Scarlet Blade: Record of Golden Wings - Chapter 48

Scarlet S Blade
Record Of Golden Wings


Chapter 48: Calm before storm


The lion shaman and Crimson Banshee were both in the room where Sandaraine and Bristie were at. Leaving the door open, the disguised Glerenceria was trying to negotiate for a cessation of activities for time being.

"...From a certain point of view, if you couldn't protect yourself from two barging Arkana, you have no hope of surviving a direct betrayal. That much is obvious." Glerenceria remarked.

"You're saying that there's a possibility of there being a spy among us, but you can't point it out who it is." Sandaraine looked back at Glerenceria in doubt.

"It's our current situation. The enemy is giving you life by not taking it." Glerenceria shrugged with her palms open, "But our arrival here should be best for our mutual interests. You will have a confused spy that will not know how to make of the context of our participation, and we will have your backing for our operations in the nearest future. We desire only a few things from you: information, co-ordination and confusion. In return, you will see to the reform of Arktana's society."

"Sounds fishy as all heck. Where did you come from and why would you go against your own kind?" Bristie asked with a barbed tone.

"She who forgets that all animals are Earthlings is she who forsakes all blood. We simply stand for the side of right, not species." Terrivia rebuked.

"Fair enough...." Bristie groaned.

"What do you gain by elevating our standing in society though?" Sandaraine asked.

"Our gains do not necessarily have to come from this society. I believe we can benefit more from your rise while being at different places." Glerenceria gestured, "But rather than continuing to look at the gift horse in the mouth, I suggest that you let us leave and make way for our return to here tomorrow. It will not take long for people to notice the broken wall."

"You have a point. Tell everyone to cease fire. These two are part of us now." Sandaraine ordered.

"You can't be serious?! You forgot what happened the last time we let Arkana into our ranks??" Bristie argued.

"Last time we didn't have Arkana who smashed and bashed their way into our circles. I have faith in these two wreckers." Sandaraine grinned, "Of course, with how they came in just now, we'll have to adjust our defenses accordingly so that it will not happen again."

"Fine. But if I see anything funny being attempted, I will pull the trigger first." Bristie spoke begrudgingly.

***

After walking out of the broken entrance, the facades of Terroria and Crimson Banshee were broken down to faces of confusion. In the past, Terrivia and 'Graham' had shared memories of each other before in an attempt to unify their minds. Terrivia saw the likenesses of 'his' mother and she thus memorized the looks, and there was no way Glerenceria could forget what Marie looked like. But of all times and of all people, they had to encounter 2 strangers identical to them in terms of appearance.

"What the hell's happening?" Terrivia asked in normal voice.

"You mean, the deal with the two of them looking so much like the ones we lost? I have the same question in my mind too." Glerenceria replied.

"There's this itch in my mind that I can't scratch right now. I want to protect Bristie but she's being so overprotective of the AOP. I can't even tell her she looks like my dead friend. It'd be so rude and awkward. Geez...." Terrivia groaned.

"And I can't even tell Sandaraine about having a late mother without blowing up all our covers out of the water and sky high." Glerenceria sighed, "Or maybe this is life's way of giving us a second chance. To protect who we couldn't before."

When the two of them snuck out of the parking range, they activated their cloaking devices and jumped up on the passing Birchwood truck. After verifying their presence, Emelie ordered the driver of the truck to drive out of the area.

<What happened down there?> Emelie asked.

Shortly after the question, the speed of the truck picked up as it was out of the busy traffic, making the air collide against Terrivia and Glerenceria's disguises, affecting the cloaking slightly.

"There was some door breaking and some talking, then nothing more." Glerenceria answered.

<Really? That was way too smooth. From what I heard about the AOP, they got betrayed by Arkana at some point. How did you talk through that?> Emelie asked.

"Apparently, the leader took a liking to how we made our entry, so let's leave it at that. Thing is, you'll have to drive us back there again tomorrow. All we did today was making us starter members." Terrivia replied.

<That's more than what I expected already. Back to the safehouse then.> Emelie smiled in the truck.

