[Job] Retrieval Run (Akeya/Triple_Hell)

Job Details:

The attack from years ago was never forgotten, but even so the city of Hargeon had recovered so well that any newcomers might never notice that there had been attack unless it was pointed out to them. One of the advantages of being able to use many types of magic was that some of those magic types were also very good for construction, reparation and restoration. Of course these days the city looked less like a beach town and more like a naval base, but that didn't mean that it wasn't still a place where many people lived, loved and laughed.

Except for Akeya, who was running through the sewers as a black rat and listening in on a lot of conversations at once. Some people would have argued that shapeshifting into a rodent was beneath a dragon. Akeya would argue that it was beneath a dragon to dismiss use of a convenient form just because it looked weak. The fact that some dragons would in fact consider it beneath them to turn into something smaller just meant that dragons weren't infallible and that they could also be idiots. This particular dragoness wasn't planning to be on the list of idiots without functional brains.

She also wasn't planning to be on the list of idiot dragons who would let strangers steal something from their hoard and keep it. Of course in this case her hoard was the property of the West Fiore Trading Company and the hidden guild of Onyx Moon but that didn't change the details. A group of thieves had actually managed to steal something from the company and actually gotten out of Tolgalen unscathed. While it was an admirable achievement it was also something that she wasn't going to ignore or let go unpunished. Of course she was under orders to minimize casualties as those would just attract attention from the wrong kind of people. Didn't mean that she couldn't think of a way to make them regret their theft though. Maybe she could just steal some of their stuff at the same time as she collected the company's stuff.

For now though she was busy gathering intel. She was at the docks, where all the trading and exchanging occurred. Aside from the shops this where you went if you needed something or were trying to find someone who needed something. Given how problematic stolen ware could be most thieves wouldn't try to get rid of it in a shop if they could sell it in a more public place of trade and exchange where security would be laxer. And in this case the thieves might also think of keeping it for themselves given that they'd stolen some practical magic tools.

Even if she was disguised as a rat Akeya's sense were still very good. They became even better if she combined them with her magic. The light of day might drive the shadows out of open sight but they were still hidden in every nook and cranny, which meant that every nook and cranny was a place where Akeya could spy on people from. She heard about the weather, about pirates, about alcohol, about women, about alcohol, about work... There were so many topics from so many different mouths that it was difficult to keep track of them all. Normally she'd take it easier on herself by only paying attention to a couple at a time, but this time she couldn't really do that because one conversation she didn't listen to could be the conversation where information was discussed about the stolen goods.

Fortunately her patience and diligence paid off. While she was trying to ignore the building headache from getting so much information to process at the same time she picked up on the fact that a group of people had arrived from Tolgalen and moved into the city as quickly as they could unload their inventory from the ship. While they hadn't been running the fact that they'd waved away anything that might delay that betrayed the fact that they were in a hurry. It wasn't the best of leads but it was good enough for the black rat who was actually a dragon. A hurrying group with a lot of baggage was too suspicious to ignore. From what she heard they had quite a lot of stuff on them. With that kind of inventory, while being a group, and still being in such a hurry to not only get off the ship but also leave the harbour... If they were here for legal reasons they must have been some of the most poorly organized people Akeya had ever come across. And not a single person among them who knew how to make everything neat and orderly.

She listened for long enough to get an idea of where to find them and then ran off. The rat turned around and ran the other way through the pipes that made a network under the city. Rather than staying above ground where a rat might be attacked by some citizen afraid of illness she could squeeze her way through the unflooded pipes and skitter her way onwards to where she needed to be. They'd only arrived recently and their stolen goods included magic items, so if Akeya could close the distance she could track them the rest of the way by sensing the faint trace of magic items. While much more subtle than the magic of a mage even magic tools had some amount of trace. Only an expert or someone with some assistance could keep track of it, but if there was anything that Akeya was good at it was working meticulously and with great dedication. That and sicne she was a dragon she was a lot more sensitive to the flow of mana than the humans so her sensory abilities were nothing to scoff at.

WC: 981
TWC: 981/7,000

"Ohh... how did it end up like this...?" said a floating device as it hovered shy of the ground. The worried book like object gazed around with its glowing orb, as if it was an eye. It recalled the information it processed as it continued its search for its master.

It was an unknown period when it and its master woke up. Running diagnostics, checking systems. There were critical errors in the memory bank and would take a lot of time to recover. Not only that it seems the mission log that it and its master was tasked to had been lost too. Body scans indicated trauma to the head region and caused a malfunction in the memory bank. It was at least relieved its master recognized it and thus they started a search on foot.

The world was vastly different from the time they remembered. Trees this abundant was rare outside a greenhouse and none grew this big. They were in the wild. Green was extinct and yet it now surrounded them. It believed the R.E.S project managed to complete, however without knowledge of the R.E.S project it sounded like nonsense. Then they encountered monsters. They ran at first, however something kicked into memory, activating a defense protocol in it and its master. The programming had failsafes ready. With the monster left as nothing but dust, it was certain further exposure to time may allow chances for further failsafes to activate and perhaps restore their memories.

The natives of the land wore primitively. Cotton cloth and wool. Domestic animals ran about and between construction of wood and straws. Its master was of an increased intelligence and presumed acting like they are familiar with their culture would be most wise to avoid suspicion. What they did not expect was the attack and subsequent kidnapping of its master. At first there was a fight but a stray 'spell' as it remembered through dialog and similar encounters flung it too far, thus shutting down its master.

Its task became simple, to recover its master and reactivate its master. However its movement speed was not more or equivalent to that of its master's kidnappers, thus the distance stretched further and further. Soon it had lost track of its master within a biological scan distance, only a pinging in a direction was its only indicator of its master still being within a country's worth of distance.

The journey for it was treacherous, and questioning puzzled people proved fruitless. It had been attacked by numerous flora, fauna and even humanoids. It was risking exposure to an unfamiliar world but it does what is necessary to return to its master. As time stretched, the whole effort begun to look fruitless, but as a robotic entity it could only move forward, and attempt to figure out as much as it could.

And finally a lead. It gained information of bandits with similar descriptions with that of its memory banks and bio-scans that it was its master's kidnappers. It needed to accelerate. However it realized it needed help in the recovery of its master. They had made a temporary base among the numerous warehouses along a location it recalls as Hargeon Town. It was a location not located in its integral map however the pinging was enough to say where it was. So it made pace, and realized it was going to be much harder than it predicted.

These bandits were technologically advanced and had premium security. But it could find its master inside. However if the experience before was anything, it could not recover its master and escape without its master's weakness being exploited again.  The suitable course of action would be to enlist help. Mercenaries require currency that it does not possess and may not even have the quality of combat experience to tackle such an organized group. However a time came when the security laxed. A majority seems to have left harbor. It took its chances going alone.

And was subsequently flung out. After contact with its master and managing to leave a certain distance, what was laxed security became a full blown force to prevent escape. Its master made a sacrifice and initiated a response to make it leave its master till a better solution could be found. However its escape attempt increased security and added new forms. Its master was stored deeper, below sea level in a warehouse. It took scans and found technologically of a higher advancement than the bandits current own and extracts dialog of them leaving. If it happens it cannot reunite with its master. It needed to enlist help of some kind.

