“Xi! Are you okay?” I crawled over to her.
She nodded and pointed up ahead. A figure with cat ears made their way towards us. They wore blue tactical gear with two gun holsters. Was it an enemy?
“Let’s make this nice and easy. Come along with me and you’ll see your friends again. We’re just here for the professor,” the feline man ordered, raising his hands upward to indicate he was unarmed.
“I don’t think so. Who the hell are you?” I didn’t trust him at all.
“You wouldn’t even know if I told you, Missy Tomo. That’s right, I know your name. I was being nice the first time so I’ll repeat it again. Come with me,” he insisted.
“That’s a hard no from me. Either you talk or we’re fighting,” I refused.
“You really think you can take me on? I’m nothing like those kitties, Lionel and Bartholomew. Oh, I might have just said too much there. Honestly, I rather not fight, I’m the kind of guy that prefers to do things peacefully,” he said, placing his left hand on one of his holsters.
This was tough. I didn’t know much about Lionel’s dimension so there was no context for on how they operated there. His magic levels were high, far above the standard for a normal user. Xi tapped my shoulder and balled her left fist up.
“You sure?” I didn’t expect her to react that way.
Xi responded with a confident nod. Yeah, no way of resolving this without getting our hands dirty. He was willing to talk but it always just circled back to taking us into custody.
“You’ve made your decision, huh? Don’t hate me too much for roughing you up a little. Just doing my job. Name’s Gold, only fair to let you know since I know yours,” he revealed, drawing his gun and firing at me.
His shot struck a barrier erected in front of me. Thanks, Xi! Gold continued firing at me but all of his shots bounced off of Xi’s defensive barricade. I opened a portal, teleporting to his backside, and stabbed a dagger into his back. Damn, my blade couldn’t penetrate through the tough material of his gear into his flesh. I fired a bolt of electricity at my dagger, attempting to electrocute him.
“Sorry to say that’s a no go. We’ve done a little bit of research on you, Missy Tomo!” Gold flexed his arms and my dagger dropped to the ground.
They already scouted me? I stepped back as Gold reached for my shoulder. Xi rushed forward, slamming her riot shield into his back, and sent the feline man flying across the crumbled hallway.
“Portal!” Xi pointed at herself.
I obliged and sent her over to the opponent’s location. Xi slammed the base of her shield into Gold’s face and then a glow surrounded her weapon. She then bashed his face again with the surface of it three times. Gold coughed and spat out blood. Alright then, I’m just gonna stand back and let her finish him off.
Xi pounded her charged shield into Gold’s stomach and then jumped away from him. The floor underneath the feline man crumbled and he plummeted downward. I rejoined Xi and peered down the large hole. The impact of her attack caused him to crash through… no way, ten floors?
“Too much?” Xi whispered, inspecting the damage she caused.
“Uh, maybe? Honestly, he kinda deserves it with all the s*** he was talking. Let’s try to find everyone else,” I responded and summoned my grimoire.
One minute later, a rough map of the building appeared on the page. We were currently on the 31st floor and there were multiple blips on the areas below us. Damn, it didn’t identify if they were friend or foe.
We descended down the stairs and explored each area, finding nothing of interest for fifteen consecutive floors. On the 15th floor, I heard sounds of gunfire in the distance. We sneaked toward the source of the noise and discovered Kuan fighting a feline woman. He swapped out his handgun for a shotgun and fired an incendiary blast at her stomach. The impact of the projectile sent her crashing into a nearby wall. The hero dashed forward and held a blade against her neck.
“Who do you work for?” he questioned.
“Ah, I finally recognize you. You’re that little… hah, hah… little mercenary,” she said with labored breathing before falling unconscious.
Five bullets flew towards us but Xi blocked the projectiles with her barrier. I stood up, revealing myself to the hero.
“Damn, almost killed you Yuki,” Kuan commented, lowering his gun.
“Glad to see you weren’t captured, Kuan. I’m assuming you’re trying to find Zhuyu and Kisai too,” I responded, walking over to him.
“I’m starting to know who stormed the building. Any info on where those two are?” he searched the woman’s body for information.
“Somewhere below us, don’t know the exact floor,” I answered.
“Here it is,” Kuan said, holding up a business card.
“What’s that suppose to mean?” I noticed a glittery masquerade mask design on the back.
“Something the SIU will find interesting. There’s nothing else here, let’s get going. Were you guys the ones who made that dude fall?” Kuan pointed at the ceiling.
“That was all Xi,” I replied, pointing at the spot where she hid.
“Wow, she’s good. I get why Tess wanted her to work with Long now,” Kuan remarked.
Xi popped up from behind the sofa and joined us. We combed through the next ten floors but discovered nothing. On the 4th floor, we found groups of researchers huddled in multiple rooms. They weren’t able to tell us much other than that the entire building was in a lockdown protocol. One of the researchers heard loud noises coming from below confirming Kisai and Zhuyu were probably there.
“Xi, can you take the front?” Kuan requested before we headed down the stairs.
She nodded, equipping her riot shield immediately. We arrived on the third floor and it was apparent the atmosphere here was much more dangerous. There were blood splatters on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Those areas were also scuffed up, several spots having deep indentations in them. S***, did we just enter a war zone? No wonder Kuan wanted Xi up front.