While the duo were returning, Cherry was receiving two sets of meals from a delivery service. In order to avoid letting anyone else catch a glimpse of Theodria's figure, Cherry only opened the door half way to sign the delivery papers and handle the boxed goods. The payment was done by swiping the face of her credit card across the portable billing scanner. After the delivery person left the spot, who was a civilian Arkana, Cherry immediately put the boxed Colonel Sandy's fried chicken meal sets down on the dining table and took out a chemical analysis set to test out the one she was going to eat. If it wasn't laced.

The uniform of the delivery person was skimpy so there were not a lot of details which weren't about the body. The color of the meal box however was slightly reminiscent of the pre-apocalyptic KFC. The box was mostly orange in color with red linings, and the trademark logo was a smiling woman with a green beret.

The testing was done on multiple parts. The crispy outer layer of a drumstick, its deep fried meat, a broken part of the bones, and other such samples from the breast and wings, and even the shredded lettuce and mashed potato starch. The testing was done simultaneously on multiple vials. While Cherry wasn't created to be an intellectually gifted Arkana, she could at least perform the basics of chemical testing, which was holding up a dropper and release specific quantities of testing agents into the vials, before using test probes to test the released contents in the vials. The probes were electronically operated from the testing device created by Core Agency, so Cherry would have no room for doubt of the results.

However, the worst case scenario was then verified. Colonel Sandy's fried chicken chain was controlled by the Shadow Army. After 10 minutes of testing, the mashed starch had 25% of anomalous contents, the chicken breast had 30%, while the drumstick and the fried skin had 40%. The rest of the other contents turned out to be nutrition, but even a slight 1% of anomalous contents would be a good enough reason to avoid eating it entirely.

"Cherry, can we eat now?" Theodria asked from the living room while her left hand was holding down her grumbling belly.

Cherry sternly turned to Theodria while walking out of the kitchen, "We are not eating Colonel Sandy's. It's contaminated."

"Wha-?! What do you mean by it's contaminated?? Who the heck in this day and age would expect to gain from poisoning everyone's food?!" Theodria asked in denial.

"Well, the chemistry test doesn't lie. Have a look." Cherry took out 3 printed sheets of paper from the testing device and handed them over to Theodria's hands. And thus, Theodria's blue edged eyes looked on at the harsh truth. The paper was printed with disective views of meat layers and starch structure accompanied by nutritional data, as well as the amount of contents deemed anomalous, complete with chemical symbols listed out.

"...Why? What happens if we eat this? What's gonna happen to me if I already ate this before?" Theodria asked in utter confusion.

"Well, I'm not the medical expert around here." Cherry scratched her head.

"Then are we just going to starve here?" Theodria asked with a pitiful look.

Cherry sighed, "Of course not. Let's just wait for those two. They'll be back soon."

#THK THK THK#

The knocking of the door prompted Cherry to smile hopefully, "Ah. Impeccable timing~"

The door was opened to show 'Levi' and 'Occulus' out of their previous disguises walking into the apartment.

"We're back." Terrivia smiled.

"I'm hungry...." Theodria moaned.

Glerenceria walked to the kitchen and glanced at the Colonel Sandy's meal sets and the chemical analysis set. She then walked to Cherry with a heavy look, "Test results?"

Cherry took the sheets and gave them to Glerenceria without saying a word.

"My word...." Glerenceria looked stunned at the report.

"Why do you have a chemical analysis set anyway? Why were you so wary of local food?" Theodria asked.

Terrivia placed her hand on Theodria's head to pat it, "Well kid, there are shady corners of the world we had been through, and there were shadier stuff than food lacing we had experienced. No place is absolutely safe and nothing is absolutely sacred. So don't worry about the meal and just stay put, because we're here for you."

"E-even if you say that...." Theodria looked down.

"You said you had eaten it for more than once before, right?" Cherry asked, "Occulus, what should we do about her checkup? We have to get to the bottom of the anomalous substance ourselves, after all."

Glerenceria approached Theodria and held up the latter's right wrist, "Look into my eyes and calm down. Relax your thoughts."

"Okay..." Theodria looked into Glerenceria's eyes.

Using a faint Chakra skill, Glerenceria traced her own senses throughout Theodria's body. Just then, Glerenceria's mind was assaulted by multiple questions. The biggest of them all was: what exactly is Theodria made of?

"I'm at a loss for conclusions." Glerenceria shook her head, "But, the most relevant verdict for now is that there were no mind control agents among the anomalous substances. Yet, what is confirmed is that I can feel a faint trace of pollution in your brain regions."

