Part 3: Tricked Into Distress
-CINEMARK HELENA 8 AND XD, LEWIS AND CLARK COUNTY; 12:33, FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION-
Phantom Task was celebrating with a gore movie that scarred Chelsea, over excited Cecilia, annoyed Madoka, and satisfied Autumn. The reason was quite simple: every place they raided had some dark secret that tied everything to a long-running conspiracy that's only now seeing the searing light of day. Everything they've captured, from toys that weren't meant for playing, to people that clearly didn't want to be there, to documents that were carelessly placed, and everything in between, was sent to the renegade for exposure. Why didn't they do it themselves was beyond anyone's intellect.
"Oh...my childhood..." Chelsea muttered.
"Seriously?" Madoka asked, "Eight slashes and a multitude of predictable jump scares set you over the edge?"
"YOU! ARE! NOT! HUMAN!" Chelsea freaked.
"We've already established that," Autumn chimed on Madoka's head, "She's a fluffy kitty cat, Nyaadoka?!"
"GET OFFA ME!" Madoka shook her off.
No one noticed that Cecilia stayed back to talk to the locals. Most likely to distract herself from the fact that Madoka, with whom they have shared their trust, developed breast cancer faster than she could switch personalities on the fly. There was no way she could break the news due to a cascade of events that were sure to happen should anyone find out and tell. Though she couldn't help but feel like she should...
"Hey! Are you listening?!"
"Wha?!...uh..." Cecilia stammered.
"You seem off putting, lately," a teen said, "Are you sure you're not gonna wuss out?"
"Yeah, she doesn't know what she's doing..." another muttered.
Cecilia shook it off and rejoined the troupe, "Alright, knock it off. Let's cause trouble elsewhere."
"You ain't my mother!" Madoka shouted.
"Calm, M..." Chelsea rapidly shushed, "Calm now..."
"Never tell a woman to calm down!" Madoka growled, right before Autumn elbowed the back of her neck and knocked her drooling unconscious.
"Let's crash here for the night," Autumn said, "There's a couple of rallies happening this evening. Tensions increased since the renegade hit Florida, so this time we stay together."
"What?" Chelsea was stunned, "Why choose now to not split?"
Autumn scanned the square, "Umm...just a gut feeling..." and left them at that.
Leaving Chelsea confused, "What did she mean? I don't like that I don't know what she means."
"Probably her training," Cecilia said, "She's been trying out a new method of communication lately."
"Really? What's the foundation of contact?"
Cecilia cringed, "You have to go into IS sub space..."
"Eww..."
"Come on..." Cecilia heaved Madoka on her back, "Let's find a "no"tel somewhere...I really don't like where this is going..."
Chelsea heaved the sleeping demon's giant bag of snacks and followed Cecilia out to the van, completely unaware of a trio of men eyeing them from a nearby store.
"Yep. That's them."
"Can't believe they're getting away with messing with us. Should we follow them?"
"No. They'll be back tonight. There's going to be a protest clash, after all."
-SANDERS-HELENA'S BED AND BREAKFAST; 15:33-
"MMMM-MM!" Madoka stretched herself out on the unusually comfortable bed, then started sinking, "Uh...A? C?! CC?! HELP?! Get the-" BOOM bed wrecked "-ugh, how did I..." She saw Cecilia leaning out the window, "The hell are you brooding out here for?"
"Oh, nothing..." Cecilia said, "Just thinking about Sokoto...been a while since I've heard from him..."
"You say that like he means something to you..." Madoka leaned against the wall.
"Well, he does have a way with hearts. Always demolishing the walls we've built around them."
"Hey...you haven't told anyone, have you?"
"Only because I know someone else will find out."
"Who gropes for that long?"
"They absolutely love the-"
"Fluffy!" Chelsea snuck a pillow onto Madoka's head.
"Friggin-" Madoka snatched it away and thwacked Chelsea repeatedly, "ASS-HAT PISS BALL NUTMEG!" After which Cecilia and Chelsea double-teamed her and buried her under the blankets.
Autumn watched from the bathroom door wondering how she was able to get those three all the way across the nation without permanently damaging their original personalities. She sighed as she reflected in her observations prior to stopping at the bed and breakfast. There were a lot of men in the shopping plaza, more than what she normally saw. There were more active women as well, taunting them at every street corner. It's a miracle that they were ignored by everyone else. The last thing she heard was,
"If you see anybody without breasts in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and cause a crowd! And you push back on them! And you tell them they're not welcome! Anymore, anywhere!"
