Chapter 30
Crossed path
"You look familiar." Reese says as his memories engaged at light speed from the weapon that Ilia is holding.
"Get out of my way agent, I'm taking Emerald away." Ilia says.
"Reese, don't give her an inch!" Blake says with an edge to her voice.
"Not going to happen." Reese says both to Blake and ilia.
Ilia then got her weapon charged up ready to engage.
"Don't do it!" Reese warns as he reaches for his katana.
Reese realizes that negotiations are out the door and nothing will make this faunas stand down.
Lila then ran forward ready to strike Reese, in response Reese's arm shot up and blocked her attack.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! KICK!
Reese kicked Lila away but she got back up and resumed her attack.
"Blake, is there anything that can stop her? And where is Yang?" Reese asks.
"Maybe tell her that the white fang has been disbanded. And where is your wife? She is with Winter doing something." Blake says.
Reese then engages the external speakers.
"Stop fighting, the white fang has been disbanded, you are fighting for no reason." Reese says.
"No, I won't stop fighting. Adam told me no matter what, keep going." Lila says.
CLANG!
"Adam is dead, he died a few months ago, you don't need to throw your life away." Reese says.
"No he is not. I talked to him two months ago and he sent me to find emerald and dispatch her." Lila says.
"You do realize that he hurts innocent people just so he can gain a sense of power." Reese says.
"HE DOES IT SO THAT HE CAN FIGHT FOR FAUNAS FREEDOM!" Lila shouted.
At this point he couldn't knock some sense into her.
"Blake, you know her?" Reese asks as he blocks another move.
"Yes I do, why?" Blake asks.
"Good putting you on speaker." Reese says as he kicks Lila away.
After Lila gets up she prepares another attack and sees the armored figure take a relaxed stance.
"Good letting your guard down." She thought.
She then gets into a running stance and charges.
"Lila please stop."
She just heard a new voice and it sounded like a woman, and she stopped and looked around.
"I'm right here Lila." Blake said.
Lila looks rights at the armor and sees Blake's gold eyes looking back at her through the visor.
"Blake, why are you in there? Why are you working for atlas?" Lila asks.
Blake was about to say something about being far away, but a nudge from Winter's advisor told her to roll with it.
Why am I here? I'm here to prove to those in atlas that a faunas can be a good asset to have in the military." Blake said.
"But after some time you will be discarded and your back to square one." Lila retorted.
Blake then realized how far Adam twisted her mind.
"Whatever Adam told you is false. I took the chance after I left and I found my spot." Blake said.
While this conversation was going on Reese and Patty were making backup plans.
"You're putting a lot of faith in Blake." Patty says.
"Yeah I am but I got to try and hope for a good outcome. Maybe she will drop her weapon and walk away." Reese says.
"But if that doesn't work. What will we do?" Patty asks.
"Get ready with the dragon program." Reese says as his hand grips his katana.
At the same time Lila was getting aggressive with Blake.
"Blake you should leave those deceivers there is no future for you if you stay in atlas military, you should know that especially with ironwood at the helm." Lila says with an edge.
Just then Blake got a lightbulb moment and a little hope.
"He is dead." Blake said.
Lila was now stunned.
"How?" She asks.
"Dispatched by his own troops, he was going power hungry." Blake said even tho she knew the truth, but had to put a spin on it.
"Was it because he was going on a rampage to get rid of faunas?" Lila asks again hoping she could use anything to get Blake to leave.
But Blake could see in the armor visor it was telling her Lila is being deceitful.
"No, he was trying to overthrow the SDC." Blake said as she looked at Weiss while mouthing sorry.
"To then get rid of faunas?" Lila asks.
Winter's adviser then leans forward and whispers to Blake to be aggressive and push it.
"It's not about the faunas, it never was, quit fishing!" Blake said with an edge.
Bad move.
"IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE ABOUT FAUNAS!" Lila shouted as she charged forward.
Lila made up her mind and Reese was ready for it.
At that moment Reese could see everything got a little bit slower and in one fluid movement Reese unsheathed the katana and ducked Lila's attack and the sword made contact with her midsection and put some pressure.
SLICE!
Both stood there for a second and then Lila dropped to the ground with a large laceration across her chest.
"Blake…why?" Lila asks.
"I'm not here Lila, I'm miles away." Blake says.
Reese then took off the helmet and looked right at her.
"Why did you do that? You could've walked away and lived your life, the white fang is no more but yet you had to make a dumb decision why?" Reese asks with sorrow.
Lila thought for a second.
"Because I wanted to make a difference and I was told to get her." Lila said.
"Was it by a woman who had white skin and red eyes?" Reese asks.
Lila nods.
"I see she probably told you to do it or lose something right?" Reese says.
Lila nodded again.
Reese then turns away to grab emerald.
"Can you stay? I'm afraid." Lila asks.
Reese looks back and puts his helmet to his face and does a scan.
"She is safe, no hidden weapons." Patty says.
Reese walks over and grabs Lila's head and holds her in his arms.
"Can you get Blake on the line I want to talk to her?" Lila asks.
Reese put his helmet on Lila and it connected.
Now Reese wasn't keeping track of time but it felt like a while because the sky turned dark but he realized that Lila stopped moving and he got the helmet off and indeed she is gone.
Reese closed her eyes and put her on the ground and put a call into emergency services.
"This is dispatch, what's your emergency?" Dispatcher asks.