Theodria was struck pale from the words, "Wh-what happens if the pollution is more.... concrete?"

"I cannot say for sure. But, here's a scenario." Glerenceria looked into Theodria's eyes calmly, "Let's say that hypothetically, the people who created you and put you in captivity, wanted you to be docile so that you will not be able to use Arkana powers against them. The regions of your brain that are polluted are mostly ones that are responsible for the control of Chakra. While I cannot determine how much of an Arkana you really are without a blood test and a full physical, I can at least determine that the pollution would serve that purpose."

"Using Arkana powers?" Theodria asked with a curious tone despite her uneasy expression, "Can you use them then?"

"We can, and our control of Chakra is more diverse than others." Glerenceria smiled, "For example, a warm light."

From Glerenceria's finger tips, a disembodied ball of fire was formed. It was almost as hot as a bunsen burner's flame, but getting it close to Theodria made the latter feel comfort in her mind.

"Or, electrostatic." Terrivia placed her hands close together, generating an intense series of electric shocks between them.

"I'm still a beginner at it, for your information." Cherry said as she snapped her fingers to create a short burst of fire that dissipated as soon as it formed.

"That's amazing...." Theodria smiled, "If we get rid of this pollution, can I use Arkana powers too??"

"I suppose it's worth a try, but first we need to figure out how to clear it out of the brain regions first. It's a very fragile series of spots, for sure." Terrivia looked at Glerenceria.

"Indeed. I do not have access to a treatment suite, so the extent of aid we can offer will be limited." Glerenceria followed up, "But staying away from these substances would be a good start. I postulate that the reason Colonel Sandy's is filled with these substances is because the pollution has to be constantly maintained through continuous consumption."

"But why would they want to keep all Arkana from using their powers?" Theodria asked.

"That, is what we're going to find out." Terrivia smiled. When she looked at Glerenceria, the latter simply closed her eyes and smiled as if saying 'Go ahead'. "A great scheme was suspected to be in the works in this city for a long time. We were tasked here to uncover it, and if necessary, we will have to be enemies of the state."

"Doesn't that mean you will have to kill a lot of people for that to succeed?" Theodria asked.

"Well, there's a reason we're just running around and doing random stuff. We have to find a way to do it without direct confrontations with the local forces." Terrivia laughed, "Seriously though, a hungry stomach is not a condition for such serious conversations. What do you think about the usual..... Barbiron special?"

"I don't mind. Do we have enough ingredients for that?" Glerenceria asked.

"After what we bought yesterday? Sure~" Terrivia grinned.

***

"That was a very good meal." Theodria smiled.

The Barbiron special was referring to what Terrivia and others had to eat during the chaotic 3-months period in the namesake. The dish was made of flattened dough rolls not unlike pizza, but with contents of the flour altered to resemble wholemeal bread, mixed with vegetable slices and tested meat. It took half an hour to prepare, but eating it all as a single serving only took several minutes.

"Funny story about this one. Out in the fearsome, hot and dried landscape of Barbiron, there were very monstrous beasts whose sizes could easily tower over me. It was frustrating enough to fight them at first while worrying about being crushed, so I made this in order to vent. I pictured myself crushing those creeps under my heels." Terrivia laughed.

"You were in touch with hostile wildlife?" Theodria asked.

"Not just hostile wildlife. Intentionally mutated wildlife." Terrivia clarified, "There were gentler things to be sure, but, let's just say that there were harsh things created by an organization of people too demented to be let alive."

"I see...." Theodria nodded.

Glerenceria looked at Terrivia and Theodria from the other side of the table and smiled.

"What?" Terrivia asked.

"Nothing. I just find it interesting how the two of you have bonded in such a short time." Glerenceria chuckled.

"Well, someone has to be friends with our poor girl here." Terrivia pouted.

"I'm not poor! I'm rich!" Theodria rebuked, causing the 3 others to stare at her. Theodria was 5 seconds too late to realize that she spoke something out of line with her 'cover up', "...I-I mean, I was... given relatively enough wealth to look passable, not impoverished...."

"No one's talking about wealth here. Didn't you run out of breath before we found you?" Terrivia asked.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry I thought about the wrong kind of poor here..." Theodria blushed a blue across her cheeks.

