Ersatz Valkyrie

[Izurich]

The year was 2055, rapid technological progress and shifting political climate has led society to enter an era of Corporate Republics. Multinational Corporations had supplanted governments in all but name. Nationalism was a dying ideology as people became more loyal to the companies they worked at than their country. While the old nations still existed, they were no more than puppets as the true power was held by the Megacorps.

As things stood, the world was roughly divided into four factions in the form of Mega-corps, companies so large, they commanded power across nations, immune to domestic law, responsible only to themselves, and regulated only by each other. In Europe, Novus Corporation. In America, Johnson & Son Group. In Asia, Yamamoto Engineering, and last but not least, in Africa, Hakuta Energies. Despite the names of the last two, all of them had businesses on every major industry. These Groups controlled smaller corporations underneath them.

Was it progress or regression? Well, it was up for debate. One thing stayed unchanged, money made the world go round. Whether kingdoms, dictatorships, or corporate republics, wealth meant power.

One interesting fact about humanity, no matter how advanced we are, no matter how smart, we always looked up to the sky, curious about matters beyond the grasp of our limited senses. How did this universe come to be? Were they other lives on other planets? Are we truly the highest being on Earth? We were all searching for an answer and sometimes when deprived of them, we made up our own. Myths, cults, religions, sects, each and every one of them tried to provide answers. In mid-21st Century, most ancient religions had lost their influence. However, the hunger for knowledge could never fade out.

<----->​

Just off the South-Eastern coast of Greenland, an artificial island floating on the North Atlantic Ocean. It was a massive research facility owned by the Novus Corporation. The remote isolated location was deliberately chosen to curtail potential leak of information and rival Groups' shenanigans considering what they were researching there. Multiple major projects were being conducted in the complex but one trumped them all.

Project VALKYRIE​

Named after the divine all-female race told in the ancient mythos. The Valkyries were said to be directly blessed by the Gods, possessing their divinity and wielding supernatural powers capable of defying established scientific laws. It sounded like a silly notion at first glance, however, when Novus' archaeological branch recovered a mummy - among other artifacts - believed to be of Valkyrian nature. The genetic makeup of the mummy was unlike anything in records, not human, not Neanderthal either, it was something else.

This spurred a top-secret research by the Group to recreate a living specimen of the long-deceased being. If the myths about the Valkyries were true then... so many breakthroughs could be gained. Biological immortality would be within reach, a drug to cure all diseases, and of course, powers capable of disregarding known laws of physics. Pouring billions of dollars into the project, it was Novus' biggest investment of the century.

............
.....
...

Subject No.88

"Nnn..." Ah, here she was again, put in a white room with a single wide window on one side of the high walls surrounding her. Every single day, they poked and prodded at her body, made her drink strange stuff, made her do things, sometimes she had to move, sometimes she was strapped onto a table. She couldn't remember anything else in her life besides this, what a strange world she lived in.

Well, some of the coated figures liked to talk to her, Dr.Engel was one of them. She gave her things but amongst all those things, she liked the one called 'book' the most, they were so many things contained inside them. From books, she knew there were creatures called animals... but strangely, she never saw any 'animals' here aside from the two-legged ones who looked so much like her. This made her wonder, was there anything out there? Could she see animals beyond these walls? She wanted to find out but apparently, she couldn't leave, this was her home, they said.

If there was anything she learned from them, it was they looked annoyed when she asked, 'Why?', except for Dr.Engel, so she knew to not speak 'Why' to anyone else but her. Now she wondered, what they were going to do her today?

 

[Jakers]

Footsteps. The sound of 'something' on wheels being pushed along the reinforced metal door. Though muffled through the inside of her padded cell, they were the telltale sign of 'something' that was going to happen. It wasn't the usual time for food; logic dictated that another one of those strange 'tests' was about to happen very soon.

Though barely audible through a firmly shut doorway, voices could be heard. Voices that were familiar.

"Don't you think..." a soft female voice began in quiet protest, cutting off for a moment. "Don't you think she isn't 'developed' for this experiment to proceed? She's still learning the fundamentals of basic things such as language. This is... a complex test, for someone of her mental stage. And... f-frankly, she's too young for something like this. We should maybe give it more ti--"

"No." a colder female voice interjected, a tone of aggression kept subtle, but certainly there. "You make it sound like we're raising a child. I don't know what directives you're following, but I shouldn't need to remind you - Doctor Engel - that isn't what we're doing." A moment was taken for the words to sink in. "This, though a very simple test, is one of the most important early experiments of them all. We absolutely can't 'wait' for it; that would leave a huge gap in our records of psychological data. This isn't the first time you've questioned orders, so I'd watch your footing if I were you."

A reply didn't come.

"Are we clear?"

"Yes. ...It's just th-- huh?"

"...What is it?"

"Did you feel your radio... huh. No, nevermind. It's nothing. We're clear."

A faint cluttering of objects and pieces of equipment being gathered sounded, before the door of Subject 88 was carefully unlocked and swung open, bluish, artificial light of the only 'outside world' she knew flooding into the padded cell.

---

Two figures, one behind the other, watched the subject for a moment at the doorway. The familiar figure of Dr. Engel did her best to give a brief smile, though looked away with somewhat of a tone of guilt visible within her eye. Her companion was somewhat unfamiliar. Tall, with tanned skin; ashen hair done up in a tight bun. Pushing a small white trolley that held various objects in the room, eyes behind a pair of thin-rimmed glasses looked at the subject without expression, before beginning to speak.

"Subject 88," the taller of the scientists began; a simple yet clear monotone overtaking her voice. Sometimes a scientist would introduce themselves for the psychological tests, but this woman in particular seemed to skip the formalities. "Time for another 'activity'. This one is important, and has multiple parts, so pay close attention. Hold still."

Without hesitation, the two scientists approached, working to place a piece of somewhat bulky, intricately-designed headgear atop the girl. It certainly wasn't an unfamiliar object; wired up to some sort of portable power supply, it always seemed to be associated with the 'tests' that weren't physical in any way.

With the headgear on, the nameless scientist proceeded to set up a small table in the room in front of the subject. Usually, she was moved to rooms other than her cell, but relatively small-scale experiments could easily be performed here. With the nameless scientist seemingly finishing preparations placing a tray on top of the table, in the background, Dr. Engel carefully examined an electronic tablet as the experiment seemed to begin.

"We're ready to begin, Subject 88. I want you to place close attention to what I'm about to do."
Reaching into a box stored within the trolley, the nameless scientist proceeded to plop something atop the white tray. At first, it seemed like some sort of small gray object, but as its body shook and two little black eyes blinked, a wormy reddish tail twitching behind it, it became apparent that this was a living creature. Something far different to a 'human'. A rat.

"Do you know what this is?" Not even giving the subject a chance to answer, however, it seemed the nameless scientist wasn't aware of the animal picture books. "This is a rat. Rat. A real one. Just like you and me, it lives. It breathes."

Dr. Engel looked like she wanted to say something in the background, but held it in, keeping her attention focused to her electronic tablet.

"Now. Look closely at the rat. I'll tell you when to stop."

Silence fell over the cell, the small, grey-brown rat watching Subject 88 curiously atop the tray. For what was usually a small and erratic creature, the rat seemed to be oddly calm as it looked into the girl's eyes, cocking its head to the side and twitching a little, whisker-coated nose. Standing up on its hind legs for a moment, the furry little creature moved its head to get a better look of the room--

[glow=red]* T H U N K * .[/glow]

--not aware of the small blade, pulled from nowhere, driven through its heart. An eerie, high-pitched squeal sounded in the otherwise silent room as blood and stringy guts poured onto the white tray. Twitching twice, the small creature ceased to move and wiggle, lifeless eyes still staring up at the 'subject'. Slowly removing the knife, the black-haired scientist didn't seem to care a single bit for her actions as she wiped the small blade with a cloth, Dr. Engel looking distressed - but typing away nonetheless - in the background.

