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The Sorceress War Part I, Chapter XIV Raine was crouched on top of one of the
many buildings that surrounded the military base in the Northern District of
the city. How they were going to get in, however, appeared to be a
difficult matter. High fences covered in barbed wire surrounded the compound,
and guards were stationed at every corner of the outer perimeter. The
warrior just hoped that Virados was not in his quarters, and that
Excalibur couldn't kill him. She wanted to make the kill herself, without
much aid from her comrades. She had come too far to just sit by and let
someone else kill the man. The comm. link crackled
at her side. "Raine? It's Icelina, pick up!" "Are you guys in the North district now?" Raine asked, picking
up the communicator at her side and pushing one of the buttons to talk. "Yes, in fact
we're about to go into Virados' quarters. We'll move in and check the
place out, then call you back if we find him or not." "Sounds good." Raine replied, and shut off the comm.
link. Raine sat down
Indian-style on the building rooftop, trying to rest. Looking around her,
she evaluated how well her teammates were holding up from the hour or so of
pole-vaulting. Celeste was nervous, as usual, atop the high roofs, but
was slowly adjusting. Andraia was a bit tired, but she would have plenty
of time to rest since only Epsilon, Raine, Celeste and Lancer were going to
infiltrate the base. Everyone else seemed to be normal. That is,
however, until she spotted Julia. The staff user had withdrawn herself
into the shadows of one of the spaces of the building they were on. She
hadn't spoken much, and if Raine remembered correctly she hadn't said a thing
since she yelled at Celeste for smashing into her on the first pole vault. The brunette held a
glum expression on her face, much like Raine usually did. It was as if
she was in deep thought, though that was unbecoming of her. Julia never
liked to dwell on subjects long, and usually didn't worry on events that were
about to happen. Raine considered going over to ask what was so
disturbing, but decided against it. She figured calmness and
thinking would be good for the ever-reckless Julia. Edea noticed Julia's
odd behavior as well, but also decided against mentioning it. Deciding it
was none of her business, the sorceress turned back to her conversation with
Celeste and Lily. A few minutes later,
Raine felt an ominous emotion coming from her gut. It would only be a
matter of moments until Excalibur radioed in again, telling her that Virados
would be dead. Or so she dreaded. Hopefully, they had turned up
empty handed. As there was a beeping sound at her waist again, she
detached the comm. link and allowed the other user to talk. "It's your show
now Raine." This time it was Jesse who had called. "Ambassador-boy
isn't here. Have fun..." With that, Jesse disengaged from
the conversation with a laugh. Raine stood up with a
smirk, though it was barely visible. She turned to her soldiers, who gave
her a knowing look in return. Standing up to her, Epsilon, Celeste, and
Lancer awaited her orders. She had told them earlier that it would only
be the four of them going (to Julia's dismay), and were eagerly awaiting the
mission at hand. "All
right," She began to tell them. "It looks difficult to
sneak into, but that's why we were sent, right? We're supposed to be the
kind of team that can do the impossible. The place is guarded with a
barbed-wire perimeter and if we actually found a way to sneak in from above via
the roof, we'd be spotted by the guards. As for a plan... I'm still
thinking. Damn, and we don't have much time either." Epsilon peered over the
side of the building, scoping out any probable entrances. They needed to
be covert, therefore not making any disturbances to the base activities at
all. More or less, the base looked almost impossible to get into without
blowing up the perimeter itself. He shook his head and looked to them. "The thing looks
as impregnable as Andraia." He said with a smile. "Hey!" Celeste looked back to
Epsilon and retorted, "Really? It doesn't look that easy!" "HEY!" "Shut up,
people." Raine said sternly, though if one looked closely they could make
out a small smirk on her face. She began to walk towards the side of the
building. "Infiltration team, we're moving down to ground
level. Maybe we can plan better down there. Edea, take my comm.
link in case Icelina or Jesse calls back!" Edea nodded and caught
the communicator after Raine threw it to her. Once that task was done,
Raine and the other three soldiers began to descend down the ladder that was
attached to the side of the building. The building wasn't extremely tall,
maybe only five or six stories tall, so the climb down wouldn't take extremely
long. However, they had to make sure that they weren't spotted by Helios
military personnel or Sector Police, which were only a few blocks away.