No doubt Sokoto has a huge impact on them, even though she was living the chaos up. She thought that Cecilia and Chelsea were actively trying to distance themselves from the chaos, because they were always on the women's side of the protests whenever they were infiltrating a headquarters. She was worried that they would fall victim to the gender war seeping into the world, but they haven't exhibited any signs of single-mindedness. She wondered why.
She sorta got her answer when a sudden fanfare blasted out of the TV:
"We have breaking news across half-hour. Confirmed sightings of the renegade and Sean Hannity, of all people, last seen in Tallahassee, Florida, causing massive property damage and civilian casualties. The renegade's IS has disappeared; he is still in the Tallahassee area, while Hannity has escaped-"
"Man, someone's gonna get the wrong idea..." Autumn muttered as she abandoned Cecilia and Chelsea to the severe consequences of forcing Madoka to a minute-long tickle torture.
In the lobby where a gathering was held, Autumn tried to mingle with the people who were more agitated than others, "Excuse me. Why's everyone up in a fritz?"
"Because that scumbag Alexia is gonna get elected to the senate! She wants to ease up with the harassment charges and sympathize with the men here!"
"Did she really say that?"
"I'm not taking any chances! I'm gonna beat some sense into those... things who wanna elect her!"
And that was the route of the gathering, and similar gatherings held across the county. Hundreds of people preparing to take the streets by force, attempting to shove their opinions down someone's throat and punish whoever would regurgitate those ideas. Well, that's how it was on the ground, but Autumn was distracting herself from the upcoming mission by conjuring up whatever flowery language she could use to twist the purpose of the protest.
-22:11-
Which was exactly what happened later that night. As soon as the night lights lit up, people took to the streets to make their case known. To those watching the event through the filter of nightly news, it seemed like a normal demonstration. But underneath the surface, a storm was brewing. The increasing intensity of the demonstrations was just a byproduct for the real fight. Save for the random offensive joke every few minutes, Autumn had in mind to find the sneaky hideout in this area and force whoever ran it to surrender its secrets. The thing about the previous hideouts was that there was always a traitor in the midst willing to stir up even more trouble, if only to confuse the hell out of the projected electorate; here, no one doubted. If anything, Autumn anticipated a trap. She had to plan for, not only if they stayed together, but also if they somehow decided to split ways and ended up getting captured as a result. She spent the afternoon planning in secret, as well as testing her IS subspace connection. Once she confirmed her settings were optimal, she met with the crew one last time, right at the intersection where their group was marching.
"What exactly are we doing bunching our panties together?!" Cecilia shouted over the chants of the women.
"Taking the route they're going!" Autumn said, "We'll cross with four houses with a lot of men and no women! One person goes in! Five minutes, get out!"
"Ok, but then what's the deal with the men over?!" Madoka shouted.
"That's when you bait them! Lure them in and kill them!" Autumn said.
"Not really sure about that this time..." Chelsea muttered.
As the protests were underway, Autumn and the crew marched among the masses who were calling for the expansion of paid parental leave to exclude or penalize men. They stormed the streets, preventing anyone nearby from getting any sleep, especially when they came across another group protesting a different idea:
"Who's gonna raise our kids properly when us women have to work?!"
"You wanna give them MORE money?! They already make more than us!"
"You want to send our children to day care?! Those people are monsters!"
"They're better than those misogynistic meat heads we call husbands!"
"That's your cue, Chelsea!" Autumn shouted, "Go out!"
"Wha...ME?!" Chelsea seemed very unsure.
"Yes, you! Now, scram!" Autumn pushed her out and forced her to stumble into an open house party. "Goddamn me, I'm gonna have to bail her out...Cecilia!"
"Yeah?!" Cecilia shouted.
"We're gonna have to stay split after all!" Autumn advised, "Keep to the route no matter what! Stay together!"
"Stay to-HUH?!" Cecilia nearly lost her place when she was suddenly shoved aside to the other protest group. She frantically looked around for anyone with a familiar face, "Cod-chucking-OOF! Excuse me! Are you daft?!"
"No, but I'll be happy to shove my ass in your cooch."
"The hell are you-M?!"
"Yeah, A throw you off, too?"
"Unceremoniously-" Cecilia and Madoka were suddenly interrupted by a voice in their head.
"You must go."
"Ahh! What was that?!" Cecilia screamed.
"You're running out of time," the voice said, "Go now."
"Autumn?" Cecilia muttered before she was hit by an actual protester.
"You sure like to suck up to the guys," the protester sneered.
