Scarlet Blade: Record of Golden Wings - Chapter 47

SCARLET S BLADE
Record of Golden Wings

Chapter 47 : Tarnished beauties


* * *

Sometimes, behaving well can look even more out of place than acting vulgarly. Theodria was a case in point, for she was eating just like a refined lady despite her current status, which earned some awkward glances from Cherry.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Theodria asked as she was interrupted.

<Don't say a thing.> Terrivia communicated mentally.

"It's just.... you have very good table manners. Yeah...." Cherry went back to eating.

"Thank you." Theodria smiled.

"So Sapphire, can you tell us where you came from? We may not be cops or military, but we know people who can do a search and write warrants for it too." Terrivia asked.

"I don't know for sure...." Theodria shook her head, "I was handled in different places. I think I was created underground, then raised elsewhere. Either way, I was kept inside a cryopod when they didn't want me to know where I was taken to and from."

"So someone let you out. Is that it?" Terrivia asked.

"Yeah. I don't know her name. She was one of the guards who happened to take pity on me." Theodria continued with her lies.

Being skeptical through them, Glerenceria glanced a little then finished up her meal, "We're getting nowhere with only this much detail. Levi, let us be away until the night."

"Alright." Terrivia exchanged a half-unwilling look with Glerenceria before smiling at Theodria, "Stay here and make yourself comfortable if you can. We're looking for business opportunities."

"Take care~" Theodria waved.

After 'Occulus' and 'Levi' went out of the apartment, Cherry stayed behind and went to clean up the dishes.

"So, Cherry, how long have you known each other?" Theodria asked.

"Not for very long, but more than just network friends." Cherry answered.

"I see..." Theodria lowered her head.

* * *

"She's lying." Glerenceria spoke to Terrivia right after they got out of the residential building.

"That much is true. But question is, to which extent?" Terrivia asked.

"The fullest extent. She was running herself ragged. There's no way someone who would take pity could be so idiotic as to let such an important subject like her run like crazy. The risk of her getting caught would be too high and it would cost the guard their job and life." Glerenceria replied.

"Either way, we're out of leads." Terrivia rolled her eyes.

"But we're not out of things to look for." Glerenceria added, "Back to the park."

"Ok. Back to the park, it is." Terrivia nodded her head.

The time was 2:00 PM on the same day when they made it to the park. They chose the same bench and they sat the same way they did before, for a period of time. They were waiting for the park cleaner to show up.

After 30 minutes, the park cleaner showed up in her uniform, but without the cart.

"Oh, am I glad to see you. I thought you thought I wasn't going to show up since I did my shift today....." The woman laughed.

"Actually, we were going to leave after another half an hour. So, what do you have for us?" Glerenceria asked.

"Well, I did as you told me: not mentioning a -soul- as to what happened between us. But I had to make up an excuse to others about how I gotten so.... younger, figuratively~" The woman laughed.

"Wait, others?" Terrivia asked.

"I guess some introductions are in order." The woman recomposed herself, "I am Bethanie. I'm one of the preliminary members of the Anti Oppression Portion. The main members are in charge of stocking up bullets, assembling the guns and ready the explosives to fight Arkana, while we preliminaries are oppressed women who carry on with their lives and assigned roles like nothing's wrong, but feed information to the ones who will fight."

Glerenceria nods, "I am Occulus, and she is Levi. I thought you said you have a tracker. How come you're a member of such a bold movement then?"

"All the tracker ever does is keeping tabs on locations. It doesn't track speaking and body movements. The loophole is large enough." Bethanie smiled, "So, what kind of Arkana are you? Are you miracle workers?"

"Not exactly." Glerenceria answered, "We're like rebels in our own right, but we also want to keep casualties down to the bare minimum. This Anti Oppression Portion of yours.... we're interested to know about it, from start to finish."

"And I've got plenty of time, for my shifts are all done for the day." Bethanie sat down next to them, "Can I?"

"Well, sure." Terrivia shrugged, "Creative name for an organization. Why's that?"

"The reason is simple really. It's because nearly 95% of all the human women in Arktana are preliminary and main members. Teenagers and children included." Bethanie answered with a trace of pride.

