Asmodeus sighed with relief as Alkire, released from wrist and ankle cuffs, was safely deposited in a small and highly secure cell deep within the maximum confinement ward of Levansworth Military Prison in the Atlantic Federation. Levansworth was where most of the criminals from within the ranks of the EA military served their time... often life sentences, since most crimes in the military either resulted in non judicial punishments like loss of pay or rank, or in removal from the military via dishonorable discharge. It took something special to get sent to Levansworth... cowardice in the face of the enemy, malicious malingering, lesser treason, gross insubordination, manslaughter, gross incompetence and a few other things. The military prison was one of the most secure on the planet... no inmate had escaped alive in over forty years. And escaping dead could hardly be called escaping.
There was an entire regiment of guards with highly advanced security systems and defenses all around the complex... ditches, electric fences, barbed wire, mines, laser tripwire alarms, cameras, motion sensors... the works. The cells themselves were built from reinforced concrete designed to resist explosions, the doors to the cells were hardened steel bars more than an inch thick that withdrew into floor and ceiling when the inmate needed to be removed from the cell for exercise or meals... there were no locks to pick or jam. The prisoners were watched night and day by both cameras and roving teams of guards and emergency reaction forces... including a unit of mobile suits... were at constant standby in the surrounding area. No jail was perfect... but Levansworth was as good as they came. Alkire glared out at Asmodeus, not even bothering to inspect his cellmate, who had not bothered to get up from his bunk on the left wall.
"I suppose you think I'm intimidated by this place?" Alkire asked, folding his arms casually across his chest. Asmodeus looked at him and then glanced around speculatively.
"You are most definitely good, Major. Ex-major... whatever. Mr. Jones. In any case, I know how good you are. I know how good Vladimir is. I know how good all of you are. If I'm satisfied with the security, don't you think you might be acting a bit overconfident? I do not have a history of making underestimations of people."
"A lot of people have said that to me... most of them ruined their perfect records shortly afterwards too." Alkire retorted. It wasn't all bravado... he'd been in a lot of tough spots in his career and he was still right here... but there was a good portion of bluster to his words as well. He'd been looking around just as much as Asmodeus... this place was a fortress... a labyrinth designed specifically to keep people like him secured. He didn't doubt that he could eventually escape... no jail was perfect... but right now he couldn't see any way that would have him out in less than a few years... he'd have to get to know the place before he could make a go of it. And he didn't have years... he might not even have days or hours, from what brief shouted and whispered conversations he'd had with Victor as they were transported from the plane to the jail. Victor had been groggy from his tranquilizer, but had managed to convey to Alkire the distressing news of the kids being loaded onto an entirely seperate plane... destination unknown.
"Even the Lieutenant couldn't break out of this place quickly." Asmodeus replied with a sad shake of his head. "And as good as you are, you aren't the Lieutenant. After I get back from my little side trip, I'm sure we'll have a good long time to talk together, Mr. Jones. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a long distance flight to catch."
"Where are my girls, Asmodeus?" Alkire demanded, stopping just short of clenching the bars when he detected a faint electric crackling emnating from them. "Where did your boss take the kids?"
Asomdeus looked back over his shoulder at the commando. "To a place as close to hell as any living being is likely to experience. You won't be seeing them again. It hurts, I know... but those are the cold hard facts, Mr. Jones. You mess with Blue Cosmos... Blue Cosmos messes with you back... harder. Much harder, as I'm sure you're realizing now. Goodbye, Mr. Jones. We'll be meeting again in the near future. Until then..." Asmodeus waved formally and then hurried away... he did indeed have a plane to catch, a date to keep, a vengeance to exact. He did not want to be late.
"My name's Jean Dylan. Self confessed coward, traitor and mutineer. Currently awaiting execution by firing squad, date yet to be determined. I've logged nearly a year in this pressure cooker. Now shut the hell up and leave me the hell alone." Alkire's cell mate intoned almost as soon as Asmodeus was out of sight. The average looking man did not turn and look at Alkire, did not even open his eyes or roll away from the wall he was facing. Alkire sighed and sat down on his bunk, currently made with fussy military precision.
"Alkire Majesty. Captured freedom fighter, branded patriot and general thorn in the side of Blue Cosmos. Currently in for the long haul, since the bastards think they can convert me to their side. Date on that is impossible to guess, since I'll be dead first. I've been here approximately... twenty three minutes and twenty four seconds. And counting. Pleased to meet you." Alkire told the man, who did not respond. "As a cell mate you'll find me motivated, depressingly cheerful and generally a right annoying son of a bitch. I doubt it'll be more than a fortnight before you slit my throat with a shiv while I sleep. Fortunately for me, I don't plan on being here for more than ten hours. At the most. After then I'll be on a jet out of here, destination unknown."
"Cocky bastard." Jean muttered. "This must be my punishment... sharing a cell with a crazy man."
"You have no idea. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get cracking if I'm going to get out of here on schedule." Alkire replied, dropping to the hard concrete floor and getting in position. Jean looked over at him curiously and sighed in disgust when Alkire started doing push ups. It looked like he was saddled with one of those uber jock grunts. His life sucked. Jean tried to go back to sleep... it was difficult listening to the grunts of exertion from Alkire. But Jean was used to discomfort... he drifted off within the hour.
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Vladimir sighed... he was disappointed with Levansworth. Sure there were lots of flashy gadgets and well dressed troops and cameras and all the whizz bangs the Atlantic Federation could come up with... but security really wasn't as tight as all that. He'd been in tougher places to get out of... heck, he'd broken out of those places back in his early teens and moved on to escaping from the real shitholes in his twenties. The places where maximum security lockdown consisted of beating you unconscious until you pissed more blood than urine, then chaining you down until you got better, and repeating the process ad nauseum... it was very difficult to escape when you could barely breathe for the pain. Compared to that hellhole, the electrified bars and cameras and polite but firm patrols... well, it was just on a whole different scale. A lesser scale. Vladimir paced around the cell one more time to consolidate his thoughts. Victor was no doubt working on his own escape plan... the german wasn't much for escaping restraints but put him in a cell and he'd have a bomb made before the end of the day. Raine would be waiting for rescue... her specialty was long range combat and hand to hand... two skills she would be unable to put to good use in a cell. James would be similarly waiting... his great strength was of little use vs steel bars, electric current and armed guards. Alkire would be waiting... furiously thinking of a wider escape plan than just bust everyone out of their cells.