"I'm curious." Glerenceria interrupted, "Why were you raised to be like an aristocrat or an equivalent of one? You have great table manners, your manner of speech is very subdued, and you don't seem to have stage frights."

Worried that Glerenceria was gradually dismantling her facade, Theodria put up a sad face, "The people who... raised me, in a way.... they want me to be accepted as an individual of the society without being judged by blood color. I have blue blood, see? It's said that blue bloods are nobles. Surely there's a noble purpose for my being, so, I c-can't just be a bumpkin or a commoner. But I did say I don't know what I am and who I can be in this world. Right now, I'm still not sure."

"Right..." Glerenceria nodded, "But here in our little home, we're equal. We're all Earthlings. That's all that matters in the end."

"As someone who fought against blue blooded freaks, I can see how some people will be ready to judge you, but we'll find a way for you to be accepted without being used." Terrivia looked into Theodria's eyes with resolution, "I can promise you that."

"I.... Thank you, I guess...." Theodria smiled with the blue blush of her face becoming more apparent.

***

In Oration Tower, all the staff who were responsible in keeping Theodria cooped up in her home had their hands tied behind their backs and forced to be on their knees, as the Punisher of the Four Queens held them at gunpoint. Grant Willson was furious, while Sati had a blank look on her face at the questioning that was taking place...

"G'aaaaaahh!!"

One of the staff, an Arkana like most, was punched around 20 feet across the room before slamming against a wall. The one behind the punch was Abolia. The victim had blood pouring out of her mouth.

"Let me rephrase the question." Abolia spoke venomously, "You were about to give her the lunch. You were the closest one. How did she get away?"

"Gh..." The Arkana cried into tears, "I don't know.... She just jumped..... out of the balcony...."

"If she jumped from that height she would already be dead, but she's still alive right now. Do you want me to put a stop to your heart that bad?" Abolia grabbed on the Arkana's neck.

"Please.... I.... really saw her jump *sob sob*.... I'M NOT LYING!! AAaaaaahhh!"

"Your method of question is really bad, you know." Licentia, the Whipper, walked in with a sour expression, "You're getting tears instead of different answers, and that's not how an interrogation works. And you, Finnia, put down your gun. I have a lead."

"Really now?" The Punisher, Finnia, perked her eyebrows at Licentia's claim with a crude voice, giving off the image of a ruffian.

"That poor thing was not lying when she said Theodria jumped out. I asked the guards on the ground floor and they said she had bedsheets. I found the bedsheets AND impromptu fabrics discarded at a distance from them. She knew how to make a parachute good enough for her own body weight." Licentia grinned, "The only thing left is to figure how WHO took her in, and why's she not urban legend number 1 by now."

"That is NOT the point!" Grant fumed, "If she is taken by one of the AOP bitches, they will have a leverage against us once they know who made her! We have to find -some- way of looking for her and bring her back by force! We already announced the cancellation of the upcoming episode of Recovering Earth, and we do NOT want them to catch on that she's the Theodria on TV!"

"And how is that our problem, exactly?" Abolia turned around at him, "You're the Minister here, not us. Even though we are obligated to move our muscles for your politics, we're not the ones screwing up."

"That's not how the Shadow Army will see it if the worst case scenario is really kicked off." Grant shook his head in anger, "They gave us this chance to play the game and we have to play it right. I don't need to tell you what will happen do I? If we don't get on their good graces."

"No sir. Nope." Abolia looked aside without care, but was actually concerned deep down.

Melissa walked in with a furious expression, "I will look for her myself. You seem to have too much to care about."

"Oh, the nanny? Sure, if you really think you can be up for it." Grant let out a sarcastic laugh.

"This is serious, so I can at least do that much to salvage the situation." Melissa stared at him, "All I need is some extra capacity of rights, and I'll bring results."

Grant looked at Melissa dismissively before waving off, "Yeah yeah, I'll give you some rights to deploy troops. But better not create loose ends, you hear?"

"I don't need your troops, and I don't want your advice on how to do my job." Melissa glared, "I want access to unmanned drones."

Grant looked at Melissa questioningly, "And why's that?"

