No One's POV

Helping Hand

Tokyo, Japan

The mission was simple. Assassinate the corporate CEO that has been making everyone's' lives here in Tokyo a living hell. Everyone was miserable that this woman was running the city like a dictator. An anonymous source had contacted Empress Nexus Venus with the job that could potentially free their city from this tyrant. One woman exhaled a sigh as she navigated through the top floors of the skyscraper, taking out any targets that stood in the way of her goal.

The job was effortless given the technology that was given to the co-leader and her squad. Full body tech suits that were capable of flying, withstand normal bullets and move at fast speeds; that was the beginning of their capabilities. A transmission came through of the woman's visor, "Mina, our operation had been compromised. Reinforcements are swarming the building, and the target has been evacuated. Xia and I are heading to the rendezvous point."

Mina halted upon hearing the words of her comrade on the communicator. "Shirakawa, this is bad. The Outcasts are working with the Elite. Be Safe."

"Damn it, traitors. Be safe, we will have to get Moné another day." The Outcasts were a group of mercenaries that specialized in small scale assassination operations. Empress Nexus Venus has worked along with the Outcasts on a mission in the past. One member of the trio had been a part of Stardom in the past.

"Communication with Maika, Hanako and Waka has been severed." Half of their group's location was currently unknown, but the co-leader of their group had a bad feeling about all of this. Maika and the others would not be taken down so easily. "Mina, I'm coming to get you."

"No, Mariah. You stay with Xia. We need to find out if our friends are safe." Mina noticed the concern and fear in her best friend's voice. But the Japanese woman didn't want Mariah to come back into the danger if she and Xia were able to escape the danger zone.

"But Mi-"

The communication was interrupted and all that remained on the other end was static. "Mariah! Mariah, answer me! Xia, come in!" She waited for a couple seconds only to be met with no response and not even Brookside, who was supposed to be with May, didn't respond either. That could only mean one thing.. Mina didn't waste any more time and leapt out of the window and started racing her way over toward the coordinates to Mariah's last signal. She had to conserve her remaining fuel so as to keep her flying to a bare minimum. Half of her squad is currently MIA, and she wasn't going to let anything bad happen to her best friend and Xia.

"Mina Shirakawa!" Mina glanced back to see three people chasing a safe distance behind her. She knew immediately that it had to be the Outcasts. She had to play this smart or else, Mina could be in deep shit. Her ammo and fuel were limited, but for now, Mina was going to see if she could outmaneuver them and keep this lead.

"Stop running like a coward." Shirakawa didn't have a choice in the matter. Her priority wasn't to stay and fight these traitors, it was to rush to Mariah and Xia's last known location.

"Darling, this is pointless. You are going to perish like the rest of your precious teammates." Shirakawa wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be able to run from three members of the Outcast squad. She couldn't believe that those three would even consider joining the likes of the Elite, even one of them used to be part of the Stardom alliance alongside Mina. The Japanese woman needed to continue to gain distance and get onto the ground, being this high would spell bad news if she ran out of fuel.

Before Mina could leap from the rooftop, something connected with her right shoulder pad. Mina's visor started to distort, error messages started appearing and flashing red with immediate shutdown notifications. "Wait this is..-" Shirakawa was unable to finish her sentence as an electric shock instantly coursed through her entire body. Realizing what was going to happen, the co-leader of the squad attempted to shoot out a grappling hook through the pain of the electricity. The effort was in vain, all of the systems had ceased their functions. Mina took one last glance at the ground; she was at least a dozen stories in the air. There was no avoiding the evitable, this is where Mina Shirakawa was going to die. 'I'm so sorry. I couldn't save you, Xia, Maika, Hanako, Waka. Mariah.. Please be okay, don't be hurt.' Her last thoughts are of her dear comrades and friends as everything faded to black around her.

Unknown amount of time later..

"Mariah!" Mina's eyes shot open as she screamed her best friend's name. Her eyes staring straight up at the unfamiliar ceiling, her mind began to race in circles. Pain was coursing through her body which meant that she was still in the world of the living. Her friends, she needed to figure out what happened to them.

