Girl's Frontline: Field Agent

by Johnny Wycliffe

Sometimes, life comes at you like an explosion through the storefront. A young man, Hadwin Galanis, finds this out the hard way as his life is turned upside-down by a PMC and Paradeus, forced to pick up a gun and fight in a war fought by machines.

16. Chapter 16: Plan? What Plan?

In response to AngeleX12's comment, I need to clarify the timeline (and fix chapters 3 and 4).

In canon, Isomer happens, and then IMMEDIATELY Shattered Connexion. They board a train at the end of Isomer (Belgrade incident) and head to where the radiation flowers bloom. My canon divergence is to take this train ride and delete it. There's no urgency to get to the Pike node in the submarine base, because nobody knows where it is in my version.

So, a month-ish amount of time can pass by in which Hadwin gets dragged into this mess. Hadwin will be in service to G&K for roughly a month in-story before the events of SC and PL, and we're halfway done with week 2.

So, I changed the text in chapter 3 to say he lost his hand two weeks ago rather than one, and from three months of pain to four weeks which is what it was supposed to be.

I apologize for the confusion. I blame it on me not having a real plan before starting this.

Also, to get the full experience of the next few paragraphs, search up "Caramelldansen from another room 0.5 speed" and don't continue the story until it ends.

Beta Reader Notes:
To the more recent followers of this series, this story was originally a one-shot, which as you now see, has become more than a "one-shot"

---

A slow dance.

Step-one-two. Step-one-two.

Injured hand on her hip, right hand in her left, and we sway back and forth on the dance floor.

I'm too distracted to listen to the song. I'm probably barely on beat, but I don't think my partner is paying attention either.

No, Madam Helian's focus, as well as mine, is on the uninvited guest at our table, Anisim Zaytsev, who is currently having a "pleasant" conversation with Gentiane and Mister Havier.

The smiles are strained on G&K's side and it's pretty understandable.

We've been caught. Rumbled. Hand's in the cookie jar, and mom's already seen.

So, what could've been a nice dance with a slightly older woman (And I do mean slightly. She's what, twenty five? I've seen people date with a ten year difference, let alone five) has turned into an excruciatingly long amount of time to think about how hard we just fucked up.

Aside from Commander Gentiane, Madam Helian, Angelia, and Mister Havier, nobody from G&K is supposed to be here. That's me and 14 dolls.

And so, when the dance comes to a close, neither of us are smiling, and nobody is clapping.

I walk up to the table at a measured pace, matching Madam Helian's pace, eyes glued to Anisim.

His face almost brightens as I walk up. He was so angry when he first spotted me, why the change in attitude? He spreads his arms out and greets me like I'm an old friend.

"Hadwin! How was your dance?"

I find myself unable to respond.

"Hmm? I told you to enjoy yourself out there, so I'll be slightly miffed if you decided not to just to spite me."

"What do you want, Anisim?" Madam Helian asks, not quite demanding.

"Me? I don't want anything!" He holds his hands up to protest his innocence. "I'm here for a party, as are all of you, I suspect." He sips from his drink. "I realize that usually we're at odds with each other, but there's no reason to cause any more disturbances to this party, what do you say?"

"..." The others around me are silent. Aside from the crowd, the music and… er, maybe it's more accurate to say none of us were speaking.

"You pumped me full of drugs and left me for dead." I state, unable to take the staredown anymore.

"And yet, here you are! It seems the experiment had an interesting outcome. It's always a pleasure to see unexpected results." He sips from his glass once more.

Commander Gentiane turns to me. "Hadwin, back down." I glance in her direction and she catches my eye. "He's right, we're not here to cause disturbances."

"Oh, I very much doubt that." Anisim says cheerfully. "After all, most of tonight's entertainment has come from your camp so far. Musician's not on the approval list, guards reporting interesting guests showing up in the back rooms, and even a fight with Rud's children." He glances at my bandaged hand. "I see you didn't make it out of there unscathed."

"No." My voice is flat. "I did not."

"I can have some of my serum made up for you, if you'd like. Fix up your hand." He turns to me fully. "I can think of so many more experiments we could run."

"No thank you. I'd rather not melt out of my own skin."

"Shame." He finishes off his glass and turns to Gentiane. "Ah, so where were we?"

"We were discussing how to proceed." Commander Gentiane says cautiously, arms crossed.

"Oh, yes." He claps his hands together. "Well, I'm sure you know that Myroslav hates dolls. As a good friend of his, I feel like it's my duty to make sure he's not too bothered by them."

"I'm sure that can be arranged." Commander Gentiane's face remains fixed, a poker face of epic proportions.

"I see. Could you have all of your dolls leave the building? I mean all of them, the ones in the staff and the ones among the guests." He smiles politely.

I blink, but thankfully he's not looking at me.

"Hmm? You want me to remove-"

"I see you have five dolls planted in as part of the staff. I was unaware Mister Havier was willing to work with you, but seeing you now shows how close you must be, and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt where they came from." He looks at his fingers. "As for the other dolls, They just need to quietly leave the party. If you can do that, the humans can stay. I don't even mind having them wait outside or patrol with the others, but… not inside."

So he knows about the patrols outside as well.

Everyone looks at Commander Gentiane. She seems to think for a moment, before licking her lips slowly. "Okay, that's fine by me." she glances at Helian, who almost imperceptibly nods. "Hadwin, can you please go tell the indicated staff, your two girlfriends, fiance, sister, and Groza that they need to leave? And please tell them not to make a fuss."

Mister Havier grins and I get some looks from the next table over as they hear that part of our conversation, but I just nod and turn to the table with all of the guest infiltrators as well as Tokarev and Springfield who have decided to hang around.

"So…" I start, scratching the back of my head.

"We have to leave." P90 shrugs theatrically. "I get that he's uncomfortable with us here, but it's not often we get to go to a party. I only got to dance once."

"Yes, a shame." AK-12 nods. "We'll have to do this again."

"Dancing's fine." I grumble. "I could do without the rest of the party."

"Agreed." M200 stands up. "I'll get my guitar."

The dolls all get up and start walking towards the door. I walk with them, all the while looking over my shoulder. M200 joins up before long, having retrieved her guitar case quickly.

Tokarev tugs on my sleeve as we approach the door. "Hadwin, It would look even more suspicious if we leave at the same time. I will alert the rest of the crew and we will leave like it is the end of our shift."

I nod. "Good idea. Please pass along my apologies."

Tokarev blinks at me a few times before nodding.

"Well Hadwin, it was fun. Be safe." Springfield bumps my shoulder with her fist.

"You too." I glance at all seven dolls in the immediate area. "If someone picks on you like the Rud brothers or whatever, you have my permission to beat their face in. Just don't kill anyone please."

"Oh, Hadwin." AK-12 laughs lightly. "I don't think we need your permission."

"Maybe you don't, but I do." P90 looks back at me. "You, however, are to avoid fighting and injuring your hand any further."

"Yes." AN-94 nods. "You need to take care of yourself."

I smile at them. "Is that an order?"

P90's face slowly spreads into a grin. "Taking orders from T-dolls, are you?"

"Nah. I'll take suggestions though." I grin. "Take care. I'll be out to get you as soon as I can."

"I'll keep you to that." M200 hefts her case higher on her shoulder. "We'll be waiting."

With that, they turn and pass the guard at the entrance. Tokarev and Springfield head in a different direction into the staff area, also disappearing from sight.

So… what do I do now?

I stare at the door, lost in thought. I… I guess I need to head back to our table… to wait for 404 to get back to me.

I hope they're not trapped in the vault, but just waiting in there. Or, maybe they've escaped by now and are working their way out. Hey, maybe they're done and we can all go home.

I key the earpiece. "Hey, 9?"

No response.

"9, please speak up if you can, or click the earpiece or something. Just let me know you're alright."

Nothing.

Okay, so they're probably still inside the vault… or captured. My mind starts to cook up a whole variety of unpleasant fates for 404 as I trudge back to the table with Gentiane, Helian, Angelia, and Mister Havier. Seems like Anisim's moved on, which is a small relief.

"You look troubled."

I snap out of my thoughts and focus on the woman I had been dancing with only a few minutes earlier. "Hmm?"

"You're so absorbed in your thoughts, you tried to drink from an empty glass." She points to my hand, which is indeed holding onto a glass that has not even a drop of water in it, completely unused. I relinquish the glass for the untouched glass of water next to it.

"I guess." I mutter in response to Madam Helian's earlier question. "I just feel… I don't know."

"Nervous?"

"That, but also kind of exposed. Like, I don't have anyone watching my back." I shrug lamely. "I'm used to having a few dolls around me at all times."

She looks slightly amused. "You've been working for us for how long again?"

"Eh…" I start thinking back. "It's Friday and my old job got blown apart last Monday, so… eleven days?"

"And you're already firmly attached to the dolls."

Commander Gentiane cuts in. "He was even raised to hate robots. Seems he's just really smitten with our dolls."

"Indeed, if he's dating three of them."

I sigh. "They came up with that themselves. The official backstory was supposed to be that they're my friends from high school, but they decided to change that on their own."