Madoka quickly snatched Cecilia off the scuffle, "She can't be reasoned with. Let's go." And they walked away into the chaos that easily drowned out the protester's rant.
"Thanks," Cecilia panted, "Hey, what's with that weird voice..."
"Yeah. Autumn told me about an ethereal connection via subspace..."
"Oh...yeah...that's a thing..." Cecilia mumbled as she refocused her mind on getting the night over with.
Inside the first house, Chelsea was all manners of nervous. She tiptoed slowly into the basement, where she knew something of worth would be very well hidden here. That's the problem for her scenario: stuff that's secure takes long to find, meaning more damage to her psyche should she be found. Just the thought of that is rapidly diminishing her confidence. She searched frantically for anything of worth until she heard footsteps coming down. She froze in terror and listened for their sound. They were sneakers, which freaked her out even more. When the sound was directly lined with her back, she deployed her saber and thrust it behind her.
"Ok, lady," it was Autumn, "You need Xanax." She was fast enough to catch the sword before it entered her barrier space.
"Oh my god..." Chelsea panted in relief, "What are you..."
"Let's go," Autumn dragged her out of the basement and into the front yard.
"Where're you going, hun?!"
And right into a front yard of men.
Autumn looked at Chelsea very annoyed, "You freaked out, didn't you?"
"The party's just getting started!" One of them started to approach Autumn, "Why not have some fun with us?!"
"Autumn?..." Chelsea saw several men approaching her, and Autumn had in mind what that meant. That yakuza group had contacts in America, and one of them found her here.
Autumn deployed her index finger and blasted a tiny wind bullet at a nearby protest group. One of the women screamed as she turned around and covered up her underwear.
"Heh, pansy-UGH!"
"No! Autu-ACK!"
Right before she saw Autumn and Chelsea get assaulted. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Shit," a man cursed, "how'd they find us?!"
"Get'em outta here!" Another man yelled right before a woman jumped him.
Then, absolute chaos. The woman were trying to free Autumn and Chelsea from their captors, who were trying to ward them off.
"Why'd you leave the control collars in the van?!" A man screamed.
"Like you wouldn't notice a bulging duffel bag?!" The other snapped.
"Well, we just did," Autumn spooked the men with her sudden deployment. She blew the men to the other side of the county, then quickly retracted her IS.
The protesters came from behind and ransacked the van the men spoke of, and absolutely lost their minds.
One of the stragglers tapped Autumn's shoulder, "Hey, what's happening?"
"See that van?" Autumn quickly propped herself upright, "It's got a bunch of control collars that suck out the brain cells not in constant use, thereby slowly but surely turning you into a mindless puppet."
"What?!" The woman freaked out and turned to the group at the white van, "Check the van, everyone!"
"We did..." someone said, "She's telling the truth..." The two looked back and tried to find Autumn, who inexplicably disappeared from the scene.
She landed right by their protest group, where she saw Chelsea safely detailing the absolute horror of their encounter.
"Welp," Autumn muttered sarcastically, "that won't affect the election in any way."
-30 MINUTES LATER-
Five blocks away, Cecilia and Madoka slowly trudged through the heart of the city. Police officers were lined up along the sidewalk, ready to shut down any fight that gets out of control. Not that it would matter because it would always result in the most chaotic shoutfests the city has ever seen.
"Stand with all! Stand with all!"
"Put the glass on men! Put the glass on men!"
"Incoming cross, 9 o'clock!" Madoka screamed.
"Alright, ladies," the group leader growled, "Time to take a piece of their minds away from them!"
"M, go!" Cecilia urged.
"Now?!" Madoka stammered.
"They're both here!" Cecilia pointed to the office plaza to their left, "You search in the back area! I'll look over there!"
"Uh...uhhh!" Madoka stammered and fled the group. She weaves her way through the tightly packed plaza and into the target area. "Ok, I'm here...now I'll just-"
"Be quick, M..."
"D'ahh!" Madoka smacked her head, "Autumn?!"
"People coming...hurry..."
"What..." Madoka looked behind her and saw the plaza being swarmed with bystanders and protesters, "Yeah, no shit they're coming..." Using her experience in past missions, she only checked specific cabinets for evidence of corruption. She didn't find much, just a couple pieces of paper that spoke of a meeting between an operative from the DNC, and one from the RNC. "That's all it says...fuck it, it'll do..." She quickly ran out of the office and into a brutal fight in the plaza.
"Yep...right when I get out..." Madoka shook her head and ran towards the rear entrance, katanas ready to slice anyone who would try to cop a feel on her. She ran at full speed, ignoring the few women trying to chase her down, flipped over, and sliced the doors down. She briefly used a door as a skateboard to skid across the street, all the while sinking her blades into several people.
