn the Headmaster's eyes lingered on him longer than the others. "You are dismissed. Good night, and enjoy your inauguration ceremony, you've certainly earned it."
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The gaping skylight opened up to the heavens, bathing the ball room in a minor silver coating of moon light on top that of the chandeliers' flames. The beat of the waltz seemed to reflect Hideo's thoughts.
He was bound by the three constantly conflicting priorities in his life: his secret mission, his duty to the Garden, and his own interests. Each led inexorably into the next, always conflicting with each other, yet forever bound together, like a three piece Yin/Yang. He knew that, eventually, he was going to have to choose which to stick with, and no matter which one he chooses, he'll lose them all.
I have always been a slave to circumstances: I've never had a say in which path I take. Like this waltz, am I forever doomed to repeat this cycle in which I live? To be alone, become dependant, then watch as my world gradually collapses unto itself?
He realized he had been holding his wine glass of cider for nearly half an hour now without drinking any of it. He took a swig, and instantly noticed it had been spiked. I see the ironies of my life aren't the only things that never changed.
"Hey, Hideo." The Estharian looked up and saw a male SeeD walking up to him. "There's a few things I need to run by you, and the rest of the new SeeDs." He looked a little nervous, like he didn't like this job. "Now, I don't like asking you to be a snitch, but if you hear about any hazing going on, be sure to report it as soon as possible. A student nearly died a couple years ago in a 'ritual'."
"Yeah, sure." Hideo answered half-heartedly, not paying too much attention.
"And also, you've got your own dorm room to yourself. Dorm number thirty-seven."
"Thanks." Hideo said, hoping the man would just leave him be.
"And one last thing. I need to ask a favor of you. There's a little assignment that needs to be done, but I don't have the time to do it. And, well frankly, you don't look like you're enjoying the party too much."
"I'm not much for parties." Hideo answered. At least ones like this. In one of the lower Esthar street gangs, he had his fair share of parties and drinking, but he had never been to a high class one. He felt very out of place, even though he wasn't even a part of it.
"Okay. Well, I was given these documents to put on the Headmaster's desk, but I also have to talk to all the new SeeDs and make sure nothing illicit is going on, and I don't have the time to do both. All you have to do is put this on the headmaster's desk." He pulled out a manila folder. "Can I trust you with this." He said in a mock-super-serious tone, exaggerating the importance of this task.
Hideo was about to refuse when realized this was his chance to get to the Headmaster's mainframe! Trying to still act bored, he grabbed the folder and walked away without a word.
As soon as he was out of the Cafeteria, he dashed over to the dormitory area, racing to his double dorm to retrieve his portocomputer and the Fly. While he was there, he grabbed a handkerchief that Vicks left laying around. He was going to need it.
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As the elevator went down, he couldn't stop fidgeting. Can't this damn thing go any faster? He wondered for the third time in ten seconds. Finally it stopped, and the door opened to the huge room the Headmaster claimed as his own.
After wiping the sweat from his face with the handkerchief, he stepped out, trying to look like he was doing anything but sneaking. There might still be someone in the room, like Commander Leonhart. Now that would be just perfect, after all the progress he's made, only to be stopped by the legendary mercenary himself.
After a quick look around, he found he was alone in the chamber. Quickly putting the manila folder on the desk with shaky hands, and looking closely to see if it looked like it was laid down in any suspicious way, he got behind the desk and looked at the little computer mainframe that lay under the headmaster's desk. It was a lot bigger than he expected. Why do I still expect to find some form of well crafted technology somewhere out here?
He put the Fly next to it, close enough to where it could read it all, and activated it. He was glad his SeeD uniform had long sleeves to conceal his portocomputer. He activated it, and saw from the holographic interface that the Fly was downloading everything.
The way the Fly worked was not to break into the computer, that was done later, but to scan the computer and make a perfect copy of it, right down to the last byte, so that he could hack into it elsewhere and take all the time he needed to, without fear of it alerting some alarm or sending a signal off. And even if the files were set to self-dissolve upon forced entry, he could copy them again.
