Chapter 3: Investigation, Conflict II
Tower of Babylon Labs, Reactor Pile Sector
The two Valkyries stood in a circular room glowing with pink light from below. "Hey, Pat…" Theresa nervously asked, "Did you find anything yet?"
"No, no yet… wait, what's that on the floor?" Kneeling down, Patricia used her finger to swipe up small fragments of purple crystal "Honkai piece or shard residue? What would it be doing here…? How odd, there are too little of the fragments to indicate a leak in the reactor… We may need to perform a full spectrum scan of the area."
Patricia looked over to Theresa, who was still looking around in fear. "Hehe, to be honest, I expected a seasoned veteran Valkyrie like her, who has fought Emperor-class Honkai beasts before, to be a lot braver than this," deciding to tease the white-haired lady, the taller woman spoke out, "Hey, hey, dear Theresa, why so nervous? Scared one of those missing researchers will suddenly show up as a ghost to haunt this place?"
"No, of course not, there's definitely not sure thing as ghosts—" Theresa hurriedly replied, before another voice came out of nowhere: "Help! Someone! Help us! Is there anyone out there? Help us!"
"Ahhhh! Ghosts!" Theresa screamed out with swirls in her eyes. "Hold on, Theresa, that isn't it…" Patricia noted, looking towards the sound of the scream. "this sounds more like the voice of a human girl."
As the two Valkyrie travelled towards the source of the sound still guarded by mechs, Patricia gave a summary of the why there would be strange to hear a cry from a young girl in this place, according to the intel given. "As you know due to the briefing from the Overseer you read about this place on the way here, the Tower of Babylon Labs, located in the Siberian tundra, is the 2nd largest Honkai energy research center on Earth, housing the world's third largest Honkai reactor pile. Babylon Labs has a total of 50 floors, with the energy reactors placed in the bottom 20, while 3 research divisions are placed in the other 30. They are the Advanced System Lab, which researches artificial Stigmata for Schicksal Valkyries; the Weapons Division, which uses data from the 3rd division to weaponize Honkai energy and produce equipment for the organisation's field operations; and finally the Energy Division, which provides support to the other divisions here as required as well as conducting more research on the Honkai. None of the three divisions mentioned should involve the presence of a girl or more children otherwise… this could mean that the labs have a dark secret that has not been discovered until now."
They finally reached the floor of the tower that the cries came from, only to see something that they hadn't expected to find in this place. "Pat, the call for help came from here, right? Hnngh, but these doors in the walls, they look like holding cells. Why would the lab have these?" Another cry for help came from one of the holding cells, causing Theresa to panic about ghosts again. "Hold on, Theresa! These are not ghosts! Waling up to the holding cell door, she grabbed onto a girl's arm that was reaching out. "Look closely, Theresa! They're just ordinary human girls here."
"Please help us, good people! Free us from this terrible place!" The girl whose arm was being held begged. Without hesitation, Theresa tore off the heavy steel door of the cell to free the one inside. She then went around doing the same to all the other holding cells. From them, more children emerged. "It's alright, girls, You can come out now! You're all in safe hands!" The girl whose cell door had been torn off first bowed to Theresa, before her eyes widened as she thought of something: "Wait! There might be three more children missing! Sirin and Shirou ran after Bella when the scientists—"
"No need to worry, we're here too," an unexpected male voice ran out. Everyone turned to see a redheaded golden-eyed boy waling just behind a purple haired girl with orange eyes, emerging from one of the last holding cells. "After we left the mess hall, we were tasered by the scientists before they threw us back into the cell we just came back from. It was in the late evening, so the rest of you didn't hear us, since I saw you all asleep then." "Ah! Shirou! Sirin! Wait, where's Bella? She's not…" Shirou and Sirin tensed, shadows covering their eyes for a second. "She… didn't make it." Shirou numbly answered. The other children gasped and crowded around the two, offering their regrets and condolences, but no one noticed Sirin tightening her fist in her clothing.
As the escaped girls were otherwise occupied, Patricia pulled up a connection to the Babylon Labs' database and started searching. "More redacting and censoring by a higher clearance level… someone does not want others to find out about this… With my own level of access clearance, I can barely access the records for these children: according to what I can find, they are all test subjects under the Advanced Systems Lab Division, part of the Honkai Adaptability Trials. But that boy… his file is the most redacted among them all, with so much blacked-out information I can barely read anything. I can only read his file name: 'Subject HM-03-1204', and that… Wait, he was the cook for this entire facility for some months, starting on the very first day he was recruited…? That… can't be right…?" Unknown to Patricia, memories of her own creation were brought to mind when Theresa heard such a codename for the strange redhead. "It's not possible, Grampa wouldn't do things like how he created me again… right?"
Shaking the thoughts to the back of her mind to think on them later, Theresa paid a closer look to the children, noticing that: "They all have varying wounds and bandages on them, although most look properly healed… and from observing of their behaviour it seems it was the Shirou who healed them… not the scientists." From afar she watched as Shirou rewrapped some bandages for another kid whose wrappings had gotten loose. "Why did Grampa's mission briefing mention none of this?"
