The Girl From the Middle of Somewhere

Part 8:

Quest: The Hostage

"Ok, try it now!"

A disc-shaped projectile flew through the air and landed perfectly on the opposing wall. As it landed, it started to glow softly blue as the crystal inside of it was activated. Then, as the pair watched, an energy beam shot out from the object and connected into a moving dummy next to it, which immediately slowed down to a crawl.

"Well, I'll be damned. You actually got it to work. Nice work, Sam!" Kinessa praised the self-satisfied quartermaster.

"It was quite simple, really. Those guys in there had already developed the technology pretty far, so I just needed to adapt it to be more versatile. It's a bit weaker, of course, but atleast you don't have to carry around a giant cannon in your back pocket." he told her.

It had been a few days since the incident at the village, and life was starting to get back to normal. The Tech department was more than happy to get their hands on the mercenary gear. Sam especially was interested in the suppressing cannon Kinessa had witnessed in action, and decided that a portable version would be useful to develop for field operations. And as the hero of the mission, Kinessa got the chance to try out the first prototype.

"Well, thanks for these," she said as she grabbed the discs Sam handed to her. "I think I'll call these Oppressor Mines."

Sam nodded approvingly. "If that's good for you, then it's good for me. As long as you won't start naming them individually. They are pretty fragile, only intended for single use."

Kinessa laughed. "Who do you think I am, Tyra? What kind of an idiot would name their weapons?"

she said as she started to make her way out of the workshop. "Well, I'll be off. We have a team meeting."

Sam waved at her. "Take care!"

"Oh, and by the way," she called from the door. "The rifle's name is Buster now. Remember that!" she told him and disappeared. Sam sighed.

"It's spreading," he said to himself.

"What's up, guys? Any news?" Kinessa asked the squad as she entered the room (Which happened to be Viktor's apartment.)

"Well, we got good news and we got even better news," answered Strix. "The good news is that we got a couple days off due to our last mission. The BETTER news is that we have decided to spend it on Magistrate's annual combat festival."

Kinessa was practically beaming with excitement. "Nice! I've always wanted to go there! When do we leave?"

"Soory, kiddo, but the plan is different for you," Tyra cut in. "Rookies can't get in, you need to have a service time of at least six months. And I'm not sure if you've been told this, but the higher-ups weren't pleased that you took out the entire command chain of the bandits when they were supposed to be interrogated. What was the final count?" She asked aloud as Kinessa's smile melted from her face.

"2 decapitations, 3 executions, at least 7 mauled to death and apparently one was tickled so much he suffocated?" Strix counted.

"I just wanted to see if it was possible," she mumbled to herself. Tyra gave a short laugh.

"Well, anyway, you're not going. Also, you don't have any holiday."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Kinessa asked with a frustrated tone.

Viktor smiled. "You have some work planned."

9 hours later

Kinessa was cursing Viktor's name as she made her way through the mud. Apparently, as a punishment, she was being sent to be mission support. Not much details were given, but she had managed to find out that some lone Deepwerks scientist whose lab was located quite the distance away from the main facility was being held hostage in their own house. She was supposed to cover the Deepwerks guardmaster as they made a rescue attempt. "Not hard at all", they said. Just watch the perimeter, maybe blast a couple of skulls and let the guardmaster do their work. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it could start raining heavily just when she had to start sneaking the rest of the way and turn the whole ground into brown mush. Just as it had happened. The past 30 minutes of coldness and dirtyness hadn't raised her spirits about the whole operation. Never before had she been more glad to see a rendervouz point when it finally lurked to her line of sight through the thick wall of water. She walked into a surprisingly warm and comfy cave just a couple hundred meters from the area of operations. "And of course that bloody guardmaster isn't here", she said aloud after noticing the cave to be empty.

