A Certain Unusual Incident and Occult Coalition
Log 2 - Live in the Light
2 July, 2022/2 July, 2012.
Academy City Exploration
"Now, here's a fun part. The UN is all gung-ho and devoted to their task of protecting the planet. The Skippers die in the dark for us, and where do we fit in? The cleanup crew, and the little guy who is looked down upon. Don't get me wrong, I like it that way, but I just wish we had our time to shine. Maybe someday."
- FBI UIU HRT Officer in 3Ports, 2022.
FBI UIU SWAT Operator 'Lead' - Unknown Location, Japan...?
The team had finally found a lead on the cultists they had conducted a raid on. A quite literal paper trail, even. All it took was them following the trail - somehow left behind carelessly - and using it to track the other ten cultists who escaped. The GOC team, meanwhile, was busy examining the city. Apparently based on the single guy who understood Japanese, this place had the name of "Academy City" - something which pointed towards an area akin to the Portlands, if only contained in one city. There was some speculation that this place would be a nexus, but that was unconfirmed, even by the GOC team.
The GOC team mentioned on radio that they'd love to get a history book of this free port. And that D.C. al Fine would have a field day. The GOC guys went on back-and-forth about how to deal with this potential free port, or Way, or Nexus. They settled on "lobby D.C. al Fine to keep this area under FBI control" as it would yield research results. And because the FBI was already competent with 3Ports, so watching over 'Academy City' would be simple. That being said, they did mention that D.C. al Fine would probably station UN troops with the UIU.
Though, they were acting on limited information. Same with Lead.
They did find more paper leading them on the right track, though, so that was good. The city continued its trend of lifeless brightness as the team continued on.
"Team Red, found anything else?" Lead asked, shining his weaponlight at another paper trail. "Reynolds, Girard. You got anything?" Lead repeated, addressing Team Red.
"Nothing else out of the ordinary, Lead." Girard responded. "Just more city shit." He clarified.
Lead sighed.
"Another day of being UIU-seless." Fields of Team Blue responded. "At least the GOC fucks have something better do. Like, I dunno, shooting shit?"
"Most likely burning down children just because they can turn water into wine." Jackson - also of Team Blue - added a response onto Fields' question. "I mean, it's in the United Nations modus operandi to kill everything that they can identify as a threat. They'd probably go after some kid who mutated their parents rather than a mobile winemaker."
"Think Jesus would just be recruited into the kitchen corps of the GOC?"
"Maybe? I'm not so sure if they'd be able to keep him contained or just keep him around at all. Given that he's probably some form of reality warper."
"Ap-ap, the Skippers say that. We're the UIU-seless. We say 'Can men' instead, Fields."
"Right. And what do the GOC call 'em again?"
"Type... Blues?"
Fields took a moment to remember, but he shook his head.
"Nah. Type-Greens."
"Fuck. Almost got that right."
Lead sighed and turned to the two policemen of Team Blue. "Can it," Lead opened up, putting his hand up and motioning 'silence' with his index finger. "We're here to find a paper trail. Simple. Save the chitchat for other times." He turned around and continued following the trail of runes.
Team Blue both cut their conversation short. Team Red's Reynolds, meanwhile, reportedly came across an alleyway of specific interest.
"Hey, Lead. I found something here," He crouched down and called for Lead by making a hand motion. "Take a look."
When Lead crouched and took a look at what he was pointing out, it was a slight stain of blood on the alleyway right next to a gap where the rune trails stopped then continued.
"They might have taken someone," Lead concluded. "Not dead, most likely taken hostage. Otherwise, there'd be a blood stain." He added, turning his head to the trail. Choosing to call it in now rather than immediately dial UIU HRT, he chose to inform the GOC team so that they would be prepared for hostage rescue. Not complete termination.
He only knew this was a hostage situation because he's seen the modus operandi of most Can men armed with guns over in San Fran. Usually, if they take a hostage, they care not for cover but for leverage. So sometimes they only lightly harm the hostage.
That doesn't rule out a post-hostage execution either, unfortunately for Lead. But still, he had hope in his heart that the Hostage would be spared. Even if he's seen proof otherwise.
"ST-1509, we've got a situation here," Lead shined a UV flashlight at the rune trail, which displayed an erratic blood trail that was small but noticeable enough for the light.
Lead squinted his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and knowing that he wasn't, spoke to the GOC team. "Blood trail accompanies Cart trail. Can men might have a hostage. Requesting we switch breaching procedure from termination to hostage rescue."