"Now." the nameless scientist began indifferently, disposing of the rat corpse and wiping the remnants and blood from the tray. Upon closer inspection, it seemed armed security was watching from the doorway in the case of an emergency.

Placing the small, bloodied knife on the table, the black-haired scientist placed another live rat atop the tray.

"I want you to repeat what I just did as best as you can."

 

[Izurich]

The small silver-haired girl was just lounging on her cell's bed, fiddling with one of her picture books given to her by the good Doctor. A collar made of alloyed metal could be seen snugly wrapped around her neck, smooth silver in color except for a small section where machineries could be seen, one small green light periodically beeping there. If one looked closer towards her left collarbone, lines of a barcode were printed on her pale skin with numbers and letters at the bottom designating her registered serial code as the facility's property, PV - 510N - 88. Her small legs dangled off the side of her bed, swaying back and forth as she turned another page of her book, this time it depicted a white animal with whiskers and a long thin tail. "Mo-... mouse..." She read the name slowly, seemingly really into it.

When she heard sounds of footsteps and wheels approaching the locked door of her cell, the young girl looked up, closing her book. Was it Doctor Engel? She could somewhat hear her voice from beyond the door. However, there was someone else with her... another woman, this meant the Doctor wasn't here to give her more books, the presence of other white-clad people meant they were going to give her tasks again. Determined to be on her best behavior, she hid the book underneath her pillow as the metal door swung open along with the blaring of an alarm just above the entrance, signaling the cell's door was now unlocked, at least two security personnel should always be at the ready near the door. The facility wouldn't take any chances even if the subject was the equivalent of a young human girl.

"Hnn?" The red-eyed girl winced as bright light flooded into the cell, she knew to avert her eyes know since this was a routine occurrence each time the door was opened. Ruby irises adjusted to the light, observing the duo of scientists, one was the good Dr. Engel, the other was a tanned one pushing some kind of wheeled container with her. So that thing made the sound besides the footsteps. "Hello, uhm... Doctors." The subject stood up from the bed, fidgeting slowly, one hand tugging lightly at her collar, a habit she formed when she was anxious.

She kept her head down, averting to look at the tanned scientist in the eyes although her gaze lingered on Engel's form more than few times. So it was true, they were going to make her do things again. "Okay." The homunculus, product of artificial genetic engineering, nodded. She stood unmoving as the scientists affixed something heavy on her head, they fiddled with it then pulled the straps in, preventing it from just sliding off. "Unh..." 88 wanted to touch it but instinctively stopped herself out of fear, when she did something they didn't want, the thing wrapping her neck would give her pain, she didn't want to feel pain so... so she should follow that they say.

"Y-yes... uh, Doctor." So they were going to do it here, not in one of those rooms with the strange beds on, she wouldn't be strapped into one of those this time, what a relief. The girl sat on the side of her bed, facing the table positioned in front of her. Red eyes slightly widened and head tilted out of childish curiosity as they placed a little thing on the table. "Oh..." It looked like a... like in that picture book! Only darker, grayer. "Ah~" The albino quipped happily, "It's a mo-..." Then the brown-skinned scientist interrupted her, insisting that the gray thing was called a 'Rat'. "Oh..." Okay, she got it, the white one was called a 'mouse' while the grey one was a 'rat'.

"Yes, Doctor, it can... uhm... it can move..." A small happy smile crept into her pale features as the cute little thing stared at her with its beady eyes. "Okay..." She was more than happy to do so, her eyes never leaving the critter. She wondered what they were going to do... would they allow her to touch it? She was curious, maybe they would even let her keep it!

Then, it suddenly stopped moving as red stuff flowed out of its insides. "...oh?" She blinked her eyes, a look of confusion fell on her young face. The readings displayed on the tablet Engel held showed mixed emotions warring in her brain. "E-... eh?" What was that... shiny thing? It looked like one of those instruments set on the tray when the scientists took her to her to that room the other day. They used it on her though, never on themselves or a 'rat'. She bled out the red liquid when they did but unlike this rat, she turned out alright. Sure, sometimes she squealed but she certainly didn't... stop moving.

"Doctor... what... what happened?" Instead of answering her, Engel stayed silent while the tanned one cleaned the blade of the red liquid. "Ah!" She almost stood up when the unmoving critter was taken away, then they gave her another 'rat', this one still moving. "Uh..." Then, the order came, she knew the tone, it was something she must follow or they'd punish her. But... but she didn't want to do it, she didn't know why, it just felt... wrong. A moving rat without its red liquid pouring out looked cuter. If she mimicked what the scientist did then this rat would not be moving anymore. The conflict between tampered obedience and her human conscience gave some interesting data for the scientists as Engel could see.

"Uh... uhm... I... I..." For the first time since a while, the subject hesitated. Her shaky right hand moved to grab the knife but that's as far as she went. "I..." Her lips stammered, looking up at the doctor with pleading eyes on the verge of tears. She was afraid, an awful feeling wrenching in her gut, she didn't like to do this, she preferred to read books or... or go to that other room, anything other than this! "I..." Then, her lips whispered, "...don't want to." Did the Doctor hear it right? Even if she didn't, "I don't want to." the girl would repeat as she put the knife down, averting her eyes from the two women, staying silent.

 

[Jakers]

Seeing the young girl's reaction, it seemed to be too much for Dr. Engels in the background. Unable to contain her outburst, she virtually cried out in protest.
"I told you! She isn't developed enough for this! We should leave this for another ti--"

Quickly, however, she was cut off with a response that almost made her gasp from the ferocity of the sentence.

"Shut your damn mouth, Dr. Engels, before I make sure you never leave this place again."

Silence. Heavy breaths. Stares infused with venom, before the tanned scientist turned back to the subject, seemingly trying a different approach with her tone.

"88," the tanned scientist cooed, though even to the mind equivalent of a clueless child, it was clear her smile and tone were both completely fake. "What just happened was perfectly normal. It's called 'killing'. Rats don't think or speak like you and me, so killing them is fine. It isn't wrong. It's only the lives of 'people' - like you and me - that are important. Do you see?"

Indifferent to the whole conversation, at this point, the brown rat on the tray seemed to be looking for a way out of the room. When a hand came down and grabbed it to try and escape, instinctively, the small creature sunk its teeth into a tanned finger.

"--Ouch! Piece of shit!" the scientist hissed, dropping the brown rat onto the tray. Staring at her bleeding finger for a moment, she seemed to be ready to squash the rat into a paste, but kept calm, realizing she could use this event to her advantage. "You see what that rat did to me, 88? The rat doesn't care about us. If we try and get in its way, it'll hurt us; it might even try and kill us. Maybe it'll hurt Dr. Engels next... are you just going to sit there and let that happen?"

A cold stare bored into 88's eyes as the scientist practically forced the knife back into the subject's hand. Her 'smiley' act had completely dropped at this point, a bleeding hand holding down the wiggling brown rat the squeaked in protest, desperately trying to go for another bite so it could escape.

As the tanned scientist's voice raised into an intimidating, threatening shout, it was clear 88 didn't have a choice in the matter.

"So do it, you hear me? DO IT! Kill the rat, or you'll be doing something ten times as worse!"