"Oh?" Madam Helian's eyes narrow. "You're not dating any of them?"

"Not… yet." I scratch my head and duck to hide my blush. "I think a few of them like me, but I don't want to jump to conclusions or step on toes."

Gentiane snorts and looks away as I glare at her.

"I see." Helian rubs her chin. "Well, keep it up. Morale has been high since you joined."

"Alright." I turn to the grinning Angelia. "What?"

"Oh, I just got a very interesting report from AK-12 while you were busy dancing with the others." She says, almost in a sing-song. "She says you're a perfect gentleman, and fought to protect them."

I hold up my left hand, wrapped like a mummy. "Uh-huh."

"Well, maybe you can expect AK-12 to start taking a more active interest in you." She wiggles her eyebrows.

"Oh please no." I groan. "I have my hands full trying to figure out AR-15 and HK 416." I look away, muttering. "And maybe 45."

"A regular playboy, huh?" Mister Havier asks. "Reminds me of a certain other man I know."

"Hadwin, I've been to Griffchan." Gentiane says flatly. "You need to get there sometime soon and check out what's being talked about. You've got more than just those three on your tail."

I give her a desperate look. "Okay, so… I downloaded a T-doll manual, but I haven't had a chance to look through it. Is there a way to turn off that attraction thing?"

She and Angeila share a look. "What attraction thing?" Angelia asks.

"Uh, UMP 9 told me that dolls, um, imprint on their owners or something." I feel my face flushing bright red, but I push forwards anyways. "I'd like to try to turn that off if I can, or learn to not trigger it."

"Don't like the attention?" Madam Helian asks.

"I… I guess I don't mind, but I don't like screwing with their heads just by being near them."

"Well, I have good news and bad news." Commander Gentiane's grin comes back. "Good news is, you're mistaken. It's not an attraction, it's a default setting. If you compare a doll to a human, dolls are just slightly less suspicious of strangers by default. They only grow attached to people by interaction just like people."

"Ah." Wait, so-

"The bad news is that to stop it means you'll have to stop talking to or interacting with them in any way. Or be a dick to them on purpose, but I doubt you could do that."

"...Oh."

"Cheer up." Angelia grins. "There's no law prohibiting dating multiple dolls."

I shoot her a look, but it looks like she and Gentiane are having too much fun at my expense. I guess that's fine, but she brings up an interesting point. Dating multiple dolls? That's… that's gotta be stressful as all hell. Imagine if they found out, they're all equipped for combat. I'd be dead in hours with my lack of lying ability.

I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to date one of them. I mean… they're really close to humans and I'm on good terms with a bunch of them, but… they're still robots.

But I decided not to think of them that way.

I hold my head in my hands as my thoughts spin in a weird direction and all thoughts of our immediate situation fade from my head.

"I think we broke him." I can hear Angelia saying from across the table.

"Eh, he'll be fine." Commander Gentiane shrugs. "What we need to worry about is the second part of our mission."

"Right, 404." Helian leans in, lacing her fingers and placing them over her mouth. "Do we know their status?"

"Nope. Last contact we had, they were in the vault and got trapped inside it." Commander Gentiane responds. "Hadwin, I'm going to need you to figure out a way to get down there and get them out of there."

"...I think I remember the route down there." I mutter. "Someone needs to cover for me though."

"We can certainly come up with something." Commander Gentiane's grin widens.

"I wonder, did Hadwin finally give into his lust and find a room with one of the dolls or was he kidnapped?" Angelia asks.

I sigh even as the rest of the table continues to laugh at my expense. They outrank me, don't do anything stupid. "Okay, you'll embarrass me as thoroughly as you can, and I'll sneak back down there. I'll go now." I stand up.

"Now, now, you haven't eaten yet, have you?" Mister Havier asks. "It's a crime not to eat anything at a party, especially to one as well catered as this."

"Uh, I had something earlier."

"Chloe told us you didn't." Commander Gentiane waves for me to sit back down. "Here, let me get you something." She stands up.

"Oh, nah, I got it-"

"Sit." She commands. "You're injured, so just sit there for a bit."

"...Okay." I sit back down and relax into the chair. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it." She turns and disappears into the crowd.

"Son, you're gonna need to learn how to talk to women." Mister Havier turns to me. "First of all, you need to learn to say no. Then, you need to learn to never say no when they're in the right."

I sigh and finish the quote. "And third is, they're never wrong. Yeah, I got it."

He cackles. "No, third is to make sure you have enough firepower when you need to say no despite rule two."

"Is that what you call your 'generous donations'?" Madam Helian turns to Havier.

"Money can be far stronger than gunpowder when applied properly." Haviers eyes narrow. "You're all here, aren't you?"

"...I suppose." Helian accedes.

I glance around at the party as the important people discuss other things that I can't follow, eyes unconsciously searching out T-dolls and finding none. My thoughts drift back to Gentiane and Angelia's teasing...

It's weird. Somewhere in the back of my head, I guess I've kinda clung onto the idea that these androids are still dangerous and that's leading me to be a bit hesitant with them. Sure, I'm willing to save them from dying, they would do the same. I trust them to save my life if it's feasible. I trust them not to intentionally screw me over, with a few exceptions.

I still don't know if I'd be able to date one of them. It just seems weird, settling down with a robot. They'll never age and they can just slip into a new body if they want. Hell, I have no idea how old most of them are, or how morally ethical any of this would be. G11's the youngest looking of 404 and supposedly the oldest in terms of activation time, but I still don't think I could ever treat her as anything different from a 12 year old unless she changed how she looks.

Also… there's the issue of the fact that they're not free. They have owners. G&K owns them, they can't just leave, and what would happen if G&K took them away after falling for them? Even if I could transfer ownership… Owning someone you're in a relationship with just sounds like a recipe for abuse.

I'm still in deep thought when Commander Gentiane taps my shoulder and gestures to the plate in front of me when I glance at her inquisitively. I missed her bringing me some food.

"Oh. Thank you."

"No problem." She's sitting in the chair next to me. "Something on your mind?"

"Just what you were talking about earlier."

"Figuring out a way to get into the vault?"

I blink. "No, but I really should think about that." I frown.

"Then, what?"

"Oh, you and Angelia brought up dating T-dolls, and…"

She kinda gives me a look. "You don't have to think that hard about it. Really. We were mostly teasing."

"Mostly." I repeat her words. "And UMP 45 beat me up because I didn't take it seriously." I eye the food laid out in front of me. It's probably the fanciest stuff I've ever had the chance to eat. I'm just not that hungry, but I really should eat. All of the food is small and easy to eat with one hand too... "So it may be a joke to you, but it's certainly not for me."

"Hey." She pulls her seat closer so she can lower her voice. "It's not a joke for me either. If you're serious, I'll give you a hand in some places."

I stare at her suddenly serious face. "I'm… Let me get back to you on that." I sigh. "You're right, I need to come up with a plan to get into that vault."

"Uh-huh." She leans back into her chair, still not breaking eye contact. "I have an idea, but…"

"Yes?" I ask as she trails off.

"...How bad is the situation between you and 45 right now?"

"She called me 'that commander' last time she talked to someone about me." I reluctantly stab my food with my fork. "So I'd say about as bad as it can be."

"Tell me exactly what happened Wednesday night." She orders.

I reluctantly relay the conversation to the best of my ability, not leaving anything out. I'm still kind of reluctant to spill everything since it's kinda personal, but Gentiane seems like a safe person to talk to. She already knows most of it anyway…

"I see." She frowns. "And you've been unable to talk to her since?"

"Basically." I shrug, finishing my plate. I hadn't tasted any of the food. Shame, it looked good.

"Let's see… No, I think my plan will still work, you just may need to avoid talking to her and hope she's willing to overlook your involvement in this." She nods. "Okay, here's how it goes-"

---

I key the headset in my ear from my cube in the bathroom, careful to keep my voice from carrying to other occupants of the restroom. "Hey, MP40?"

"Ja Kommandir?"

"Can you please hand your earpiece to Chloe? It's important."

"Ja, give me a few seconds, Bitte."

"Thanks."

Before long, P90's voice comes over the earpiece. "Salut, Commander. Finally ready to confess your love?"

"Maybe later." I sigh. "For now, I need you back inside. Can you disguise as some random partygoer and come back in?" She doesn't respond after a few seconds. "Chloe?"

"I… I'll be right there." She hesitates. "Don't scare me like that."

"Then don't ask for it." I state. "Make sure to give MP40 the earpiece back."

"Yeah, yeah. Give me a few minutes." She grumbles. After a few more seconds, MP40's voice comes through.

"Chloe is on her way. Good luck, Kommandir."

"Thanks. You too." I move to the sink and wash my hands before exiting the bathroom. While I'm not thrilled with Commander Gentiane's plan, it's certainly much better than no plan at all. I'm gonna have to play the fool once more…

"Hello!" A cheerful redhead steps into my line of sight.

I blink. P90 got here fast. "Hey."

"I saw you dancing out there on the dance floor earlier. You've got some nice moves!"

