Chapter 195 - Increasing Danger

Once everyone had regrouped together and assured one another that their status remained combat-capable (with how thorough both Katakuri and Raven were about this it took a good while) the first thing they decided on was to investigate the camp more thoroughly. Since they hadn't been here long before getting attacked it had become clear to all involved that something was going on here and that perhaps Arima had been on to something with his suspicions after all.

The following inspection took into consideration their surroundings as well as the camp itself, which revealed a bunch of information they had not been aware of initially. First, there had been a LOT more traps laid out by the original maker of this campsite than initially anticipated, like enough to consider the site a mini fortress or heavily defended city with the variety of them indicating that the user had been trying to apply for many scenarios.

Then there was something that Ivan had found shortly into their detective work, which happened to be a silver briefcase, which further indicated Arima as the one who built this place though it seemed strange that he would leave something like this behind. This case also wasn't a combat one according to Raven since she'd seen him use such cases before, enough to tell which housed a weapon and one that didn't… the fact that these were meant to counter Ghouls specifically was another thing, she wanted to know what kind of weapons the Spec Ops had to fight people like Nico.

At the point of regrouping inside the campsite again (Minus Aiden who's still out there hunting for more clues), it's not long before Katakuri made a statement that seemed more than factual with their findings. "There's something deeply wrong with this region." While saying this, the man held his Trident out in case of a second attack, if they were struck once then who's to say it won't happen again?

A similar thought process had occurred within everyone else, hence why each of them had their weapons primed and at the ready at a moment's notice.

"Those creatures…" Lucy mumbled while glancing at her leader. "Why did they resemble those chameleon Abnormals? They are not like that Chameleos elder dragon, and they shouldn't be around after that purge 4 years ago…" The way she worded it made them think back to said times when a race of Abnormals whose species name didn't get retained on record, terrorised human settlements more than normal for their kind. They were particularly good because they could camouflage from all kinds of sights to truly become invisible without not even body being detected by them with a wide number of theories about them being prevalent in the scientific community.

But more than that, unbeknownst to the group Lucy and Raven were the only ones who had an INKLING of what it had been like back then to fight those things, the latter more than the former.

"Some probably survived the Purge then, it is always possible…" Rory reasoned, still nonchalant about the whole thing. She sat on a nearby chair with one leg crossed over the other, her Halberd horizontal on her lap. "It's been documented several times how some Abnormals can drive themselves into hiding when a purge of their kind is imminent to ensure future generations can avenge the fallen."

Raven frowned at that, there shouldn't be a chance that could have happened since she had been the one to eliminate them. She had a philosophy of not leaving things behind or half-assed, and since it had been in Lowee she would have known their locations regardless of where they hid.

She didn't disclose that information though since she had done it solo, and despite their reputation, some Spec Ops might ask questions that shouldn't be asked if she did, like how she did so. That would lead to answers she didn't want anyone outside of their close circle to know.

"Could they not have migrated from some other area then?" Ivan questioned, getting everyone's attention while he paused maintaining his bionic arm. He sat on the ground in the semi-lotus position, but as one who had somewhat more wounds to tend to he looked more banged up than the rest though still combat-ready. He idly shot a meaningful glance at Raven that only she picked up due to how fast it was and her long experience with him under her command. "Certain Abnormals have been known to migrate to different areas where the climate's the same as their homeland."

'Yes… that could be one reason…' The ice lady thought to herself more than anyone else. Lowee was her primary domain, no, winter was primarily her domain it just so happened that Lowee was within her 'touch' one could say. Raven then shook that idea away while remaining silent. If that was true then it still didn't explain why she couldn't find the rest since they liked the cold and cold was part of her domain anyway. If the cold touched other islands then they'd be part of her sphere of influence, meaning they shouldn't have a place to run to.

Lucy then brought up another point while sitting with a crossed leg on a chair and leaning backwards a bit, using her hand on the log she'd appropriated as a makeshift seat. "Doubtful, but it does depend on what climate the abnormal would like." she commented offhandedly in a 'what can you do?' kinda way. "There's also the topic of Arima, that white-haired ghost guy who looks like he doesn't express much. I can tell that he wouldn't call us over just for this."