So here it was, scanning for some form of humanoid capable to tackling such a force. Most of the people here were common folk, incapable of a higher tier of attack and would definitely deceased upon break and entry. Some were a bit more powerful, but lacked as form of organization required or required a cash payment in Fiorian currency. However its scan picked up something immense underground. It was powerful, rivalling an army. It was undetected to people, as it moved through a sewer system it had just scanned into its map. It had to enlist whatever it was. So it dove into the same system and followed, maintaining a scan of it in order to keep track of it on its radar. It spots a rat, no bigger than itself. It scanned again. This rat cannot be that of which produces such a power. Could it have been facing malfunction due to sewage exposure? Then the rat left, and it followed quickly.

It moved quickly and finally, it called out. "Entity of power the size of common sewer rat, if you are of sentient speech I require assistance! I plead to you entity for your help in a grave matter!"

---

WC: 984
TWC: 984/7000

Now what were these thieves planning to do with the stolen equipment? They were magic items with practical purposes, but none of them seemed like the type to function as powerful weapons unless you were an artificier who could meddle with such devices to enhance or alter their function. Given that they'd managed to steal from one of the most securely guarded places that Akeya had visited in recent years she couldn't just dismiss the possibility that they had such a person in their midst. However even so it would be strange that they'd pick these items for that kind of task... Was she overlooking something? Maybe a combination of the magic tools that she hadn't thought of yet. Or maybe they had been lucky to steal these items at all and just took what they could without complaining that they couldn't get better. The exact details of how they managed to accomplish the theft were still not fully known, so there was no evidence for or against them grabbing these specific items on purpose.

The other possibility was the more mundane one: profit. Steal valuable magic tools and then sell them to some other place. It's the first assumption one comes to when they learn that magic tools have been stolen unless said magic tools are notably dangerous. Even if magic was quite common in the world of Earthland the ability to craft objects with magical properties was still relatively rare. Combined with the efficiency and ease of use and even something as simple as a device which can clean your clothes with but a word would already be enough to fetch a pretty penny (that said the truly rich hoarded the more mundane types of magic devices so you might have to search a bit further if you were aiming for the big money).

Akeya's first priority was retrieval of the stolen equipment. Investigating why these items were stolen and whether the thieves posed a threat beyond this isolated incident was her second priority. The guild didn't believe that the situation was serious given the circumstances, but on the off chance that Akeya found evidence that there was a bigger plan behind this she had the authority to resolve the situation as long as she didn't cause too much of a ruckus. Neither the West Fiore Trading Company nor Onyx Moon wanted outsiders to get too inquisitive.

As she considered this the black rat ran towards where the rumours said her targets were located at the time. As she moved forward she began to notice that aside from magic above and to the sides there was also some magic to be felt from down below. She didn't think this was the first time that she had to deal with the fact that Hargeon Town had a noteworthy large underground system, but this time it felt like the magic from below was stronger. In fact it was too strong to belong to the equipment she was sent to retrieve. This might not have to do with her mission but it was something worth investigating. Did the magic council install some hidden countermeasures for any future attacks on the town?

This was around the point where she sensed something magical quickly approaching her location. While the disguised dragoness had been moving faster than your average rat she'd refrained from moving at speeds where the observant magic sensor on the surface might notice that there was something zipping around in the sewers. Because of this the origin of the magic presence managed to catch up to her and approach her. Seeing that it was a floating book Akeya came to a halt and stared at it. You always heard stories about wizards with sentient books in their ancient libraries but last she checked most wizards eventually decided against it on the grounds that they were perfectly capable of reading the damn thing without having it talk back at them.

Whoever designed this one hadn't thought of that, however. It directly spoke to Akeya, designating her as a rat with a large amount of power. Akeya hadn't been hiding her magic completely but she was still surprised that the book saw through her this quickly. From the looks of it it was of high quality and with an impressively advanced and complex enchantment on it.

Well now, since she was asked to help...

"What are you and what do you need?"

Standing on her hind legs Akeya twitched her nose at the book while studying it. There was little use in hiding her ability to talk at this point and while her own mission had some amount of urgency to it she could afford to spend a minute or so talking to this thing. And if she refused to answer it would probably keep bothering her until she caved, which would be a lot more annoying down the line than if she took care of the situation now and then quickly resumed her actual job.

WC: 833
TWC: 1,814/7,000

When the rat finally stopped to listen, the floating sentinel sighed as if it was running after it. Of course it did not really have any respiratory systems so the sound itself was rather unnecessary from the very beginning. It was however surprised by compliant about the subject matter. It was however happy it finally got someone.

Before it actually answered Akeya, the book begun shifting parts of itself in an intricate pattern too fast for the eye but it ended up turning the book into a sort of rat shape, like someone too a bunch of wooden blocks and shaped them to look like a rat. It then assumed Akeya's position, resting on what looks like its hind legs. Where was its head was however a large blue orb that had a bunch of randomising words swirling around the orb and sometimes fizzing in and out of existence, like a glitch on one of the fancy ILacs that are now more common place.

"Thank you for bothering Rattus norvegicus of the sewers," It said as it looked around with its blue orb, the words seemingly forming a pupil each time it looked somewhere. "You see my mistress is trapped below ground by an incredible bunch of bandits."

The blocky rat then faced its blue orb to the ground, forming a holographic image that displayed an elaborate underground system that had seemingly been modified and excavated by men. However the rooms seemingly are too large to have been done by just hand and pickaxe. A red pinging can be seen on the lower levels of this dungeon like creation.

"My mistress rests where the red pinging is," It explained as it used what looked like a forelimb to point it out. Then it brought attention to the upper levels of the underground. "The bandits that captured my mistress used several warehouses to hide their stash of magical things. My previous entry to infiltrate was through here... But that ended in failure and when I went to try again the place got reinforced with magical weaponry."

It then brought up a visual of the bandits in general. "This seems to be the common attire of the group. Metal enchanted with anti-rust and enhanced durability form their armour and their weapons seem to be highly enhanced mining gear using Lacrima to power them." It commented then on one event.

"When I infiltrated the system, they seemingly have been planning to rob a place for a great while... The plans should be in my memory bank..." It then pulled out a holographic image of a well charted out map. The plan visualised a great deal of progress over what seemed like months. They had planted a rat of their own, even a photograph attached of who he was, inside the West Fiore Trading Guild and had bit reporting small but crucial bits of information from security camera placement, inbuilt security measures and other forms of data that would certainly help any well organized thief. There was blueprints of small robotic like insects that helped get into places too suspicious for an employee to get into, wall microphones insert by merely putting a hand on the wall and even modified uniforms that would capture visual and audio information without looking suspicious. It was no random crook, but an incredibly organized gang who knew their way around magitech and its niches. The plans ran deep, every detail that would have hindered their success taken to a tee. There were guard schedules, when services and security was for maintainence, even the lunchtimes and locations of more notably members.

The sentinel then puts away the holograms. "I know not what these plans mean, but I do know they had recently left and returned with unknown equipment and brought it down... And that's when I got caught." The robot like object before Akeya then looks right into Akeya's eyes. "I really dearly request your service. We can repay you in any form, except monetary..."

The sentinel looked like it was hoping, the words that swirled around the orb forming various languages of the word "please accept", even one in the common language. As if in a further desperate plee, it bowed before Akeya.

"I can help you navigate the system, point out security systems and other hazards. All I need is to ensure our safety when we do encounter trouble. They have learnt of mistress's main weakness and exploited it. A being of great power, even if you are the size of a common sewer pest, would certainly be of great great help!"

---

WC: 799
TWC: 1,783/7,000

Being asked by a floating book to listen to its request was an unusual one, but Akeya was curious enough to see where this would end up. When she saw the book turn into what looked like a spatial puzzle in the shape of a rat with a blue orb for a head she would have raised her eyebrows if she had a different body. Instead she twitched her nose even as she began to listen while the strange client explained their cause.