"I want Theodria back more than you do. You want her for the sake of maintaining your contract with 'them', I want her for the sake of her safety. First we need to find out if she's being molested or subjected to any harm, and to do that, I need all the recon I can get." Melissa answered sternly.

"Well, I will notify the drone handlers then." Grant nodded.

***

At 11PM, Theodria was made to sleep with Terrivia after the latter showed how she could absorb heat and redirect cold. As a result, Theodria had to experience her first accompanied sleep with Terrivia on the same bed, which made her nervous at first. Cherry was sleeping on a different bed by herself, while Glerenceria herself would sleep at the living room.

However, the computer was left on without being shut down. Glerenceria was just pretending to sleep as her mind was taking a call.

<Janice and the Niwatori sisters have made it. What's the plan now?> Beatrice asked.

<I need time to think. An established contact with AOP isn't making things any easier.> Glerenceria sighed, <That said, I think we need some adjustments to the plan>

<Really now? Let's hear it.> Beatrice inquired.

<If Juniper and Maciel have hit it off then it's all good. The problem is Colonel Sandy's. Thing is... well, have you gotten the chemical equation? Can it be replicated?> Glerenceria asked.

<It can. And your conclusion was mostly spot on. It can definitely hamper an Arkana's power transmission by interrupting specific parts of the brain. Only, Mark and the twins had arrived at another intended effect.> Beatrice explained, <In large quantities, this kind of Shadow substance can turn an Arkana blood sample into an inept speck in minutes. If I have to make a wild guess, I think it's the Shadow Army field testing anti-Arkana mixtures using Stardust corruptors. While it's not nearly as dire as causing Arkana to mutate like the clones high up in Mereholt, the thought of all Arkana slowly being robbed of their Stardusts is much more disturbing than anything we had come across. And through food chains no less.>

<Yeah. And that's where the adjustments come in.> Glerenceria looked up at the ceiling, <The only Arkana we know who have farmers as family members are the Niwatori sisters. And like their name, their farm has flocks of chickens. I think it's time to get the parents to act as a business opportunity, because it's not often we have Arkana who have human families.>

<You want them to make contact with Colonel Sandy's, is that right?> Beatrice asked.

<What better way to check out Colonel Sandy's other than that?> Glerenceria nodded, <But it's only a single loose yarn of an elusive sweater. We botch this one up, we'll lose the chance to unravel it altogether. All we need is for the sisters to act as bait by posing as a transport outlet. Their parents will be decorated as business diplomats and hurry back to their home. That way, they won't have to put their lives in danger. With enough time under their belts as chicken suppliers, they might curry enough favor to get access to the real production line of the food chain. That will be the time when us vigilantes can strike.>

<I love every part of the adjustment to the plan.> Beatrice snickered, <Still, we need to get closer to the Administrata. There's only so much time allowed to achieve the extra objectives.>

<Well, I'm planning to pin the blame of Colonel Sandy's on the higher ups, so let's see how things unfold. Besides, we didn't even stay her for more than a week.> Glerenceria grinned.

<Before I'm ending this call.... there's something I need to tell you.> Beatrice spoke, <Earlier today, I 'disk-checked' the entire eastern Ark for errors and inconsistencies in programming. It turns out, when I checked all of the system files and binaries, I learned that Lota's functions had been tampered with. I think that the tampering with the western Ark, which you're close to right now, would be even worse.>

<I concur.> Glerenceria looked out of the windows.

<Just want to let you know. Don't be too reckless now. You, Terrivia and Cherry. Anything is possible at this point.> Beatrice spoke.

<Well, before I head to sleep, I need you to work overtime. It's something only you can do, considering the extent of your abilities.> Glerenceria replied, <Can you do a wide area network search and implant pieces of yourself in random computers? We need to sabotage the servers of the registry or our disguises won't hold up for long. Just find its location first, and we'll get around the whole thing to take it down.>

<I'll see what I can do. Good night.> Beatrice ended the call.

Glerenceria closed her eyes and rested her head and feet on the different sides of the couch.

***

The morning after, Terrivia walked towards Glerenceria, who was sleeping on the couch as still as a placed luggage.

Terrivia then closed her eyes and thought back on what she saw in Ralph's last belonging: his crystal.

