"It is with great pleasure that I can announce that bill 1238-F has reached the required votes in both the Legislative Committee and the Senate and has thus been enacted. By enacting bill 1238-F, the Legislative Assembly has in unity agreed that the Joint Investigation Unit has fulfilled its purpose and thus no longer is needed. From this moment on, our brave investigative officers will return to their respective city-states and assist in combating the local, widespread crime."
Prowl stares at the main screen inside the Joint Investigation Unit's Tactical Operations Center while their dissolving officially gets announced by a pleased-looking Highline.
The datapad held in his hand breaks in two as near-uncontrolled fury rises inside him.
Ecstatic voices from his colleagues fill the large room. Happy that their work now officially is done. Pleased that they successfully have combated a dangerous evil threatening their society.
They don't understand the full extent of what is going on.
He looks down at the broken datapad, his hands curling into fists as he slowly reins in his emotions.
Who can he trust at this moment?
Aurora and Topkick slowly approach him and he sees a deep wariness in their optics.
They know the threat Torrent still poses, but not the whole truth.
He leaves the Tactical Operations Center, and they silently follow him to his office.
"Are we just going to give up like that?" Aurora asks, frustrated.
"We no longer have the necessary authority." Topkick remarks calmly to his fellow SIO.
"But-"
"But nothing, Aurora." The now-former commander of the dissolved Joint Investigation Unit's armed forces firmly cut in, and Prowl watches tired as his two SIOs argue between each other.
"There must be something we can do. The Senate can't just close us down like this before we have captured Torrent!"
"They can, and they have, and there is nothing we can do about it."
He looks absentmindedly out of the window while his thoughts begin to wander.
He knew that this would happen eventually, but he never talked with Torment about what to do if or when it happened.
What will the criminals do now that the Joint Investigation Unit has been dissolved?
Is there even still an alliance?
He has nothing to offer them now that all of his resources and authority are gone.
At the same time in Iacon:
Talon and Torment stand inside the Polyhexian Cartel's command center, watching the live feed from the Senate as Highline proudly officially announces the dissolving of the Joint Investigation Unit.
Talon turns his head and looks at Torment.
"Do you still want to honor your alliance?"
Torment crosses his arms and leans thoughtful back against the elliptical meeting table behind him while silently contemplating the new situation. He rubs his forehead with a hand while he thinks and then finally comes to a conclusion.
"Prowl is still a strong ally. He is a good leader and has the trust of his associates. He may not be as useful to us now that the Joint Investigation Unit no longer exists, but he still has a strong motivation to stop Torrent and the Organization. It is how he is. Even without the Senate's support, he will still seek to bring them to justice."
A heavily encrypted message flagged as urgent disturbs Talon. It is from Ozone. The spy he had sent to keep watch over Torment and who still is with Torrent.
He frowns as he decrypts it. He hasn't heard from Ozone in a long time, and the fact that the spy contacts him now cannot bode well.
And it doesn't.
With a silent curse, he straightens his stance, his wings twitching imperceptibly as he turns to Torment.
"Now is your chance to show him that you still have an alliance. I have just been informed that Torrent has launched a missile at the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter."
Hard, urgent knocks on the door to his office interrupt Prowl and his SIOs, and they look bewildered as Shift storms in with a frantic look.
"We are under attack!"
They hurriedly follow Shift to the Center of Intelligence while the hacker rapidly informs them about Torrent's launch of a missile targeted at them.
"What kind?"
"An ICBM."
"Which military base?"
"AM-21 in Simfur."
"It's ETA?" Topkick demands to know.
"Approximately twenty minutes."
The former commander's expression darkens.
"That's not enough time for us to evacuate the area of impact." He states severely.
"I know." Shift answers stiffly. "Which is why I need Aurora's assistance."
She looks at Aurora with a telling glance, and the SIO nods in understanding.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Torrent's hacker will be prepared for our intervention. I need you to run interference as I circumvent the firewalls and defenses and take back the control. He can't keep the both of us out of the military base's systems if we work in unison."
"Do whatever is necessary to stop it." Prowl gives his clearance, and the two hackers sit down and get to work.
If his last official order is going to be to illegally break into the military's systems, then so be it. Because when the missile hits, it will cause massive destruction to the area surrounding their headquarter and countless civilian deaths. They have no idea what kind of explosives the missile is carrying. If it is conventional or nuclear. It can make the whole difference between the destruction of a minor area in Praxus or the complete destruction of the center of the city-state.