"Or maybe she's just behind you," said a new voice just as she felt the barrel of a gun poking against her back. "You have exactly 2 seconds to state your business before I drag your cold, dead body ouside for your comrades to find." Acting purely on instinct, she spun around with the help of her slow-down, grabbed to barrel of the gun and threw the unknown assailant on the ground. It turned out to be a young woman, maybe a bit older than her, but she didn't have time make further identifications before she grasped at her throat. Kinessa quickly shook her off and grabbed her by the hair, getting a stifled scream from the foe. "Any last words?" she asked while staring her dead in the eyes. After a couple of seconds, the woman managed to cath her breath and whispered: "Have you met my friends?"

She wasn't expecting such an answer from someone completely at her mercy, but she didn't have time to think or respond when she heard a quiet noise from behind her. Even though she didn't turn to look, Kinessa's instincts told her that those "friends" were preparing to blow her head off. Slowly, not making any swift movements to give the unidentified threat a reason to attack, she let go of the assailant, reached for her gun and dropped it on the ground before raising her hands behind her back. The woman got up and grabbed her own weapon before pointing it at Kinessa.

"Where were we? Oh yes, your name and allegiance. Right now, because soon you won't have brains to operate your mouth with," she said while retaining her cold expression and keeping their eyes locked. The way she expressed herself made it known that this was not someone to be messed with.

"Kinessa Darkstalker, Kingdom Army, Sentinels," she replied to her. "And you are?"

The woman analyzed her for a bit before responding.

"Vivian Slywill, Deepwerks Security Forces. So you're the backup? Funny, I was expecting a real soldier, not a rookie," she told her, but lowered her gun which got her a sigh of relief from Kinessa.

"Well, I too was expecting an official Guardmaster, so I suppose we can't always get what we want," she struck back after noticing Vivian's trainee badge.

She could have imagined it, but the last comment seemed to cause a small blush to appear on the woman's face., though it quickly dissappeared.

"That's none of your consern," Vivian replied. "Master Ironheart is busy at the moment, so he trusted his junior guardmaster, that being me, to handle the situation. And I can guarantee you that's what I'm gonna do." She ended the sentence on a small whistle which sparked movement behind Kinessa. Two small, round contructs held together by orange energy flew towards Vivian and took place around her shoulders. Kinessa realized that those were the thing that had threathened her. Despite seeming harmless, she suspected they packed quite a punch if a Junior Guardmaster had been entrusted with them. Deepwerks staff was known for getting to test all the newest crystal inventions, which was a cause of constant rivalry between the Army and the Security Forces. Veterans also spoke of an incident which involved two goats, a dragon and half-naked Viktor putting together a band in the Deewerks lobby which was said to be the start of it all, but Viktor had always prevented anyone from telling it to her.

"Nice toys," she said to Vivian. "What do they do?"

Vivian scowled at her. "Sentinel drones. And before you can ask, no, they are not named after your unit. If you had threathened me any longer, they would have blown your head off and disintegrated the remains. So they're not toys," she growled though gritted teeth.

"Ok, I may not be in her good books at the moment," Kinessa thought to herself. But now that she wasn't actively in danger anymore, she got a chance to inspect her partner. She was slim, but probably stronger than she looked. Her short black hair had a red streak on it. Her long-sleeved top had a shoulder guard on her left side, from which a partial cape hung from. She was also wearing arm guards, but her upper body didn't have any more protection since the top revealed her midriff and cleavage, which seemed like an odd choice in apparel for an active combatant. She also had orange skintight pants and leg guards. When they told her she would be paired up with a guardmaster, she had been expecting someone with medium-heavy armor and a cheap cigar, not someone who was clearly dressing to impress. But she decided not to mention it to Vivian. If the Sentinels had faces, they would probably be scowling menacingly at her right now, and it seemed like they could start blasting her to pieces if only a thought of her being an annoyance crossed Vivian's mind.

After a few extremely akward silent moments, Kinessa finally broke silence. "Well, not that the introductions are out of the way, shall we get to it? I only got a short briefing, so a bit more info would be welcome."