Ralph had personally been to the building where Edwin Payder was located, and Ralph had ensured that the location to it would be clearly recorded subconsciously by leaving the crystal along his waist. Throughout Ralph's reconnaisance, he saw how Payder manipulated the workings of both the Shadow Army and Genesis Corporation to his advantage. But there wasn't a lot to know from Ralph's observation, because Edwin was the type of person who wouldn't say a single word unless spoken to. Most of his time would be spent staring into a distance, on his chair, alone, if not for the fact that Ajatoss was his and Ralph's tutor when it came to void arts.

For some reason, Edwin had great affinity with the void, which is the equivalent to the decaying force of the universe. Ralph had been training under him and Ajatoss since the first day he was Narakified, and it took a lot of self control just to snap his mind out of the compelling force that tempted him to be loyal to the Narak. But the most important clue of all was that Edwin already had Fred Salmonhope under his tight control, and using Fred, Edwin had control over more than half of Genesis Corporation's actions.

The rest unfolded into what would lead up to the Core Agency destroying the Shadow Army's foothold in Barbiron, but all of the above was already conveyed to Glerenceria. Right now, Terrivia held up Glerenceria's right hand and bent down to give a kiss on the lips to wake her up.

"How's Sapphire?" Glerenceria asked.

"Still sleeping, but that's not why I'm talking." Terrivia looked at Glerenceria's way, "I saw something in the crystal realm. Sapphire was pulled in."

"You're serious." Glerenceria opened her eyes fully and sat upright, "Did she see you in your true self?"

"No. Marie was the one showing the ropes, but get this." Terrivia looked seriously into Glerenceria's eyes, "Sapphire is 'the princess of blue'. She's actually Theodria."

"Wow, that's unexpectedly quick." Glerenceria remarked.

"But from the conversation between her and Marie, there's more to the plot than we think." Terrivia sat down next to Glerenceria, "All throughout her life, she was raised in a place called Oration Tower so she's finally bored enough to get away from there, but it's quite a ways off from here. That place was periodically guarded by the very ones Diana warned us about. The Four Queens. Theodria was nice enough to introduce them by their names."

"Shit." Glerenceria cursed, "Then it's only a matter of time before they find her here. If we stay with her, we'll die first. We have to relocate her somehow, but we can't tell her we know who she is. But how long can we keep her here without botching up the whole thing??"

"Don't tell me you made reservations." Terrivia spoke with a look of horror on her face.

"I did last night, but it's not about her. It's about the Niwatori sisters. They and Janice have made it past Viledon the hard way." Glerenceria replied.

"Are we going to fight the Four Queens together?" Terrivia asked.

"No. That's worse than the worst option available. We know nothing about their calibre of strength, but it's not farfetched that a single one of them would be more powerful than Diana. And we both know how your fight with her turned out." Glerenceria refused.

"Well shit. Now we have a different time limit altogether." Terrivia grunted.

"Ok. Let us both calm down." Glerenceria raised both her hands in a gesture, "Now that we know why Theodria's lying, do we know more about her personal life?"

"Actually, we do." Terrivia nodded, "One of the Administrata, Grant Willson, is the Minister of Internal Affairs, and he's responsible for her life of faking the image of a blonde princess. He thought Theodria could keep her mouth shut about the whole thing but when it comes to dreams, she's ready to spill everything. Then there's a person that we should keep an eye out for: Melissa. She's kinda like the doctor for Theodria's well being."

"I see. Then all that's left is to find a way to lure Melissa or Grant out into the open and make them confess about their ties to the Shadow Army, assuming that they have any." Glerenceria suggested.

Terrivia nodded, "Let's make breakfast and discuss more about what to do with the Birchwood later, ok?"

"Atta girl." Glerenceria smiled, "Pancakes?"

"If it's from you, then yes." Terrivia smiled.

***

Terrivia and Glerenceria left the apartment after taking breakfast with an excuse that they're looking to get disguise materials for 'Sapphire' to wear. In reality, they went to rendezvous with a Birchwood truck and get their own disguises ready. This time, it was Aspagra's truck.

"You want to know a good way to fight against the Four Queens? I know one. Never." Aspagra answered.

"Figured as much." Glerenceria groaned.

"Why did you ask?" Aspagra asked.

