(April 3 2024)—-

It's been about a week and a half since we searched the prison where we found Suomi. I ended up getting shot, but my shoulder is better, it just kind of clicks if I make a quick movement. Luckily I was shot in my left shoulder and not my right one, since I shoot with my right hand. Suomi's been teaching me how to use a Mac-10, which I can hold with one hand, but it's like trying to hold Alvin and the Chipmunks while they're high on cocaine whenever I fire it. I simply have to use my left arm to stabilize the gun, but that's about it, so it's doable. That week and a half to recover was all I needed. Narukami had been searching the surrounding areas, but to no avail. We're now driving to a hospital in the middle of a CWCistan city. If we take that hospital, we have a foothold to free the rest of the city. There is a bit of a good news and bad news situation here, good news is Suomi's friends are still at the hospital, and they will all be able to help us fight... the ones who are still alive anyway. Bad news is they're outnumbered. The hospital was taken about half a week before I came to this dimension. Suomi's friends are being forced to work in the hospital for Chris-chan's soldiers in exchange for their lives. According to Suomi, she was at the hospital until one of her friends mouthed off to the guards. In order to punish the others at the hospital, they randomly chose Suomi to take prisoner, as well as the friend who hurt one of the guard's feelings. That's about as much as I know for now.

"This better be worth it, Suomi." Narukami said as he was driving. "You understand I'm putting my search for my little sister on hold for this, right?"

"Not to be rude, but this is the best chance we have at taking the city." Suomi stated. "Plus, all my friends are very experienced T-dolls. If we retake the hospital and re-arm them, they can help us fight. I just hope they're still alive and well…" We drove in silence for a while. I was getting bored.

"Wanna play a car game?" I asked. Narukami said 'no' and Suomi said 'yes,' literally at the same time.

"What do you want to play?" Suomi asked.

"Let's play the funny school game." I suggested. I literally made that game up right there and then. I've never played a car game before because I've never been on a road trip with a friend and an acquaintance before.

"How do you play?" Suomi asked with her head tilted. I could hear Narukami audibly sigh, but honestly I'm hoping he joins in.

"Ok, here's how you play, you come up with a specific school, like 'school for the blind,' then you come up with a funny slogan, for example, 'school of the blind, we don't need chalkboards.'"

"That's pretty funny!" She said, "Oh, what about 'school of the quadriplegics, whoever has the fastest handi-car wins tag.'"

"That was pretty good, but not as good as 'School for homosexuals, if we turn our backs on you, take it as a compliment.'" Suomi laughed super hard at that one. I'll admit, I botched the delivery because I was laughing as I was telling it.

"School for the deaf," Suomi started, "I didn't hear you say we had homework!" That one got me pretty good, I ended up slamming my fist on the seat.

"I've got one." Narukami said flatly.

"Oh goodie!" Suomi said. "Let's hear it!"

"It's called the school of SHUT UP AND STAY FOCUSED ON THE MISSION!" Narukami yelled. Suomi and I fell silent for a few seconds after that.

Then I mumbled to Suomi; "School for buzzkills, our valedictorian is Yu Narukami."

"I can hear you." Said Narukami gruffly.

"Oh good," Suomi started, "That means you don't have to go to the school for the deaf." Me and Suomi started rolling around the backseat laughing. I could barely catch my breath. I'm so glad we saved Suomi. I guess there is something good in this dimension.

—-

We pulled up to a forest after a long time of driving, as per Suomi's suggestion. Problem is the hospital is at least one mile away.

"What are we doing here?" I asked Suomi.

"When the CWCtroopers started showing up, me and my friends said we would meet here in case we got separated." Suomi answered. "I'm not sure how many of my friends slipped away, but hopefully enough of them are here to help us retake the place."

"Well then let's not waste any time!" Narukami interjected. "Lead the way, Suomi."