"That sounds like a lot." Terrivia nodded her head, "So, this may be an assumption here, but I take it that you've never once been to the headquarters because of your trackers, right? Have you ever been told where it is, then?"

"Even if I know, why should I tell you right away?" Bethanie asked.

"We have proof that we're here to help all of you, and we hate the guts of Arkana around here as much as you do, but said proof will also incriminate us here." Terrivia answered, "But since you were so good that you helped keeping your treatment a secret, it's fair that we let you in a secret of our own. Wouldn't you say, Occulus?"

Glerenceria nodded, "Just like you, we're preliminary. We're barely citizens here, because we're spies. From all the way east."

"You're from Mother's Capital?" Bethanie asked.

"Exactly. We're amongst Mother's highest order, and she would not hesitate when it comes to human rights. What's happening here can press for violation charges that can shut down this entire metropolis, but only if people representing you can show up in front of her physically." Glerenceria answered.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but there's another concern. If I tell you, and you do go over there, it's going to be hard on all of us." Bethanie spoke in concern, "In the past, there had been Arkana who pretended to be our sympathizers. It was one of the worst 'clean up' operations we've ever seen. There's no guarantee that my vouch alone would see to your fair treatment."

"There's no need for you to vouch for us. We can take care of ourselves just fine. Just pretend that you had never told us anything, and things will be less complicated on your end. Simple as that." Glerenceria assured.

"Are you sure? Our weapons aren't for show, you know. I'll be having nightmares if you end up in bodybags." Bethanie warned.

"Neither are we. No offense, but the both of us had been through things that would make legends look like bedtime stories." Terrivia grinned, "But before you tell us the location of the headquarters, I'd like to hear more about the bitter history between human women and Arkana here. We need to have as large of a picture as possible."

"Very well. I have time." Bethanie nodded, "It all began around 20 years ago, after more and more Arkana started to populate the Administrata. You can't tell it from the current state, but it's suspected that the former members had done something that gave Arkana a huge slant of power. It's not like 90 years ago when Arkana and humans were just mere talking buddies and workmates. Now, it's like as if Arkana are entitled to everything and humans are disposable labor. Males are none the wiser."

"Are there Arkana rights radicalists?" Glreenceria asked.

"None that I know of, but I know that most of the main military force under the Free Knights' banner have this high and mighty air to them that makes them look down on human beings. They never get along with humans, male or female." Bethanie answered.

"What about the extent of oppression? What have human females went through during these two decades?" Glerenceria asked.

"A lot. So much that we lost count, really. I know you want to build up a powerful case by gathering proof, but with these trackers and the number of Arkana bent on joining voluntary patrols meant to keep us seperated and powerless, many things that happened left no traces because we couldn't pick up on them." Bethanie sighed, "Some of the more sadistic Arkana would openly insult and belittle us. Some of those were said to have sexually abused us, but being female on female sex, there's little to no proof."

"Damn, that's just sick...." Terrivia shook her head in disgust.

"The worst thing is, there had been cases where Arkana here could get away with.... 'accidentally' killing us. Take a businesswoman for example. A human. She was being challenged by a shop owner just a street across. A scuffle led to the both of them fighting, and the Arkana just used her powers out of anger, killing the woman on spot. Although a court hearing took place officially, the Arkana got away scott free." Bethanie sighed.

"Weren't there other Arkana who had conscience in their hearts? That sounds like a high profile case." Glerenceria asked.

"You expect those oh-so-kind souls to just stand up for -us-? No chance, I'm afraid. A rumor spawned just the day after, that the businesswoman was the one who's in the wrong, lawfully and morally. The case was closed and most would give no second thoughts as to how things really went. Except for us human women, of course." Bethania scowled.

"Then, there were also other such cases, right?" Glerenceria asked.

"You bet. Thug wannabes beating a girl to death, drunk Arkana bike crash resulting in a human death, housewives who had their husbands wrestled away by Arkana, all those and more with the law system twisting things to the Arkana's favor. It's a corrupt part of the world we live in." Bethanie recalled.

Glerenceria frowned as she closed her eyes, "This is getting us nowhere...."

