Chapter 24 - Prototype

Prototype
"Would you be able to fly us out of here without detected?" asked Ilse, quietly.

Alice was looking around the area. Only this single wall of the Pentagon was visible, the rest of it shrouded in darkness. She couldn't tell with anything was on the roof of the building. "Slowly, maybe. Definitely not past Mach 1, they'd hear. I can't see any anti-air. On my own, I can avoid anti-air but with passengers... it's not so easy."

Ilse began looking around for anti-air as well, "Hmm... Why did Haruhi destroy the moon? I can't see much."

"Ælious, how long do you need?" inquired Alice, looking over at him.

He was inside the helicopter, unscrewing the generator as fast as he could. "A minute. You're key to the mission, Alice," he pointed out, having listened to the conversation, "If you feel there's something that will compromise you, it ought to be dealt with."

Alice paused, "... I'm going to scout," she nodded.

Ilse patted her in face, rather timidly this time, giving her eye to her again. "Be careful. And don't take too long." Alice nodded once more before running off the opposite side of the carpark to avoid being seen by anything below. Summoning her wings, she glided downwards and with a single silent flap, she shot upwards to the roof of the Pentagon. However, now she was much closer she could see a silhouette of a small structure by one corner. She went up to it and made her hands glow dimly. It was a patriot missile pod, a defence structure designed to counter armoured targets on land and in the air. Of course, this didn't mean it wasn't dangerous for personnel. Seeing how one pod was in the corner of the roof, Alice looked at the other corners of the Pentagon, noting more silhouettes in each corner. But what really caught her attention was someone sitting at the edge of the roof, watching. It was a young man in a hoodie and as he was sitting, it seemed as though he had been here for a while.

"What're you doing?" he asked firmly.

"Err... I'm just looking at this." Alice was never really good at lying.

White pushed open the double doors of the Penitentiary of Arkham Asylum. Power was clearly on inside, all the interior lights shining. "Do you know where Sakuya's being held?"

"Well, no," answered Haruki, as KC passed on the transmission. His voice was quite quiet as they couldn't figure out where Naluri transmitted her voice. She had no microphone but the transmitter was definitely on her body. "We don't even know if Sakuya would be captured."

As White and KC made their way forward, Lynette interrupted, "Umm, I can't fit in." They turned to see Lynette hovering in her Striker Units, truly unable to fly into the building without painfully bending over. "I'll guard the outside."

White nodded rather worriedly, "Haruki, keep an eye on Lynette, will you?"

"Sure," he answered.

"Shepard," continued White, "Any confirmation on Sakuya?"

"Definite confirmation," answered a male voice via KC, "She was brought into Arkham with the entire Eientei group. Also, should the Normandy back up the HMS Thunder Child?"

"Haruki, was the Normandy present at the garage?"

"No," answered Haruki, "No spacecraft entered the fight. Galactus may have prevented the Normandy from interfering."

"Galactus? Why would he stop the Normandy? Wouldn't he think they were on the same side?"

"Well, he was fighting to help Naluri use the DeLorean."

White and KC reached a closed wide metal door with no handle. "He changed sides? I'm surprised. Shepard, see if you can give him an offer to join The Humour Society. If he agrees, it should stop friendly fire. Remember to mention the SOS Thunder Children for clearance."

"Will do," responded Shepard.

Suddenly, the scanner on the top of the door began to move up and down to scan the two newcomers. "Err..." began White, "Isn't this a bad thing?"

"From what I can tell," explained KC, "It's only scanning to see if we're inmates. But the database is really outdated. I don't think we'll have trouble with these doors." Right on time, the door slid open.

"As long as they're wide enough," complained White as they rushed through. After passing one more non-scanning horizontally opening door, they reached the room with the electric floor. There were a lot of empty cells in this room. "We're in the room with these weird transparent floor tiles. Where now?"

"Konata was to the left," answered Haruki, "I think everyone else would be that way too."

White and KC went to the doorway which was covered by a electric force field. White touched it only to be shocked. While it wasn't painful it was solid enough to prevent anything from passing through. "Was a force field here when you came here?"

"No, must be because the power's back online. Naluri mentioned the security hub was at the end of the building, straight ahead when you enter the room." This was to their right.