"...Thanks." I frown. "So, are you ready?"

She tilts her head. "Ready?"

Hmm?

I suddenly have the sinking feeling that this isn't P90.

"You mean, you want to dance with me?" Her eyes open wide as her voice climbs in excitement.

"Er, n-no, I was-"

"Hey Hadwin." Another woman steps out of the crowd and grabs my arm, this one both familiar and oddly out of place. "Ready?"

"Ah, yeah." I shoot the other lady an apologetic look. "Sorry."

"Oh." Her face falls and she trudges away.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Dunno." The other woman shrugs. "She's in my way though." She turns to me. "Ready to dance?"

"...You are Chloe, right?"

"Yeah…" She sighs and her real face peeks out from the hologram for a split second. "I forgot to tell you what my disguise was."

"I wasn't expecting Eva of all things." I scratch my head with my free hand. "I almost thought she might be at this party."

"She was." P90 shrugs. "I had to pretend to be someone who the guard recognizes after all."

A cold sweat covers my back. "Is she still here?"

"No, she left earlier." P90's eyes narrow.

"...Why?" Suspicion laces my words.

"Who knows?"

"Chloe-"

"Oh, look. We're at the back door." She pushes me through, and as soon as the door closes, she deactivates her hologram. "So, what's the full plan?"

I give her the short version, and she nods.

"So, just gotta get down to the vault?" She asks.

"You say it like it's easy." I grumble.

"It is, for me." Her form ripples with a subtle blue glow. "Now, we just need to get you back there."

"Right, and I can't go invisible-"

She suddenly turns me around to face her and pulls me close, her face almost touching mine. After all of Angelia and Gentiane's teasing, I can't help but be conscious of her pink lipstick, and how her red eyes sparkle in the dim light-

A security guard comes from around the corner and I look in his direction as P90 does the same. It's not the same guy from earlier, which would have probably been a problem.

He coughs. "Hey, you kids can't be back here." He says.

P90's face melts into a pout. "Aw, but it's so crowded in there, and I couldn't get any time with him."

The guard hesitates, before shaking his head. "Fine, you can stay here for now, but you better be gone before I come back."

'We will." I assure him.

He continues his patrol and P90 holds me in place until he's out of sight before suddenly dragging me down the hallway rapidly.

Unprompted, she explains. "Gotta get moving before he comes back."

"Yeah, but-" I point with my entire bandaged hand. "We need to go that way."

Her face is flushed as she turns around quickly and starts dragging me down the correct hallway.

I end up having to guide her down, my past trip proving useful. I only made two wrong turns on our way down.

Out of five.

Thankfully, P90's on the ball and keeps us hidden, once activating a hologram to hide behind as a particularly bored guard dropped the keys he's playing with. That short burst made her hot to the touch and I suddenly started to worry about the next step of the plan.

She's back to being slightly cooler than your average human by the time we're at the door of the vault and the next step of the plan can commence.

"Are you good?" I ask right before she steps into sight of the guards.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She smiles lightly. "It's going to take a bit to finish this though."

"Take your time." I grumble. "I'll figure something out."

"Thanks, Haddy." She grins. "I know I can trust you to be a good decoy."

"It's all I do around here."

Her form changes and we step out from around the corner once again.

The guards snap to attention as P90, disguised as Myroslav Rud stalks up to them. "Open the vault." She snaps, her voice a perfect recreation of Myroslav's.

The same two guards from earlier look at each other. "Something wrong, boss?"

"This boy screwed around with some of my treasures and now I need to fix it. Open the vault."

"Sure, you got it."

I shuffle towards a bench on one side of the long hall and collapse into it.

"Keep an eye on him, and if he runs, shoot him." P90 orders as the doors open.

"Roger."

The two guards position themselves to watch me easily.

"What did you do?" The serious guard asks after a few seconds of silence.

"I knocked over a box." I say, face downcast so they can't read my expression. "And when I tried to put it back I might've mixed it up-"

"Hadwin!" P90 stands in the door. "Get in here!"

I bolt to my feet and the guards clear a path for me.

Once inside, I see the entirety of 404 standing in place and P90 disguised as Myroslav tapping her foot impatiently. "Y-yes?"

"Explain." P90 points to 404.

I turn to the four rogue dolls, three of them looking back. Only UMP 45 refuses to look in my direction. "Uh, rescue's here?"

"...Yay?" 9 tilts her head.

"Thank you." 416 states. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

G11 nods along with 416's words.

"We didn't need a rescue, we had our own plan." UMP 45 talks directly to P90 who's face remains irritable.

"Well, tough."

I clear my throat. "Uh, P90's going to help you out of the vault one at a time with her holograms." I tell the four dolls. "It's going to take some time, but it's our safest bet."

9 looks between me and her sister. "I agree." She says slowly. "We should take this opportunity."

"So, who's first?" P90's eyes are still Myroslav's sharp ones.

"G11." 416 pushes the smaller doll forwards.

"Got it." P90 touches G11's shoulder and they both disappear. Myroslav's voice booms out from thin air suddenly. "AND STAY OUT!"

I feel a hand push me towards the door and I take the hint. I stumble out and collapse onto the bench once more.

The two guards give me a sympathetic smile.

The less serious one walks up and places a hand on the shoulder of my right arm. "Don't worry about it, kid." His voice is vaguely apologetic. "He gets like this sometimes. Just gotta lay as low as possible."

"I… I guess." I curl into myself to hide my expression again.

The guard sits down next to me. "I'm Gregory, by the way."

"Hadwin."

He chuckles. "I got that. So, Hadwin, how'd you get the attention of the illustrious Mister Rud?"

I sigh. "His sons picked a fight with me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." I hold up my bandaged hand. "I got cut real bad."

"You should be glad you're not in the hospital." The serious guard says from his post. "Last guy they picked a fight with almost ended up in a coma."

I shudder, the thought not a pleasant one.

"If I thought I wouldn't disappear, I probably would tell it to Myroslav's face that his kids need to learn how to behave, but…" The relaxed one shrugs. "Last guy to mention it was shipped to France."

"The kid's right here." Serious admonishes the man beside me.

"Yeah, yeah." Relaxed turns back to me with a grin. "Say, kid, you ever wanted to be a security guard?"

I shake my head. "No. Actually, up until recently, I was working in a fast food restaurant."

"Seriously? How the hell did you survive?"

As I try to figure out a method of half-truths to hide my G&K roots, an idea comes to mind. Not a very sane one, but oh so funny. "Oh, my 'girlfriends' helped." I grumble, secretly relishing how their eyes bug out. "Lucia's blind, but she still managed to trip one of them, and Antia managed to throw a dinner tray under one of their feet. By the time they recovered, Myroslav had told them to stop."

"...Dude." They both give me a look.

"Hmm?"

"You have two girlfriends?" Serious asks in astonishment.

"And they know about each other?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Uh, who did you think those two I brought down last time were?"

"...Holy shit." They look at each other. "You're a god."

"Nah…" I let my head tilt back to stare at the ceiling, attempting to put on a wistful face. "Just got lucky."

I briefly wonder if I'd really consider myself lucky, but then my left hand is half pain and half dead, soooo…

In my ear, the earpiece crackles. "Haddy, 416, G11 and I are out. P90's cooling down right now, and once she gets 45-nee out of there, she'll come get you as Myroslav."

I can't respond, so I turn to Relaxed and point to him. "Although, I do have to say, it's hard to take care of a blind person."

"Yeah, my grandpa went blind before he passed away." Relaxed's face grows melancholy. "He was really into video games and it was really hard for him to deal with not being able to play his favorites in his later years."

"Oh yeah?" I ask, sympathetic. I mean, I've never experienced that for real, so knowing might be helpful.

"Yeah. For a long time, we had to play him songs from his favorites to get him to cheer up. We eventually scraped up the money to get him one of those Linker things and he was so happy. He was able to play his favorite games a few times before he passed on."

"Huh." I blink. "I… I never considered that option."

"It's actually really nice-"

Whatever he was going to say gets cut off by a clamor by the entrance. Both of the guards turn to face the noise, Relaxed standing up to check out the noise. Even I go on high alert. I mean, it's probably the dolls, but-

"Haddy, Myroslav and Anisim are coming down the stairs. We need to deal with the guards." 9's voice is rushed. "You take out the one closest to you, and we'll grab the one heading our way."

I turn to Serious, who gives me a quick glance before gesturing for me to get out of his way as he draws his firearm.

Wait, how the hell am I supposed to stop him? I have a pistol in my coat, but I don't want to kill him. I step back on reflex as he passes me, not even watching his back.

My right hand tucks into my coat and clasps around the hilt of my new pistol.

No. No, I can't- I was just talking with them!

I draw the pistol the rest of the way out of my jacket and look down at it.

"Haddy? What are you doing?"

I can't respond, my right hand busy with a gun. I can't do this. My breath starts to feel short and I'm almost gasping for air.

"Dummkopf." UMP 45 hisses as she breezes past me, her steps perfectly silent.

Before I can react, she uses her good arm to chop at Serious' neck and drops him silently. UMP 9 swoops out from the end of the hall as Relaxed gets there and drags him out of sight.