"We came across a girl who was specifically raised to forward the plans of the Shadow Army. She has blue colored blood for specific reasons unknown, but what it does mean is that she has distinct biological cues that set her too far apart from common people, Arkana and human alike." Glerenceria answered, "But we had a clue that she ran away from her shelter, guarded by the Four Queens, and ended up in our hands. Now it's only a matter of time before they find her and take her back. Our main mission here is either to convince the Administrata to come to a cease fire, or just to take Princess Theodria to the east and force a diplomatic resolution. But as things stand now, it's unclear whether or not either can achieve the intended effect."

"So this blue blooded girl of yours seems important enough, so you want us to keep track of the movement of the Four Queens?" Aspagra asked, "It won't be easy, I'll give you that. There's no underground information and no one dares to say a word about their activities."

"We just want to know their names and records." Terrivia added, "Next up is to come up with a way to throw them off guard and that is not something we'll involve all of Birchwood for. We'll do that ourselves."

"Using the disguises, right? That said, how are you sure you'll be able to make contact with the Administrata?" Aspagra asked.

"There's a sympathizer we can talk to, and he goes by the name of Dexter." Glerenceria answered.

"That will be tricky. Even for us mercs, we know some basics about Administrata members, and getting to Dexter will be troublesome for your covers. For all I know, he's in Delilah Lounge for the sake of appearances. Just talking to him will require getting a lot of hate from other mercs." Aspagra explained.

"We can just call him by smartphone and get an appointment, can't we?" Terrivia asked.

"Well, if we even know his number, then yes...." Aspagra then looked like she had an idea, "...Unless, I can just rig a smartphone with illegal OS and install some other software. Then we can call him with encrypted lines after we get his number."

"That sounds promising, but let's get back to business for now." Terrivia interrupted, "I don't know what happened that could drive a wedge between human females and Arkana so deep, so let's skip to find a way to bridge that gap with brute force. The two of us will head to the AOP hideout under Cranvosell and see if we can do something for them to gain their trust."

"Is there anything I can do from my end?" Aspagra inquired.

"Uh, buy groceries?" Terrivia grinned.

Aspagra immediately pouted and deadpanned, "It's not a glorious job, but someone has to do it."

"Ah, almost forgot. We appreciate it if you and all of Birchwood can ban yourselves from eating Colonel Sandy's meals for the rest of this mission of ours. It's laced with Stardust pollutants." Terrivia added.

"Seriously? In this day and age?" Aspagra looked in disbelief.

"You can test it out yourself if you have the equipment. Just don't eat it until it's safe in the future." Terrivia replied.

When the truck stopped at a distance away from the shopping complex under broad daylight, Terrivia and Glerenceria finished putting on their disguises and activated their cloaking devices. Because Aspagra was going to buy groceries for the safe house and her own company, to the surveilance cameras, it looked like only Aspagra alone was coming out of the truck. When Terrivia and Glerenceria would get back in, they would have to time it with Aspagra's return.

After making their way back to the hidden wall which was hastily repaired, the two of them waited there for a whole minute before there was someone available to let the wall slide away in order to allow entry. The lion shaman and Crimson Banshee both walked through the pathways while giving off the same fearsome presence as the night before. When they arrived at the office, they were greeted by Sandaraine and Bristie, as well as 3 more people of interest. One was a 16 year old girl with long blonde hair and an orange colored jumpsuit. Another was a 20 year old woman who wore a flak jacket and green pants with guns on her sides. The last one was a doctor who had no hair since her cranium was operated to be fitted with cybernetics of the overt kind, making her look metallic for the head.

"Very early of you to come by, Crimson Banshee, Terroria." Sandaraine smiled, "Allow me to introduce you to my subsidiaries. This young girl in jumpsuit is in charge of our mechanics, Tammy."

Tammy nervously raised her hand for a greeting, "N-nice getup."

Terrivia simply gave a thumbs up and pressed her right thumb on Tammy's forehead briefly.

"And this one who's overprepared for battle is Valefrey." Sandaraine continued.

"Yo! You may look like freaks but I can tell we're going to work a long way!" Valefrey laughed.

"I sincerely hope that our relationship will not be wavered by the factor of appearance." Glerenceria deadpanned.

"And finally, she is Dr. Flowenn. Flower Flowenn actually, but she doesn't like her name." Sandaraine continued.