"Perhaps…" Katakuri nodded in agreement, he'd worked with the man a few times in the past and thus he knew somewhat how the guy operated. For someone like him to call them out must mean something since he didn't do things for no reason. But more than that Katakuri noticed the thing that Lucy was sitting on and couldn't help but arch a brow. "...and where did you get that wood from?"

"Why from the forest, where else?"

"The campsite has plenty of seats, why even bring wood?"

Lucy rolled her eyes at the man, having already figured out the man's place on the whole 'Prude-o-metre'. She uncrossed and then recrossed her legs while aiming an impassive and nonchalant smile back at the man. "Why because I like wood of course, nice and hard… especially morning wood."

"..."

Katakuri stared at her in bafflement, not understanding her implications while Raven sighed to herself and the sole other dude here turned redder than a tomato. Eventually, he just settled for an 'I see' before he looked to the rest of them much to Lucy's annoyance. "In any case, we should…"

BZZZZT!

Before he could say more, Raven plucked out her buzzing phone and saw the caller was Aiden, hence why she opened the call and put it on speaker. "What do you have for us, FALCON?"

"...I do. Come to my location, I've marked it on your maps. You all are going to want to see this."

Immediately the atmosphere lost its calm casual sensation when they heard the grim sense of danger in Aiden's voice throughout the call, the phone not concealing the severity behind his words. Though none of them knew one another for long, it had become clear from their limited interaction that Aiden had a more composed personality much like his leader.

Therefore, they all shared a look and got up, hurrying off to where Raven's phone had the mark displayed on its map function.


It didn't take them long to track Aiden down to a small clearing inside the woods, located northeast of the camp. It had been a short walk which made Rory once comment on why he couldn't just come over to the campsite but nobody answered her, their answers would all be revealed.

Once they made it to the clearing, they found Aiden kneeling beside something with his gear out, seemingly having finished something related to it. The moment he heard them he glanced up to them and nodded towards his leader, getting to his feet and stepping back wordlessly, letting them see what he'd been examining. He did so instead of answering, and soon enough the group saw why.

It was an arm… a human's arm.

"?!"

Each of the Spec Ops Agents turned bug-eyed at the sight, even the ever-stern/stoic Katakuri as they beheld the limb. Surrounded by a messy pool of blood, the arm looked to have been pinned inside a nearby tree like a sword in a stone. The limb still had clothing on it in the form of a tattered-looking coat sleeve with noticeable tears and bloodstains adorning it. Other wounds adorned the arm's form which looked like the limb had been through a LOT before being finally severed with certain parts of the fingers missing, no thumb and a hole where the bottom forearm part was. The stump on the back had to be where the elbow would have been, cause they could only see the forearm and the mangled form of the hand right now.

"This is…!" Lucy whispered in shock as Aiden pulled up some schematics from a screen being projected from his goggles.

A quick reading of the data the screen showed told him everything he needed to know so he shared it with the rest of the party. "This is indeed Arima's arm, I found it during a flyby near this area. Did some digging around the vicinity about…" he paused to gauge the amount of distance he travelled, before continuing. "40 metres in every direction."

Katakuri narrowed his eyes at this information, not at all pleased about its implications. "Anything else?"

Aiden nodded, briefly glancing at Raven who gave her nod of consent before he answered the man's question/demand. "Based on the blood type, I got a match with Arima when I checked it out with our database. Moreover, the blood doesn't seem to be old based on its wetness, I'd say that it's a few hours old at least. As there's no corpse in the vicinity, it's hard to tell whether or not Arima's alive or dead."

Rory hummed thoughtfully, stabbing her halberd and leaning on it. "So we're sure that this happened recently then… if Arima is as strong as his title says he is then he should still be alive. Alive but wounded." She honestly doubted that he was given her experience with situations like these, and as a wanderer, she had come across things like this a few times. But she was open to being proven wrong, unlike other oldies.

"Indeed."

