Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Distributing Death like a Death Merchant


"Does everyone remember our plan?" Spy asked, loading his Ambassador and pocketing spare bullets.

"Well duh! We've been preparing this for a week. Only a dumbass would forget it!" Scout answered, tightly tying his shoes.

It's been a week since the failed assassination on Histoire, as well the fated battle between Nepgear's team with the Viral Ancient Dragon.

Nepgear and her friends spent this time doing Guild quests and helping townspeople, getting as many shares as they could in general. She, IF and Compa were fortunate enough to not die again. The CPU Candidate also adopted a new daily morning exercise regimen, though she never felt any difference after them; each time Nepgear went HDD and got her butt kicked to the point of near-unconsciousness, the lilac-haired girl's HDD would still turn itself off, followed by the expected heart failure…

Fortunately, Compa was nearby to save her each time with the Quick Fix.

Their movement wasn't unnoticed by the ASIC, but there was little they could do with the mercenaries escorting them, and Nepgear being much stronger than before didn't make any attack attempts easier. And to hammer the final nail into the coffin, the rest of the team rampaged through their facilities day after day, giving the ASIC far more to worry about than launching any offensives.

It was in the news so many times, "Today's mass murder happened in…" the news reporters would start with before going on about the slaughter of the day. There were always no survivors, and the Guild members investigating the incidents could never find anything pointing to the mercs' escape routes or their identities. Spy always made sure to stay behind and destroy any evidence pointing at them.

Today would be slightly different. The CPU Candidate and her friends will join the mercs in today's mission, with Histoire providing support via the N-Gear and Spectator software. The Oracle was also busy during said time, with the usual paperwork and researching the Mascot's location. So far she's found nothing.

Everyone (except the fairy) were currently preparing for the fight in the Resupply Room. Nisa was warming up by punching Soldier's waiting palms, with the patriot giving his feedback. IF and Falcom were sharpening their respective weapons. Compa and Medic were doing final checks on their equipment. Nepgear was psyching herself up.

She's hunted plenty of monsters, but she's never deliberately hurt another person before… That might change soon.

Demolition Man was having a whispered conversation with the malevolent spirit residing inside the Eyelander while drinking cheap toothwash, because, you know, it contains alcohol. Sniper was pulling the bowstring of his Huntsman, a hardwood recurve bow held together with black tape; the leather quiver was also on his back, the 'Huntsman's Essentials'.

Engineer built the Dispenser and began upgrading it; the Texan could bring only 1 building with him, so he opted for something more valuable for him and his team. Pyromaniac occasionally helped him by passing the random junk he used to upgrade. Lastly the Heavy polished his Tomislav, an oversized, heavily modified Thompson SMG turned minigun with two handles, a cylindrical ammo drum connected to its underside, and a carrying sling hanging from the drum to the hand-guard.

"D'accord." Spy said in French. "Scout, recount our plan. Correctly." The spook hid his revolver in his expensive suit.

"What?" The Bostonian looked at his teammate with wide eyes.

"Tell us. Our plan." Spy repeated slowly. Even though he had a mask covering his face, his eyes told the young merc: 'Don't fuck with me…'

Scout racked his little brain filled with toxic, radioactive substance, scratching his temple as he tried to remember even a small part of what the spook literally beat into him. After a few moments of silence…

"You forgot, didn't you…" IF deadpanned.

"Sh, sh, sh." Scout shooed, raising his index finger. Then he snapped his fingers, recalling the plan. "We sneak up on them, shoot everyone to death, and then we get out. With everyone bein' not knowin' what happen!" He said with a smile, proud of himself.

…Unfortunately, the ankle-biter recalled the wrong plan…

Spy sighed in disappointment, facepalming like he does in the Humiliation Phase after a loss. Raising his face a little, the Frenchie glanced at the brunette Guild agent. "IF, if you please."

To be honest, IF kinda saw it coming. Placing the sharpening stone on the bench next to her, she cleared her throat. "After we all get into the facility via Engie's teleporter, which I'm not sure how you even managed to build there in the first place." Spy and Engie shared a look and smug smirks. IF continued on.

"The plan consists of 2 phases, for the first one we'll divide into 2 groups. The mercenaries will act as a distraction and lead away most of the security, while the Engineer will build his Sentry Gun and prevent anyone from escaping the building and calling reinforcements. Thanks to the blueprints Spy found we know that the Security room is located on the 3rd floor. Anyway, 2 minutes after the mercenaries leave our starting point, Me, Compa, Nisa, Falcom and Gear will head towards the archives, which is on the 4th floor, take all the intel we can find there, anything about Mascots, CFWs, plans, secrets… basically anything useful. Histoire will keep both groups updated on each other's status and if anything happens, she'll delay the Guild and ASIC's response." IF took a deep breath and continued on.

"After we get the intel and escape via Engie's teleporter, the mercs will move on to the second phase. Which is… uhh… taking care of any survivors…" The Guild agent sweatdropped.

Spy lightly applauded after IF finished going about their plan. At least one of them is reliable. "Well done!" He praised. "And how will mademoiselle Falcom and Nisa escape? Won't our comrade's buildings target them?" He questioned.

"That's easy! Engineer and Medic made special bangles for them. As long as they have them they won't be targeted by the Sentry Guns."