Vivian glanced a her with a "I'm-seriously-working-with-this-idiot?"-face, but seemingly decided that some benefit could come from having an ally. And with her self-confidence, it said something about the gravity of the situation.

"Ok, listen up, rookie, because I don't want any mistakes from you during this op. Basically, one of our guys if locked up in his lab by an unknown number of enemy combatants. Their affiliation and intents are also unknown, but I think we can safely assume they are after his research. Our job is to go in, shoot at anything that moves until it stops and extract the hostage unharmed. Any questions?" she asked.

"Well, yeah. I knew that already. But HOW exactly are we doing that beforementioned strike? Do we have a plan?"

"Of course we have a plan," Vivian told her. "We just need a bit more intel before I can formulate it. And that's where you come in. You will go there, and take a look around. Simple as that."

Kinessa did not seem convinced. "Have you forgotten that I have a sniper? Why don't you go in, and I'll cover you?" she asked.

"Simply because I am the head of this operation and you were sent here to assist me, which means you will do as you're told or your commanding officer will hear about this," her pair replied coldly.

"Ok, fine. So how will I make my approach?"

Vivian smiled. Not a friendly smile, more like the smile of someone about to something incredibly stupid before finding someone else to do it.

"Oh, trust me, I have an ingenious disguise for you. They'll never see you coming."

"If this is your idea of an ingenious disguise, I'm not sure if they would let you pass a camouflage exam!" Kinessa shouted through the rain.

"Come on, it's foolproof! Looks just like theirs, you'll never be recognized!" Vivian shouted back. The strong wind whirling around them tried to catch the voices, making even short-distance communication challenging.

"Yeah, maybe if they are blind, deaf and have a bad case of dementia!"

Apparently, Vivian had knocked out a passing guard on her previous recon trip and confiscated their uniform. It was a simple grey jacket with long, baggy, green pants and a red beret adorned with an insignia she couldn't recognise, but it looked like just some swirls made by a 4-year-old. She had then proceeded to modify it to fit herself, until Kinessa had arrived to take the infiltration job. Unfortunately, unlike she seemed to believe, she wasn't excellent in everything. Especially her tailorship was so poor Kinessa doubted she could even fix a napkin. She had managed to make the uniform look like it was made for a woman, but the end product was so full of obvious stitching mistakes it looked far from professional. It also seemed like she had overestimated her own measurements, because the outfit was ridiculously baggy on Kinessa, who was just a bit shorter and less endowed than her. Overall, she looked less like a member of the group and more like someone trying to blend in with the group but being really bad at it; exactly the kind of look you would want to avoid. But Vivian, of course, acted like nothing was wrong as she was guiding her to the enemy-controlled area. At that moment, Kinessa decided that she had just entered the black-haired chick to the competition of "Top 5 worst bosses I've ever had the displeasure of working for."

As they were nearing the objective, a small house came into view. It was a simple, wooden shack, but that said shack happened to be surrounded by a military camp. Barricades, tents, spotlights, guard towers, this place had it all. And somehow, she was supposed to get in. They stopped on top of a small hill overlooking the camp.

"Do you have an entry point in mind?" she asked from Vivian.

"That's for you to figure out. Good luck," she replied and pushed her off the cliff.

It was just like something out of a children's book: a friendly helper reveals their true intentions as they push the hero to the belly of the beast. Except this time, the said helper hadn't been friendly to begin with, so it was expected. That didn't soften the fall, however, as Kinessa stumbled down the surprisingly steep drop until finally coming down on the bottom. She quickly got up and made her way towards the camp after sharing some insults and certain hand gestures with Vivian, who couldn't even see or hear her anymore.

