"Aggression" A black Jaguar was parked in a five story garage nestled in between several high rise commercial buildings that just so happened to be next to a particular blocked off tunnel where a car crash had just occurred. Police had the tunnel barricaded from both sides, black Searrs vehicles parked in the tunnel interior with several agents seemingly loitering about. The occupants of the Jaguar had long since left the car behind, both of them having moved to the open section of the garage to look down on the tunnel and size up the situation. Seemed like there was no safe way to work their way inside. Perhaps they could storm the barricade, but that would attract far too much attention. A Kawasaki that had been assigned to recon duty on the other side pulled up beside them into an empty parking space and was shut down. It's rider dismounted and strolled over, flipping her visor open so that she could speak more clearly. Things weren't looking good for their entrance into the tunnel, but the ever resourceful Natsuki had thought up an idea that may have been something that could be of use to them all. However, the actual process and journey would be less than elegant. Shizuru found herself scrunching up her nose in distaste. She was a lady of prestige. She was... sensitive to foul odors and unappealing scenery. "The sewers, Natsuki?" The Kyoto native asked. Natsuki shrugged. "It seems like the only way to get through without the fuss. There's a manhole not far from where Mai's car is." Shizuru sighed and put a hand to her face, but Akira looked all too determined to get things rolling. Time was not a luxury, though it didn't look as if Searrs was moving too quickly. That alarmed her ever so slightly, but was not enough to stop her. "It works for me. Let's get moving before we lose our chance." "There's an entrance in a back alley a few buildings down that should leave us in the same area. I'll show you the way," Natsuki said, and the three women began to walk out of the garage and back out of the public eye. "Did anyone spot you scouting around?" Shizuru asked Natsuki, who looked back briefly, helmet still on her head. "No one seemed to notice me, no." She turned a corner and came to a stop next to the manhole she'd been referring to. With Akira, she pried it open and slid the lid off to the side. The smell wasn't horrible. At least not yet. She began to descend down, feet clanking against the tiny metal ladder, the small entrance giving her a slight case of claustrophobia until she got used to it. "Shizuru, you are going, aren't you?" "I think I can brave it," she said. The woman followed Natsuki into the sewers, daintily climbing down the ladder and allowing Akira to trail behind without any complain, the ninja sliding the lid back over the manhole to cover their tracks. Shizuru made a face as they all came to stop on the walkway that ran parallel to the river of sewage. The smell... was worse. Even Natsuki and Akira looked a little put off by it. Shizuru waved a hand in front of her face, but was collected enough not to complain further. Akira found herself taking point, her sensitive ears straining to hear any noise that seemed out of place. Her dagger was in her hand upon their entry into the sewers, ready to lash out at the slightest provocation. Shizuru found herself in the middle with her bardiche draped across her shoulder. Natsuki was in the rears, guns in hand and periodically walking backwards to make sure they weren't being trailed. It was almost pitch black, their eyes straining to see in the darkness. The labyrinthine structure of the sewers, coupled with the poor lighting, made for a wonderful place to set up an ambush. Hopefully Searrs hadn't been that wise. "How far up was it, Natsuki? This one, or the next?" Akira asked, pointing at an upcoming ladder. Natsuki looked up and then said, "Next one. This one goes into the tunnel too, but the other one's next to Mai's car." Akira nodded and continued along, still feeling uneasy. The path to the next entrance was simple enough. Just a quick walk across a small bridge over a sewage stream, and they could see the ladder before them. Once above ground, Shizuru and Akira, it had been decided, would distract whoever was lurking about while Natsuki took the laptop. Then, she'd pass it off to Shizuru, who'd take it back in her car after they reached the parking garage after their escape. Akira felt her muscles tighten as she reached for the ladder that would take them up. Her fingers wrapped around the hold, damp metal, her dagger resting her in mouth for the time being. - - - "X-Type, Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment Five Columns Connected, S.Y." - - - Akira's fingers let go of the ladder the instant she saw a flash from down one of the other paths. She immediately rushed