"Why? I thought you're pretty eager in trying to get in touch with our headquarters." Bethanie asked.

"It's not the main reason why we're here." Glerenceria looked at Bethanie in frustration, "I really feel for you and the rest of the women who have to live under the Arkana's heels, but our main point was to get here and form a tactical alliance between Free Knights and Royal Guards. There's a fatal hurdle that needs to be overcome."

"Long story short, TL DR, the Narak are coming back." Terrivia interrupted.

Bethanie's mouth went wide for 2 seconds, "The Na-WHAT?!"

"The Narak, alien space giants.... are coming back." Terrivia rephrased a little slowly.

"That's..... I thought....." Bethanie was at a loss for words, "Oh, the blazes...."

"There are 3 reasons why we can afford to to help the entire Anti Oppression Portion, but there's also 1 reason why we can't." Glerenceria pointed out, "First, the human rights violation act is not a law that's meant to put Arkana in worse positions than humans. People are people, and justice must be served evenly, even if it means on a different territory. Second, there's only a few of us. Getting help from locals like you would be a great boost to our operations here. Third, Mother has approved of having us getting all of you eastbound for a better life. The only reason why we can't help you is that if you act now and start a firefight with the Free Knights, things will spiral out of control and we will have even less Arkana headcount ready to fight the Narak."

"So, the first thing up for discussion is to hold our fire?" Bethanie asked.

"That's the first thing. The rest can come later if things go smoothly." Terrivia nodded, "Just don't forget to keep the Narak part a secret. We can't afford a social wide panic here."

"I'm more worried about the integrity of your organization. There may be spies inside AOP." Glerenceria deduced.

"That's impossible, I can tell you. None of our members are Arkana." Bethanie spoke vehemently.

"And what makes you think humans wouldn't betray each other?" Glerenceria asked, "Assuming that our common enemy for time being is the local military, there are ways they could raise a double-crosser who pretends to see eye to eye with everyone in AOP. The enemy might be giving us life by -not- taking it. Make us think we're successful, then crack down on everyone once all the pieces fall into place."

"As much as I like to say you're wrong, I think you're onto something." Bethanie nodded, "The AOP headquarters is not a static location. Once every random while, the main members would shift their equipment and assets, batch by batch, to a different place. It's for the sake of avoiding tracking, because trackers would show general locations for each human. If things shift around, the chances of being caught would be reduced. It's illegal for anyone besides military and cops to have firearms."

"What's the current location? How much time until the next shift?" Terrivia asked.

Bethanie recalled, "The current stronghold is beneath the parking lots of Cranvosell Shopping Complex, located at the northern sector of Arktana, so it's quite far from here. I think that you can get there in one of two ways: from the manhole at the alleys, or the maintenance cover at the bottom of the parking lot."

"So, it's a sewer-based hideout. Not a good choice, but it does make for booby trap potential." Terrivia pondered.

"I don't know shit beyond that. You two are on your own. Besides, no one would believe me if I text them saying 'a couple of Arkana are helping us', given what happened so far." Bethanie shrugged.

"It's alright. We can take over from here." Glerenceria smiled, "Thank you very much for your co-operation. You don't know how much this means for us and for Mother."

"You're welcome. It's about time some Royals come here and kick some ass." Bethanie smiled and shook hands with Glerenceria.

* * *

Meanwhile in Mother's Capital of Chromia...


There were two Arks created for the Ark Project, and under the ground northeast of the capital was where the Ark that belonged to Lota located. The entrance was guarded by patrols of Arkana armored in gold, called the Golden Guard, and the measures were meant to counter almost any matter of enemy one could think of.

Saluting Lota, the Golden Guard let her pass, as well as something else that accompanied her: a blue and yellow colored combat robot that matched a human in terms of proportions. The robot had an oval shaped headpart with multiple visual arrays that looked like LED lights, while nearly all of its joints were round and reinforced with stainless steel. Most of the framework was blue in color, though the edges were painted in yellow.

"How are you holding up with that body?" Lota asked.

The robot let out Beatrice's voice, "It's a little tricky, but I can get used to it. I give it directives and the robot itself can just move like it's my own self. All thanks to my software engineering skill, I suppose."