 

[Izurich]

"Hyah?!" The homunculus yelped at the same time with Engel's gasp, startled by the demanding scientist's sudden burst. Why were they fighting against each other? She didn't other understand, weren't fellow white-clad people friends? The girl's chest rose up and down as her breathing quickened, her eyes dilating as panic rose within her. This... this brown-skinned doctor just made Dr. Engel look hurt... and she was forcing her to plunge the sharp thing into the rat's body.

"K... killing?" So, the act of making the rat ceased to move and bleed out was called 'killing'. Even though the woman said the rat didn't matter, that it wasn't wrong as long as the one she killed wasn't people, her heart told her otherwise. She still didn't want to 'kill' the rat, why must she do it? The rat didn't do anything to her, what if she wanted the rat to keep moving and being cute? "Ah?!" Once again, she was taken aback as the critter retaliated by using its own 'sharp thing' to make the angry doctor bleed red.

"Hnnn..." Considering everything that was happening, even the girl knew why the critter hurt the tanned doctor. It was afraid, just like Dr. Engel and herself, scared of the fuming shouting doctor. Did... did this mean she was the bad one? It certainly made sense, no one in the room liked her. Not Dr. Engel, not the rat, and certainly not herself. "N-no..." Subject 88 shook her head slowly, "T-the rat... the rat only hurt you... b-because you are scary, y-you want me to... 'kill' it." Sion stammered but even so, the display held by Engel showed another kind of pattern, one that was awfully similar to anger, like an animal pushed too far, even the most gentle deer would fight back.

"I... I know now, t-the one... the one should be killed is..." She paused, taking a deep breath, "You!" At that moment, the very air grew heavy as the lights in the cell flickered. The readings on Engel's tablet went through the roof before the program crashed, the device strapped on the young girl's head shorted out. "S-so... I... I'll kill you!" Her red eyes glowed dimly with the same color, a light-bluish aura emitted from her form, long silver locks rose up and swayed in the air as if they were underwater.

"...!!" With a swift movement, faster than any young human girl should be capable off, the homunculus threw the knife, narrowly missing the tanned doctor's neck, grazing her delicate skin instead, drawing blood. Detecting the sudden threat, the security personnel immediately stormed into the room, one proceeded to pull the tanned doctor away, covering her, while the other one aimed his weapon at her, his fingers on the trigger...

"Hold your fire!"

The ashen-haired scientist ordered from behind the other guard, "Hold it!" Slowly a rather malicious smile crept on her face, "Finally... finally! See what I mean, Engel?!" At last, the research bore fruit, those billions of dollars weren't in vain. "Restrain her, quickly!" The guard who aimed the weapon at 88 quickly pressed a button on a remote in his belt, in an instant, the green light on 88's collar turned red.

"Ku...?!" The girl tensed, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" then screeched as the collar delivered painful shocks traveling through her small frame, she writhed and thrashed on the bed, limbs curling and tensing. "A-...aaaaaaaaah!!" Stop, make it stop, but her mouth couldn't say anything except agonizing wails. "Aaaargh! aaaaah!!" Then, a miniature syringe jutted from the inside of her collar, injecting a potent sedative into her systems. "Gu--... nnn..." As the shocks died down, the poor girl fell into a restless slumber.

"Hmph." The cold female scientist put a napkin against her neck as she straightened her glasses with her free hand. "Engel, take her to the cryo chamber, put her in an unoccupied pod. We shall move on to the next step of the Project." She went about as if nothing happened at all, "...did I stutter, Doctor? That is an order."

 

[Jakers]

Breathing heavily, it almost looked like the blonde-haired scientist wanted to cry after seeing all the events unfold. The readings she'd briefly seen on the tablet... even if they were lost now, seeing them was enough proof. It wasn't often they needed to pacify a subject, but 88 had developed in her most dangerous way yet.

"...Y-yes," the doctor replied to her companion, her voice trying its best not to break. At this point, it was clear that if she made any more complaints, the end of her career - and potentially a treatment much worse - could be approaching. "Your... your neck..."

"My neck? Yes, I suppose that did happen." the tanned doctor replied plainly, clearly too filled with adrenaline and excitement to care about the fact she'd been an inch off a fatal injury. "Now get on with it! I'll see if we can salvage any of the readings; don't you understand? This is one of the key moments we've been waiting for!"

Silently, with nothing further she had the courage to add, the blonde-haired scientist began to carry the subject away. Security guards were close to accompany her, as this 'subject' had suddenly become infinitely more valuable in the course of one day.

---

Gently closing the lid of the cryogenic pod over the girl once the preparations were complete, the doctor was careful to type in the exact correct parameters for the freezing, before taking a step away from the glass-clad, black steel case. All sorts of things were going on over her radio. Excited announcements; excited reports and findings.

But Dr. Engel didn't feel excited about today at all. In a way, it had been a day she'd been dreading. But if anything, she certainly didn't think it'd come so soon.

A low, gruff voice suddenly came from behind her, making her physically jump as she was bought out of a bout of deep thought.

"Doctor Engel? You're needed in room 3-A. Arrive as quickly as possible."
"...Understood."

Sparing one last glance at the slumbering face within the dark steel pod, a white coat gently swished behind the secretly grieving doctor as a silent uproar of excitement and progress began to spread throughout the whole lab.

 

[Izurich]

"Fuh..." The albino girl's restless breaths calmed down after she was carried by Dr. Engel, it was as if the child instinctively recognized the blonde woman as her maternal figure. Even asleep due to her sedation, the girl felt safe, snuggled in the woman's embrace. By the time they arrived in the Cryogenic Chamber, 88 gave no fuss as the doctor placed her slight form in one of the cryo-pods. Fortunately, the inside was ergonomically designed to prevent any unnecessary damage to the hibernating occupants.

"..." Her chest rose up and down steadily as the lid closed, hisses emitting from the machine as it sterilized its interior then sealed the lid with a combination of pressure and magnetic lock, preventing any external elements from affecting the inside. After Dr. Engel adjusted the variables through an attached console, the pod steadily cooled down as mist covered the glass. The last thing Engel could see was the girl's breathing ceasing to an almost complete halt before the view was thoroughly obscured due to the condensation.

The console monitoring her vitals beeped periodically, everything looked normal, the girl wouldn't feel anything at all when she woke up... if they ever decide to wake her up. With the data gathered from the mental readings when she 'awakened' combined with the specimen put in suspended animation so they could preserve any changes in her body post-awakening, the research could continue without the girl ever having to wake up, in fact, it was the preferred method unless things changed. The good doctor just hoped they wouldn't decide to euthanize her...

No, no! This atrocity must end, eighty-seven innocent young girls had perished, all for what, in the name of 'progress'. The least she could do was giving this one the life she deserved, as a young girl, not as a lab rat. She must do something about this...

---

One Month later...

"This is Snitch to Vox." The familiar voice of the computer-whiz information broker rang through the receiver in Vox's helmet, "RedKat will rendezvous with you. ETA: 5 minutes, Over." The slight static signaled the end the remote call through an encrypted channel. Usually, five minutes was an insignificant amount of time but when one was standing in the middle of nowhere, stuck between an ocean and a freaking arctic wasteland, five minutes were something to be considered. Fortunately, they came prepared, the all-purpose suits were certainly preventing the blue-eyed young man from dying of hypothermia.

Moments later, "Yahooooo~" A plucky female voice came through his receiver, not even bothering to announce herself properly, a figure clad in a similar suit came swaggering through using the ski blades attached to her boots. "Have no fear, RedKat is here!" The princess arrived in the ball at last. Katyusha "RedKat" Liang, SpecTra's very own cat-burglar extraordinaire, there in the flesh. "Hope I didn't take too long, Vox." As if to aggravate him further, Kat skidded to a halt next to her partner then gave him a mock military salute.