down the walkway towards the location of the anomaly, dagger back in hand. Her rush to investigate was halted by the business end of a chain mace lashing out from down the hall and landing against the wall, Akira ducking out harm's way in the nick of time. The latter two HiME rushed in to help as Topaz retracted her weapon and held it close to her robed body again. She began to spin her chain mace in front of her, winding up for another shot. "Down!" Natsuki warned. Akira ducked and scampered behind Natsuki and Shizuru while the former Duran user leveled her guns. She fired three times, each bullet bouncing off the mace, Topaz not harmed at all from the assault. Natsuki, not wanting to waste ammo, held back for just a moment. It was with that hesitation that Topaz released her mace again, the ball swinging wide in a horizontal pattern. All three HiME ducked under, Shizuru springing forward to fight up front since it appeared that long range weaponry would be of no use to them. Her bardiche lashed out and up, but soon found itself tangled in the chain as Topaz fought against the blow. The brunette Otome and the HiME struggled there for several long and tense moments. They were only about a foot apart, Shizuru pushing forward with her tangled weapon, the blade inches from Topaz's neck. Topaz pushed back, and tilted her head away, successfully preventing Shizuru from taking her head clean off – at least for the moment. The two glared at each other, before Shizuru managed to calmly speak. "You two, move along. I will take care of her." Akira was hesitant, but nodded. The ninja began to move back to the ladder, but Natsuki stood firm. Shizuru had saved her ass on more than one occasion. It was only polite to return the gesture. So, instead of turning and running, Natsuki leveled one of her pistols again and fired, the bullet hitting Topaz in the leg. She heard the brunette Otome howl out in pain, even though the bullet had been repulsed by the armored robe. It must have been something similar to Kevlar, Natsuki thought. It didn't let the bullet pass, but it was sure to leave one hell of a bruise and hurt like a bitch from the impact. Especially from a Desert Eagle at close range. Topaz found herself kicked to the ground by Shizuru, who turned and sprinted to the ladder, Natsuki following behind. As Topaz rose from the ground, tentatively standing after the attack, the three escaped up to ground level, Akira kicking the lid back over the manhole. It would provide, at least, an extra moment. Now inside the tunnel, they could see Mai's car off to their left, a black SUV parked behind it. Several agents that had been on guard duty sprang into action. These were not armed with the peaceful, non-lethal weapons that Mai et al had fought before. These were fully armed, lethal Searrs thugs. Natsuki instantly provided covering fire for the others as they rushed forward, taking out at least a couple on her own. During her barrage, Shizuru and Akira stormed forward with their weapons, hacking through body part after body part, hoping to give Natsuki time to grab the laptop. But with Topaz below, how would they escape? The other SUV, and crash through the barricade? Too busy to think, and wishing she had her chain effect, Shizuru pierced the heart of an agent before her. Natsuki released her empty clips, both clattered to the ground. She reloaded as she ran towards Mai's car, kicking a partially open door the rest of the way so that she could dive in and search for the computer. Looking into the backseat, she spotted the silver device resting on the floor, and she lunged for it as Akira and Shizuru continued their assault against the regular agents. Every once and a while, she heard a bullet crash into Mai's car from their counter attacks, but she paid it no mind. What she did pay mind to, however, was the sharp and sudden pain in her stomach. She fell forward, into the seat, wheezing for breath. Another sharp pain hit her back, and she sunk lower, onto her knees and out of the car. Looking up, she saw the face of an unusually calm redheaded woman wearing gray and black robes, a giant pole-axe in her hands. The bottom end must have been used as a staff to knock the wind out of the HiME. Natsuki was breathless and unable to shout a warning to the others. Instead, she brought her hand up and rested her finger on the trigger. The redhead's eyes widened and she leapt out of the way as Natsuki fired, the bullet missing and hitting the roof of the tunnel. Akira turned around to see what was going on, a fallen man before her, and shouted out at Shizuru. Both turned to assist, but a twofold problem surface. On one hand, a giant mace exploded from the manhole, ripping the lid off all together. The brunette Otome then surfaced a moment later, challenging Shizuru to a fight. The