While Aiden and Rory made these statements, Katakuri arched his brow with a thoughtful hum when something caught his eye. It had been a brief flash of metal that gleamed with light, and it had been located within the sleeve's confines. Kneeling before it, he ripped a piece of it off to expose a metal device to his view. "Hmmm…" the man mumbled, eyes gleaming with curiosity as he plucked it free and held it in his hand, examining it thoroughly. "This is a used Eject Button…" he stated in realisation, getting the group's attention as they converged around it.

"Hmmm, I thought I detected some faint energy readings in the air…" Aiden muttered while reviewing his findings through his goggles. He soon concluded this information as he pushed his goggles back upwards onto his forehead. "Yeah this confirms it, this eject button calibrated towards this campsite."

Raven furrowed her brows in thought at this information, cupping her chin as the picture started getting clearer in her head… and she wasn't liking it. "Hmmm… I'd theorise that this guy tried escaping to this campsite because he was fleeing from something…" she muttered, taking her turn to kneel before the decomposing arm. She didn't mind any smell emitted by it and neither did the rest, having gone through much worse in their days. "Judging from these wounds, I'd say whatever severed it was a vicious creature with long claws, and it looks to have gotten the jump on Arima indicating a surprise assault was when this limb got severed…" she muttered, standing up and looking to the side. She narrowed her eyes in the distance further away, trying to formulate how the attack might have happened inside her mind.

"Think Arima might have left something behind for us?"

"I do think he might have, young CYBORG." Rory cooed playfully, sliding past him as she took a crack at examining the limb. She had to admit whoever did this had a thing for savagery, cause the tears in the clothing indicated this was not a clean cut and she knew a thing or two about those. Taking an experimental sniff, which grossed out Lucy and Ivan a bit, Rory narrowed her eyes. "Hold on a moment…" she mumbled as she reached inside the arm's internal structure through the stump. She rummaged inside for a bit before she perked up when she felt something foreign inside of it. "Aha!" she proclaimed, pulling her hand out. Shaking it about to dispose of the excess filth her efforts left her, she opened her hand to view what she had located to find a small microchip.

"This is…"

"Wait, doesn't that…?"

Before anyone could conclude those thoughts, Ivan requested to have the microchip which Rory accepted, handing it over to him. While he ignored the smell to the best of his ability, the cybernetic male cringed as he pulled out the case they'd discovered back inside the campsite. He placed it down and kneeled before it, soon running his hands over it for any kind of secret compartment, and soon found a hole inside the side of it that suspiciously felt like something the microchip could fit into. Hence he slotted it in… and the suitcase seemed to unlock itself with various sounds of unlocking locks coming from within.

As he slowly opened the case, the group found themselves standing before a small computer built into the suitcase itself. It had a keyboard, screen and even a small projector built into it, to which it immediately activated and began projecting a hologram over the keyboard… a hologram of a certain Spec Ops face.

Aiden cupped his chin in thought. "Now this is something I would install into my Goggles…" he muttered before being shushed by Lucy when the hologram began to speak.

"To my fellow agents, if you are hearing this then I have been compromised in some shape or form, and am unable to transmit my research to the authorities that be. I do not expect to have survived this encounter, but I still left behind a summary of my findings inside this chip. It shall be available after this message has finished playing."

Arima's head paused for a moment, as the group stared intently with all of them kneeling around the suitcase. Whatever he was feeling or doing on his side of things, they couldn't tell due to the fuzziness of the hologram, as well as how the image kept glitching and fizzing out.

"Looks like either the recording was made quickly or something damaged the suitcase," Ivan noted.

His fellow male team RAIL member nodded in agreement, wordlessly ensuring he'd be looking at it later.

"I should begin, for time's limited. Years ago, this region was to be designated as a construction site for a small town, one that was meant to be a trading hub for any northern settlements that formed in the area. As well as a link to the landmasses Lastation and Planeptune by providing ports for their skyships. Economic problems ensured this project didn't start till 7 months ago, but by this point, Lowee's political turmoil was reaching its peak and the project didn't receive all the funding required right away. Lowee's fall finally killed the project and it was ordered that the construction workers were to hold up inside the region to protect them from the fallout till they could re-establish contact with White Heart's resistance, the intention being to use the region as our base of operations. Unfortunately, we lost contact with the workers here when the Youma population moved in and the workers were abandoned against White Heart's wishes."