As the both of them were heading into the Ark, Lota began to speak, "This Ark has two different exits. The one with most uses, which is responsible for letting new Arkana out into the world, is not one that leads to where you want to go. This is more like a backdoor access, used for maintenance. Keeping this Ark's functions has always been done by remote controlling the worker drones."

"If it's possible, I'd like to stay here for a whole day, so that I can go through indexes and check for any possible leaks. For added precaution." Beatrice spoke.

"I do not object to such an arrangement." Lota nodded.

"Good. We can do this together if you have the time." Beatrice added.

"I arranged this day to be my non-working day. No problems on my end." Lota replied, "Even though it seems rather obvious, I have to ask. Are you letting me accompany you so that you can feel that you've obtained my consent?"

"That's only half of it. The other half is that I want you, as Lota, to look at John's handiwork. I designed this thing's hull. I designed its components. But everything software and genetic were handled by Mr. Maynard. In a way, I'd like both of us to watch how your father conceived you." Beatrice answered.

After making their way through a hidden door that looked like a part of the wall, the lights to the data room were lit in a light green. Controlling the combat robot, Beatrice walked to the end of the room that had 3 large monitors and began resting it close to the control panels. With released data cables, Beatrice plugged herself into the panels and began the procedure under Lota's watchful eyes.

"1st password, done. 2nd password, also done. Identity verification, complete.... Retinal data, replicated....." Beatrice spoke out as she made her way past the multiple layers of protection, "Security logs, retrieved. Now, let the show begin...."

"What... show?" Lota asked.

"The show that started before your lifetime." Beatrice replied as she worked through the encrypted and unencrypted datas inside the Ark. The middle monitor hung on the wall began displaying a playback that detailed the geological condition of planet Earth in year 2219 A.D. From sea water acid levels to ground pollution index, and from carbon dioxide buildups to climate shift predictions.

"This was ..... our Earth..." Lota looked on in wonder.

"Yeah. Earth used to have 5 continents, until the sea water got blown skyhigh and something. Now we only have 2." Beatrice added, "Yike!!"

With Beatrice's sudden yell through the robot, Lota looked at her in concern, "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing. At least, nothing I haven't experienced...." Beatrice replied, "Someone's trying to hack this Ark with brute force. Over the past 50 years, there had been more than 2000 intrusions from 120 Protocol Addresses. Good thing I caught it when I'm in the middle of brain work. This is one of the times I'm glad I'm not human."

"Preposterous!" Lota clenched her fists, "Route trace? I'm sending a force to apprehend the culprit right away!"

"Forget about it. The hacker was using low tier hardware, possibly a portable comp. They ran away as soon as the hacking failed." Beatrice deadpanned.

"I see...." Lota let out a sigh of relief.

"Hmmm.... What's this?" Beatrice asked, "Data's spread out across 56 sectors. Sector 4 is the one holding most of the entire Ark's OS (operating system). I just did a scan there and I found some very interesting facts."

"What could be interesting for you?" Lota asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, several files I gleaned indicated that each Ark must have an avatar. I assume you are the avatar of this one. Who might be the one for the other Ark?" Beatrice asked.

"Avatar? I'm not familiar with that term. All I know so far is that I am the interpreter as Lota. There should be an interpreter for the western Ark as well, but for someone that has the exact same purpose as mine, she's taking an awfully long time making contact with me." Lota answered.

"Interpreter??" Beatrice's tone trailed off as she found Lota's response absurd, "You -do- interpret the central systems and turn them into English for all of us but that's not your only purpose. If you wanted to, you can even order this Ark to pop out of this Earth right here in this instant.....

.... Unless you can't."

Lota thought for a second but her face was painted in shock after analyzing the validity behind Beatrice's words.

"Then we may have a problem. A big one." Beatrice spoke as she continued the file checks, "I know John. He wouldn't be the type to make last-minute changes to the things he did. Someone must've altered the both Arks' OS before they activated. Your case is less severe."

Lota closed her eyes for a few seconds then spoke, "Are we going to suspend Operation: Tribute Feather?"