I'm just about to relax and UMP 45 starts dragging the unconscious man. I ran over and helped her, though she refused to acknowledge my assistance.

Though, once all three of us are behind the bench, she grabs my shirt and hastily drags me into the vault.

"H-hey, shouldn't we head out-"

"Halt. Den. Munde." She glares at me with pure hatred in her one eye.

I shut up.

My earpiece squeaks. "9, get everyone into hiding."

"I already did, but P90-"

I peek out the vault door to see what's going on.

"Hey boss!" A perfect replica of Relaxed appears at the end of the hallway.

"Hello. Please open the vault for me." The real Myroslav says, his face glistening with sweat. The reason is probably the man next to him, a distinctly unhappy Anisim. The hallway carries the sound well enough to hear the conversation.

"Oh, sure can do, sir." P90 mimes opening the door with a remote attached to her gear.

"And…" Myroslav's eyes narrow suspiciously. "Where's Oleksiy?"

"Bathroom, sir."

"I see, carry on."

The two walk towards the vault and the Relaxed guard fades from existence immediately once out of sight.

Now that the two are heading for us, I back away from the door. Shit, I gotta hide-

Where did 45 go?

I glance around, but she's nowhere to be seen.

Okay, whatever. I scan around again-

Oh, a wardrobe. I open it and find it full of dusty coats. Whatever, it's a hiding spot. I step in and close the door as far as I can. There's no handle in here, so I can pull it fully closed.

Also, I don't really want to meet any talking lions or witches today.

The earpiece sounds once more. "Haddy, P90 had to make us invisible. She says she's heat soaked and won't be able to do much more in terms of holograms. Maybe one more for when they leave the vault."

I poke my ear. "Roger. The rest of you-"

"9, head out to the surface. Hide the guard's body and make sure you're not seen." UMP 45's voice arrives once more. I don't know where she got the earpiece, but- "I'll be up ASAP."

"Okay, P90's staying behind for the last hologram. Good luck." She hesitates. "Erm, you too, Haddy."

"Thanks, 9." I sigh.

Before much longer, Anisim and Myroslav enter the vault, their voices drifting through the door of my hiding spot.

"There's no need for this, I tell you." Myroslav says, his voice anxious.

"Of course there is. If you're giving tours down here, I can't trust you to keep hold of it."

"But, that's ridiculous! My vault is the most secure in the area and you would be foolish to take it away from here." After a second, his voice rose slightly in panic. "I-I mean, you clearly can keep it safe, but transporting it back and forth to wherever your own vault is means it's that much more likely to be stolen!"

"I see. So, I should let you keep the key."

"Yes!"

"Mister Rud, did you know that you had some dolls at your party today?"

I bristle. If he spills about us-

"What?!" Myroslav's voice tightens. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I don't owe you any favors, and besides, I removed most of them peacefully. The point is, you didn't know, and yet you claim this place is secure. I have to wonder how secure, given all I've seen, has been pretty sloppy work."

"I… I…"

"So, I'll be taking the key."

Silence for a fraction of a second.

"N-No!" Yaroslav's voice is trembling. "I won't! That's been a relic of the Rud family for many generations and I refuse to hand it over to you just because you said so! In fact I-"

Click.

The unmistakable sound of a gun's slide racking back sounds out. "Maybe you should take a second to reconsider." Anisim's cold voice is perfectly precise.

"...Fine." Myroslav sounds defeated. "Take the stupid thing. It's not worth dying over."

"I knew you'd see it my way." Anisims voice changes to pleased unnaturally fast. "Well, let's go get it."

I dare a peek out of the doors and I see Anisim walking up to the pedestal with that key thing we're supposed to be stealing. He takes it out, examines it from a few angles, and then tucks it into his jacket. He still has his handgun out in his right hand and Myroslav's eyes are glued to the instrument of death.

Once I peek, I also figure out where UMP 45's hiding. She's standing, perfectly at rest, on one side of the shelves of documents, eyes staring right through the shelf like she has X-ray vision.

...She doesn't have X-ray vision, does she?

In any case, I watch her calmly walk around the shelf as Myroslav and Anisim walk back closer on my side. She keeps the shelf perfectly between herself and the duo, and in doing so, completely avoids detection as the two leave the vault.

As soon as they're gone, I open the door to the wardrobe.

UMP 45 is already moving to follow them and I carefully step up behind her.

"Yeah, I'll tell him." Relaxed's voice comes from the other side. "Sorry sir, it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't." Myroslav's voice is harsh as he criticizes who he thinks in his guard and then two sets of footsteps retreat down the hall.

P90 stumbles into the room, panting heavily and bright red, disguise already dropped. She collapses against the wall of the vault.

"P90, are you alright?" I ask, worried. I try to hold up my hand to her forehead, but she bats it away.

"I'll be fine once I cool down for a few minutes." She pants. "But I don't think I'm going to use my hologram core for the rest of the night. It's not acting right, it shouldn't have overheated this quickly."

"...Are you sure you're okay?" I ask again. "I'll call Commander-"

"Don't. I'll clean up down here and get out. You-" She pauses and pants a few times. "You need to go after Anisim and Myroslav. We need that key."

I look into her eyes and then decide she's not lying to me. "Okay. Have someone tell me when you get out, or I'm coming back down to get you."

"Ha." She waves me away. "Go, before you lose 45 as well."

I glance back, and-

Aw, shit. I run out of the vault, sticking to the carpet and trying to keep the noise down. UMP 45 has left me behind. Not surprised, really.

I catch her as I round the corner. She's sitting in the corner, watching as the two men pass around the next bend in the hall. Her eye glows brightly in the dim section of the hall and her expression is so dark I almost recoil.

"Hey, UMP 45, we need to-"

"There is no 'we'. I'm going to fix your mistake." She glowers, her first words directly to me that weren't completely an insult since Wednesday night. "You need to leave before you blow everything."

I roll my eyes. "I don't know if everyone filled you in but-"

"I'm up to speed." She cuts me off. "So, with my team outside, your team outside, the backup team outside, and with how you're already suspicious enough if you get too close to Anisim, it basically falls to me to get this entire operation done."

"Yeah, Anisim's wary of me. But we can use that to our advantage!" I insist. "Look, I'm the decoy, right? Let me talk to him. If anything I'll just annoy him to the point that he gets distracted enough to let down his guard."

"Oh, really." She turns away and starts walking down the hall. "I think it'll be easier if I do it myself. Less likely for an armleuchter to get in my way."

I still don't understand the insult, but I get that she's talking about me. "Why do you care? Just let me distract him, and if he gets fed up, he'll just shoot me and you'll be rid of me forever!"

She whirls around to face me. "If you're going to act that way, I might as well incapacitate you right here." She snarls. "I'm not going to be involved in you getting yourself killed."

"Oh please." I roll my eyes. "You haven't been hired to keep me alive. Just use me like a tool, should feel great with how we all treat-"

She slams me into the wall, her single eye open as wide as I've ever seen it. Biting her words off like they're being dragged out of her, she still keeps her tone low to avoid being heard by those ahead. "I'm only going to say this once. I'm not going to let you die, even if it means dragging you out of here after knocking you out. I don't care about your stupid mission. I don't care if Commander Gentiane gets cross and withholds pay again. You're not going to die on my watch. I. Won't. Let. You."

"...Okay, then keep me in your sight so I don't do anything stupid." I reply. "Because, I'm not going to go outside and wait because you order me too."

"Hadwin-"

"No. I'm not one of your lackeys. I'm not in your chain of command." I glare down at her. "I'm going upstairs and helping you with Anisim, or I'm going up there with my own stupid plan. Your pick."

She stares at me for a few seconds before she starts to shake. At first I think it's in rage, but then I realize she has a crazed smile on her face, and she's chuckling. "I see. I see." Her eye twitches. "Well, I guess I have no choice." Her eye snaps right back to my face, still wide, and she stops shaking. "Let's go, Hadwin."

"...Yeah."

She lets me off of the wall and we start hurrying to catch up to Anisim and Yaroslav, who are probably back at the party already if I had to guess.

I toggle the earpiece. "Commander Gentiane?"

The requested person sighs through the earpiece. "Yes, Hadwin?"

"Keep an eye on Anisim. He's got the key thing. UMP 45 and I are headed up there to deal with him."

"...Okay."

The rest of the journey up the stairs and into the main room of the party is uneventful. The guard didn't see us as we strode past his post, too busy with something else on his phone.

The party once again hits me like a wall of sound and I immediately start searching around for Anisim.

UMP 45 taps my arm, pointing towards the dance floor. "I'm going to-"

"Don't tell me. I can't lie to save my life and genuine surprise will suit us better."

She shakes her head, but doesn't complain, drifting away from me in the crowd.

At the table where I had sat with my infiltration squad after dancing, a lone man sits eating his food delicately. The table next to them is empty and I can't immediately spot the G&K staff. I make a beeline for Anisim's table, pulling out a chair and plopping down into it before he has a chance to look up. "Mind if I sit here?"