Lead heard Unity sigh through the radio. "How the hell did they manage to find a hostage if this place is as lifeless as Birmingham?" He grumbled. The Southern British accent he gave off was obvious. "Never mind that. Procedure addendum acknowledged. We're going to get the poor bastard out," He paused, then let out a forlorn sigh. "If we find him, that is."
"Blood looks to be fresh," Reynolds added. "We've probably still got time. Let's go." He stood up and picked up the pace by walking at a fast pace. Lead followed him. And so did the rest of the UIU SWAT team.
Strike Team 1509 served as the rear guard, by constantly looking out for anomalies following them. While the UIU team served as the Vanguard, sweeping their forward area.
The journey went on without so much as a bump in the road or one of the team members being killed. Unless this was a kill-and-replace situation, then it showed just how empty the city was at this time of day.
"Unity, got anything on the rear end?" Lead asked, sweeping the area with his gun light. Unity, for his part, shook his head and turned his head to Lead.
"Nah, ain't got nothin' here," He notes, putting his weapon down. "Nothing's following us. Yet." The team put their guns down and turned facing forward alongside the UIU team.
"Righto," Lead responded. "Continuing."
The team eventually put their weapons down and opted for a more relaxed stance on following the trail, especially since nothing had been following. If something did have the intention of following the team, then it was very slow. In fact, Lead might have insulted it a lot more. Unity? Maybe, but he'd most likely stab it until it's 200% dead. And if that didn't work, automatic gunfire.
He's British after all. Even if he had the trigger discipline of an American soldier.
While they were walking, Unity spotted something on the street while they were approaching a sidewalk leading to an alleyway. He took a look at it and squinted his eyes.
"Hey, uh, look," Unity spoke, turning his flashlight to look at a cylindrical tan-shaped object moving about with the sounds of a vacuum cleaner. "It's a Roomba." He snorted. Roombas were a rare sight for him, but to see them used as city infrastructure - at least, if only because they appeared to be there on purpose - was amusing to the Brit.
Lead turned his head the other way to see if there was anything like that. "Oh, cool." He said, pointing towards another one of the cylindrical objects with his weapon light. "Another Roomba. Just a lot taller." He deadpanned. "Might take one home."
"Think they've got anomalous powers since they're beyond a Skipper door?" Fields interjected just as the team entered another alley.
"Can it, Fields. Nobody's got an anomalous Roomba they're gonna toss at some FBI pen-pushers." Girard responded. "And besides, even if they did - why not use regular weapons instead of turning a goddamn Cleaning robot into a Cart?"
Fields shut up, but somehow that irritated Girard a lot more. That was mitigated under a few seconds by Girard focusing on something else, but still.
The trail ended at a door leading to a small, one-story building, with the teams taking a moment to stop and take a look at it. They had finally caught their guys. Lead's face wrinkled in anger as he readied his MCX. The rest of the team brought up their weapons, turning on their weapon lights. "We've finally found our trail's end." Girard mumbled, loading another can of paintballs into his paintball gun.
Lead turned his head to Unity, who nodded in affirmation. 'Let's go.' They thought at the same time.
Unity spoke first. "Kiryu," He began, referring to the Japanese SFG operator. "Val, Lars," This time, he referred to the two Americans from USFK. "And Lavrov," He ended with one of the Russian heavy weapons soldiers. "Guard the door. I'll take Knucklehead, Nikita, and Park." He gathered the remaining members of Strike Team 1509 while the rest shifted positions to cover both the forward and rear of the alleyway in an overwatch position.
When preparing to breach the door that the trail ended in, the UIU SWAT took the left portion of the doorway, while Strike Team 1509 took the right portion.
"Hey, UIU Lead," Unity spoke, shifting to an angle where he could fire at the door from the right portion. "Recommend you pick the lock on this one." He muttered, pointing his L85 at the door. "I'll cover you." He finished.
Lead nodded. "Acknowledged, Bluehelm," He responded, taking out a lockpicking kit. "Picking." He muttered, flipping open the kit. While he was busy picking the lock, the personnel of the UIU SWAT team and Strike Team 1509 made conversation while waiting. "So... you think the Hostage that our Lead over here mentioned is still alive?" Girard opened, fiddling with his weapon.
Nikita responded, lifting his PKM up. "My cynical side - based on experiences in FSB-P - assumes that he's dead by the time we get there." Much to the chagrin of Lead and Unity, this expectation was pretty much the standard when dealing with Can men. If they had hostages, they'd be most likely dead by the time the team gets to respond.
"You served in FSB-P?" Jackson asked. "I always expected them to stay loyal to Communism or themselves."
