Before the official announcement was made in the rest of the Ark about the existence of Chimeras, Zone 9's residents had been all too aware of the invisible monsters. Of course the Legions were a new development and the Ravens an even newer one. Hal made sure to tell his friends in the neighborhood about the new arrivals to avoid interesting misunderstandings. The arms maniac and street chemist could not see Akane, but they waved at the drone accompanying her. The twins somehow came to the conclusion that they should patrol the neighborhood. Doing little things around to help people always made their own problems feel a bit lesser.
"Look I do not care what health benefits it has, Fishy Water is gross and I am not touching that stuff." They vacuumed up whatever red matter they found, cleared out some poison gas, and made small talk with each other while toting a box full of cat back to the hideout. True to Alicia's predictions, they'd ended up arguing about drinks afterwards.
[The cat wanted it,] Akane signed in an attempt to move away from her reliance on typing to communicate.
"That is because it is fishy water and it's an example of truth in advertising."
She changed subjects since she wasn't going to convince her brother to drink the stuff. Akane took a moment to remember what the signs were for what she wanted to say. gave up, then reached for her keyboard, [I cannot believe that guy seriously just took romance advice from me.]
"People take advice from strangers on the internet they can't see. At least he knows you are not just some troll?"
The thugs were not so welcoming when they spotted Akira. "Hey, you! This is our turf! Unless you're lookin' to get roasted, get outta here!"
Akira considered taking them on but beating up people for no real reason wasn't something he should be doing as a cop. Er, fugitive cop? Eh. Akira turned around and saw none other than Kyle coming up behind him on a stroll. Unfortunately Akane said she'd forgiven the man for the attempted murder so he was off the hook until he did some new crime worthy of a punch. Akira decided to deal with all of the annoyances by pretending he didn't see them.
Kyle had other plans. He said, "Good afternoon, officer!" Akira tried to kill the man with a glare. It didn't work.
"You tellin' me this here's a cop?!"
Kyle folded his arms nonchalantly. "Yep. I don't recommend picking fights with this one, you guys look kind of weak."
One of the thugs growled. "You callin' us weak!? You Hermits are the ones that got destroyed and this turf belongs to us now!"
Kyle's formerly friendly tone of voice dropped into something more threatening. "That was friendly advice. Look, I've been in your shoes. It didn't work out. I'm trying something different and building a better neighborhood instead of just committing violence. It's why I'm going to let that one slide."
Akane's drone said, [We don't need to fight them, I already know the outcome of this fight.]
The lead Thug said, "We don't need your lectures and empty words! Leave or I spill your guts!"
Kyle said, "If he fights like you, I don't doubt that. Akira, if you don't teach them a lesson, I will..."
[He doesn't need a Legion for this, but these guys could get seriously hurt fighting either of you.]
Kyle yelled to the crew, "Hey, bet you guys 50G you can't take this officer on!," because he decided to be a catalyst for chaos. There was the added bonus that he could tell Hal he technically didn't get into any fights.
Akira made a second attempt at murder via glare. "Hey. Whose side are you on?"
Akira, using the Iris, was the first to spot Carlos. Akane followed and joined Akira as Carlos was lamenting his fate in typically Carlos manner. "The visages of my compatriots in justice... All so vivid as they flash before my eyes... Could this be the end of Carlos Kajoika?"
Akane typed, [Not yet, Carlos!] She prompted Akira to help the man up. Akira shot her a look that asked if this guy was for real. Akane nodded encouragingly then said, [He was the guy busting drug dealers in Harmony Square.] Unfortunately Akira's face mask slipped.
Carlos could not be kept down for long. "I suppose my end is not yet come... To think, I'd be rescued by the famed Captain Howard!"
"Look, uh, can you keep it quiet? Pretend you never saw me?"
"Of course! It is the very least I can do for the one saving my life. Wait, are you here for undercover work?"
"Uhhh something like that? Seriously, you'll be putting not just yourself in jeopardy if you mention you saw me here."
Carlos's good cheer faltered, "My condolences about your sister. She helped me in a tight spot a while ago and I wouldn't have believed her a traitor had I not heard it from you on the news." Akira opened his mouth and Akane stopped him with a 'be silent' gesture. "I bid you farewell, as justice must be done!" Carlos left.
Akira asked his sister, "Why not tell him?"
[Maybe we should have, I wasn't sure how good he is at staying quiet in the face of injustice. Is that his baton?]
Carlos hadn't expected a rescue from Captain Howard today, much less multiple rescues. Watching foes be held back by invisible forces was truly an amazing sight He wasn't sure that dropping the evildoers into the dumpster was the most heroic of moves, but it certainly was amusing. Akira doubled over laughing, which was a bit odd if he was commanding a Legion to do that? As Carlos recovered from being pulled into a gate, he saw Captain Howard again, this time followed by some massive blue thing. "What are you... What is this place? Never mind that, finding that fiend is my foremost concern now! Thus, I humbly ask for your aid!"
The giant blue thing waved merrily at Carlos. Captain Howard pointed around, "Well, I can help with that. Welcome to the Astral Plane, where Aberrations and Chimeras come from. This is Akane, she's been following me around. She's the one that was using the drone to talk and that dumped the idiots into the dumpster. I followed you into the gate using my Legion."
"I, uh, what? You aren't his Legion? How did you... end up in a form so unrecognizable?"
[Side effect of a near death experience. Let's go find the guy.]
It was not a long fight before they had collared the clan boss. Akane found it kind of amusing that, of all the people present to call freak, the clan boss chose Carlos. His escape attempt was pitiful and only succeeded for the few seconds it did because Akane was facepalming. Akira knew the man had little space to run to, as did Carlos. Carlos' thanks, along with some of his words about Akane's heroic soul shining through, made the Clan Boss roll his eyes. Akira took the opportunity to tease his sister about Carlos until Hal called.
The repair job for the gate detectors went smoothly. It fell to Akira with his normal sized hands to do the repair. He parked his Axe legion with its shield behind him as he worked. Akane shredded Chimeras and Aberrations with no trouble. Akira watched through the eyes of his Legion and had a big question on his mind.
"Hey, um, so I notice you ripped out cores from a couple of the chimeras there. That was pretty cool to watch."
Akane gripped a core from the last of the wave. She hadn't been thinking too much about it. That was something she'd commanded Legions to do all the time and it seemed natural to keep doing it.
"Do they have different flavors when you eat them? Or absorb them?"
Akane realized that she'd absorbed them, but never tried putting the chimera cores in her mouth. That was probably a bad idea. [Beast Legion bites them, but I never sensed taste through the Legion senses. Do you?]
"Neither have I."
Olive was grateful Alicia had followed her to the sewer entrance and just as grateful to see the guns. Alicia handed the extra gun over. "I get that you want to help Brenda and Jin right away. They are my friends too! You shouldn't have just run off without a weapon. What were you thinking?"
"Well, my gun was broken, so my plan was to knock out a guy and take one just in case of Aberrations," said Olive. Alicia nodded in a mix of approval and disapproval. When Akane strolled up with her assist drone, Olive's relief was plain to see. "I am so glad to have you along too. Where is Akira?"
Akane said, [He'll catch up. He's following up on the parts thief to make sure he's all right. I might need to leave my drone behind to keep it from being seen.] The twins had realized Akira would be able to move faster using the Beast Legion and his idea to grab more medicine was probably a good idea. Akira caught up with the group shortly after Hal did.
Notes: I can't be the only one wondering where Olive got that gun. My theory is theft.
Also they announced the existence of Chimeras to the public in the case notes, but how much does the public know about Legions? Did I just make a new contestant for 'biggest plot hole' in this fic?