"No. The burden behind this discovery is too great. The original mission must go on. Depending on their progress, we'll mount an invasion force right after that. I'm sure Glare would like that." Beatrice replied.

* * *

In the safehouse, Cherry let 'Sapphire', whose real name was Theodria, play with the computer that had several game softwares installed. For a part of Beatrice which had to depend on the computing power of the whole computer to function, what Theodria was enjoying would no doubt cost her concentration. But even Cherry would know the importance of preventing Theodria from becoming bored. Boredom would give rise to thoughts of escaping from the Arkana's grasp.

"Take your time, Sapphire. These games aren't meant to be finished in a few days." Cherry cheered from her couch at the frustrated Theodria.

"Just a little more..... Ugh!" Theodria clenched her fists and gnashed her teeth in frustration after her game session of 'Lost Logia' ended in failure. It was a game that featured randomly generated labyrinth mazes, which players had to navigate out of in a given time limit, and sometimes loaded with different challenging situations like poison gases, rolling boulders and thermal traps.

"See? What did I tell you?" Cherry smirked as she put a couple of potato chips into her mouth.

"I'll get to the 4th Revelation yet!" Theodria growled.

After opening the door of the apartment, Glerenceria and Terrivia set their feet into the living room, catching on what Cherry had done to keep Theodria occupied.

"Welcome back." Cherry raised a potato chip with her fingers to greet them.

Terrivia sat down first, next to Cherry, and Glerenceria sat down on a different couch, looking at the window and all 3 other individuals in the apartment.

"So, how was market research?" Cherry asked.

"Still looking for opportunities." Terrivia answered, but her mind had something completely different to convey, using telepathic communications, <We found a lead.>

"I'm still thinking about how to set up shop." Glerenceria added with a low volume through her lips, and her mind followed up with <At a park, we got in touch with a woman who's part of an undercover grassroots movement.>

Cherry nodded her head cautiously, being aware that the conversation in telepathy must not be heard by Theodria or anyone unrelated, "How about.... street-side magic tricks?" <You're not talking about the AOP, are you?>

"Nah, we're not going for that." Terrivia shook her head, <You know about it?>

<I heard that the AOP was cracked down upon. It's still around?> Cherry curled her eyebrows in doubt, "Well, at least I tried."

<I'll ask this. Were you a part of the crackdown operation?> Glerenceria asked with her eyes on Cherry's face.

<Of course not. But it -was- a pretty big headliner. It was said that AOP was a terrorist organization full of Mother sympathists that happened to amass some heavy amounts of firepower. That reputational anchor alone was a big hit that no Arkana would look into. Even I was completely convinced.> Cherry shrugged.

<Why of course. By blaming everything on the opposing ideology and make every find that goes along the lines of coup de'tat, it would be pretty easy burying the cries of suffering human women here have been enduring.....> Terrivia turned aside and glared towards a wall.

"What are we going to eat tonight?" Glerenceria asked.

"...What?" Cherry looked at Glerenceria in a slight look of confusion.

"I may be the Medic here, but I'm still out of ideas on which forms of nutriets to feast upon." Glerenceria winked, <Sapphire may be focused on her game but we still have to keep moving our lips.>

<Well, duh!> Cherry rolled her eyes, "....How about, you make us a meal?"

"I refuse. I need to test the food ingredients myself first." Glerenceria replied in a lower volume while checking if Theodria was listening in, <I have to go with Terrivia to rough-house the AOP a bit, but before doing so, we need to fashion new disguises to create different alternate identities. I won't have time to do that if I cook.>

"And eating directly outside doesn't require -any- testing? Some standard you have there." Terrivia joked, <We need you to hold the fort alone again, Cherry. Since Beatrice is on board, I'm afraid we need to have her browse some food businesses that have delivery services. You can consult her on how to run drug tests.>

"No. I will test anything I eat before eating them without reservations. It was once a tradition to put in preservatives during food manufacturing processes throughout the planet." Glerenceria listed out a past fact and then put up a concerned look, <The problem is how to break it to the AOP, and how to break it to Birchwood beforehand.>

<Yeah, because by law, mercenaries may be required to fight crime at a moment's notice. Especially when some are inside the metro.> Cherry frowned, "That said, it might be a lost art in this day and age."

