Belle
A nondescript van delivered Lycaon and Belle back to the real world, offloading them on a quiet and narrow street a short distance away from Lumina Square. Belle was relieved to step out into the open air, the van having been so cramped with a small squad of government soldiers that she and Lycaon had not felt like conversing. According to Qingyi, it was a personnel rotation van and they had been crammed into the weekly trip so as to obfuscate their departure from Scott Outpost. Four male soldiers, Lycaon, and herself- all of them smelling a half-day or more overdo for a bath. It had been a suffocating ride.
Belle took another deep breath of fresh air and then looked towards Lycaon. Surely, the smell must have been worse for him. What with his wolf nose. Belle felt a sudden anxious worry. Did he think she was stinky? Oh no!
At the moment, Lycaon's ears were rotating this way and that, and his eye was scanning the street as the transport van departed. He put a hand to his ear briefly.
"Rina," said Lycaon. "You may begin transport of my supplies to Sixth Street as planned."
Belle didn't hear the response that Lycaon received into his earbud, but she'd heard bits and pieces of his concise conversations with this 'Rina', who seemed to fill a similar role that Belle herself did for her brother, Wise. The support agent. The organizer. The responder.
Apparently, Lycaon would be living at Random Play for a while, so his comrades were bringing over his things. Living at Random Play! And she had not said a word about this to Wise!
But all of her own personal equipment, including her phone, had fried when the server stack had zapped her. Lycaon also lacked his phone since he did not bring one on his missions. So there really wasn't any way to get advance notice to Wise at Random Play. Belle idly wondered if Wise or Fairy had even realized that something had gone wrong with her today. Belle had shut down Fairy before anything had gone wrong, cutting off her own avenue of backup and rescue.
That had been pretty stupid and stubborn, now that Belle thought about it.
But she was alive. For now. And the tall, imposing figure of Lycaon was at her side to keep her that way. Belle tried to imagine the conversation she was going to have with her brother:
Hey, Wise. Um. This giant, hunky wolf thiren is our new roommate, okay? Don't worry about it. Our relationship is totally professional. Yeah. But he's probably going to be sleeping in my room, but don't read anything into it. It's just to keep me safe from assassins.
Lycaon had not said anything about sleeping in her room, as of yet. So Belle wasn't exactly sure why her mind went in that direction. But since she was thinking about it…
"Lycaon," said Belle, drawing his crimson eye back to her. "How is this going to work? You living with me? Er- with us?"
"Fear not, Lady Belle, as a member of Victoria Housekeeping, I will be honored to provide service to you at any moment, in all hours of the day or night. You will be thoroughly satisfied, I assure you."
Belle felt her cheeks heat up for some reason.
"Uh," said Belle. "I mean- as a bodyguard. Where do you sleep? On location?"
Lycaon's ears continued to scan the street. "One of my first tasks will be to review the security situation of your home, Lady Belle. I will then select a location to sleep that best facilitates your security and my ability to react to potential threats. As your personal safety is of paramount concern, I may be forced to make certain alterations and additions to the structure- but you will be consulted before any work is begun."
Was… was he talking about remodeling Random Play? Well, whatever. She and Wise could figure out what to do once they were all there together. Perhaps there was too much speculation at this point, and Belle should just focus on getting home and having a bath and a nap. In that order.
"W- well, the subway is this way," said Belle lamely.
She'd spent quite a bit of time in the area near Lumina Square and could navigate by triangulating herself to various skyscrapers. She set off and Lycaon walked closely on her right and a step just behind. They walked in silence and Belle thought it felt somewhat awkward to walk along with someone and not speak with them. She looked back at Lycaon and saw that his head was on a swivel, his eyes and ears scanning their surroundings at all moments.
"It is perfectly acceptable to pretend I am not here, Lady Belle," said Lycaon, glancing at her only briefly, before going back to his scanning. "Many new clients find it unnerving to walk with a bodyguard, at first. But I think you will soon grow accustomed to it."