By the time Vladimir found him and released everyone, Alkire would have thought of some way to get them all out of prison and into a jet and following Asmodeus. Vlad hoped that was the case anyway... he didn't have any idea of what to do besides break out of the cell. He passed his cellmate's bunk... the man lay unmoving on the covers. His cell mate had been an enthusiastic little private... full of contrition for his cowardice in the face of the enemy and eager to please his captors and impress upon them his willingness to return to service whenever they thought best. Vlad had immediately pegged him as a tattletale... the low sort of son of a bitch who'd call the guards when Vlad tried to escape. It was a good thing in a way... a brown noser would have a lot more material stashed away from guard gifts than an average prisoner. Vlad had put the smaller man in a sleeper hold about five minutes after he'd been left in the cell by the guards... the private wouldn't be waking up until TEMPEST was long gone.
As Vlad had expected, the private's stash had been most useful. Porno magazines, CD player and disks, batteries, a small framed photograph with glass cover, nail clippers, a carton of cigarettes and a lighter summed up the hoard. Vlad shook his head slightly... the guy had so much stuff it was almost pathetic... any reasonably competent soldier with half a brain could have made a decent go of an escape attempt with half the crap this guy had. Of course... that was probably why he had it... all the guys who would make a go for it never got the opportunity to get this stuff since the guards were wary of them. This nothing private was no threat to anyone, least of all the security of the jail. Someone must have made a blunder when they assigned Vladimir to his cell... probably beacuase they got hooked on his "prosthetic arms"... after all, what could a double arm amputee do to escape?
Well, one hell of a lot when your prosthetics happen to be robotic arms grafted to your nerves. It was a mistake that would certainly not be repeated twice... he'd have to make sure he never got thrown in here again. Not a hard promise to fufill... if things went as he wished he'd never set foot in the AF again. And he didn't think he'd be lucky enough to be captured alive twice. Vlad completed his rumination circuit and bent down close to the bars where they met the wall of his cell. There was perhaps a half inch gap between the electrified bar and the concrete wall. Carefully hiding his movements from the cameras in the hall, he flicked the lighter over the ball of crumpled up centerfolds and lit them on fire. The blaze was small and mostly just gave off acrid fumes and smoke... but that was all he needed. He tossed on more pages and let the smoke cloud grow. Within seconds it was large enough to meet his needs.
The smoke reached the fire detectors that were standard in all AF buildings... even jails. Alarms sounded and lights started to flash. Automatic sprinkling systems came on with a cycling sound... Levansworth was an old complex, several centuries in age... it's fire system was still water based rather than gaseous or powder based like more modern systems. To preserve the safety of the inmates the electric charges running through the bars disengaged... a touching if somewhat stupid mechanism, in Vlad's opinion. He got to work fast... he may not have been an explosives expert like Victor, but he could make an improvised bomb just as well as the next terrorist... he'd made a number of similar devices over the years during his rampages in the PLANTS. He opened the lighter and soaked the batteries from the CD player in the fluid, leaving a little in the lighter for later.
He connected the batteries together in series using wires ripped from the CD player, connecting them so that their current would flow in opposition to that of the electric current that normally flowed through the bars. He stripped the wires bare with his fingers, glad that the metal prosthetics were finally useful for something other than killing. He then used spare wire to tie the batteries to one of the bars, about eighteen inches apart. He guestimated the time and flicked the lighter on just as the guards in control got the fire system turned off. He lit the butane soaked batteries, ignited a pair of cigarettes off the flames and waited... the guards did not disappoint, flipping the electric bar system back on with alactrity to preserve security. The flaming batteries exploded when the jolt of current ran through them, spraying their acidic contents onto the bar, eating away just a fraction more at the already blast damaged metal. Alarms started whooping again, but with a different timbre this time... escape alerts. Vlad had seconds to act. Steeling himself he wrapped both metal hands around the damaged portion of the bar, careful to transfer his cigarettes to his mouth beforehand... and he pulled, squeezed and twisted with all the power available to him.
A normal man would have been powerless, not to mention struck unconscious by the voltage that still sent waves of agony rolling directly into his chest... but Vlad's mechanical hands were many times stronger than flesh and blood... the blast and acid weakened cracks in the steel bar gave way with tortured shriek and he ripped it free of the rest of the bar. Without waiting he tossed the eighteen inch piece of metal so that it struck lengthwise across the remaining bars... shorting eight of them together all at once. Vlad didn't have a degree in electrical engineering, but he did know that granting several hundred thousand volts a path across more voltage with no resistance to speak of... well it did what he'd hoped, to say the least.
The power supply giving current to the bars for the entire cell block suddenly had a load thousands of times greater than design expectations... the system shorted out and breakers tripped to avoid damaging the system, but the entire electrical system went down in that cell block in the interem... all the bars dropped back into the floor or dangled loosely from the ceiling. In the four seconds it took to restore power, Vlad was up and out of the cell and running. The halls were empty for the moment... everyone else was being a good prisoner and staying put, or gaping around in shock... most of these people felt they deserved to be here, obviously. Vlad dismissed them with a sneer. A pair of guards came rushing around a corner, batons in hand, radios squawking... Vlad did not have time to play nice. He palmed the glass photo cover he'd broken out of the picture frame and threw it sidearm... the unsharpened glass corner was still more than pointy enough to puncture flesh... sinking halfway into one guard's jugular.
The CD disk Vlad threw at the other guard did not possess an edge... but when struck in the eye it matters little... the guard yelped and automatically brought his hands up to protect his face. By the time he brought his hands down Vlad had snapped his neck like a twig. Vlad paused only to take a radio and a baton. He rushed to the security checkpoint that acted as a gateway between each cell block and the connecting halls... there were five guards there. He did not pause... this was all or nothing, no holds barred...the lives of the girls were at stake. The guards started to bring up their guns... he threw the baton... not at them, but at the security switch that opened the door to the hall. The door zoomed open and Vlad dived forwards, rolling under the first few shots, taking two more on his metal shoulders and a graze along the back as he did so.
Now at the feet of the guards he grabbed an ankle and crushed it, rising to jam a lit cigarette into the nose of another guard, twisting aside to bat aside a pistol barrel and rip the arm that held it from its socket, ducking under a panicked shot that left him bleeding from the scalp rather than the skull and finally throwing the other cigarette into the hair of one of the downed guards, setting it alight on the hair gel... the remaining two unwounded guards paused a brief moment to look in horror at their burning friend... a moment too long. Vlad had one's heart in his grasp and had stove in the face of the other before they could gasp. Not a bad fight... five against one, unarmed. He looted a few pistols and some ammunition and took a security diagram from the pocket of the senior guard. After that it was easy.
