Zenless Zone Zero: The Front Line
Chapter 4: Improvise
It took a few days of digging into the Verdict gang before Shion was able to find his way into one of their hideouts in the Hollows. For the first day, he kept his distance just to observe how they operate.
For a gang they were surprisingly organized – there were established routes for delivering supplies and getting people in and out of the Hollows via courier. It seemed most people there understood their way around the area, suggesting they were familiar with the hideout.
"You know, Shion, I don't think I've ever gotten to see you use your old training methods like this before." Manami commented on the second day of surveillance.
"What do you mean? We do reviews all the time." Shion pointed out.
"Yeah but that's just looking back at footage. Doing actual spy work is different." Manami clarified.
"This isn't spy work. We're gathering intel." Shion explained.
"A distinction without a difference, really."
"I'm picking out my targets, Manami. If I want to get to Bloodhound, I need to see who in the gang knows their way around – who do the foot soldiers report to, who takes them in and out of the base, so on and so forth." Shion continued.
"Do you want me to mark them out for you?" Manami offered.
"Yeah, go ahead and color-mark them on my heads-up display so I can...what the hell is that?"
Shion's thoughts were interrupted by the sight of two people sneaking into the Verdict base: a tall skinny guy with a red leather jacket and spiky white hair, and a shorter tanned thiren girl dressed in white and red with a long black tail...
"Follow me, Billy. They like to keep the money boxes towards the back."
"Got it...wait, Nekomata, how do you know that?" Billy questioned.
"I used to deal with the Verdict gang all the time. The guys who run it are psychos but they're also sticklers for organization – I betcha they all keep their stuff in the same place." Nekomata said with a smug little grin as she led the way towards the back of the camp...
"Shion, I think that guy is another AI unit. I'm picking up a unique signal." Manami identified.
"Forget that. They're going to throw everything off if they get caught." Shion commented.
"What do you wanna do?"
"Let it play out for now...no other choice." Shion decided...
Meanwhile, Nekomata and Billy found their way into a literal tent that had pitched in the back. Underneath the tent were a bunch of neatly stacked supply boxes. The two of them both looked at each other in astonishment.
"Whoaaaa..." They both said.
"That's a lot of stuff." Billy added afterwards.
"Jackpot," Nekomata said as she approached one stack of boxes. She pulled out one of her blades and used it to carefully open up the box. "Just skim a little off the top. Here." She passed her other blade to Billy so he could do the same.
"How much are we taking? Just what we can fit in the bag?" Billy asked.
"Obviously. We don't want them noticing that the boxes got a little lighter, nya?" Nekomata pointed out.
"Yeahhh yeah that makes sense. Ooo Nicole is gonna be so happy." Billy said excitedly as he opened up another box and did the same thing that Nekomata was doing.
"This kitty needs a new ball of yarn." Nekomata said, chuckling to herself giddily.
"Do cat thirens play with yarn too?"
"It's an expression, Billy. Meow, what're you doing?!" Nekomata whispered forcefully, noticing that Billy was starting to get greedy with how much he was taking out of one supply box.
"You said to take as much as we could!" Billy whispered back.
"Yeah without it being noticeable! Put some of it back!" She insisted.
"Imagine if Nicole heard you say that." Billy joked lightly. While his attention was on Nekomata, he tried to scoop a few Dennies back into the supply box, but his hand accidentally smacked against it, causing it to fall and hit the ground and spill its contents across the floor.
"Hm? What was that?" A gang member outside the tent exclaimed in surprise.
"Billy! Come on, let's go!" She grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him so they could sneak around behind the tent.
As they made their way around to try to exit out the side of the tent, they ended up smacking right into the gang member as he was coming in through that very side entrance. They both stumbled back in surprise and exclaimed in shock.
"Whoa! What the-?! Intruders?! Intruders!" The guy shouted as loud as he could when he realized what was happening.
"Great! Here we go!" Nekomata said, snatching her second blade from Billy and pouncing on the guard.
From his vantage point outside of the camp, Shion could see and hear that a fight was breaking out and that Billy and Nekomata had been discovered. He groaned and shook his head then stood up and took a moment to prime his weapons.
"Well that pretty much went exactly how you hoped it wouldn't. What's the play here?" Manami asked curiously.
"We'll improvise. The enemy of my enemy, right?" Shion shrugged and jumped up towards the camp...
"Don't worry, everyone will get their share!" Billy taunted, spinning around and shooting his guns in a circle around him. While the two of them were severely outnumbered, Billy and Nekomata were no stranger to situations like this.
However, they were both caught off guard when some unknown Proxy landed in the center of the camp, seemingly crashing from out of the sky and landing with a huge impact that caused the ground to shake. Dust was kicked up all around, obscuring everyone's vision.
"Whoa! What the heck was that, nya?" Nekomata exclaimed in surprise.
"I...urgh..." Billy grunted in surprise, hearing a voice in his head.