"I see," said Belle. A car turned onto their street and began driving toward them. Lycaon quickly stepped forward and walked a little in front of Belle now, keeping his body between her and the car as it passed. Then he returned to his original position slightly behind her right side.
Belle found it somewhat fascinating to track Lycaon's maneuvers around her. There were times he would suddenly move to one side or the other and she would wonder why, then in a few more steps she would notice some person in an alleyway or on a balcony- Lycaon inevitably between them and herself. To keep that up 24/7? Bodyguarding looked like an exhausting job.
They exited the side street and the more busy sidewalks and the approaches to the subway station appeared before them.
"Lady Belle," said Lycaon. "In crowded situations when I am your only guardian, I will always be directly behind you. Should you become alarmed, or should something happen, I ask you only take one step backward, duck down, and let me handle it."
"A- all right," said Belle. Could something happen at the subway station though? The idea seemed somewhat absurd. But she doubted Lycaon could be dissuaded. He did this sort of thing all the time, apparently.
They entered the subway without incident. Both Belle and Lycaon swiped their subway cards on the turnstiles and entered the subway system. Neither could have possibly noticed a certain security camera suddenly zeroing in on them and closely following their progress through the station.
Lycaon
Lycaon sat in mild relaxation on the subway. He had already cleared the car for threats and could be reasonably assured of Belle's immediate safety. He could feel the softness of her cheek on his arm where she had recently fallen asleep. It was understandable that she was exhausted. Her small body had been through several traumatic ordeals today.
"This is Fifth Street Station," said the subway's intercom. "Fifth Street Station."
The doors opened and some people got off and some people then got on. Lycaon eyed the passengers arriving onto the car to his and Belle's left, easily seeing over the top of Belle's head as it leaned against his arm. No one looked remarkable or anything like a threat. Lycaon then turned his attention to the right… and a tall, thin man in a glaringly red leather jacket caught Lycaon's immediate professional attention. Somewhat because of the bright color, but also because the man appeared to be a cyborg of some kind and he was looking right at Lycaon, his yellow eye-slits gleaming.
The cyborg then averted his gaze upon Lycaon discovering him. It was such a blatant and mindless act, that Lycaon almost wrote it off as an innocent meeting of gazes. No assassin could be that foolishly overt. But Lycaon wasn't good at his job because he made assumptions.
Lycaon's eyepatch switched over to a different mode of vision. Suddenly his right eye could see masses of objects within objects, and with a casual turn of his head, he took a closer look at the strange cyborg in red leathers. Lycaon immediately discovered two massive handguns hidden under the cyborg's leather coat.
Lycaon immediately classified the cyborg as a likely threat.
The train moved onwards to the next station, Lycaon keeping his eyes on the cyborg man who was acting like just another unaware passenger. This was a dense part of the city, so there was not far to go. Almost as soon as the subway got up to speed, it began to slow again for the next stop.
"Arriving: Sixth Street Station," said the intercom. "This is Sixth Street Station. Sixth Street Station."
"Lady Belle," said Lycaon, not wanting to alarm her until he was sure that the armed cyborg was a problem. Just because there may be threats to Belle's life in the city didn't mean that every person was a threat to her. This cyborg could just be some asshole who liked to carry guns around.
"This is the stop, I believe?" said Lycaon.
Belle woke up with a humming sound and blinked, looking up at the subway's navigational display on the wall. "Oh! Yes. I fell asleep? Sorry."
"The Lady should take her rest as she desires," said Lycaon, somewhat distractedly, keeping the corner of his eye on the red leather cyborg as he and Belle rose to disembark the subway. The train came to a stop. Belle and Lycaon stepped off the train. Meanwhile, the cyborg also got out the previous train car. Lycaon's concern level rocketed up several more levels. He took Belle firmly by the arm and suddenly diverted her away from the obvious exit of the station.
"What? Lycaon? It's that way," complained Belle as Lycaon strong-armed her away from the main station exit.