He watches stiffly as Shift's digits rapidly stroke the keys on the keyboard while her full concentration is on the screen. Ciphers dance on the screen as she swiftly makes her code on the go, while Aurora keeps their enemy distracted.
"It's useless." Aurora growls in frustration as he clears yet another one of the sophisticated obstacles Torrent's hacker has put in their way to prevent them from getting into the systems. He is making almost no progress as new obstacles constantly get raised in front of him.
"Just keep him busy." Shift answers, distracted, while she makes the final changes to her code to prevent the other hacker from shutting her out once she has gotten in. Then she activates the code and watches as the process runs its course.
The backdoor into the military base's systems opens for her and she wastes no time taking control over the missile and sending it into outer space, where she detonates it before Torrent's hacker has the chance to respond to her breaching into the systems.
She collapses, relieved, in her chair when it is done, and Aurora does the same beside her.
"If I ever doubted you..." The SIO says with a deep, relieved exhale.
A few hours after the prevented missile attack, several unidentified, heavily armed military-grade transports arrive at Praxus. They calmly proceed into the center of the city-state, where one of them lands on top of the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter while the rest lands on the buildings surrounding it.
Flamestrike, the operational leader of the Polyhexian Cartel's Department of Development, Production and Distribution of Drugs, surveys his surroundings with a lazy smirk as he walks down the ramp of his transport.
His smirk grows when the door into the building bursts open and armed Joint Investigation Unit enforcers storm the roof with their weapons poised.
"Is this how you greet an ally?" He asks them as he, with his arms spread wide to show no open hostility, walks towards them without a care.
Topkick arrives and moves to the front of the enforcers with his weapons offline, and he and Talon's lieutenant stare silently at each other while measuring the other.
Flamestrike crosses his arms condescendingly in a silent challenge, and in response, Topkick narrows his optics in carefully restrained hostility.
"Are you going to give your subordinates the order to lower their weapons or not?" Flamestrike asks with pretended boredom while his optics glints with a fanatical desire for violence. Innumerable calculations fill his HUD in a steady stream and he has target locks on all the spark signatures in front of him, his weapons ready to be fired at any second.
Topkick silently continues the staring contest until Prowl arrives and finally orders their people to lower their weapons, then the director walks towards Flamestrike with wariness in his optics.
"Torment sends his regards," Flamestrike announces and gestures cockily with his hand to the dozen heavily armed, military-grade transports that are waiting to evacuate the members of the Joint Investigation Unit. "He thought you could need our help now that Torrent has made his intentions clear."
He pulls a datapad out of subspace and offers it to Prowl.
Prowl takes it and reads the message from Torment.
His optical ridge furrows, and then he looks at Flamestrike again.
"Where will you be taking us?" He asks curiously. Because he is sure that they won't be taken to the Polyhexian Cartel's headquarter wherever it lies.
"A smaller base of operation where you can get your people organized." Flamestrike answers and then grins provocatively. "You will be protected by the best technology the Polyhexian Cartel can offer. Torment wants you to be prepared for when we strike."
Prowl narrows his optics but quells the reaction the obnoxious criminal is trying to goad out of him. Instead, he takes a deep, calming breath and grudgingly accepts the current circumstances.
It is only a matter of time before Torrent attacks them again.
Torment's offer of assistance is actually a relief because it shows that they still have an alliance.
He turns around to face Topkick and his subordinates.
"We are evacuating." He orders. "The recent hours have shown us that our work isn't done yet. The Polyhexian Cartel is a temporary ally. It offers us a secure place to operate from until we have stopped the threat to our society. I want you to collect everything you need to set up a new Tactical Operations Center at our new location. Any questions?"
Silence greets his question, and he nods, satisfied.
His gaze meets Shift's in the crowd, and she nods to him with a smile.
-Switch will be returning to the Polyhexian Cartel, but I am coming with you to assist you and be your link to them.- She messages him reassuringly.
And his link to Nacelle.
He had been beyond furious when Torment had told him what had happened between Nacelle and Typhoon and had demanded that Torment released his bondmate. Torment had, shockingly, willingly agreed to his demand without argument, but to his surprise, Nacelle had refused to leave the Polyhexian Cartel's headquarter.
