"How long are we looking at?" Kurome wasn't one to waste time when the rest of her crew were actively tanking the job, but the woman sitting before her typing away just snarled.
"Imagine going door to door between every house in your local neighborhood, and multiply that by a thousand."
"Isn't there a faster way to do this?"
"No." The woman practically cut off all counteractions there. "Had there been a faster method, I would have employed it myself. On the off chance the boss has failed to mention, the Leanbox division here is our swiftest when it comes to technological prowess, and I just so happen to be the best with getting into systems we don't quite belong in."
With how slow it appeared to be going, Kurome chalked that claim up to bragging, but relented nonetheless; she knew nothing about hacking or breaking into systems, so she wasn't exactly the best person to judge on which signs made a person skilled in the field or not. Kurome just grumbled silently to herself, realizing she was forced to remain content and wait. Realistically, she never expected the pinpointing of the signal to take so long; you'd think Linda's call would have made it easier, but no, they told her they couldn't do a scan after the call had finished - she wanted to call bullshit, but lacked the knowledge to be certain they were lying, and so left it.
Then again, woman one was rolling dice with a man in the back - another strong sign they didn't really care too much.
She should have been happy to at least be in the main base of operations, but even up here was more irritating than reassuring. It was nothing more than a dirty cement basement lined with rows of desks and computer tech. Calling it a basement was rather ironic really, considering they were up a floor, but it matched the style to a T - plus, it looked nothing at all like an attic, so that idea was scrapped too - so what better word was there? Then again, the insides of these places always seemed more spacious than they looked on the outside, and that was probably a sign of something, but she wouldn't be looking into it though - ordinary life had been perplexing enough so far, and she wasn't about to willingly add liminal space to the list of nonsense; best to ignore it.
Her phone started ringing out of nowhere, and every head in the office shot to her; even the dice rolls fell silent. Kurome ignored all of this, having already decided they weren't worth her time, and answered.
"Hey."
"Hello~ This wouldn't happen to be a woman by the moniker Kurome by any chance?"
"Who's asking?" She didn't recognise that voice, and not only that, the number calling had been shadowed as well.
"Wonderful to meet you darling, but I suppose we don't have time for fruity chatter."
"Who is this?" Kurome made sure to keep her tone flat, and while that was easy enough, it became a tad tedious when everyone else in the room flicked back to their screens, very obviously trying to get a read on where the call was coming from - or, at least that's what she assumed, because what else would they be doing?
"Just a fellow flower in the vast garden of Gamindustri, but that's besides the point. I hear from a couple of sprouting little buds that you're looking to get a hold of someone. Tell me, is this true?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and you didn't answer my question." Kurome almost swore under her breath; their target probably sent this person to counteract them; she wasn't surprised, nothing was going right so far; why should it start now?"
"Let's cut the cable already, honey, we both know your little group of wannabe black-hats has nothing on me. By the way, look up to the corner on your right and wave for me, if you would?"
Kurome's eyes flicked over so fast it'd make one wonder if they tore something on the way. The top corner of the room was mostly hidden in darkness, and yet a small flicker of red could be seen piercing through the shadows: a security camera. Gritting her teeth, Kurome started up again, this time lower.
"How long-"
"Since you picked up the phone dear, but don't fret: I come in peace."
"And I'm supposed to believe this because?" For a moment the woman thought she heard a giggle, and then the voice dulled a little, as if walking away from the phone.
"Okay, go ahead." There was shuffling, and then a new voice entered the fray.
"Hey, can you hear me through this thing?"
Linda? She almost spoke the name aloud, but managed to reel in her mouth. Kurome sent a quick glance all around, seeing that everyone was still typing away, but considering nobody had prompted her for anything she assumed they were having no luck tracking the call - or whatever they were doing.
"Yes."
"Oh, cool." Linda sent a low whistle. "It's weird speaking through a mic like this." A couple blunt punts echoed through, ultimately low in volume, but of enough substance where Kurome could feel the pressure against her ear. "Hey, it even does the mic thing if you tap it."
"Get to the point." She didn't appreciate Linda wasting their time, especially when she was clearly not in trouble; something happened, and Kurome had yet to discern whether it was a good thing or not.