"There is a woman who got attacked. She is in an alleyway at 5th street." Reese says.
"Roger units are on the way." The dispatcher says.
Now Reese was aware certain nations have different rules about faunas but the white fang is another.
"If they discover she is white fang they won't give her body a proper burial." Patty says.
Reese then looks through the pockets and finds a white fang necklace in gold, and some paper that had white fang intel.
"Hope that's everything." Reese says as he picks up her weapon and emerald.
As Reese rounded a corner he heard the sirens on the far side of the block.
"Winter is the jet still here?" Reese asks.
"Yes it's ready for you." Winter says.
"Good it's going to be a bit." Reese says as he starts evading.
3 hours later Reese was at the edge of the airport, but there was a problem.
"Winter i'm at the airport. Why are there cops around the jet?" Reese asks.
"Uh I'm not aware of that hold on." Winter says.
Thankfully it was dark when Reese got to the airport so no one can see him well except for Emerald who just woke up an hour ago.
"Oh look at that, you're not going to win." Emerald says with a smirk.
"You know I have no problem with ko'ing you again if you put this mission in jeopardy. Right?" Reese says.
Emerald's eyes widened at that thought.
"Fine." She said,
"So umm apparently when you called in that emergency, that engaged the lockdown nothing gets in or out for 48 hours." Winter says.
"Why?" Reese asks.
"Because it looks like a crime happened." Emerald says.
"Yes, what she said." Winter says.
"So what do I do time is not on our side?" Reese asks.
"Stand by." Winter says.
Winter then used the atlas supercomputer that is 20 times more powerful than the AI's, she imputed the scenario and the computer gave this answer.
Agent and vip go to the docks and get on a cargo ship, be advised security is very tight, may have orders to fire on anyone trying to get on.
"Wonderful." Winter said sarcastically.
"Reese you're going to have to swim." Weiss says.
"Uh why?" Reese asks.
"Because that may be the only way out." Winter says.
"Ughhhh why?" Reese says.
No response.
"Hope you can swim." Reese says as he gets on the move.
"I can swim but while handcuffed I don't think that's possible." Emerald says.
Reese then readjusted the cuffs so that emerald can swim but at a moments notice Reese could restrain emerald.
"Don't try to do anything funny." Reese says with an edge.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Emerald says with sarcasm.
As they approached the docks the only ship is a cargo ship and it was almost done being loaded.
"Winter cargo ship, when does it leave?" Reese asks.
"In about five minutes. It would be best if you swim out to the rv point." Winter says.
"It's infested with Grimm sharks." Reese says.
"Well you're going to have to take that chance." Winter says.
Reese rolled his eyes.
"Does your armor have magnetic components?" Emerald asks.
"Yes, very weak, yes." Reese says.
"Well there is another way, we get into the water and hook on." Emerald says.
Reese thought about it for a minute.
"Two minutes." Patty says.
"Let's do it." Reese says.
There was another obstacle, a fence.
"Patty cut it." Reese says.
The armor then activates a laser to cut the fence.
"It's going to take a minute." Patty says.
"Amplify power." Reese says.
The lasers got a bit brighter but not enough to be seen.
"More." Reese says.
"If I increase it we will be seen." Patty says.
While under any normal circumstances Reese would understand the need for stealth but the only ticket out was about to leave.
"No time. Patty activate the emf field." Reese orders.
The emf field is a type of jamming system that interferes with electronic signals and other equipment. Example it will make lights go out, or red dot optics. But it cannot interfere with heavy machinery. Downside is the operators coms are jammed.
"Activating the system." Patty says.
Just then the lights went out now the security team started to look around with nods but they were too close so those didn't work.
"Get those nods working something is up." One of the security team said.
Reese got the rest of the fence cut open.
"Get on, I'm not going to waste speed." Reese says.
Emerald then jumped on and Reese booked it to the water.
SPLASH!
The guards then ran to the water's edge and looked around with high powered flashlights.
At that moment the ship started to move and Reese got the magnets to attach to the ship.
Now he moved up to the surface but he wanted to only his and emerald's head out so they could breathe.
"Ok we are going to stay here for a few minutes then a ship will intercept us then we will be home free." Reese says.
Emerald nodded.
Then Reese noticed a flash in the distance.
"OH CRAP SCOPE!" Reese shouted in panic.
Just then a round hit emerald in the arm.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed from the impact.
While the bullet didn't penetrate and make a hole, it did however break her arm.
Reese then did the only logical thing to do. Fire back but don't hit anything.
"Hey, don't use my weapon." Emerald protested through pain.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Patty did the calculations for Reese so that the rounds get close.
"Winter we are under fire, where are you!?" Reese says in a panic.
"A 100 yards behind you." Winter says.
Reese looks and the helmet outlines a small boat.
"Sorry we are going to swim." Reese says.
Before Emerald could protest, Reese was already dragging her right on the thirty second mark of swimming, Reese's motion tracker picked up the sharks.
"Winter fire in the water danger close!" Reese says.
Reese then focuses on swimming and several rounds get close but the rounds hit the sharks when they get too close.
As they got close to the boat two crew members were waiting for them.
"VIP got hit with a broken arm." Reese says as he holds emerald up.
"Prep med bay, one person has broken bone." The crew member said as they got emerald to med bay.
The instant Reese was on the driver hit the boat's motor into overdrive, getting them out of range of the shoreline guns.
"Update operator and vip are on the boat and heading towards the exfil." Reese says.
END.