"Ok, but I have to warn you," Suomi started, "Keep your guns down, my friends might be ready to shoot anything that looks like a threat." We started walking for a while, keeping an eye out for any of Suomi's friends, then all of the sudden a tree branch swung towards our faces. Me and Suomi ducked just in time, but Narukami got hit and knocked off his feet. I turned towards Narukami.

"Are you ok?" I asked in total shock. Suddenly a rope tightened around my left leg and I was suddenly lifted by my leg. Suomi turned to let me down, then she got hit in the back of the head by a log that swung out of the trees. Then a girl walked towards us with her gun raised. She was wearing mostly navy-blue and had long white hair. She also had these two D-pad looking things in her hair, kind of like Chris-Chan's wife. I don't think they're related though.

"You have ten seconds to give a reasonable explanation as to what you're doing here before I give you a lead vaccine!" The girl said. I was scrambling to reach my Mac-10 (I dropped it when I got lifted) but I couldn't reach it. Narukami scrambled back on his feet, only to be hit in the stomach by this girl. She was most likely one of Suomi's friends.

"Don't shoot!" I yelled. "Are you a friend of KP-31 Suomi?"

"Don't mention that name ever again!" She yelled. "Suomi's dead! Five seconds left, you'd better make your last words be something that doesn't tick me off!" The girl threatened me as she inched closer to me with her gun aimed between my eyes. I was at a loss for words, so I just pointed at Suomi lying knocked out in some brush. The girl saw Suomi and then lowered her gun.

"Okay, you can keep your lives." She said as she took out her knife and cut me down from the tree. I fell headfirst on the ground. She then helped Narukami up. I went to check on Suomi and she was out cold. She wasn't losing blood, luckily. Now that I think about it, do T-dolls have blood?

"Yo Gramps-scraper," The girl started, "Pick up Suomi and follow me. You look strong enough."

"'Gramps-scraper?'" Narukami asked in a harsh manner.

"Gramps because you have gray hair and scraper is short for skyscraper because you're tall, now move it!" The girl ordered. While they were conversing, I'd already picked Suomi up.

"Ok, let's move." I cut in.

"Wow, you're stronger than you look, Cat-man-do." The girl said. "Alright, now follow me." We followed the girl to a small hut crudely put together using sticks and a blanket placed on top of the sticks.

"Here we are, welcome to Fort Junior. Wipe your feet or I'll wipe you out." The girl said. I set Suomi down on a blanket laid out on the ground and put a backpack under her head as a pillow.

"Well thank you for being so welcoming." Narukami said quietly.

"Why are you pansies here?" The girl asked.

"We're here to see if you'd help us retake the hospital." Narukami stated, just brushing over the fact that she just called us 'pansies.' "Are there any other escapees here besides you?"

"You don't need anyone else, I'm all you need. There is one other t-doll here, though. She's probably in that box over there." She pointed to a box on top of a small horribly built table. This girl probably built it herself. I went over to open the box, but then Suomi suddenly woke up and yelled, "DON'T OPEN THAT BOX!" It was too late. I opened the box then this little vicious blonde-haired girl wearing a black jacket jumped on my face and started biting it and laughing. I scrambled all over the place trying to get her off. Suomi was able to stand up and pull her off. God bless her.

"You ok, Suomi?" I asked.

"Me?" Suomi asked in a groggy voice. "You just got attacked by M4 Sopmod II Jr. I honestly can't believe you're not bleeding out!" Sopmod Jr was shaking her tiny arms and legs in an attempt to escape Suomi's grip, probably because she wanted to latch onto my face again.

"Alright, now that Suomi's awake, let's go take the Hospital back!" Narukami said as he cocked his M14.

"Are you serious?" I quietly yelled. "You got hit in the stomach, Suomi just woke up from being knocked out and I just got attacked by a clearly ailurophobic baby! We can't move out in this condition; we need to rest first."

"What did cat man call me?" Sopmod Jr said quietly and aggressively.

"Klonoa, we are retaking this hospital today! And then we're going to search every prison until my little sister is safe!" Narukami yelled.