To demonstrate, Falcom raised her hand, brandishing her bangle. It's a simple donut-like wristlet made from red plastic with two logos on it: a white and red rectangle with a bomb on it and the words RED written on the bomb, and an orange circle with a crosshair in the middle. These are the Reliable Excavation Demolition and Team Fortress logos respectively.

"Amazing, Iffy! You memorized everything perfectly!" Compa beamed, amazed by her friend who shrugged with a light blush.

"I-It's not that big a deal, it's not that complex and we had a whole week to learn it." She shrugged off the praise. Scout hmph'ed jealously, looking away with his arms crossed.

"Testing, testing. Can you hear me?" Suddenly Histoire's face appeared on IF's N-Gear's screen. Its owner responded with a "Loud and clear, Histoire. Are you ready?"

"Actually I have a small problem with the Spectator software. It says I'm unauthorized to see Scout's footage." The Oracle frowned.

The Spectator software requires the person's consent to receive data from their Re:Spawn System. It could be overridden if a person with high administrator rights like Helen the Administrator logged in but the Planeptune's Oracle didn't have the authority to do that, nor the mercenaries.

"…Oh." The merc in question scratched his cheek awkwardly. "C-Could you request it again? I accidently declined it." Scout sheepishly smiled. After a few clicks and pressing keys a small box with text saying that someone is requesting access for receiving the data from his Re:Spawn Chip, appeared in his peripheral vision. "Sent." Histoire said.

He thought 'Yes.' 3 times to accept. "Accepted." The merc responded.

The Planeptune's Oracle stayed silent for few seconds, checking if he really accepted the request. "Okay, I'm ready on my side." The fairy said after confirming the connection.

"Excellent, Engineer. Place the Teleporter, please." Spy asked with a smile.

"Comin' right up."

Engineer, who finished upgrading the Dispenser, placed another toolbox in the middle of the room and began whacking it with his Golden Wrench for faster construction. "Seriously, how did you manage to place a teleporter inside that building?" IF asked, looking at Spy.


"Howdy." The Texan greeted the ASIC grunt. The mercenary didn't bother to change his appearance at all! He even had his class emblem clearly visible to the guard, who held his palm up to stop him.

"What do you want? Can't you see this is ASIC property?" He growled, nudging his sheathed machete to try and intimidate the mercenary. It didn't work of course.

"Stand down, boy. I heard y'all have some practical problems with somethin' broken. Came here to fix that." Engie shrugged, smiling casually.

The guard evaluated him up and down with his narrowed eyes. "Wait for a bit, 'kay?" He eventually said before pulling out his phone and dialing someone. "Hey, was that electrician supposed to arrive today?" A muffled voice was heard on the other side, with the guard listening patiently and occasionally glancing back at the waiting Engineer and responding with "Yeah."

After the phone conversation ended, the guard became much more friendly and relaxed. "I'm sorry, we're just a little on edge with all these attacks over the recent days." He apologized, scratching his neck awkwardly.

"I understand, partner. So, mind showing me where it's broken?"

"Of course, I'll guide you to the Security Room, the breakers short-circuited but every time our electrician fixed it, it short-circuited again a few minutes later." The guard explained, opening the doors leading to the 5-story building. "Really annoying since our cameras need to reset every time we turn the main power back on, takes a while." The guard added.

The 'electrician' utilized the famous technique of Smile and Nod as the guard kept blabbering about the problem while leading him to the Security Room.


Engineer smiled knowingly. It was his first time being on the French side of the barricade… it was actually pretty easy to do his part, with Spy handling the rest.

With the teleporter activated, the girls tensed up. It's time. "Good luck!" Histoire said, crossing her fingers off-screen, hoping that the whole thing will go smoothly.

"Skill always beats luck." Sniper responded, glancing at the screen.

Heavy was first to take the teleporter. He literally jumped onto the spinning teleporter, spinning up the Tomislav midair. "Rise and shine, Svetlana! Time to crush eety-beety-teeny babies!" The Russian grinned wickedly as he teleported. The atmosphere turned from tense to awkward...

Everyone waited for Histoire's verdict. Is it safe? Or will the Russian come back to his team through the Re:Spawn System?

"Only one person was nearby, Heavy quickly…took care of him." A tone paler Histoire awkwardly announced after the brief pause, grimacing upon the sight of the violent, brutal and surprisingly clean takedown.

With the coast clear, it didn't take long for the rest of the team to regroup with the Russian.

The exit of the teleporter was located inside the small male restroom. It was a typical restroom, a tight corridor with 4 white stalls, each of them unlocked with a dirty toilet inside. At the far end of the room 2 urinals were attached to the wall. The floor and walls were made out of the same white porcelain tile, the ceiling was just concrete painted white. The room was illuminated by a sole window above the urinals and LED lamps attached to the ceiling.

On the opposite side of the urinals and partially opened doors led the way to the next section of the rest room. A small square-shaped room with 3 sinks, another window, rolls of gray 1-layered paper standing on the windowsill and another LED lamp on the ceiling.

Heavy stood over the sink to the right, Tomislav placed against the wall, the Russian washing his hands of the blood from the unfortunate guy who was unlucky enough to have been there. His entire head was painfully shoved inside his torso through the neck. Surprisingly, there was little to no blood nor gore, but the sight of it was still very disturbing.

If it wasn't for Nepgear catching her, Falcom (who was the last to take the teleporter) would have fallen onto the floor. "No matter how many times I take that teleporter, I can't get used to it. Thanks Nepgear." After regaining her balance, the adventurer thanked the CPU Candidate.

