Chapter 29
First move.
"How are we going to do that?" Yang asks.
"Well we need to know when Salem is at her weakest, attack then and maybe we can stop this madness." Reese says while staring at the ceiling.
"But we have a problem: every associate that belongs to Salem is gone." Yang says flatly.
"And that is the roadblock, Cinder KIA, Watts KIA, that cloaked person no dice if she can teleport anywhere capturing her would be a bad idea."
"Well there has to be someone that's out there." Yang says.
"Patty go unleashed find anyone associated with Salem or says that name." Reese orders.
Patty then went all over the world looking for that one clue that could give Reese an edge.
After three hours of searching patty was done looking in Vale just then she received an alert from a microphone.
"Come on Emerald, we have gotten far enough from Salem." Someone said.
"There you are!" Patty says as she closed in on the location.
When Patty got close the conversation was loud and clear even though they were whispering.
"Look Mercury, you didn't see what Salem did to Ruby i did, and it didn't sit right with me." Emerald said with a little panic.
"Well let's go to the huntsman, they could help us." Mercury says with sarcasm.
Emerald gave him a dirty look.
But that didn't matter because Patty got an accurate location on them.
It was nighttime in the house when Patty got back.
"Humm I have been gone for a few hours." Patty says.
A few hours for her translate to 6-7 hours outside the world.
"Where is Reese?" Patty wondered.
Reese accidentally left the laptop in the family room.
Patty looked at the time and saw it was 9pm, now Patty accessed the satellite that's overhead and did a thermal scan.
Everyone was in the house, but Yang's bed that she shared with Reese was empty.
"Where did they go?" Patty wondered.
She then zoomed out and looked towards town, the town square was still alive and people were having a good time.
"What are the activities that are going on?" Patty says as she looks up the information.
Accessing…..
The 10th annual patch cook off is going on from 5-midnight, activities including steak, spice tasting, who has the best tasting raman contest, games and dancing.
"Town square hummm." Patty said as she gets to the cameras.
After the breach the town got a security camera upgrade so now there are more cameras and early warning devices.
The ten cameras that are around the square gave her several good points of views but the steam from the cooking made it a little hard for Patty.
As she was looking for Reese or Yang something caught her eye, two profiles in the center of the dance floor from the looks of it a couple was "tearing up the dance floor".
Patty jumped to another camera and pointed it at the park and instantly got a match. It was Yang and Reese who looked like they are out having fun.
"Attempting to contact agent." the camera said as she tried to get Reese on the phone.
Attempting to contact operator…failed.
"So he left his phone at home." Patty says.
Contact secondary (Yang)…failed.
"Really?" Patty shouted.
Attempting to find another source of communication.
Patty found a security guard and made contact.
"This is Patch dispatch contact the couple on the dance floor." Patty said.
"Roger, can I have a description of the individuals?"
"One is a male with black and red hair and the female has gold hair and the right arm is a prosthetic." Patty says.
"Copy standby." the officer said.
Patty was now watching the camera and Reese was still in the same location completely unaware that she was watching him, or did he know and just didn't care.
The cop made contact and both Reece and Yang walked away and the cop handed over the radio.
beep Foxtrot,Oscar,Uniform,November,Delta Sierra,Oscar,Mike,Echo,Tango,Hotel,India,November, Gamma. beep
"Got it." Reese said.
As soon as they were out of range Yang looked at Reese.
"What did all that gibberish mean?" She asked.
"Found something." Reese said back.
Back at the house Reese opens the laptop and sees that Patty found.
"Oh those two, what a joy." Reese says sarcastically as he remembered what happened during the finals back at beacon.
"So how are we going to capture them?" Yang asks.
"Well, the first step is going to sleep." Reese says as he goes upstairs.
"And the next?" She asks.
"We will get to that when I wake up." Reese says.
Next morning Reese was on the line with Winter.
"So the individuals are located in Vacuo?" Winter asks.
"Yes, that's where Patty found them." Reese responds back.
"So what do you want me to do?" Winter asks.