"Connecting. Can you hear me?" An unfamiliar voice spoke to him as if on the phone with him.
"Y-Yeah. Who's speaking right now?"
"My name is Tremor," Shion spoke now. "I'm speaking to you using my AI assistant. I can help you clear out the camp and get out of here, but I need you to do something for me too." He explained.
"What you got in mind, buddy?" Billy asked.
"Help me round up the leader of the camp. I have a few questions I need to ask him. Do we have a deal?" Shion asked quickly.
"Sounds good. Hey, Nekomata, we got company but this new guy's on our side. Looks like we're gonna have to fight instead of run." Billy explained.
"It's a little late for running anyways." Nekomata said, spinning her blades and rushing forward as the dust quickly began to settle.
Now that everyone could see where the others were again, the Verdict gang members raised their weapons again and prepared to fire. Shion, with shockwave weapons strapped around his arms and legs, was able to knock people to the ground without even needing to be near them.
"This guy's loud!" Billy exclaimed as he slid behind Shion, giving him cover fire and firing his guns at a few more gang members behind him.
"Best way to draw our guys out." Shion said in response before running ahead to help Nekomata.
She was in the middle of fighting with four guys surrounding her. She jumped up onto one guy's shoulders, clawing at his face before jumping back and doing a flip to give her time to grab her blades again. She rushed in staggered lines back and forth, cutting at them with the blades.
As soon as she slid out of the way, Shion jumped and spun sideways in the air once before slamming his fist into the ground, sending out a shockwave towards them that sent them flying backwards. He stood up and brushed his hands off.
"Not bad, Mr. Shocker Guy." Nekomata said with a nod.
"That's some crazy tech!" Billy said, "Where'd you get digs like that?" He asked curiously.
"I...hang on, we got company." Shion pointed out, looking ahead to see a huge guy with a painted helmet and electric gauntlets strapped to his hands.
"Grr...you little runts are gonna pay for messing up my base!" The big guy growled angrily, running towards them ready to tear them apart.
"Looks like we found your guy in charge, Tremor!" Billy said.
"Thank you kindly." Shion said, rushing ahead to meet him.
"You don't want help or...?" Nekomata asked before being cut off by Shion rushing ahead anyways.
"I'm gonna rip your head off!" The big guy yelled, throwing a big right hook at Shion.
Shion ducked underneath it, sliding forward and slamming his fist into the guy's stomach. His shock primer rumbled, adding extra weight into the impact. Shion then jumped up and kicked the guy in the back of his head, hitting the helmet and causing it to crack.
As he stumbled forward, Nekomata jumped up and pounced on the guy hard and fast enough to knock him flat on his back. With her feet on his chest and a knife to his throat, she rendered him unable to go anywhere or fight back.
"Whoa...thanks. You're fast." Shion said approvingly.
"Heheh, they aren't called cat-like reflexes for nothing." She chuckled proudly.
Shion crouched down by the leader's head, forcing his helmet off so he could see his face. The guy gritted his teeth angrily. He struggled a little, but with Nekomata's blade to his throat, he knew that wasn't a good idea.
"What do you people want with me?" He questioned angrily.
"I don't want anything with you. I'm looking for one of your bosses. Does the name Bloodhound ring a bell?" Shion asked.
"You're looking for Bloodhound?" Both the leader and Nekomata asked in surprise at the same time.
"Tell me where to find him and I'll let you walk away with your face intact." Shion said, lifting his fist up and arming his shock primer again.
"You're crazy if you think you can go for Bloodhound. He's got way more security around him." The leader said.
"That wasn't my question." Shion gently pressed his knuckles against the man's head.
"He's not wrong though." Nekomata confirmed.
"One more time now. Where can I find Bloodhound?" Shion asked.
"I don't know! I don't know where he hangs out. I report to someone else – someone that works under him."
"Who?"
"Her name is Crystal, or at least that's the name she answers to. I've heard her mention that she goes to some club with Bloodhound when they need to talk business but I don't know anything about when or where. If you want to find him, you should find Crystal." The man finally said.
"Crystal...where can I find her?" Shion asked.
"Lumina Square...she hangs around Lumina Square a lot." The man's face dropped as he finally gave up the last of the information he knew.
"Thank you. You've been very helpful." Shion said, standing up. Nekomata hopped up, jumping on the man's chest once before stepping off.
"That all you needed?" She asked.
"Yeah. Time to go. Thanks for the help. You know the way out?" Shion asked.
"Might not be a good idea to go back the way we came." Nekomata said, looking to Billy.
"Yeah agreed. After you!" Billy invited Shion to lead the way.
So Shion let Billy and Nekomata follow him out of the Hollow. He moved quickly and didn't converse with them anymore than he already had. As soon as they were out of the Hollow, he broke off from them without another word.
"They seemed nice." Manami commented after Shion had put some distance between them.
"When we get home tonight, we'll review everything from today. Then we'll need to start looking for this Crystal girl..." Shion said seriously...