Since they were in the shadow, though, it would be harder for the Helians to
spot them. Once they were down on
the snow covered streets of Helios City, Raine led them into a small ally
between buildings. She crossed her arms and tried to think of some sort
of plan to enter, though the outcome seemed difficult to come to. Lancer
leaned up against one of the buildings, placing his foot on the building and
looking down at the ground in deep thought. Celeste inwardly cursed
herself. She had spent four months in a tactics/strategy course, just as
Raine had. Two people who had been trained for just a situation couldn't
come up with an idea, and the task of doing so was about to drive the blonde
woman insane. Epsilon adjusted the denim jacket he was wearing, since he
wasn't use to the cold of Trabia, and looked up to the sky. Then, a few shouts came
from the Sector Police a few hundred meters away. Though it was hard to
make out, Epsilon could tell some of what the Police were saying in the
distance. Being a long range sniper did have its perks, and the ability
to gain amazing hearing was one of them. "This shipment of
weaponry and supplies is being transferred into the base. What's the
problem?!" "Who is the
shipment from, I need to check the list." There was a sigh,
"The shipment is from Biotech Industries. We're here as ordered, so
let us through already!" Raine looked out from
the ally, careful so she was not seen by whomever was talking. At the
Sector Checkpoint a large supply truck was parked, awaiting clearance from the
Sector Police. Raine smiled, for this was exactly the kind of thing she
was hoping to happen. She quickly turned back to the others, who also
shared the same look. "Okay, when the
truck rolls by, jump into the back. Be careful not to make to much
noise. Try and throw supplies or whatnot over you so that if it has to be
checked, the guards won't see us." Raine ordered. The others nodded in
agreement, and prepared themselves for what they were about to do. After
more arguing between the driver and the Sector Police, they finally heard the
roar of a large engine, and the rolling of tires on snow covered ground.
As the large silver truck rolled slowly by, the team ran out of the ally and
quickly scaled up the back of the truck. They landed in the back as planned,
without to much noise either. They scrambled to cover themselves with
anything ranging from blankets to medical crates. The truck stopped just
outside the base, and the guards quickly waved the driver in towards the
parking lot and cargo delivery station. They had quickly checked the
truck, only looking inside. Luckily, no one had saw or sensed their
presence underneath the supplies. Soon, they were traveling passed a
crate-filled area. Raine dug herself out from the supplies and looked outside
carefully. She could see more
guards at the depot the truck was coming to, and knew that the supplies were
going to be unloaded as soon as they arrived. She quickly ordered the
others to come out, and to prepare for a quick escape from the truck. As
it rounded a corner, the four soldiers leapt out with amazing speed. They
rolled to a stop behind a crate, and remained in a crouched position for a
time. Raine turned to them
and gave her orders. "Okay, here's the plan; even if it is a shaky
one at best. I want Lancer and Celeste to go find an entrance and search
the bottom levels. Epsilon and I will take the top floors. Look, I
want to kill this guy, so if you guys find him first, trap him and wait for me
to get there so I can make the kill. All right?" "Raine, that's
risky." Lancer shot back. "It'd be best for us to just kill him
quickly and get out." She nodded unhappily,
"I know... but still..." Celeste put her hand on
Raine's shoulder. "I can't guess how you feel, Raine. But...
I'll make sure that you get every possible chance to take care of this
guy. Don't worry." "Good. Okay,
let's go." Lilliana removed the
binoculars from her eyes and turned to the rest of the Pack. "Well,
it looks like they got in okay. That was like, a one-in-a-million chance
that the supply truck came by just then. We've got some amazing luck on
this team." "You just noticed
that?" Corin exclaimed, "If it wasn't for luck, we'd still be rotting
in that prison in Esthar!" Andraia wrinkled up her
nose, "Eh, I don't believe in luck! It was skill, that's all!
We're just so good that it seems like we've got good luck. But, nope, all
it is, is pure skill and good intelligence!" "Oh, yes, that
fully explains how our 'skill' caused a supply truck to appear out of
nowhere." Edea interjected. "I don't know about luck, but I
suppose it's just an unusual coincidence that we keep dodging danger and
imprisonment as much as we do." Zion jumped down from the
small platform he had been sitting on and wandered away from them.
Talking about luck wasn't exactly so interesting to him, and he wanted nothing
of the conversation. He'd come back when they start to talk about something
he would like. That would probably be awhile, since most of them were
female. He considered asking Corin to a game of Triple Triad, but he took
note that he didn't have his good cards or Corin didn't have any of his. Then he saw a sight that he
thought he would never see. Julia was standing in a dark corner all by
herself, looking down at the falling snow as it descended from the heavens to
the ground and buildings around them. She appeared to be in deep thought,
as well. If it were not for the leather jacket and torn jeans that she
always wore, he could have mistaken her for Raine in the dark. He slowly
walked over to see what was wrong. "Hey." He
started lamely. "What's up?" She grunted a response and
didn't take her eyes off of the spot where she had been gazing. Zion
scratched the back of his head and tried again. "What are you doing
over here all by yourself? Usually you're the life of the party." "There's
something...." She began, narrowing her eyes a bit.
"...about snow. I don't know what, though. It's like
something's stuck in the back of my mind, but I don't really know why snow
reminds me of it." "Snow?" Zion
replied, confused. "I dunno... did you used to live here?" She shook her head.