He doesn't glance up, but continues to eat. "Hmm. No, I guess I don't mind. Still, I have to question why you chose this particular table out of all the available ones."

"Why, because you're here of course." I lean my elbows on the table, careful not to disturb my left hand. "I figured we might have some stuff to talk about."

He wipes his face with his napkin and then folds his hands as he looks at me for the first time since I sat down. "Really? I don't think so. I finished the experiment I wanted to run."

"You tried to take over my city." I try to keep my tone level.

"Well, yes. Paradeus is constantly on the lookout for new territory. Just like Russia, the coalition, and any number of others. Peaceful options are always better."

"You're the one that shot Ellis Mavros on camera, not me." I reply. "Didn't seem so peaceful there."

"No, I suppose not. However, I cannot afford to remain in one place for too long." He gives me a very unpleasant smirk. "After all, I have many enemies who would attack me, some of them unprovoked."

"Wha… Unprovoked?" I'm not able to keep the incredulousness out of my voice. "You tried to stage a takeover, then tied me to a bed and pumped me full of drugs!"

"Neither of those were personal. The first was simply business, you were just caught in the same area. Nobody would have died if you hadn't got in our way. The other was simply an experiment. You're the one that broke into my lab, I only decided to dole out a suitable punishment." He leans forwards menacingly. "No, see, tonight I have been nothing but courteous to my enemies, and you reward me by lying to my face."

"Huh?" I screw up my face. "The hell are you talking about? We did what you asked. All of our dolls are out of the building." It's technically true too, UMP 45's not G&K.

"Then, who's that?" He points to the side.

I slowly follow his finger, dreading the sight of UMP 45…

I blink.

"Uh… I don't know?" I glance back at Anisim. "Isn't that just a random partygoer?"

He stares right into my eyes, like he can see my soul through them. "You… don't know who these dolls belong to?"

A chill goes down my spine. "There's still more dolls here?"

He turns on the screen of his phone and sets it on the table. It shows an overhead view of the ballroom with several red dots moving around it. I quickly realize that the red dots are Dolls. I glance back at the one he had pointed out earlier, the only one in easy line of sight.

"You… really don't know who they are." He mutters, looking at my face.

"No." I stand up slowly. "I don't."

He stands up as well and reaches into his jacket.

The indicated doll turns around and I see that she has a somewhat familiar device in her hand. A grenade of some sort, being held up. I can see three other hands with metal canisters poke up from around the crowd-

"HADWIN!"

UMP 45 bowls into me as several loud pops go off, followed by an ear splitting screech and a blinding flash of light.

Flashbangs.

Though, I can't focus on the pain in my eyes and ears, since when I went down, I instinctively tried to catch myself, and now my left hand is screaming in pain.

My vision comes back first and UMP 45 is sitting on my stomach, hunched over, trying to protect me from the sudden stampede of people.

I tap her with my good hand, she snaps down to me and tries to say something, but I can't hear her. "I can't hear you." I say. Or shout, or mouth. I can't really tell.

She rolls her eye and makes a finger gun, then points to me.

I reach into my jacket and withdraw the firearm and she takes it, racking the slide and standing up.

I carefully stand up, dodging half blinded guests who are panicking, maybe understandably. Over the tinny screech of the flashbang, I start to hear the screaming.

"HADWIN!" I whip around to see Commander Gentiane, her own firearm drawn. "What the hell-"

"Someone else has Dolls here!" I shout. "Anisim detected them and thought we didn't keep our end of the bargain!"

"What?!"

"I lent 45 my gun, do you have a spare?"

She pulls a gun out of her jacket with her free hand and hands it to me. "We need to get out of here. They're moving to lock down the doors, we need to move before-"

A gunshot goes off and a new round of screaming echoes in the hall.

"Quiet!" a voice booms, amplified by a microphone on the stage and broadcast through all the speakers in the building. The man standing behind the microphone has a rifle of some sort held in his hand, keeping it at about hip height. Behind him, several other people stand with weapons held up and ready, eyes scanning the crowd.

We all duck behind the nearest table to hide.

Beside me, Commander Gentaine starts to mutter. "Organized, trained, access to military grade equipment…" She clicks her tongue. "It's a PMC."

Angelia tugs off her gloves revealing her scarred arm and her metal one. "Do you think it's Svoboda nebo Smert?"

"Probably, if we're this deep into Ukraine." Commander Gentiane turns to me. "Contact MP40."

"Roger." I state. I tap my ear, the time for stealth over. "MP40?"

"Kommandir, we have a situation. Four APCs, all unmarked. We're not equipped to deal with this."

"It's not looking good here either." I grimace. "Keep me updated, okay?"

"Ja."

Commander Gentiane looks at me. "Well?"

"Don't you have an earpiece?"

"No, mine fell out and got stepped on." She growls.

I pluck it out of my ear. "You're more experienced, take it."

She takes the earpiece, wipes it off, and inserts it into her ear. "MP40?"

I stop paying attention to her as the man behind the microphone starts speaking.

Unfortunately for me, I don't speak Ukrainian. I've met plenty of people who can, so I know what it sounds like and I can kinda pick out a word here and there, but for the most part his speech is incomprehensible.

"Looks like someone's not a fan of Myroslav." Angelia mutters next to me.

"You speak Ukrainian?" I ask.

"Among other things, yes." She gestures forwards. "They're demanding a key."

I groan. "Let me guess, small enough to fit into a pocket, black with gold inlays, kinda computery?"

"It's the same thing we came for, isn't it?" She groans as well.

"And Anisim. He took it from Myroslav in the vault just before we came back up."

"So, he has it right now?"

I nod.

"Well, nothing we can do about that for now. Right now we need to focus on getting ourselves out alive."

"Right." I start looking around. I find UMP 45, my pistol hidden away in closed hands behind her back. She's watching the assembled gunmen and women on the stage with a cautious eye. Anisim's nowhere to be found. Madam Helian is sitting at a new table, calmly surveying the scene, and Mister Havier's nowhere to be found.

So, it's Angelia, Commander Gentiane, maybe Helian, UMP 45, and me.

"C-Commander Gentiane!"

I turn to find Myroslav, having crawled on his hands and knees, is now kneeling before Commander Gentiane.

She looks down at the man. "Yes?"

"I don't suppose you brought some of your Dolls with you?"

Gentiane raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure you gave us very specific instructions-"

"Yes, yes, but if you did, I'd like to hire you to get rid of the revolutionaries."

Commander Gentiane chews this over for a few seconds. "Well… I supposed we might have brought a few for security." She admits. "Since this is very sudden, we're gonna charge you out the nose-"

"I don't care!" He cries, still trying to keep his voice low. "Just don't let them kill me!"

Commander Gentiane pokes her ear. "New orders, MP40."

I peek around the edge of the table once more, trying to figure out exactly what they're doing. For now, they're still reading off a scrap of paper, and still in a language I don't understand. Probably making demands?

I turn back and Angelia taps my shoulder. "Hadwin, Commander Gentiane and I are going to have our hands full with the enemies outside. Can you deal with those guys up there?"

I glance up at the stage. "I… I think so. If I can get UMP 45 to cooperate."

"Good luck." She slaps me on the shoulder. "We're counting on you."

I nod and shuffle, back hunched over to not stick out over the table. I'd crawl, but my left hand is still completely screaming in pain.

About halfway to her, UMP 45 notices me and she manages to sprint while staying low until she gets close to me. "What are you doing?"

"We need a plan to deal with this group." I wave my hand vaguely.

"The Svoboda nebo Smert?"

"Uh, sure." I shrug. Myroslav just hired us-" I blink. "Well, hired G&K to protect him and deal with the Sov- er, Sovbody-"

"Just call them the SnS."

"We're hired to take out the SnS." I finish.

"Okay." She sighs. "And you're not going to leave the building even if I ask you to, are you?"

"Nope."

"What's the plan?"

I shrug. "I came here to get you to help plan that part out."

"Oh, so I get to make the plans now?" A wicked grin crosses her face. "Are you sure?"

I hesitate. "I mean… I'm kinda new to this." I glance over the table carefully. "I think what we need to do is get them to focus on us, or at least have them out of the main room. If we can get them away from the rest of the crowd, we can start negotiating while Commander Gentiane and Angelia get the others out. It's gonna be hard to get this done with an entire party of hostages."

"...Are we hired to protect them?"

I glare at her. "It doesn't matter. We're going to get as many of them out as we can."

She shrugs casually. "There goes about half of my ideas."

"So, I think we can head back behind the stage somehow, and make enough noise to draw their attention back there, then lead them on a wild goose chase in the back halls." I scratch my head. "I don't know any details of how to do any of that, but…" I trail off.

"Eh, the details are unimportant and subject to change. Sounds like you made enough of a plan yourself." She looks at the gun in my right hand. "So, is this one loaded?"

I look at the gun. "Maybe?" I try to slide the rack back by bracing the slide on my hip, but I can't get leverage on it. "Uh, can you check?"

"Here." She opens her hand for the gun in my hands and hands me the one she borrowed earlier. "Yours is ready to fire, don't point it at me."