It didn't take long to put together that the same group which had stolen from the company had also captured this book's mistress. That did make things easier since that did mean that Akeya could take care of that at the same time as she executed her own mission. She wasn't one for charity work but in this case she'd only really be picking up a passenger on the way while she did what she came here to do.

However her stance changed somewhat as the book/rat began to show just how much data it had collected on the target organization. While Akeya had some idea of what she would be dealing with she didn't have anything near what the book was giving away for free. Not only did it have insight on the kind of equipment that these thieves were using but it also had a layout of their base, their plans for infiltrating and stealing from the company, and schedules to top it off. This was like a human stumbling through the dark only for someone to suddenly turn on the lights.

Studying all this information carefully Akeya memorized as much of it as could be reasonably expected within such a short span of time. While it was good to know exactly what these thieves were capable of the information itself was also worrying in a way. She had been expecting this to be more than your average bunch of robbers since they had managed to steal something from the company. But this was more like a full-blown organization dedicated to the sole act of stealing valuables from one of the most well-guarded places in the civilized world. They even had technology and magic that the disguised dragon was pretty sure weren't known of in the outside world.

"With how much effort these people have put into being good at stealing they could have become rich doing honest work instead." She commented even as thoughts raced through her head. Obviously just taking back the stolen items wouldn't work here. With how much the thieves knew about the company's workings they could just try stealing again. They knew about the defences and the schedules and too many other things which couldn't easily be changed. Even if she destroyed all their equipment they'd probably memorize enough to rebuild from scratch and keep trying. That left only one option...

"They'll have to be taken care of." The black rat said with a voice which held neither sadness or eagerness. It was a statement of fact. Destroying the equipment wouldn't work. Capturing them and throwing them into prison wouldn't work. Well, the latter might work but it wasn't really much of an improvement over straight up elimination, given that the main reason why she'd avoid elimination was to avoid attention and throwing them into prison wouldn't exactly be stealthy.

The good news was that the higher ups appeared to never directly act out in the open. They always used lower ranked members to take care of business with the outside world. Which meant that even if she eliminated those in charge it wouldn't immediately cause an uproar since the only people who would be aware of it would be the lower ranked thieves who weren't about to start crying outrage in public that the leaders of the thieves had been killed.

"I don't know what your mistress has to offer but I already know what you can do to repay me." The book had said that it didn't have any money but honestly it had something much better than that: information. "You'll be giving me every scrap of data you have. Depending on how good a job you do I might help you prevent this kind of situation again in the future." The West Fiore Trading Company wasn't exactly devoid of information experts but it never hurt to add some more if possible. Especially since if this book kept flying about in the open together with whoever was acting as its mistress it might be grabbed by someone else who also saw the value in it. Akeya definitely didn't want anyone else to have access to this hidden cache of knowledge.

"So the deal is, I save your mistress and you share all the knowledge you have with me. Agreed?"

WC: 801
TWC: 2,615/7,000

The book was rather elated that Akeya had accepted. It now had a way to finally rescue its mistress, free from the captors that seemingly had significance with the rat before it. It now just needed a way to get in.

"Quickly then! I shall show you the way through the sewer systems and towards my mistress!" The rat shaped book that morphed like a series of L shaped blocks again and became a cube shape, the blue orb emits a soft cone of light where it faced. It then beeped, two triangular rays appeared perpendicular to each other that crossed up and down and left and right, seemingly leading the way.

It lead Akeya through vents and pipes only a rat or itself could fit through. Probably to Akeya, it seemingly was an adaptive growing artificial intelligence, seeing as it was helping Akeya to their destination by accommodating to Akeya's current form. It then stopped after what seemed like half an hour of moving through dirty pipes and mossy growth in metal. It then looked at Akeya and moved behind Akeya.

"Make an incision hole there, right in front of us, it shall open into the containment room where my mistress is held!" It urged, desperation in a somewhat robotic voice. However the hole was made, it rushed ahead once it was done, and it scans the room with the two triangular rays it used before. The room itself was rather plain and reinforced with potentially quick work. Perhaps when they made the room they did not want it to be obvious it is part of base itself. Numerous white boxes, with the West Fiore Trading Company sigil pasted onto it, was neatly placed in this room. Several stands with specialty gear the company had produced was on display, fresh from their production by the looks of it, and clearly prototypes not on sale. Top tier equipment that only the wealthiest could afford were stacked neatly around this room. Blueprints in a container, what looks like numerous high magitech storage devices laid neatly and labelled on a table. However it skimmed over all of it, simultaneously registering it like it was programmed to as it continues to survey the room with the rays.

The triangular rays then turned green as where the rays cross highlighted a box. It rammed itself into the box, breaking it and causing the wooden cube to break into splinters. It seemingly preferred to have a clean environment for this. After clearing the debris with lightning speed, it floated next to Akeya and prodded her attention to its mistress. It had a delightful cheer in its tone.

"This is my mistress! Well currently deactivated but I'm sure she would be incredibly grateful to you entity that was a rat!" Its mistress was lying down, pale skin barely visible in the lack of light. Her hair was multicolored, having streaks of black and white across silver gray hair, tied in a beautiful braid and as long as a tail. She wore a scarf, a beautiful tangerine orange, tied similar to those of a flight attendant on one of the fancy paid flying services. Her royal purple shirt was sleeveless, but had a cloth ring that wrapped across the circumference of her chest and arm however the back was bare of any cloth. Her figure was developed, potentially just genetics. Short blue shorts with a sea green belt wrap her lower half. Its mistress was barefooted, and showed a lot of skin. What was interesting was the earring that hung on her right ear. It had three diamonds, pink to the top, with purple and green to its right and left. Whoever its mistress was, she was a rather pretty woman, assuming she was a woman. It then touched its mistress's palm.

The woman opened her eyes. They glowed blue and green. She looked around, getting up like she rose from a grave and floated, feet barely touching the ground. The Precursor Drive floated next to her. 3.H. looked at the drive, then to Akeya and raised an arm, as if about to fire a blast at Akeya.

"Run Biological Scan... Diagnostic Checks... Memory Bank skim... Hm," 3.H puts her arm down before looking around, as if now oblivious to Akeya's presence. "Scanning room... Subject diagnostics... Acceptable. Greetings Subject entity, my name is Model Alpha 3.H., you may refer to me in your common language as 3.H. I am a highly advanced adaptive super android capable of studying various forms of education, from linguistics to biological." 3.H. introduced herself as she brushed her fringe into neatness.

"Currently however my goal is to learn emotion and human society of this current timeline," 3.H. then looks at Precursor Drive. "Subject Entity you have met with my processor Precursor Drive, and have made an offer with it. I may not be of monetary value, but I assure my servitude and various forms of abilities will certainly be of existence. Such as the eradication of hostile entities..."

3.H. then raises her arm. "Focus Ray." A beam of light appears from 3.H.'s hand and flies straight at a blinding speed, disintegrating a simple minion that had his gun raised. Red lights begun to flash as loud alarms sounded. It seems that they had been discovered, whether they liked it or not. "Shall I be of assistance then? I calculated in a 100% probability chance that we will be met with various hostiles ranging from common goon to trained armed personnel. Along with the man on top if bio scans were anything to say. Percursor Drive... Reconstruct West Fiore Trading Company magitech cargo shipper and prepare retrieval of items in this room. Deduction and cross referencing indicate that these items are of significant value and are stolen goods, and are deduced to be an influence to your rescue motive."