"You're welcome."

"Ugh, the smell… You couldn't pick a better place, like the storage?" IF grimaced, using her hand to pinch her nose. Compa also couldn't stand the smell of the male's restroom.

"Ngh… Just lemme open the window." With tears in her eyes, Compa reached for the window's handle and opened it, letting the much fresher air inside.

Engie rolled his eyes. "Buckle it up, girl. There are worse smells than that."

"It feels weird, being inside the male's restroom." Nisa commented, looking around the room. Eventually her gaze landed on the Pyro. "So 2 minutes, right?"

"Mhm." It nodded.

"Ten-hut!" Soldier yelled, pointing his 'Liberty Launcher' (An army green rocket launcher with tan wooden handles, a leaf sight adorned with a white U.S. Army insignia, and a cracked wooden shoulder-rest with a wire frame exhaust port) at the exit.

At his command everyone fell silent, and the Engineer destroyed the exit using the Destruction PDA and picked up the remains. The rest of the mercs lined up in order to rush out of the bathroom, which reminded them of all the last few seconds before every match.

They could almost hear the Administrator's voice in their heads.

"Spare no one! Gut them like fattened hogs!"

Spy's left hand shot up, his index, middle and ring fingers doing the 3 number. 3 seconds…

He lowered his ring finger. 2 seconds…

The middle finger went down as well. 1 second left…

The moment Spy lowered the last finger, the Heavy Weapons Guy rammed the doors with his Tomislav and rushed out of the restroom, his entire team following him with a mighty battle cry.

"Kill 'em aall!"

"Last one alive, lock the door!"

"Heil, us!"

"Let's waste 'em!"

Even though Engineer slammed the doors shut with his foot, the gunfire, explosions and cries of agony were very audible to the girls.

Compa started to feel bad for the ASIC crossing their path…

It was about that time Nepgear finally found the corpse of the poor guy who got killed by Heavy. She may have cheated death once, but dying herself was very different from seeing a dead body, especially one so gruesomely killed, and she grew pale and felt sick in her stomach. Nisa offered a small, silent prayer for the lost soul. "Even if they're all criminals, not everyone deserves death. Justice should be served in variable doses, depending on their crimes. The ultimate punishment should be given only to the most savage criminals." The heroine said, a bit saddened.

"I understand Nisa, but desperate times call for desperate measures…" IF walked up and placed a comforting hand on the heroine's shoulder.

Suddenly through the sounds of warfare, the girls heard the alarms going off, with a female voice shouting through the speakers. "Emergency! A heavily armed group is rampaging inside the facility! I repeat, a heavily armed group is rampaging inside the facility! This isn't a drill!"

"It looks like they noticed." Nepgear said.

"I'd be surprised if they didn't, it's not exactly quiet…" IF sighed. It's the warehouses all over again, except this time she's also actively participating in it, along with her friends.


The mercenaries smoothly progressed through the corridors of the ASIC facility, leaving a clear trail of dead bodies and blood behind. The ASIC grunts left almost no resistance against the destructive force of 8 of the best mercenaries in the world.

The walls of the hallway were once painted a pleasant shade of blue, with a creamy-white ceiling. The floor was also white but near the walls it changed into deep blue. Fluorescent lights illuminated the hallway and the walls were filled with metallic retractable doors, which occasionally an ASIC grunt popped out of to check the commotion.

Demoman used his Chargin' Targe (an antique, blood-stained wooden shield with a painted yellow cross and reinforced by an iron rim with bolts and a deadly center spike) to charge at a surprised ASIC grunt with a thundering scream before decapitating the individual with the Eyelander in a single critical horizontal slash.

Histoire immediately switched to a different person as the severed head fell onto the floor. "Head…" The Eyelander muttered; suddenly the Demolition Man's eyepatch shone green, a sign that the sword's spirit had granted the wielder a small speed and health buff.

Suddenly the alarm went off, with a female voice shouting from the speakers. "Emergency! A heavily armed group is rampaging inside the facility! I repeat, a heavily armed group is rampaging inside the facility! This isn't a drill!"

Pyro chuckled and kicked the nearby doors open. Two men inside were eating lunch. Their heads snapped in the Pyromaniac's direction…

And that was the only thing they managed to do before Pyro made them happier by spraying rainbows all around them. Their cries of joy pleased the Firebug, and it decided to treat them with a giant lollipop as an added reward. Both kids loved it so Pyro left them alone, waving to them as it left.

Of course, in reality, both men were screaming in agony from the blistering flames. In panic one of them tried to roll onto the floor to put them out, still screaming loudly as the flames beautifully danced on their skin, eating away their cloth and hair while they could do nothing but pathetically wriggle and scream.

That wasn't the end of their suffering though, oh no. Pyro soon replaced its flamethrower for a fire axe; the merc stomped hard onto the wriggling man's stomach to keep him in place, before bringing down the hatchet into his shoulder. The metal easily penetrated the skin and flesh, but it couldn't penetrate the bone. It did however intensify the victim's screams and panic.

The fire alarm was soon activated and the sprinklers rained down water to extinguish the fires inside. It was too little too late for the fires on the grunt's flesh…

Meanwhile, Pyro ignored both his cries and the water, casually taking out its fire axe as it moved onto the next target. Again stomping the stomach, the firebug raised its axe; this time however, the Pyromaniac switched the sides and brought the spiked end down into his left cheek, severing his tongue, breaking his jaw, teeth and cracking his skull. Unfortunately for him, the force of the blow didn't break his neck. If it did his suffering would've been cut short.

