"Hey Dutch, what's the first rule of fighting smart?"
"Take cover or die?"
Laughter,"No silly, it's act like a wuss if you have to."
Dutch opens his eyes. At first all he saw was a burr but as his eyes started working properly he could see that he was in a cell. He was alone in the cell which looked like it was inside a vehicle. Opposite him was a another cell which contained Renko and Maribel. Maribel looked up,"Dutch, you're awake. Do you feel okay?"
Dutch gingerly felt the back of his head where the rifle butt hit him."Other than a bruise on my head and me being inside a cell I believe I am fine. Who are these guys?"
"We don't know. They hit us with some kind of just woke up too." Renko said. Out of the three, she looked the worse. She had forest gunk all over her shirt and face. When she looked up and saw Dutch staring at her, she smiled sheepishly and explained,"I attacked them."
"You left a good man pretty incapable for the rest of the week." A man standing at the far end of noted. Dutch turned to look the speaker. He wore grey body armor and had a white opera mask covering his face."And you are?" Dutch asked.
"They call me Mask. You can call me that." Dutch's eyes narrowed,"And can you explain why you have us locked up?" The Mask chuckles,"Do you know your fellow explorers?"
"We just met yesterday." The Mask whips a sheet of paper out of his pocket and breathes in." Renko Usami, age: 21, occupation: university student(super unified physics major), ability: highly accurate chrono and location identification. Maribel Hearn, age: 21, occupation: university student(relative psychology major), ability: capable of see any magical boundaries/presence(possibility of further advancement). Your partners are very special people. And we require their services."
"And me?" "You are unexpected baggage. We have been trailing this two for several months now. We used the legend in this area to set up a trap for them. We did not however expect to have a third party coming along. But thanks to you, I now have leverage."
"What for?" Dutch probed. The Mask laughs,"I originally planned to use Miss Renko as leverage. But I loath to hurt anyone with an ability. Thanks to you, I can now get Miss Maribel to do the job and the two of them unhurt as well."
"What kind of job exactly?" "Are you a fool? The same reason why you are here of course. We had trouble looking for the Stone as well until you accidentally stumbled onto a opening and identified it as a ward. We had people trailing you all the way so when Miss Maribel found it, I gave to order to strike."
The trio breathed in the knowledge that they have been followed the whole time."So what are you going to do now?" Renko asked. The Mask answered,"Simple, you help me find the Stone and I will not have to shoot Mr Dutch here for your cooperation."
"Don't do it." Dutch hissed."I'm not worth it." The Mask smiled,"It's very heroic and all but you have to realize that sooner or later she will have to do it. Do it earlier and save us the time. Or do you want Mr Dutch here to die because of you?"
"I do it." Maribel said, looking emotionally drained.
The Mask smiles." that I have your cooperation I release you from your cell." He taps a control pad on the door."But first, guards." As a hidden door opens and several guards enter the room, they wore grey body armor with fingerless combat gloves and also wore balaclavas that had a slit which only showed the eyes. They also each had a pistol and knife strapped to their Mask tapped the pad again and the cells automatically swing open.
As the group head out of the room, Dutch saw that the room was indeed part of a vehicle trailer. They were at some kind of base camp. It had a couple of small helicopters on makeshift dirt helipads and trailers everywhere."We had to bribe an entire prefecture worth of people to get this stuff here and set up." As the group trooped across the small camp, they saw men in armor everywhere, either walking guard or resting.
Finally the group stopped at another trailer."This will be your holding quarters until we need you. Have a nice stay." The Mask said before turning to walking away."Oh yes, one more thing." He stopped. When he spoke again, it was a spine chilling cold."Take Mr Dutch into the forest and shoot him."
"What?" The trio cried out."You said that he won't be hurt!" Renko cried. The Mask laughed coldly."I only said that he won't be hurt if you cooperated. Because of your cooperation, I will not shoot him for it. However, security is another matter. Mr Dutch has seen and heard too much." With that statement, the Mask walk off.
Dutch gave a resigned look to the two women."Good luck," he said before being manhandled away. Renko and Maribel were pushed into the trailer despite their best efforts.
Rico was having a great time. First he got hired by some masked guy to play soldier for a cool 299999 yen, then he got some really cool weapons and armor and now he get to use the really cool weapons on someone. That fact that that someone will probably die didn't faze him because the only thing better than having a really cool gun is using the really cool gun, preferably on poor dude. Not being able to be caught just makes it sweeter.
He and the poor dude was now heading through the forest away from the camp. The masked guy specifically asked for the guy to be shot as far away from the camp as possible. That was okay, Rico didn't really care where he was to shoot the guy as long as he gets to shoot the guy although the heat was seriously making him reconsider.
"Move!" Rico roared as he pushed Dutch. Dutch stumbled but managed to catch himself. Rico tched, disappointed that Dutch didn't fall. Other then having to walk to as far away as possible to shoot some poor sap in this heat that was not helped by the armor he was wearing(the masked guy made it very clear that any activities was to be done in armor), life was pretty good for Rico.