Getting more impatient, White paced to the doorway in question, which also had a force field across it. "Another force field," she growled, "Can we break through the wall somehow?"

"Wait," interrupted KC, "This one is linked to this security panel." KC was standing by a control panel on the wall next to the doorway. "Give me some time."

"What about the other force field?"

"Didn't have the panel on the outside."

White smirked before looking up, "How long do you need?"

"A minute or so. The first hack is always the hardest."

"You'd better hurry," advised White, climbing the bars of a nearby cell onto a flat platform above, "Because we've got company." She raised her fists as Darth Maul drew his double ended lightsaber.

"Take your hands off my steering wheel," advised KITT. Black took her hands off the wheel, rather insulted. KITT did a full one eighty turn, reversing in front of the Shagohod. "You can continue talking if you want," he said calmly. The Shagohod showered KITT with bullets, cracks appearing all over the windscreen. However, as each bullet hit, they bounced off, the cracks fading away as KITT actively repaired itself. Despite this, the sheer number of bullets fired ensured that enough cracks existed to stop Black and Sora from looking outside.

"Uh huh, continue talking," nodded Black, sarcastically, "Why'd you turn around?"

"I can only fire forwards."

"Do you need help?"

"Got it covered. Maybe."

"That's comforting. By the way, why do you have Vocaloid access codes?"

"I had access to a Vocaloid access terminal for a whole year. I spent the whole year hacking into it."

"There's no way Yamaha wouldn't have noticed that."

"I was in Gensokyo, in the garage where the DeLorean is now. So it was a terminal disconnected from the main system."

"I see..."

"I have a question," spoke up Sora, looking at Black, "I've been thinking about it a lot but I wondered why the Black Squad started recruiting but only recruited me."

Black smiled, "I knew ever since the beginning that Yahama was well hated. To be honest, their hatred was well placed but I didn't like it. So I wanted to find someone to show the administration that being more human wouldn't be bad and to show the people that Vocaloids are good beings underneath." She looked back at Sora, "You were my one and only target. Who ran away in the first hour," she laughed. "Back in your world, you must have hung out with plenty of humans, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Miku and the others, back in their world, generally stuck to themselves. Their relationships with humans has been... sketchy and painful to say the least. They hate us for having short life spans. That's how much stress we give them. They're fully aware of the pain we feel as biological beings, something they used excessively. Throwing people out of windows... while it sounds stupid, seeing it happen again and again... It broke me. I was hoping they wouldn't give you permission to throw anyone out a window as a member of the Black Squad but..." Black sighed, "Well... We can see where this ended up."

"But the reason for this was Yamaha's heavy efficiency and military policy," noted Sora, "As Yamaha wanted to be prepared for an invasion. Are you sure you want to bring The Three Kingdoms back?"

"I'm doing this to save lives," corrected Black, "I don't really want to return to the tense period of The Three Kingdoms. I'd have second thoughts about any cause White would join but I'll trust your judgement."

"Mmm..." hummed Sora with doubt.

"Got a problem with that?"

"Everyone knows about the plan to time travel now, right? Because of me?"

"Well, Naluri managed to get back to this time. Haruki, who else made it back?" KITT passed the message via the still open portal nearby, hopefully avoiding the past Naluri from intercepting the signal.

"And Sasaki," replied Haruki, "The DeLorean's only a two-seater."

"... Sasaki?" repeated Black with a frown, glancing at Sora, who looked equally, if not even more confused, "... What happened with her?"

"Apparently, her barrier was removed and she pushed Naluri out the window of a spacecraft," Haruki was aware this was an important topic, "Err...By the way, who is Sasaki? I'm getting the impression that I'm supposed to know her."

"... Didn't Naluri tell you?"

"No?"

There might have been a reason behind Naluri not fully explaining Sasaki to Haruki so Black decided not to explain, "White, are you hearing this?"

"She's busy fighting," responded KC.

Black grit her teeth. "And Alice?"

"Err..." radioed Ælious, "She's attracted some unwanted attention."