As predicted the others were waiting for him... it was a simple, if bloody, matter to overpower the guards at each cell block's control station and open all the cell doors in each cell block he passed... within fifteen minutes half the prisoners in Levansworth had freedom to come and go from their cells as they pleased. Few did, but some made breaks of their own. By minute twenty four he had joined forces with James, Victor and Raine and they were all armed and ready to go. At minute thirty four they found Alkire, who was so antsy he was practically shivering. He, of course, had a plan. At minute fifty six, the laundry room was merrily ablaze, all the security systems were shut down, and the fire system was going full flow... in every space but the ones that were on fire. One hour and thirteen minutes after the first fire alarm went off... roughly two hours after they first arrived and were placed in custody, TEMPEST had officially left the building... as had nearly forty other prisoners, including Jean Dylan. The mobile response squads scrambled and managed to recapture most of them... though TEMPEST managed to escape in a military transport, leaving two mobile suits sceduled for maintainence in smoking ruins in the process... and the traitor Jean Dylan, convicted for selling out his own unit to the Coordinators during the last war, disappeared without a trace... much to the disgruntlement and outrage of those people who knew of his incarceration. All in all... not a proud day for the Atlantic Federation military police.
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"That's not something you should be doing." Ashino commented mildly, taking in the scene of the guard with his hand half down the dress of the girl with the pink hair... Lacus Clyne he suspected, since few had hair of such a distinctive color. The five security guards were staring at him with undisguised shock, frozen in the midst of acts of lechery... or the beginning of them anyway. He was just in time it seemed. These girls may have been the friends of his enemies... one of them was a Coordinator, an enemy of his entire race. But they did not deserve to be brutalized in such a manner, then subjugated to the sort of interrogations Ashino was only too sure were in store for them. The people in charge of interrogating prisoners were also the discipline masters for the younger BCPU's... Ashino had run afoul of them before, back during his sarcastic days... he'd lost a lot of his starch and sass in rooms much like these, before the second operation. T
hough his interrogators had never authorized his guards to molest him... there were guards who leaned that way... but a BCPU was too valuable a item to let the guards treat as they willed. Not that he would have been damaged, but even BCPU's, with all their training and conditioning... well, they were still basically human. Piss them off enough and they'd flip out. Even Ashino. And when a late stage, fully trained BCPU flipped out, people died. Sometimes many people. Ergo Frost. And Cray. And Amy, back when she was alive. And potentially Ashino too... if and when he ever endured whatever stimulus it was that would set him off. He brought himself back into focus... the guards were still gaping and the woman in the red business suit was still standing up from the armchair, spider on a stick dangling forgotten at her side. "Good day, Dr. Prayce." Ashino nodded in recognition. He remembered her... the woman who affected nervousness in order to justify her own cruelty.
"Markov Ashino! What are you doing here? This is a secured area, BCPU's are not allowed here. You know that." Angela snapped, flicking the spider away from her leg before it could bite. "You are in very deep trouble, young man. There will be punishment for this infraction. Leave here at once and return to your cell. DO IT NOW!" Angela commanded decisively. It was important to adopt the proper tone of voice and posture when addressing a BCPU. They were conditioned by their handlers to have a subconscious fear of their human masters... all it took was a few harsh words and and angry gesture and they'd cower like a whipped dog. Unfortunately for Angela, her security clearance was only mid level... she dealt only with the BCPU 2's and 3's. She had no experience with the more advanced models and their relatively strong personalities and psychoses. Ashino's conditioning was strong... the lessons and punishments he'd endured quite fresh in his memory. Maybe if he hadn't been a little frustrated, annoyed and even a smidgeon indignant at the treatment of the female prisoners, he'd have been more susceptible. He was a reasonable person after all... he had nothing personal against Dr. Prayce and she was technically a superior and had given a lawful order. But he was all those things and he was pressed for time to boot. There was no time to be nice.
Ashino stared back at her with slightly narrowed eyes. He didn't even flinch away from her words or her gesture. "I don't think so." he retorted. Angela's eyes widened in shock... she'd never been talked back to by a BCPU... an object... a computer terminal with legs and a stomach for all intents and purposes. She was flustered, she did not like unexpected things, did not like not being in control. It made her nervous. There was only one acceptable response. She got mad. Dropping the spider and the stick, she whirled back to her briefcase, withdrawing a heavy aeresol can full of concentrated pepper spray. This'd teach the braggart, she thought smugly. BCPU's were tough... strong, fast, durable, thick skinned and almost immune to pain. But they had weak spots... the eyes... the nose... armpits... groin... small of the back. And they were trained from inception into the program not to hurt humans. Ashino was incapable of laying a hand on her without a direct order from a superior officer. And there were none about but her.
She glanced at the guards and frowned when she saw they were still frozen in shock, as were all five young ladies, who were looking more than a bit confused. "What the hell do you idiots think you are doing? You're the one's who wanted to grab some ass... get to it or get on with the softening up. Don't mind that thing in the doorway... I'll get rid of it soon enough." Angela snapped at the guards. They blinked and slowly started to get back to what they were doing, much to the distress of the girls, who started to shriek and writhe in a way that further frayed Angela's nerves. The guards tried not to make it too obvious, but they continued to watch Ashino. The guards at JIHAD had a grapevine that was suprisingly accurate... they'd heard about the three high grade BCPU's... about the guards and scientists that went into the lower levels of the base... and came out in body bags, if not minced up or broken like dolls. Ashino was supposed to be a pretty okay guy... he did favors for people, kept his mouth shut. But you never could tell with a non-human... it was like having a wild beast in the room with you... sure it may have been more scared of you than vice versa, but that didn't mean it couldn't maul you anyway.
Ashino switched his gaze back to the guards. "I told you to stop doing that." he repeated, his voice dropping several degrees. "If you don't take your hands off them this moment, I'll remove your hands for you." Ashino was actually surprised at how angry he was getting... unfamiliar instincts were rising within him at the sight of five pretty girls being mistreated. He'd never really noticed girls much before. Oh sure, he'd gone through puberty and he knew about sex as much as anyone... being surrounded by biologists and doctors made getting access to instructional videos and texts quite easy. But he'd never been attracted to one. Never been anywhere close to in love. He wasn't sure he could love... it wasn't an emotion the Doc had much use for and so the BCPU's did not have much use for it either. The closest thing Ashino had was a great warm feeling of respect for the Doc... and a similar feeling for the deceased Shani Andras, his former best friend. In any case, despite being around girls, some quite physically attractive... BCPU's tended to be easy on the eyes... he'd never felt like this. He wanted to stop the guards from molesting these girls... even though they were strangers. It wasn't right for the guards to do that. He wanted to stop them. It would make him feel good, he felt sure. He didn't feel good all that often.