Mina made an attempt to sit herself and with some trial and failures, she finally managed to do so. The petite Japanese woman grunted at the pain; her shoulder was throbbing uncontrollably. She recalled that strange feeling right before her suit stopped functioning. The Outcast managed to shoot something at her and whatever it was, Mina had never encountered anything like it. Shirakawa attempted to climb out of the bed but immediately fell backwards to the mattress. "Don't try to move too much, you are still recovering."

A female voice spoke softly but the startled woman turned her attention to the bedroom door. "Who are you?!" "Are you friend or foe?!" The stranger had to be almost six feet tall especially with those black pump boots adding several inches to her height. Her hair was long, wavy and a dark brown color and the soft eyes staring at Mina in concern were hazel. The woman's outfit consisted of a short jean denim skirt and a white tank top. Who was this person? Was she part of the Elite or the Outcasts? Was it possible she was a kind-hearted stranger? Mina wasn't certain.

"Miss Shirakawa, there is no need to raise your voice." The brunette responded in a calm tone, cautiously the woman slowly made her way toward the side of the bed. Mina watched the stranger and studied her body language. That was until a familiar aroma entered the assassin's nose and she finally noticed the box in the brunette's hands. "I ordered some yakisoba, here is your box."

Shirakawa's stomach was trying to do flips upon smelling the delicious food in front of her. How long had she been unconscious for? "Wow, you are very generous. Thank you for the food."

"You think I was going to let a beautiful woman such as yourself starve." The brunette said in a flirty tone as she leaned over to give the food box over to the petite Japanese woman. "You are very lucky, Mina."

"I don't understand. How am I alive?"

"Details are not important. But know that I was in the right place at the right time. Your suit is very advanced, it managed to survive seconds of this electrical current from this tranquilizer." The kind stranger stated, holding up the bullet that managed to penetrate the armor of Mina's suit. It looked like an ordinary tranquilizer dart but that was definitely not the case.

Mina stared at the dart with a curious gaze. How was something like that able to completely disable her electrical system in the tech suit? Her suit is designed to handle most gunfire and some intense fire and heat. But those darts had small bursts of EMP that Shirakawa had never seen before. 'These darts fried my system, is this what severed my connection to the others?' The technology that Moné has been obtaining, it's worrisome. "I've never seen a weapon like that before. You know about my tech suit, how?"

"Well, I've seen several in my time here in Tokyo, but yours is by far the most advanced." The woman explained, with all of the organizations that are for and against the Yakuza; it was always likely to see the tech suits around. This stranger, luckily for the assassin, knew how to repair suits like these. "It will be a few days, but I should have your suit back in functioning condition. Your body thankfully didn't take too much damage from the tranq dart, the impact site is burned by other than that, damage seems to be minimal." Shirakawa looked over to her shoulder that was taped up, the pain that was throbbing was starting to ease up a little.

"I am grateful for your generosity, please what is your name so I can formally thank you?"

"My name is Daisy, Miss Shirakawa." The stranger finally introduced herself. This woman named Daisy had a heart of pure gold, she didn't have to rescue her. Mina really wanted to tell her that her generosity was extremely dangerous. Those sick bastards could be tearing apart the city right now attempting to locate her.

"Thank you, Daisy." The assassin needed to prioritize regaining her strength while Daisy started to repair her suit. Mina's mission was simple now. Recover and locate her friends and pray that the Elite and Outcasts haven't captured or killed them. After that, she wanted to repay the kindness of the woman taking care of her.

"Please rest up, I'll be in the other room if you need me." The brunette responded sweetly, closing the door to the guest quarters. She released a sigh, looking over at the destroyed tech suit that helped save the older woman's life. Walking over to her desk, she grabbed her own visor, modeled to look more like cat-eye sunglasses and put them on. Immediately turning on the device, her eyes scanned over all of the files that appeared before her. One in particular stood out, one in bold font and underlined. Locate and Execute Mina Shirakawa. The order was simple but yet, here she was completely disobeying the orders given out to her. Daisy bit onto her bottom lip roughly, knowing that it was a matter of time before the Outcasts came to her or even the Elite. Those tranquilizers were her own design, she gave the prototype to the Outcasts for testing. They weren't going to be happy with her in fact, a call was coming in from Toni Storm. The bounty was massive, and this was her mission however it wasn't her only mission. She walked over to her closet and opened the door, revealing her own tech suit that was white and had purple accents. Which choice is the right one? She wasn't sure as she answered the phone call.