"Got it." I blow out of my lips as she checks the magazine and the slide, finding bullets.

"Now comes the fun part." She says sarcastically. "Ready?"

"No, but what else is new?"

I follow her as we weave our way in and around tables, guests (most of whom are standing stock still, eyes riveted to the stage) and try to stay out of sight of SnS. It goes well right up until we get to the door leading into the back area.

There's a big gap between our cover and the door. There's nobody standing around, mainly because there's an SnS doll patrolling back and forth with a small firearm in hand, aiming it at anyone who moves too close.

"Guard." I mutter to UMP 45.

"Ja." She rolls her eye. "Are you really surprised?"

"No, I was just…" I sigh. "Whatever. I'll go get her attention and you sneak around behind her."

UMP 45 looks at me askance. "How are you getting her attention? We can't alert the rest of the group."

"Can you do that signal blocking thing RO does?"

She glares at me.

"I'll take that as a yes." I mutter under my breath before talking in a slightly louder voice. "You make sure she can't tell anyone and I'm going to have a medical emergency."

"If you're going to shoot or stab yourself-"

I cut her off before she can finish the threat. "I already have a dead hand to use."

She hangs back as I straighten up slowly and then carefully walk over to the SnS doll. To hide my gun, I fold my arms and tuck the gun into my left armpit.

Of course, she immediately notices me and her small weapon aims squarely at my chest. "Do not approach." She says.

"B-but, my hand!" I gasp. "It hurts!"

Normally, I'd assume that she'd be able to see through my lie. Unfortunately, it's not a lie, so I think I'll be fine.

"Still, do not approach. I will fire." She raises the weapon and braces herself to fire.

"Please! I just need to get to the medical room in the back, it'll only take a second."

The doll hesitates. "...Right this way." She gestures with her firearm for me to proceed through the door.

I make it a few steps in when she jams the gun into my kidney. "Halt."

"Eh?" I turn just enough to watch her raise a radio to her mouth.

"Commander, I have one of the targets." She pauses for a few seconds, but no response comes. "Commander?"

I carefully unfold my arms, still hiding the pistol as well as I can. I don't want to use it, but… I will. I start to turn around slowly while she's distracted, but after a second, she notices me and my gun.

She leaps backwards and raises her firearm even as I raise my own. Now, I'm under no illusions that I could beat a doll in a shootout. In fact, in terms of reaction time, I'm completely outmatched. Which means…

She's not allowed to shoot me for some reason. She mentioned I was a target, so maybe they want some info out of me?

Maybe, the location of a certain black and gold key?

I lower my aim from her head to right at her chest bone. Right at her core.

Her eyes narrow. "You've fought dolls before."

"Nah." The pistol's a bit heavy, holding it out like this with one hand. "I'm just friends with some." The pistol starts to shake in my hand, from not being able to brace it or nerves I don't know.

"You're not going to win this firefight."

I shrug. "Try me." She hasn't shot me yet, so either she can't or isn't going to.

She glances around and seems to come to a conclusion. "Who are you working with?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I can't talk to anyone." She jerks her gun. "Now answer my damn-"

PAFF.

Her expression freezes in place and she falls to the floor, her core destroyed.

I lower my smoking gun with a grimace, glad for the suppressor Kalina had provided. I hope the doll was able to get herself backed up recently… Actually, maybe I don't want her to know. If she remembers my face, that would be bad.

I drag the corpse out of sight, hoping the dark carpet will hide the liquids flowing out of the hole in her sternum. Bile rises in my throat, her completely lifeless form already promising to haunt my dreams.

"Hadwin."

I turn to see UMP 45 striding up, scoping the abandoned firearm off the ground and checking the ammo left in it. "The doll was supposed to check in a few seconds ago. They're going to start getting suspicious."

"Can't you duplicate her signal or something?" I ask.

"I could." She shrugs. "But our goal is to make them suspicious and distract them."

"Ah. Right." I take a deep breath and, with one last look into the shadowy corner that houses a corpse, I turn to head deeper into the building once more.

"...I'm surprised you killed her." UMP 45 glances back over her shoulder. "I thought you were the type to get shot trying to talk her down."

"...Gee, thanks." I huff. "And… I told myself she has a backup." I hold my hand up to stop whatever UMP 45 is about to say. "If that's not true, let me pretend. I'm not gonna be able to do this otherwise."

"...Ich verstehe."

"And I don't speak German." I mutter, wondering when she's planning to stop insulting me.

She rolls her eye, but doesn't comment.

As I get far enough from the main hall that I'm not constantly checking over my shoulder, I start opening the doors in the area. I'm not really looking for anything in particular, but I know I need to distract the guards long enough for the rest of the hostages to evacuate.

"Hey." UMP 45 grabs my arm before I can close the sixth door I tried. "In here."

I let her enter in front of me and surveyed the room as I closed the door behind me. It's a kitchen, way too big for a house, but maybe the right size for if you have servants to make the food like in those shows set in the medieval era. Though, it's certainly not using medieval technology. Electric convection stovetops, massive freezers…

UMP 45 makes a beeline for a fixture on the far wall, a pipe running from floor to ceiling. I realize immediately what she's planning just by reading the label on the side.

"We're gonna blow this room up." I state.

"It's a suitable distraction, I would think."

"How do we do this without blowing ourselves up?"

"We can just put a hole in the pipe, let enough gas into the room, and ignite it with a spark."

"A spark." I mutter. "Hmm."

The gas line isn't hooked into anything anymore; all of the modern appliances operate on electricity. I'm sure I could try ripping a cable out of, say, the microwave but I have no idea if I could get it to spark without tripping a circuit breaker. If they have candles in here…

I rummage about for a bit and find a few birthday candles and a lighter. "Here we go." I grab a cup and dump a handful of the candles into it. The tops of the candles just poke over the rim of the shallow cup.

UMP 45 grabs a knife from a rack on the wall, holding it point-down in a reverse grip. "Ready?"

"Yeah." I click the lighter twice, getting a flame on the second try.

She turns, slashing at the PVC pipe with the kitchen utensil, shattering the blade and leaving a gash in the side of the pipe through which a hiss can be heard.

I quickly light all of the candles I can even as UMP 45 starts beating her retreat. Once I have most of them lit, I decide it's good enough and run after UMP 45's retreating form.

She doesn't stop just outside the door, but continues a way down the hallway and positions herself next to a pillar.

I give her a questioning look and she taps her cover. "Don't want the ceiling to collapse on us."

"Right." I press myself to the pillar and look back towards our gas leak. Any moment now.

Aaaaaaany moment.

After what was possibly the longest thirty seconds of my life, I turn to UMP 45. "Er… should it be taking this long?" I ask.

"It's not like we set a fuse. We just have to wait until there's the right fuel to air mixture-"

BOOM

A massive pressure wave claps my ears and I can't help but wince as the ceiling cracks and warps as a tongue of flame blasts down the hallway, licking at the walls and carpets, catching the entire corridor on fire. Alarms sound, small red and white boxes suddenly wailing and strobing lights in a most obnoxious manner. In the distance, I can hear more screaming and people shouting.

"Like that." UMP 45 grabs my good hand and starts dragging me away from the explosion. She eventually pulls me into a side room set up to look like a bar. A pool table is set up, the lighting is dim, and a small bar stocked with all sorts of alcohol is tucked into a corner. The floor is made of wood, unlike the rest of the concrete hallways.

UMP 45 shoves me behind the bar before vaulting over the counter herself. "Okay, check your weapon."

I clumsily fumble with the gun one-handed, managing to eject the magazine. It's only missing one bullet, and I carefully insert the magazine back in, using my feet to hold the gun upright. I'm not going to be able to reload in combat, that's for sure.

She tucks the pistol she recovered from the enemy doll into her dress, then prepares Gentiane's loaner gun.

Shouts can be heard from down the hallway.

"And now…" UMP 45 turns towards the door. "The fun begins."

As a man dressed in the SnS uniform runs past the door, UMP 45 pulls the trigger.

The bullet misses the running man, who starts yelling something else in Ukrainian.

Someone pokes their head in and 45 takes a shot at him as well. This one finds its mark and the man collapses in the splatter of his own brain.

More shouting, now angry rather than panicked.

I peek my head around, gun held carefully in my right hand as I wait for a target to appear around the door.

Yes, a target. Not a human. A target. They want to kill us.

Another man pokes his weapon around the corner and starts spraying bullets wildly. None of them hit me or 45, but several bottles of alcohol shatter, leaving small glass shards around on the floor and sending the smell of expensive drinks to my nose.

45 pops up and fires three shots, the incoming fires stopping as a horrible gurgling sound replaces it.

Suddenly, a voice I can understand starts shouting. "Come out!"

"Nein!" UMP 45 pulls up the hem of her dress, revealing two grenades strapped to her thigh. She pulls one out and tosses it towards the entrance.

I duck and cover my ears, but there's only a small pop and a low hissing sound.