second problem? As Akira rushed forward towards Natsuki, three arrows pierced the ground. She turned around to see a tall blonde woman standing several dozen feet down the tunnel, a bow similar to Yukariko's in her hands. "That's enough!" The gray suited Otome that had attacked Natsuki shouted. She seemed to very much be the leader, her commanding presence halting both of her teammates and intimidating even the HiME. Natsuki backed away as she flipped her pole-axe to point the blade at the biker. "Topaz, are you all right?" "Yes." The reply was simple and curt, demonstrating potential disdain for the redheaded one. "Kuga Natsuki," the gray suited Otome began, "lay down your arms immediately and come with me. Fujino, surrender your bardiche to Topaz. Okuzaki, give yourself over to Lapis. Is this understood?" Akira tossed a glance to the turquoise-robed bow wielder behind her, then refocused on the supposed leader. "Valkyrie?" The leader raised her eyebrows for a moment, not expecting such a simple question. A Valkyrie was a term used by Searrs for their artificial HiME project, the one that had born Number 143 – Alyssa. The woman shook her head. "An outdated project. We are Otome. We are not Valkyrie. And unlike Valkyrie, we have nothing to gain by fighting with you HiME. So please, come quietly." Shizuru tossed a look to Natsuki, as if asking for permission to act. Natsuki was tense for a moment before leveling her pistols at the leader again, silently giving Shizuru permission to fight and giving the 'Otome' their answer. She fired twice, both deflected by the pole-axe's blade. Natsuki jumped out of the way of a diagonal slash as the turquoise-robed 'Lapis' shouted out. "Onyx!" Two energy arrows flew towards Natsuki, and she dropped almost prone to the ground to avoid them. They sailed passed, falling to the ground as they lost momentum. Both Shizuru and Akira attacked at once, the former going for Topaz and the latter heading for this new Lapis woman to prevent any further distance attacks on the HiME. At once, three individual duels raged in the tunnel, the police watching in awe from their unique vantage points. Sirens went off in the distance, to their surprise, the normal police heading down to reinforce the secretly bought off units. It was a gang war, the regular police had been told. A good enough cover, the corrupt ones had thought. A dagger narrowly missed Lapis' neck, Akira's aim perfectly deadly as always. Lapis did not seem to be keen on up close combat, which is what Akira had been hoping for. The end of the bow came up in response, the ninja ducking out of the way. Akira was forced to back up after Lapis threw a kick, allowing the Otome to fire an arrow. Akira, somehow, managed to absorb the blow using her dagger, the blade hitting the beam before it could hit her. Her hand burned from the attack, but the ninja fought through the pain. She lashed out twice, both slashes dodged expertly. Akira did, however, land a nice kick to Lapis' head. The bow wielder back up from the pain, and was summarily dealt a hard elbow to the stomach. Akira's advantage soon vanished as Lapis pushed her back and began to rapidly fire arrows at the ninja, who desperately tried to avoid all of them. Their duel was more about evasion than attack, it seemed. Akira moved in. Lapis moved back. Lapis fired. Akira avoided and closed. The process repeated itself endlessly, both soon forming sweat over their bodies. At last, however, Akira took a hit, and felt herself going down, an energy arrow impacting her shoulder. It had missed it's mark, Lapis having aimed for the chest, but it would do. The Otome smiled in satisfaction and leveled the weapon for another attack. "You persistent bitch!" Topaz shouted with frustration, some thirty feet away. Shizuru smiled. This woman did not like her, apparently! The chain mace swung wide again, Shizuru flinging her bardiche up. The chain weapon wrapped around the pole-arm and once again the two found themselves in a struggle for supremacy, each trying to out-brawn each other. Shizuru planted her feet and pulled, hoping to wrench the Element from Topaz's grip. If she had her Element from the Carnival, it would have been much easier to do, the perfect balance of that red blade always giving her an edge when it came to leverage. Now, however, the two seemed locked and evenly matched, unable to knock each other's weapons away, and god was Topaz trying to do the same. Shizuru's knuckles were white, and she felt her arms burning from their endless tug of war. Topaz hissed during their match. "Just give up, you genocidal maniac!" Shizuru's eyes flashed with a less than benign emotion, though her face remained calm. That was not the thing to say. She pulled with greater strength, but to her dismay, it did not seem to do much good. This woman