"Oh, the humanity!" She joked, "How else must this crisis be addressed?!"
She immediately scurried off when she saw an army of angry protesters stormed the street.
Cecilia had a far different story. The moment she stepped into the target building, she felt a very uneasy vibe crawling all over her skin. She recognized this feeling as that of the renegade's, when he used his sensory abilities to track incoming enemies. The unusual sensation told her that there were people all around her. She had to move quickly.
Cecilia went right for the desk that looked the most professional. It was the only desk in the office that was cleaned out, which meant something had to have been misplaced. She dove into every drawer and scrambled for something worthwhile. She finally came across an unusually small folder. She was about to peek into it, but the door suddenly swung open. She had no choice but to take the folder and squeeze between some trees to hide from the pursuers.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." it was a man. He had a squad behind him...and flashlights.
"Shit!" Cecilia neglected the hiding and unleashed her IS, firing several shots at the people to clear a path outside. Just when she made it out, she suddenly felt a snag on her left ankle. "Fuck-OOF!" It was a Canceller. Her IS was forced into standby, and she skidded across the floor, smashed through a glass window, and rolled out onto the middle of the street. "Oh, my head..." she rubbed her head and looked around. Two groups of people charging for her, men and women, "SHITFUCK!" She got up and ran out, leaving the men to fend for themselves.
-BEST WESTERN PREMIER HELENA GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL; 23:32-
Eventually, the team found their way to the lobby of a hotel, far away from the helter-skelter of the protests.
"Oh, that was insane!" Madoka said, "I cannot believe how quickly we were about to fall apart!"
"You don't say..." Chelsea waivered between shutting M up and running away.
"We all had a bunch of men home in on our location, and then-WHAM! POW! I used one of them as my own skateboard!" Madoka forced the image in Chelsea's brain.
Meanwhile, Cecilia was struggling with the Canceller, "RERRRGH-ugh...it's like these things suddenly grew a brain!"
"Yeah, this definitely ain't your standard issue Canceller..." Autumn mused, "Did you ask Madoka for help?"
"Yeah, she blasted the goddamn thing!" Cecilia whined, "Nothing!"
"Huh...and if they have tracking devices..."
"You know, you're taking this awfully well, like you expected this to happen!"
"Well, be prepared for anything. Remember?" Autumn winked.
And Cecilia suddenly remembered the training day, "Ugh...that voice in my head..."
"Yeah..." Autumn muttered, "I'll show you how later on..."
"Wait! Look at the TV!" Cecilia pointed to the sudden blaring from the screen atop the fireplace, the burning flame seemingly symbolic of the situation being displayed:
"Coming to you live from the intersection of 267 and 319, an explosive showdown has seemingly trapped the renegade in the ruined gas station, surprisingly not killing him, but everyone else around him! We also have visual of Tabane Shinonono closing in the station, as well as several authorities scrambling to detain them both! The renegade has separated from a Fox News crew earlier today, but they are under the influence-"
Autumn and Cecilia stared at the TV, shocked in awe.
"Did he just...toss us aside..." Cecilia seethed.
"No, no..." Autumn said, but in the back of her mind, she knew something happened. Something made him lose all connection with Silvia, and by extension the rest of Phantom Task. How else would they explain Tabane getting the upper hand in the fight in Florida?
But she had no time to think any longer, as over the freaky rant Madoka gave to Chelsea, she heard a buzzing noise from the Canceller. On instinct, she dove for the noise to try and stop whatever was coming.
She wasn't even close. A blaring high-pitched sound blasted out of the Canceller, disorienting everyone on the first floor. Most people fainted, but the four women were only pinned to the floor, barely able to steady themselves on their hands and knees. Autumn and Madoka were barely able to hold on to their sanity, but Chelsea was completely out, and Cecilia just laid on the floor unable to move. The screech lasted for a full minute before finally fizzling out.
Madoka wobbled around the room a bit, "Ohhhhh...what train whistle woke up..."
"It ain't a train whistle..." Autumn waivered back and forth on her knees, her head still rattling, "Oh, man, my head..."
Cecilia was completely blank. She didn't know what to say.
"Ugh...Chelsea..." Autumn slowly stood up, "Chel...Chels...huminahuminahumina..." she got on her feet, but she staggered left and right just to keep herself from falling. She staggered until she ran into something mildly fluffy to bury her head in and relax her headache. "Huh...Squall?..." she mumbled.