<Assuming we'll even be raising a ruckus anyway. Glare, how serious do we need to be?> Terrivia looked at Glerenceria.

Glerenceria closed her eyes and thought up a strategy. A plan for battle could take up to an hour with her mind. But against unknown forces, with limited knowledge, and limited grasp of local geology and travel routes, the only choice left was to do everything as they would transpire while adapting the right method. <We can use our Chakra, but they must never overlap with the ones we use for our current identities as Levi and Occulus. The way we speak must also be different so that there'll be less in common between our identities. But we -can- let our Birchwood leaders know about the identities beforehand, while forbidding them from acting out unless necessary.>

<Right. So that's settled then?> Terrivia asked.

<Not.... entirely.....> Glerenceria pondered some more.

"What about... Colonel Sandy's?" Cherry asked out of the blue.

"Ah, I want Colonel Sandy's!!" Theodria turned around while sitting on the 5-swivel wheeled chair, raising her hands like an excited child.

<Colonel Sandy's fried chicken is a popular fast food product. As the franchise is a huge consumer of long-necked chickens, and from the price of management, supply and service, I think that if there's a business that lets the Shadow Army dump chemicals that stimulate obedience towards authorities, Sandy's would be one for sure.> Cherry gave Terrivia and Glerenceria a confident look.

"It's settled then. Buy some for us. We'll come back and eat later." Terrivia smiled, <So, Cherry checks the chicken fries first, then we'll do our own. In the meantime, we have to go and make up our costumes. Which brings me to ask about the costumes themselves; What are we going to wear?>

<They'll be over the top.> Glerenceria grinned.

***

Later in Birchwood....


"You want WHAT?!" Emelie tilted her head in disbelief inside the armory truck. She heard what Glerenceria had to say for the costume idea, when both she and Terrivia were standing in front of her.

"Very sorry to ask this of you in the 2nd technical day of our jobs, but we have to try and make a sudden and daring contact with the AOP." Glerenceria requested.

"I don't know what to say. What you want right now are things that are logically NOT within anybody's arsenals. We run combat duties, not theatricals." Emelie sighed.

"But you are partly in charge of materials, right? Battlefield camouflage materials are technically combat items too. Or are you telling me that Birchwood has been a company made of brave decoys?" Glerenceria asked.

"Au contraire, Birchwood is anything but decoys. But you are right about us not stocking up on camo material. In the western front, camo materials are very useless thanks to ultraviolet cross infra-red vision goggles. Royals keep on using them, but we Frees keep on seeing through them. However, it all depends on who are the Arkana using them." Emelie explained.

"We have a chance if the camo is in our hands. If we don't have ready-to-wear costumes then at least we should stitch some up to wear right now. We need camo for the sake of this purpose." Terrivia replied.

"What about finding some textile scraps?" Glerenceria asked.

"That can be done, but don't expect immediate stocks. Unless you want to bet your luck." Emelie shrugged.

"Yes, that can do. We'll worry about the tailoring ourselves." Glerenceria nodded.

"Going for the same poverished look as usual?" Terrivia asked.

"Close, but not quite." Glerenceria grinned, "Think of this as the Plan B of our selection of alternate identities. If we can't make our debut as nearly optically camouflaged vigilantes, we'll just have to be a couple of mystical vigilantes. But before we start out, we must first work up the habits behind each identities."

"Well, let's hear what you have for us." Terrivia nodded.

"I will be someone that screams. Using the Chakra of sound and darkness, I will let my voice be the catalyst. I'll be.... the Crimson Banshee...." Glerenceria spoke.

"Ok, cool. What about me?" Terrivia asked.

"You will have to work up an African accent. Like Swahili and maybe even more pronounced. Rugged shaman type of voice that can reverberate and terrify the battlefield." Glerenceria grinned.

"Wait wait wait, what?!?" Terrivia was struck dumb by the idea.

"We'll be wearing masks to cover our faces, of course. And there -were- white Africans before." Glerenceria added.

"No, I mean, why do I have to lay down the accent no matter what?" Terrivia asked.

