Forum Thread

“come on sweetheart, time to play” Dream Ophelia’s voice was soft…and so, so alluring.
She followed Dream Ophelia to the stables near the creek, before picking out a sweet looking little horse
Huixin helped Dream Ophelia get on, and they rode for miles, across the starry sky, lay to rest amongst the lily fields. Then the weeping willow extended her loving arms, the golden gates opening to the world of stars.

Huixin was having the time of her life. That was, until she noticed a figure looking a lot like Shieta, beckoning her away frantically. Her gut told her to follow Shieta, but her heart told her otherwise.

Who to follow?

Aleksandr swung by the local electronics store, quickly buying a backup laptop, before making his way to the new base.

He found the hidden entrance, entering with a swipe of his key card.

The stench of blood was thick and heavy.

He took a deep breath.

Server room. He had the entire database in his pocket. He'd check in with the boss later.

---

Ldeya crossed her legs, lined up her sights, and pulled the trigger.

A civilian fell below.

And another.

The another.

They would be fine, assuming they got to a hospital in time. Perhaps a broken arm, pierced skin, shattered foot. She hadn't really bothered aiming carefully.

Below, the trio of chaos was, well, causing chaos.

She yawned, lazily dropped the gun into the street below, and prepared to leave.

~~~~~~~
"Pretty..."

Liyue muttered softly to herself, examining the soft purple petal in her hand.

She was sitting crosslegged on the floor of the new base, so quiet it was easy to forget she was there.

---

Xuanji was going to return to the basement where her room was for both the new base and the old one. But, her dear pet Poe the raccoon decided that he wasn’t having it, and clawed his was off the girl’s neck, and ran into the room of uh… the girl called Liyue, or that genshin region or whatever.

Sighing dejectedly, Xuanji followed to grab her pet.

Liyue looked up as Xuanji entered, the racoon on her lap looking more docile than it had in a long time. She stroked its fur lightly, a purple butterfly rested on its nose.

She blinked, seemingly confused to see Xuanji.

"Oh, hi."

---

As Jackal, Reaper, and Hangman exited the alleyway, they were greeted by several task force members on their way to the base. However these three were not so amateur as to let a few gunmen get in their way. Cassius charged forward like a demented ox, bullets bouncing off of his kevlar suit, knocking aside members with brute force or breaking them with hooks and chains. Asper similarly lunged forward, speeding past bullets like a child in a game of dodgeball and set upon the operatives like a rabid animal. Not prepared for such brutality, the operatives screamed and bled like pigs as the two cold, steel katanas found their way past vests and armor and into flesh. Asper laughed maniacally though the whole process; this was her element, her speciality. In contrast to his two compatriots, Ostium stood completely still as the ESA agents began to open fire on him. He simply opened up a portal and let all the bullets enter its gaping maw. As the agents inevitably had to reload, Ostium closed the portal and gave them a sinister smirk.

"Right back at ya, buckaroo"

With that, Ostium opened a portal directly above the agents and all the bullets came hurtling out, striking down each and every one of the agents attacking him. Laughing to himself, Ostium reveled in the chaos. However his exaltation was cut short by a transmission from the boss. It simply asked "You guys okay?" Ostium dove into some cover before responding.

"Couldn't be better! Made it to the Square!" Ostium quickly looked at Asper and Cassius, seeing they have eradicated the agents attacking them and have begun destroying the ESA transports as they passed by. "We have cut off ESA reinforcements for the moment, should ease the pressure on the base. Just lemme know if ya need anything else!."

However, Ostium's reply was met by an extended period of silence from Hui Xin. This gave him worry, Hui Xin was always so prompt to reply. Thinking it was nothing, Ostium just sent another message "Hey boss, are YOU okay?" Silence. Now alarm bells were going off in Ostium's head. Was the base under siege? Had Hui Xin been assassinated? How are the other members holding up? Ostium sent out a message to Ldeya, Asper, and Cassius. "Something came up at the base, I'll go take care of it. Y'all make sure no ESA vehicles make it out of this area intact." Asper and Cassius nodded in the distance and with that, Ostium quickly made a portal to Hui Xin's office and jumped through.

Xuanji nodded at her and walked over, yanking the raccoon off of Liyue by his neck, the poor guy squealed and jumped onto Xuanji’s shoulder and curled around her neck, falling asleep.

“Damn raccoon. Sorry.”

Xuanji was unsure of who the girl was apart from her name being a region in a game. But whatever. Putting her hands in her pockets, Xuanji exited the room.

Her comms started buzzing.

She paused in the middle of the street, hands pulling out of the sizeable hole in her shoulder, yanking out the bullet.

She winced slightly, as the wound started to close.

What in the world was happening?

She glanced down at her comms.

Oh god.

Huixin, that insane woman.

Shootings? That was terrorism.

---

Liyue blinked as the raccoon was suddenly yanked off, and Xuanji exited.

Her hands moved on their own and a raccoon which looked exactly like Poe appeared on her lap.

"Cute..."

Her lips lifted in a small smile.

---

Huixin went with her gut. She left Dream Ophelia against her heart’s wishes and went with Shieta.

When she came to in the real world, she was woozy and tired, and her head hurt like hell.

Huixin looked up at Shieta, smiling faintly at her “Thanks for saving me”

“I hope I didn’t scare you too much……but I probably did, given how many times I felt close to death”

“Either way, Aleksandr got her cuffed, but apparently there was a bit of metal she used to escape. Tricky one. We’ll get her eventually.” Huixin updates Shieta, as she sits up on the operating table.

“…I look like shit”

"Mind telling us what happened, though, Boss?"

Aleks sauntered into the room, computer in hand.

"I just uploaded all the important stuff into the main servers, here. Set up the security system, too."

Aleks sighed.

"...You have a history with her? The ESA Head?"

---