"We can't fight like this and you know it!" I retorted. "We're retaking the hospital tomorrow morning, and I'm not asking." Narukami scowled in my eyes for a while, then he finally caved.

"Fine. You win. Good luck getting a good night's sleep in close proximity to a baby who likes eating cabbits." Narukami said with a smirk, clearly trying to talk me out of my decision. My mind was made up. Suomi couldn't fight in the condition she was in, she could barely walk a straight line.

—-

We spent a few hours planning on how we'd retake the hospital at sunrise tomorrow. The girl who stuck us up when we came here knew the layout of the hospital well, so we came up with a good plan, but it wouldn't be easy to pull off. It started getting dark, so we all helped build a fire. We were all sitting around the fire in awkward silence. Narukami was sitting on his log brooding, Suomi was looking around awkwardly with her hands folded in her lap, and the white-haired girl was holding the mean baby in her lap. Finally (lots of emphasis on the finally) Suomi said something.

"Have you four been formally introduced yet?"

"No need," White hair said, "I gave both of them nicknames, Cat-man-do and Gramps-scraper."

"Oh my gosh." Suomi sighed. "Do they even know your name?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm HK416, and this is M4 Sopmod II Jr. Just call her Jr for short."

"Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!" Jr screamed. I jumped a little bit because I thought she was gonna fly at my face again. Suomi noticed how uncomfortable I was.

"Don't worry Klonoa. Jr will calm down once she gets to know you a little more. By the way, HK, this is Klonoa, and that's Yu Narukami." Narukami was sitting on the log, completely motionless. I was starting to worry about him. "So, you and Jr are the only ones who got out of the hospital?" Suomi continued.

"Yeah, I couldn't take anymore of serving our enemies." HK said sternly. "I escaped with Jr ten days ago and I've been spending my days ever since then trying to find a way in and save everyone else. No one else showed up, but that's fine. I can retake the hospital on my own, it's just nice to have some pawns. I'm honestly just glad you're still alive, Suomi."

"I owe Klonoa and Narukami my life." Suomi said. "If they hadn't shown up when they did, I probably would have wished I had been killed in the desert."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"You were there." Narukami grumbled, still brooding. "That freak Chris-Chan was going to have his way with her. Just like he's probably doing to Nanako right now. And what am I doing? Sitting near a campfire, having a conversation, and not doing a DANG thing about it!" Narukami stood up and trudged into the woods. I had to follow him. I wasn't sure if I should, but I had to try.

"Narukami, wait!" I yelled as I followed him. Narukami stopped walking and just stood there with his head hanging down and his back towards me. It was like that for a while. I couldn't think of what to say.

"I'm failing my Uncle." Narukami admitted. "When the three of us suddenly came to this world we were struggling. My Uncle was the one keeping me and Nanako alive and well. Then one day my Uncle left to get supplies and he never came back. He made me promise to protect Nanako in the event he died. Now he's dead and Nanako's being held by Chris-Chan."

"We're going to get her back." I said confidently. "You said it yourself, you couldn't do it alone. That's why we're at this hospital. If this goes well, we'll have a boat-load of friends." Narukami turned his head towards me.

"I suppose you're right. It's just that the longer Nanako's in Chris-Chan's hands the more it eats away at me."

"I get that." I told Narukami. "When I was being held, I saw a bunch of innocent people get shot against a wall. I'm fighting so something like that doesn't happen again." Narukami walked up to me and patted my head.

"Let's get back to camp, just... don't say anything about the conversation we just had." Narukami turned back towards the camp. I walked back to the camp with him and sat on the log in front of the fire in complete silence.

"Alright pansies, let's go to sleep." Ordered HK416. "We're taking the hospital at the crack of dawn!" We all got blankets and pillows and went to bed. Not a word was spoken the rest of the night. Narukami's spirits seemed up, so at least there's that. I lay there staring at the sky. As the fire died down, I could see lots of stars. It reminded me of the Moon Kingdom. Both Phantomile and Lunatea returned to my mind. I could feel a tear running down my cheek. I didn't want anyone to see I was crying a little, especially HK. She would never let me hear the end of it. I buried my face in my pillow and cried myself to sleep.