"And I told you to leave this secure area and return to your cell. You ignored me as well. Ignorance has a price, foolish Ashino. I'd thought you'd learned that before. Now I can see additional lessons are required. Starting with this." Angela carefully stalked over to him and sprayed his face thoroughly down with the pepper spray... enough to convince a bear to back down and go away. A human should have been doubled up on the ground wailing in agony as the chemicals seared his eyes and sinuses. Ashino merely blinked a few times and sneezed once... he didn't even tear up. BCPU 4's had fewer weak spots that BCPU 3's... something as simple as pepper spray didn't bother his enhanced physiology much at all. It required chemical warfare agents to really hurt him. He looked up at Angela, irritation plain on his face.
Without further consideration his arm snaked out and grabbed her by the wrist. With a twin cracking noise his grip crushed her wrist bones as he twisted her arm down and away from her body. She dropped the can as he face went white. She started to scream in pain but he thrust a knee into her lower abdomen and knocked all the breath out of her before she could do more than drawn in her chest. She made a strangled gasp and sank to her knees. Unwilling to prolong the distasteful activity... he may not have been prevented from hitting her, but he didn't like it... Ashino chopped her on the back of the neck, rendering her unconscious almost instantly. The guards had looked up from the moment her wrist had cracked. Their expressions were mingled fear and anger.
"Damn you, you little bastard. How dare you lay hands on a woman like that? You're just a BCPU... how could you hurt a human?" the senior guard snarled, taking his hands off Miriallia's chest and starting to bring his sub machine gun around. The other guards did likewise... reluctantly in the case of the guards of Cagalli and Lacus, those two guards had been enjoying themselves quite a bit, having been the ones to come up with the idea in the first place.
"Don't even think about it." Ashino warned the guards. "I'm not Frost. But I won't hesitate to fight back if you try to hurt me. Or continue to molest those five girls."
"What... does the computer terminal want some of the action?" one of the younger guards snickered. "Why don't you just go download some videos? Jack yourself into the base system and jack off somewhere else... the selection ain't half bad here. But you ain't welcome here, module man. These here are girls. G... I... R... L... S. Human girls. For human consmption only, not bio-freaks. Go get yourslf an electron date or whatever it is you things do." the rest of the guards chuckled with enjoyment at the cutting insults. Or at least they thought they were cutting. They might have provoked Cray into a height of rage. But Ashino just let them pass... the guards did not understand what he was... a human sacrificed to technology in order to preserve the human race. He wasn't less than human or more than human... he was outside humanity.
"My reasons are my own. I request again, remove your hands from the girls, step away and preferrably, leave this room." Ashino replied, voice level. He walked forward a few paces until he was standing only a few feet from the guards. He kept his posture non threatening... if the guards opened up with their guns there was no telling who they might shoot by accident.
"And if we don't?" the senior guard asked, hand on the grip of his gun, finger beginning to curl around the trigger. Ashino didn't bother replying... it was self evident. He crossed the distance between him and the guard before the man could fully bring the gun to bear. Being short, at only 157 cm (5' 2"), Ashino was able to get well inside the reach of the bigger man. He blocked the gun as it started to turn towards him and grabbed the guard by his ballistic vest so the man could not back away. With a quick twist and pull the gun was in Ashino's hands and the guard was groaning over the compound fracture newly acquired in his forearm. With exclamations of surprise and anger the other four guards jerked out their weapons and brought them in line with Ashino and the guard. "Don't shoot, you morons!" the senior guard yelled. "I'm in the line of..." the other four guards started blasting away.
Ashino grimaced as the girls screamed as a gun battle broke out just behind them and only a few inches above their head level... they were powerless to escape too, being chained to their chairs. Ashino rotated the guard so he was fully between the guns and Ashino... the bigger man made an effective if messy shield... the ballistic vest was not designed to resist concentrated fire from multiple automatic weapons at close range. A slurry of shots blew the senior guards brain out through his face and the corpse started to drop. Ashino drew the corpse's knife as it slid towards the ground and then kicked the inert mass of flesh directly at the guards.
Ashino wasn't nearly as strong as Cray or Frost... but he was far stronger than any normal human his size and the corpse only weighed about two hundred pounds... Ashino's kick propelled it like a game ball across the six or so feet to his assailants, knocking one of them down but more importantly providing valuable moving cover for Ashino to use to get closer. He dived left and rolled, drawing fire away from the girls. As bullets chewed down all around him and ricocheted from the stone walls of the interrogation room, Ashino calmly lined up his shots. It was much safer for him to be shooting in the direction of the girls, even though the guards were standing right next to and amongst them... Ashino was trained to shoot better than just point and spray. He fired two controlled bursts, three rounds each. Two guards dropped, heads and necks full of holes.
Gore splattered all over the place. Ashino ignored a casual graze along his cheek and another along his side... the guards were so panicked that the hits were nothing but luck. With a practiced flip of his hand he palmed the knife and threw it underhand with a slight spin. The flash of the blade in the dim light distracted the guards for a bare instant... natural reflex causing them to glance at the source of brightness and duck away from the softly thrown blade. One went low, that one had barely regained his feet from being knocked down by the corpse, the other went back, both still keeping triggers firmly depressed and not giving a damn about where they were aiming. Ashino estimated they'd be out of bullets in another second and a half... far too long a time... they were sure to hit one of the girls by mistake unless he brought them both down before the next second was over. His enhanced glands pumped raw adrenaline into his system and time seemed to stretch out. His mind felt on fire with all the signals it was processing... it was just like a rousing training session.
Ashino took aim again... this time the single shot struck the knife in mid rotation, impacting directly on the middle of the handle butt, imparting almost all of its forward kinetic force. The knife shot forward and buried itself point first in the jugular of the guard who'd been backing up. Ashino blinked... he'd only been trying for the shoulder... he'd done better than expected. A wash of crimson jetted out... all over the girls, who were still shrieking from the beginning of the fight. Ashino had rolled to the side and was lying on his back before the first drop of vital fluid left the veins of the guards neck. The last guard looked down at him from a crouched position about five feet away, back to Lacus's chair. Ashino did not pause, he fired two quick shots, taking out the left knee and ankle of the guard, causing him to drop to the left. He switched to burst fire again and drilled three rounds through the smae half inch wide target point between the eyes of the guard as he fell. Brains exploded everywhere and bits of skull clattered on the floor.