"No," a very gruff voice muttered, "just an acquaintance."
That was enough to shock her back into consciousness. The moment she reacted, she was grabbed by her neck and thrashed into a wall.
"Huh?" Madoka slurred, "Wuzappenin..." Shewagged around like a lost dog trying to find a trail to follow. She happened to stumble around a pair of pants. She took a long sniff, "Huh...you're not Epic Man-UGH!" She earned a kick to the face.
"I'll teach you to mess with my friends, you little bitch!" A man went down on her and dragged her outside.
"Huh? Autumn? Madoka?" Cecilia said in her monotone voice, "What's happening?"
"Nothing," a man said as she was hoisted up by her limbs, "Just taking you back to your true home."
"True?" Cecilia muttered before looking around and seeing her teammates being carried away by men, into a black van, "No, you're not...you're taking me back to that place..."
"Well, not that you're in a position to do anything," the man wickedly grinned, while binding and gagging her, "Ooh, what I wouldn't give for a pair like these..."
"Hey, get...off..." Cecilia was slowly succumbing to the sensations felt before. She was thrown into the van with the men climbing aboard. She couldn't do anything except watch Autumn and Madoka squirm their way out, only to be met with Cancellers of their own.
"Let go, pickle pricks!" Madoka shouted, "I'm gonna hogtie you like a ball of thorned yarn when I-" She was punched across the face.
"Well, ain't you got the wise mouth," a man angrily approached her.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Autumn struggled to free herself, "I thought we had a deal!"
The keywords. Something happened within Phantom Task's minds to make them all fuzzy, as if to transport them to a plane between realms. Madoka and Cecilia felt that tinge, but they couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Only the words from Autumn mattered, and it got them concerned to say the least, Cecilia because of her conflicting inner feelings clashing with her situation, and Madoka for what this could mean for Autumn. Madoka momentarily stopped struggling to see how the scene played out, while Cecilia became frantic and tried to escape.
"I said we had a deal!" Autumn shouted, "What the hell is with you?!" Just then, she received a slap from the leader of the group. She gnarled and prepared to headbutt whoever hit her, only to have her head caught by a familiar set of hands.
"That deal just expired..."
Autumn recognized that voice. "Ta...suko...?"
Tasuko, current leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, "Long time no see."
"Well...extorting?"
"No," the man said, "expanding." He gave Autumn a brutal uppercut to her stomach.
Autumn coughed up blood and reeled on the ground. She curled into a ball trying to drive the pain away, when that man stepped on her and leaned in close to her ear, pinning his entire body weight on her delicate frame, "More than a decade ago, I made you an offer to join my gang..." The man grabbed her neck, "You should've taken it." He felt her up a little before hoisting her to the van, where Chelsea was struggling to get the men off her. "Look, Anna," he taunted her with Chelsea's distraught face, "You could've avoided all of this. Instead, you chose to stand against me."
"Why..." Autumn grunted, "You were going to come after them anywAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
"That's my decision," the man growled after he nearly ripped one of Autumn's nipples off her. He tossed her in with the rest, "Where's the other one?"
"Just a little longer, boss," a man said, "She's still resisting us."
"Nothing we can't han-"
"HEY! SHE'S A CANCER BITCH!"
Suddenly, everyone stopped. No words, no movement, just two little words that caught everyone off guard.
"She's got goddamn cancer!" The man who groped Madoka screamed, "It's practically a pimple now!"
Madoka was shocked. Out of all the secrets she's held onto, this was the one that she didn't want to get out. "How did you..." Madoka looked at Cecilia, who shook her head. She then looked at Autumn, who gave her concerned eyes. She returned the favor with piercing angry eyes.
The man suddenly choked her, "Where are you getting at?"
"Let her go," Tasuko suddenly said.
"What?!" The man was shocked, "You can't be serious!"
"What need have we for someone who's already dead?"
"Why don't we just kill her right now?!" The man said.
To which Tasuko took a gun out and aimed it at him, "For you, I'll need payment."
The man was forced to relent, "Dammit!" He picked Madoka up and kicked her out, "Get the hell out of my sight."
Madoka knew she had to go, but she couldn't. She had so many questions to ask Autumn, questions about that voice in her head and the IS subspace communication method, which Madoka suspected was the real reason for the insane training. But she didn't think the others would figure that part out at all, as they were too terrified of being left behind again to properly see the grander plan Autumn had set in motion.
"We're letting you go free without a hitch," Tasuko said, "I suggest you go now."
Madoka saw the gun and just ran, leaving the other three in the hands of arguably the most dangerous man on earth.