"Right, right, okay." Linda took a quick breath on the other side before she continued. "Anyway, I'm here with both this new guy we got to call you, and the rat." A 'hey' echoed in the background, which prompted Kurome to believe that he was doing well enough too - apparently they were both just fine and dandy. "We're working out a plan to catch the bitch who had the cabs kidnap us."
"Go on." Kurome said, now a little less on edge that they'd finally managed to do something useful; the accompanying silence which followed after was not a pleasant omen. "Well?"
"We... uh... we don't have anything else yet."
"You don't? Then... Why did you call?"
"To let you know we're alright... was that... was that a bad call or-"
"No." It wasn't a bad call, no, and Kurome elaborated further - she reminded herself again that this wasn't a bad call. "But I was assuming you'd told me about this because you'd figured it out already."
"Well, yeah, but I was thinking more like 'yo, we can handle this one, so why don't you go after the other one'."
"Huh..." That actually made some decent sense; Kurome couldn't well believe it, but she was genuinely okay with that idea. "I suppose that's a fine enough reason."
"Hey, are you doing alright?"
"I'm fine." It was true for the most part; Kurome was just having a bit of trouble dealing with the lack of any real irritation right now. She wasn't used to the pair being out and not stringing themselves up by the neck; this was... different. Shaking herself from the quickly growing stupor, Kurome decided to just go with the plan. "Alright. I'll deal with things on my end."
"Got it; over and out."
Kurome took another second to pause after the dial tone kicked in, finally ending the call as she rewound the idea over and over again in thought. The other target: she'd yet to check that one. Lonk sent them two targets to capture for delivery, and with the others having set their sights on the first, it was high time for her to tackle the second. Kurome brought up the file, and upon opening up, was greeted with a photo first and foremost.
Interesting...
"Miss Kurome, can you hear me?" Kurome snapped her sights to the woman seated ahead, the very same one who led her into the base to begin with. "Is something the matter?"
"Nothing." Kurome pocketed her phone. "Did you manage to trace them?"
"Not quite, but we've narrowed it."
"Good." Kurome turned, making for the stairs back down to the ground floor, just off on the other end of the room.
"Pardon, but where are you headed?" That stopped her for a second.
"Outside." Kurome stated, making ready to leave again. "I need some fresh air."
.
.
"License and registration, please?"
Warechu watched with bewilderment as Anonydeath rummaged around in his purse. Really, the whole plan had been kind of scuffed to begin with, but honestly, what else was new.
He'd come to around twenty minutes after Linda and Anonydeath had strung together an idea to catch their - now shared - target, and oh boy, it was a doozy; at least the talk with Kurome potentially cleared up any troubles on her end. The mechanical stalker had a constant tracker on Sarah, which was mostly thanks to his employment at her behest, meaning that all they needed to do was chase the girl down and grab her... which was easier said than done. Well, that's what he would have thought, had they actually got to the woman before trouble hit.
"Oh, dear me." Anonydeath offered a small wave to the man who lazily stood on the other side of the window. "Give me just a moment; I have it here somewhere."
We just had to let him drive.
Not that Warechu had anything against said driving - Linda was no better honestly. The problem arose when they realized that Leanbox was a lot more cramped in the city, and had a heck of a lot more police patrols doing the rounds - even out here in the countryside. Planeptune might have been more technologically advanced, but they were also a good bit more lax when it came to these laws. Their relaxed demeanor towards crime was also what led to criminal groups such as their own trying to keep it that way; the best crime affects none but those who peddle it, or so went the saying drilled into the heads of every 'purple progress' perpetrator.
Maybe Warechu himself was a little at fault too for not calling it out, but the wheel was in Anonydeath's hands, so it was easier to hoist the blame all on him; prick just had to take that illegal turn, didn't he? Low and behold, a cop was posted right around the end, here, in the middle of scenic nowhere.
"Sir." The cop sighed as he tapped the glass, but Anonydeath didn't seem to hear him and continued roughing it through his purse. The policeman tried again, but this time louder "Sir!"