With the deed done, Pyro left the room, leaving two incapacitated ASIC grunts to death. The sprinklers finally managed to extinguish the flames, but the damage was done, and without medical help, both of them were doomed to die slowly in pain.

Histoire, who had made the unfortunate decision of switching to Pyro's point of view, blanched and swallowed the bile rising up to her mouth. 'Nepgear and IF won't be the only ones with PTSD at this rate…' She thought, deciding it's best to stick with the girls' footage and spend the bare minimum of time looking through the mercenaries' eyes. Or at least not Pyro's. With its usual amicable behavior outside of combat, she'd almost forgotten the masked being was the one thing even the other mercenaries feared, if the Meet The Team videos were to be believed…


IF checked the time on her phone; 2 minutes have already passed and they could only barely hear the gunfire anymore. "It's time." The Guild agent announced, hiding her phone in her pouch attached to her belt. "Let's go." The brunette reluctantly placed her hand onto the door's handle. She's afraid of what's hiding behind them.

To her relief, Nepgear stopped her. "W-Wait a sec!" The CPU Candidate said as a bright light engulfed her. The light soon died down, revealing Nepgear in her HDD form, 'Purple' Sister. "Processor unit, complete. Let's move out!"

IF lightly nodded, gathered all her courage and quickly opened the surprisingly sturdy doors, her emerald eyes closing tight. With nothing immediately attacking her, her right eyelids slowly separated and revealed…

A perfectly clean wall of the hallway…

However the smell became so much worse it made the male restroom smell like a bouquet of flowers.

Closing her nose again and releasing a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding, the Guild agent waved the others to follow as well. "Hey, Histoire. Where are we actually?" IF asked, looking at her N-Gear.

"According to the blueprints Spy provided, you should be in the east wing on the 3rd floor. The *ahem* safest path to the archives should be on the right to the restroom, then turning right at the T shaped crossroad, and go straight to the staircase." The fairy directed, her small finger running over the blueprints.

Somehow IF gets exactly what Histoire meant by the 'safest'…

Out of curiosity, Nisa glanced to the left.

What she saw was a hallway full of blood and severed and/or burnt limbs and organs, with corpses that were lucky to be more-or-less intact, so mangled that it's impossible to deduce what happened to them, much less what killed them.

Immediately turning away with wide eyes, the heroine of justice proceeded to push everyone away from the aftermath of the mercenaries' slaughter. "O-Oracle Histoire is right. R-Right, right is the wise choice." She stuttered.

Judging by the smell, no one questioned it…

They walked in silence, alert in case of anyone ambushing them. The coppery smell of blood gradually died down as the girls distanced themselves from it. The sounds of gunfire also became quieter, but they were still very audible.

Eventually the girls arrived at the T-shaped crossroad, they could either turn left or go straight ahead and then forced to go right. "Histoire said to go straight, right?" Nepgear looked back at the group. IF and Falcom shook their heads.

"Nope, she said right." IF pointed her thumb at the right way.

"Going straight will eventually lead you to where the mercenaries are heading. However there's a room marked 'Armory' in that direction as well. It would be help the mercenaries if we somehow prevent the ASIC from accessing that room." Histoire suggested. Nepgear briefly considered it, same with Falcom and IF…

"I think they'll be fine, but let's still do it. In case the ASIC have really heavy weapon-." IF was cut off by the sounds of footsteps. Suddenly 4 ASIC grunts rushed out from behind the corner. They were little different from normal grunts, over their clothing were thick gray armor with Avenir's logo on their back and ASIC's logo on the chest. 3 of them wielded Lastation-made automatic shotguns while the last one, a female, held an assault rifle.

"Intruder!" She yelled, pointing her rifle at IF. The group unsheathed their weapons and stood in standoff. They're at a disadvantage in range and firepower, but Nepgear and IF were overhealed, so they could shrug off some bullets.

"I-Is that the CPU Candidate?" A male asked, stuttering.

"I-I think so, she looks different though." His teammate answered.

"Didn't Nepgear somehow change her look?" The last one commented.

"W-We don't want to hurt you! Just drop your weapons! Please?" Nepgear demanded, trying to be confident. It didn't work.

"Like we'd believe that! Drop our weapons, for what? So you can slaughter us like in all those other facilities? You can't fool me that easily, bitch…" The woman growled, moving her gun so the barrel points at Nepgear's face. "Fire!" She yelled.

"Watch out!"

With her eyes closed, IF jumped in front of the CPU Candidate while an orchestra of gunfire filled the air! Nisa, Falcom and Nepgear covered their faces.

Reluctantly opening her eyes, the Guild agent saw a red transparent wall of energy in front of them, maintained by Compa's Quick Fix. On the other side the ASIC grunt's eyes widened, all of them frozen in surprise.

"W-What? How did you…?"

"Surprise~!" Compa chirped, feeling proud that she managed to save all her friends thanks to Mister Medic's lessons.

"Phew~. Nice save, Compa." Falcom thumbed up to the nurse. The Electro-Shield suddenly collapsed, the Quick-Fix having spent its charge and must be again re-charged in order to make a new one.

"You've saved our lives once more. My gratitude to you, Compa!" Nisa gave her savior a grateful nod before turning back towards the ASIC grunts. "Now it's time to deliver justice!" The heroine lowered herself, preparing a Justice Kick.