(April 4 2024)_—-

"I'm hungry." I got snapped out of much-needed deep sleep. I covered my head with my blanket to try and block out the noise. Then I felt a bite on my finger. It wasn't very hard, but it was enough to get me up. I sat up only to see Jr just standing there staring at me.

"I'm hungry." She said once again. I got up, picked her up and cradled her in my arms. She wasn't biting my face yet, but I was still feeling a bit worried. I slowly stepped over everyone still sleeping and walked over to a stack of boxes. I found some apples, so I took two, one for me and one for Jr.

"I don't like apples." Jr protested.

"Why not?" I asked. I love apples so I was genuinely excited to hear her opinions.

"The middle is too hard." Jr pouted.

"You're not supposed to eat the middle." I spoke. "You eat the outside of it. Once you've eaten it all you can you get rid of the middle." Jr started staring at the apple for a bit, obviously confused. I'm pretty sure she's too used to putting the whole thing in her mouth. Then I got an idea.

"May I see your apple for a second?" I asked Jr. She handed me her apple, so I took out my knife and sliced it for her, then I gave her the slices. "Better?" I asked. She put a slice in her mouth and started sucking on it.

"It's better. Thank you cat man!" Jr answered. While she ate, I took a few moments to just take in the scenery. Dawn in the desert was beautiful. The sky was super dim, there was a little bit of dark orange way off in the distance all the while there was a calming low-pitched constant wind blowing gently. Not too cold, not too warm. I've never been an early riser, so this is pretty new to me. I wanted to enjoy it more, but we had to take the hospital. I woke everyone up, they all ate and we started towards the hospital. We walked up to a cliff with a perfect view of the hospital.

"Hold up," HK ordered. She took out binoculars and focused on the hospital. "I see three guys standing outside. They look inattentive. They've grown cocky. Just what we want."

"Let me see." Narukami said. HK gave him the binoculars.

"You better not give me pinkeye, Gramps-scrapper." HK said. It didn't sound like she was joking.

"I don't have pinkeye, Sergeant Granny." Narukami said flatly while still watching the hospital. Suomi and I stifled laughter at Narukami's new nickname for HK. She deserves it.

"Alright," Narukami started. "They're cigarette addicts, so we should have time to take them out if we hurry. I don't see anyone else around, not much activity in the hospital as far as I can see. Let's take the smokers out before they finish their smokes."

"We have to take them out silently and hide the bodies." Suomi added. "If they start to think something's up, they might start using the captive T-dolls as human shields."

"Right!" I quietly shouted. "Let's start heading over there, but stay low and let's try and not make ourselves too obvious." We all slid down the cliffside and stealthed over towards the hospital. Once we made it to the hospital, we went against the wall adjacent to the side where the three smokers were.

"Alright, out only chance is to take all three of them out quickly. They probably won't turn away, so we'll just need to be quick." I said.

"Hold on Cat-man-do, I have a better idea." HK said with a smile. She put her backpack on the ground and took Jr out. "Jr, do the thing." HK ordered. Jr ran at the smokers and then, and I'm not joking when I say this, Jr MUTILATED the smokers in less than five seconds.

"Quick, we have to clean up as best we can!" HK swiftly ordered. We ran over and moved the torn corpses behind our corner.

"Well that's something I'll never unsee." Suomi mumbled. HK ignored her as she went through the guns the smokers had on them. She took out the mags on their rifles and pistols.

"5.56 for me, 9mm for you, Suomi, no 7.62. Sucks to be you two, Cat-man-doo and Gramps-scrapper." HK said as she took bullets out of the enemies' magazines.

"No it doesn't, Sergeant Granny." Narukami retorted as he took his backpack off and showed all the ammo we stole from the prison. "I didn't take any 5.56. Sucks to be you."