"Because from a psychological warfare perspective, it works." Glerenceria remarked, "Think about it. You, tall and imposing, wearing a shaman outfit, wielding a magical machete..... It's a deadly combination, but with the voice, it'll be flawless." Glerenceria giggled.

Terrivia then cleared her throat and tried to work up the accent, "....You shall not pass!"

"Ok, that seems to be good enough." Glerenceria nodded.

"So, what am I? Just The Shaman?" Terrivia asked.

"I was thinking more like.... 'Roarria, The Lion Shaman'." Glerenceria giggled.

"Ok, fair enough." Terrivia closed her eyes.

"This is a nutcase plan." Emelia commented, "Marching into a community of armed and disgruntled human women with nothing but short range weapons? You must not be detected, in any case. Or else."

"Don't you worry about that. We know that charging head on would scare them all away, so we'll have to make sure we can suppress them as we go. But there's also another factor we need some help with." Terrivia added.

"Simply put, we need some illegal means of jamming the human motion tracking protocol that's in place around Cranvosell Shopping Complex's area." Glerenceria added.

"If you know about the motion tracking then I can just get straight to the point. It's impossible." Emelie shook her head.

"What's the basis behind that answer?" Terrivia asked.

"The system that governs the identification of Arkana runs synchronized with the system that keeps tabs on all human beings, men and women alike." Emelie explained, "The best measure you should take, if not the only one, is to bring down the processing power of both systems. There's the matter of intrusion detection alarm systems, method of hacking, and how to leave no traces. We mercenary cut-outs aren't even aware of what the servers or supercomputers are made of, or where they are located. Any imbecile could guess that such things are theoretically located in the underground of the DOC (Department of Customs), but a professional guess is that the systems have to be in a sophisticated environment that provides enough cooling. It can be a disguised water deposit, aquarium, chemical plant, or anything."

"True. We don't have any hardware capable of doing much of those. But we have a sentient being who lived long enough in the electronic realm." Terrivia rubbed her own chin, "She can feel anything electronic as part of her own being, if I'm not wrong about her. If she has no problem spreading herself out across network-connected devices, we can run an overlay of the metro map and we'll be able to pinpoint the locations of the servers before long."

"Then what? Going to hack those by yourselves by being there in person?" Emelie asked.

"We hope we don't need to resort to that. All we need is a continuous cyber attack from a remote location, yet doesn't cost as much as a single Bronze." Glerenceria replied, "Beatrice will do just that, while we will work out our materials for the costumes. Can we drive ourselves now?"

"I'll contact the big lady first." Emelie nodded and walked further into the container.

***

After various preparations into the night, Terrivia and Glerenceria managed to piece together some intimidating costumes to wear for the occasion.

The location was the area of Cranvosell Shopping Complex. During off-times, the flow of Arkana each night would be up to hundreds per hour in average, before midnight. Fortunately, there were no curfews imposed on humans, which meant that the AOP had a chance to stage their operations out of work.

The complex itself was composed of several city blocks at once, serving as a major outlet of goods like food, clothes and consumables, with skyways connected between buildings at above ground floors. Like a metropolis, the buildings themselves were lit with bright neon and external lights. Because it's a place where there would be lots of visitors, parking spaces would be as large as expected. Basement parking floors also meant that there would be a chance for false maintenance hallways to be set up, leading to the sewers below.

A Birchwood truck was circling the complex without attracting attention. The one in charge of observation was Emelie. Wading through traffic of hovercars and hoverbikes wasn't easy, but being stuck as part of the gridlock would be a convincing act.

<Alright you ladies. You better not mess it up.> Emelie contacted through a certain frequency.

<Don't worry. We won't.> Terrivia's voice responded.

Already inside the shaded corners of the parking floors, the two of them were walking to a stairway leading to further below. They were using electronic cloaking devices so that their entry could be masked from ordinary surveilance cameras.

Terrivia was wearing a black cape with ragged looking black robe and a gold colored mask which covered her chin and upper face, with holes for eyes to look out of. Her hair was tucked and hidden inside vine-like decorations. Her weapon was a black and green trident.

