"Powers back." Church informs the freelancers as they make their escape.
"We better get out of here quickly." Wash responds.
"Epsilon, see if you can find a nearby terminal and download all the information you can, as fast as you can." Carolina orders.
"Alright, be right back C." Church disappears and reappears in an instant. "There was quite a few locked files. I was only able to get the basics of this place."
"Locks take too much time?" Carolina asks.
"Yeah, even with the hilariously outdated system they're using." Church confirms. "We can go over them once we get back to Maple Inn."
"Flying robot sea lion..." Caboose mutters as Wash continues to push him forward.
"What about Kaede?" Washington asks.
"Don't worry. Apparently the reds have already broken her out." Church tells him.
"That must be why the alarms are blaring." Carolina sighs.
"I'm sure they'll be fine." Wash assures her. "Let's just get back to the house."
The reds plus Kaede, Kouta, and Doc eventually found they way from which they broke in. Simmons was getting to work opening a security door blocking their path.
"Finally! We're getting out of this place." Grif groans in relief.
"What're you so eager? You haven't done anything." Simmons brings up.
"I've walked through this rat maze of a building and shot at people. That's more than enough work for me." Grif answers.
"E-everything seems to be more than enough work for you." Kouta tells him.
"Good job kid. You're finally catching on." Grif says.
"Can it, turd nuggets." Sarge orders. "You'll give away our position."
"Give away our position? The whole building knows we're here!" Grif exclaims.
Just then, a woman with brown hair pulled into a pony tail, a look of concentration on her face, and holding a try with a cup of coffee stumbled into the hall where all the others occupied. She breaths out a sigh of relief at seeing the coffee is unspilled.
"Why is this so hard for me?" She sighs. "And what's with the alarms?" She then turns to the group. "Excuse me, do you know what's up with all the noise?"
"R-really? You don't know?" Kouta questions. The girl shakes her head.
"Nothing is out of the ordinary here for you?" Grif asks. The girl once again shakes her head.
"Specifically with what some people are wearing?" Kaede adds.
"No." The girl responds.
"Then nothing's wrong. It's a drill." Grif dryly replies.
"Oh. Well thats a relief." The girl smiles before stumbling away.
"Santa mierda." Lopez says. "Alguien más tonto que todos ustedes."
"What was up with her?" Kouta asks.
"First day at work?" Kaede suggests.
"No pensé que fuera posible, pero tal persona existe." Lopez continues rambling.
"Doors open." Simmons announces. With that, the door opens to reveal a sizeable squad of soldiers led by a sharp, professional looking man.
Kouta and Doc slightly cower at the sight, Sarge and Simmons eagerly ready themselves for battle, Kaede, Lopez, and Grif reluctantly get ready for battle.
He girl from earlier somehow trip and falls in between the groups.
"Wha? How did you get around the security door?" Simmons asks the fallen girl.
"Luck I guess... this place is so complicated in its layout." The girl groans.
"Kisaragi run!" The sharp man yells to the girl.
"I'm sorry Chief Kurama, I didn't mean to get in the way of your drill." Kisaragi apologizes.
"Run away! Go!" Kurama demands of the secretary.
"Oh, yeah. I'll move." Kisaragi realizes she's just in the way, quickly gets up, collects the dropped tray and stumbles away.
"She's really dense." Kaede mutters.
"And has a terrible sense of balance, I wonder if that has to do with a medical condition." Doc says.
"You tell me." Kaede deadpans.
"Enough Lucy. We can't let you through." Kurama demands.
Silence. "Who's Lucy?" Grif asks.
"Whatever your true name is, you won't leave." Kurama rephrases.
"I will too be leavening!" Kaede shouts back.
Kurama keeps from visibly showing how nervous he is getting at see the Diclonius Queen in the same armour as the soldiers. She won't have to worry about deflecting bullets so much with that.
"Do we open fire, sir?" A guard asks seeing Kurama hesitate.
"Hold on." Kurama whispers to him. "They have the advantage with that bullet deflecting armour, not to mention, the Queens vectors. Try not to show it."
"Well, if we're just gonna stare at each other all day, we might as well be going." Grif says.
"He's right. Try and stop us, and you will be very sorry." Kaede says. "Stay behind me." She whispers to Kouta before she leads the group forward.
"S-stay back. One of the guards nervously warns. The others are also sweating bullets at seeing the Queen casually approach them with her armoured companions behind. They can only nervously point there guns as the group walks past. Some close their eyes expecting to be torn up by Lucy's vectors, but only spare themselves of the orange one flipping them off. Once Lucy is out of sight, Kurma gets back on his radio.
"Get me a sniper, pronto!" He orders.
"Why didn't the Queen kill us?" One of the guards asks.
"Hmm... the Diclonius!" Kurama realizes. He gets back on his radio with someone different. "What are the status of all diclonius test subjects!" Kurama listened in as all 34 stations replied with their statuses, each saying their Diclonius was secure. "Lucy didn't rescue anyone... than why... did she come here?"
"It might not be my place sir, but she could have come to gauge our strength." One of the guards suggests.
"That is a likely possibility." Kurama says. "Guard this area incase the soldiers come back. I need to oversee the sniper." He then takes off to meet with said sniper that her ordered.
"Glad thats all over with." Kouta sighs with relief.
"Me too. I'm glad we got out of there without killing anyone." Doc adds.
"We sure didn't get in the same way." Sarge says. "Damn, I was hoping to leave behind an explosion. And maybe Grif would get shot and we'd have to leave him behind."
"Supongo que será la misma estupidez de aquí en adelante." Lopez sighs.
"Can you please tell me why these people are after you? And about those super powers that where mentioned?" Kouta asks.
Kaede sighs. "I don't know why they're after me but, I'll tell you EVERYTHING else. I promise." A loud gunshot is heard as Kaede's helmet blows off, knocking her unconscious. Kouta catches her before she can fall.
"Kaede!" He exclaims.
"Sniper! Keep your heads down!" Sarge orders. "Or in your case, Grif, just stay as you are. Better yet, protect Kouta and Kaede with your body."
"No way, they can't penetrate our armour. Lets just get out of here." Grif says.
"I think that might be a wise idea sir." Simmons says. "I could be wrong, but I think they're firing anti-tank rounds. Those have a real possibility of getting past our armour."
"Drat. And we didn't bring a sniper ourselves." Sarge grumbles. "Full retreat men! We kicked their ass enough for today. We wait until a better opportunity to take em out!"
"Lets just get out of here!" Kouta exclaims. He then looks to Doc. "Can you help her?"
"I'll see what I can do." Doc says. With that, the group retreats to the boat.
Moments later, the SAT team arrived.
"Where's the action?" one of the soldiers asked, Kurama remembered this ones name was Bando, one of their best.
"The targets escaped fifteen minutes ago." Kurama states.
"Rrrrr, God damn it!" He angrily exclaims.
"So... she was here." Another soldier asks. This one looked to be new. "The Queen was here."
"She was." Kurama confirms.
"Doesn't matter if she WAS here Tomo! What matters is that she isn't here! Fucking damn it!" Bando rages.
"If you're quite done, we need to put together a search team. We need to kill or capture the Queen as soon as possible." Kurama states. "If you'll excuse me, I need to inform the Director of these... new developments.
It was hard to miss with all the commotion going about. Everyone in the facility was talking about it. The Queen was here! She killed some soldiers and left. Was she testing their strength? Who knew, but it was a sign that retribution was soon coming.
'Sisters.' #6 thought. 'I hope you have heard this news as well. Our time is soon to come! Our Queen... Kaede will be back to free us! Then we turn the tables on these humans!'