The road to the house was paved, and the main gate of the camp had been built on it. Guards came in and went out all the time, but no one saw the lone figure creeping through the rain. They happened to be expecting a delivery, which was supposed to arrive in just a few minutes. Everything seemed to be in order as the courier arrived with the crate. What they hadn't noticed was a lone figure rising up from behind the rock just a short distance from the gate and grabbing the envoy before they could reach the lights of the main gate and silencing them with a short strike to the neck. The lone figure then grabbed the crate and took their place on the road as if nothing had happened.

Kinessa breathed a sigh of relief as the grunts let her pass. This was obviously routine to them, so nobody bothered to check her. A woman walking around with a military-grade rifle strapped to their back might have aroused suspicion anywhere else, but in here, it seemed like everyone's gear was a bit mismatched. She saw one guy with a shotgun and a shield. One girl was carrying around a bazooka loaded with shovels. Another guy had ripped off the top half of his uniform and sprayed the picture of a unicorn to his chest. His weapon of choice appeared to be a bubble animal. This group wasn't an organised military force, but a bunch of mercenaries put together by someone who wanted a job to get done.

"Well, makes my job easier," she thought to herself. When compared to some of the fashion disasters around her, Vivian's uniform looked almost bearable. But as hilarious as some of them seemed, they were obviously trained and dangerous. And they still had a hostage who needed rescuing.

"What do you think you're doing? Put down that crate!"

A sudden voice snapped her out of her thoughts, as a professional-looking man strode towards her. She dropped the crate as the man came to inspect it. After about a minute, he let out an approving grunt and took it to himself.

"Report back to Squad B as soon as possible. You're in charge of the prisoner," he told her and took off leaving the infiltrator dumbfounded.

"Well, this is almost too easy," she thought. "Where's all the tight security I was promised?"

Then a giant green lizard walked front of her. From beastiary classes, she immediately recognised it to be a Deepdrake. They were usually found on caverns preying on miners and adventurers, but somehow these guys had tamed one. Their hearing was so acute that they could notice changes in human pulse to detect liars, and they had perfect night vision. The perfect guard dog for someone wanting to keep intruders out. It was a miracle it hadn't noticed her taking out the courier from just sixty meters away. The lizard growled at her, but didn't attack. It seemed like the disguise was working. The beast's only weakness was its nonexistent sense of smell, which meant the only way it could recognise anyone was from sight alone. She resisted the urge to run away as fast as she could and started to make her way to the house. The drake stared at her the whole time, and she could feel its gaze on her back.

"Ok, things just got a bit more interesting.

On the way, she counted at least fifty enemies strolling the camp and four mounted guns positioned on the outer walls. They were Hacksaw Ultras, capable of tearing targets in half. Likely stolen from Magistrate barracks, it was certainly almost as unexpected to encounter such high-tech armaments here as it was to see a drake. Not wanting to stop and think about what would happen if she was discovered, she closed distance to the house as quickly but casually as she could, trying not to draw any unwanted attention. The guard standing on patrol in front of the door noticed her approaching.

"I haven't seen you around here. What are you doing?" he asked.

"I was tasked to guard the prisoner. You can go now," she replied while trying to sound like she had gotten clear instructions for the job. The guard squinted at her.

"I didn't think they would send a newbie to guard the target. Who's your squad leader?"

Panic began to rise in her throat. "Well, it's…umm…you know, that guy who always yells and…"

"I think it's best if you just surrender and I'll take you to the boss, he'll decide what to do to you," he cut in and reached out to grab her arm. What he didn't expect, however, was a sharp kick to his diaphragm, followed by a neck snap from the intruder. Kinessa quickly dragged his lifeless body inside and shut the door. She knew she had to be quick: the real guard from Squad B would likely arrive soon and notice the absence of the man now stuffed to the corner of the house. She looked around. The house was really small, only consisting of a bedroom and a kitchen. Small stairs led to the upstairs attic, but there was no sight of the prisoner. There was, however, a locked trapdoor underneath the kitchen table. Throwing caution into the wind, she kicked the table off and shot open the lock. The trapdoor revealed stairs leading to a hidden basement. Kinessa looked down, and noticed that this was the real lab. There was machinery everywhere, and spare parts were laying all over the place. Before closing the trapdoor, she threw an Oppressor Mine next to the doorframe. It immediately connected to a crystal contact lense in her left eye, marking its position through walls and giving her the mine's live status, which was Inactive at the moment. Satisfied, she closed the trapdoor behind her and went down the stairs.