"Whatever." HK said flatly as she put the mags in her pockets. "Let's get moving." We used the keys we picked off the smokers to open the small metal door, which led to the stairwell. We checked the lobby, but it was clear. I figured no one would be in the lobby this time of morning. We went back into the stairwell and headed to the first floor.

"Knives only." I whispered as I opened the door. "HK, take point." HK slowly crept down the hallway. Suomi and I followed while Narukami stayed posted at the door.

"We need to check every room." HK said. "There are probably guards in every room. Try and not hurt any of my friends if bullets start flying." We stacked up on a door, but it was locked. HK pulled a hairpin out and picked the lock. We crept in, but it was pretty much pitch black. The shades were drawn, blocking out the light from the rising sun. I signaled Suomi and HK to stay put while I went to open the shades. I watched my step and took it very slowly, hoping I wouldn't crash into anything and make a noise. I made it to the shades and opened them slightly, which lit up the room just enough for me to see. All that was in there was a bed and a side table. The room looked like it hadn't been used in months.

"Nothing here." I whispered.

"No crap, cat-man-do." HK said, but she didn't say 'crap.'

"Why are you so mean to Klonoa?" Suomi asked.

"Shut it, sugar-titties." HK retorted. Suomi narrowed her eyes at HK. With that rather unpleasant exchange, we kept moving. We went to the room just across the hall. I turned the doorknob ever so slowly, and it opened. I poked my head in and there was a girl with bright pink hair scrubbing the floors. When we came in she looked shocked. I held my finger up to my mouth to signal to her to stay quiet, then HK took her knife and took out a guy sleeping in a chair right next to me. I didn't see him, so I'm glad HK was there. First time for everything.

"AR-15," HK started. "Fancy seeing you here." AR-15 had a look of shock on her face.

"Suomi!" AR-15 whispered. "I thought you were dead!" She ran over and hugged Suomi.

"I owe Klonoa my life." Suomi said. "He came and freed me just in time." She had a sparkle in her eye when she looked at me. I just smiles back at her. It's nice to be appreciated.

"Do you have a gun?" I asked AR.

"I should. They confiscated all of our guns when they took the hospital from us."

"You should have hidden your gun somewhere before they came, just like I did." HK bragged.

"Do you know where they're keeping them?" I asked, ignoring HK.

"Probably in the armory." AR answered. "Two problems though, first being it's on the third floor where all the guards sleep, other problem being they keep it locked and I don't know who has the keys."

"We need to find the keys then." I said as I peeked down the hallway. "We should free everyone and get them armed. Once everyone is safe and armed we should be able to chase them out."

"I'm sure one of the imprisoned T-dolls will know who has the keys." Suomi added. "Or we could listen for jingling keys."

"It's settled then." I said. "We're going to sweep as many rooms as we can and free any T-doll we see. Let's keep this silent, so knives only. Does anyone have a knife for AR?"

"No need," AR confidently stated. "Next room we take, I'll show you what I mean." With that, we headed back down the hallway. HK noticed a door with a little bit of light shining from beneath it. Narukami tapped my shoulder as we were about to breach and pointed to another door that also had light. I sent HK with him, and they silently breached their door. Just as they breached their room, I slowly opened our door and noticed two guards, both sleeping in hospital beds. I closed my eyes and killed one of them, Suomi took the other. We left the room and met Narukami and HK in the hallway.

"Nothing of note in there." Narukami whispered.

"Same here." I said.

"Hey Akmud, I found some booze!" I heard a voice from around the corner say. We all ran into one room but left the door open. If he sees us and alerts everyone else, this is over. We all hid around the corner next to the door. AR put her hand on my shoulder and forced me backwards.

"I can take this one." She whispered. She knocked on the door frame very gently and this caught the guard's attention. He started walking into the room and as he stepped through the door, AR wrapped her leg around his leg, tripping him. Before he hit the floor, she caught him, keeping this whole thing silent. She quickly karate chopped his neck, which knocked him out, maybe even killed him. She stood up straight and exhaled.