But Lycaon was watching the cyborg and it imitated their diversion. Lycaon reclassified the cyborg as an obvious and immediate threat to Belle. Lycaon reached into his vest pocket and triggered the general distress call on his communicator. If Victoria Housekeeping was nearby delivering his items, then reinforcements should be within reach. He needed only buy himself and Belle some time.
Lycaon looked towards the subway exit and considered simply keeping it cool and walking Belle out onto the street, but then he saw that white-haired woman in a neon green jacket and a large sword on the back of her waist was coming down the stairs- and she had affixed Lycaon with a professionally serious gaze.
An ambush. This swordswoman was affiliated with the cyborg tailing him. Lycaon suddenly pulled Belle in front of him, keeping his body firmly between her and the armed cyborg behind them, believing him the more immediate danger.
"What are you doing?!" said Belle, startled at suddenly being yanked around.
The sound of her voice and Lycaon's sudden motion broke the calm and everyone started moving. The woman in neon drew her sword and leapt over the side of the stairs at Lycaon and Belle, meanwhile, the red-leather cyborg drew out his guns. Lycaon put a hand on the base of Belle's neck and shoved her head down, and he bodily pushed her towards a hallway which allowed passengers to cross to the opposite side of the tracks.
KOOM!
Lycaon flinched as a bullet hole appeared in the wall near him.
"Don't shoot! What are you thinking?!" yelled a shrill female voice.
Belle screamed in surprise at the gunshot and tried to look for its source, but Lycaon's firm hand kept her head down and kept her shielded by his body.
"Who?!" said Belle.
"Assassins," grunted Lycaon. "Multiple."
"Already?!" said Belle, shocked at the idea. Surely there was some sort of mistake!?
But Lycaon immediately scooped Belle up in his arm and sprinted down the long hallway, his boot jets firing and propelling them forward and away from the pursuers at frantic pace. Lycaon knew his best chance was getting around the next corner before the cyborg could get line of sight on them again for another shot.
They screeched around the corner, Lycaon's boots gashing the tile flooring of the subway station. Belle was wide-eyed and concerned. Footsteps of fast pursuit were behind them. Lycaon despaired of escape. He spotted a coin-operated luggage storage unit nearby. He opened the door to a large compartment and unceremoniously stuffed Belle inside.
"Lycaon!" objected Belle, wide-eyed.
"Stay quiet!" said Lycaon, all pretense of grace gone in the moment.
He slammed the door shut on Belle and turned the key. If he was killed here, there was a chance the assassins wouldn't think to look in a luggage locker and someone else would find Belle. Someone else who was not looking to kill her. It was a grim last hope if this all went poorly.
That hope was almost immediately dashed as a soft patter of metallic footsteps caused Lycaon's ear to rotate and focus behind him. He spun, lashing out with a kick as he turned to meet the threat arriving from behind him. A lithe and agile woman with cat ears of white fluff was there, and she narrowly dodged Lycaon's extended leg.
The vicious little cat thiren, wielding short swords in each hand, slashed quickly at Lycaon's kicking leg but the metal of his armor protected his flesh. Lycaon triggered the jets in his boots and the propulsion blast knocked the cat thiren woman into the wall and she tumbled to a skidding stop on the tile floor. She glared up at Lycaon with gleaming crimson eyes. She bared a mouth of sharp teeth and let out a menacing growling hissing noise, her dual tails puffed up and twitching excitedly.
Lycaon prepared to kick the evil-looking little creature when skidding footsteps announced the arrival of the other pursuers. The red cyborg skidded to a stop, two pistols covering Lycaon. The neon green woman with white hair skidded to a stop next, a hand on the hilt of her undrawn blade, and finally a third arrival: a pink-haired woman in tank top and skimpy jean shorts who was holding some sort of suitcase.
"Freeze, dogbreath!" said the cyborg.
"H- hold it there!" said the pink-haired woman, pointing an accusing finger at Lycaon. "Where's the girl!?"
"She fled," said Lycaon, preparing to delay as much as possible. "I don't know where she is."
"He's lying!" said the cat thiren from behind. "She's in the luggage closet! Just shoot him, Billy!"