---

WC: 989
TWC: 2,772/7,000

With the agreement made neither book nor rat had any reason to loiter any longer. As soon as the book had finished reshaping itself into some kind of cube Akeya chased after it, paws quickly moving across dirty and wet surfaces as she skittered at a speed that no normal rat would achieve. The little buggers could be fast, but they couldn't compare to a high ranked mage who was chasing a flying powerful artefact.

It didn't take long for Akeya to conclude that it really was the best choice to team up with this strange thing. While she could have found her way on her own it would have delayed her: having the cube which had already uploaded a complete map of the area guide her meant she could take the quickest route without having to worry about dead ends or roundabouts or other things which would turn into delays. It was still a long path given how deep they were going, but it was a vast improvement over the alternative either way.

When they finally reached a spot where the cube stopped moving Akeya came to a halt as well. As they were running she had been sensing the magic around them and they were definitely in one of the places with the highest mana density. If she remembered the map correctly they were at one of the storage areas. A storage area filled with magical equipment. Which was part of the reason why it was this far down underground: while wards and the like could help hide something like this one of the best methods was still to put a good distance between your hiding spot and whatever might end up sensing you. And distance combined so well with the other methods.

At the urgings of her guide Akeya raised one paw and scratched at the barrier holding the two of them outside of the storage room. After a couple of scratches she pushed and a small portion of the wall slid inwards until it fell onto the ground beyond with a dull sound. Once the cube had flown through Akeya entered as well, jumping down from the hole onto the piece of wall she'd pushed out while still in her rat form.

Looking around it took only seconds to confirm that this was pretty much all stuff stolen from the West Fiore Trading Company. None of it was critical but the fact that they'd managed to smuggle this much out of Tolgalen while barely being noticed was a big problem in itself. Akeya would have to find a way to return all of this to the company. After she'd taken care of this group of thieves of course. They were too problematic for her to leave them be. By cutting out the leaders they should have trouble reorganizing, especially if she steals a large portion of their fortune so they don't have the funds to recover from the disaster.

While Akeya was considering all of this she also took notice of the odd thing out: a humanlike figure revealed by the book-cube destroying one of the crates. The figure was certainly meant to appeal to the eyes, but at the same time it wasn't difficult to see that it wasn't a normal human. What exactly it was would be another question entirely, although given that the book was reactivating the person that question would be answered soon enough. And that would result in part of Akeya's part of the agreement already having been fulfilled.

Once the android had been fully energized the disguised dragon watched as it also recovered mentally. Having what was effectively a weapon pointed at her small form made her cautious, but she didn't retaliate for as long as it remained uncertain whether this thing was an enemy or not. According to the book it should be an ally or at least non-hostile. Once it proved itself as such the rat returned its attention to the exit of this room.

"Whatever you say you are you're correct that I've made a deal with your Precursor Drive. In exchange for rescuing you you'll be providing all the data you process. If you're useful I can give you an opportunity to learn about human culture in the modern world in a safer location as well, although you'd have to keep acting as an information broker." It wasn't a secret that the leaders of the West Fiore Trading Company weren't too comfortable with highly developed entities: the cause was not entirely known although Akeya happened to be aware that at least one of the leaders had suffered at the hands of those who would experiment and try to force progress in their youth, and because of that were suspicious of anything that reminded them of that time.

"Retrieval of all this equipment will be part of the task at hand. I'm also planning to bring down this organization as they are too knowledgeable about the weakness of the company." With that said the rat skittered across the walls. When it reached the blaring alarms Akeya smashed then by biting into them, an act which would be suicidal for most rats. Once all the alarms inside the room were deactivated she also bit anything that might act to spy on them before turning to the book and its awakened master.

"Give me exact data on the location of the higher ups. The grunts are of little importance here, but as long as the ones in charge can be eliminated the rest of the organization should crumble as a result. And also give me the location of any other storage areas. I'll have to make sure they won't have the equipment they need to recover or rebuild after they find their head cut off." It was somewhat ironic that the dragon disguised as a rat would be cutting of the metaphorical head of a snake. It could also be said to be poetic justice if it wasn't for the fact that Akeya wasn't usually the one being hunted so turning it back around didn't mean anything to her.

WC: 1,020
TWC: 3,635/7,000

"Equipment retrieval completed," Precursor Drive piped up with a ting as all the cargo was magically placed on a floating platform, visibly shrunk down to fit it. 3.H. takes Akeya's proposition with a nod and an affirmative. "Data process will easily be accessible after returning to surface level. Eradication of the group is also within my available services." 3.H. watched as Akeya disabled alarm after alarm. However while it may have broke the alarm system in this room and spread confusion throughout the upper floors, buying them time to further discussion, it would still mean the area is under heavy scrutiny as possibly goons stalked the hallways and security systems are now online.

"Precursor Drive visualize interior map," 3.H. ordered as the floating book created a hologram of the entire underground base. "Locate possible storage areas..." 3.H. ordered again, and the floating book answered immediately with a visualization of three pings, rooms with high mass of metal and other potential equipment. 3.H. then pointed to one ping that was according to the map the closest to their current location.

"This room had turrets set up on the ceiling and initiates a lockdown sequence, I deduce that having the alarm tripped earlier would have this room reinforced," 3.H. pointed out before moving to the next ping, which was surrounded by smaller rooms. "This room contains equipment stolen from small military camps, village guards and other dangerous objects. The smaller rooms are for goons and through scans caged monsters with high magic power. I calculate a thirty-five percent probability that we will meet armed personnel inside."

3.H. then points to the last ping, the highest one, and clearly the surface area. "As the area according to scans is in the warehouse area of the port town Hargeon, majority of the larger equipment that would be hard to place inside is stored here. Several spells placed cover signs of magic, metal and even lifeforms. It is most likely the most guarded during an alarm trip and our location is below. High probability that higher ups may not be there." 3.H. then looks at Precursor Drive. "Scan for high potential energy..." The floating book does so, using the rays. How it does it is puzzling, being in a room such as this. Before long a beep indicated a successful complete scan and, what was just a blue hologram of the layout became coated in red figures, some big, some small, but mostly humanoid.

"I am unable to find every potential higher up, however..." 3.H. points to a location a few rooms below them, to a large red figure with a submarine. "He might be a high priority target, as scans indicate this figure is attempting leave this base location." 3.H. then looks at Akeya. "Which do you believe would be a high priority to go for at the moment? We have located three storage rooms, hostiles spread evenly throughout the layout and one potential 'in charge' higher up attempting to flee the locale with equipment."

An earthquake suddenly follows, 3.H. quickly prompting a scan of the layout and Precursor Drive projects an updated scan. Everything below them had turned to rubble, and a yellow box begun to slowly rise up to their level. "Scans indicate explosives have been set off at the very bottom. Signs of life not found, heat levels rising indicate the use of incendiary or napalm form of explosives that are slowly rising up to our current level. A safe room is located here," 3.H. points to a large room just east of their location. "Scans show that this room contains high strength metal and powerful blast doors, perfect for safety. Imminent collapse of lower rooms up to here." 3.H. creates a bar that goes up to surface level. "In T-minus sixty seconds. I suggest Subject Entity we leave for the room now." 3.H. however then speaks up about something.

"However case by case history cross reference of similar but not exact scenarios indicates we will be trapped inside safe room for approximately a month before rescue would find us. Equipment in storage may survive blast and burial, however I cannot guarantee pristine condition. Thus I leave decision making to you Subject Entity, do you wish to ascend the floors quickly to ensure survival rate despite potential dangers above or evacuate to the safe room indicated and wait a month with a possible lack of living essentials?"