"Set up a tail and watch them. I will be there to help with the capture." Reese says.
After the call was disconnected Yang approached from behind and gave him a hug.
"So we are going after them?" Yang asks.
"Not we just me." Reese says.
"Why it involves Salem and my sister? I'm going." Yang says in an angry tone.
"Do you have an immunity to Emeralds semblance?" Reese asks.
"What does she have?" Yang asks inquisitively.
"She can make any hallucinations look real." Reese says.
"Do you?" Yang asks.
"Some semblance I can acquire I can counter them, like when neo tried to make me think ironwood was behind me but I knew he wasn't, after I was exposed to that neo tried to do something similar during her interrogation but it had no effect whatsoever on me." Reese says.
"Still I want to go with you, I'm not going to leave your side." Yang says as she lifts her left hand where her ring is.
"Uhhhhhhhgghhh fine but you're staying on the ship with Winter.
Some hours later.
Reese was on an aircraft that was on approach and he was the sole person on the flight.
"So this is what first class really looks like." Reese says while admiring the luxury that the jet offers.
"Enjoy it while you can." Winter says over the intercom.
"Yeah I know, find Emerald and Mercury and bring them back." Reese says.
"Good, we are now landing." Winter says back.
When the jet landed Reese activated the active camo on the armor, and at the same time the door opened and Reese rolled out of it and got on the move.
After a few minutes Reese got a good look at Vacuo and it looked like a resort with beachfront houses and hotels around with various activities for kids and adults.
"Hey honey, have you ever been here?" Reese asks over comms.
"Had the opportunity to go after my time in Signal academy but I got the flu before I had the chance." Yang says dejected.
"Dang. Well Patty, go find them." Reese says.
"Scanning audio microphones picked them up in the mall about 20 minutes ago get moving." Patty says.
Reese checked the GPS and he saw that he was an hour away from said mall.
"What direction did they go?" Reese asks.
"About west heading towards the docks." Patty says.
The docks were about 10 minutes from Reese's current location.
Reese then broke into a run hoping to get there first before them.
"Winter, contact the dock master and do a bs." Reese says.
"I'll try but they are on a tight schedule." Winter says back.
"Tell them anything." Reese says as he cuts the comms.
About ten minutes later Reese arrived at the docks and there are three ships waiting to go out.
"Patty schedules for those three." Reese ordered.
"The cargo one is departing now, the other cargo is going to be unloading for the next 12 hours, the mini cruise ship is going to depart in 40 minutes." Patty says.
"That's it." Reese says.
"Patty watch everything." Reese says as he gets close.
Now even for Patty technology has a limit if someone is trying to evade her, they would have to do a few things and she wouldn't notice.
Reese got a scan of the cruise worker outfit and the armor then changed to that outfit.
"Reese scan the lines so we can pick them up from previous encounters." Patty says.
Thankfully Yang during the tournament got a picture of emerald.
Patty then went to work scanning hundreds of faces and hair colors.
"Reese check aisle three got a 50/50." Patty says.
Reese wanderers over to the aisle while holding a clipboard.
Reese looks over and lets the helmet do its work.
"Nope nothing." Reese says.
"Check five." Patty says.
Now Reese realizes one thing: it's a cloudy day but yet why are there some individuals wearing hats?
"Patty watch only those who have hats." Reese says.
Patty then activates the mics and starts looking for that exact voice emerald has.
"Please state your destination?" The clerk asks.
"Vale." Emerald says.
"Reese front counter #2." Patty says.
"Stall." Reese says.
The clerk looks away for a second but it was enough and Patty puts a hold on them.
"I'm sorry miss but there seems to be a problem. Can you wait for a moment?" She asks.
Emerald nods.
"Excuse me miss, you need to come with me." A random crew member says.
Emerald and Mercury nods and follows the crew member.
After being led away and out of sight emerald nods to mercury.
Mercury delivers a roundhouse kick to the side of the crewman's head but CLUNK!
"Wha?!" Mercury says.
His foot hit metal and it shimmered then it revealed the dark armor that is the famous Atlas Special units.