UMP 45 grabs my arm and hauls me to my feet. "We're-"

Bullets are sent blindly into the smoke and I'm forced to scramble away as fast as I can. I take shelter next to a stack of chairs, which feels pathetic as far as cover goes, but it's better than nothing in the dim light.

After a few seconds, the gunfire stops and someone cautiously steps into the room, eyes scanning about.

UMP 45 pops from around her chosen hiding spot, the pool table, and fires two shots. The first one misses the man, and the second one strikes his hand. He lets go of his gun to cradle his wounded hand, UMP 45 takes the opportunity to take better aim and take him out with one decisive headshot.

More Ukrainian shouting.

She scowls as she uses the remaining smoke cover to reach me. "They're retreating and getting the dolls to come in after us." She narrows her eyes. "They're also mentioning a backup plan."

"Well, let's go then." I gesture to the cloud of smoke.

"We can't leave that way. They're going to be watching that exit."

I throw my hands up. "There's no other door!"

She points to the floor, specifically a discolored patch near the bar. "Try getting those up."

I place my gun on the counter before trying to pry the boards she indicated up. After a few attempts, I can tell they should be able to move but I'm just not doing a good job of getting a grip on them.

"Scheisse." UMP 45 curses. "Hide!"

She bolts towards the pool table once again and I scramble for cover behind the bar. I use one of the bullet holes punched through the facade of the bar to see what's going on.

Three identical women enter the room, submachine guns sweeping around. The one in the center directed her two compatriots to head towards the pool table, while she turns toward the bar.

I aim my pistol at the nearest doll and hope my bullets are powerful enough to punch through the thin wood like the incoming rounds had. I squeeze the trigger and the bullet finds its mark in the doll's arm.

She drops her gun and I can see UMP 45 leap to the side as the other two dolls turn to face the gunfire. She makes short work of the two armed dolls before piercing the last doll's core with a well placed bullet.

The smoke covering the entrance has started to dissipate and I can almost see some forms moving around outside.

I resume my task of trying to pry the boards out of the floor, finally getting the first one out. The next ones are a lot easier since I can get a better grip on them.

UMP 45 slides over to the hole and looks into it. "Well that's not useful."

"Eh?" I look down and see that the hole is pretty shallow. It's only got enough space to store a few bottles of booze in a crate. "Why is this here?"

UMP 45 stands up and checks her ammo before setting Gentiane's loaner pistol down, drawing her other firearm.

"We're going to have to fight our way out of here?" I ask, dejected.

"Looks like it."

I grab my pistol once more and prepare to fire at anything that moves.

The smoke gradually clears…

UMP 9 pokes her head around the corner and I barely avoid shooting her. "Hey, you guys okay?"

I relax as UMP 45 strides up to her sister and the other two from 404 round the corner. "Ja, we're fine. What are you doing inside?"

"We took the opportunity to come back inside after we took out the people arranged outside with G&K." She sticks her thumb over her shoulder after handing UMP 45 her namesake weapon. "We should get moving."

"Are the guests evacuated?" I ask.

"No…" 9 hesitates. "There's too many people still watching and they're pretty antsy from what Gentiane is telling me."

416 is busy forcing G11 to stay awake by propping her on her feet every time she leans on something.

I take a deep breath. "Okay, so we need more distractions."

UMP 45 glances at me from the side of her eye.

"More distractions?" 416's bright eyes flick over my way. "How are you going to do that?"

I give her a half smile. "How else? Throwing myself into danger like an idiot."

---

Only a few minutes later, we are walking down the hall towards the stage. I'm in the lead, the UMPs directly behind me with 416 and G11 bringing up the rear.

There's still a lot of SnS people running around back here, several times we had to hide behind boxes or inside rooms to avoid being noticed.

Much to my dismay, they had done the proper thing and gotten some people to guard their backs. I was hoping they'd have sent more people away, but…

"How many people did they bring?" 9 complains from right behind me. "They must have a whole army!"

"By my count, they have roughly seventy units, including fifteen dolls." 416 says. "Though, that number has decreased slightly."

"Right." I glance back at the two guards stationed at the end of the hallway. "So, how do we do this? We can't alert them."

"Leave it to me, Commander." 416 carefully sets her namesake against the wall, straightens up and fluffs her hair once, before striding out into the hallway confidently.

"Wh- halt!" One of the guards shouts.

I risk peeking around the corner.

416 has stopped and held up her hands. "Excuse me, I'd like to talk with your boss."

The two guards look at each other. "Why?"

"I have some important information about who caused the explosion. I wish to trade it for my release."

One of them steps forwards, the other covering them with his assault rifle. "Okay, come with me, and we'll see if your info is val-"

She lashes out faster than he can react, a chop to his throat that instantly silences him. Without missing a beat, she grabs his rifle and in a smooth motion whips it around and slings it impossibly fast into the other guard's face. It makes a sickening crunch and the two men fall to the ground.

"Holy shit." I mutter.

416 walks back to us and retrieves her weapon. "We'll hold the rear." She grabs G11's dress and straightens the sleepy girl up.

UMP 45 turns to 9. "You assist them. We'll deal with the ones on the stage."

9 frowns at her sister. "You sure?"

"Ja. We'll be done soon."

9 nods and checks her own weapon.

I turn back and head down the hallway towards the stage, glancing at the two dead men that 416 had skillfully dispatched. "Remind me never to get on her bad side."

UMP 45 glances at me. "Like calling her a traitor?"

"...Right. Remind me to also apologize profusely for that."

"Worry about getting out of here first."

We reach the door leading onto the stage. I take a deep breath, then I open the door, the sounds of the terrified crowd murmuring and a man speaking into a microphone in Ukrainian reaches my ears.

One the center of the stage is a man pacing back and forth, microphone in hand, rattling words off of a sheet of paper I can't read from this distance. Then again, I don't really care what it says.

I have my target though. I raise my pistol up, currently suppressorless, and draw a bead on his head, illuminated as it is by the spotlight on the stage. All I have to do is to pull the trigger.

It's not hard. You've done it before.

Beside me in the gloom, UMP 45's glowing eye glances in my direction.

"I can do this." I hiss to myself. "Just fucking pull the trigger!"

I squeeze my eyes shut, grit my teeth and open my eyes once more, draw the bead-

BANG

Screams abound as the microphone picks up the gunshot and tries to amplify that sound, overloading the speakers and confusing the direction the shot had come from. The leader of the SnS slumps to the stage, blood pouring from the gaping hole in his chest.

The others on stage freak out, looking for the culprit, weapons sweeping over wide swathes of the crowd. One of them looks in my direction and spots me and UMP 45. He raises his hand to point and I adjust my aim and fire once more.

The crowd is in full blown panic mode now.

UMP 45 steadies her own weapon and unloads it at the SnS and they rapidly start returning fire, forcing us to retreat.

"Think we got their attention?" UMP 45 asks rhetorically.

"Nah, I think we need to try just a bit-" I fire another round from my gun as one of the SnS dolls rounds the corner. It grazes her arm, but doesn't do any significant damage. "-a bit harder."

Behind us, gunfire sounds through the corridor. Looks like company has arrived from the rear as well.

UMP 45 takes down another of the enemy and points to a stack of black and silver crates, the kind that usually stores audio equipment. "Behind there."

I comply, ducking into the shadow of the boxes and peer around the edge.

UMP 45 points her weapon around the edge of the boxes and starts blind firing, her bullets forcing the advancing SnS back. I carefully aim my own weapon and fire, taking a chunk out of another of the SnS dolls.

Given how poorly she's firing her gun, I feel like this other doll isn't a Tactical doll. Probably just some poor A-doll forced to pick up a weapon…

No time for being sentimental though.

I fire another round and this one takes out the doll completely.

I aim for another doll and squeeze the trigger, only for nothing to happen. I glance down at the gun and see that the slide has locked back.

Empty.

"I'm out!" I tell UMP 45 beside me.

She sprays a few more bullets at the incoming dolls, downing them. "I'm not doing too well on ammo either-"

"HEY!" A human steps up, a metal cylinder held in his hands. "Think fast, bitch!"

The metal cylinder lands right next to me and I dive away from it, UMP 45 going the opposite way.

The cylinder pops and the microphone on the stage screeches with an ungodly whine. UMP 45 collapses and the man who had thrown the grenade starts to laugh. "I got her! I got her!" He cheers, walking over to where UMP 45 is struggling to try to get to her knees. He kicks her before she can recover.

"Bitch, now that I have you, I'm going to make you suffer." He snarls down at her, pointing his gun at her head.

In that moment, I dash forward and smash into the man with all my might.

I may not be a T-doll, or a particularly strong human, but he wasn't expecting to be bum rushed from the side.

We both fall to the ground, me halfway on top of him.

Without thinking, I reach my right arm back and slam it down into his face. Once, twice, three times-

His own arm comes up and grabs my lame hand, sending searing pain through the partially functional limb. I can't help but scream in pain.

He takes advantage of my distraction to throw me to the side and get to his feet.

"Ah, that fucking hurts!" He wipes the blood from his nose and aims his pistol at my head. "Just for that, you're going fir-"

BANG

UMP 45's shot hits true, right through his skull, and the man collapses forwards.