Before she could do that however, a white-pink-red blur shot past her. It turned out to be Nepgear who made a beeline towards the female grunt, faster than a speeding bullet. The CPU Candidate batted away grunt's assault rifle with her gun blade before using the blunt side of her weapon to deliver a solid blow to the side of her head. Her helmet protected her head, but the force still knocked the grunt off her feet, whirling in the air before dropping onto the floor face-first, unconscious but alive.

The grunts yelped, startled by the CPU's speed. One of them aimed his shotgun at Nepgear, but immediately got a faceful of Justice Kick from Nisa! The heroine saluted the CPU Candidate as she stood over his unconscious body.

IF used her Winger to jump and wrap her legs around another grunt's neck. The grunt grabbed her lower limbs and tried to break himself free, but the Guild agent leaned back and with one swift motion, slammed him onto the floor. The grunt groaned in pain as IF removed his helmet and hit his neck, knocking him out as well.

The last grunt standing tried to run, but Falcom tripped him with her sword. Placing her foot onto his back she mustered all her strength into a single hit of the hilt into the back of his head.

With the group taken care of, the girls relaxed. "What are we going to do with them?" Falcom asked, sheathing her sword into the violin case.

"None of us have what it takes to kill them… umm… Tie them up somewhere then hand them over to the Guild? But then they'd know we're involved…" IF pondered.

"Just leave the bodies to me, you all just get to the archives."

The girls' heads snapped back in the direction they came from; Spy was casually standing there with a cigarette in his mouth. "Spy? What are you doing here!?" Nepgear asked, eyes wide with surprise.

"Standing here, smoking a cigarette, can't you see?" He answered snidely.

IF sighed at his sarcasm, but there's no time to argue. "Anyway, there's an armory up ahead. It might be good to seal the doors off." The brunette pointed at the path straight ahead.

"I see. I'll take care of it." The Frenchie knocked the ash out of his death stick and crouched next to the nearest grunt. "Hmm… out cold." Spy stood up and noticed that the girls haven't moved yet. "What are you waiting for? Move!" He shooed them away.

Reluctantly the girls resumed their journey towards their objective. After a few steps though, Nisa suddenly stopped (the others noticed and stopped as well) and turned back towards the Frenchie…

Who had already disappeared, and all the once unconscious ASIC grunts were dead with their throats slit open…

The heroine of justice grit her teeth and clenched her hands into fists in anger. She tried to keep her righteous fury in check but failed and ended up punching the nearest wall, spooking everyone as they watched the bluenette.

"Are you alright, Nisa?" Compa asked with concern.

"It's injustice…" Was all Nisa muttered…

Over the past week, Nisa tried to convince herself that it's all for the better. That the ASIC are the bad guys who need to be stopped, she really tried. It helped that the news and mercenaries were vague on what really happened inside the raided ASIC bases.

She managed to delude herself that everyone died there because the mercenaries killed them in self-defense. A kill-or-be-killed situation…

But now, after witnessing it firsthand, she can't help but feel like they're much bigger villains than the ASIC. Misguided as they were, the ASIC agents were still people with dreams, families, futures; they were criminals that needed to be stopped and punished, but they didn't deserve death. The mercenaries don't care about any of that though, all they care for are their own pockets, ending human lives just because it's convenient, or even because it's fun for them. Dealing out death like some sort of Death Merchants.

Compa noticed Nisa's tear-stained face, and the busty nurse embraced the heroine in a comforting hug. "There, there." She muttered, lightly patting Nisa's back for good measure.

IF, Nepgear and Falcom shared a troubled look. They know the reason why their friend began crying, but they don't know how to really comfort her.

They were helpless… just like Nisa… but instead of her, who wanted to bring justice and fair judgment to everyone, they were helpless to cheer up a friend.

The bluenette realized that her eyes were leaking, and hurriedly the heroine wiped them off with her gloves. "Better?" Compa asked when the blonde noticed that she stopped crying.

Nisa simply broke the hug, sniffed and quietly nodded. "Let's just go… I need to calm down a little."

Fortunately her friends didn't say a word, turning their back towards her as they began slowly walking towards the archives again.

Histoire felt like this was a good time to give them a little privacy. Bracing herself for the horrors that she's about to see, the Oracle switched the point of view in the Spectator software.


Heavy's Svetlana rained lead hell upon the ASIC grunts. Each and every one of them had to take cover behind a corner or go back inside one of the rooms, unless they wish to get turned into mincemeat.

To their relief. Heavy again ran out of ammo, and instead of gunfire a clicking sound filled the air. "Ughh…" Russian groaned. First against CFW Judge and now here… The mercenary abandoned the weapon and punched his fists. "Get behind me, doctor!" He ordered.

The armored ASIC grunts chuckled mockingly and rushed out of cover, immediately starting to fire at the mercenary duo. This proved to be useless at best, thanks to Medic deploying the Electro-Shield. The transparent barrier disintegrated all the bullets without fail, until a grenade suddenly bounced across the hallway. Fortunately it landed close to the shield so Medic was able to destroy it as well before it blows up.

The duo rushed towards the closest grunt, the Electro-Shield allowing the human target to pass without any sort of trouble. Heavy grabbed him by the throat and raised him off the ground, the grunt futilely struggling against Heavy's iron grip while his comrades tried to help him but couldn't thanks to the shield…

Suddenly the grunt's stomach growled… He hasn't eaten anything today.