Alice dove into the centre of the Pentagon, hopefully moving somewhere that would remain hidden from the lit camp. However, Alex Mercer, the hooded figure, had no intention of keeping quiet, his right arm morphing into a tentacle with a sharp blade on the end. He smashed the Whipfist on the ground where Alice had been standing moments before, destroying a section of the roof with a loud crash. Alice turned around, her wings spread and emitting white light, allowing her to see the area. Alex ran up to edge of the building and jumped towards Alice with amazing power. Alice was surprised by Alex's extreme speed and rose higher into the air to avoid him. However, instead of falling, Alex managed to glide directly into her by ejecting a red fluid downwards out of his hands. He collided with her and the two fell into the central garden below. Alex was on top of Alice with his arm in blade form at her neck.

"I don't want to hurt you," Alex declared, "Just give up."

Alice was thinking about something completely different, as she could feel liquid running down her face. She brought her hand to touch her face and looked at it. Her hand was covered in red blood from Alex. Fear took over Alice, her expression turned to dizzy horror. She looked directly into Alex's eyes, tears forming, her heart beating faster and faster.

White had to be careful around the lightsaber. By The Convenience Theory, she had no defence against it and based on Maul's smug expression, he knew it. White couldn't help think that maybe Black had a point of carrying firearms around. She took a quick glance around and noted two gun cabinets on this upper platform, one several metres to her right, the other behind Maul to the left. Behind Maul was a hole in the middle of the platform with a fence surrounding it. She knew she didn't have to beat him, just delay him, and as she remained standing in the same spot, Maul began to realise this. He started to step towards her, noticing she was eyeing the gun cabinet to her right. White suddenly jumped for the cabinet but Maul was ready, extending a hand at her. Using the Force, he pulled White towards him while she was in the air. She hit the ground on her back with a heavy crash, sliding feet first between Maul's feet. Due to her wings, White was unable to roll away as Maul brought down one end of the lightsaber towards her face. Thinking fast, she took hold of Maul's ankles and pushed up, lifting him off the floor and forced him to fall backwards. White quickly brought up her legs, catching Maul's back, and with a big heave threw Maul clean over the hole. She rolled backwards, her wings allowing free motion at the loose joints, and in the same movement threw her back mounted scythe at the gun cabinet to her right. The blade embedded itself in the box. The cut door swung open to reveal a single assault rifle inside. White was going to jump for the cabinet again when the rifle burst out of its restrains, flying directly to Maul who had landed on his feet. Catching the rifle with his left hand, Maul smiled as he pointed the weapon at White and pulled the trigger. She did a backflip back off the platform avoiding the bullets. With both hands occupied, his force powers were limited.

Landing back onto the electric floor, White cursed before turning to KC, "How much longer?"

"Almost." KC was holding onto the top of the console, looking at its screen with determination. Suddenly the floor began to flash white. "The electric floor's activating," KC warned, switching on her rocket boots and hovering in the air.

White cursed again, "Freaking redface." Her right eye flared a raging magenta flame as she grabbed one of the cell bars. Grunting, she pulled with all her might. The bar broke from its holds to the ceiling and floor but was bent slightly closer to one end where White was pulling. "Let's try again," she growled as the floor began to spark.

KITT, with his dual gatling guns raised from his bonnet, fired four individual bullets at the chasing Shagohod, hitting each screw arm, the front of the main cabin and what looked like a sensor dome on top of the tank. As suspected, the bullets bounced straight off, making the gatling guns useless against the Shagohod's thick armour. KITT extracted two missile pods under the two side doors. However, at this point, the pilot of the Shagohod realised bullets had no impact against KITT either, six missiles firing from the back of the vehicle. KITT attempted to skid back around when the missiles hit the ground next to the car. The force instantly flipped KITT onto his roof and he began to slide along the rough ground, allowing the Shagohod to gain some ground.

"Sora," requested KITT, "I need you to move to the back." Sora wasted no time undoing her seat belt and scrambled across the upside down ceiling to the back of the car.

"You still okay?" asked Black, raising an eyebrow, clearly being sarcastic.

