A Small Outing

[January 21st]

After the four left the Revenant facility, Matoi has found the state's channels stubborn, and decided to call a friend of a friend: Aimee Sato, who offered to offload the tedious work of subpoenaing Revenant facility security footage onto her agency (and really Charlotte, who Aimee tended to offload all tedious paperwork onto).

Within a few days, she called the four up in their hotel.

"So, finally got it, but, uh... I'm hoping you don't need audio or to see it yourself, 'cause we're not allowed to send it to anyone, and there's no audio. Here's what Atori's notes -- since I made him watch all the angles -- say, though.

It starts by two guys running up to the back of the facility. Alarm is already going off. One of them uses his acid Revenant to break into the main hallway, Chimera goes to deal with them. Guy #2 has medieval shield Revenant. Weird.

Anyway, facilities usually keep their Revenants in separate vats in separate rooms, and a few are left empty as decoys. They miss on the first try, but the second try they find one, corrode away the vats and takes a Revenant. Chimera kills one of them by breathing fire. But, Guy #1 has the Revenants and leaves; Chimera chases, but eventually -- they aren't allowed to go too far away from the facility, so, yeah. And he goes off-camera, maybe to alert his secondary guard.

"Does it say what Revenant was stolen?" said Matoi.

"Yeah. It allowed its host to talk to animals."

"And the day of the footage?"

"December 27th."

Matoi checked their tablet. "…there was a call that day, and another two days later. Two students responded to it. Presumably, that's how they died -- to the serpent."

"Sounds like it, yeah." Aimee felt an urge to offer something more comforting more than that, but she did not really know Matoi well enough to do so; the thought felt awkward. "Alright. Uh, sorry to end it on that, but I gotta get going. Bye. Call Charlotte if you need anything."

"Bye." said the four, and the fifth hung up.

"Guess we know where that one came from, at least." said Samuel.

"Isn't it weird the guy got away, though?" said Marisa. "Like, Revenant guards should be super strong."

"There aren't many people to choose from." said Matoi. "It's usually whatever professional is willing to deal with twelve-hour shifts."

"And expecting competency from any American workplace is foolishness." nodded Samuel.

"…yeah. I dunno, like." Marisa shrugged. "I think we should - go back and ask him questions or whatever."

Matoi's head shook. "I understand why - but not yet."

"Don't want to let him know we're suspecting him, right." nodded Samuel. "Still - might be nothing. Just need more evidence."

"Aimee can look up his Revenant, as well." nodded Mia.

"Should we still be scanning?" said Samuel. "If we're deciding not to let him know. Because as far as I know, facility guards usually receive that signal to prepare for arrival, so to speak."

Matoi shook her head. "For now, no -- we won't scan. Destroy the Revenants after we have them analyzed, and we'll try to bring someone in alive."

"Unfortunately."

++++++

While Matoi & Marisa slept that night, Mia & Samuel had set out to a midnight diner, glass wall adjacent. The Revenants' difficulty made them speak of their trip with the cursed artifact, then of Akira.

"Hasn't reappeared since then, right?" said Samuel, and Mia shook her head.

"He hasn't, though I assume he's watching me constantly."

Samuel peered in to his water and Mia laughed. The boar had always been good comedy for the group, even as the sole male with three lesbians, partially because Mia had never known him to think quietly even when he should've. Another man may have overcompensated in courtesy or hidden his masculinity, but Mia had the feeling he hadn't changed much from that earlier trip and would still be the same by the time they graduated.

Aimee came to her head. She felt like Aimee hadn't changed too much either, but maybe that was because they talked every day and saw each other as often as they could. Someone who hadn't seen her in three years would've known the difference, surely, but with Aimee, Serena, and the others, she couldn't tell sometimes if they hadn't changed since the days they met or if it'd been so gradual she couldn't see it.

She still didn't understand Serena's animes and doubted she ever would.

She was good friends with Matoi now, but she felt they hadn't gotten to the level of her&Serena yet. Maybe nobody knew the white wedding too deeply, though. Admittedly, she still had difficulty seeing how Matoi handled the intimacy of a relationship, but doubted Rin was calling her Kujotzy. She knew she could rely on Matoi, but wondered if Matoi would ever come to anyone if she wasn't forced.

"You know, she's still opened a bit from what I remember of her in my first year." Samuel shrugged. "The way I see it, she just usually despises not handling everything herself."

Mia nodded. "I remember. I took a trip with her a few years ago to Lanacca, and she was just... well, she was very averse to asking anyone for help at all."

Samuel nodded, and in the next instant -

- the two ducked in to their seats -

- just in time to avoid the lunar beam coming from the window beside, glass shattering in to a thousand shards -

" - Outcast!" shouted Samuel, ghastly hands throwing them back -

- but a thousand more appeared; and another cloud of scarabs disintegrated them as the two hit the floor, Outcast's armor forming, Worldwide's scarabs readied.