"So, I heard from Snitch about the job and all, but I'm still not sure..." She made a thinking gesture, expression hidden behind her helmet, "Are you sure about infiltrating Novus' seeeeecret island lab? I mean... I know we'd get some juicy stuff in there, I'm just debating whether we can get out of there with our body not full of bullet holes." She shrugged, "But, eh, I have the great and mighty Vox with me, even better, you used to work there. What could possibly go wrong?" A pause, "Remind me, what are we stea-... ahem, `retrieving` again?"

 

[Jakers]

Ocean-blue eyes, through a visor of holographics and reinforced glass, blankly stared into a white horizon. Obsidian-black hair would've swished gently in the wind, if not restrained by the tight constraints of a military-class helmet. Pearly white teeth nervously bit into a bottom lip, anxious of what was undoubtably a 'big day'.

Yet another transmission - one he'd been waiting for - broke him out of his thoughts from 'mission command'. The voice, slow to reply, wasn't the voice of an ordinary young man. The voice sounded edited and robotic; modulated beyond recognition. Clearly another one of the many precautions Valen 'Vox' Grahams was willing to take - being a recent traitor from one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world - at the risk of sounding somewhat silly.

"Roger that."

Vocal modulation was just one of the few things the 'mask'/'helmet' hybrid could do; the thing was built in with all sorts of interface options. Nothing but the best would do for the two's equipment, as things had the potential to get very messy if they weren't kitted up with comfy armour designed to block virtually everything: from bullets, to intense flames, to high-voltage electricity, whilst being light and maneuverable for the two agile SpecTra operatives. A hefty amount of 'borrowed' money and some inside contacts went pretty far for getting the things they needed.

A pause came, before Vox added something further. The more he talked, the more he seemed to be shooing away his anxiety. Talking - even where it wasn't necessary - was one of the main ways the short, blue-eyed man calmed himself down.
"But... could you, you know... tell her to hurry up or something? Maybe somehow deliver a small electric shock to her toes? I'm itching to get started, and standing around in a freezing wasteland isn't exactly stimulating my 'excited' and 'focused' juices, capiche?" Sighing as there was no response, the modulated voice added begrudgingly: "Over and out."

Figuring the wait was going to be somewhat long, Vox took a moment to sit cross-legged in the snow. Switching through a collection of pre-downloaded songs into his helmet, he pressed the 'shuffle' option until he heard the guitar and vocals piece he was looking for. Gently drumming a finger along to the beat of the song, the SpecTra operative gently began to sing along with the song's lyrics as he waited within the cold middle of absolutely nowhere.

"You can take the road if it takes you to the sta-ars now,
I'ma take the road that'll see me through,
I'ma take the road that'll see me through,
I'ma take the road that'll - *cough* - see me through,
You, nuhnuh... some... do do do, do-do, do do do d--"
"YAHOOOOOO~"

Virtually falling over at the sudden distorted scream that penetrated his ears, the masked man clutched the sides of his helmet in pain for a moment.
'Argh, my damn ears! Did she deliberately turn her volume up to the maximum?!' Hurriedly accessing some settings on the heads-up-display built into his helmet, Vox was quick to turn down the volume of his radio to '25%', for the sake of his poor ears. Pausing his music and getting up to his feet, the figure, kicking up snow in her path, seemed to be slowly arriving in the distance.

So that's why she was late. As impatient as he was, he couldn't blame her for wanting to play around a bit with those kick-ass skis. But still, folding his arms tightly, he did his best to look as annoyed as possible. As the girl skidded in front of him and gave her non-serious salute, a small cascade of snow splattered onto Vox. Insult to injury.

"....."

If looks could kill, then it was a good thing his entire face was obscured by an advanced, full-face obscuring, military-grade helmet.

"So, you must be my 'infiltrator'." a modulated, robotic - but perfectly coherent - voice mumbled simply. Watching as the girl for a moment, his arms still folded, an awkward silence remained for a moment, before suddenly, in one swift motion, a flurry of snowballs zoomed towards his comrade, seemingly pulled from nowhere from his folded arms.

"--Blam, blam! Eat that! And that! And this!"
Putting one hand on his hip and one foot forward, 'Vox' struck some sort of joking pose - the sort of pose a movie star might do after clearing an entire room of baddies. It seemed the young man - a fairly new addition to SpecTra - wasn't so serious a person after all. "That, young lady, is not only for being late, but for destroying my eardrums! Make sure your microphone is turned down in the future, would you? Hearing is an important capability that I'm likely going to need...!" even with the modulations, it seemed the program Vox had installed was still struggling to hide the 'posh' accent that sometimes came out absent-mindedly. It was almost like listening to some sort of upper-class robot speaking.

As the agent brushed snow off the front of his suit, it was clear the duo were clearly as professional as they came.

---

With the silliness out of the way, RedKat began to talk more about the mission. The mission. It was one he'd been anticipating for more than a while now, and even if he didn't show it at all, Vox was extremely nervous about the whole thing. The amount of resources he'd pooled into making this work was incredible. It'd taken ages of preparation; ages of discussion, and it had been a mind-numbing pain in the ass to make sure every little thing was right. Snitch had been a huge help with most of the signal-jamming stuff, but still.

...In a way, this might've been one of the biggest moments of his life. If he failed... well... that was it. All of his work, for nothing. And then 'Subject 88', likely a superweapon, was waiting in the wings to be let loose on what was probably many innocent people.

But, as he usually did, he hidden away his nerves with a usual confident - perhaps overconfident - demeanor.

"Of course I'm sure. Their layout - in terms of defences - hasn't changed all that much in the time I was away... I think. With the database information and various company passwords I leaked over to Snitch, he should have no problem disabling the cameras and what-not. So relaaax, we shouldn't become swiss cheese if we handle things like a pro. Which I will, of course." Vox assured. Reaching down for a moment, he seemed to pull an object out of nowhere once again - this time, a long, silver revolver. Placing three red-tipped bullets in one side of the six-shooter, and three blue-tipped bullets in the other side, the company traitor continued to talk. "Even if Snitch somehow can't disable every turret and camera in their little kingdom, you're a 'cat burglar', right? I only wanted the best coming with me, so it'd be no trouble for you to sneak around those things. Noooo trouble at all."

With that, the slender and stylish revolver rotated a few times between his fingers, before he holstered it again in a flash. As his partner called him 'great and mighty', Vox seemed to puff out his chest a little. It seemed he hadn't realized she was joking, and the man gave a barely audible, pleased 'hmmm' to himself.
"Exactly! Nothing will go wrong. We'll be back home in time for tea."

At the girl's final sentence, the young man turned his head towards her, cocking it inquisitively.
"Remind you? ...Dearie me. Either you weren't informed properly at your debriefing, or you weren't paying attention at all. I know which possibility I'm putting my money on," Vox added to himself quietly.

A pause occured, before the young man's modulated voice grew notably more serious as he began to talk.
"So, I'll remind you. 'Subject 88' is our absolute 'priority' this mission," he began slowly. "I didn't work long enough for Novus to know the exact details behind it, but we were given some basic information about this top-secret project by an 'inside agent'. It seems a certain scientist thinks this 'project' is inhumane enough that she's willing to sacrifice everything. Even still, she couldn't give us too much information without raising suspicion and being traced. She's a clever one: 'Doctor Engels' was her name. She sent hidden, encrypted messages right to us from the science base itself. How ballsy is that?"