The lab was empty, except for a lone figure working with some kind of gadget on the workbench. It appeared to be a short, grey-haired old man in a lab coat. As the man noticed her approaching, he looked up from his work and let out a panicked cry.

"I'm so sorry, I thought I still had a few hours left, it still needs some fine tuning, but I promise it will be ready by the evening, I just…" he rambled before Kinessa shushed him.

"Don't worry, I'm here from the Kingdom's Army, working under The Magistrate. I'm here to get you out," she said.

The man looked at her dumbfounded, before bursting into tears and embracing her in a warm hug. She wasn't sure how to react to this sudden show of affection, but decided against blowing off his kneecaps.

"Thank you so, so much, I've been kept here for days, and they only told me I would get out if I finished the project, and they have given me hardly any food, and the guards just yell at me to work faster, and they took away most of my tools so I have pretty much nothing to work with, and it's just been horrible!" he seemed to unload all of his pent-up frustration at the moment. Kinessa wasn't sure what to do. Psychology wasn't her strong suite, considering her guardians hadn't been the most emotional people around. So she just simply patted him on the back and hoped it would help. Surprisingly, it did, and he released her and dried his tears. He seemed a lot more lively now, as if all the danger had lifted now that someone had come to save him. Kinessa didn't have the heart to tell him there were still dozens of enemies waiting to gut them both when they found out what had happened.

"Well, we should probably get moving. I want to breathe in some fresh air. I'm Hugo, by the way. And who might you be, young lady?" he asked.

"Kinessa Darkstalker, but just call me Kinessa. But no time for introductions, we are still in the middle of the enemy territory. We need to move fast, but quietly."

Hugo looked confused. "But if those brutes are still around, how are we ever gonna get out? They have a drake, in Gods's names! Where's your backup?

"The Junior Guardmaster of Deepwerks is covering me, but other than that, I'm alone," she replied to the dumbfounded scientist.

"Vivian? Hah, that girl probably had to ingratiate Ironheart for hours before he let her go with minimal backup. She's so eager to prove herself I wouldn't be surprised if she sent a live Gorlock to the beastiary team to get some good feedback from them. Who even cares about the beastiary team? I have a feeling that after this all is over, she'll try to steal all the glory and that way get in my good books. Don't worry, I won't forget you."

Kinessa couldn't help but smile. This guy had the heart of gold. The world needed more people like him.

"I haven't actually heard what you are doing here all alone," she stated. "What's so important nobody should know about it?"

"Oh, it's just a little project of mine: I'm trying to combine ancient Ska'drin runes with modern crystal technology to create portable teleporters for paralyzed children. You know, nothing unusual. I don't get why these guys make such a big deal about it. They just storm in and force me to rush my research! Can you believe that?"

Kinessa was shocked. Teleportation was rare, even during this golden age of technology, and it was unpredictable and dangerous. If he truly had mastered the Ska'drin ways of rune teleporting, it would revolutionize transportation, both in military and civilian use. No wonder these guys wanted him so bad!

"Ok, we need to get out of here. Is there something-"

She was cut off by the shouting coming from above. As she looked up, she saw the status of of her mine turn Active, and pained cries started coming from the room. The device was clearly working, but wouldn't hold the opposition for long.

"We need to move," she told Hugo. "Is there another way out?"

He shook his head. Kinessa sighed.

"Then we gotta do this the old fashioned way," she said as she climbed up. She blasted the trapdoor open and fired blindly. Two screams confirmed two kills, but more were coming as she climbed up.