The sudden increase in volume seemed to do the trick, and Anonydeath shot his visor back to the man.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to step out of the vehicle please."
"B-but I have it here, I just ne-"
"Now, please."
Anonydeath offered a sigh as he moved, clicking open the door.
"Oh... very well." Once the door shut again, Warechu couldn't restrain the hiss that slipped free, which was then drowned out by Linda commenting from the back.
"Number one rule for driving, always put your stuff in the glovebox."
"You think he knows that?" Warechu offered with a scoff, and his eyes stared cautiously at the very compartment near his seat; for once he questioned whether taking shotgun had been a good idea, especially considering he wasn't in a booster seat - so far the cop hadn't noticed, or perhaps he didn't care. "I'm calling it now, chu: he has his country-based 'Noire's' shoved in here."
"A bit of enjoyment for the lonely nights on the road?" Linda then shivered, and sucked in a breath. "Why do you always know the weird ones?"
"Hello kettle, name's pot: didn't one of your previous employers get off to licking girls in the single digits?"
"Don't remind me; I was desperate for money, okay? Magic was paying in the triple digits, so I figured I could turn away and just hope he didn't do anything too extreme."
"And how'd that work out for ya, chu?" Warechu didn't need to look back to know Linda wasn't exactly proud of what she'd done; cool with crime, sure, but licking kids? Even the scammer herself had limits, and Trick crossed all of em - he was dead though, which was another reason not to upset the CPU's.
"Whatever." Linda's tone was just as drab as he'd expected, however it perked up a little as she opened her mouth again. "You think what Anny said is true? You know, that he has his stuff here somewhere?"
"I don't know, why?"
"Well." She stilled for a bit, and during such, Warechu snuck a glance out the window, where their driver and temporary partner was doing what looked to be an alcohol test - weird balancing checks and all. "If we don't find 'em, we might not get to go after our target period."
"I know that, chu, but what the heck am I supposed to do; I ain't got any idea where he keeps his stuff."
"Then look around, stupid." Linda spat quietly, and before Warechu could really stew, he heard some ruffling in the back - seems she was searching as well. "I don't wanna have to break out of prison again; we've just got it going good."
"Fine, chu." Warechu could agree with her on that; going to prison didn't sound good at all, especially now that they had a chance at the big time, and a big house to go along with it.
Besides, Kurome would probably kick their asses if she had to bail them out of the slammer.
He dug around the general area, even breaching privacy for a bit to quickly sift through Anonydeath's purse, but only found the general stuff you'd expect, such as extra change and a pack of bubblegum - he didn't know the guy chewed. Yet what ended up drawing the mouse's attention was the small cellphone sitting comfortably at the bottom. He took it, and upon activating it was greeted with a photo of the Lastation Goddess who was smiling while wearing what looked to be some form of skimpy knight cosplay.
How do you even get these? Really, he should have questioned why the prim and proper Lastation Goddess was decked out in a fetishised halloween costume, but that didn't exactly help him right at that moment. Continuing on with the blatant breaching of personal space, Warechu chose to flick open the contacts; maybe Anonydeath had a friend who could help them out of the disaster salsa they'd become mixed up in, yet there was only a single contact in the list.
No freaking way!
Warechu wasn't sure he could believe it, but the raw curiosity driving him - probably even worse than Anonydeath's road rolling - had him listening to the rings go through.
.
.
Noire wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, and so she stared questioningly at the screen and allowed her thoughts to wander. According to all this, there was another shrine beneath the original, and apparently this one held some sort of long lost evil.
Wonderful, another stupid end of the world monster hiding beneath Gamindustri.
At least Blanc had offered up her current findings about the place, and even if they consisted mainly of a single old man's story, it was still better than nothing. The whole kerfuffle with Uzume's little artifact was very quickly spiraling into a snowball of problems, and it was looking like it'd run them over any day now. Fortunately for all of them, it appeared as though this 'Great Evil' had yet to awaken, which meant they had time to take it down before it did so; nobody wanted another Deity of Sin on their hands.