"My guess is that Subject 88 is an extremely deadly weapon. A power more discreet and controlled than something like a thermonuclear missile, but just as powerful. It's likely a device of some kind... from my time at the facility, I'd guess it's some sort of biological weapon that targets the brain."

Vox, as cold wind howled, silently clenched his fist.

"We've got to get rid of Subject 88, no matter the cost. We have to delete all information associated with it. Scrap all the blueprints. Make sure it's never, ever used. But we need to try and do it quietly, and carefully, with as little bloodshed as possible. Preferably, we'll retrieve it, expose it, and make sure the device is never used in the line of duty." Vox continued, "...And, remember. There are good people working in there... like that 'Doctor Engels', and I highly doubt she's setting us up. I knew more than a few people - security guards, scientists, even a cook - who desperately wanted to quit their job like me, but couldn't out of fear. So we've got to do more than blow the whole thing up or just assassinate anyone who gets in our way. It'll be a very precise job... like a heart transplant."

Silence. Before, after an audible, long - somewhat nervous breath that the ex-Novus worker couldn't hold in, he seemed to regain his usual peppy attitude.

"Soo, crimson kitty, that enough for you to ring some bells in that head of yours? ...If you've definitely got all of your equipment ready, then let's go." he turned towards her, before putting out a clenched fist towards her for a fist bump. By the way he was holding out his fist, it was clear he still didn't really understand how fist bumps worked, but he seemed to be getting the fundamentals right.

"For SpecTra."

 

[Izurich]

By the Siberian Tundra, her partner was one of those 'Brits' by the sound of his accent. Yes, she could still hear the snob through his half-assed attempt to distort his voice, if anything, he sounded like a stuck-up robot now. "Pipe down, mate!" Kat replied in a laughable attempt to mimic Vox's accent, at least this asshat had a good sense of humor, she'd pick him over one of those gruff 'Ex-Soldier' types. "Throwing snowballs at a lady, I thought you Brits are supposed to be gentlemen, guess times's change, da?" Kat giggled in mirth, her Russian ancestry quite audible in her voice."Awww, sorry, comrade. My beautiful voice doesn't deserve any volume less than ninety decibels."

Reminder, these were the two sent by SpecTra to infiltrate Novus Corp's highly secure remote facility and acquire a top-secret superweapon. The world was, indeed, doomed...

"I know, I know, this is the moment of your career, years of planning into this one pivotal moment, aaaand you're stuck with Snitch and me." Vox swore if he could see behind Kat's helmet, she'd be sticking her tongue out. "Ahem, seriously tho, I get it. With all the resources we pool for this operation, we should stand a good chance. I'm glad that Snitch is covering our backs, he'd make use of the information you leaked well." The half-Russian half-Chinese redhead lowered her tone, she knew how to get serious when the time called for it. If not, one should wonder how could she even still be alive considering her line of work.

"I can move through vents, dodge trip lasers, and take down guards without everyone and their mother noticing." Kat gave her partner a thumbs up, "You're in good hands, or should I say paws." With her 'paws', Kat checked her equipment, the portable console, cutting torch, flashbangs, pulse grenades, emergency sidearm, et cetera. Then she performed a diagnosis of her suit's functions. "Main Priority, Subject 88. Insider Contact, Dr. Engel. Objectives, Retrieve 88, destroy research data. Lethal Forces, last resort only." She confirmed as if checking a bulleted list, then paused... "And~ of course, I'd help myself with any shiny trinkets they might have, can't go home without a souvenir." What kind of catburglar would she be if she goes home empty-handed? 88 was Vox' thing, she wanted stuff for herself too.

"Da, that should be all." Kat fiddled with the wrist-mounted console of her suit then closed it, "Alright, ready when you are... race you there!" With a little - helmet-covered - wink, she sprinted forward, launching herself off the cliff, performing a dolphin dive to the sea below. Once she penetrated the surface, the operative activated a function in her suit's legs, blasting her off towards the artificial island. "Tracers to Snitch, 'Operation Icepick' is underway. Heading to rendezvous point Alpha. Over."

"Snitch to Tracers, confirmed. Good luck. Over."

---

Meanwhile, some time ago, in the facility...

This was the day, the day where she could finally atone for her sins. Dr. Engel calmed her breaths as she and sympathizers she could gather dispersed after a small meeting in the cafeteria. They would do all their can to make sure the SpecTra operatives would be unhindered in their infiltration attempt, taking off as much burden from their shoulders. A little unlocked section here, a 'malfunctioning' camera there, missing patrols in convenient locations, it might not solve all of the potential fuck-ups but infiltrating the facility without any inside assistance was virtually impossible. The blonde doctor would personally position herself at 'Point Alpha' where she'd meet the infiltrators to give them an on-field briefing.

 

[Jakers]

"A-haa, staying true to the ' cat burglar' alias, are we? Well, if you're going for some valuables, I hope you bought a giant bag. Even the some of the pens they use here are extremely valuable compared to most. Make sure you get rid of tracking chips in anything super valuable, and you'll be walking out of here a rich girl. That much I can assure you."

Making preparations to his oxygen settings, the operative looked up suddenly as his comrade abruptly challenged him to a race.
"Wh-- hey! You can't just start a race out of nowhere like that!" Vox protested, before breaking into a run off the cliff himself. Minor synthetic fibers in his legs causing his sprint to become a blur as he tried to get ahead, he thought he'd always been extremely quick compared to most SpecTra operatives. As it turned out, however, Kat was even quicker, and he was struggling to keep up. Entering the water with a splash, Vox seemed to be admitting defeat as he followed in the half-Russian's wake within the cold ocean.
"Best of three?" he offered half-jokingly. With that, as the two soared through the dark ocean - leaving a trail of tiny bubbles behind them - the huge, overwhelming outline of his old workplace began to come into view. Closer, closer, closer still, until the shining bluish-grey sheen of the facility was visible, positioned as deep as this part of the ocean would allow.

"Things seem to be going excellent so far. Snitch must've been able to disable their motion sensors and sonar perfectly, otherwise we'd be dead. Mega dead," Vox commented, mentally trying to remind himself how many torpedo launchers the underwater base had on the outside. A ridiculous amount, was the answer, and that was just one type of the many weapons they had. Novus had always been prepared to use whatever force was necessary to repel a huge multitude of attackers if they ever came. It was a good thing they hadn't anticipated one of SpecTra's best hackers secretly blinding them from the outside.

As the two dove closer and closer to the facility, the base seemed to become more and more overwhelming the closer and closer they got. An underwater base was crazy enough, even in this day and age, but this was made with only the best materials... the best craftsmanship... and only the best minds in the world had planned its design. One didn't even want to think about how much Novus spent on the place.
"This is where things get a little complicated. They have tons of emergency exits around the base, and Dr. Engels is going to open a specific one for us, for a very short time, at precisely 1744. She can't keep it open for longer than five seconds, otherwise people might be onto her." Vox paused, turning down the throttle of his underwater thrusters, "I'll take the lead for a moment, shall I? We need to take the entrance marked '5-E7'; that's where we'll meet her at 'Point Alpha'."

Careful to take an extremely specific path around the base that avoided as many windows as possible, the clock struck 1743. ...Without Kat's quick thinking and suggesting new ways to get round the outside of the base without being seen, Vox wasn't sure if they would've been able to make it on time. Making it to the outside of entrance 5-E7 with but seconds to spare, a small pause occurred before the submerged pneumatic door hissed open, right on 1744. Hurriedly clambering into an underwater room alongside Kat, the two were given mere seconds to enter before the door hissed shut instantly behind them.