"Hurry!" she shouted at the scientist as she she opened fire. Enemy after enemy fell, but soon they would overwhelm them. Vivian had probably heard the commotion, but it would take time for her to climb down and attack the fortified camp. RIght now, they needed a way out, and fast.

"Here, climb upstairs and throw this out the window!" Hugo said and handed her a strange metallic device, which was pulsating with crystal energy.

"You first!" she told him and pulled Hugo out just as the second wave stormed in. She watched as he dissappeared upstairs, and followed after dropping three more enemies. The carbine was making short work of the unarmored targets, but they had power in numbers. She threw down the rest of her mines before climbing up, and smiled at the sounds of agony and frustration coming from downstairs. In the attic, Hugo was standing with a device of the same kind on his hand.

"Throw it!" he commanded. Kinessa knew they had no time left, so she obeyed. She threw the device out the window as forcefully as she could just as Hugo did the same. When airborne, it seemed to stabilize before gliding softly and landing just off the ground. For a brief second nothing happened. Kinessa glanced at the stairs and saw at least five enemies with weapons raised, ready to shoot them down.

Then, she felt a strong pulling feeling in her stomach, as if she was collapsing upon herself. The attic and the soldiers dissappeared, as she felt like she was being squeezed as a ball through a really tight tube. The moment of discomfort seemed to last forever, and she was starting to wonder whether the device was some sort of a crowd control grenade, made to immobilize targets so they could be eliminated. If that was so, then she had seriously misjudged Hugo, and they would both soon die in a hail of gunsfire and balloon animals. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it ended, and she felt herself falling to the ground. Almost immediately, she turned around and threw up into a convenient trashcan.

"Yeah, the first time is a bit unpleasant," she heard Hugo say. As she stood up wonkily, she noticed that they were somehow outside the house. She could see the attic window, with two holes in it, and the enemies swarming at the door. She fell down completely.

"H-how are we here? We were just there, we were about to DIE. Is this an after-death hallucination?"

Hugo chuckled. "No, it's my teleportation project. It's called the Transporter. We just traveled through a temporary, one-person wormhole and it dropped us off at it location. The only side effect I have ever gotten was that my hair somehow dyed completely white and my clothes turned turquoise-pink. Other than that, it's flawless. Convenient, right?"

When thinking back at the experience, "Convenient" was not the word that came into her mind. "Debilitating" was more like it, but she had no time to dwell on that. The enemies would soon guess what happened. She grabbed Hugo's hand.

"Let's go, before they-" she was cut off by a huge foot coming down and crushing the space she was about to step into. As she looked up, she saw the Deepdrake growling at them, obviously about to relieve them of their heads. Acting quickly, she threw herself to the ground dragging Hugo with her, just as the giant teeth of the beast locked above them. The attack had missed, but the drake would soon resume its assault. Even worse, it had gotten the attention of the mercenaries, who were now pointing and shouting at their direction. Without saying a word, she took her companion's hand and led them away towards the main gate. Shots rang and the drake roared behind them, but they didn't stop to look back. On the way, she threw off the heavy jacket and the beret to get her arms to move freely. She hadn't noticed it, but one of the enemies had gotten a lucky shot at her chest, but the breastplate had blocked it completely leaving only a faint mark. It didn't matter on the long run, though, since they could always aim at her head. No armor was gonna save from that, as she was painfully aware. The matters took a turn for the worse as they turned the last corner and saw that the main gate had been closed. Kinessa swore. Their only obvious exit was cut off, and she had no time to look for another. The enemy forces were closing in, and they were being pushed to a corner. There was no escape from this. She reloaded and took aim, preparing for the final stand as the first enemies came into sight, bloodlust gleaming in their eyes.