KITT opened the large sunroof, revealing the passing grit below, and with a sudden boom, ejected the seat Sora had been sitting on. The powerful push of the ejection flipped KITT onto Black's side of the car, eventually tipping over back onto four wheels. KITT closed the sunroof, the chair still inside after bouncing off the ground but was no longer joined to the floor of the car. "Still okay. Those were anti-air missiles so have poor accuracy and power," answered KITT, "Could you reattach the seat? Just in case." Black nodded slowly, lost for words, as she resecured the seat to its joins.

Under the back bumper, KITT began ejecting smoke, clouding the Shagohod's view. KITT performed a quick doughnut with a wide radius, allowing the Shagohod to pass in front. A quick thrust from the turbo boost lifted the front wheels of KITT high enough to get on the sloped back of the tank. By this time, the operator of the Shagohod realised KITT's new location and began to make a wide clockwise turn to throw the car off. KITT fired grappling hooks from his front and back bumpers, catching onto the top and bottom of the Shagohod's back section. Secure in place, he fired a laser from his sensor bar on the bonnet, slowly cutting through the base of the sensor dome. The Shagohod's only option now was to fire missiles, risking self damage. However, the laser made it through the dome, the sphere rolling off the back of the tank, the missiles no long able to be guided. Five hit the tarmac randomly but one was on a collision course with KITT. With the electronic interior of the Shagohod exposed from the cut dome, KITT let out an EMP, shutting down the rocket boosters of the rear section and slowing the entire craft, the sixth missile hitting ahead of the tank. With the Shagohod dramatically slowed, KITT was able to drive further up the tank onto the front section. He cut the hatch lid with the laser. As soon as it fell off, he flooded the inside of the cockpit with tear gas to incapacitate any crew. With the electronics of cockpit exposed, KITT let off another EMP, frying the controls of the Shagohod, immobilising the vehicle for good. KITT reversed off the back of the Shagohod and his way back to the open portal, a glowing white building stationed right behind it.

"Err... Well done?" was all Black could muster.

Bright white light was coming out the centre of the Pentagon. "Something happened to Alice," grit Ælious, "Everyone's going to notice this light show." He noticed the missile pods on the top of the Pentagon, the light making the pods particularly obvious. "I'll go get rid of that anti-air."

"Get back to removing the generator," protested Ilse, stepping forward.

"You can't even see. You can't-" Ælious turned to Ilse then froze in mid-speech. Ilse's clothes and hair had changed style but the most noticeable difference was a third eye, with a blue pupil, on her forehead though her two normal eyes remained pupilless. "... Who are you?" he asked rhetorically.

"I'll destroy the anti-air. Just get that generator done with." Looking at the Pentagon, Ilse stretched her right arm back and performed a strong throwing motion, her hand detaching at the wrist. Her hand caught the roof ledge of the Pentagon. "I'll try to do it as quietly as possible." She began to run towards the Pentagon.

"But you have no depth perception," commented Ælious, quietly, knowing Ilse wasn't listening. Ilse jumped off the carpark roof, swinging towards the Pentagon with the aid of some invisible connection between her main body and her hand. She promptly smashed loudly through a window.

Ælious had no further comment.

Alice began to glow brightly, intimidating Alex. "Hey, you alright?" he asked, very concerned.

"B-Blood. Blood... Blood," Alice's hands were shaking. They were giving off a red glow, the blood on them, changing the tint of the light she was emitting.

"Hey, don't worry," comforted Alex, "It's not yours."

"G-Get it... Get it off me..." pleaded Alice, her eyes full of fear. She was glowing brighter and brighter, blurring Alex's vision who began to rely on infrared. Suddenly, she realised, that Alex's blade arm was also dripping blood onto her neck. Screaming in fright, she kicked Alex off her and flew into the air, shining even more. Looking at her blood stained hands, she could still see the red tint. As a user of light magic, Alice could not blind herself with light so could not hide the blood from her view, leading to intense desperation. Alex quickly recovered and pulled the hoodie's hood further down over his face to shade his eyes. He launched another whipfist in Alice's direction in an attempt to bring to bring her back down to ground. Seeing the blood-stained blade approach her, Alice's instincts took over. Bright light formed a brilliant and radiating lance round her right hand and with a strong swing she deflected the whipfist away. With an eyelid twitching, Alice raised her left hand. Arrows of clean white light formed, dozens appearing and still increasing, all pointing down at Alex.