was simply too strong and too determined. But she'd pay for that comment eventually, Shizuru was sure. Her eyes darted to Natsuki repeatedly, ever concerned about her fully capable lover, to that lover's dismay. The fully capable Natsuki, however, faced a similar problem as Lapis. It was an axe versus a pair of guns. She wasn't much good at close range. She found herself relying more on martial arts than her weaponry so close to her foe, and this... Onyx, seemed to have little trouble countering. Natsuki threw two evaded punches, and flipped up for a spinning kick. Onyx stepped out of harm's way yet again and lashed out with her pole-axe, the blade sailing through the air, and only air. Natsuki sprung back to avoid being hit, and two more times as Onyx continued her combination. The biker fired a pistol, but it missed, and Natsuki felt her frustration grow. She threw a backhand, but Onyx blocked it. She threw a shin kick, but Onyx raised her leg and blocked it. Two more blocked punches were thrown. Both Onyx and Natsuki felt their lips curl into snarls at the aggravation exhibited during the fight. It was indeed a good fight. Onyx hadn't pushed herself that hard before, at least not that she could remember. Natsuki fired twice, but the bullets were blocked by the pole-axe again. Out of ammunition. Onyx roared in an swiped at Natsuki repeatedly, all the attacks missing their mark. Natsuki blocked the shaft with her arms as Onyx attempted to knock her out with the non-lethal end. The two backed off, sizing each other up before the next charge. There was a charge, but it didn't come from either of them. A red truck plowed through the police line at one end of the tunnel, forcing Akira and Lapis to leap to the extreme sides of the tunnel to avoid being hit by the vehicle. It screeched and spun to a halt, coming to a rest next to the SUV parked behind Mai's Camry. A familiar mess of red hair could be seen as the driver exited, a combat ready pole-axe of her own held up skyward. She leapt over the hood and slid across, landing on the ground near Topaz and Shizuru. A toothy, confident grin was on her face, the weapon still held up proudly. "The cavalry has arrived!" Midori shouted energetically, her smirk never leaving her face. "I didn't allow any cheap HiME spin offs!" Lapis charged an arrow and fired, but Midori spun her weapon and knocked the beam away with ease. She'd bought the weapon not long after her digs in Iraq had been completed, for her own personal protection. She was already so well versed at using it, after all! Sirens outside were getting louder and louder, lights shining down into the tunnel from helicopters above. The redhead paid no attention to the external distractions and focused only, of course, on restoring justice! She ran to Onyx to assist a weary looking Natsuki, engaging in a duel with the woman who used such a similar weapon. The pole-axes clashed repeatedly, sparks flying off the blades as they connected. Natsuki ran to Shizuru in turn, and gave Topaz as hard a right hook as she could manage while the Otome still was tangled up with Shizuru's bardiche. The brunette naturally fell back and release the bardiche from the chain mace's coils. She put a hand to her face. God, that was going to hurt in the morning! Topaz spit out a small amount of blood that had leaked out from her gums after her teeth had slammed together at such high speeds. "Girls!" A voice came from the SUV still parked by Mai's car. "We're about to overload!" "God damn it!" Topaz shouted. Onyx held back Midori's weapon, a bit of sweat forming on her brow. She kicked Midori back and yelled, "Scatter and regroup outside!" They did just that. The Otome split up and headed out of the tunnel, the SUV pulling away and racing out of the tunnel. The police let it through, the Otome following. The HiME, however, paused only to gain their breath before piling into the bed of Midori's truck after Natsuki picked up the laptop once more, it having not been moved from Mai's car. The redhead got back in the drivers seat and revved the engine. She grinned back to the others through the open window at the back. "You want me to go after 'em?!" As Natsuki hopped in the bed of the truck, she shook her head. "Too many cops and Searrs personnel. Take us back to the parking garage two blocks down." "Gotcha! Hang on!" They did just that. Midori revved the engine again and screeched back out of the tunnel at full speed, maneuvering through barricade vehicles and police. - - - Lapis and Onyx were running down a back alley without their Elements or robes, heading to a predetermined extraction point. Topaz was no where to be seen, having taken a different path. The redheaded and blonde Otome were disgusted at their combat performance as well as the functionality of the Emulator. It never