Standing in what seemed to be a small, cramped, underwater airlock, it was clear this route wasn't usually used by personnel at all. As water began to drain from the room that separated the cold ocean and the interior of one of the most complex research facilities in the world, a holographic light suddenly traced around the outline of the two SpecTra agents, a somewhat ominous A.I. voice accompanying it.
[glow=red]"Subnormal entry detected, please present ide-"[/glow] without even finishing its sentence, however, the recognition software seemed to malfunction - thankfully in a good way for the duo - instantly skipping to: [glow=green]"Access granted."[/glow]

And, just like that, they'd broke into one of the most complex facilities ever created. It was true that this was only the first - and likely the easiest - step in the plan, but still. It went to show how far an excellent hacker, excellent equipment, careful planning, and in particular - an inside agent - could get you.

Water began to drain out of the room, and the whirring of machinery sounded as the door ahead began to open. Keeping his revolver pointed carefully at the doorway, a figure was waiting as it opened. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed scientist, with a look of concern on her face. When she didn't scream or call for help at the sight of two mysteriously suited individuals - one pointing a firearm at her - it was clear that this was their 'inside agent'.
"A-haa. Good afternoon to you, madam. You must be Doctor Engel... a pleasure, a pleasure." Vox briefly flourished his hand forth, giving an extravagant bow. "Excellent work on overriding the recognition software and getting us in, but I imagine you don't have much time."

A flicker sounded as his firearm was sheathed in the blink of an eye, the toneless, modulated voice suddenly growing serious.
"So. Let's hear that briefing."

 

[Izurich]

"Uh huh, told you we're in good hands." Kat shrugged as she aligned her position slightly behind Vox, letting him guide the path. She whistled as the facility's outline came into view, this was a place you have to take by storm through sheer force of power or sneak through with a small team, no in-betweens unless one wanted to eat torpedos, rail guns, heck, she bet they'd even have laser beams like in those sci-fi movies. "I bet our insider has something to do with it too." Snitch was a genius alright but to say he single-handedly disrupted the subaquatic facility's sensors was stretching.

"Five seconds? Damn..." So that's why he needed her, among other things anyway. "Alright, planning the best route to entrance '5-E7', stand by." Using the data of the lab's structure and points of interest, Kat quickly scanned them and in a display of experience and sharp instinct, she mapped out the quickest possible route that'd not involve getting detected... hopefully. "Let's go." They continued for a moment until it was one minute to the critical five-second window. "Taking the lead." Kat sped up, expecting Vox to follow her, dashing through the water, approaching the island-sized submarine.

"Come on..." Gritting her teeth, she weaved through the complex's exterior, spotting the entryway with '5-E7' neon sign above it. "Move it!" The two accelerated, traversing through the underwater corridor, reaching the end where the entrance opened for mere five seconds. "Nngh!" Slowing down to soften her impact against the airlock barrier separating the wet and dry section. "Phew... we made it." Kat huffed mentally, a momentarily tense moment later as the computer scanned them... "Haaa..." it was working, damn it, five seconds in and this place was already giving her heart attacks.

The agents stepped out after the draining process was completed, turning her gaze towards the shifting entrance where a lone figure stood. Her hand was ready on her tranquilizer gun in case it was a hostile entity. Fortunately, it was their contact, Doctor Engel. "Hey... you're a sight for sore eyes." Kat switched her suit's functions into urban infiltration mode as Vox conversed with their contact.

"Yes..." Dr. Engel stepped in, the automatic door closing behind her, "Let's cut to the chase." Then, the whistleblower scientist explained that Subject 88 was located in Cryo Chamber 01 in Pod #5. The path there would already be prepped by her allies to make it easier for them but they should always expect the unexpected. "I assume your hacker already gain access to the facility's security systems? Good." She turned, "I will meet you there."

Wait, Doctor," Kat raised a hand, a sheepish smile behind the visor, "Where do you store any goodies? You know... expensive things, gold, ancient artifacts?"

"..." Engel stared at the girl, unamused, "Ha... There's a storage room in the path towards the cryo chamber. You can take whatever's in there but please, don't jeopardize the mission would you?" The blonde older woman shook her head as she left the room, the clock was ticking.

"Good." The plucky catburglar rubbed her hands, then turned at Vox, "Well, after you, sir."

 

[Jakers]

Listening carefully to the briefing from the doctor, her mention of a 'cryo pod' seemed to get Vox's attention in particular, the helmet-clad man twisting in his head.
"A-haa." the half-robotic voice hummed to himself in thought. So... did that mean...

By the time Doctor Engel left the scene, Kat's words didn't even seem to go through to Vox as he stood in a position of deep thought. For a moment, it seemed like it was in his own little world. Thankfully, the man still seemed to have the sense to lower his voice as he began to plan a discreet route to the cryo pod in question on his overlay, whispering as he did so.
"If it's in a 'cryo pod', whatever they're storing, that means they have to keep it at extremely low temperatures. That makes me think even more that it's some sort of biological weapon, but it doesn't activate unless it's in an area with heat. Think about it...! That's why the facility's in Greenland! It'd be under control, even if it escaped!" Vox grabbed Kat's padded shoulders in excitement, "It all makes sense! And we're going to absolutely ruin it; do you know how much of a bitch living chemicals are to make? This is going to be fantastic."

Realizing he was getting a little ahead of himself, however, Vox composed himself, clearing his throat. They had to get there first, which was going to be a tricky task, even with all the assistance they had.
"...But I digress; apologies for wasting time talking. I shall lead the way, naturally."

Taking the lead, their mission inside the facility had truly began. Before he began to walk, as a precaution, Vox had deployed a simple, tiny and silent, fly-sized drone to scout ahead of him. Manually controlled by him, whilst the thing was far too small to have a working camera, it was equipped with a motion sensor that would play a faint noise inside the two's headsets, that would alert them of anything nearby. The stealthy, simple, and remote-controlled nature of the little drone made it perfect for scouting ahead of corners.

The route they took stuck to areas that weren't usually accessed by people - things such as maintenance corridors and vents - but even these 'side-paths' were fairly security tight. This was the part of the mission where Vox definitely didn't regret having Kat at his side. She made disabling detectors that had gone past the hacking capabilities of Snitch and Engel look so easy, and she effortlessly avoided stray guards and cameras.

Vox, if he hadn't been paying close attention to her actions and virtually copying them where possible, probably would've popped a tranquilizer shot in panic into at least one of the guards by now. ...If anything, as much as his ego hated to admit it, he was the 'student' here. Kat was absolutely in her element, even in the confusing environment of this intricate underground facility, laden with black-steel, blue flashing lights, and whirling glass pipes.

...She was kind of amazing, actually. This was certainly one he wanted to know more about when - or should he say if - they got back home safely.

It was when they were sneaking across the width of a wide, pipe and valve-clad, sub-level maintenance corridor, that the first truly hairy situation began to present itself. As the tiny drone scouting ahead turned the corner, after a short distance of whizzing ahead, it signaled that there were multiple nearby personnel, not too far ahead.
* B l - b l i p ! B l - b l i p ! B l - b l i p ! *

"Shit." Vox remarked in a whisper, "Not one, but two of them. Coming this way."

Looking behind him to see if they had enough time to back out, the faint voices of the two male guards around the corner could be heard, one of them bringing something up that made Vox's blood run cold.

"Hold up, hold up. Did you just see... a bug?"
"...A bug?"
"Hey now; I ain't joking with you. It was... like, a little black dot, whizzing around in the corner of my vision. Like a fly or something."

Mentally shitting himself, Vox activated the 'kill switch' for the tiny motion sensor, which would make it silently stop moving and dive to the floor. They must've been security guards with sharp - probably cybernetically enhanced - eyesight, to notice a tiny and soundless thing like that.