"I still got it." She said as she stared at the guy she just took down, with nothing but her hands I might add. That was impressive. We kept going down the hallway after that, clearing out rooms. Most of the rooms on the first floor were empty though, until we found this one locked room. The door was labeled 'Let them die.'

"Those HECKERS!" Scowled AR, but she didn't say 'heckers.' We picked the lock and opened the door, but the room was pitch black and I couldn't find a light switch. There wasn't even a window to open. Luckily, HK stole a lighter from one of the smokers outside. She lit it up, which gave us some light. She walked around slowly scanning the room. She suddenly lit up a face and it made me jump. I raised my gun up towards the face, thinking it was an enemy.

"GUN DOWN!" Barked HK. "It's one of ours!" Then without prompting, Narukami switched a light on. Stupid me, it was one of those lights on the ceiling with a little string that you pull. There were actually three dolls in that room, one had messy gray hair, one had two orange ponytails and one had long flowing brown hair.

"My task force…" HK said with heavy emotion in her voice. "What happened to you?"

"Ughnnnn, who's there?" The brown-haired doll asked very weakly. HK went in front of the girl's face. "I…I'll kill… you…"

"45, it's me, 416!" HK said. I swear she was about to cry. "Hurry, we have to get them to a safe place! Get three beds in a safe room!" We obliged. We spent about five minutes wheeling beds into the first room we took, we figured it was the safest room in the hospital at this point. Finally we moved the three dolls into the room and got them comfortable.

"What were they doing in there?" Suomi asked HK.

"I should have known that would happen. I escaped so they punished the rest of 404."

"Do you feel bad about it?" Narukami asked. HK looked a bit flustered.

"N…no. Of course not!" HK stammered. Finally, the orange haired girl came to.

"Where am I?" She groggily asked. "Is this what heaven looks like?" She looked over to Narukami. "Oh, hi Jesus. What happened to your beard?"

"9, you aren't dead. You're still alive." HK said.

"Then why is Suomi here?" 9 asked. "I thought Akechi killed her." Suomi went up to 9 and held her hand.

"I'm still alive, and I brought some friends. I'll introduce you later, but for now we are going to retake this hospital." Suomi said comfortingly to 9. "We need to find the armory. Do you know who has the keys?"

"I think the captain has the key. He sleeps on the second floor." 9 answered.

"Hold on," I interjected. "We have to free all the T-dolls here. We can't let them get caught in the crossfire."

"All the dolls sleep in one room on the third floor." 9 recalled. "The baddies took all the furniture off the third floor and makes all of them sleep in there like they're sardines." 9 said.

"Is the third floor guarded?" Narukami whispered.

"Lightly." 9 answered. "There are a few guys up there just to make sure none of the dolls break out or anything."

"We still need to find a way into the armory. We need to arm everyone if we want to take back this hospital." I said.

"The sun's coming up." Narukami said. "We're running out of time. Our only advantage right now is the dark."

"We have to move." I said. With that the five of us quickly barricaded the door where the three girls were resting then went up the stairwell. I peeked through the door on the second floor as we were heading up, and I have honestly never seen luxury quite like what I saw. Akechi's men turned that floor into their own personal mansions while they made the rest of the girls sleep in the floor cramped up in one room.

"Klonoa?" Suomi asked. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm fine. Let's keep going."

"Hahaha, Cat-man is sad." I heard Jr say from inside HK's backpack.

"How do you both love and hate someone so much at the same time?" I muttered to myself. We went all the way up to the third floor. "Knives only." I whispered as I opened the door. "Identify your targets too. Don't kill one of ours." We all went down the barely lit hallway, knives in hand ready to strike at anything. It was a very long hallway and lots of rooms to check. We found a room that had two guards sleeping. Of course they had couches to sleep on.

"Wrong night to be put on guard duty." HK whispered as she stabbed one of the guards. Narukami killed the other. Just then we saw a light coming down the hallway headed towards the room.

