Infiltration mission

[ACMI: Into Darkness]

The part of the wall the team had aimed for was attached to the gate between the two sections. It was another building for guards so there should be some costumes that could be used for a disguise around here somewhere.

At least that was the theory.

"Uiharu told me before that their uniforms have chips in them that make the robots ignore them." Saten noted "So a disguise would work fine."

Joule nodded and put down her pad of paper that had suggested that idea.

Getting down there would require some infiltration though, just like how they'd gotten upstairs before.

The rooftop door wasn't alarmed so they could still get into the building that way but there were more guards in here that would need to be avoided.

GV quickly went out to scout for where uniforms would be kept, leaving Joule and Saten sitting together on the roof.

"Are you… okay?" Saten asked, looking at her friend "I mean, besides the voice thing?"

Joule didn't respond, her expression still unreadable. After a moment though she took out the pad of paper.

There was another pause before she started writing.

"I'm doing fine-" She crossed that out "I'm doing as well as could be expected."

This was the same condition she'd been suffering with for weeks, just in its final form.

"We'll find some way to help." Saten told her confidently "Once we find a way to beat the dragon that the bad guy here has got, we can apply it to your dragon too."

There was a twitch at Joule's mouth, though if it was a smile or a frown was unclear. It was the first movement of its type in a while though.

She folded over the page she was writing on and wrote something new "What about you Saten? Are you doing fine?"

Saten nodded "After that jump? My heart was beating really fast for a moment there but I'm happy I did it, and not just because it got us across."

Someone else could have used those climbing gloves, but Saten's decision to stand up and do it herself had given her a lot of confidence.

As they made small talk, the rooftop door opened again, GV carrying a bag of clothes.

"Here, I got these for you two."

He had a male uniform and two female ones, though they were all a little big on them.

It made sense. They were all between twelve and fourteen. Compared to the fully grown security guards, the best they could claim was that they were here on work experience.

Since Joule couldn't talk, she'd have to leave the bluffing to their friends if they were seen.

"What are these masks even for?" Saten held one of them up. It along with the jacket and hat made up the majority of the uniform.

GV shrugged "I'm not sure, maybe just to protect your eyes?" He tilted the mask back and forth "I think the lenses are polarised to protect from lasers too."

They held onto the face by adjustable pads that seemed to cling to flesh but could be removed with very little effort.

"It makes me think of the kind of domino masks villains in TV shows wear." Saten remarked as she put hers on "Like… behold! I am phantom thief S!" she even did a pose as she spoke.

GV sighed at that as he put his own on and turned to Joule "Is it okay?"

Joule nodded but poked at the chest area "It's a little loose."

"How did you get women's uniforms anyway?" Saten noted.

GV shrugged "Snuck into the women's changing room."

…Joule suspected there was more than what he was saying but she didn't take out her pad- so her thoughts went entirely undisplayed.

"We need a lie to take us to the girl's building." GV noted "If we're seen going there, we need a reason."

"How about being new recruits?" Saten suggested.

GV shook his head "At this time of year?"

Joule wrote down a quick interjection "But maybe they took on more people after the failure in the trial?"

"No." GV shook his head "We can't randomly guess that. If it was true it would be a good lie but if such a recruitment hasn't happened, people will know. No, if we're new hires… hmm."

"We were hired at the normal time, but were sick until now?" Saten suggested.

There was a pause as all of them thought about it.

"Maybe, but what if they think whatever's going on at the girl's detention block is too important for newcomers?" GV noted before scratching his head "We can't be new or we wouldn't be going there and we can't be old because- well, our appearances. We wouldn't be recognised and that would give us away."

They continued to sit in silence, trying to find a workaround.

"Maybe we could just… avoid being spotted by human guards?" Saten suggested "Like we've been doing so far? You scout ahead and find us a route?"

GV sighed "That really might be the best option. Fair enough. Let's just head out to ground level."

They made a quick pace down to the ground floor, watching out for guards before heading out into the interior area of the prison. Following GV's lead the team headed towards the girl's building, stopping in certain places to avoid guards.

Robots passed them by, not giving them a second look. Saten began to toy with one as they followed the guards' orders but GV had to pull her away before a guard came upon them.

Once they were to the girl's building, they prepared to make their way in. The problem was that the door was guarded by multiple guards. They wouldn't be able to bluff their way past those.

As they tried to think of a way through, all the lights in the girl's block suddenly went out.

"A blackout?" Saten whispered quietly.

GV nodded "But the jammers are still active, they must not be on the same circuit here."

Saten looked around "Where is the jammer actually, if we could break it-"

"There are four jammers around the girl's building and there's significant overlap." GV noted "If we did that, we would be telegraphing our location really obviously."

"Fair enough but then-"

Guards began rushing about and as they did, one of them took notice of the three of them.

"Hurry up you three, there's an intruder in the girl's building."

What?

"A girl of about 12 or 13, height of 150cm, she might have changed clothes but when she was last spotted she was wearing a school uniform and flowers in her hair."

…So Uiharu was here after all. They'd all guessed as such but if she was labelled as an Intruder… What had happened?

End of chapter.

GV, master of infiltration. There was no way in hell the three of them would have been able to bluff the guard that Saten does in canon so I had to work around it.