After walking for 10 minutes over very hard terrain, Rico and Dutch came on to a small clearing that was covered by the trees tops. Deciding that this was the right place, Rico ordered Dutch,"You, stand there!"
Dutch stood in the center of the clearing before Rico took his gun out of it's holster and placed the barrel right behind Dutch's head.
"Any last words?" Rico asked, feeling like an action star hero. They should totally film this, this has to be the best scene ever, he thought.
"Your safety still on."
As Rico instinctively looked to check, he already realized how stupid it was that he fell for it. Dutch spurn quickly in place and grabbed Rico's gun. He quickly wrenched the gun out of his grip. Reflexively pulling the trigger of a gun that was no longer there, Rico could only watch in stunned disbelief as Dutch flipped the gun around, grabbed it by the barrel and slam the butt right into Rico's head. He blacked out.
Dutch stared to the man he just knocked. Even unconscious, the guy screamed amateur. Dutch laughed at the number of times he could have attacked him as they went through the forest. As he start stripping the man down and wearing on his armor, he wondered why he didn't get him the first time he could and save himself a long trek back to the camp. Dutch realized he wanted to see how long the idiot would realize that Dutch was clearly leading him.
"Bite me." He said as he put on the balaclava. As he reached for the pistol, he realized, it really had it's safety on. Slotting it into the holster, he turned on the inbuilt radio in the armor and spoke into the voice synthesizer attached microphone,"Target is dead." The radio answered in a synthesized voice as well,"We heard no shots." Dutch answered,"A shot might have alerted any nearby people so I beat him to death." "Very well then, head back to camp." Dutch turned to go back to camp, to be another random soldier.
But before he walked into the forest, he turned to the half-naked man lying on the forest floor and remarked,"There is a reason why they only do executions so close in the movies."
Back at base camp, unaware of Dutch's escape and thinking he was dead, our two women sat down and mourned him.
"That monster." Renko growled."Dutch didn't deserve it." She was a picture of bottled rage. On the other hand, Maribel was sitting the bed in the trailer. She had her hands covering her horrified face. "If he didn't came along this wouldn't have happened." She whispered. Her eyes were swollen red from crying.
The trailer door opened and the Mask walked into along with two guards carrying trays of food."Eat." He ordered."You will need your strength for tomorrow."
"You bastard. He did nothing." Renko growled. The Mask simply sat down on a chair and spoke to her in a condescending voice,"I already explained my action. It was for security reasons. It's hard enough that I have 60 plus men on site without having some random guy knowing about our operation."
Just then, the Mask's radio buzzed."Sir, charges are set around the hole. What are your order?" "Detonate. What of the extra?"
"Taken care of." The Mask laid back down on the chair."Let the next phase of the game begin."
A long way away, a group of men retreat away from the hole into the forest. The 5 charges set there start blinking away until the last second where a electric charge surges in the detonators, igniting the 5 satchets of c4 and blowing a hole in the floor. The shockwave across the cavern triggering seals everywhere. The cave pulses with power as unnatural life spreads across. Rock, wood and water come to life.
Mayohiga
Ran Yukamo was tired. First there was the shockwave that woke up every single magical being in Gensokyo, which is to say, everything. Because of that, the fairies decided to start a forest-wide shooting war but that was left for the hakurei shrine maiden to deal with.
Then some genius tengu decided to spread that the barrier was breaking. Suddenly there were youkai and humans everywhere acting like idiots. The tengu village mobilized it's entire army, the oni started the biggest underground party yet in Old Hell history that somehow threaten to destabilize the underground nuclear reactor, the Kappa were practically salivating over the expected influx of human technology, the Human Village went into a state of panic, the Scarlet Devil Mansion were preparing to open a escape portal that would have sucked half of Gensoukyo along with it and the Heaven envoy kept requesting an audience. Ran had to go everywhere to smooth their fears and crack a few idiot people skulls along the way.(Although it was quite satisfying, she had to admit.)
At least the Lunarians had kept their senses. Of course with their resident genius they would have known if anything was really wrong but at least they did not cause a hassle.
And she wondered for the 5th time today why her mistress ever had the urge to offer that genius tengu a shikigami position. The very same mistress who slept through the whole day after the shockwave, letting her take the full force of the diplomatic footwork. She was a kyuubi, for Suwako's sake, not some fancy human talker like those ones they saw on the television.
At least the day's drama was over. But as she lay back down, she suddenly felt a burst of power course through her.
She tried to search for the source of the burst just as her mistress drops in through a tear in reality."Feel that?" Yukari asks.
Ran nods her head."What was that?" She asks.
"A signal to prepare for new guests. Inform the lunarians. Tell them that the shield is breached." Yukari said."And prepare this place for visitors. Where is Chen?"
"She is at the magical forest helping to put down the fairies Yukari-sama."
"Ask her to stay at with that team 9-ball. The visitors might be a bit hostile. Now go."
As Ran disappears, Yukari sits down on a couch and closes her eyes. Soft snoring could be heard 5 seconds later.