"Quick!" Suomi whispered. "Pull their blankets up over their necks!" HK and Narukami quickly did what Suomi said, then we all hid behind the door. I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest.

"Brother, your turn to patrol the hallways." The guard said as he stood over one of the dead guys. HK went up behind the guard, kicked the back of his leg, then held her hand firmly over his mouth. Then she held her knife to his no-no part. Please remind me to not make her angry.

"If you scream, you'll lose your manhood, as if you were ever a man to begin with." HK warned the guard. "Which room are you keeping the T-dolls in?"

"P-p-pp-please don't!" The guard whispered. "They're in the biohazard room! It's just down the hall on the left. W-w-we keep it locked but I have the key!" He said as he surrendered the key in question.

"Well look at this good boy." HK said sarcastically. "Now how do we get into the armory?"

"You can't! The security captain has the key and he's on the second floor where the rest of my brothers are. If you go down there you'll surely die." The guard hesitated for a moment. "Are you going to kill me?"

"No." HK said flatly. She then punched him in the side of the head. The guard fell to the floor.

"You said you wouldn't kill him." I angrily said to HK.

"I didn't kill him. I just knocked him out." HK flatly said as she grabbed the key off the floor. "Now let's free the rest of the dolls." We went down the hallway very cautiously until we found the biohazard room the guard told us about before. I looked through the window and it looked just as uncomfortable as I imagined. Maybe even more. All the girls were packed in there so much, there are a lot of girls sleeping on top of other girls. Suomi tapped on the window which woke a few of the girls up. They noticed Suomi then got really happy. They woke up the rest of the girls. HK opened the door and let them all free. Right when the door opened all the girls hugged Suomi.

"We all thought you were dead! How did you survive?" One of the girls asked.

"It's all because of him." Suomi said while pointing at me. I swear she was blushing a bit.

"That's all fine and good," Narukami started, "But we have to find a way to get the armory opened. We need all of you armed. We are going to chase these guys out of here."

"About that," AR added, "I have an idea about how to get the armory open. I've had it for a while."

"And we're just hearing about it now…" HK muttered under her breath.

"First, I need the stairwell door barricaded and a long metal rod of some sort." AR said as she walked down the hallway a little bit and grabbed a fire extinguisher. "We're gonna turn this into a small rocket. It'll bust a hole in the drywall big enough for us to squeeze through."

"Alright, I'll find a metal rod and you two can barricade the door." Narukami said, looking at me and Suomi. "Everyone else scavenge what you can off of dead guards. You need all the weapons and ammo we can get." Everyone scattered, so me and Suomi went into the room where we took out the two guys and brought the couches over to the stairwell door.

"So…" I hesitantly said, "What happened to your friend who got taken away?" I asked Suomi. She stopped what she was doing and sighed.

"My close friend, RFB, had enough and mouthed off to the guards." Suomi's eyes started watering. "They pinned her on the ground and gathered us all outside the hospital. We all had to watch as she was thrown in the back of a truck and hauled away. Then Akechi himself came, and said, 'It seems more punishment may be necessary. We'll make sure this kind of thing never happens again.' Then he picked me out and threw me into the back of a different truck, and I heard Akechi say 'You caused her to die, not me.'" Suomi sat on the couch we just put against the door. She put her hands over her face. "I'm… I'm worried about my friend." I sat down next to her, trying to think of what to say. It wasn't easy, I wanted to make her feel better, I also didn't want to say the wrong thing by accident. I really didn't want to stay silent.

"Don't worry. If she's still alive, we'll find her." I waited a few seconds, then added on; "Together." Suomi hugged me tight. I could feel her lip quivering. Something about this moment just feels… right. I didn't want to let myself get too attached to her, since I'd be leaving this dimension once Chris Chan is defeated... but I couldn't help it. I hugged her back. "Your friend will be ok, but for now, let's free the hospital." Suomi gave me a determined nod, then we both grabbed our guns and headed down the hall to meet the others.