The guard with the knife in his throat finally hit the ground, gun firing its last few rounds ineffectually into the far wall. From first shot fired to last droplet of blood splashing onto Lacus's forehead... the fight had lasted six and three quarters seconds. More than ninety bullets had been fired... mostly by the guards. Ashino had been grazed twice by bouncing bullets but was otherwise unharmed and his uniform unsoiled... he'd avoided all the flying gore as well as the inaccurate fire. All the guards were dead. No girl had taken a single wound, though they were covered in the blood of their guards... and bits of internal organs too, though he had tried not to get them too dirty. Ashino was forced to admit that it was a reasonably successful operation... a 3.2 out of 4, maybe. Not his best. He felt himself start to hyperventilate as he came down off the adrenaline rush. He forced himself to take slow deep breaths to calm himself. He casually dropped the gun and paced over to the door, shutting it firmly. Now what was he going to do?
Cagalli couldn't stifle the scream that erupted from her as the gunfire erupted from what sounded and even felt like was no more than inches from the back of her head. She was almost sure she could feel her hair being parted by the lead flying through the air. She tried to duck her head forward but it was hard to move coherently with both arms and legs chained and immobile. It didn't help that she was totally out of whack... still woozy from the hit on the head, scared pissless at the prospect of torture, pissed as hell about the guard pawing his hands all over her, afraid for her friends and especially Athrun, who was likely trapped somewhere else in this nightmare place, probably being tortured as well... she was sure Athrun ZALA would not be popular around here... even less than other Coordinators. And completely flat footed about this short red headed guy in an unremarkable Earth Alliance uniform who had just walked through the door out of nowhere and demanded the guards stop molesting them.
The guards had been less than willing to listen and Miss Angela... the psycho torturer bitch... was positively inflamed by the short guy's appearance and apparent arrogance. She'd tried to hose him down with pepper spray... a nasty self defense weapon if there ever was one... when he refused to be browbeaten by harsh words. Admittedly it had rather less effect than Cagalli had feared... she'd caught a wiff of the police stuff before and it had made her weep for an hour... that much concentrated spray could do permanent harm, even cause blindness or death. But the short and rather plain looking red head just shrugged it off like morning mist. And then broke Angela's wrist like a twig, kneed her in the gut hard enough to burst a kidney or so it looked and mercilessly rendered her unconscious with a neck chop. All so fast the dropped can of spray hit the floor roughly the same time Angela did. His speed was incredible... not the fastest she'd seen... Athrun could move like that when he needed to, and so could Kira. But faster than any normal human... any natural... had any business moving. Not as fast as Frost moved. But in that same ballpark.
Cagalli hadn't been able to make much of the taunting the guards gave the short red head... she hadn't caught his name, but the insults she heard made her blood boil... largely because she was being talked about like a posession but also for the disregard for the feelings of the red head. The soldiers were treating him like an object... like less than human. Less even than a Coordinator. But the red head hadn't even frowned... he'd just repeated his order for the guards to leave the girls alone... a request Cagalli agreed with wholeheartedly... she'd had more than enough of being groped... the soldier was so pathetically eager to touch her he was getting in his own way... he couldn't figure out where to go first and so hadn't gone nearly as far as he'd wanted to. Which was perfectly acceptable to her... she frankly didn't want anyone's hands on her but Athrun's right now.
The guards had started acting tough... even Cagalli could see they were intimidated as hell by the red head. The big soldier had tried to pull his gun and the red head had broken his arm for it... incidentally ending up with the gun. The other guards had ceased their harassment and opened fire... right next to her. A guard stood directly to her right, using her as cover for his lower half as he blazed away just above her head. Another guard was behind her and similarly blazing away... a frightful waste of ammunition and almost impossible to aim, an analytical part of her mind not connected to the fright centers told her reasonably. Kisaka would be shaking his head at her if she ever shot so terribly. Lacus and Mir and Chanel and Katie were all screaming just like Cagalli was... though Chanel and Katie were also looking around and watching their red headed rescuer like Cagalli was. Or trying to anyway.
Red head had pulled the big guard into the path of fire and was using him like a shield... the other guards mowed down their protesting friend like a rabid dog, blowing his head off and riddling his back with bullet holes. Then the corpse came flying at her... one limp arm slapping against her bare leg, the guard to her right falling over, tripped by a dead leg. Red head followed the corpse closely, his own gun firing in short controlled bursts that left a red rain sprinkling through the air as two guards fell back, neatly clustered holes in their faces and necks. Red head moved out of sight behind her... from how the guards turned the red head was firing in Cagalli's direction now while the guards were shooting away from her. She tried to turn her head to look but wasn't fast enough... she didn't like the idea of a stranger shooting in her general direction, even if he did seem to be a good shot. But such thoughts were interrupted by the flash of the knife slowly twirling through the air. Cagalli fancied she could see her reflection in the silvery blade for an instant.
A guard blundered past her, sub gun yammering away, hot ejected brass slipping down the front of her dress after spinning from the firing breech. She opened her mouth to cry out in shock and caught a huge mouthful of arterial blood as the knife was shot out of the air and into the guard's neck. Gasping and choking on the vile coppery stuff, Cagalli still managed to catch a glimpse of the last guard falling to her left, leg blown to shreds... she turned just in time to feel a deformed bullet whisper past her cheek on the way out through the back of his head, followed shortly thereafter by yet more gore and even, grossest of grossities, fragments of brain which slopped wetly onto her forehead and neck. She found herself speechless... mouth still partially filled with arterial spray, face covered in the cranial gore of a fellow human, hot brass too warm against the skin of her stomach, gunfire echoes blocking out all sound... it was a bit much, coupled with the strain of captivity, the disgusting memory of hands on her chest and the general confusion of the last few weeks. She didn't exactly faint but she did grey out for a few seconds. When she came back to herself the red head had discarded his weapon and had shut the door to the interrogation room he'd kicked open less than two minutes before.
"I apologize for that." the red head said, still facing the door. "I didn't want to kill anyone. But they forced my hand."
"Umm... I forgive you?" Katie said cautiously, trying to wriggle her way into a more comfortable position in the hard metal chair she was cuffed to. She was also trying to cross her legs to cover herself, with a notable lack of success. Now that the bullets had stopped flying Chanel was similarly engaged... also unsucessfully due to how she was secured to the chair. Neither girl was bothered by public nudity... clothes or no clothes were good with them, but despite that they didn't like being naked in this place, this unwholesome place. It made them feel very vulnerable... brought back bad memories of a time before Alkire and Raine and TEMPEST and Ysak... something they hadn't felt in several years and they did not like one little bit.