"Urasaria!" shouted Samuel to the startled diners - " - even though you can't see my badge!"

Diners laughing nervously as they crouched down, another beam erupted out of the broken aperture, and as a pane of ice formed to block it -

- it melted instantly in to water, far more gallons than proper dumping on their bodies, and before they could react -

- another beam entered the pool, more & more gallons entering the sudden body of water, duplicated liquid claiming their heads & slowing their movements as it shoved them down -

" - Wffwffd!" hummed Mia -

- and a tri-swarm raid flew down the two's throats, careful electrolysis keeping them breathing; but they had no time to rest. Pool growing & growing, the water's pressure started to build, scarabs slowing as the beam kept constant on the liquid -

- but the next scene was instant. Ghastly hands formed at every table's supply of napkins and threw the absorbing cloths in to the beam -

- and in to a hundred napkins duplicated the cotton, thousands more forming, diner filling with wet napkins as it absorbed every last drop. The two rose to their feet again as Mia disintegrated them, and they didn't look back as they started their rush out of the diner, down the aisle with door up ahead, more beams landing behind them but no direct hits yet. As Samuel came up to the door, his shoulder smashed it open -

- and groaned at the next door just like it ten feet ahead, perfect diner duplicate -

- just in time for another beam to enter his left shoulder; grunting as he staggered, chips of obsidian fell to the floor, and as the beam sought their spikes -

- a fire scarab disintegrated a hole in the floor, and in to the burrow fell the obsidian, beam catching only air and buying them time to rush out of the next door, peeling left & in to the diner's parking lot. As they turned their eyes left again -

" - guessing that's it!" shouted Samuel, seeing their foe on the line of businesses three hundred feet ahead, midair prism floating above one shopping center's roof. With no time to waste, the two started rushing towards it, cars & trees at regular intervals, clouds forming a war council overhead and starting to rain as they ran -

" - fuck." groaned Mia, holding her burning blue blade high - " - we - have to deal with this before it worsens -"

" - agreed." nodded Samuel, and as the prism's beam shot towards them - " - Outcast!"

- a set of ghastly hands ripped one tree out of its roots ahead and threw it forward -

- and in to the bark went the beam, thousands of pieces shattering out, more ghastly hands throwing them back at the prism, but missing out of range.

"Once we -" panted Mia - " - I can Solar Beam it once we're in range, or the building -"

" - might work." nodded Samuel, another tree&block&beam ahead, and as the lunar light entered the new bark -

- it burst in to a thousand shards; ghastly hands threw them back -

- but the two saw with aghast eyes a gallon of sap drop out of the tree, gallons&gallons of sticky liquid growing as another beam entered it as it hit the ground -

- and formed a field of rapidly growing sap ahead, two hundred feet separating them and their foe, sap field starting to flood fifty feet ahead as they halted -

" - Solar Beam!" shouted Mia, dropping her burning blue sword and aiming her palms forward -

- a white beam erupted from her palms, disintegrating one path through the knee-high sap -

- and the two sighed as it kept regrowing back, Mia forced to snuff out her beam as her supply of scarabs lowered, downpour worsening as she picked up her burning blue blade again. One fire scarab burrowed in to the ground ahead, and as it burnt out a hole -

- the prism's beam swept on to it, asphalt duplicating to repair the sudden burrow -

- but another cloud of scarabs kept pace with its duplication, more brethren drilling holes in the asphalt to absorb the rain, two hundred feet still separating the two. The sap had grown to chest-high, and the prism's one beam swept back to keep it repaired.

"Mia." said Samuel, eyes on one tree left. "Mind if I ask you to do something risky?" (He relayed it.)

Mia nodded and started her rush forward, six-feet of burning blue rushing down the asphalt as Samuel ran off & left, and as she came up to the field of sap -

- she started running right through it, blue flames disintegrating a path as she rushed through but sap still slowing her down; behind, she heard Outcast's grip rip a tree out of the ground -

" - now!" she heard Samuel shout, and as the tree flew past&above her -

- the next scene was instant. The prism's light swept to block it -

- but panes of ice formed midair, ricocheting and sliding the projectile to dodge it, scarabwoman keeping pace below as it flew -

- and the keen end of the barked projectile smashed the lower half of the prism clear off, wires turning to veins dripping out of the ghastly aperture. Mia laughed as the beam disappeared, ramp of ice forming up to the roof, and as she ran up it -

- she saw the dead host on the other end, lower half torn clear off, upper half with a dozen shattered ribs bursting out.

"He's dead!" shouted Mia, relevantly, and Samuel eventually came up.

"Sheesh." he laughed. "Face doesn't look too bad, though. Might still be able to identify him."

Mia nodded. "I'll call Matoi and Marisa."