---

WC: 754

TWC: 3,562/7,000

Having someone who could quickly secure and move all the stolen equipment was a great boon. Akeya's plan had been to throw it all in Korikami's stomach, where his pocket dimension would keep it safe, but for now she figured it would be best to leave that part of the job to this strange entity that she had just rescued (although all she really did was make a hole in a wall). However when 3.H. suggested that she could help eradicate the base the rat shook her head. "I'll be taking care of this organization. The only things you have to worry about is securing all the goods and data you can. We're not here to kill them all, we just need to take out the ones at the top so the rest has no choice but to see their fortune elsewhere."

Cut off the head of the snake and the body will die. An old and tried strategy, especially useful against hidden groups like these who had many secrets to keep that even their followers couldn't be allowed to know of.

Although she'd hoped this mission could be achieved with a bit more stealth. Preferably she could have made it in and out of the place before anyone noticed anything was awry, but given that a guard had spotten this 3.H. being freed that entire plan had fallen through. They'd have to make their way through a heap of trouble now. She'd feel like blaming her now partner for this if it wasn't for the fact that she was the one who agreed to this rescue in the first place. She could also just have taken the talking book and not minded what it said so it could be studied back at the company, so she couldn't make a fuss about having decided to help out instead and having it backfire on her.

At least the alarms in this room had been disabled. Now for the trickier parts: making her way throughout the entire system without the situation getting worse.

"Now that they are on high alert there isn't going to be an easy way to do this. I had hoped to do this with stealth and finesse, but given all the defensive systems they're using I'll have to brute force this. The room with the lockdown sequence will be raided first." Turrets on the ceiling? They must be thinking they'd only be dealing with some minor infiltrators if they thought that would work. There was a limit to what you could expect from machines, even if they were enhanced with magic.

When 3.H. mentioned that there was a higher up below Akeya frowned, the small rat staring at the holographic map as she reconsidered her decision. She doubted it was the only person with high authority in the organization so kill that one wouldn't actually shut down the entire group... she calculated in her head whether they would be able to capture this one and interrogate them for the location of the other leaders when suddenly the entire place was shaken up and the situation changed drastically.

Seeing the changed map the disguised dragoness realized that they couldn't afford to take their time now even before the android pointed out that this place was going to collapse within a minute. At the suggestion of a safe room she shook her head and pointed up with her nose. "We're getting out of here. We'll return afterwards to retrieve what supplies haven't been stolen. I suggest unless you have a way of moving quickly by yourself you jump into this circle and let me take care of the next part." As she spoke she ran in a circle, a trail of darknss trailing behind her. Once the ring was completed it filled with more darkness, leaving an ominous-looking pool of void. "Step in or get moving yourself. You have five seconds."

If 3.H. took the offer she'd find herself in a place with no light, a seemingly endless sea of dark with no sound or warmth. If she didn't the rat would shrug and let her fend for herself.

Either way once the decision was made Akeya would sprint, once again moving way too fast for any rat to realistically be capable of. As she ran her form changed, her limbs growing longer and with bigger claws, her ears becoming pointed and fur covering her tail. She'd end up looking more like some kind of feral cat, albeit still completely black.

Running faster and faster she'd be taking the paths that had been shown by the Precursor Drive's map to ascend towards the surface, shooting forward and upward like a streak of black, the trail of an artist's brush covered in dark dye. Passing by personal and machines which were trying to react to the disaster they barely had the opportunity to react to this apparition before it had already passed them by. Possibly they'd be blaming Akeya for this explosion (or at least the creature she looked like currently) but unless those people survived the next minute that hardly mattered.

WC: 851
TWC: 4,486/7,000

3.H. was wondering what Akeya was up to. The paths of logic did not make sense to her. It would have been better to just escape but however whatever the rat had it had a desire to do something. The Precursor drive looked at her, and she sighs.

"Affirmative," 3.H. watched the rat leave before stepping into this whirling darkness. The void was mysterious, it made 3.H. feel weightless.

"So..." The Precursor drive speaks up. "How long do you think we would be in here for?" 3.H. shrugs as she checks her vitals. "Precursor Drive arrange a brief moment for combat readiness. Enable holo target..." The precursor drive pulls up a hologram version of a bandit found. Readied before the dummy, she looks to Percursor Drive before closing her eyes.

"Activate Kugel Arma, Activate Clocking," 3.H. says with an accent monotonously that makes the words sound more like 'Activateh Kugal Arehma, activateh Cluckuing'. Immediately a field of fixed squares glazes over her before a pair of guns appear on her hands accompanied by three orbs. A monocle like device appears over her face and she takes aim, the clicking of two guns as rapid bullets of energy hit the dummy with utmost accuracy.

After a round has gone, she makes the equipment disappear as a new dummy appears. "Combat systems operational, better statistics now available... I-I'm grrrt!" 3.H. pants, dropping to her knees and pants, as if a strong electrical shock went through her. She pants, clutching her chest. 3.H. found the feeling foreign, odd. She hated it, why did it happen. 3.H. then felt the feeling subside, panting as it did.

After getting up, she looks at the training dummy again. "Dispel Dummy, bring up current logistics." The dummy disappears after Precursor Drive does a laser like scan across it, before visualizing the items. Everything stolen was placed into this void of a space. Now 3.H. remained in this void, and scans of the area told her it was magic, but nothing more. It did match the signatures found on the rat helper.

"Estimated time?" 3.H. asked, and a projection with the time shown. 3.H. waves it away. "Timeline... addition... update..." 3.H. watches as things appear on a projection, a long line begins to have pictures, words and even extensions of said line. Detail after detail appears on this line that keeps going and going, before finally stopping at the current event, which was her inside Akeya's void circle thing. And with no way out the android like being had to stay put.

"What activities do people engage here?" 3.H. asks no one while facing the floating book like object near her before nodding. A holographic clone of herself appears, with hollow eyes. A small paddle appears in her hands, and a ball pops into her hand. A table appears and another paddle appears in 3.H.'s hand. A scoreboard appears and so does a 2D projection of their engagement in the form of a dotted line across the middle, a square and two rectangles parallel to each other. The hologram sends the ball towards 3.H. and 3.H. sends it back.

Every ping was met with a pong, and the pings and pongs begun to grow in frequency, and the strikes begin in intensity. Soon the ball became a blur, traveling between the two like bullets being reflected back and forth. Each moment was met with equal footing, the two beginning to move like blurs. The pings and pongs begun to blend in sound in this void space, the only source of light in this empty field. It was like watching a laser light show but it is a blur of a ping pong game. Strikes were blurs of light, the ball traveled like a star streaking through the night sky, the sharp pings rung like hammer striking steel while the pongs were like bells that rung in music. A symphony of lights and sounds was this engagement of ping pong.

"Engage, B-tRate," 3.H. says before streaks of lightning begun to travel down 3.H.'s limbs and their speed increased, and a deciding smash was done by 3.H., the ball hitting the table and landing on the floor. The hologram disappears and 3.H. nods as the paddle disappears from her hand. Perhaps the rat friend was engaged in something more exciting than what the android was engaged in.

---

Word Count: 753
TWC: 4,315/7,000

With the strange mechanical girl and her cube companion safely stored away inside the shadow dimension Akeya could focus on her own job without worry. Even if they didn't get out of the collapsing area in time inside that dimension 3.H. wouldn't be harmed, although if that happened the question would be how to get her out of there. And given the fact that it was a secured pocket dimension it was nearly impossible to break into even if you had magic at your disposal, so in a way the android was currently in the safest place in the entire secret hideout, although whether she was still inside the hideout if she was stored away in a pocket dimension would be a matter of debate in and of itself.