Lycaon prepared to dodge bullets
"No!" said the pink-haired woman, slapping the red cyborg on the shoulder. "We can't just gun people down in public! Cover him for now. He's not going anywhere. Phaethon, can you read me? We have them!"
The luggage cabinet banged, and to Lycaon's chagrin, Belle's muffled voice could be clearly heard by all the assassins around them.
"Everyone! Wait! It's not-"
But what Belle then yelled was cut off by the sudden revving din of a pull-string W-Engine Saw Blade.
Lycaon watched the cyborg, the swordswoman in neon green, and the pink-haired woman all look to their right down the hallway that was out of Lycaon's vision. Then they all frantically dove in various directions as a black-clad, shark-tailed maid shot like a bullet into the hallway and slammed a giant scissor-spear into their midst- tile flooring exploding in all directions. Two flying bangboos buzzed through the air shortly after, each immediately sending ball lightning at the scattering assassins.
Reinforcements had arrived! Lycaon immediately turned and kicked at the cat thiren, but she was already moving, bouncing off the wall and slashing at Lycaon's face with her swords. Lycaon swapped feet in an instant and snapped a high kick at her, catching her in the hip, and sending the catgirl yowling back down the hall.
Belle
The first few seconds in the dark of the luggage cabinet had been terrifying, but when she heard the voices of her supposed "assassins", she immediately knew that they were actually the Cunning Hares. Wise had probably sent them after her when she'd gone missing earlier today. And probably Fairy had spotted her somehow and navigated the Hares to ambush Lycaon- who they probably thought was a kidnapper, or something?
"Everyone! Wait! It's not what you think! Lycaon! They aren't trying to kill me!"
But a loud buzzsaw noise drowned her out, and then there was the general auditory chaos of battle joining in earnest. Concussive impacts, flying debris, the clash of metal, and various grunts and shouts of effort and alarm. Belle leaned back and put both feet against the closed cabinet door, trying to kick it open.
Why did Lycaon lock the damn thing?! She had to get out there before they killed each other!
She kicked. Nothing. She kicked again. Meanwhile, the buzzsaw noise got very loud and very close.
Belle recognized Billy's voice just outside the cabinet. He gave out a frantic fearful shout: "Get that away from me you crazy little bitch!"
"S- sorry! But this is what I'm supposed to be doing!" shouted back a shrill feminine voice.
A sawblade suddenly cut through the cabinet door, sending a spray of micro-plastic debris into Belle's face as it sawed cleanly across the cabinet wall from left to right. As the door fell off the cabinet, Belle caught a brief glance of a girl in maid uniform run past. Belle frantically kicked out the rest of the door and clamored out of the cabinet.
Belle stood amidst the chaos of a scattered melee. Lycaon was a short distance to her right, trading kicks and dodges with a scrambling and hissing Nekomata. Billy was fleeing farther down the hallwall, firing a single pistol back at a petite little woman in a maid outfit who was easily deflecting his bullets with what seemed to be a spinning sawblade at the end of a pole.
Looking left: Anby was clashing blades with another maid- this one a black-haired, female shark-thiren. Their weapons sparked off one another as they traded blows and maneuvers. Both Anby and the shark-thiren had intensely bored expressions on their faces, even as they tried to slice each other open. Beyond them, a matronly maid was hovering about and somehow flinging balls of electricity at Nicole, who was shooting them out of the air with her ether briefcase.
Belle could only assume that the appearance of this harem of war-maids had something to do with Lycaon's organization. Regardless, nobody on either side in the battle seemed to notice Belle standing there, as they were all far too busy fighting for their lives. How was she going to stop this madness?!
Belle's foot hit something heavy. She looked down to find Billy's other pistol laying there. She quickly picked it up, raised it at the ceiling and fired three quick shots, the recoil almost blasting the gun back into her own forehead.
KOOM! KOOM! KOOM!
"STAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWP!" screeched Belle, throwing every bit of her strength into the shout, feeling her throat scratch raw with the effort.
Everyone stopped and looked at her.