Just then, a weird rumbling started coming from the outside. It sounded like some kind of engine, coupled with with weird bangs like a malfunctioning zeppelin. Everyone forgot that they we supposed to be killing each other and turned to look at the gate, which had started to creak as something was being pushed against it. Carefully, two enemies started walking towards the gate to investigate. Everyone seemed to hold their breath. Then, just as they were close enough to touch it, the whole contraption blasted open as if a stone giant had kicked it. The pieces of the gate flew to the courtyard, killing the two mercenaries as well as injuring a few more. From amongst the rubble, a familiar black-haired guardmaster walked, accompanied by two flying Sentinels.

"Hi, rookie. I thought you might need some help."

Everything seemed frozen in place, so much that Kinessa began to wonder whether she had accidentally slowed time agains. The dots were slowly connecting in the heads of the enemy force. Why was this chick in orange apparel here? How had she blown up a dwarven-made gate? Vivian noticed their confusion and nodded at Kinessa, who knew immediately what she implied. She grabbed Hugo just as a continuous hail of gunfire and explosions started raining down on the enemy force. It seemed impossible that one person could hold so much firepower, but apparently this was normal to Vivian, who calmly mowed down the opposition while her drones spit out explosive energy charges. The remaining foes made a smart tactical retreat and could only helplessly watch as their hostage was being led out of the former gate. As Kinessa and Hugo reached Vivian, she left the Sentinels to cover them as she hurried to check on the scientist.

"Doctor Goodwill, so good to see you are unharmed. Do you remember me? We met in the Deepwerks Annual Progress Week."

"Sure I do, Vivian," he responded. "I also happen to remember that a certain someone fell face first into a mead barrel when they tried to pass me the croissants. How could anyone be that careless in the presence of a high-ranking scientist?"

Vivian blushed and mumbled something incomprehensible, which indicated that this certain event was a sore spot and maybe slowed down her career considerably. Kinessa cracked a smile. Even the ice queen seemed to have a weak spot.

The smile was short-lived, however, as the drake rushed back o the scene. Vivian and Kinessa both immediately opened a barrage towards it, but the rounds only seemed to make it angrier.

"How is it not dead? Vivian took down an entire gate with her gun alone, how can one drake brush us both off?" the sniper asked aloud.

"It's a special breed. Its scales resist energy blasts. Crystal energy-based weapons are actually less effective against it than conventional firearms," Hugo answered.

The situation was quickly turning back against them. The enemies regained their confidence as their biggest ally began to charge down the intruders, and the escapees were forced to flee. But they were still very open. The drake could simply charge after them. Kinessa knew that the only way they could ensure their escape was to kill the drake. The problem was that they had no usable weapons against it. But as she took a look around, a plan began forming in her head. A crazy plan, but a plan nonetheless.

"I gotta take out that thing! Do either of you have anything sharp?" she asked. Vivian looked at her as if she was insane (which she probably was, considering the stunt she was about to perform) but then reached a hand for her head and handed her one of her hairpins. In her hand, the seemingly small hairpin seemed to unfold and expand, until she was holding a stiletto. Kinessa took it without a word and turned back. The rush against overwhelming enemy force would have killed any normal human, but she knew that considering the situation, she could let a little loose. Reaching deep into her mind, she forced her perception of time to change. Immediately the whole area seemed almost frozen in place, and she swiftly strode past the enemies, stabbing a few of them in the process. She had set her sights on a watchtower near the center of the camp. As she reached it, she jumped up to the ladder and started climbing. Time returned to normal as her strength drained, and the mercenaries noticed the figure climbing up. One of the drake handlers whistled a command. The beast turned around, and rammed against the watchtower. The tower began to fall, but Kinessa had anticipated the move. As she fell towards the drake, she jumped off the ladder and to everyone's surprise, landed on its back. Even the drake itself couldn't seem to understand why now a tiny human was hanging off one of its spines. She slowly climbed up until she reached the beast's neck. The drake tried to shake her off, but she had gotten a good hold of it. Once the shaking stopped, she stabbed her adversary with the stilnetto-hairpin. Some of the enemies on the ground laughed at the sight of a soldier trying to take down a giant Deepdrake with a small knife, but that wasn't her intention. While the scales were tough, there was space between them in which her knife fit just fine. And after a few good strikes, she managed to pry one of them off, earning a cry from the drake.