Nikita snorted. "Well you either adapt or die, and I adapted by going to the only organization that'd take my experiences in," He took one hand off his machine gun to point at the GOC Patch on his uniform. "The GOC was pretty much my only career option left," He continued. "And besides, they're the best at exterminating the abnormal. Just like some of us in FSB-P."
"Huh. I sort of expected that but also not." Jackson noted. Fields, meanwhile stated the opposite. "Thought you guys often sold your services to third-rates?"
Nikita laughed at that part.
Knucklehead, one of the ROKN operators, interjected.
"Well, I used to work in the KCIA's 10th Bureau, back when I wasn't in UDT." He shrugged. "Instead of joining the National Paranormal Emergency Service, I joined UDT/SEAL. Then I got offered a job to serve as a leased GOC operator, alongside my buddy," He pointed backwards to his comrade, Park. Full name Park Nang-ga. "Though he was formerly part of the DPRK's Revolutionary Extranormal Organization, or REO, before defecting to join the NPES and eventually went to UDT, then back to GOC."
"What, Kim has a fucking paranormal agency?" Reynolds interjected.
"Always had, sadly," Park commented. "Did I ever mention the fact that the... err, Foundation..." He paused with uncertainty, before shaking his head "Yeah, did you know that the Foundation keeps a mind-control tower in North Korea, that's only contained by them keeping the nation up?"
"So decades of nuke tension, hawkishness, and the goddamn Korean War..." Girards sighed in irritation. "All because the Skippers don't want some stupid tower to strip our free will?"
"Essentially." Park deadpanned.
"Goddamn Skippers."
"Agreed."
After that, Lead had successfully picked the lock and the door swung open. Unity's rifle and light filled the hallway immediately.
"Clear!" Unity shouted, moving into the area while Lead followed and repeated what Unity had said. "Hallway, clear!" He shouted, with Strike Team 1509 and the UIU following. Team Red made a swerve to a left-turning corner in the hallway with two doors. "Left Hallway, clear!"
Team Blue and Strike Team 1509 scanned a right-turning corner just a few meters away from the left-turning one. The corner came up mostly empty, with crates lining the narrow hallway. "Right Hallway, clear!" Park shouted.
Lead and Unity approached the Elevator that the hallway led to. Both turned to each other.
"Should we go in?" Lead asked, rifle ready.
"Let's do it." Unity responded, turning on his weapon flashlight. "Haven't terminated your 'Can men' in a while."
"You get used to dealing with them."
"Can't fault that."
Unity turned on his radio. "Strike Team 1509, hold your positions. I and the UIU leader will attempt to clear the basement by ourselves. If we do not come back at any time frame nor respond to any radio communications, consider us dead. If we are mentally compromised, send us a coded question. 'How fast is a swallow?' shall be the code. If we do not respond with 'European or American?' Consider us dead."
Unity received the cries of 'Affirmative' as confirmation that it was received. He tapped on the shoulder of Lead.
"Repeat to your team."
Lead nodded, and turned on his radio.
"Team, cover your areas. I and the GOC leader will be going into the basement. If we do not come back, consider us dead. If we're mentally compromised, ask 'How fast is a swallow?' should we report back, 'European or American?' shall be the affirmation that we are safe."
The UIU team responded with 'Roger' and 'Affirmative' following that.
"We ball." Unity spoke, hitting the call button with his rifle stock. Lead, unsurprisingly to anyone with knowledge of proper gun safety, was shocked in a 'disappointed look' way.
"...You do realize that might damage the button and the gun, right?"
Unity chuckled. "Yeah, but it's a carbon frame. Probably will give it a slight bruise."
"I trust your judgement, Bluehelm." Lead conceded, if not without grumbling.
"Same with you, UIU Lead."
When the elevator door opened, the two entered and immediately pressed the button for the only other location. The basement.
"Strike Team 1509, and UIU, be advised - We're heading into the basement now. We'll radio back. Make sure to ask the code question. Copy?" Unity spoke one more time.
"Got it, sir." Park spoke in the representation of the whole team.
The elevator closed and went down, bringing with it the two soldiers.
Hopefully, they had time to evac the hostage. Or hostages.
A Certain High School Student Kamijou Touma - Academy City
Touma's head flared in extreme pain as he woke up, with his eyes refusing to comply with his constant requests to open until he practically brute-forced them open.
'W-what the...'
It was only when a gun barrel stared at his eyes again did he remember what kind of situation he was in. It wasn't Index eating his food, it wasn't dealing with that Accelerator punk, it wasn't dealing with Biri-biri zapping his ass for days to come.
'Oh.'