The group frowned at this information with the first commenter being Katakuri. "Disloyal elements… they exist even now…" he muttered with contempt.

Lucy didn't know if she wanted to say it so she put it inside her head instead, how it seemed to be a common trait for the CPUs to not have the total support of their people when they descended from Celestia. Not surprising considering they abandoned their people to fight a pointless Console War, honestly. Though she didn't pay attention to it at the time, she did wonder just how that war began in the first place.

"In recent times attempts to reach the workers have been attempted but all have failed. It was considered that they fell to Youma aggression, however, my investigation reported zero Youma counts in this region for weeks. Similar phenomena have been occurring in the surrounding regions, which I traced to this area. I will investigate further, but in the case of my demise, I have created backups of my research on this Microchip. My fellow agents, this intel must be given to the Resistance as soon as possible. I fear that we, in our bid to erase the Youma, have roused the ire of a sleeping giant."

"..."

Silence dominated the area as the hologram vanished, the computer booting up to show a series of documents, observation notes and a bunch of research data. Even as it remained displayed before them the tension surrounding the group became thicker than a bowl of oatmeal, a sense of grim realisation dawning on them about just how serious this all was.

Just reading a bit of this data-informed them of much about their possible enemy, but in the interest of time, Ivan shut the console down and closed the case, picking it up.

"Let's return to the Campsite, we can deliberate there."

Raven's suggestion received nods from the others, to which they all burst forth into mad dashes towards the campsite as fast as they could. Knowing now what they did, they didn't trust their surroundings that had been eerily quiet this whole time… like there were no signs of life at all in this seemingly vibrant forestland.


Returning to the campsite, everyone now seated themselves around the terminal inside the middle in various sitting positions, various complicated expressions on their faces as they internally tried deciding on what to do next. Even Lucy had abandoned her precious log in light of these recent revelations.

They'd come here to investigate why Arima had called them, not expecting to turn up anything major… only to find that there was possibly another serious threat right on their doorstep. Just their luck if that's the case, and knowing how things turned out for humanity that's probably likely. The emergence of an extinct Abnormal species? A new enemy hiding in the shadows? All while Arfoire/Conversation was still the fake White Heart ruining Lowee with her decadence?

If that's the case… how should they tackle this problem?

"I say we find Arima's killers." Ivan became the first to speak up and answer this question, raising his head that had been inclined towards the ground as he gazed with burning anger and malice. "It's doubtful that he's alive at this point, but one of our own was killed without us knowing about it. We may not be united, but we're the only ones he called on to help him." Pausing his speech, Ivan smacked his human and cybernetic arm together which created a loud smacking sound that reverberated in the air. "We should at least ensure the Abnormals who did this regret it to their graves."

For a few seconds, nobody answered him, until to his surprise Aiden opened his previously closed eyes and stated his opinion. "I agree." He then gestured to their surroundings. "We are in enemy territory right now, it is not infeasible that they will return with greater numbers to retaliate against us. Additionally, if Arima was indeed killed by a potentially new breed of Abnormals or even a formerly extinct one, then we will need data to combat them. We are the front-line party in this quest, we'll have to do what we can."

Katakuri immediately shut down their arguments however while stabbing his Trident into the ground beside him. "I disagree. We have sufficient data already on the region and these supposed threats were provided to us by Arima himself," he stated, gesturing to the suitcase next to Ivan's chair, the male and Aiden being the designated handlers for it due to them being the most tech-savvy of the group. "Furthermore, I do not think he would want us to get ourselves killed pointlessly and weaken our forces further. He implored us to bring this data to the authorities and let them handle it, which I believe to be the most efficient course of action."

"Well, I wouldn't mind finding those killers myself."

