Gathering Remnants

[ACSRS: Life Interrupt]

GV walked along the quiet road in academy city. Tall, yet seemingly empty, buildings casting a shadow in the evening's red light.

His left hand was clenched into a fist around a piece of paper- his "Invitation."

He'd received it while waiting for Joule to recover. He hadn't yet figured out who was behind it, but he hoped to find out shortly.

The invitation was to a new organisation. After multiple recent disasters, the various organizations that acted in the Dark side of Academy City on behalf of Academy City had been devastated.

This was something of a refounding event, a gathering together of the various parts of the city that were thought "Trustworthy" enough to be a part of this new organization, name TBD.

Apparently they had wanted to headhunt him as a member of this new organisation and poach him from Mitsuari. She had been paying him well for dark side jobs up until this point after all.

He'd gone ahead and told Mental Stinger about the invite and how he'd check it out, but he still intended to help her. He wasn't specific about how he planned to help her- honestly he thought she should get therapy though he knew no one in academy city would give her proper help- but he wouldn't abandon her. That might just set her off.

The invitation didn't specify, but it had told him that there would be a job tonight if he joined. Some kind of test to see if the new organisation could work together well. He had brought his pistol and knives because of that, along with all the rest of the equipment he could get his hands on. Hopefully being part of this organization might allow him the resources to properly rebuild his Dart Leader.

The address written on the invitation approached. It was yet another silent building, though one that appeared to be slated for demolition based on its exterior appearance.

Outside of the building, or rather just within its doors so it was harder to tell from the outside, was a group of armed guards. They looked familiar to GV but like most dark side organisations they didn't wear any sort of insignia.

GV made himself known as the door opened. The guards turned on him, raising guns as GV opened his hand to reveal the invitation.

"I should be expected?"

One of the soldiers approached to examine the invitation. As he did, someone else arrived.

The girl looked around his age and she was wearing a fluffy jumper. She also looked familiar, similar in some ways to one of the Misaka sisters… wait, he'd seen her before, right?

Yes, one of the members of the defunct organisation ITEM. He had expected that most groups would show up together but she appeared on her own.

Well, from what he heard the rest of ITEM was either in the hospital or dead. At least he thought it was something like that.

"Hey." She greeted the guards and held a similar invitation. Another of the soldiers went over to examine hers as the first nodded for GV "Clear. Head on up to floor twenty."

As he said that, the girl just stepped by the man checking her invitation to walk over to the elevator. Some of the soldiers grumbled but GV joined her as the elevator doors opened and they stepped in together.

There was a tension in the elevator as it rose through the building. A question of "Is the person next to me about to attack?" Floating in the air.

GV wondered what had brought a girl her age into the dark side of the city. He understood how he got there but such a wild story didn't go for everyone. The city's darkness was born from its willingness to experiment with everything it seemed. He suspected she must have been part of one dark side experiment or another and she just got caught up in it. That made the most sense.

The elevator dinged at the destination floor and the door opened to reveal a corridor with arrows drawn on the wall in chalk. The pair followed them until they came to a room where lots of people had gathered.

GV didn't know them all that well, but he recognised some of the faces that had come up during previous investigations.

Most notably was the woman that appeared to be leading this meeting. Or rather the girl. She was beautiful though dressed extravagantly for a girl that didn't appear to be much older than GV. She had been painting her nails when GV had arrived but on seeing he and the girl with him had arrived. She focused on the business at hand.

"Hello." She said simply while examining her nails for a moment "And welcome."

She spoke to the whole room as she continued "As your handlers have likely told you, if they survived the trouble before, Academy City's board of directors along with the chairman have brought us together to found a new team."

She blew on her nails before continuing "Do try to forget the fact that everyone here was trying to kill each other just over a week ago. Do your best to get along though, our missions today are fairly important."

The girl besides GV snorted at that but the woman continued "Our target today is Spark Signal. After a failed attempt to take hostages, a majority of their forces were wiped out by GROUP. However enough escaped that the higher ups have requested that something be done about them."

She finally appeared to focus, gesturing around "Combined with the various forces assembled here, we have the remains of Hound Dog acting alongside us."

From her dress, she produced a collection of maps and forums, detailing various pieces of information on the terrorist organization called "Spark Signal" that she mentioned before.

"I don't know how much your handlers told you before coming here, so let me cover the basics. They were an organization on our side originally-" by which she meant the dark side "- responsible for information control. Something has sent them off hunting shadows though which set off their terrorism. They are skilled in anti-personal combat, using flash and tear gas grenades and monomolecular edge knives. They also harden their electronics against tampering such as by an Electromaster."

She made brief eye contact with GV at that and he felt a shiver. A spark ran along his back. Telepathy?

He noticed that she was finding a moment to make eye contact with everyone as she spoke, so that was possible. Either that or she was skilled enough at cold reading that she could read a lot of a person's thoughts from just a quick glance.

Focusing on the situation again, he suspected Spark Signal's hardening might not be impassable, though it might make things more complicated. Hacking a hardened system was like trying to type with thick gloves on. Possible, but tricky.

The girl who had come with him scowled at the paper and then turned to leave.

"Where are you going Kinuhata?" The girl in a dress asked calmly.

Kinuhata- the girl- shook her head, not offering an answer. The girl in a dress sighed and tilted her head to the side "Very well then, give Hamazura my regards."

That got the girl from ITEM to look around confused but when the girl in a dress didn't explain any further, she just sighed "Okay then?"

She closed the door behind her after she left and the room was quiet for a moment. One of the girls at the back of the room started snickering.

Would brushing off this kind of meeting be… safe?

GV turned back to the girl in a dress and caught a slight smile on her lips, as if everything were going precisely to plan.

End of chapter.

Yes, here is where I decided to put GV into the plot of the DRAGON arc.

Of course, this little alliance goes basically unmentioned throughout the rest of this arc. I don't think they were even given an official name and AFAIK, they get dissolved again after WW3 ends. Either way, putting them here now.

Edit: once again, I forgot to upload on the normal day. Damn. Ah well. Today's better than noticing just before writing the next chapter.