"No. Or at least.... not that I can remember. I don't really
remember anything before about age 7. Anything before that is a
blur. Sometimes I can feel something.... like fragments of memories, and
stuff like that." He crossed his arms and
looked at her. "Fragments of memories, huh? Funny; is it like
some sort of amnesia?" "I don't...
know." Julia shrugged, thinking for a moment. "I don't
know, really. Probably. Maybe it's just me, I can't really remember
what I had for breakfast, none the less what I felt when I was five." Edea looked back as she heard
this conversation. Though she held no emotion in her face, her golden
eyes were sparkled over in worry and astonishment. She knew why Julia
couldn't remember her life before age seven. In fact, both she and Raine
knew. The two women had never mentioned anything to the brunette
for their own reasons, and they felt that it would be best if Julia not know
what her life had been like before that seven years of age. The two felt
guilty for not telling her, but both knew that it would do no good to tell her
of what they knew. If anything, it would make her more confused. Instead, Edea shouted out
something else. "Maybe it's because you kept blowing up things, and
you blew yourself up to many times in the process! Remember the time you
blew up your father's car?" "Yeah, but I was
fourteen then." Julia countered. "I'm talking about age
7. That was when we first met, right?" Edea stuttered her words at
that comments. "U-uh.... yes. I believe it was." Julia raised an eyebrow at
her behavior but didn't question it. Instead, she just continued to lean
against the platform she was by and gazed off into the distance. To his
surprise, Julia actually let Zion stay by her. He had assumed that she
would have pushed him away so she could brood to herself, but then he realized
that brooding wasn't exactly her nature, and she'd want someone close by. He wasn't quite sure if he
should hug her or leave her be, so he just sat down by her side for silent
comfort and support. He looked up to her again and made a vow,
"Well, I promise I'll help you find out about your past." She looked back to him with
shock in her eyes. She looked as if she was going to say something, but
didn't. After a few moments she nodded gratefully, "Thank you." *****************************
They had been down
there for a good half of an hour, after finding a small entrance not far away
from the cargo terminal. However, wherever they seemed to go, they ended
up right back where they started. Even the ever-patient Celeste was
beginning to get annoyed about the whole thing. After taking yet another
walk through the maze-like sub-level, she stopped and swiftly hit the wall
beside her. "Hyne, this is
driving me crazy!" Lancer sighed and then
nodded to show his agreement. There's got to be something we're
missing. Like some sort of button or something that will open another
panel. He thought to himself. He looked around again, searching
the walls for any sort of weird indentations or things of a similar
nature. He continued to walk on, Celeste tagging along behind him.
She had apparently caught on to what he was doing, and began to search as well. He stopped when he saw
a statue of a tiger in a corner of the walkway. He approached it closely,
holding his lighter towards it as close as he could. Using the light from
the flame, he read a small phrase at the tiger's base. 'Only a true
soldier, with a fire in his eyes, can go further in his journey.' It
was cryptic, but Lancer understood what it meant. The tiger was a symbol
for the Helian army, as it had been for generations. He held up his
lighter, and allowed the flame to creep into the statue's eyes. Celeste
looked at him as if he were insane for a moment, but after she read the phrase,
she too understood. "Get ready for
anything." Lancer commented. He didn't know what exactly would
happen if what he planned would actually work. He hoped that it wasn't a
trap in reality. He didn't exactly like the idea of a fight at the
moment. As he pressed the flame
into the eye socket of the statue, the eye burst into flame. He repeated
the process with the other eye as well. A kerosene-like liquid must have
filled the bottom of the hollow eyes. As he lit the second eye, the wall
in which the statue was on began to slide backwards. When it had slid
back about five feet, it slid into the left wall, revealing another walkway. Celeste sighed, "Thank
you. One more trek around the old path and I would of had to go kill
someone!" The two of them laughed
and began to move through the new hallway. They exited into a room which
looked eerily abandoned. Celeste felt that feeling in her gut that told
her that things were far too quiet. The room was a kind of
office area, though it was completely devoid of life. A computer sat of a
presidential like desk and the room was decorated in elegant tapestries and
sculptures. She walked over to the desk and found that most papers were addressed
to Virados Nomair. "This must be a
workroom for Virados. I don't think this is his main office,
though. Main offices for high ranking people are on the top or ground
floors, and we're on a sub-level." She informed Lancer, though she
was more or less musing the information to herself. Lancer nodded in
return. "But don't you think there'd be some guards on duty? I
have a bad feeling... this is way to creepy for my tastes." Celeste agreed, a
military base would have more life to it. Even if it was an abandoned
room, they should still have been able to hear to conversations of guards or
off-duty soldiers outside of the twin oak doors which were the entryway to the
room. She looked around hesitantly, for anxiety was already beginning to
course through her veins. There was a loud roar
in the back of the room. Pivoting around as fast as they could, they saw
a large humanoid creature burst through a second door. It stood at least
eight feet tall and had the figure of a body-builder. Though it did not
have 'hands' the beast had a club like arm with a large spike or claw
protruding from it. It had off colored blue skin, and eyes without irises
or pupils. Another low growl seeped out of it's vocal cords, and it slowly
began to stalk towards them. Celeste and Lancer drew
their weapons out, but were so shocked by the figure that they could do nothing
but slowly back away towards the doors. When they could back away no
further, Lancer turned around. Pulling on the doors as hard as he could,
he found them to be locked. He let out a curse word and turned to
Celeste. "Looks like we
have no choice but to fight this thing. It looks slow, but who
knows?" He began to say. "We've got no choice.
Let's go!" With that, the two separated
and ran to either side of the room in preparation for an attack... ******************************* AN: Think of that weird thing Celeste and Lancer found as
'Tyrant' from Resident Evil: Code Veronica. It was meant to resemble that
thing. Anyways, please be kind and review! Maintained by: |