Heavy and Medic stared blankly at him. Well that was awkward… But an idea popped into the Russian's head.

Switching hands so that his left hand was choking his enemy, the mercenary pulled out a Sandvich. Heavy grinned with raised eyebrows as he asked, "Hungry?" The ASIC grunt awkwardly nodded as his answer.

The bald giant took a bite of his delicious Sandvich, nomming in front of the grunt's face. "That vas delicious!" He cheerfully announced, turning his eyes. "Now is your turn. Say 'aaaaah'!"

Then Heavy shoved his bitten lunch into his mouth, forcing it far down his throat and making sure that it goes into his lungs instead of his stomach. The grunt's comrades watched in horror as he convulsed and choked, his body trying as hard as it could to get the invading object out, but Heavy had none of it and pushed further, his enormous strength pushing through the canal with little resistance. The toothpick scratched roughly against his insides even, drawing blood.

"Heavy?" Medic said, standing on his toes to look over Russian shoulder, his face showed disappointment but the Russian couldn't deduce what pissed him off.

"What?" He asked confusedly. Medic simply pointed his index finger on what's in front of them.

Heavy peeked over the dying grunt, and his eyes slightly widened from what he saw.

7 armored ASIC grunts lined up in rows of 3, with the sole one standing at the side. The back row pointed their assault rifles at the mercenaries while the front row slowly advanced towards them with swords out. The remaining 1 grunt had a red cross emblem similar to Medic's on his biceps. The Electro-Shield was already gone, so the ASIC grunts were free to attack them at will.

Heavy awkwardly chuckled and dropped the grunt. He was so occupied that he didn't notice the reinforcements… "Hit charge!" He cracked his knuckles and yelled.

Yeah… Histoire definitely won't be sleeping tonight. Deciding it's enough brutality for now the fairy switched the footage again.


The girls stood in front of the doors to the archives. The metallic doors had an electronic lock preventing them from accessing the room, unless they had the right keycard. Above said lock is attached a plaque with the words 'The Archives' written on it.

"Well… We're here. Now how do we get in?" IF scratched her hair. So close and yet so far… all because of the electronic lock.

"Can't we force them open?" Compa asked, trying to force the doors open with her hands. The doors didn't budge an inch no matter how hard she tried.

"That kind of door was specifically designed to resist heavy assaults. With security this tight, we can be certain that something of value is kept here." Histoire stated through the N-Gear, wondering how they could bypass such doors without a security card… Maybe try to hack the lock?

"Jeez, what exactly is this building used for?" IF snapped angrily.

"According to the intel Maxie provided. It is one of the ASIC administration centers in Haneda City, hence the tight security. It is one of the buildings where everything is managed, recorded and plans for the future are created." Histoire calmly explained, IF nodded in understanding.

"Can't we just call in the mercs? I figure Spy could hack the lock, or Demoman can just blow it open." Falcom suggested with a shrug, but Histoire sighed as she replied.

"I guess they could, but all of them are quite occupied at the moment."

"Hey Histoire… About those mercenaries." Nisa began, looking at the digital face of the Planeptune's Oracle. "Why did you hire them? Those criminals, murderers." The heroine growled out venomously the last bit. She is desperate for a sound reason on why Planeptune hired people like them.

Everyone fell silent and looked at her; Histoire had to choose her words carefully or Nisa may snap. "Because…" The Oracle began, thinking twice about what she's about to say. "We can't afford to do anything else, not without Neptune. You've seen how strong and versatile they are, Nisa. We need them if we're going to stand against the ASIC."

"And Nepgear can't stand up to them? She's a CPU afterall, with the same enhancements as them!" Nisa angrily cut the Oracle off, pointing at Nepgear.

"I'm only a candidate…" The CPU in question corrected with a whisper.

"Nisa…" Compa muttered, saddened to see her friends fighting.

"With the respawn system under their control, it doesn't matter how many times she defeats them because they'll just keep coming back. There was also the possibility of them joining the ASIC against us instead. We had no choice but to hire them first… to protect the innocent and free the goddesses." Histoire reasoned.

Nisa took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, letting the information sink in. To protect the innocent and free the goddesses… a valid reason she searched for.

But…

"How? How would hiring those killers protect anyone?" The heroine asked. Her mind was in conflict; How could hiring people like them to kill everyone in sight possibly protect innocents?

"Most of the mercenaries, mercenaries in general, don't care about anything but money. They'll do anything to earn as much as they can. I hired them to help us defeat the ASIC and free the goddess, but harming any civilians will be met with severe penalties on their paycheck. Because of that, they will think twice before harming anyone outside of the ASIC." The fairy explained.

"I see… It all comes down to money, huh?" Nisa muttered, looking at the floor. "I understand, Oracle Histoire." The heroine raised her head and looked at Compa.

"I'm sorry for breaking my promise, Compa. But I cannot stand this injustice. I quit."

Compa recoiled in shock. "H-Huh!?"

Nepgear's eyes widened upon realization that she's losing her new friend as well. "Nisa! W-Where are you going!?" She asked, reaching out to her.

"There's nothing we can do to convince you to stay, right?" IF crossed her arms.

"Well, I can understand where you're coming from… It's been nice knowing you no matter what. Will we see each other again at least?" Falcom asked.