I sit up carefully, mindful that my arm feels worse than it did earlier, and the bandage is once again turning a worrying shade of crimson.

UMP 45 gets to her feet slowly. "...Geht es Ihnen gut?"

"Ow."

"I'll take that as a 'no'." She shakes her head and offers her good hand, twisted around so I can grasp hers with my good hand.

I take it and she hauls me to my feet. Once I'm standing, she doesn't immediately let go, and I'm about to comment on it when 9 and 416 come around the corner, the latter dragging G11, who's busy firing her weapon. 45 lets go before any of them can notice her hand and she scoops up her weapon.

I lean down and pocket my own gun, releasing the slide carefully. Nothing in the chamber, but I don't want to lose another gun.

"Move!" 416 shouts at me as they continue to press backwards.

I peer past her to see ten dolls firing back and turn tail before I can see any more, running out onto the stage.

I step over the corpses we had left earlier, looking out over the room to see that the panicking people had largely moved towards the exits in a desperate attempt to get out. There's still a stunned guest here and there, but by and large everyone's on their way out.

404 emerges behind me, guns still being aimed behind them.

"So-" I began to ask.

"We're not going to be able to hold them back much longer." 416 cuts me off. "Prepare to run."

"Run where?!"

She grabs the handle of an attachment I hadn't seen on her weapon earlier. G11 yelps and dives for cover.

I follow suit as 416 raises her weapon to point straight up and fires a grenade at the ceiling.

The ceiling starts to give way, crumbling due to the explosion, and I'm forced to keep my eyes in the air to avoid any debris. Doing that, I trip over a person huddled in a ball on the floor, slamming face first into the ground.

By the time I extricate myself from the catatonic person on the floor, the SnS dolls have left the cover of the backstage area, and are firing from behind the piles of rubble 416 had brought down.

One one hand, it is slowing them down, but on the other they have cover now.

From around the area, I can see bursts of gunfire as 404 fights back, taking down more of the SnS troops as they peek their heads out of cover. I'd try to track the shots from the noise, but with the sound system on and in the cavernous space the sounds echo around and muddle each other.

I grab the arm of the catatonic man under my feet. "Come on dude, it's not safe here."

He doesn't react and I pull on his arm a few more times. I'm not going to be able to drag him out with one lame hand…

I glance to the side and see one of the SnS men aiming a rifle in my direction. I sprint away from my position and slide to a stop behind a table, hoping he's lost sight of me.

...I wish I could reload my gun.

416 slides right up next to me. "Commander, they're pressing in."

"I can see that." I grumble. "Got any ideas?"

She shakes her head. "I thought that bringing the ceiling down would stop them, but all it's done is give them cover."

I pause for a second. "Can you make us some cover as well?"

She hesitates then scans the ceiling. "If I bring down that section of the ceiling, maybe. We'd have to get there without being shot though."

"Right. Do you have your pistol on you?"

She silently hands me her USP.

I nod to her. "On three."

"An drei." She nods.

"Drei!" I yell, popping up and firing my pistol wildly, running in the direction 416 had indicated.

She stands up and launches a grenade at the ceiling once more. This time, a lot more of the roof collapses in on itself, and cracks start appearing all over the white surface.

And this time, I'm dodging around the falling debris, but heading towards it.

Once the pistol is empty, I tuck my arms in and run as fast as I can, 416 right behind me.

I make it behind the newest pile of rubble, and before I can really think about the next step, the four dolls of 404 vault over the debris and take up firing positions. I hand my borrowed weapon back to 416, who sets it beside her.

"I'm out." G11 says, ducking her head down and hiding behind the rubble.

"Same." 9 grimaces, yanking a grenade from her thigh like UMP 45 did earlier, and lobbing it over the wall. This one explodes in a ball of light and sound, which 416 and UMP 45 take full advantage of.

Then 416 drops down behind the improvised barricade, followed by UMP 45.

I lick my lips nervously, tasting the plaster dust that had settled on my face. "Out?"

"...Yes." 416 reloads her pistol.

UMP 45 draws the pistol she had pulled from the first SnS doll we had fought. "This is why I prefer stealth."

"Ja." 416 takes a deep breath.

The two stand up and start firing, but once both guns lock their slides back and they return to cover, there's still gunfire coming towards us.

I look around at the four dolls, all of whom look back at me. "Any ideas?"

"Unless you have a teleporter..." UMP 45 shrugs.

"Nope." 9 sighs.

G11 just shakes her head and 416 starts chewing her thumb through her glove.

I survey the space behind us, largely devoid of movement. The only thing I can see is two bright points outside the window…

I turn to 416. "Do you have any grenades left?"

"Ja, one left." She tilts her head. "Where do you want me to fire?"

"Right there." I point to the wall filled with windows. "On my mark."

"Consider it done." She pulls her last grenade off of a leg holster, much like the ones the UMP sisters are using for grenades.

...Maybe they should choose dresses with pockets.

"Great." I take a deep breath, drawing my empty firearm. This will be the crown jewel of stupid. "Mark!"

416 launches her last grenade at the wall and I stand up as the SnS insurents are distracted by the detonation, vaulting myself over the barricade. Once over, I wildly aim my weapon at the closest doll, whose eyes open wide as she scrambles for cover.

Seeing her dive for cover, I aim my pistol at the next person, a man who chooses to duck behind a table.

Two more men raise rifles and I duck, avoiding their initial shots. I poke the barrel of my pistol at the nearest one, who also ducks out of the way.

There's where my bluff runs out.

One more man raises his rifle, aims square at my chest, and squeezes the trigger.

Fractions of a second before the bullets start spraying, I barely catch a blue shimmer in the air.

The bullets barrel straight at me, coming to a stop about a meter from my body, a force field glowing where the metal impacts it.

Thank you, S.A.T.

A hail of gunfire enters through the hole 416 had blasted into the building, the G&K dolls coming to our rescue, routing the ever dwindling forces.

I collapsed to my knees, suddenly very, very tired.

S.A.T. steps up next to me, still in a cooks' uniform, complete with the tall white hat. "Are you okay, Commander?"

"Yes." I smile up at her, though it's getting harder to see her face. "You did a good… a good job."

And then I pass out.

---

I snap awake slightly later. The sun can be seen poking it's way over the horizon and the holes in the ceiling let in the cries of early morning birds.

I'm propped up against the debris 416 had brought down earlier and I notice my arm has been rebandaged.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

I look up to see UMP 45 is sitting above me on the rubble.

"Sleep well?" She asks.

"I guess." I yawn. "What happened?"

She slides off the rubble and lands next to me, once again offering her good arm in that awkward twist to haul me to my feet. "Well, your friends in G&K rushed in to save the day. I have to say, if you need a building swept for enemies, you could do a lot worse than they did."

"Careful, that almost sounds like praise." I smirk, though I feel like a bit of the pain leaks into my expression.

She laughs. Not a sarcastic laugh, but a nice genuine one that lights her face up and makes her look less like a combat android and more like a real girl.

It's so out of place on her, it's mildly panic inducing.

"Well…" She says as she stops laughing. "I know you just woke up, but would you indulge me for a few minutes?"

I shrug. "I don't see why not."

She nods, leading me over to what used to be a dance floor. It appears someone had purposely cleared out a section of floor and UMP 45 leads me right into the center of the circle.

The DJ equipment, which had been left behind in the confusion, suddenly starts playing a song. A lonely, mournful piano starts playing as she grabs my waist with one of her hands. I can only assume she hacked into it to start up the music.

"Ah, we're dancing." I arrange my hands properly.

"Yes, I didn't get a chance earlier." She says, her face soft. "Thank you for saving me."

The vocals start, a deep woman's voice singing softly to match the tone of the song.

"Same here."

We sway back and forth in silence for a few seconds as the chorus kicks in.

"Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At Skyfall"

I can't help but smirk. "A Bond theme?"

She shrugs. "I thought it was appropriate."

"As long as I don't have to start introducing myself as 'Galanis, Hadwin Galanis'." I roll my eyes.

Her usual, almost sinister smile returns. "Oh, Ja, you'd be the secret agent. Definitely not me, the one who does this on a regular basis."

"Does that make me the beautiful girl who gets seduced?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't say beautiful." She contemplates my features for a second. "But it will do."

To my surprise, she pulls her arm off my waist and puts it around my shoulder, pulling herself to her tiptoes to-

…

Did she just... kiss me?

I'm so surprised it takes me a few seconds to react. "Wha-"

"Shhhhh." She says, relaxing back into the dance and planting a finger on my lips. "Just enjoy the music."

I continue our dance, mind blank aside from one thought.

This is going to get very, very complicated.

---

Author's notes:

End of Arc 2. Arc 3 will come as soon as my brain recovers from Arc 2.

In the meantime, I'll be updating all of the earlier chapters for consistency and removing about a thousand comma splices.

Also, please excuse the beta. He's been wanting kisses since chapter 5.

Beta Notes:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
IT FINALLY HAPPENED REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
From here on out, I have officially retired as beta reader (Not really lol)