Akeya didn't have much concerns in the department of getting out in time though. While they were pretty far down into the ground when the explosion occurred the people in the base had realized that right now their best move would be to get to the surface as quickly as possible, which meant that almost all the paths leading upwards were wide open. Of course they shouldn't be as easily accessible for a foreign element like herself but once you were trying to let people quickly travel from one point or another it was a very difficult thing to keep a shadow from travleling the same path.

Mechanized, automated and living defences were all caught off guard as Akeya kept running, virtually running up walls occasionally when she found a pathway which would serve as a shortcut for someone who was ignoring the limitations imposed on those cursed with an internal skeleton. Ventilation shafts could make your life a lot easier if you were flexible enough for them.

Of course that didn't mean she faced no resistance on her way to the top. While all the grunts and low-ranked mooks were too distracted by their desperate attempts at getting out of the complex alive there were some higher ranked enemies who had the reaction speed and smarts to do something about the black figure that was rapidly outpacing the destruction following behind on its way to safety. While they weren't about to let themselves get crushed this was obviously an intruder, possibly the one who had caused the imminent collapse of the base. As she ran forward suddenly there was a barrier in her way, given shape by way of magic. Bouncing off against the barrier Akeya quickly glanced at her surroundings for an alternate route, but she found herself in a hallway unfortunately bereft of side passages. The closest ventilation shafts were also on the other side of the barrier, so while she could head back and find another passage that might take up time that she didn't have. On that note she didn't have much time to think about what to do here either: while it was against her principles she would have to rely on brute forcing her way through.

Although that didn't mean she was going to do a sloppy job of it.

The catlike shadow shot back towards the barrier at high speed, once more abusing its lack of mass to accelerate much faster than anything which was slowed down by gravity and air resistance. Midlight she momentarily turned invisible before the hallway was enveloped in what could only be described anti-light: a brilliant darkness in which colours were inversed. Upon hitting the barrier there was a flash as for a brief moment it lit up before it fell apart in front of her, Akeya continuing on her way as the passage behind her returned to its normal lighting but with the barrier having disappeared as if it never existed.

As she ran forward she also came across the one who made the barrier, who obviously had decided to make a run for it after the mysterious intruder had demolished the powerful magical obstruction so quickly and absolutely. However Akeya didn't care for that idea: while his barrier hadn't been too much of a hindrance once she set her mind to destroying it the fact that he'd been able to notice her approach and react to it was in itself a sign that things would be better off without that man around. If he managed to get out of the complex alive he might be dangerous, especially if he also possessed dangerous knowledge.

With that thought a flash of light travelled out before Akeya, overtaking the running man and leaving him glowing. Given that he had no reason to believe that this was good news he twisted his neck to look behind him and create some more obstacles to get in Akeya's way, but before he could do that the shadow had dashed past him (having sped up right as she released the flash of light). Given the circumstances the man didn't have the luxury to stand still and focus, so even after his adversary was now in front of him he had little choice but to keep running in that direction.

He made it several more steps before he noticed that some of the light energy that had been left inside of him was beginning to disappear, along with his body. It was another couple of steps before his body had almost completely disappeared as if devoured together with the light by the darkness, his last ditch attempt at gathering mana fruitless as in the end there wasn't a speck left of him.

The disguised dragoness didn't waste any time, and by this time she was already near the surface. Good thing too, because she could feel that the entire area below her was beginning to collapse into itself as all the support below had already turned into rubble. While the explosion's shockwaves had yet to reach this far its effects were expanding much faster, so even the fast twilight dragon had difficulty outpacing it.

With many of the thieves still underground, having been too deep to escape such a sudden disaster, Akeya left behind the base as she shot out towards the open air, turning invisible for the moment as she redirected her flight towards a rooftop from which she could watch the place she was supposed to raid fall into pieces instead. Since most of the base had been underground and hidden away the damage on the outside wasn't as great as one might expect, but it was still something to watch a pretty big area of warehouses begin to fall apart as the ground in that zone cracked, heaved and lowered several feet as metal, stone and other building materials repositioned themselves into the shape of debris and rubble.

Now that they were safe Akeya turned herself visible again and also returned her form to that of a black rat. Tracing a circle by running she reformed the void, at which point 3.H. and her Precursor Drive would feel themselves get pulled and pushed out of the darkness, back into the physical realm on top of a building.

"We are outside for now. Once there are no more signs of collapse I will begin planning how to return and smuggle out any equipment which wasn't destroyed. Do we have any idea why that explosion occurred?" While 3.H. had already stated that she believed explosions had been set off that still left the question of who had planted them there, who had detonated them at that point in time and why. Akeya just hoped it wasn't that executive who had been leaving. If he had escaped from that tracking him down would be a real pain.

WC: 1,273
TWC: 5,759/7,000

3.H. may had been an android of some kind, but surprisingly the advances in her Artificial Intelligence were enough to procure boredom, though she herself does not know it. Moments have past and 3.H. laid down on the ground, or what could be the ground since the place was a massive void of a pocket dimension, the Precursor Drive forming entertainment by serving as a ridiculously complex puzzle which 3.H. spent mere minutes to solve, whereas someone more normal could have spent possibly weeks or months on the puzzle. The two entities then felt an odd tugging, as if someone grabbed them and was attempting to pull them out.

And there was no objection, mere moments later 3.H and Precursor Drive reappear into the mortal realm. However her scanners were blipping, telling her of enemies almost everywhere, registering signs of damage rapidly before facing Akeya with an answer for who or what set of the explosion. Traces of gunpowder, timed triggers and various other components of a timed explosive were picked up. "Based of a detailed scan of the area, it is theorised that the bombs were set to a timer, and cross referencing notes and casualty numbers, the bombs were planted without the bandits knowledge."

"And all to benefit me..." A voice seemingly finished 3.H.'s sentence. Precursor Drive immediately hid behind 3.H., shivering as if scared of the voice. A lone figure stands among the wreckage, arms folded and feet shoulder width apart. The figure, clearly male, throws what looks like a master switch and crushes it under his leather soles. Throwing away a used cigar, he lights another one as he explains his dastardly evil plan. Removing his cloak and throwing it onto a dead body of a goon, he looks towards the two.

"Women like you two should be busy getting married and having children, not monkeying around and trying to... Oh?" The smoker looks at 3.H. and then Akeya. "Well... Looks like you stole the best prize... She over there would have been the most expensive thing I would have ever sold on the Black Market. Tsk, shame. I planned to had everything to myself, killed partners and their lowly goons. But looks like I cannot even make way with the best one." The figure pulls out a black crystals and bites into it, a dark energy begins to surround his person, forming a barrier around him as his muscles pulsated and grew, growing grotesque and deformed, hardening into armor like skin. He looked like a centaur, but with his normal human head on the chest stretched across this monstrous being.

His form was one that had zero regard to the human body, like a monster born of stitched flesh. His skin had become an odd strong chitin, giving the impression of armor across the centaur's body. Its towering figure had one massive arm, and the other arm had a lance made of bone and muscle instead of a hand. It clopped before the two mages, the dark energy swirling around its body.

"I am awakened! Fear me! For now no force can stop me!" It told them, its voice sounded modified and it echoed as if multiple voices spoke at once. It raised its lance and it hurled it, the bone coming off with blood spilling behind it, the sharp bone landing where they were. 3.H. had moved, but was unsure of the now feline companion.