"You think that hurt? Wait till we get to the main course," she told the drake. It tried to shake her off again, but she was dug in too deep now. Quickly, she unslung her rifle, pointed the barrell at the opening and emptied the entire magazine. Ground shook as the drake thrashed around in pain and eventually fell down. Kinessa jumped off and ran past the stunned mercenaries. Magically enhanced beasts usually needed to concentrate to utilize their powers fully, similar to her innate ability. The drake had no hope of keeping up its energy protection with dozens of blasts burning at its neck, which is why she now jumped up to one of the Hacksaw Ultras and turned it towards the unfortunate predator, who just now managed to understand that the tables had turned.

"I wish Tyra could see this," she thought to herself and pulled the trigger.

The drake tried to brace for the oncoming fire, but it was futile. It did manage to block the first few shots with concentration, but soon the magical barrier collapsed completely and it was left with only normal scales as protection. That was short-lived, too, as the oncoming fire swiftly blasted them off. Machine gun tore its way through the drake's vulnerable flesh all the while its victim was screaming on the top of their lungs. Then, after a few seconds, the assault stopped and the beast collapsed. Kinessa ceased firing. The Hacksaw had riddled the drake's side with deep holes, each would have fit her arm. The scene was so gruesome that some of the less experienced mercenaries threw up. At the gate, Vivian, who had witnessed the whole thing, let a small smile creep to her face. It deepened as all the enemies in the camp dropped their weapons and ran out, trying to get as far away as possible from a demon woman who had taken down a drake by herself, not even caring about the guardmaster or the hostage they were running past. She let them go, and a few moments later heard screams of terror. She had positioned her friends just outside the gate to slow the attackers down. But now their job had turned from distraction to total slaughter, since panicked enemies had forgotten to check their sides. But the bloodied woman walking down from the Hacksaw now had her full attention. She went to greet her with Hugo, who had hid somewhere and was just now seeing the drake corpse. His face was priceless.

"Well, rookie, it seems like I underestimated you. I suppose your team won't mind if you come to Deepwerks with us? We think you've earned a tour."

Kinessa nodded. Only few people were allowed inside the facility who were not employees. She was pretty exhausted, but managed to still appreciate the gesture. Probably not many got an invite from a Junior Guardmaster herself.

"Yeah, let's go. Besides, I think Hugo has a risk of developing PTSD after that show, so he'll need proper care," she said as they both holstered their weapons and helped the former hostage to his feet. It was a long way to Deepwerks, but they didn't mind. After this operation, they all needed some quiet time.

Viktor, Strix and Tyra were waiting outside Deepwerks as Kinessa stepped out. Despite being given full access to the facility, she was still an outsider and was given an armed escort to get her off the grounds. They left after she stepped outside the gate, leaving the team alone.

"Well, what happened? From what we've heard, you put up quite the ruckus in there. Care to explain how that earned you a ticket to the most secure facility under Magistrate's rule when your job was support and recon?" Viktor asked. Kinessa grinned.

"Oh, not much. Just met some new people, light opposition and local wildlife. In short, an ordinary day. Plus, I got a new toy from one of my new friends," she told and pulled out a weird metallic contraption. She tossed it away and to the bewilderment of her teammates, disappeared and reappeared at the location it had landed to. She smiled at their amazed faces.

"Well, come on, what are you waiting for? I need to hand out my report, and you still haven't told me anything about the festival!" she said and disapeared again. Viktor wasn't sure, but he thought he heard the laugh of an old man and a young woman coming from the facility when it happened. But he shrugged it off. Right now, their prodigy had some explaining to do. That new toy of hers was pretty neat.

"Let's move. We need to catch that girl and make sure she tells us about her new friends."