[ Abandoned building site, Southern Mid-Childa / September 22, 0078 12:49 ]
The place the weapons dealer tipped her off about was an uncompleted building site. A U-shaped structure on the edge of the urban area could have been intended as an apartment block until it was abandoned. The look of the place reminded her of her B-rank exam, but she chased the thought away. She wasn't ready to think of Subaru yet. It began to drizzle again.
Immediately as she stepped into yard, a loud cracking noise echoed through it. She already heard it today and she was ready: an extra strong shield on Cross Mirage's Auto Guard deflected the bullet. She dashed for cover of a concrete box on her right.
"Lieutenant Runessa Magnus!" she shouted. "I am Captain Teana Lanster of the Ground Forces! My orders are to take you into custody by any means, and I demand that you surrender peacefully!"
Silence was her only answer.
"Cross Mirage, Area Search…"
Dressed in a camouflage suit, the sniper was lying in wait. She scoped the yard, particularly the concrete box behind which her pursuer hid. That was smart: not even her rifle could punch through that much concrete. Not in one shot, anyway.
"Area Search," her lips whispered.
She rose up silently and moved to another position. From the second floor, she could see almost the entire yard but she needed a better angle.
"You are from Orussia, right?" The pursuer's voice sounded dangerously close.
She spun around but there was nobody there. She didn't use telepathy often, so it took her a few seconds to realize that the voice came from inside her head. She tried tracing back the audio stream but it was secure, dissipating into nothingness after a few meters.
"I thought I erased all my files," she finally answered.
"You overestimated your clearance."
"What else did you learn, Captain?"
Good, keep her talking.
Pinned down behind her cover, Teana recalled where the first shot came from. She needed a higher ground but the staircases on both left and right were too far away to reach without cover. And her Area Search still found nothing.
"Tredia Graze, your guardian. He died four years ago, didn't he?"
Runessa didn't answer. The wound still hurt.
A tiny globe of orange light floated along the outer wall of the building. How naïve, Runessa thought, as she reached out to it with her mind and redirected it to fly safely past her hiding spot.
As she opened her eyes again, she saw two Teanas running from cover in opposite directions—towards the staircases.
"Illusion?"
Guided by a gut feeling, she caught the left one in the leg just as she reached the doorway.
With a sharp cry of pain, the left figure collapsed. As Runessa was reloading, she managed to crawl into cover again. The figure on the right disappeared.
"Did I hit you, officer?"
"Only a flesh wound," even in telepathic contact, her pursuer's voice betrayed pain.
Runessa smiled proudly.