Alicia scrambled to her feet eying the Raven warily. Dr. Calvert sighed over the phone line. "Well this is not ideal. I suppose you won't understand."

" Why-They're all identical aren't they?! What are you going to do to my kid?!" (All had the exact same build. All of them kept their helmets on at all times. Crazy perfect synchronization with Legions. Had she ever heard them talk at any length?) Alicia kept her fighting stance and planned her next move. She remembered, Akira's only been gone for a minute.

Alicia swallowed her pride and screamed, "AKIRA, HELP!" She launched forward into a dodge roll as an Axe Legion materialized. "COME AND GET ME IF YOU DARE!"

Alicia could handle an Axe Legion. She'd sparred Max often enough. It was the most survivable of Legions as it was the slowest but a single hit from that thing would take her down.

The Raven mercilessly struck out. Yoseph's orders were to kill the witness and put back on the helmet, in that priority order. Other Ravens would show up in no time to help. Yoseph kept his attention on distracting Akira.

Alicia slid under an attempted chain bind as the Raven grasped for the helmet. She took the opening and struck the back of it's head. Since it wanted to fight, well, Alicia would show it what difference experience made in a fight. With the Axe, she didn't bother trying for a long range strategy. All she needed was an opening to run for it past the dumpster and portapotty.

Kyle felt the looming presence of the Fusion leaning to look at the screens. He clamped his hands over his ears as a confused "Scree?!" emitted from the cop creature. Akane then leaned back in to see if her eyes were mistaken. She glanced between the cameras, eyes lingering on the alley camera.

"Don't you do it. I see you planning stupid hero things." Kyle said.

Akane bolted anyway. Kyle facepalmed and called Hal.

Akira tried not to show unprofessional levels of screaming impatience. His current partner Raven could catch up so he felt confident walking off while switching on his IRIS to scan the area. "All right, Commander, Alicia can probably go south and I'll go North. Do you mind if we keep an open radio connection with each other?" Akira knew this was logical and even though it wasn't a private line he really wanted to chat with Alicia.

Yoseph bluntly stated, "I was going to have you come back to the helicopter to direct your team instead."

"Okay, sure. I think I got a message from Mike with that update Alicia was asking for, maybe there's another clue too?" Akira checked the message to see Mike sent a transcript and a picture drawn in blue and black marker. "It was my twin!"

"Let me hear your thoughts, then."

"Well, she was on the Astral Plane after running from the Ravens. It seems she came to her senses enough to recognize a kid that needed help and brought him back with her..."

"Likely intended as a hostage if she encountered officers on exiting the portal."

"No, Commander. She wouldn't-" Akira dropped it. He'd been over this argument already with the commander after the treason accusations and, somehow, he'd ended up feeling like the idiot who didn't know his own sister. "She didn't take him with her but left him in a known patrol spot to be found. She was keeping a low profile so as not to cause any fuss but found her way to the cat shelter to wait for me... Why steal Lappy?" No, seriously, why the whole thing with the Lappy suit?

"I cannot fathom the reasons for the mascot suit theft. Is it relevant?" Yoseph thought, I cannot believe the stupid dog might be important. This is moronic.

Akira groaned when he figured it out. "Wait. My sister wasn't sure if normal people could or could not see her. The last we saw of her before losing her on the Astral Plane, she hadn't been seen by normal people. She was testing a disguise." It was a mix of smart and stupid only his twin could accomplish.

"...I see." Commander Calvert waited. He would get the information from Akira needed to find Akane and eliminate her.

"Right, so when she messed up, she went back to the apartment and was cleaning the suit up. Akane wouldn't have stopped to do that if she were planning to run. Why stop cleaning and leave?..." Akira thought back to the camera tampering around Maison Forest. "...Did something happen to change her mind?" Akira remembered there were a lot of Ravens around Maison today and the last time he'd seen her, she was being shot at by Ravens. Did she see or hear a news broadcast where Akira was leading the manhunt for his own twin?

"What about someone? Maybe she found out we know about her treachery? Remember, there was the hacking in the area and she was friends with Hal."

He then heard a desperate cry from the direction he came. That was a familiar note. "Alicia!"

Commander Calvert cut in quick. "No. Your Ravens have it covered. The Fusion Nemesis is your top priority!... You cannot risk having it rampage. Think of humanity!"

Alicia screamed another furious call. After a split second of indecision, Akira sprinted.

Olive typed away. She was a master multitasker and working for Neuron had honed her communications and information mastery to an expert level. "All right, I'm already seeing different potential routes for us to get Akane out of there."