"Initiate: Clocking, Initiate B-tRate," 3.H. said as two pistols appeared in her hand, partially looking like the rest was suppose to form in but did it, only a mesh frame like in a hologram. Lightning streak across the body of the android being as a reticle appeared over her eyes. Quickly she took in information, and whether Akeya was listening or not it did not matter to her, right now it was the eradication of the hostile entity.

"Scanning. Power Level, equivalent to that of a competent power mage, slightly below that of rat entity and feline entity. Bioscans indicate high amounts of magic flowing through hostile, detachable bones and high regeneration properties noted, carapace like armor surrounds hostile. Weak points not found, engaging hostile." 3.H. whizzed towards the giant centaur has new bones for its lance grew in, not spotting 3.H. as it tried to locate the two. Quickly 3.H. raised her pistols and begun firing at the armor of the human turned monster. However the dark energy barrier around it, but it garnered the attention of the monster, who turns to answer 3.H. with a swing of the lance.

Expertedly 3.H. dodge the attack, as new information updated itself and the girl announced it. "Magic energy found to be depleting, barrier is composed on similar magic energy. Energy signature recognized as an illegal substance said to grant an individual immense power however corruptive properties in the substance deemed it highly dangerous. Suggested course of action is to break down the barrier with a strong enough hit when magic energy fails to upkeep barrier."

3.H. threw her pistols, which disappear into fading particles along with the reticle. "Engage Hell Mary," 3.H. announced as two artillery cannons, like those found on a battleship, appeared and scaled down to her size, skates appeared on her feet as a new reticle appeared. "Fire at hostile." The cannons fired upon her orders as 3.H. swiftly maneuvers around the centaur like monster, which continued to have its attention on 3.H.. Then it lifted its lance and stabbed it into the ground, creating an explosion of dark energy that launched 3.H. back, but the barrier went down upon usage.

---

WC: 966
TWC: 5,281/7,000

It looked like the android wasn't affected by the darkness. That was good. While the dark pocket dimension wasn't hostile the lack of light could unnerve people or even leave them lightly traumatized. Although all things considered the black rat would have been surprised if that was the case with 3.H.: as an artificial intelligence there was no reason for her to possess such features such as fear of the dark. That was an evolutionary trait most creatures possessed because the dark was when a lot of the more dangerous predators became active while those not adapted to the dark became easier prey due to their limited observation abilities. If an android possessed that kind of fear it either indicated a strange type of adaptation or whoever made her had a twisted sense of humour.

Now that Akeya thought about it, she had no idea who had created this robot girl. She was much more advanced than basically any piece of technology she'd come across before. Was she someone's secret project?

Well, those questions could wait for later. For now they had to confirm that all the thieves were taken care of and then she'd have to think of whether to send 3.H. back to Tolgalen while she remained here to retrieve any equipment which hadn't been destroyed in the collapse. The robot was useful but it might be better to quickly get her to a secure location so the higher ups could figure out what to do with her.

She nodded as 3.H. explained that someone had planted bombs without the knowledge of the people owning the base. However before she could inquire as to whom that might have been the perpetrator revealed themselves without a care in the world. Well, maybe that wasn't too surprising: Akeya currently had the appearance of a black rat whose power level was obscured, and 3.H. might not be a weakling but she wasn't so powerful that this man had to be overly cautious of her. Although even with that concession Akeya felt like this person was being too flamboyant and dramatic. She'd blown up things in the past as well but she preferred to not make a big deal of it since that just made people overly cautious of you in the future.

"...Am I seriously dealing with some outdated sexist megalomaniac?" She asked as the man basically did his best to look important with his speech. She was mostly speaking to 3.H. and her Precursor Drive for that one, although she guessed the man could have overheard it if he wasn't busy loving the sound of his own voice.

The transformation had the black rodent narrow her eyes. That was certainly unusual, although the effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that a dark dragon wasn't going to be intimidated by a black crystal or some black energy shield. Still, better not to get too overconfident and start taking hits she could have dodged. Her response to the launched lance was to skitter to the side, her small size and high mobility allowing her to easily avoid the projectile while she watched how 3.H. responded to the threat. For now she was going to observe and see how this would proceed. The robot girl had already displayed plenty of useful abilities, but her aptitude for combat was still something of a mystery. Knowing whether she could hold her own in a fight would be valuable.

That wasn't to say that she wasn't preparing to take care of this nuisance herself. She was staying close to 3.H. invisibly as she prepared herself to intervene if it looked like she couldn't handle this threat. As for how she would take down this strange opponent... the fact that he was armoured might make it a bit trickier, but it looked like once that shield was down the rest of him would soon follow.

So far it looked like 3.H. had the situation in hand, but the rat was still staying close while she studied the energy the monster before them was using. The android called it corruptive but for Akeya it was just dark energy, which could twist the minds of those who weren't of a dark affinity themselves. On the other hand she found it interesting how the android could form... half-weapons? She wasn't sure what to call it, but it looked like the basic shape of weapons formed out of energy and thought rather than solid material.

Akeya stepped in when the centaur thing decided to expend most of its energy with a dark blast that consumed its own shield and managed to knock 3.H. away. While the robot was pushed into the distance the rat on the other hand ran straight into the blast, whereupon the dark energies began to be drawn towards the critter and quickly absorbed. Dark energies were only a threat to non-dark creatures. For Akeya the centaur's overconfident usage meant she could easily devour it and make it her own... although unlike their opponent she wasn't going to brag and boast about that. In fact she wasn't planning to give him enough time to realize what was happening.

While the centaur was still recovering from his own attack (and the fact that suddenly most of the energy disappeared) Akeya struck. With the amount of power she'd just leeched from the man combined with the fact that he'd destroyed his own shield she could easily take him down, which she promptly did. While the monsterman turned towards 3.H. with surprise suddenly the world was cut in two vertically, a wall of black as thin as a shadow separating the two halves of the creature. This lasted for at most half a second before behind the centaur stood Akeya in a shape more reminiscent of a humanoid, albeit still with dominant feline features. Clawed hands grabbed the centaur's behind and pulled, at which point it was shown that the proud man had been neatly cut into two halves by the black wave. Ignoring the blood gushing out from the bisected adversary Akeya absorbed what dark energy still remained, the man's body returning to its original shape and dropping to the floor on top of a heap of organs which had already fallen out during the absorption progress.

Returning to her rat form Akeya skittered over to 3.H., barely giving the dead remains a second glance as she instead looked at the android with her small emerald eyes. "He might have made a better adversary if he didn't have poor choice of element. That said it looks like one of the company's own betrayed them in the hope of taking all the profits for himself. Not an unusual course of action for those kind of people." She inspected 3.H., looking for any obvious signs of damage. "Since I absorbed most of that blast you should not have suffered too much damage, although if you did sustain any it would be useful to know whether you can repair yourself. It would probably be possible to set up a location where you can return to for repairs but it would be costly given that you're obviously much more advanced than most pieces of technology and we'd have to built the tools from scratch."

Glancing back towards the rubble (and the corpses) she shrugged with her little rat shoulders. "It might take a while before we've recovered all the materials from that place. Given that there should be no hostiles remaining in the area I don't think we'll need your abilities from this point on, so unless you've got a better suggestion you'll be going to Tolgalen. The West Fiore Trading Company could use your abilities, although I guess they'd also be interested in figuring out how you work."

WC: 1,296
TWC: 7,055/7,000 (Completed)

3.H. after the blast, expected a full blown hit to her body. However instead she was met with blood, guts and the voice of her rat partner. Gazing up at what remains, the pool of blood massive for the human that now lies within the center, a face of shock and rage forever plastered upon it. A clean slice, a brief scan shows it was clean enough to be a surgical cut of an extremely sharp blade, but no man made weapon could eve hope to achieve such a cut without advancements beyond that of their current technology, however she suspected the rat to be of the cut's origin.