Glerenceria was wearing a purple wig to conceal her current length of hair. Her face was covered in a transparent mask with protuding fake scars, and her outfit was a crimson dress with many belts tied around her arms and waist, holding up several pockets. Her weapons were a pistol and a combat baton.

When they approached a human guarding a stairway, the woman stood in their way with a pocket-sized electric dart gun pointed at them.

"What are you doing here? This place off limits." The woman asked nervously.

Terrivia tilted her head and answered in a different tone as usual with a Swahili accent, "WE are off limits, to you."

With an emission of Chakra, she immobilized the woman by her abdomen, before punting her against the nearby wall to make her unconscious. With Glerenceria's help, they quickly moved the unconscious woman inside the stairway and left her there. What came next was a sort of chaos that the shopping complex couldn't even be aware of.

Terrivia and Glerenceria walked down the stairs and investigated a fake wall. The latter used her baton to knock on the texture fabrication a few times, before coming up with the conclusion that it had to be broken down. Terrivia used the trident to slash the fake wall into debris while aware of a tiny spy camera located at the corner of the ceiling.

<You sure we had to let them watch?> Terrivia asked in her mind.

<Let them.> Glerenceria replied before casting a darkness spell which reverberated the secret walkways hidden behind the now broken fake wall.

"Shit, I can't see!"

"They'll have to come through here. Open fire!"

The other guards soon used their assault rifles and started unloading at the direction of the entrance because their naked eyes could not function under Glerenceria's spell. With Terrivia staying close to Glerenceria to protect themselves from ballistic gunfire, the latter signalled for Terrivia to shut her ears. What came next is a sound-based attack that prevented the guards from making calls to the inner sanctum.

With fully inflated lungs, Glerenceria adjusted her vocal chords and unleashed a powerful scream in a short burst. Great enough to hinder hearing for a moment, yet controlled enough to prevent deafening the ears. With the guards covering their ears from the scream, Terrivia followed up with a series of consecutive strikes using her bare hands that put them into unconsciousness.

Before things could get even more out of control with more guards taking up firearms to shoot Terrivia and Glerenceria, the two of them tackled through the doors made of ordinary alloy and simple locks, before reaching what appeared to be the main room. At that instant, all the human women became silent as they slowly surrounded the room with guns pointed at the door.

But Terrivia and Glerenceria were silent as well. Both of them expected to speak to the ones in charge right away, but for a moment, they were just stunned at the appearances of the leader and vice leader.

In that small office room, there were 4 people. Terrivia herself, Glerenceria, the leader of the AOP, and the second in command. The sitting leader looked almost exactly like Glerenceria's birth mother if younger in physical age, right down to hair color and facial complexion, while wearing what appeared to be a bullet resistant vest and basic clothes. The other one standing next to her looked exactly like Marie, except the hair color was a darker shade, and was wearing a soldier uniform.

"We're not going with you. We're the last line of defense for all the human females in this whole land!" The vice leader pointed a heavy rifle at the two.

"You misunderstand." Terrivia replied in Swahili accent, "Twould be child's play for us to snuff your lives like a wind against a brief candle. We just went through some trouble of making your subordinates take a break."

<Good job playing it cool.> Glerenceria complimented in her mind and then followed up with her English accent, "In any case, we are not who you think we are. We come in peace."

The women looked at each other in confusion before turning back to the disguised forms of Terrivia and Glerenceria, "Depending on your reason, we will have to activate the self destruct explosives around this place." The leader threatened.

Terrivia inhaled deeply before introducing herself, "The heavens decreed for us two to stamp out the evil phenomenon long in the making. I am the lion shaman, Terroria."

"And I am the sound of the wrath of dead: Crimson Banshee." Glerenceria introduced.

"We have arrived but just recently. We do not know the ways of this land and its people enough for us to make our marks. But with my trident I swear, the Arkana are not the problem. The problem comes from the very source." Terrivia added.

"Before we continue our talks, we like to hear your names." Glerenceria pressed on.

"... I'm Sandaraine." The leader clarified, "And this is my right hand, Bristie."

"Thank you. We appreciate your rational response." Glerenceria sighed, "Although this is our first meeting, we've come with specific instructions for you and the whole movement....."


***

The end of Chapter 47