Hal piloted his little drone in and out of every hiding place he could find. "Fine. Great. Thanks, Olive. Having someone look things up while I focus on piloting is helpful!" Getting spotted would ruin not only his day by possibly losing his drone, but possibly cost Akane her opportunity of escape. He answered Kyle's call.

Kyle said, "Your idiot friend ran out there!"

"What?! Why?!"

"See for yourself! You won't believe me. I'm sent out my drone to try and track your cop buddy. Here's coordinates for Alicia." Sure enough, Hal and Olive got the links before Kyle finished the sentence. "For this, you owe me a UNION server or two!"

Olive gasped when she opened the feeds. "Is... What... How... This is insane."

Hal glanced at the images from the camera and changed course immediately to the intended destination. "W-What! Nonono!" He didn't have any combat capabilities on his drone but there had to be something he could do even as he freaked out. You never knew.

Yoseph asked while Akira ran, "What's gotten into you Akira? Acting on your own like this is not like you."

Akira charged in to see a wounded Alicia rolling out of the way of an Axe Legion.

Akira's Arrow Legion materialized with half a thought. Akira was already mid-swing for a chain binding.

"Hey! NO!," roared Akira. Alicia snatched at her X-Baton. The Arrow legion circled Raven and Axe Legion, trapping them for the moment. "What are you doing?!"

Yoseph answered instead of the Raven, "She is a traitor. Like the Fusion Nemesis."

"Commander, you can't mean Alicia? She wouldn't commit treason."

Alicia wheezed while Yoseph talked. "Their... faces."

The Raven and Axe broke free.

Akira chose Alicia in that moment. The Arrow Legion jumped in front of Alicia taking the brunt of the attack. A snarling mass of Legions crashed into Alicia. Akira's baton knocked out the murderous Raven. "She wouldn't-what do you mean by the faces?!"

Yoseph's voice became arctic. "Taking her side? You've turned then. I should've known-" Akira only half-heard Yoseph as he checked over Alicia for larger wounds. "-diately. The Ravens will deal with you as well."

Another three Ravens entered the mouth of the alleyway.

Akira heard Commander Calvert say, "I might as well show you this first. Consider this my parting gift."

While all this had been going on, Akane left the Hermit hiding spot following a route to get to Alicia as quickly as possible. The restaurant sign facing the alley was a location known to her

Akane climbed up to the rooftops. She added more property damage to her rap sheet as fire escaped crunched in her grip. She swung up onto the very, very open rooftops. This idea was going to be awful, she could tell. Moving around was so much faster when she stopped caring about property damage at least.

Some Ravens started shooting, thus proving her correct about the risk. Kyle's drone caught up and shot back at the Ravens. Akane was so used to Hal's non-confrontational drone that she did a bit of a double take. Akane kept moving.

Skipping the usual maze of streets and alleys, Akane leaped from roof to roof. Four out of five Legions recommended floating in midair as a method of movement. This was distinctly unfair, not being able to fly. (Akane took it as evidence she was more human than Legion since she did not float.) It felt like she shouldn't be this light on her feet though. She skipped over a skylight, then skidded to a halt. Akane barely looked at the edge of the building before dropping.

No one was killing her brother and kinda-mom.

Akira was stunned speechless. When the Ravens removed their helmets there wasn't much one could do to prepare yourself for a clone army of oneself. The red of summoned Sword Legions filled the mouth of the alley. By all the narrative laws of the universe, it was the perfect time to impale a guy.

A flash of blue crashed down from above to disagree with that setup.

Akane landed in front of Akira, claws embedded in the first Sword Legion. The second Sword Legion her claws sliced into two. Akira saw blue blur again, then the port-a-potty flew. (Akane added Bel to the list of people who needed all the apologies after this mess was over. That poor toilet did nothing to deserve being used as a weapon.) Raven three fell, splattered by fluids far more questionable than spray paint. Akane grabbed the last two Ravens and threw them as hard as she dared.

(Tempting as it was to try clawing out the Legatuses, She wasn't that confident in her precision work. There was going to be enough therapy without her accidentally bisecting clones of her twin brother today. Or chucking them into concrete with lethal force.)

Akira said, "Akane?"

Akane automatically tried to respond and gave up when the whine from her throat reminded her why she'd been using tactical signs, (Really inept) sign language, and the holo-keyboard. Akira was reminded of the dog he'd rescued earlier today.

"I knew it. You did recognize me."

Alicia smiled. "Glad you could make it. We, uh, got a plan to get out of here?"

I forgot those red and black Legions have alternate names. Which I could go look up. Then again, that would require error correction work.