could last long in a real situation. Outnumbered and without their artificial powers, they were helpless. The staff was going to hear about this for sure. How were they to accomplish their mission if the system wouldn't even work for more than ten minutes? The two women came to a halt at a crossroads in the back alleys, looking down various paths. Lapis turned to her mentor, her voice, as always, cool and detached. "Which way?" Onyx didn't take more than three seconds to make her choice. "Left." The two tensed their muscles in order to take off running, but another, more sultry voice stopped them. "Don't you know that it isn't nice to pick on poor, powerless women?" The two Otome spun around and looked up to a recently built platform resting against one of the buildings, where a certain green-eyed redhead sat, a clawed glove covering a hand that rested against her chin. It had a twin, naturally, both purchased at a shady weapon shop downtown. She was smirking at them, having lingered in the area just in case things got too heated. Not like she was going to help unless it was absolutely necessary, after all. Her legs dangled over the edge of the work platform she sat on as she stared down at the both of them. Onyx, still determined to bring at least one HiME in, immediately fell into a combat stance. If there was just one HiME, perhaps she and Lapis could take her out together, the Emulator working or not. "Yuuki! Get down here!" "So commanding!" Nao exclaimed. "With all that intel you Searrs people have gathered, one would think you would have learned that I don't take orders well. Disappointing, indeed." Lapis, however, did not care to hear Nao's sardonic comebacks. Instead of shouting something out in response, she sent a massive kick into one of the legs of the work platform, and smiled as she saw Nao scramble to hold on to something as it rocked dramatically. She kicked again, and Nao had enough of that wild ride. She dropped down to the ground, landing gracefully in a crouched position, clawed gloved resting neatly against the dirt below. She sneered at the blonde Otome, not at all happy that her perch had been disturbed. "There," Lapis said in her usual monotone, "now the street rat is humbled." Both could see Nao's eye twitch in anger, never having been one to take an insult in stride. "You are asking for a beating, and I, being the gracious woman that I am, will gladly deliver." Onyx gave a fatigued sigh as Nao slinked towards them. She was already tired from the previous duel with Natsuki, and then with Midori. The running hadn't helped. As much as she hated to admit it, Nao may have had an advantage when it came to endurance at this point. But with Lapis there, it would surely be all right. Onyx had her game face back on in an instant. Nao slashed out with a clawed glove, the blades fixed on the knuckles, her fist sailing straight for Lapis, considering her to be the more annoying threat. Lapis naturally backed away from the first hit, but saw a jab sailing right for her immediately after. She ducked down to avoid it and attempted to uppercut in response. Nao spun out of the way, and found herself caught in a grappling move by Onyx. One of her arms was pinned behind her back, while Onyx wrapped her own arm around Nao's neck. The HiME snarled. No way would she go down so quickly. Being gifted with street fighting, Nao made the rightful assumption that while the Otome may have known hand-to-hand combat, they were not specialists. "Are you always so rough with your women?" Nao quipped. Onyx did not respond, and Nao slammed her foot as hard as possible down on the aggressor's. Onyx grunted in pain and slowly felt Nao get out of the hold, spinning and wrenching her arm free. Nao responded to the hold by backhanding Onyx in the face, using her knuckles rather than her claws. The metal, however, dealt Onyx unexpected damage, and she fell to the ground, her nose bleeding from the force of the hit. Lapis moved in then, attempting to land a flying knee move on the martial arts specialist. Not a very good idea. Nao pulled something from the Aikido handbooks and stepped to the side, flipping Lapis down on the ground with the utmost ease. The HiME planted a foot on Lapis' chest, leaning down and smirking. "The street rat is humbled, is she?" Nao laughed. "I expected much better. How boring." Lapis grimaced and locked her hands around Nao's ankle as Onyx began to stand, holding her unbroken but still wounded nose. Lapis twisted, knocking Nao down to the ground. The HiME caught herself with her hands, naturally, but the Otome used the time to flee down the left path that Onyx had pointed out earlier, not wanting to stick around without their robes. Clearly, Onyx thought, they needed additional hand-to-hand training as well. Lapis gave Nao a parting glance