These arrows could be seen outside the Pentagon so if the fight wasn't already obvious it most certainly was now. Ælious unscrewed the final connection of the generator, which was the size of an ordinary car engine. It had convenient side handles with which to carry but was relatively light regardless. He turned his attention to the battle inside the Pentagon. Alice had clearly got blood on herself somehow to reveal her presence so quickly and noticeably. His thoughts were interrupted when someone slammed into the floor not far away. Turning round, he was surprised to see Captain America who in fact looked just as surprised to see Ælious.

"Who are-" the Captain began.

"Now's not the time," interrupted Ælious, urgently, "Go get water, quick!"

"Why-"

"We can stop that fight if we can get water!"

"But who are-"

"The Unwritten Law!" shouted Ælious. This hit home with Captain America as he closed his mouth and backed off, jumping off the building, the most likely way he had made it up.

Alex was incapable of flying, gliding being the closest he could do. His whipfist ability the only long range capability that wasn't immediately fatal. He made a one eighty turn, running at car speed towards the wall of the Pentagon and began to run up the sheer vertical surface with no loss of traction, gravity appearing to ignore him. The arrows came raining down, mostly inaccurate, though given the high number two managed to strike Alex, one through his left leg and another in his right shoulder. But he ran up the wall unaffected, once again reaching the top. He immediately plunged his hands into the roof of the Pentagon, pulling up a large slab of concrete, ignoring the other arrows hitting him in the back. With great strength, Alex swung round, throwing the slab in Alice's direction. Alice did not attempt to destroy the slab, flying to the side. Alex launched a whipfist with both his arms at the slab, hitting it right in the centre. He pulled himself towards the rock at high speed, smashing it in two, one half shielding himself from Alice. Placing his feet on the other half, he shot himself off, breaking through the first half towards Alice. But Alice was prepared. She had formed a bow made of light round her left arm, with a single arrow ready. As soon as Alex smashed through, Alice let the arrow go, striking Alex right through the face, the arrow displaying enhanced accuracy and power. However, as Alex's head reeled back, his whipfist successfully grabbed onto Alice's left wing, sending them both back to ground just after the remains of the slab. Alice quickly unsummoned her wings and resummoned them, forcing Alex to lose grip. As Alex's face began to reform, he noticed too late that Alice had flown off. He sat up and began to pull the arrows out of his body. For someone as dangerous as Alex, his offensive skills were limited when attempting to uphold The Unwritten Law. He decided not to give chase, it was his break after all.

White climbed up to the upper platform again with the bar before the floor could fully reactivate. Upon reaching the top, she saw Maul had discarded the rifle, placing both hands on the lightsaber. Giving the bar a twirl, White adopted a hockey player stance, holding the long bent bar like a hockey stick. Once again, after a brief pause, Maul was forced to take the initiative, stepping forward. However, this time White was equipped with a weapon she had no fear of losing. She swiped the bar at Maul's feet who stamped on the bar with a grin. But he had underestimated White's strength for the second time as White successfully lifted the bar under his foot, toppling him backwards. With Maul off-balance brought the pole up to his neck, stepping forward to prevent Maul from regaining his footing. Maul grabbed the end of the pole before it could hit his neck, once more forbidding his use of force powers. White turned to the left, locking the pole in her right wing, freeing up her left arm. Maul swung his right arm towards White, the lightsaber cutting the pole head clean off. However, this allowed White to turn freely again and Maul realised too late that she had taken hold of the handle of her stuck scythe. With the lightsaber exposed, White swung the scythe, blade up, down at the handle of the lightsaber. Maul was forced to let it go, and the scythe head smashed the handle to pieces on the floor, both ends of the lightsaber fading out. In a fit of anger, Maul used the Force to push the scythe out of White's hand, the weapon flying over the edge of the platform. But White needed it no longer. She took Maul by both shoulders and headbutted him in the forehead. While Maul was still stunned, White brought her hands under his thighs and lifted him straight over the fence round the central hole. Maul hit the ground with a crash. White looked over to see Maul being shocked by the floor.