"I wasn't speaking to you." the red head replied, turning around and moving back towards them. Cagalli found herself grinning slightly... the guy was just so short. Cagalli wasn't by any means tall... only five foot five. She was taller than both Lacus and Miriallia by about an inch and was shorter than Chanel and Katie by about two inches. But the red head was a good two inches shorter than Lacus. He looked like an overgrown child... well, until you took into account his very well developed musculature and hard eyes. This guy was built... Athrun had lots of muscles... nice muscles, with pecs and a good six pack... but this guy looked like he lifted big weights for fun. His arms bulged his sleeves and his legs did likewise for his pants, while his chest shoved out a good inch past his chin. The muscles were not out of proportion to his size... but they were definitely visible. And his eyes... a jungle green, like a rainforest, framed by his pale skin and cherry red hair which was styled short and slightly curly... he wasn't actually all that bad looking. Cagalli shook her head. She had a fiancee... was happily married in all but name. She shouldn't be appraising other guys. But it was hard not to... this guy had just saved her from a fate she didn't want to think about... it would be unnatural not to feel grateful. And he had made it look pretty easy too.
"Then who were you speaking to?" Chanel asked as the red head stopped about three feet away, leaning casually on the steel table which still held Angela's briefcase.
"The walls here have ears. Someone is always listening. And watching too, for that matter. I was specifically speaking to the Doc, who is no doubt observing us remotely right now." the red head replied almost nonchalantly. He gazed at them, letting his eyes wander across them, apparaising them like fine paintings or statues in a museum. Cagalli watched him carefully, eyeing him back as he eyed her... he just seemed to be looking at her, not lewdly, his eyes spending as much time or more on her face as the rest of her. He was similarly detached when looking at Chanel and Katie... so much so that they might have actually found it insulting in less stressful times. He did not stare at them, but neither did he look away from them. It was like he did not even recognize they were naked.
"Oh, great... so some sicko was just watching all that go on merrily. These Blue Cosmos guys are so screwed up." Miriallia muttered angrily. The red head glared at her, his face turning markedly less friendly.
"He's not some sicko... he's the Doc. You don't know him but I'll thank you to keep such an opinion to yourself... the Doc allowed me to come here and therefore indirectly is responsible for me saving you. Gratitude isn't something I'm familiar with, but I'm reasonably certain something of the sort is common in these situations." the red head told them frankly. He paused a moment as if considering. "Of course, the Doc is also the one who ordered you to be interrogated in the first place, he assigned Miss Angela personally, I'd imagine. So he is also to blame and that usually provokes anger and hatred from you humans."
"You say you humans as if you aren't one." Lacus noted, flicking her head to keep some red fluid from oozing into her eye. She hadn't got as coated as Cagalli had but she was currently covered pretty well with fluids that belonged in a living being, not on her. She tried not to think about it... she wasn't a vegetarian or anything but the sight of all the red meat lying around was making her sick. The red headed boy... he wasn't much older than her, if even as old... turned to look at her. His expression did not change even a little as he shrugged. Lacus found it disconcerting... usually she could get some feel for a person just by looking at them... she'd known Kira was a gentle and trustworthy person from the moment she'd laid eyes on him... the same for Captain Ramius. She'd been able to glean that Alkire was trustworthy too... a good man, if misguided in her opinion.
She could also tell bad people when she saw them... people like Cervantes Zunnichi, mad for power and filled with hatred. She'd gotten mixed feelings from Sai... anger, love, confusion, growing impatience... but he was also basically a good person... just mixed up right now. It wasn't quite a sixth sense... she couldn't direct it around and often did not even realize she was getting an impression of someone... but it was usually very accurate. But she wasn't getting anything at all from the red head... it was like he really wasn't a person, impossible as that was. Lacus noted that Chanel and Katie also looked a bit discomfited, as if they too were missing some nonverbal cue about the boy that was ordinarily there, only noticable in its absence. Cagalli and Miriallia were the same as usual... Cagalli feeling obviously aggressive, masking her fear well, Miriallia doing less well at masking but still staying in the game.
"Lacus Clyne, you are not a human either. You are a Coordinator. Don't you feel different? Detached from human concerns?" the red head asked. Lacus was so shocked she couldn't figure out what to do for a moment. Then she started laughing... she didn't mean to but it was just so funny. The guy sounded like he expected her to admit to not feeling human emotions or something. Like he expected her to be some sort of alien in human form with no connection to her friends besides physical appearance. The red head tightened his lips slightly but did not get angry at her for laughing at him... she felt more than a little guilty... she'd heard the horrible things the soldiers had called him. He must be very used to being verbally abused like that, because he hadn't shown any reaction at all... though Lacus was sure he'd been hurt deeply... she would have been in his place. No one liked being treated like property or an inanimate object.
"I'm sorry for laughing. But that is just not true. Just because I am a Coordinator does not mean I am not also human. The only thing that makes me different from Miriallia or Cagalli or Chanel or Katie is that my parents had my genes tinkered with while I was in the womb and my mother followed a stricter diet than normal during her pregnancy. Other than that we're all still flesh and blood, memories and mind, soul and personality... just like everyone." Lacus told him. She paused a moment. "By the way, could I ask you your name? I'd like to thank you for attempting to restrain the guards from their... advances."
Ashino studied the pink haired Coordinator girl. She was beautiful, he supposed. Certainly more physically attractive than the BCPU girls. Even covered with foriegn gore, chained to a chair and clad in a abused evening gown, he felt attracted to her... almost a subconscious effect. It wasn't sexual in nature... his body was not responding... but his emotions were. He liked her. He didn't know why, but he did. She was trustworthy and kind and gentle... he knew it without knowing why. "It was nothing. Men should not behave in such a manner towards girls. It is not nice. And my name is Markov Ashino. Everyone calls me Ashino."
"Pleased to meet you Ashino." Lacus said politely. She almost started laughing again... the situation was so fantasticly ludicrous she could barely make sense of anything at all. Here she was, a famous Coordinator, captured by Blue Cosmos, slated for torture, chained to a chair, half dead from exhaustion with no idea where her friends were or if they were safe, covered in blood and bits of organ stuff...and she was exchanging polite greetings with someone who was in all likelyhood an enemy. The strange nature of the world sometimes defied her mind's capabilities to reason it out. "My name is Lacus Clyne. Do you also know my friends?"
"I know Cagalli Yula Attha." Ashino nodded at the blond with the lioness brown eyes. He looked at the other three girls and quirked an eyebrow.
"Miriallia Haw." Mir said in a near whisper.
"Chanel Belaruse, pleased..." Chanel started.