While Noire was mainly engrossed in her scheming and planning, and at some points complaining, her phone's ringtone snapped her from that web of intrigue. Said intrigue was instead shuffled to the number calling her, which was one she didn't recognise. Still though, they were calling her personal cell, meaning they must have known her personally otherwise they wouldn't have her number; hopefully it wasn't another surprise shopping bill out of nowhere - she'd gone through enough of those already.
"Hello." She started up, deciding on a more plain greeting, mostly because she didn't know what to expect - hopefully something good.
"H-hey... u-u-um-"
"Excuse me." Noire said, raising her brow as she realized that she couldn't recognise the voice, and yet, the stuttering had her suspicious. None of her previous contacts had sounded so jittery, even those she'd never seen face to face; this was very clearly not one of hers. "Who is this?"
"I-I, um... w-w-well-"
"I said." Noire hardened her tone, now fully on board with the belief that someone out there had her number - she'd probably need to change it later. "Who is this?"
The line went silent for a second, and then the voice came through.
"W-would you... happen to know a guy by the name of Anonydeath, chu?"
So it's one of these creeps. Perfect, just perfect: the weirdo had one of his goons calling her personally now. Well then, Noire wasn't one to back down from a fight, and she never caved into threats before.
"I was under the belief that he'd keep his end of the bargain." She started, feeling a scowl slip into place as she kept going. "I posed for his little outing, and he was supposed to leave my systems alone. That was a one time thing, but if you're calling, then I'm assuming he's got another thing in mind, am I right?"
"I-"
"Well tough: it doesn't work like that. I don't know who you are, or what your boss thinks he can do, but I'm more than willing to kick his sorry rear back into the slammer if I need to, so keep that in mind as you make whatever stupid demands you have: I won't negotiate with him anymore."
Had this been a house-phone, she'd have slammed it down on its receiver, smirking all the while, however this was her personal cell, so she wouldn't do that; plus, she had all her cosplay outings on here, and those were worth more than the gold in her eyes, even if nobody else was allowed to see them.
And then her eyes fell back to the monitor ahead, and Blanc's report began to fill her mind.
They had yet to really dig up any information on these shrines, and not only that, but they still had to figure out what happened to the blue cartridge, the one their little imposter from before had shown them. Her own research was - regrettably - going a bit too slow for her liking, and yeah, she was certain she'd drudge something up eventually, but it would probably be best if she could get the results sooner rather than later…
Hmm…
Maybe she was willing to negotiate after all.
"Well-"
"Hold that thought." Noire spat, followed by some silence as she ran through what to say in her head, before presenting her thoughts. "Perhaps I might be willing to hear you out after all: this is, of course, if your boss is willing to do a little bit of work for me."
"What?"
"You heard me." Noire could practically feel the confusion on the other end, which only served to make this easier. "If your boss is willing to aid me in a bit of, let's call it 'research', then I might consider whatever he has to say."
"I... uh..."
"Well?" Noire questioned impatiently. "Do we have a deal?"
"It's kinda hard to make a deal when they're about to arrest him."
"Excuse me?" Noire felt something tick. "Mind running that by me again, please."
"Look, chu, we were out on a drive, and he made a bad turn: the sign was muddy and we didn't see it. Unless you can do something to get the Leanbox authorities to hop off his back for a bit, we won't be able to take any deals, period."
A bad turn? This was... weird; of all the things to get caught for, and it ended up being a mistake on the road.
"Was anyone hurt?" This would ultimately be the deciding factor of her choice; she wasn't about to let someone who'd possibly injured people get off scot free, even if it would benefit her own needs - that just wasn't how she did things.
"The road was barren, chu, and in the middle of practically nowhere. Heck, the cop was probably heading home off his shift when he saw us. It was an accident, honest, chu."
"An accident... right." Noire was a little on the fence: she didn't like sweeping people out of trouble, especially those who were actively responsible for the crime. However, she was in a bit of a tight spot, and it sounded so minor that Anonydeath would probably get off with a warning anyway - it seemed his goon was overreacting a little bit.
"I know it sounds weird, but can you help us out? I promise I'll give the phone to him after, chu, and you can work out what you want."
"Okay, fine." All they needed to do was hand over their license and registration, but if she had the chance to talk with him quickly she could put the plan into motion faster. "I'll handle it, just hold on: call me back when it's over."