"No, IF. I need to leave. I can see the reason in Histoire's words but I still can't stand the sight of them murdering everyone in their path. I'm sorry, so much for me helping you out after you saved my life… I'll try to stay in contact, after I try to forget the horrors of today… Good bye." The heroine turned her back towards them, and slowly started walking towards the staircase.

"Nisa, please… don't leave." Nepgear begged, her voice breaking… Even though the CPU Candidate's known her for only a week, the heroine was still her dear friend. The bluenette briefly stopped and turned her head to the side.

"Please know I bear no ill will towards you, Nepgear, towards any of you. I wish you luck in your quest… Just please. Keep those… mercenaries in check. Do not let them harm anyone innocent." With those last words, Nisa disappeared, leaving the party. She made sure to not let them see her tearstained face…

Perhaps if not for the mercenaries, she could stay by Nepgear's side until the end...

However under current circumstances it's just not possible…

The rest of the girls stood in silence, in grief for losing their friend. The sounds of warfare were the only thing they could hear.

Histoire, thinking it's better if they moved on, cleared her throat. "We should figure out how to open those doors."

Still looking at where her friend once stood, Nepgear nodded. "Yeah… let's do that."

"Soo… any ideas?" Falcom asked with a forced smile.

"How about this?" Spy answered, leaning against the wall, his left hand holding the security card and right hand carrying Engineer's toolbox. The French mercenary ignored their surprised looks as he swiped the card through the card reader. A light greed diode flashed up and the doors opened. "Shall we?" Spy nodded towards the open room.

"Are you following us or something?" IF raised her eyebrow. "I predicted you'll encounter some trouble, so I thought to assist when necessary." He exhaled some smoke. "By the way, I saw mademoiselle Nisa on my way here. You think she'll be fine alone?" Spy asked. He was oblivious to their talk, so seeing Nisa crying and alone confused him a bit.

"Don't worry. She's the Heroine of Gamindustri after all!" IF grinned, entering the archives.

The archives, as the name implied, was a room filled with lots of cabinets full of documents on the right side of the room. The walls and floor were the same as the hallway other than the purple carpet decorated with gold patterns around the edges covering the floor. A crystal chandelier illuminates the room. An expensive-looking office desk with a chair with comfortable-looking green pillows stood on the left side, with a personal computer atop. Two windows in front of them let the sunlight inside.

It looked more like an office instead of the archives.

"Hmm, how quaint." Spy commented, setting the toolbox in the middle of the room as he started ordering them. "IF, check the terminal. Falcom and I will check the cabinets. Compa, you stay outside and alert us if anyone's coming. Nepgear, deploy the teleporter."

"It's a PC, not a terminal, but ok."

"Roger!"

"Yessy!"

"Huh!?" Nepgear blanched, her order kinda surprised her. Spy sighed, exhaling the cigarette smoke. The spook pointed at her. "You." Then at the toolbox. "Teleporter." Then he produced the Jag (a combination monkey and pipe wrench with a brown taped grip) out of the black hole he's hiding inside his suit and handed it to the CPU Candidate. "Deploy it. Our Engineer showed you how to reconstruct already built buildings." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Spy didn't wait for an answer since the moment Nepgear gripped the wrench the spook started unlocking the locked cabinets with a set of keys.

"You look surprisingly prepared…" IF commented, setting her butt on the chair and booting up the PC. Leanbox's SquareOS loading screen appeared on the monitor.

"I had to make a few trips to the Security Room and Engineer's Sentry Nest. This is why it took me so long to get here." Spy replied, finishing unlocking all cabinets. With everything unlocked the mercenary and red-head adventurer began rifling through the papers.

Nepgear looked at the red toolbox lying on the floor, her gunblade in her right hand and the Jag in her left. The CPU Candidate awkwardly tapped the teleporter twice with her blade; fortunately it worked and the toolbox began to open, revealing the folded teleporter inside. Then she violently whacked the machine with the Jag to speed up the process.

"Ge-Ge, please don't destroy Mister Engineer's teleporter!" Compa exclaimed from the hallways when the lilac-haired girl started hitting that thing pretty harshly.

"Don't worry, Compa! I'm just following the manual." Nepgear answered.

"There's a manual for this?" Falcom asked, turning her head towards the Candidate.

"Mhm. Here." She pulled out said manual from her own hammerspace. It was a thin book with 6 pages. The cover featured a level 1 Sentry Gun on red background with the TF Industries logo in the corner the words and the words:

Sentry

Operating Manual

"I see… that's, um… nice." Falcom sweatdropped. It didn't occur in her mind that there's an actual manual for these buildings. "So what are we taking?" The adventurer asked, turning back to the documents.

"Everything, all we need is to wait for Nepgear to build the teleporter." Spy answered.

Meanwhile a bored IF waited for the PC to boot up. She hated outdated computers because of how long they take to boot up. Especially the SquareOS…

Finally the computer finished booting up and the Guild member was met with…

A bloody login panel.

Of course! Why not!?

Slamming her forehead on the desk, IF let out a defeated sigh. But then something caught her attention, a small scrap of paper that fell onto the floor. The brunette picked it up and read its content.

Login: all_hail_the_lolis

Password: hunter2

IF couldn't help but to sweatdrop. This is too cliché to be true, but she needs to make sure. Dragging the keyboard a bit closer to herself, the brunette agent carefully typed the login and password, triple checking it with the scrap to make sure and then pressing enter.

She's in…

Suckers!