before they stormed out of the area and to their extraction point. Nao let them go, standing up and smiling after them, a gloved hand waving farewell. "Bye-bye." The words were as sweet as arsenic. Nao brushed the dirt off of her gloves and clothes, and sighed as she cooled down after battle. Well. That had explained what Mai and the others had been ranting about. And here Nao had just thought they were crazy. Her cellphone began to ring, and she withdrew it from her pocket after retracting the blades built into her custom gloves, as close to her Elements as she could get. Pressing the talk button, she held the phone up to her face and breathed out a response after seeing who the caller was on the screen. "Kuga, you must be lonely this late in the evening. Has Fujino ceased to adequately service you?" There were seldom instances where Nao's words were anything other than sarcasm. On the other end of the phone, she could hear Natsuki sigh. Nao was disappointed that she ignored the comment, however. "Nao, we're meeting at the garage. Been there in an hour." "That miserable old scrap heap?" "Just get over there. We had a bit of a fight with those new..." her voice was drowned out by passing sirens. Nao glanced at various passing police vehicles as they raced down the street, and a helicopter roaring over head. Not able to hear, Nao cut Natsuki off with, "Hang on, Kuga." A minute later, the noise and lights had cleared, and she resumed the conversation. "Yeah, the fake HiME. I had a heart to heart with two of them. I don't see what you've all been complaining about. They went down without much of a fight." "They didn't materialize anything, did they?" "You assume I can only take them down if they're unable to summon up any powers?" Nao asked. "You hurt me, Kuga." "Answer, wise ass." Nao clicked her tongue. "That's not nice at all. But no, I'm afraid to report that there was no materialization of anything. Quite dull, actually." "Understood. Garage, one hour." Natsuki hung up the phone before the street fighter could respond. "Dammit, Kuga, when did you learn to hang up before I can respond with something witty?" Nao complained. She hung up her own phone and pocketed it again. Off to the hellhole it was! - - - A short while later, five women were seated in front of three science officers of Searrs, three of them in the center, one with an icepack to her face. They'd retired to a facility just outside of Kyoto, a common extraction point for the Otome. Their handlers, as they were commonly called, did not look very happy. Neither did they, for that matter. Two losses in one night. How... embarrassing. Their handlers increased that feeling of embarrassment every time they spoke down to them. Topaz was the most disturbed, crossing her arms and glaring at the wall, the pain in her leg from Natsuki's earlier shot still very present. Onyx removed the icepack from her face when it was her turn to speak, as leader of their unit. "Onyx, what do you have to say about this?" The chief asked. "You're the prototypes for a new type of revolutionary battle armor. Governments will be most displeased to hear that our test models seem to be failing their field tests." Always a fan of being referred to as a machine of war, she grimaced and said, "We can fight just fine, sir. In fact, we were overpowering them until our equipment was stripped from us thanks to your precious Emulator overloading again. We cannot perform our missions if the Emulator will not last us halfway through it. It gets about ten minutes worth of use before we're left stranded in battle. That's not enough time to-" "Not enough time?" He replied. "Ten minutes should be more than enough time for such elite and well trained soldiers using the most advanced military equipment in the world. Are you that incompetent?" Onyx narrowed her eyes. "No, sir, we are not. But you need to realize that the HiME are not incompetent either. Even without their powers, many of them still retain their base combat skills and are armed. They can hold their own in battle, and if the Emulator shuts down in the middle of such a fight, we are left without our weapons and cannot as easily manage to defeat them." "You are more advanced than the HiME. Do not forget this." He was lying, but it wasn't like anyone was going to call him on that. He changed subjects. "How many did you encounter?" "Minagi and Tokiha were in the car originally with Okuzaki. Fujino, Kuga, Sugiura reinforced. Yuuki was on the perimeter of the battle area, lying in wait," Lapis informed. "Seven of the twelve." "Himeno is untouchable within the Academy, at least for now. That means we still need to find Kikukawa, Higurashi, and Munakata. Lapis, I want you to follow a few leads we have and apprehend them, if possible. They are non-combatants. It should not be too difficult