"...Isn't that the third time today you've said something like that?"
"...But... damn. I swear I saw something."
"Relax. When you get too paranoid, your mind can imagine things. Don't let it distract you for when actual intruders come in. Which - let me remind you - they won't."
"...Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

...Thank God for that. The suspicious one hadn't actually decided to report the possible sighting on his radio, luckily for them. If the floor wasn't a silvery-black - the same colour of the tiny drone - maybe they would've noticed it. They weren't out of the treacle yet, though. Why they were even here was a mystery, but Dr. Engel couldn't make everything flawless for them. There were still, when it came to human patrols, always going to be these invariables.

"...This corridor's too long for us to back out in time quietly. No hiding spot, either. Blast this damn corridor to Hell; of course we had to run into trouble here of all places." Slowly, silently, Vox drew and spun the barrel of his revolver to a blue round as he took aim at the corner they'd soon approach. He didn't want to risk if those probably cybernetically enhanced eyes of the guards were good enough to see through most cloaking, like his own were. "They're going to turn the corner in 8 seconds. The reaction and maneuver time they need to call into their radio when they see us will be roughly 1.3 seconds. I'll take the one on the left. You take the one on the right."

* Step. *
* Step. *
* Step. *

"Three. Two. One..."

 

[Izurich]

Chemical or biological weapons, huh? Well, shit, that was some heavy stuff indeed. Kat felt rather flattered to be honest, she was chosen to undertake this top-secret operation that might have very well saved billions of innocent lives and ruin the scumbag company's research. Even if she got nothing in return, the sheer sense of accomplishment would be more than enough. That was saying something considering she stole for a living. But~ of course, it wasn't like she couldn't grab one or two trinkets along the way, she rightly deserved it.

Vox's fly-drone thingy helped a lot, the acrobat could plan her route more effectively with the data sent by the miniature device. It covered what Kat couldn't predict, further reducing the risk of being caught. With the help of Snitch, Engel, and the drone, Kat could dismantle the remaining detectors and easily moved past cameras that were still active, they had so much room to move whereas without any assistance, even the slightest step would trigger an alarm, or two, or ten. So far, they didn't even need to knock out any sucker, things went good... too good, which made the young woman rather uneasy. "There." She disabled another camera, clinging to the ceiling's corner, then landed with a flawlessly-executed front flip.

"Psst..." She poked his shoulder as they were traversing yet another corridor, "Don't you think this is going too well?" Of course, she just had to jinx it as Vox's drone reported hostiles. "Sorry..." Kat murmured under her breath, taking cover behind a corner. Damn, those bastards were smart... or not that smart, if they were, those expensive gear they wore should be enough to detect the fly. It was just another case of advanced tech, dumb operator.

"Alright..." Kat nodded, drawing her tranquilizer gun, "8 seconds." Not the time for jokes, the redhead aimed her gun to the right side of the corridor as Vox counted down. "Zero." With two quiet hissing sounds, Vox and Kat fired at roughly the same time, the dart-like rounds blitzing through the air, her round hit one on the shoulder while his hit the other guard on his neck.

"Wha-... uh... nnngh..." With a thud followed by the other, the two fell unceremoniously on the floor. The crisis was over... for now.

"Phew that was close," The young woman holstered the gun as she worked together with Vox to pull the guard's body, hiding them somewhere in a secluded corner, "Hey, you're a really good shot." She noticed that the guard Vox shot fell first before hers. Did he just hit him in the neck? Either he was a real deadshot or lucky or both. "Alright, let's get a move on."

----

As they continued, of course, Kat just had to make the little detour as they arrived before the storage room. She hooked her mobile console into the door's control panel, "Snitch, get this thing open." not even a minute later, the whiz tapped into the system through Kat's console, turning the red light of the biometric lock to green. "Perfect, thanks." The metal door slid open with a hiss and the cat-burglar couldn't help but flex her fingers a bit. "I won't be long, Vox." A pause, he didn't believe her, huh? "I swear."

Soon enough, the girl returned, the bag she slung around her shoulder already filled with... something. "All done, see? Not even five minutes." If he ever asked what she got in there, the girl would simply wink, replying something along the lines of, "Ancient stuff, worth a fortune~"

----

By the time they arrived in the designated Cryo Chamber, the pair would see Dr. Engel already standing by the pod containing Subject 88. "Took you long enough." The scientist was obviously anxious and aside from that, Vox would see that one particular pod's top was covered by the same black-steel material as its base, unlike the others which still had their glass lid exposed. It was also floating a few inches above the ground. "I have prepared this one for travel, please, I implore you, keep it safe, take it back with you and never return, stay as far away from here as possible." She pushed the man-sized pod towards the two, handing it over.

"In return, I will allow your virus to enter our network, destroying the research data." The blonde Doctor confirmed, "Now go, quickly!"

 

[Jakers]

"...Ah, my thanks. You're, erm... not too shabby yourself, you know." Vox admitted quietly in response to Kat's compliment, twirling the revolver back into his holster. Usually, compliments seemed to get to the young man's head... but this one in particular seemed to have put the SpecTra agent in a look of somewhat deep thought. Regardless, he seemed to be eager to quickly change the subject.

"Neither of us seem to have strength augments, and these bodies are far too heavy and far away from suitable locations for us to hide them. ...As much as I despise it, it looks like we're going to have to just 'hope' nobody stumbles across these two." Pausing, however, Vox recovered his tiny motion sensor drone, positioning it far at one end of the corridor. "As a safeguard, I'll keep my motion sensor over here. If we start hearing blips, that'll mean someone's approaching the bodies. We'll have 32 seconds to reach them before they spot the bodies and inevitably call for backup... but... hopefully that won't happen. I doubt it will, to be honest. We should be fiiiine! ...Probably."

With that, it seemed they were getting closer and closer to their objective. As amazing as all of this was, Vox just wanted the whole thing to be over. Returning to his old workplace, for the most part, bought back anything but good memories.

---

...So, this was the room Kat had been drooling over in anticipation. It was odd, because he had been in this area before, and definitely didn't remember this storage room being here. Was it new? Nonetheless, Kat was eager to get her paws on the goodies, it seemed.
"Mmm-hmmm," Vox hummed in an 'I don't believe you' sort of tone. Nonetheless, he relied on his eyesight to keep the doorway covered; his drone was busy guarding the sleeping bodies. "Well, do try and be quick; I'll cover this exit in the meantime."

When she soon returned, swag bag fulled to the brim, the agent seemed relieved.
"Ah, good. Was starting to think you'd got by a trap or s-- ... ...wait. 'Ancient stuff'...?" For a moment, Vox looked a little confused. He knew there were extremely valuable things to be pinched in this place, but he wasn't expecting it to come from 'artefacts', or anything of the like. "...That's strange. In my time working here, I can't remember Novus ever being interested in things such as that."

Vox squinted for a moment. There was money: the reason was pretty much always money, but what use were ancient trinkets in their raw form? Novus already had funds coming out of their ears. Though he wanted to think deeper about the true reason they were keeping those things, he and his trusty comrade had a mission to complete.

---

Many extremely careful footsteps, crawls, and rolls across cold metal and glass later, they'd finally made it to where the supposed 'Subject 88' was stored. Though... the pod the unknown object was stored in was certainly bigger; he supposed he'd have to push it, judging by the hovering mechanism installed.
"Gotcha. ...You've been the biggest help you can possibly imagine, Doctor. Don't you worry, we'll ensure your efforts are put to good use." Giving a brief nod to Doctor Engel, Vox was quick to give Snitch access to one of the hi-tech consoles he assumed contained data relating directly to 'Subject 88', inserting a little chip into one of the ports of the device. If the virus worked properly, it wouldn't leave a trace, and would eat its way through other consoles in the same network, as well.