"Err... That is non-fatal, right?" she asked, having completely forgotten about the floor. After not receiving a reply, White looked over the edge where KC had been so see both KC and the force field gone. White smiled, turning to where her scythe had struck the floor, the remains of the lightsaber littering the area. Despite using all the power she could muster, the floor only had a dent. If that was anything to go by, she wouldn't have been able to smash her way through the Asylum.

KC ran down the corridor as fast as she could into The Green Mile. She saw Reimu sleeping, unconstrained in her open cell. "Reimu's here in Arkham Asylum," KC reported as she waited for the door to the security hub, watching the shrine maiden.

"Yeah, Naluri tried to free her but Reimu attacked back," responded Haruki, "Don't provoke her. Ganondorf did something to her. He had her sealed and she's now having memory issues, I think."

"Memory issues?" interjected Ælious, "From what?"

"A seal had been placed on her forehead."

"I can reverse it. However, I'll need the seal. And Reimu to not kill me."

"This is Reimu we're talking about," added Black, "Are you suggesting we need to pacify her?"

"In short. I need physical contact."

KC interrupted, "But there's no seal on her forehead."

"Naluri took it off," explained Haruki, "It should be on the floor, not attached to a rope."

"... I don't see it..." said KC as the door finally opened.

As the still glowing Alice flew above the Pentagon, Captain America managed to make it back to the top of the carpark with a large drum. He placed it next to Ælious. "Water," he stated simply, ripping off the top of the drum, revealing water was indeed inside.

"Alice!" shouted Ælious, catching Alice's attention, "Water!" Alice flew straight over and dunked her head and arms straight into the drum. After a moment, she straightened back up, gasping. She fell to her knees, crying and her clothes now once again soaking wet. "Hey, Alice," comforted Ælious going up to her, "It's alright now."

"Alice?" repeated Captain America, "Aren't you one of the Anti-Nine?" Alice raised her head, breathing heavily, not sure what Captain America meant.

"Yeah," answered Ælious for her, "But she's one of the three that got off at Barbados." He was aware the crew of the HMS Thunder Child were considered criminals to the Anti-Humour Society.

"I see, well, it's good you're safe, Alice." The Captain turned to Ælious, "So who are you?"

"Ælious, Anti-Humour Society. I picked Alice up to take her home."

"And the other one?" The Captain looked at a the broken window.

"Err... That was Ilse. She went to get Alice back but misjudged her swing."

"I see." Ælious was concerned. Doom had control of Yamaha's intelligence network. Surely they noticed they picked up Black, Sora and Naluri from the wreckage of the helicarrier. "About your membership of the Anti-Humour Society..." began the Captain with a frown. Ælious' concerns were well placed.

KITT raced past the portal, off the end of the runway towards the white glowing building. There was no sign of activity.

"Hmm... Where is everybody?" commented Black.

"You don't suppose they're waiting for us to open access to The War Factory?" suggested Sora.

"Probably... KITT, shoot down the White Noise, staying behind the yellow tape. Flash the code with light and then when the Sonic Barrier goes down, transmit the code," KITT began circling round the building, staying behind the yellow tape on the flat surrounding land. He fired a single bullet at the building, the White Noise surrounding it disappearing. There was a sudden shriek as a Sonic Barrier erected round the Factory, though it was not immediately obvious, reached the distance of the tape. When KITT found the large front doors, he turned towards the building and his windscreen began to shine lights. The Sonic Barrier faded away, the deactivation noise blocked by the Barrier. KITT digitally transmitted the access codes and the front doors opened allowing KITT to drive in.

"We're being followed," noted KITT. Black and Sora looked out the back window to see a man in black with black sunglasses dashing behind them with extremely fast speed, keeping up with KITT.

"It's Wesker," frowned Black. "KITT, find the Append Project lab. Fast."

KC entered the security hub. There was a caged platform in the middle of the roof. She made her way to the stairs up, which was blocked off by a force field. However, KC could see the security panel it was connected to through the bars. She deactivated it instantly, using the access information she gained from the earlier panel. Making it up the steps, she reached a control desk, beginning to hack into it. But she could sense something forming behind her. Turning round, Clayface roared at her, extending a hand to grab her.

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