With a robotic but fluent voice, Flowenn followed up, "I was afflicted with a born vocal chord condition and later headcapped by volatile Arkana. I hope that answers all your possible questions about my appearance."

"We have seen worse. Enemies who defy natural order, in particular." Terrivia replied in Swahili accent.

"So, are you two here for discussion, co-operation, or something else?" Sandaraine asked.

"Discussion, for the most part. However, we have some findings we like to share with you." Glerenceria replied, "We understand that this movement is to defy the oppression of Arkana, but what if we tell you that there's an ulterior motive that threatens everyone at the same time?"

"I'm listening." Sandaraine nodded.

"For time being, we have proof that popular food products had been laced with Stardust pollutants. These pollutants would cause Arkana to lose their control over their natural abilities when the quantity of Stardust is reduced. So what happens if humans are to ingest these food sources? It's easy to think that, without Stardust in the bodies, humans would suffer aging and sickness faster, and therefore speeding up the Stardust transactions." Glerenceria explained.

"Do you have the proof with you?" Bristie asked.

"Bear witness to these foul progressions right here." Terrivia handed over the test reports produced last night to Sandaraine's hands.

When Sandaraine watched the reports, her face turned pale, "This..... this is impossible!"

"What's wrong?" Bristie asked, "What's impossible?"

"Colonel Sandy's Fried Chicken was -my- firm! What if the Arkana pin this on me?" Sandaraine grimaced, "This must not be allowed to continue. Years ago, some Arkana with a lot of money bought this firm from me at gunpoint. I was going to haggle for a more favorable sum of payment, but when they brought in the Free Knights, all my available paths were cut off. Now, I'm using their filthy money to fund our operations here for when the time comes to strike."

"Retribution can only be served when the path of execution is clear." Terrivia replied, "Offer us a name, and we shall divine the right punishment."

"If it's about Arkana commiting crime against Arkana, it will surely give you more room to prepare." Glerenceria suggested.

"What are you going to do? Assassinate her? Racketeering? With the firm in an Arkana's hands, it will be easy for things to be blown out of proportion." Sandaraine asked.

"Just tell us the name, and we will figure out the right way to dole out the punishment without endangering our futures." Glerenceria assured.

"Alright. The bitch goes by the name of Aliyah. You seem to have the means to look her up and narrow down her residential address." Sandaraine spoke.

"No comment." Glerenceria closed her eyes briefly, "But this brings us to another concern. How much money you have left?"

"Not a lot, to be honest. If we need to gear us up just enough to fight in guerilla tactics, I need about 10 thousand more Gold to fund the production of more weapons, but that kind of salary isn't going to be given to us without scrutiny." Sandaraine lamented.

Terrivia and Glerenceria looked at each other for a few seconds, before looking back to the AOP members with Terrivia speaking, "Your currency will be ready in 2 days. We shall prepare ourselves to attack the concentrations of greed."

"Uh, do you mind if you don't resort to cryptic prose every single time?" Tammy inquired.

"What my partner means is that we will perform several bank heists." Glerenceria clarified.

"Wait, are you out of your minds? This isn't the past, ladies!" Bristie objected, "Banks do not store equivalent commodities such as gold bars nowadays, and everything's kept in databases. How the hell are you going to get past all that in just 2 days??"

"If we tell you here right now, I'm afraid we have to kill you. There's a spy among us, after all." Glerenceria warned, "But, before we leave, there's one condition."

"State your condition then." Sandaraine nodded.

"We can get you the money in dummy accounts with proper names and methods to retrive the sums, but in return, we get to have a say in the way the money is spent." Glerenceria grinned.

"... Alright. I consent to the condition." Sandaraine sighed.

"Just like that??" Bristie asked.

"We don't have a lot of options. My past firm is now involved in a state-wide food pollution scheme, and I'm running low on money to fund our operations. Besides, we're not involved as humans. Am I right?" Sandaraine replied.

"The deeds shall be done by our own hands, and our hands alone." Terrivia turned around and left the scene, and Glerenceria quickly followed.

After Aspagra loaded all the groceries and consumable items into the container, Terrivia and Glerenceria jumped into it and removed their disguises. They would then discuss their plan to stage the greatest heist Arktana would later come to know as 'The Great Heist.'

***

The end of Chapter 48