"Perhaps he didn't know, or perhaps he did and wanted to keep this from you. The truth is, Schicksal recruits thousands of orphans like them every year. Nobody cares if they die." Two children's eyes narrowed as they heard this. "No, Pat. Somebody does care about them. 'I' care about them." Theresa spoke, holding on to the shoulders of the girl who had bowed to the white-haired lady. "Do you know about Grampa finally agreeing to my proposal? He'll give me an reclaimed island in the far east, where I'm planning to build a special sanctuary for victims or the Honkai. It will serve as a school and home for them, that teaches them how to wield and master any powers they unwillingly received at the cost of losing loved ones to Honkai beasts or even future Herrscher eruptions. When they graduate, they'll become Valkyries, able to fight back against the Honkai, and lead happy lives like you and me, Pat."
"Wait, Theresa, that's a major violation! These test subjects are Schicksal Property! We should return them to HQ! They've probably been injected with loads of Honkai energy by the researcher eggheads! It's madness to turn them loose, let alone make them into Valkyries!" Theresa gave a small smile towards both Patricia and the girl. "Please, have faith in me, This is my pledge, that all these children will be safe, So please, I hope you can follow me." Theresa told everyone around the room.
"Hmph… a stupid Valkyrie with a stupid dream…" a small whisper came as the purple haired girl passed by, causing Theresa to ask if Patricia heard something. Shirou however… some light came to his eyes at Theresa's declaration, although some suspicion remained.
"Huh, well, Theresa, I have orders to make your stay comfy and safe, as well as avoid getting In your way. Since the Overseer made his granddaughter the mission lead here anyway, I guess I have no choice but to obey…" "Thank you so much for understanding, Pat!" Theresa exclaimed, giving a thumbs-up. Patricia was about to walk off, when something from the cell that Shirou and Sirin came out of caught her eye. "More Honkai residue on that cell door…" At the same time, Theresa was planning to dig deeper into the labs' database to find out as much of what her grampa Otto Apocalypse was keeping from her.
Midnight, Tower of Babylon Labs, Reactor Pile Sector
"Huff… I almost used up all my powers yesterday to kill all that scum… luckily Shirou helped me conserve my strength to keep enough energy to teleport out to bury Bella. But this reactor… It will give me more of my God's energy… and I can't risk showing Shirou this with his prior experiences with the God's given beasts… I don't want him turning against me. Hehe… Shirou was kept busy with the other weaklings in the mess hall… and now I can feel the power of God's energy… It's pulsing within me… I will become STRONGER…"
"Had enough fun yet, purple girl?" Patricia's voice came from behind Sirin.
"You… the one who wanted to return us to those who tested on us… to that accursed Overseer. How did you find me out?" Patricia thought back to finding Honkai residue at both the reactor pile and at Sirin's cell. "Oh, I just had a keen eye for the dirt you girl left around. I thought either you or the boy was the cause behind this disappearance incident, and since you're the one standing there, I guess it's not him. Have to say… I really didn't believe he cooked for the whole place until I saw him in action."
"Hmph, he is not as uninvolved as you think. Shirou is my retainer and Knight, and he cut open the throat of that damned head scientist himself; he will aid me against our enemy, that cursed Schicksal's Overseer and his organization! And you thought you can take care of me alone? Where is that little white haired naïve girl? You have no backup against me!"
"Don't mean to scare you, purple girl… but I actually brought 2 little friends with me… As well as some backup… Wanna say hello to them?" Patricia answered back, deploying 2 M134 VULCAN 6-barreled rotary miniguns powered by Honkai energy, as well as the mechs that had been guarding her and Theresa thought their visit of Babylon Labs. She was interrupted by maniacal laughter from Sirin in front of her, having not moved an inch in response.
"KYAHAHAHAHA! You think you can scare me, Valkyrie? You're just the start of my path to revenge! Those scientists who injected us with Honkai energy… those monsters who ran all those tests on us… those who told the children here we were serving a 'divine purpose' of perfecting so called 'Stigmata' for Schicksal Valkyries like you… They said orphans like me and my friends should feel grateful to die for your sake. THEY KILLED MY BEST FRIEND BECAUSE OF YOU! Bella died for nothing! To hell with Schicksal, to hell with Valkyries! YOU should be grateful, that you'll be the first of many to taste my true powers!"
"Ha, well, I take that as a hello to these little friends of mine, then." Patricia replied, starting to spin the barrels of both her miniguns, ordering the mechs forward, before noticing something: "Wait… Is that a spatial distortion around me—"
*"Schicksal Report: Patricia Highsmith, A-rank Valkyrie—declared Missing In Action (MIA). Her blood and weapons were found near the reactor pile, as well as shattered mech units assigned as backup due to the downed surveillance network, but the Valkyrie's body was unable to be located. GPS tracker and Body cam are lost and cannot be accessed remotely. Threat index: Threat level elevated—culprit is able to defeat A-rank Valkyries. Overseer has taken further notice, Individual Theresa Apocalypse is still able to be monitored and remains unharmed… however she has been observed trying to access higher-level sealed files in the laboratory database. Two more Squad SnowWolf Valkyries have been ordered to approach Tower of Babylon Labs: Knight Siegfried Kaslana has been called upon to lend support."*