All eyes turned to Rory, the girl being somewhat shaky on her seat with her hair shadowing her eyes. However, she didn't seem sad or angry about Arima's possible demise, if anything she seemed excited by the way her trembling lips were resisting forming a wicked smile as she gripped her Halberd readily. The others repelled themselves at the bloodthirsty, wicked aura surrounding the woman like a living bonfire threatening to reduce her surroundings to ashes. "Hehehe… it's obvious Arima was a strong fighter, his achievements say as much… but for an Abnormal species to make him go to such extremes, not to mention possibly killing him in a location of supposed safety… goes to show that it will be a REAL worthy hunt…ufufufufu… I'm giggling just thinking about it…"

Her words echoed throughout the area and also sent waves of chills down everyone's spines, particularly the parts about the supposed enemy's power. They didn't want to think about it, but those words forced them to consider how powerful the enemy might be to do this to an upper echelons Spec Ops Agent… the thought sounded like nightmare fuel for them. The only case of a foe with a similar calibre that these agents would be disadvantaged against would be the DPUs that have been harassing them throughout this rebellion, and apparently, even their weakest ranks were capable of blowing continents to smithereens.

Lucy frowned at the sight, and unlike what many folks around her expected she shook her head in denial. "Hard pass on that one," she stated, putting her hands behind her head. "I'm all for a good fight just like the next guy, but honestly the stakes here are a bit much even for someone like me. I'd rather take this stuff, this stuff one brave soul sacrificed the important gift of life for back to our people, that way we know what we're up against. Maybe THEN we can fight these things, knowledge is always half the battle."

All eyes finally turned back to Raven, the last one to declare her thoughts on the matter. Aside from Lucy's surprising response to the situation, they wanted to know how she intended to handle this information with each forming their own opinion on the matter. Some thought she would fight the Abnormals since it was apparent she had tried eliminating them before if only to correct the mistake that she had made years ago. Others thought differently, but none of them voiced these opinions in favour of hearing the words coming out of Raven's mouth.

Words soon came forth when she finally had enough time to contemplate her situation. "I agree with both sides," she stated, raising her right hand before any of them could react. "We are indeed in the only place that's usable in a hunt to purge the Abnormals from this region, and unlike the Tekkadan these have proven themselves hostile until further notice. We also must ensure whatever data we can salvage is sent to the authorities before the crisis can become a national threat level. Both of those reasons are why we should stay and fight."

"But-"

"Let me explain, CYBORG." Briefly pausing to scold her subordinate, who had tried to protest against this idea, Raven continued. "At this point in the game, our forces are too busy focusing on the enemy within NINTENDO and will see that as a priority with the amount of data we have, therefore making the transportation of said data increasingly pointless. Additionally, they do not have the means to face a foe on two fronts, so it would be best to let them focus on that threat while we handle this unknown enemy," she explained, holding up two index fingers in a V sign.

She was making a lot of guesses here, but she was relying on several things to illustrate her point here. The first was her many years of experience with bureaucracy and politics by observing her superiors whenever she was invited to meetings by those wanting her as a bodyguard, something she did often if only to get a grasp of the bigger picture which was the second thing she was relying on.

The overall scenario for Lowee's remaining population was grim. She doubted they had enough power to face off against this threat of unknown power level and an enemy of enough threat to wipe the continent off the planet's surface with just a mere sneeze. They do need more data about the enemy, however, which indicates that they are going to need to investigate further with a good head start being provided by their potentially fallen ally Arima.

Even with these arrangements and reasoning, Ivan still tried to protest but before he could do so, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced behind him to see Aiden shaking his head at him. "Give it up CYBROG, there's no other option here."

"But-"

"I tried to open a com channel to the authorities while you were protesting." Aiden continued, cutting down Ivan's attempts to protest further as he gave a grim expression. "Either we are too far out for our comms to be effective or the enemy is doing something but either way, our communication systems are down because I couldn't get through," he revealed.

This sent a wave of shock throughout the group as they each pulled out their devices and tried to make calls back to civilization. Perhaps they should have thought of that sooner, but this was an unsanctioned outing and the authorities wouldn't be very happy about it. Soon enough they saw that Aiden was right, which meant that they wouldn't have been able to make any calls or send any data out that way either…

Meaning they had to do this manually… all on their own.

Suddenly the whole forest region seemed a bit less friendly and peaceful to the agents… like they were being surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves eager to pounce.