"And, blam! ...You should be connected, Snitch. Irreversibly delete as much as you can; this should be a perfect console for it." Pausing for a moment as he stared at the console, Vox shot a look back to Dr. Engel, "Doctor, before we go... are there any particular details we should know about the contents of this thing? Like, if it explodes on contact with water, then we might want to be super c--"

* B l i p ! B l i p ! B l i p ! *

That was a sound Vox definitely did not want to hear.
"--Oh, cock! Someone's approaching the sleeping bodies!"
Having to disregard his question, Vox whirled around, getting ready to transport the pod as fast as possible. He guessed he'd just have to push the floating cask, like some sort of hi-tech shopping trolley.

Vox growled in panic, turning to Kat, before turning back to the cryo pod in his hands. Shaking his head, he could only hope the contents were sturdy as he began to push the thing as quickly as he could, beginning to set off in the direction of that damn, piece-of-shit corridor. "We've got 28 seconds to get there... transporting this thing certainly isn't helping my speed, so you might have to run ahead! Try and knock out that approaching guard; I'll catch up!"

Even with Kat's speed, however, that corridor was quite a while away. Was 28 - now likely 18 - seconds enough for her to reach him in time? As much as he hated to admit it, the chances were low.

Biting his lip as feet hurriedly plodded against metallic flooring behind the cat burglar, Vox was hoping they'd be like 'ghosts' in this mission: in and out with barely a trace. But with things starting to go wrong, and the size of the 'package' of Subject 88 being much bigger than he was expecting... their escape might've been messier than the icy-blue eyed agent was hoping.

 

[Izurich]

Wait, wait just a minute here. If it wasn't for the helmet covering her face, one could see a young woman quirking her eyebrow in deep perplexion. No one even mentioned they would be carrying a damned pod on their way back. She might not be a certified Ph.D here but she thought it was safe to say that 'biological weapons' usually came in the form of sealed vials. Just how much of that thing to warrant such an oversized container? "Uh..." The thief didn't voice any protests, it was quite obvious that she was in the minority there, both Vox and Engel wanted them to leave with that thing. However, she wouldn't touch it with a ten feet pole, nope, let Vox handle it if he wished.

Giving a heavy sigh as her male partner worked on setting up the virus to destroy all the research data, she resorted herself to just watching the corridor. It was then that the blasted alarm of his fly-drone rang again. "Blyat... what is it again?" She rubbed the back of her neck, ah cyka, more of those punch-clock guards, huh? "I'll take care of it." One more justified excuse to stay away from the hazardous pod, score! Kat exerted her trained leg muscles, augmented by the suit. Each move was carefully coordinated, the mark of a professional acrobat.

"10 seconds!" The girl screamed mentally, her pants echoing in her helmet. "10... 9... 8...!" Just two more corners! By the time she turned the first corner, she could already see a moving shadow in the shape of a man. "4... 3... 2...!" Taking a deep breath and putting all she got into one final sprint, timing the guard's walking speed, she leaped diagonally forward then extended her legs to the front. "1!"

The first and last suspicious thing the guard would see was the suited form of a woman launching straight at his face, legs first. "...guh?!!" A sickening crunch echoed in the corridor as Kat's feet made contact with his face, dropkicking the life out of him as the guard fell to the ground with a thud, he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. "Zero... ha... fuh..." She took a breather for a moment then radioed her partner, "RedKat to Vox. Barely made it but we have overstayed our welcome, let's get out of here, damn it. Meet you at entrance '5-E7'. Over."

 

[Jakers]

"You made it?! Excellent work!" Vox excitedly yelled through the radio in relief. The idea to bring her along had gone from great to fantastic, apparently.

However, the situation - little to his knowledge - still wasn't defused. Doing his best to catch up with his partner, as he was passing over the unconscious bodies, a sudden * B A N G * ripped through the air, seemingly out of nowhere. Feeling a sharp pain through his right leg, armour protected him from a severe injury, but the high-powered shot drew blood nonetheless. Not knowing what the hell just happened, Vox glanced back, only to see a guard shakily rising from the ground - assault rifle clutched - with the tranquilizer dart still in his neck.

What on Earth?! Impossible! The strength of the narcotics in those tranquilizer drugs are enough to put down an elephant, let alone a man! Vox screamed mentally. Do they have enhancements that allow them to recover quicker?

Taking the hand off the pod moving in transit for a moment, the SpecTra agent whirled around, drawing his revolver and chambering the firearm with a red round. Before the sluggish guard could get another hit on him, a silent bullet whizzed through the air, going straight into the security guard's gun in an insane amount of marksmanship.

Just like that, pieces of the awoken guard's rifle broke off, disarming the guard. Instantly switching to a blue round after firing, Vox attempted to shoot him right in the same spot again, but even his firing wasn't flawless - especially with the pain jolting through his leg. Missing his mark, the tranquilizer dart plinked off the guard's armour, and with no other choice, panic caused the SpecTra agent to make a break for it - limping in the process - instead.

"--Kat, we've got trouble. I don't know how, but a guard managed to wake up after being put to sleep!" Vox informed through the radio, shoving the pod and panting as he went as fast as his leg muscle enhancements would allow him. "He still seems sluggish, and Snitch's jamming might stop his radio communication... but... if he finds someone to manually tell, we're in for a messy exit!"

Biting his lip, Vox did his best to regroup with the cat burglar.

 

[Izurich]

"Say what?!" Groaning in frustration, Kat let out curses in her mother language as Vox gave his urgent report. Oh, come fucking on! Just as she ran her ass off to prevent things from crumbling to shit. "Should've shot him in the eye!" She roared, a moment later, the girl arrived in the small chamber where they would make their escape. "Just get your ass over here!"

"This is Snitch to Tracers," Suddenly, a calm voice interrupted the agents' panicked tirades, "Relax you two." if anything, he was frustrated at the childish display of the supposed top agents, "I got this. Locking Partition #196" Snitch declared as if to show off his skills. The limping guard would find his radio jammed and the corridor's partitions nearest to him sliding down from both sides, trapping him there. "Threat neutralized. Now get a move on before you turn this mission's status to FUBAR, Tracers."

"You little..." The cat-burglar sighed but then chuckled mixed in with a dry groan, "Shit... heh, thanks, Snitch." While she waited, might as well, the girl moved any objects that'd be in the way of the deadweight of a pod Vox was pushing. This done, she looked over to the console, making sure it was ready to open the subaquatic exit. Everything looked good, they had just to radio Snitch when they wanted to leave.

 

[Jakers]

"The eye?! But... that would've..." Vox spluttered back to Kat on the radio, clearly starting to panic somewhat. When it came to holding his nerves in a situation turning sour, as cocky as the SpecTra agent acted when things were going smooth to him, it was evident the somewhat inexperienced agent was still prone to cracking under pressure.

Limping as fast as his injured leg could carry him, he would've argued further, but thankfully Snitch butted in, essentially bailing him out of his mistake. Letting out a breath of relief, Vox shook his head with a smile as he continued
"Snitch, remind me to buy you a drink when we get back."

Though his progress was somewhat delayed due both to the pod and his shot leg, Vox soon regrouped with Kat, nodding to her as he did so. Carefully pushing the pod through into the water airlock in which they entered the building through, the SpecTra agent was thankful his partner had cleared some things out of the way for him.
"I'm not sure how this thing's gonna cope in water, but we can only assume Engel made preparations for us."