a task, surely?" Lapis looked to Onyx, who nodded. Having her leader's permission, she nodded to the scientist. "Yes, Doctor. It will be done." "Onyx and Topaz, report to infirmary and stand down." "Yes, Doctor." The blonde man turned his attention to the other two, sitting off to the side. The raven haired rookie and the other brunette. "You two... observe and be prepared to step in, should Onyx and Topaz not be prepared to fight against the aggressive HiME." "Yes, sir." Both said it at the same time, with military precision. "And sir?" Onyx ventured. He looked annoyed, but allowed her to speak. "We really do need a longer working time on the Emulator. Perhaps even just five minutes more." "I will see what I can do." A good enough response for now. "Thank you, sir." She bowed her head politely. "Dismissed." The five women left the room and the three who had been in the field gave a long, exhausted sigh. Onyx slammed the ice pack back over her face, Nao's glove having left her a nasty bruise. Likewise, the others noticed Topaz limping from the impact of a Desert Eagle bullet. The two who'd yet to go into the field against the HiME looked at each other for a moment and then shrugged. Perhaps their enemies were more dangerous than they realized. But no one had been seriously hurt, so it couldn't have been that large a difference. The raven haired one approached Topaz from her ice packed side, the leader not seeing her at first. "Were they that powerful?" Onyx grumbled an unintelligible response. But, seeing that the other woman was not going to back away, she formulated a coherent sentence. "As I said, they can hold their own. But together, and with a fully functional Emulator, we'll have no trouble taking them down." "Do you think the Doctor wants to use one of the non-combatant HiME as bait to lure out the others?" The second woman asked on Onyx's other side. "Perhaps." The Otome leader shrugged. "They might get what they need from one of the non-threatening ones. I don't know. I hope so. It will be less complicated that way." Topaz shrugged. "They probably want Tokiha. Why settle for someone defeated early in the Carnival when you can have the winner?" "Well... I think that may no longer be necessary," Onyx said, adjusting the ice pack. The raven haired one gave her a look of mixed emotions. Onyx urged them all forward. "Everyone, get to your assigned tasks, please." "Fine, fine," the raven haired girl said with a hefty sigh. Most left the hall, save for Onyx and Lapis. Onyx found herself leaning against the wall, not because she was tired but because it was a habit, and looked over to her closest friend. Neither said anything at first, Lapis running over a mental checklist in her mind about how to go about her next operation. But, Onyx found the words, tossing her ice pack into a nearby trashcan. "You didn't get injured, did you?" "No, I'm fine," Lapis replied with a small smile. Onyx began to walk forward, towards the infirmary. "Do you need anything before you begin your investigation?" "Only your recommendation on which one to start with." Lapis glanced at the swollen cheek of her friend, but said nothing about it for now. "Kikukawa," Onyx replied, shrugging. "She's supposedly their computer expert. There's bound to be more trails leading to her than the other two. Maybe you can find something on her Key." Ah, Haruka Suzushiro. Certainly more... noticeable than her HiME counterpart. That might have been a good idea. "Thank you. Do you want anything for your eye?" "Yes." "Hmm?" "To give Yuuki the proper payback," Onyx said dryly. But within moments, both had started to laugh to varying degrees. "Nevermind, I'll leave you be. Good luck on your investigation. Call if you need any help." "Will do, boss." Lapis gave Onyx a parting smile as the injured woman retired to the infirmary, and she herself set off for her computer. Much research was to be done. The HiME covered their tracks well, and Kikukawa was no exception. She imagined herself sitting in front of that damned machine for hours on end, trying desperately to follow up on the leads the Doctor had no doubt emailed her. This... would be a long night. - - - Next Episode: The HiME Rangers assemble! ...Sort of! The HiME group together to discuss the events and the proper course of action to take, and Mai works on recruiting a certain absentee who has long since shied away from the public eye. Some HiME drag their feet while our favorite Haruka shows up and acts... like herself. While the HiME look into what might be behind the Otome powers, the Otome work on tracking the rest of the 'Rangers' down. And no worries, ShizNat fangroupies, they'll get smoochy in a bit. They're a bit busy now, what with the giant maces being flung at them and all.
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