She hung up the phone, and very quickly swiped through her own contacts. It felt gross to be bailing out a criminal, but sometimes you needed to make the tough calls if it meant preventing an even worse trouble from sprouting to life. She'd deal with Anonydeath personally after this was all said and done, but for right now, she had a stalker to save.
"Hello." Vert picked up fast.
"Vert, it's me."
"How surprising; you don't often call like this. Regardless, it is a pleasant change. Now then, how can I help you?"
"This is going to sound strange, but I need you to have your police force ignore someone."
"Pardon?"
"I'll explain later; I need you to just trust me for now, please."
"Alright." Vert evened her tone, and Noire felt a bit of relief as the woman continued. "Who do you need?"
.
.
Warechu wasn't sure what would happen when she hung up, but whatever she had in mind would need to happen fast, otherwise they'd be in a seriously deep sinkhole of trouble.
"Drat, I have nothing." Linda cursed from behind, growling lightly. "You got anything?"
"A phone call, although I don't know if it'll end up being any good." He'd made sure to keep his voice down during the talk; Linda probably would have freaked out if she knew what he was doing. Then again, the whole thing had been an accident anyhow: he never expected the contact to be real.
Luckily he'd managed to string together an excuse, but for how long such bullshit would hold, he couldn't say.
"Well it better work quickly, because they've cuffed him." With Linda throwing that out so casually, Warechu nearly snapped his own neck from how fast he'd shot it over. From his side he couldn't see squat, and so he hopped over into the driver's seat and took a look out the window. Sure enough, Anonydeath was being walked over to the police car, and silently the rat began to pray for a savior - well, it wasn't so dramatic as that, but he hoped whatever the Lastation Goddess had in mind would save their ally in a timely manner.
Apparently such prayers were answered, because soon enough the cop was shaking his head and grumbling as he uncuffed their partner in crime. Warechu ended up rolling down the window enough to hear the policeman telling Anny to watch what he was doing next time, and that even officials like him needed to adhere to the law. Anonydeath gave a nod, and quickly Warechu was back in his seat as the mecha-madman stepped back inside.
"Well then, apparently we're in luck darlings~" He started up the car once more. "Somehow, they believe I'm a government official on his way to do a security check at the local weapons factory: lucky us~"
"It's not so much luck as it is a gamble, chu." Warechu held up the phone. "Here."
"Oh..." Anonydeath took the small device, and curiously looked it over. "What were you doing with-" He froze, as Warechu expected him to.
"We were looking for your license and all that when I saw it. Thinking I could call a buddy of yours to help us out, I took a peak. You mind telling us how you got the Lastation Goddess's number?"
"Maybe later, but I have to ask: why did you call her?"
"It was an impulse. I didn't think it was real; turns out I was wrong."
"Very." Anonydeath then sighed. "We're in trouble, aren't we?"
"Maybe." Warechu said, leaning back in his seat. "But hey, she made good on her word and got the cops off our back."
"Made good? Wait, are you saying my darling Noire's the reason mister policeman thought I was with Leanbox's government?"
"I don't know what she did, but she said to call you after: apparently she has a price for her help - a job I think."
"A job?" Anonydeath's voice then perked up. "From my beloved goddess?!"
"Look: just call her back before she thinks we've double crossed her, chu."
"Oh I will~"
Once again, Warechu was regretting his life choices.
Author's note
...
Oh boy, he has done it again: Warechu has somehow saved the day… by probably making it worse. Despite the fact our favorite mouse was extremely lucky with how Noire wanted some outside help, things could have been worse had she recognised his voice - surprise calls can sometimes trip even the best of us up, and Noire is far from infallible.
Kurome had her moment too, even if it was just standing around and waiting for everyone else to do their jobs. Good tidings for her though: she has a task to deal with, and probably gets her own little adventure.
Anonydeath is part of the main cast it seems, even if it doesn't look like he's on the correct side - I bet some of you expected him to stick to the gang side of things, but no, government scout it is.
Catch you all next time, when things probably get exciting… maybe… hopefully.