Hideo had to wipe his face down again as the seconds ticked by. Normally, he was fine under these situations, but he was in the middle of a fortress of some of the most powerful warriors on the planet. Finally, the window said "download complete". He then pressed a short sequence ending the Fly's scanning and turning it off. He grabbed it and put it in his pocket. He didn't stop sweating until he was in his new single dorm room with the door locked behind him.
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After moving all of his stuff from the double dorm into his new dorm, Hideo spent nearly the whole night digging into the headmaster's computer. Even with their vastly inferior technology, it was obvious Cid Kramer put a lot of money and effort into his safeguards. Finally, he got full access to the man's confidential files.
Garden Funds
SeeD Funds
SeeD Deployments
SeeD Employer Listings
SeeD Member Profiles
Confidential Files
That last link caught Hideo's attention. These WERE his confidential files, what would be more confidential than this? Only one option came to mind. He really didn't want anyone to see what was in this folder.
Just to be cautious, with the free space available on the portocomputer, he made another copy of what the Fly had recorded, and checked that file out. As soon as he opened it, it set off a timer that only turned off if the right code was imputed. As expected, when he didn't enter the code, the whole file dissolved, erased from existence. Cid Kramer sure didn't take any chances.
Hideo closed the secondary computer file copy, and brought up a shortcut to a wyrm he used for these situations. As soon as he clicked on the Confidential Files link, he activated the Wyrm, letting it figure out the code. In almost no time, it found the code, and Hideo got full access to the real confidential files. It was labeled simply.
Operation S.E.E.D.
"You've got to be kidding me." Hideo muttered. What the hell was this? Progress on their witch hunts? The words letters SEED then split, showing it was an acronym. It read:
Sentience in
Evolution by
Elemental
Deification
Now Hideo was really confused. Evolution? Deification?
After digging deeper into the file, he found money transaction records. It turns out Cid was fibbing about the money it took to run the Garden. It made more than he claimed, so with the money left over, it was put into this specific off-shores account. Shortly after, he found E-mails sent by this 'client'. When he looked at the address, he wasn't all too surprised to find out who Cid Kramer was secretly funding.
Manitech Corporations LTD.
The E-mails contained vague accounts of the progress of research, but never anything about what that research was. Hideo tried to recall what Kendal had said about the corporation.
"They don't go public about their research. It's energy related, as best I can tell. They are a privately funded corporation, after all."
Cid Kramer was one of, if not the one, privately funding them. The man must have already known who was really behind the attack on Deling City. So is this what he was ordered to find?
His mind wandered back to when this all began.
Hideo struggled against the two Estharian soldiers' grips, but each time he got a little slack, they gave him a short jolt from their tazers.
The two men dragged him across the neon illuminated tube, hundreds of feet above the highest buildings, thousands of feet above the ground. They dragged him across the hallways to a set of heavily shielded doors that, despite the security purpose, were still ornate.
The doors opened, granting them access to a grand office. In there, three men stood, wearing clothing that wasn't Estharian in design. The men weren't even Estharian.
"How can you serve someone like that?" Hideo said to the two soldiers in spite. Without response, they dragged him into the room, and held him down in front of the desk. Standing behind it was a tall, slender man with long black hair, looking over the grand site that his office offered of the country/city.
"Sir, we have brought the hacker known as 'Masters'." One of the soldiers announced.
The man turned, and revealed himself to be the president of Esthar, Laguna Loire.
He gave a disapproving frown. "Is it really necessary to hold him down so roughly."
Hideo answered before the soldiers. "If you don't mind getting your ass kicked, it's not." The soldier gave him a slight jolt of the tazer.
"Hey, THAT was not necessary." He told the soldier. He redirected his voice back to Hideo. "Why do you hate me so much?"
"Esthar should be run by Esthar, not some Galbadian usurper!" Hideo replied, venom in his voice.