Sweating was something that he'd have to deal with later. After all, getting cold sweats was somewhat of a minor problem when you have the barrel of multiple machine guns facing down on you.
"You!" One of the gunmen shouted, much to Touma's confusion. "Yes, you!" They repeated. Touma wished at this time that he could understand English, but refusing to use that translator app from the City's application store was what got him.
Touma, much to his surprise, found out that his arms weren't bound. In a normal situation, he would use this to his advantage and talk them down... But with them being armed with machine guns and Touma not understanding a lick of English, he simply opted to use his unbound hands to point at himself and ask the question.
"M-Me..?" He asked weakly, gun still facing him. Seemingly answering his question, the man dropped the machine gun and nodded. "Yes, you!" He responded, before grabbing his right hand. "You're finally awake! Our plans can come to fruition!" The man said, grabbing Touma and dragging him off.
Touma tried to get him off, but the man's grip appeared to be stronger than any regular human. Lamenting, he couldn't find any way to complain.
As he was dragged off, he took a moment to take a look at where he was imprisoned. His eyes did not respond with seeing anything normal. No, what he saw was frightening. And harkened him back to his first encounter with Necessarius.
'R-Runes?!'
Touma would have opened his mouth to ask, but the sight of Runes pasted everywhere kept him shut. Who knew what kind of things his captors would do with that kind of power?
When the captors took a left turn, his eyes widened.
His captors brought him to a door that led to a glowing inside that was covered up by a moving seal, with chains binding it, possibly to keep something there. It was upon coming to this realization that Touma realized what he would be used for. And much to his chagrin and horror, his captors had the same idea. One of them grabbed Touma by the right hand and placed him near the seal in the doorway.
"It's time." He heard one of them say. He understood none of it. As unlucky as he was all the time, it hit a new low with this. The man dragged Touma and forced his right hand on the door. The instant his hand touched the seal, Touma screamed as searing-hot pain flared throughout his body. Attempting to close his hand into a fist to nullify some of the pain failed.
The man pressed his hand harder onto the breaking seal, to which Touma's screams intensified.
"MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" Touma screamed in Japanese as the pain got worse. He felt his right hand was being seared off, and he could do nothing about it. "STOP! STOP! THE PAIN!" He continued to shout. Normally, he would have been a cocky idealist. But with guns pointing towards him and a literal cult, he could do nothing but try to make it stop.
The seal cracked, and the chains around it rusted with steel scraping against Touma's hand, causing massive friction burns in conjunction with the literal hell-searing fire that seemed to permeate his hand. The heat was too much for poor Touma's legs, and he had no opportunity to sit down to relieve his knees. The metaphorical hellfire was just too much.
With the door's seal failing, he turned to his captors. He wished he didn't have to turn to see their faces.
What greeted him was the smile of a bloodthirsty fanatic, with bloodshot, almost exhausted eyes of insanity. Accompanied by a wide grin that almost assured Touma that the ride would never end.
And sure enough, it never did.
When the seal began cracking further, Touma's mind was suddenly assaulted by images that he realized had no business in seeing. Images of terrifying visuals.
He saw soldiers wearing a black and white patch marching to burn down a village, he saw soldiers with blue helmets take down a monstrosity of massive proportions... These images continued to flash in his head, prompting him to grasp his forehead with his free hand as these images continued to take what space was left in his head.
A white, boney - almost skeletonesque - body flashed before his head before it was replaced by the perspective of a man all alone in a facility, which then got overtaken by images of men with rifles stealthily approaching a facility, and ending with the sight of helicopters bearing a symbol of a star and five words flying over Academy City.
These images made him question what was behind the door. 'What the hell is behind this?!' He seemed to ask himself as his mind repeated the images. 'A-Are those American Helicopters? What the hell am I seeing?!' He seemed to ask as his mind was particularly focused on the image of helicopters - identified by him as American - that flew over Academy City. 'PLEASE, I'M BEGGING- STOP!' He yelled to his own head.
He was taken away from his mind's suffering by the sound of cracking from the Door. His eyes widened as he realized that it was happening. His captors apparently seemed to feel the same way, if only because they were excited about it.
"Imagine Breaker has broken the barriers between our worlds!" He heard one of them say, followed by another one's statements. "We are finally united under a Harmonious God, no longer shall the heathens of the Initiative plague us, for we have done what they could not do!" He heard a long one from another captor. He wasn't aware of the context and did not wish to be.
"YES! IT'S HAPPENING! THE SEAL OF THE HERETICS HAS BEEN BROKEN! THE LORD SHOWS US HIS MIGHT!"
"GLORY TO GOD! GLORY TO GOD!"