Ostium landed in Huixin’s office but she was nowhere to be seen. However, he noticed a trail of relatively fresh blood trailing out of the room. Ostium’s eyes began darting around frantically and he began following the trail of blood with great speed. Had the ESA been able to assassinate Huixin so easily? What chance did the rest of them stand? As he found the trail led to the mafia’s makeshift operating theatre, Ostium burst through the door to find Huixin gravely injured with Shieta and Aleksandr standing next to her. Ostium’s eyes quickly darted towards the heart monitor. Relief washed over him; Huixin was stable. However, this relief was undermined by a gnawing confusion. What could have damaged Huixin this badly? Did they really stand a chance? This tumultuous storm of emotions in Ostium’s mind caused him to simply blurt out the main question on his mind.

“WHAT THE GREGORY HOUSE IS GOING ON IN HERE??”

“Hmm? Oh, thank you Aleks.”

Huixin paused as the all too familiar question of “what happened” was asked.

“Well, apparently I wasn’t careful enough. I failed to notice a piece of metal near her feet. And somehow….well, she used it to pick the cuffs and escape. I couldn’t stop her, and I somehow got injured in the process too”

"...You have a history with her? The ESA Head?"

Huixin gives a strained smile, before nodding. “Somewhat. We were….well, we were friends in our childhood.”

And she refused to say anything more than that, throwing Aleks and Shieta a grateful smile.

Just as she finished her very poor explanation to Shieta and Aleks, Ostium burst into the room, screaming his head off. Or something. Huixin was too focused on the new pain in her head to remember

“Ostium, please. Stop screaming. My head hurts…and why are you here? How’s the mission? Asper, Cassius, are they okay? I have enough trust in my executive that she can handle herself but if you’re here it means something’s probably gone wrong? You…don’t look hurt, so that’s good.”

"You could write a book out of that. My Childhood Friend, The Government's Tactical Nuke."

He laughed to himself, before his smile melted away.

"Uh... casualties are around 48. More injured."

---

Shieta rubs her forehead in exhaustion, why was she so worried about Huixin again? No matter what she says, this women is just going to do it again. Shaking her head, she glares at everyone in the room with a cold look.

"The patient is not yet fully recovered. Everyone please leave the operation room until further notice. You can bother your boss later once she is in a healed state."

Shieta stated bluntly as she pushed everyone at the operation room. Despite her short stature, her arm held an surprising amount of power.

Once everyone except her and Huixin is out the room, she turns around to face the other with her arms crossed. Shieta scans the patients up and down and grabs her stethoscope.

"Now that it's just the two of us, be honest with me Huixin. Where does it hurt?"

---

“My head”

Huixin huffs as she flops back on the operating table.

She pauses, her mind a hazy fog, before she speaks again.

“Seriously though. Thank you, Shieta. I probably would have died if not for you…again”

“I should pay you more.” Huixin mumbled as an afterthought, fiddling with the bandage on her wounds which had been stellarly patched up.

"At least we know that you have enough human empathy left in you to understand that I do not get paid enough." Shieta chuckled dryly as she checked Huixin's pulse.

Nodding in satisfaction, she jotted down a few notes into the medical database within the computer, before sliding open a drawer and grabbing a cup and a painkiller.

"Anyways take this for now before I prescribe you something later. I'm sure the kids are worried sick about you... Probably. I mean it's not often that they see you as a mess, I bet Xuanji is going to take so many pictures of you as a memento of today."

Shieta stated as she handed the pill and cup of water to Huixin with a straight face and tone. If anyone else were in the room, they'd be thinking that Shieta was the one lacking empathy between the two of them.

"That aside, how's the situation with you and your ex?."

Shieta says bluntly with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

---

Huixin laughs tiredly “I’ll pay you more, I swear, once we get out of this shit. How does a thirty percent increase in pay sound?”

She grabs the pills offered to her and swallows it. “Anything else, Shieta? And stop making jokes, of course the kids won’t be worried”

“My ex? That’s what we’re concerned about? Gee thanks, Shieta. I thought you’d be worried about my health” Huixin jokes, though her tone seemed to be lacking any of her usual humor

“Either way, Shieta, I’m sure you can tell she’s not doing well. Don’t know what’s going on, and let’s be honest, the government isn’t exactly nice either. I’m worried, honestly. For her.”

Ostium quickly replied to Huixin, "Sorry boss, Asper and Cassius are doing very well on their own. Last I saw of them, they had run an armored jeep off the road and executed the operatives inside. But what on earth happ-"

Before he could complete his question, Ostium was ushered out of the OR by Shieta. As the door closed behind him, he decided it would be best to re-enter the fray of combat in the Town Square. Taking a second to regain his composure, he created a portal back to the war zone and jumped through. The sudden increase in sound was jarring: from the regular, monotonous beep of a life support machine to the chaotic whizzing of bullets. Ostium saw Cassius and Asper in the distance, they had indeed managed to run several vehicles off of the road.

"Hey boss!" Asper called out to him as she drove a katana through a windshield and impaled the agent inside, "What happened in there?"

"Nothing that would interest you very much" Ostium replied, "A few agents got into the base"

"C'moooon boss, you know we would never have passed up a chance for more violence!" Asper chided, "But i suppose these tinfoil cars will have to do. Care to join us?"

After hearing this proposition, all doubt vanished from Ostium's mind. The boss would be fine, maybe he could catch up later. But for now, the Jackal had returned, and he was hungry.

Sh*t.

Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t.

Ophelia rushed through the streets, trying to get to the Town Square.

This was bad.

“All nearby agents, gather at the town square. Identify where the shooters are. take down the assailants.”

She barked into her comms, continuing to rush through the streets.

She should’ve brought a car.

---