"Katie Belaruse... to meet ya." Katie finished. Ashino flicked his eyes back and forth between them as they spoke, he was amused by how they spoke in sequence. He supposed that some people would have trouble telling them apart... they were nearly identical in physical appearance. But his enhanced senses picked out small clues... variations in sweat smell and breathing patterns that let him tell them apart with ease.
"Likewise." Ashino replied and lapsed into silence. Now what? He'd come here to beat Frost to the punch and do a little investigating... but now he was here and he had no idea what to ask about. He needed to think of something quick or the Doc would cease to be amused and would have him removed.
"Hey... hey Ashino... I don't suppose you could be bothered to give us some clothes?" Chanel asked hopefully. "I mean... it's nice that you aren't staring... a little odd actually... but I'd feel a whole lot better if I wasn't sitting around open for eye candy business for the next guy who walks in the door." Ashino looked up, brought out of his reverie... he hadn't thought of that. Clothing wasn't important to him... he didn't really get cold or hot and physical discomfort from weather was far beneath his notice. He looked around... the guard's clothing was all pretty ruined... and filthy even before that. Personal hygiene was not common amongst the grunts of Blue Cosmos. He shrugged and removed his uniform shirt and undershirt. The cloth caught for a moment on the graze on his side, briefly reopening the wound before blood coagulant dispensors in his bloodstream kicked in and clotted it back up... a process which took less than two seconds. He noticed the girls shooting each other amazed glances and felt absurdly proud of his augmentation... like it wasn't something every BCPU 4 and above had. He walked over to Chanel and Katie and contemplated them.
"Yeah... we can't get dressed with our legs and hands chained to the chair." Katie pointed out cheerfully. "You can't even dress us for us either... not without tearing the clothes up and making them useless. And frankly that would make the gesture rather pointless, eh?"
"I suppose there is no harm in it... there's little chance you could overpower me in your current condition, five of you or not. And there is nowhere for you to go... Frost is prowling around outside the cell block area." Ashino told them casually. The girls jumped, every one of them, at the mention of Frost's name. They feared the BCPU 6. Ashino did not blame them at all. He studied the handcuffs... the guards had the keys probably but he could sense the Doc's faraway frustration at the lack of interesting topics... he had minutes at best to get them talking before Frost was let in or something equally bad happened. Without further ado he grasped Chanel's ankle cuffs as he bent down to get better leverage. He closed his eyes politely... he was head level with her lower waist. She snorted slightly but said nothing... Ashino almost felt embarassed. He resolved the situation by crushing the cuffs and snapping the chains off with two quick jerks. His hands hurt slightly but it was nothing he couldn't tolerate. He repeated the drill until all the girls were free of their restraints.
"I was going to try and make a break for it... Frost or no Frost... but not after you just snapped a pair of steel cuffs right in front of my eyes... you're pretty damned strong." Cagalli commented. Ashino grunted noncommittally. "Don't brush it off like it was nothing... you're a pretty special guy, you know?" Cagalli admonished him as she wrung circulation back into her hands and legs. "I'm not saying I like you or anything... but you don't need to act tough to impress me... I'm already pretty impressed."
"I'm sorry if you got the impression I was being modest." Ashino replied, circling back around to lean against the table once more. "It is merely that I am used to doing things like that... and seeing my peers do similar things as well. Cray can snap a five inch thick oak block in his hands and Frost has put his hand through a brick wall on several occasions... merely breaking apart some cheap steel handcuffs by utilizing leverage isn't all that big a feat." He paused a few moments, digesting her comments. "What do you mean by special?"
"You are the first nice guy we've met here. That's damned special in and of itself." Miriallia put in. "You haven't tried to hurt us or yell at us or threaten us... even though I'm sure you could if you wanted to."
"Yeah... and you took out the guards who were... well you know what they were doing. And you did it without even breaking stride... or a sweat. I'm not entirely sure who you are..." Katie said.
"... Or what you've been turned into by Blue Cosmos, but so far you've got serious positive points in my book." Chanel finished. She slipped on the white undershirt... it barely reached her waist even as it hung in very loose folds everywhere else... not the best fit by any means but at least it didn't look like she was wearing a short jacket, like Katie did... arms protruding six inches from the sleeves, sleeves so baggy they looked like they belonged on a kimono, body swallowed up inside the jacket which ended two inches above her waist. Katie was busy winding her wrung out evening dress around her hips as a sort of makeshift skirt... Chanel started to do similarly.
"That raises another question... besides the moral reason... that it was wrong... why did you stop the guards from touching us?" Cagalli asked. Ashino did not answer immediately. Instead he reached into his pants rear pocket and withdrew a slim notebook bound in white dyed leather. He jotted a few things down in the notebook before looking over at her.
"I wanted to talk to you. And I didn't think you'd be able to answer well enough to satisfy my curiosity while dealing with the guards attentions." Ashino replied, looking back down at the scrawled note. He had reminded himself to consider the moral reasons for his action today... it would be a good thing to meditate on.
"What did you want to talk about?" Lacus enquired. Ashino turned his gaze to her, his face as blank as it had been the entire time.
"Love." he replied, very seriously. Miriallia stifled a giggle of shock and Chanel and Katie exchanged glances.
"You're in love?" Lacus asked. "That's wonderful. Umm... we're all taken though."
"You misunderstand. I seek to understand love... how the love you hold for the pilots of those mobile suits makes them into the people they are. And how their love back makes you into the people you are. I understand the physical attraction... but there is something more to this love phenomenon that I just do not understand... I don't have the words for it precisely... but mainly the question is... WHY? Why do you act the way you do... why do you love... how... when, where and what does it mean? Can you explain to me?" Ashino answered.
"That's a hell of a topic... why do you want to know?" Cagalli asked.
"So I can understand better the men who have fought with Frost... the men who are my enemies and who I have fought. The men I may kill. And so I can understand you... the driving force behind those men. Or one of them, anyway."
"Uhm... yeah. You see, I'm grateful for you saving us and all... but I'm not telling you a damn thing that will help you kill Dearka." Miriallia told him very firmly. She thought for a moment. "That's one side of the love thing... you don't betray those you care about... not for anything."
"I don't want details about the pilots... I've read the files on them that we have and they have plenty of detailed information on the pilots. I want to know what they're like as people. Why do you love Dearka? Or why does Lacus love Kira... or Cagalli, Athrun? Why? How? Is this love the factor that makes them such undefeatable foes or is it something else intrinsic to them?" Ashino assured them.
"You really don't know what love means?" Chanel asked, voice slightly sad.