"Emerald run!" Mercury shouts.
Reese ducks and grabs his leg and delivers a strike to KO him.
"Lights out." Reese says as he plants a tracker on Mercury for winter to pick him up.
Now Reese got running to find the woman as fast as he could.
"Patty where?" Reese asks.
"Heading back to the ship." Patty says.
Reese then rounded a corner to see emerald.
"Stop that woman with green hair." Reese says over the radio.
The ship then entered lockdown and no one could enter.
Emerald then ran back out the doors and went into the street.
"Don't go there, that's where the cars are." Reese says under his breath.
"STAY BACK!" Emerald yelled and at the same moment drew her weapons.
Now under any sort of circumstances Reese could fire back at Emerald for endangering the public, but this time around it's bringing them in no matter what.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The rounds passed by Reese and into a brick wall behind him.
"STOP THIS MADNESS AND COME QUIETLY!" Reese barks.
"NO I WON'T GO WITH YOU, YOU'LL PUT ME BEHIND BARS!" Emerald shouted.
BANG! Another shot this time it hit the armor.
"Patty flanking routes." Reese says.
"Only straight down the streets." Patty says.
"And right into the line of fire." Reese says.
Reese thought about using the cloaking but he realized that he would have to rush but it would shimmer thus revealing his position.
"She is running." Patty says.
"Where?" Reese asks.
"To a store down the street." Patty says.
Reese activated the speed enhancement on the armor clocking 35 mph.
"Patty send iff codes to law enforcement so they don't come after me." Reese says.
"Done. Yeah the radios are coming alive, yeah they are after an individual with black armor on." Patty says.
"Winter, flip it around and tell them the poi has leather pants, a crop top and green hair." Reese says.
"Done they are chasing her but damn she has great evasion skills." Winter says.
"Patty patch me into the radios." Reese says.
The familiar sound of the frequency change came through on the headset.
"Patrol car 3-1 here we have the poi in sight of the green hair individual, who is this Hunter 2-1 that is on site." The officer says.
"This is Hunter 2-1 I'm a couple of blocks away, what's going on?" Reese asks.
"Well whoever it is we are chasing she is very evasive, oh she just pulled out a weapon." Officer says.
"All teams don't engage, use of lethal force is forbidden, non lethal only." Reese says.
"She is posing a tremendous threat." Officer says.
"Then pull back but keep an eye on her, I'll get her." Reese says as he closes in.
"Don't know how you're going to get here WHAT THE!?" Officer looked back just in time to see a black armored figure passing by.
"Uhh I just saw someone running past me at 39 mph!" Officer said.
Reese was now on the trail of emerald.
"Patty where?" Reese said.
After looking through the cameras Patty got probable.
"Alleyway to your left 50/50" Patty says.
Reese didn't like that at best he wanted to hear 80/20 but if that's all she can figure he is going to have to take that chance.
Reese entered the alleyway and got silent.
Reese looked at his pda and activated the thermal imaging and heart beat sensors and looked around.
Thump! That was a heartbeat.
Reese looked to the left and saw some bag's piled up looking like nothing was there. Reese enhanced his thermal vision and saw a faint outline of emerald.
His hand shot out and got a hold of her but when she came out there was her weapon barrel pointing right at Reese.
BANG!
Well the shot wasn't placed correctly, Reese deflected her arm away missing him.
"Don't do that." Reese says calmly.
PUNCH!
Reese had enough of chasing her so he knocked Emerald out.
"Winter call off all units mission accomplished." Reese says.
"Roger calling all units off." Winter says over the radio.
Reese left the alleys and made his way to the extraction point but five minutes into the walk.
"THREAT INBOUND!" Patty said.
Reese jumped back just in time to doge a sword, now something was up that weapon and figure looked familiar, for one there was a slight shimmer but it was not cloaking but more like advanced camouflage.
Just then Blake's voice came through.
"Watch out Reese, she is dangerous, she is a white fang supporter." Blake says.
"Who is she?" Reese asks.
"Ilia." Blake said.
END