Giggling like a little girl, IF took the USB cable of her N-Gear and connected it to the computer. The desktop was a mess, with lots of folders everywhere. Whoever's in charge, they don't like to clean their workplace… And now here comes another problem…

IF has no idea what to actually search for…

Take everything?

Why not?

The brunette went to 'My Computer' and to her relief there's only 1 hard drive. Makes it much easier and faster to convert everything into the .7-Nep file and upload it onto her N-Gear. It'll take some time, but that's the only way for IF to take the entire disk with her without rummaging inside the PC.

While the Guild member operated the computer, Nepgear finally managed to get the teleporter going. It took much more time than if Engineer did it, and it's only a level 2 for some reason. But she did it alone! "Teleporter is ready!" The CPU Candidate announced, and Spy's head snapped in her direction. The spook smiled when he saw a functional teleporter instead of broken pieces with a child beating them with the Jag..

Although he could have sworn he took the fully upgraded one…

"Splendid!" Spy took out the entire 'B' drawer from the cabinet and slammed it down onto the spinning machine. The teleporter didn't appear to be damaged in any way from the blow, and it transported the papers without any problem.

"Where does this teleporter lead, anyway?" Nepgear asked, turning off the HDD. She's tired already… both mentally and physically…

"Straight into Madame Histoire's office, and this is also your escape method." Spy answered, taking the 'A' out and repeating the process. Falcom stopped reading through the papers to find the 'valuable information' and simply mimicked Spy, and Nepgear helped as well.

"You don't have to teleport the entire cabinet…" The Oracle deadpanned. Fortunately she doesn't need to carry the drawers around because she has the Basilicom Staff for that.

"It's faster this way, Madame Histoire. IF, how's extracting the data from that terminal?" Spy took out the 'F' drawer.

"It's a PC, not a terminal." IF sighed.

"Whatever, how is it going?" Spy rolled his eyes.

"I'm converting everything into a smaller .7-Nep format so I can download it entirely onto my N-Gear without exceeding its memory." The Guild member answered. Leaving Spy completely confused as he teleported the 'U'.

"I… have no idea what you just said." He admitted.

"It's going fine but it'll take a while." IF deadpanned.

Spy, Falcom and Nepgear eventually managed to transport all the documents from the cabinets. The only thing left was to wait for IF to download the PC's files onto her N-Gear, which took about 30 minutes (which Spy made very clear that he's impatiently waiting for her).

No one came to interrupt them, and eventually Compa began quietly singing to herself as she patiently waited for the others to finish. When they did they took the same teleporter and successfully finished the 1st phase of their first heist against the ASIC.

With information gathered and the girls moved out of the way, the mercenaries could go crazy and obliterate everyone who crosses their path. They never found Nisa during their massacre, she somehow managed to escape from the building without the mercenaries' knowledge.

Where is she? What is she doing or thinking?

They have no idea…


After their little raid, Histoire and Spy read through the piles of documents. To speed up the process they decided to read through only the recent logs.

Histoire read a report about one ASIC scientist discovering a new material. Apparently it's a metal which is capable of adapting and transforming into different states and forms. According to that scientist, this metal shares similar appearance, such as a similar color and the level of reflectivity and electron configuration to silver. However it has a drawing of a small chibi girl in its nucleus which silver doesn't have.

There isn't an official name for said metal yet, but some ASIC grunts have started calling it "Neptulium" for some reasons.

'Amazing, they found an entirely new element!' Histoire thought with excitement.

As the Oracle kept reading through the entire report, very interested in the newly found metal, Spy pulled out some random receipt he found in CFW Judge's file. Yes for some fucking reason they have an entire file about one of their leaders…

Reading through the scrap of paper, he found that it's dated back to one day after they destroyed him. The mercenary frowned as his eyes scanned through the list. Few nuclear power cells, some sort of Avenir's Anti-Gravity Engine, few tons of titanium, cybernetic limbs, among other weird hardware…

Spy frowned. Why would something like this be inside CFW Judge's file…

Unless…

Spy's eyes widened in realization, and the French spook shoved the receipt into Histoire's vision, his face serious.

"Madame Histoire, we have a problem."


Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Distributing Death like a Death Merchant


First: Neptulium =/= Neptunium. Neptulium is a metal I made up. What it does and how is it relevant to the plot will be explained in later chapters.

That's some very brutal scenes right there, and with Nisa leaving the party it makes it even more yummy! Initially I planned to make her argue with Spy instead, and them ending up throwing punches. But then it gnawed me that it Spy would easily win due to huge experience and equipment gap.

So yeah, Nisa left, for now atleast. I won't kill her off just now. But she won't appear for quite some time.

Fun Fact: Death Merchant is a highest rank in the TF2 Competitive Mode.

Responses:

- Piggyslayer1235

Then I guess they'll make him angry, or sad. Or it'll just end up like Heavy's sandvich kill :v

- Guest

*Whispers* Later…

- BreadNotDead

Well, when you're able to escape death each time you "die" they you'll end up little reckless. That's why Soldier and Demoman performs explosive jumps :v

Beep-bop-boop! Damnit a lost opportunity! I wonder how would adult IF look with short hair... This'll keep me up at night.

Compa, as a nurse and Neptune's friend, is very patient with high insanity tolerance. She must be very patient or she won't be able to treat injured people for long. Yes I liked that part, I must plan few more scenes like that.

- Harmless Orange