Nacelle had looked softly at him with a reassuring smile on the screen.
"There is no place I feel safer at the moment, Prowl." Nacelle had explained and conveyed the sincerity of his words through their bond. "I am a guest here, and they treat me with the utmost respect."
Disbelief had filled him, but he sensed the truth in his spark and accepted Nacelle's decision.
It still worries him that Shade has been assigned to protect his bondmate.
The dangerous black and silver carrier is presumed to be a member of Talon's inner circle and oversees the Polyhexian Cartel's prostitutes. He is known to recruit and exploit carriers who find themselves in a desperate, vulnerable situation and is directly linked to several violent murders of customers who have visited the cartel's prostitutes.
So far, none of the prostitutes have wanted to cooperate with the authorities to get him convicted. They all refuse to testify against Shade while claiming that their work for the Polyhexian Cartel is entirely voluntary, which is incomprehensible since all the evidence against the cartel indicates otherwise.
Nacelle is not easy to manipulate, and if his bondmate trusts Shade to protect him, then Prowl will have to trust Nacelle's assessment of Shade in this situation.
Torrent sits inside the Organization's command center and watches as the missile he had ordered to be launched against the Joint Investigation Unit's headquarter is sent into space, where it detonates without causing any harm.
SHIFT!
Fury rises within him. He has finally had enough of Torment and his meddling lackeys.
This is the last time they ruin his plans!
He rises from the seat and walks briskly down the corridor inside their base of operation.
It is time to utilize his secret weapon against his nemesis.
Athena twists and turns on the cot inside her cell, reliving the vivid nightmare of Torrent raping her in her own home.
His broad hips that nearly is forcing hers out of alignment.
The brutal thrusts into her torn valve.
His sounds of pleasure as he violates her and when he finally overloads inside her.
The door to her cell opens with a loud bang and wakes her from the nightmare, only to send her straight into a worse one when Torrent steps into her cell with hateful optics.
"No, no, no, no, no!" She screams imploringly, her back hitting the wall as she futilely tries to get away from him as he approaches her like a predator. "Please! No more!"
"Blame this on your lover!" He hisses as he grabs her arm and forces her to her feet.
She struggles against him as she gets pulled out of her cell and to who knows where, but no matter what she does, there is no escape from whatever he has planned for her.
Shift sits in a secluded area of the Joint Investigation Unit's new, secret Tactical Operations Center when an unknown communications ID suddenly contacts her.
She warily accepts the request for communication.
::Greetings, Black Falcon.:: A foreign voice purrs mockingly.
She narrows her optics.
::And who am I speaking with?::
::Does it matter?::
::It matters when you contact me like this.::
::We had a good fight earlier, you and I. That is who I am. Such a shame you have become their little pet! Why defend them? You and I both know that they won't hesitate to imprison you for your crimes when this is over.::
::YOU!::
::ME, indeed.:: Ember chuckles heartily.
::Finally you dare to show yourself!:: She growls furiously.
Ember's chuckle turns into shrill laughter.
::Do you really think I have been hiding?! It is you who have become incompetent working with the authorities! Look at yourself! You have lost your bite!:: He taunts her derisively, voice full of contempt. ::Just wait until the community hears that you have gone white!::
Shift clenches her teeth in outrage.
::They will be even more appalled when they find out who you work for!:: She hisses venomously.
::No!:: Ember grins wickedly. ::They will admire me for what I have accomplished! The famous Black Falcon will be beaten, and I will be the one to do it!::
::I take it that you didn't go to such lengths to discover my communications ID without reason. So, what do you want?:: She asks darkly when she has had enough of him.
Ember's voice is a pleased smile when he next speaks.
::I have a little gift for you from my employer if you are skilled enough to decrypt it.::
An alert goes off, notifying her about a minor breach of the firewalls before a data-file pops up on her screen.
She cautiously scans the data-file for threats and detects several dangerous ones that need to be handled with the utmost care, or they will destroy the data-file.
It will take a lot of time before she will be able to open the data-file without destroying it, and in the end, she knows that this most likely is a stunt from Torrent to keep her busy while he makes his move. But she can't take the chance and ignore it.
::You are not making it easy for me.:: She says, annoyed.
::What fun would it be without a bit of challenge?:: Ember purrs joyously before the connection cuts, and Shift is left to her tedious, time-consuming work.