“Did you really think that you could get rid of me that easily?” Gold appeared out of nowhere, his nose and left cheek bandaged up.
“I really hoped so,” I responded as he pointed both his guns at us.
“If it isn’t Kuan too. I still owe you after you messed up my operation,” Gold said, glaring at the hero.
“Who are you again?” Kuan stared at Gold in confusion.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Kuan. I was the squad leader you took out when you were on assignment with the SIU,” Gold answered.
“Still don’t know you,” Kuan denied, wielding his own guns now.
“I wouldn’t if I were you. I’ll-,” Gold warned, pulling both gun triggers but nothing fired.
The hero fired two shots, striking both of Gold’s hands. He dashed forward, jamming his right knee into the feline man’s stomach before lifting him up into the air. Kuan rammed Gold into the wall before pressing the barrel of his gun into the man’s temple.
“How many people?” Kuan interrogated, his finger brushing against the gun trigger.
“Three. We just wanted to grab the professor and his research data. But we didn’t think you give us so much trouble,” Gold stammered.
“That was a waste of time,” Kuan said and fired a blank.
Gold slumped over and fell asleep. Of course, that guy was just an idiot, why did I even consider him a threat in the first place?
“Were you lying about not knowing him?” I asked as we explored more of the third floor.
“I see a lot of people, can’t remember all of them,” Kuan answered and tapped Xi’s shoulder.
Kuan inspected the door ahead of us. He stepped back and held up four fingers. The hero pointed at Xi and then the door. She touched it with her left hand, leaving behind a faint glowing handprint, and removed the entire door from its hinges. She charged in and we followed after her. A barrage of shots flew towards us but Xi’s door shield prevented all of them from hitting.
“Sorry to disappoint but Jin and Long aren’t here, Kuan. They’re dealing with my bosses and I’m afraid that you just won’t get to help them,” a man with two horns stated.
“They don’t need our help. Just have to take care of you and your friends,” Kuan dismissed, dashing towards him.
A woman with fox ears popped out of the ground, swinging her staff at me. Her weapon never made contact with me, bouncing off of Xi’s barrier. Oh, she had a fluffy tail. Better remember that if I attacked her backside. I summoned Mirror’s Rend, unleashing slicing wind waves at the fox lady. She tapped the ground with her staff, and snuffed my wind out, shooting fireballs at me. I slashed her projectiles with my blade, absorbing the magic into my blade, charging it up.
“Yuki!” Xi touched my blade, imbuing a protective layer over it.
The fox lady spun around, slamming her tail into my blade, flames pulsating around it. I expected my blade to absorb her flames but she instead broke through Xi’s protective layer and drained my stored magic. She thrust her staff at me, almost striking me in the face. Her tail twitched and she burrowed underground. I hated dealing with enemies like this.
“There!” Xi pointed at a spot three feet away from me.
When her head popped up, I increased the gravity around her, trapping the woman. I ran over and punted her in the head before returning the gravity back to normal. She flew straight into the air. I leaped up, ready to slash at her, but orange flames shot out of her tail tip. The fox lady surged towards me, slamming me into the ground, before slapping my face multiple times with her tail.
I grabbed her tail, freezing it, and then saw Xi out of the corner of my eye. I hurled the fox lady into Xi’s shield and there was a sickening crack when she made contact. Xi shoved her back at me with her shield and I fired off an electrical beam. It paralyzed the opponent, dropping her a feet away from me. I summoned my baton, cracking the back of her head with it, and kicked her back at Xi again. The defensive hero constructed multiple walls and our opponent crashed through ten of them. I teleported over to her but she was no longer in any shape to fight.
“Took you long enough,” Kisai said, entering from the door on the far side of the room.
“You got the key?” Kuan knocked his opponent out with an uppercut.
“Yep, just one more and I can be a god again,” Kisai joked.
Zhuyu appeared ten seconds later, cuts on his face. Behind him were Professor Q and his daughter. I was kinda hoping to fight some more but I should have known that those two would get it done.
“Jin, thanks for helping out my old man. He’s useless when it comes to fighting. Everyone else too, you have my gratitude,” Em said, bowing to us.
“Nah, I didn’t do any work, that was all Long. Just gotta piss him off and he’ll go on a rampage. Easy,” Kisai said, slapping his friend’s back.
“Kuan, you have a better idea of who was behind this, don’t you?” Zhuyu ignored Kisai and walked over to the gun user.
“You recognize this?” Kuan pulled out the business card from before.
“Yeah. The same group that the SIU’s been investigating?” Zhuyu checked the back and front of it.
“Won’t know for sure until I get it over to them. It’s not a coincidence,” Kuan confirmed.
“This was a missed opportunity! I should have equipped everyone with monitoring devices to gather even more data. What a fool I am,” Professor Q lamented, shaking his head.
The SIU arrived thirty minutes later, gathering statements from everyone as well as evidence from the different floors. Kuan, Captain Maka, and Zhuyu conversed for quite a bit, most likely discussing the origin of the assailants. Once things settled down, it was finally time to go home!
“Xi, feeling more confident?” I checked in on her before we all left.
“Yes! Thank you for today,” she responded with words instead of a head nod.
So nice to see! I got a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I interacted with her. It was a nice change of pace working with her too. Two keys down, just one more to get before entering the tower where everyone who hated Kisai waited.