However she would be quick to answer her questions about her injuries, especially since she took quite the impact even after Akeya had absorbed the majortiy of the blast. Adjusting her hair and brushing debri and dust of her body, Percursor Drive does a quick scan over her body, the overlapping planes of light briefly brush over her body. Outside from a few cuts and bruises, it was merely a light scuffle worth's of damage.

"Do not worry about my repairs, I am in built with a self adapting recovery system that allows injuries to be healed if given time and safety of monitoring, similar to that of a human recovering from illness however at a more rapid rate," 3.H. answers, showing her arm that has covered in a few cuts now healing, leaving only slight scars before disappearing entirely. "However this system only affects me, I am however able to do biological scans of others and store them with my memory banks and procure medical solutions two hundred times more efficient and positive than that of a physical doctor examination. However I am lacking knowledge of Fiore's medical practices and therefore unable to reach true efficiency of my system."

3.H. then would answer Akeya'a concern, or rather statement, about the items now under rubble, potentially damages or even destroyed by the explosions set off by their deceased attacker.

"Worry not regarding item retrieval, I am capable to duplicating the necessary tools and machinary needed to initiate an excavation and rebuilding of mechanical items," 3.H. states. "However like medical practices I am unaware of Fiore's technological advances made in History up this our current position, therefore unable to produce any form of similar mechanisms. My memory banks are currently flawed and in need of repair, and to answer no they are not as easily to repair as other injuries, as it requires external help to accomplish."

3.H. description of her body sounds very human. No need for machines, no metal parts and what not, simply time rest and medicine would cure her in time. The very fact her memory works like that of a brain with needed an external person to help her with memory recovery. However one could also mistake the second fact as a need for an external memory storage of some sort to help her work. Without all the motorized talk pattern and need for Precursor Drive to function, she could easily pass on as another human.

"As part of our deal, the recovery of Precursor Drive to me and aiding the eventual escape, here is the information we have," 3.H. holds her hand out and Precursor Drive lands on it, becoming a cube before a small thumbdrive like device comes out of the cube. She hands this device to Akeya. "I procured this device to contain all the data, however I will not gurantee it would function with this country's current technology as my understanding on such is minimal. If it does not seek me out with the appropriate device and I will ensure compatibility. I am one hundred percent positive an animal of such stature and intelligence would be capable of finding my geographical location."

Whether or not Akeya would have left 3.H. after receiving the data, 3.H. would remain by destruction, staring blankly into space, rubble and carnage. For a few moments, there was emotion, a hint of disgust, fear and uncertainty. 3.H. was unaware of her current facial expression looking solemnly at what she and her rat partner had done. Her eyes had stopped glowing, replaced by normal blue eyes before flickering back to the emotionless green and cyan, and begin to glow again. 3.H. mysteriously gains a new subobjective, though no cue of any kind to give the new motive away or how she gained this subobjective. Restore herself by means possible. Whatever it meant, it could possibly link to her true self. Who was she before arriving in Fiore, what is her true purpose? What is she? Whatever it was, at least she now had some form of a start. Her current objective was to align herself with the West Fiore Trading Company, and that means forging a resume and other things for an interview. Perhaps the immediate recovery of their items would help them get on their good side. Though something about wanting to study her does put her in a small precaution towards the affiliation in question. However at least she had some form of defense, and she doubts the West Fiore Trading Company would be aware of her weakness. 3.H. then quickly got to work, procuring similar tech as her battle equipment, a hand drill, the kind used for excavation purposes, and modifies it into a glove of sorts, though her hand is still visible due to some parts looking as it made of field of see through energy. 3.H. then starts drilling, even if there was blood and a bit of bone and fat across the surface, her eyes seemingly registering bits of information quickly enough that after a few moments of scanning, she breaks through the collapsed building concrete slabs, and with her other hand forming a laser that cuts through the tougher material. The android was making progress in some way, boring into the ground a stable tunnel for the excavation of materials underground.

3.H. continues to drill, and she finds things underground that they had missed, or rather it was not on the prime directive of the mission on hand. First was the blueprints for a form of mechanical monster, using the advanced tech of weapon firms to potentially create a super monster. Whether such a project came to fruition or not was rather unclear. No test record or model was ever found among the rubble. After hours of boring through rubble, she finds something that catches her eye. It was a medical record, but it was for a person named "Aila", or rather it was a codename. 3.H. does a quick scan. There were traces of burns and other biological material. However none matched the female gender stated upon the record. 3.H. continues to scan the record

"Aila" was a female of a relatively adult age, presumably 19 or above. Though believed to be entirely mechanical of an extreme advancement, to the point of believing her skin was a synthetic, "Aila" displays biological functions found in animalia and the like. A regular pulse, body heat even blood instead of oil or fuel, not one trace of wires was even found on her body. X-rays show skeletal structure and medical mages have found traces of stomach acid, though unnaturally dormant. Blood samples taken show to have a reactive agent that in mice causes them to lose motor functions. Further testing shows reactive agent to restore motor functions upon reaction with electrical signals. Mice injected with agent also displays immunity to cyrofreeze storage, thus needing their own cage to store.

3.H. took great interest, further flipping through the log to learn about this "Aila". The medical records were merely dusty and slightly scorched due to the attack, kept in welded shut drawers. Presumably the napalm melted the drawers and fused it to the frame. It took precise laser cuts to retrieve the files, not a difficult task for who she was.

"Experiment Log #01: Motor Function Restoration," 3.H. read, Precursor Drive floating gently around her. "Using electrical lacrima engines attaches to controllers link up to "Aila", experiment is to see if electrical signals done via controller can be used to imitate motor functions similar to that of a machine.
Result: Test subject unresponsive. "Aila" absorbs charges but no input causes any form of movement. Failed."

"Experiment Log #07: Due to numerous delays Experimentations on "Aila" have been sluggish as all effort is pushed towards the heist. Vice Head Calligan has been also acting suspiciously and seen spending a bit too much time down by the underground submarine. Purpose of this experiment was to determine what was inside "Aila" via medical surgery and use of healing mages. Expected time of full completion to be 36 hours, transport of "Aila" to be underway soon after heist..." 3.H. stares at the burnt away by the bombs. Based of date and time, the log was done today. Unable to find further evidence of who "Aila" was, 3.H. continues boring through the rubble. Precursor Drive scans the record, and then floats after 3.H.

It took a great deal of time to finish full excavation of the stolen materials, by then morning has come and authorities were around the dig site. It did not however take along 3.H. to convince them she was innocent, with thr numerous pictorial wnd video evidence she dropped upon the relevant groups. After quick talks, interviews and more and more questions, 3.H. finally gets her break away from the crowd she needed. Upkeeping a normal speech pattern took a great deal on her systems. All she needs now is a directions towards Tolgalen. A sailor finally tells her the directions she needed after much "negotiation", after all even after her proven innocence people were still skeptical about a girl managing to bore a full on tunnel through the rubble and retrieve nearly everything inside on her own, and there were sleazes everywhere who rather take advantage of someone lost than someone armed to the teeth.

With that, 3.H. zooms across the ocean, determined and with directions, to at least gain some form of base or home while in Fiore. Whether or not she makes the trip dry, well she essentially looks like one of those girls from that weird show that turns boats into people with her gliding across the water seamlessly so there is not much to question to begin with.

---

WC: 1735
TWC: 7,016/7,000(completed reee)