"That is terrible... whoever raised you needs to recieve a good beatdown for mistreating you like that." Katie added. "What the hell did your parents do to you when you were a kid? Did they beat you and lock you up or something? I spent a great deal of my younger life in captivity... but I still know what love is. What was done to you... I can't imagine that you have no concept of love."
"I don't remember my parents. I don't have any family that I'm aware of. I suppose you could call the Doc my "father"... though it'd be more accurate to call me his "son". Frost and Cray could be my siblings... as could the rest of the BCPU's here at this base. I was raised from a young age... six or so, I think, by the Doc and the scientists here. I learned how to kill and hurt and fly machines. I was tested to my physical limits and beyond them too. I underwent trials the details of which I cannot remember, more than that they were extremely unpleasant. I endured multiple full open body surgeries... you ask what was done to me... I cannot tell you, because so much has. I survived, I grew, learned and I moved on... eventually becoming what I am today."
"Who you are today." Lacus corrected him, noticing how even he referred to himself as a thing not a person. "And who are you today?"
"I'm BCPU 4, designation number 74R. Label of preference is Ashino... full name is Markov Johanavich Ashino. Age... unknown... place of birth... unknown... family... unknown... blood type... classified... Interface Unit... the Bane." Ashino rattled off, the oft repeated phrase automaticly spilling from his lips. It wasn't all that hard to remember... his name, his type, his number and the Bane... everything else was unknown or classified.
"What's a BCPU?" Miriallia asked. "And what's the four mean?"
"Biological Central Processing Unit, level 4. I am the control module for the X-3 series GAT mobile suit Bane. I perform the same duties as a standard pilot... but due to my augmentic and biological enhancements, I am more than equal to any Coordinator ever born. I am chemically dependent upon the drug Gamma Glipheptim, which is released into my blood in constant slow doses by internal medical units which must be refueled once per month... without this drug my reactions are slowed, my stamina decreased and I am wracked by terrible spasms of pain until I either recieve more or am injected with the temporary antidote, which staves off withdrawal symptoms for sixteen hours. I am superior in performace specifications to the BCPU level 2 and 3 units and inferior in physical and reflexive specifications to Craydon Louis Thresher, number 31D, BCPU 5 and to Zacharis Quentin Frost, number 13z, BCPU 6. I prefer to think myself saner and more mentally sound than the 5 and 6... but my opinion has little weight and such things are of minor consideration to my handlers and superiors." Ashino explained, his voice bored. He'd had this whole dogma mashed into his brain ever since he first got to the project... it was a part of his personality now... the relative status of him to his peers, the realities of his situation... it was an immutable fact. The expressions on the faces of the girls were horrified but he didn't feel unhappy with his lot in life... it was his lot and he knew nothing else.
"They treat you like you're just a piece of equipment? That's terrible!" Cagalli told him. Ashino shrugged.
"I am just a piece of equipment. Untold tens of millions of dollars have been sunk into my enhancements and training. I have no life outside of war... no home besides my cell here, no family, no loved ones, no friends, few desires... and absolutely nowhere better to go."
"You are a person. You should never let anyone tell you anything to the contrary because it just isn't true. You live, you breath, you talk, you think, you feel pain... you're a human being." Lacus told him, eyes tearing a little in her sympathy for this tormented boy in front of her... a boy so abused he didn't even know it any more.
"Is it this endless optimism that attracts Kira to you?" Ashino suddenly changed tacks, going back to his original question.
"Uhm... I don't precisely know." Lacus replied, off guard. "I know he appreciates having someone always looking on the bright side of things... he gets depressed quite often because of the choices he's had to make and well... I don't want to make more of it than it is... but I'm the only one who can cheer him up again really, when that happens. I don't know exactly why Kira is attracted to me... its not from any one thing, but rather a multitude, I'd say." Ashino nodded, though he didn't understand at all. He looked at the other girls in turn, quirking an eyebrow as he did so.
"And why are your lovers attracted to you?"
"Well, you see..." Cagalli started to reply.
"Ashino... this has gone on long enough... you've been quite informative. But now is not the time for this. You'll have plenty of time to talk to them once they've been inducted into the program." a voice crackled from hidden speakers. The voice sounded slightly weary but wasn't unkind. It was the voice of an older man... a businessman or a office worker of some means, talking to his kids after getting home from work sort of voice.
"Aye aye, Doc." Ashino replied. "What do you want me to do?"
"That's the Doc? He doesn't sound like a mad scientist." Katie whispered to Chanel.
"There is good reason for that... I am not a mad scientist. I am merely a visionary who's vision has been rejected by the people in the light and so must preach from the darkness." the Doc replied, lips curling in a slight smile as he watched the girls jump on the camera screen... clearly they had underestimated the quality of his listening devices. He noted the twins sharing significant looks and head nods... clearly communicating in some form of private code... or perhaps something more. Much like Dr. Prayce had, he'd instantly noted the twins talking style... he'd been involved with projects studying the phenomenon before... just maybe, maybe it was something more than a private code. If that was the case then he was fortunate indeed... such a thing was so rare as to render pricelessness an inadequate adjective. "As for you, Ashino, I want you to come down to the lab. We need to have a talk about your actions."
"Aye aye, Doc." Ashino agreed. He turned and headed for the door and paused just before going out. "What about the captives? With Frost still outside it is not safe for me to open the door."
"Maybe I want Frost to kill them."
"You want them for the project, you said so not a minute ago."
"So I did... good to see you listening. Frost has been taken care of... you needn't concern yourself for the girls... though your chivalry is noted."
"I wasn't concerned for them... beyond their ability to talk they hold no interest for me." Ashino replied... not completely the truth but not a lie either. He wanted to talk to them a great deal more... preferably while they were still themselves.
"Of course. I should have known that desires have no place in your mind... after all, I'm the one that burned them out of you in the first place. They will be returned to their cells. Unharmed, if they cooperate."
"And if we don't?" Chanel challenged.
"Then you will be returned to Cray Thresher's cell, unconscious... an unenviable situation for any female, let me assure you. I want you all for my project... but not so much I cannot afford to make an example of a few of you."
"I'll cooperate... it doesn't seem like we have any choice in the matter." Lacus said with a sigh. She turned to Ashino and bowed politely. "Thank you very much for saving us. I'll remember your good deed and kind nature, even if we never meet again."
"As you will." Ashino replied, face neutral as always. He walked out of the door without a single look back, his stride unconcerned, his posture relaxed. It wasn't more then three seconds before a tide of guards poured through the door, as if to fill the gap he'd left in the room. Staring down into the muzzles of ten machine guns, the girls dejectedly lifted their hands and resigned themselves to returning to their disgusting cells.