The President was about to say something, probably something stupid as usual in his defense, but Prime Minister Seagill spoke up. "Laguna, it's not worth it. Let him believe what he wants."
Loire looked at the dark skinned man, then nodded. "Okay, Kiros."
He turned his attention back to the hacker. "Do you know why I've brought you here instead of to court?"
"You're hoping that my presence will increase your IQ?" He always wanted to say that to the president's face.
Laguna snickered, though not mockingly. He seemed to actually find it funny! Was there no end to the man's stupidity? "No, it's because we're willing to make a deal with you. A full pardon, and all this will be wiped from your record. What do you say?"
Hideo pretended to be thinking. "Hmm, how about I say…eat shit, and give me my lawyer."
Laguna just held the bridge of his nose for a second in frustration.
"Your trial will take five minutes at most, even with the best lawyer in the country." The Prime Minister injected. "We have eyewitness accounts, video recordings, and your epithelial tissue at the scene. It's suicide to plead not guilty."
Hideo was silent for a moment. For all the distrust he bore them, he knew they were right. "So what kind of sentence am I looking at?"
The Prime Minister started listing the charges. "Illegally hacking government software, five years, more if we can get proof you did more than just this job. Theft of company funds, fifteen years. Illegal trafficking of confidential stock market information, seven years. Resisting arrest, three years. Aggravated assault of eight military soldiers, six to ten months each. Assault of one security guard, one secretary-"
"I got it." Hideo interrupted. "So why me? Why didn't you strike a deal like this to Mephisto when you caught him?"
"Actually, Mephisto was a woman, and you have skills neither she, nor most other hackers have." Kiros added. "You have great talent and skill for infiltrating even tightly secured locations without leaving a trace and without any people or cameras getting a good look at your face. That takes a very calculating mind to do such things with such efficiency. You learned to do on your own what takes years to teach professional agents.
"And on top of all that, you knocked out and injured eight armed MPs, and it took five soldiers to hold you down long enough to stun you." The Prime Minister looked smug. "I'd say those are sufficient qualifications to this assignment."
"So what's the assignment, if I do decide to take it?" Hideo asked Loire.
"We have gathered disturbing intelligence-" Laguna started explaining.
"I'll bet just learning about it hurt your brain." Hideo interrupted.
Laguna continued, annoyed, "…disturbing intelligence that points to under-the-table dealings with Balamb Garden's highest ranks. It could mean nothing, it could mean everything. We want you to infiltrate as a student, maybe even become a SeeD, and find out what's going on. Do this for us, and you'll get a full pardon, and you may even get a job in SeeD while you're at it."
Hideo searched his memory. "Balamb Garden…isn't it that military academy on that tiny island? If they're running a side business, why do you care?"
The prime minister took over. "We hired Balamb Garden to take over Lunatic Pandora a year ago, and ever since then, they've been taking an unusually large role in the push for us to open our borders back up for commerce. One would find that suspect. This, plus the 'side business', is definitely worth suspicion."
Laguna looked Hideo in the eye with a cold seriousness the youth never knew the jolly, airhead president was capable of. "We'll give you six months for this assignment. If you take any longer than that, or run for it, or reveal any of this to anyone, or report anything fabricated to us, we WILL take you back, reopen this trial and push for the maximum sentence." Hideo understood then how much he had underestimated the president.
The last words Laguna said would forever follow the young Estharian. "I may be the President, but I will not hesitate to lock up some street urchin!"
Just some street urchin. No matter how hard he tries to lose his past, no matter what he learns, no matter how many computers he hacks, or what status he obtains, he will always be an orphan off the streets. He even had to use his hackers alias in place of the last name he never had, and make up stories of an orphanage that didn't exist.
He typed up his message onto the portocomputer, encrypted it three times, then activated the long range transmitters.
End of Chapter Four.
Author's Note: Well, there you have it. As you may have read in the last chapter, this chapter was originally the second half of chapter three, but no more.