The chant repeated itself as Touma tried to push back his captors and get away from the seal as fast as possible. He headbutt his captor, but he recovered and started gripping on Touma's arm harder. In response, Touma sought to use his legs to kick him away. 'I'll make these bastards pay for causing me this much pain!' He shouted in his head, all the while the breaking of the seal happened in front of him.
His efforts were not in vain, as his captor seemed to lose his grip. But unfortunately for Touma, he realized why. It had finally happened. The seal on the door had broken.
"SHIT!" He shouted as he was finally let go and reacted by kicking one of his captors in the groin area.
Ouch.
He didn't grab the man's gun in time though, and found himself backing into the wall.
"Go on!" He shouted. "Go on, I dare you!" He got up, ready to fight with his fists. "I dare you! Fight me!" He challenged, pulling what strength he had left. While scared a while ago, Touma realized that they had no use for him, so he had to take action before he did.
Their response was to raise their machine guns and ready to fire. By the looks of it, Touma knew he was screwed. But he decided to go out trying to shatter an illusion, rather than making things worse.
He closed his eyes and lunged his fist, expecting to be shot in retaliation.
He had a good ru-
The sounds of someone yelling caught him by surprise, and reflexively opened his eyes to take a good look at the situation. Just this once, Touma was thankful to have a bad enough luck to get Anti-Skill involved.
In the hallway leading to the door, two... Anti-Skill officers faced down the men with machine guns. But their yelling wasn't in Japanese. In fact, he recognized a few choice words from English.
"HANDS DOWN, MOTHERFUCKER!"
"THIS IS THE POLICE, STEP AWAY FROM THE HOSTAGE!"
The men moved to attempt a standoff with the two, but Touma had enough.
He tackled the man who forced his right hand on a magical door, and kept him pinned down. The other armed men turned around, distracted. At this point, Touma thought they were going to use special equipment to subdue the armed men.
What he didn't expect was gunshots fired immediately after they turned around to look at Touma pinning down one of their buddies.
Blood got on Touma's face as the men were peppered with bullets. He counted four shots to the chest and two to the head for everyone. At least, based on exit wounds.
Touma could only stare in shock, realizing what he'd done and what happened.
"What the-" He shouted, before one of them came up to him pinning the other man down.
"Hey, hey! Don't-" He was grabbed by the collar and thrown to the wall nearby, freeing the pinned man. At least, for a split second. Seven gunshots rang out in succession as one of the officers - who he realized up close were NOT Anti-Skill - executed the last man. And he ended it by crushing the armed man's head in a STOMP! move, permanently killing him.
"Team, we're live. We've found the hostage. He's alive, but breathing."
"How fast is a swallow?"
"European or American?"
"Got it. Notifying TOC. Over."
"Copy. Out."
He heard the conversation, but couldn't comment on anything. He just witnessed an armed man execute his captors in cold blood. "Those..." He stammered, wiping the blood off his face. "...They're dead." He finished.
Fuck.
The armed man looked at him and crouched down, offering his hand to him. Touma looked up and saw that he put his gun down, and was apparently trying to get him up. He took the hand, if only to distract him from the thoughts of being guilty for watching a man die.
"You okay, buddy?" He seemed to ask, taking Touma up. "Are you hurt? Do you need any medical attention?"
Touma looked at him and didn't understand anything. He instead responded by pointing at his mouth, then crossing his pointing fingers in an 'X' mark.
"You can't understand me?" He continued. Touma, for his bad English presumed this a question about him not being able to speak. And so he nodded.
His 'rescuer' was an armed man in a green uniform reminiscent of Anti-Skill, and was masked. What caught Touma's attention though was a three-letter acronym that he saw upon looking at the vest.
'FBI? What... what the hell are the Americans doing here? Could they be... No...'
His rescuer turned on his radio. "Team, we're retrieving the Hostage. We'll be there in a bit. Out."
Soon Touma found himself hoisted by his rescuers by the shoulder, led away from the scene of carnage. His mind was still on the fact that they just callously gunned his captors down. While any teenager would have celebrated seeing it from the sidelines, for Touma... It just felt like he was in a nightmare.
"Don't worry, you'll be safe. You're coming with us."
Touma's eyes went slack as soon as his rescuers approached the elevator. He was just tired, and couldn't deal with any of this. He was grateful for being rescued, yes, but this day was just too much. Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh and a final string of words explaining his situation.
"I'm tired, boss."
Of course, he didn't say it in English. But what did it matter? He was just tired anyway.
Maybe this'd make all sense when he woke up later.
That is, if he woke up at all.