ARC ONE: Saving Private Vivian
In the shadows of a dimly lit traditional Japanese house, somewhere in the suburban countryside far outside of the Tokyo urban area, a figure was standing and looking at the board on the wall. The board was filled with pictures and printouts, showing people and locations, and to an outsider, it would look like madness. Disorganized chaos. To the figure standing in front of the board, who had pinned everything to it, there was a method behind it. One that had been refined over much work and hours put into the project, if it could be called that. The board said that all roads would lead back to Saitama.
The figure added one more pin to the growing collection of them, and then stepped back again to admire his work. It was a map of the place where he would soon head, found after much online research and trawling through obscure websites, but he had already memorized it. The printout was just of the sake of the collection, and in case he needed to see it again once he was done. He stepped back and turned to the other half of the room, where his equipment was laid out and ready. He put it all on: the thin layer of carbon fiber powered armor, the matching mask, and the gauntlets that had automatic guns hidden within them.
The weapons were next, for the knight like figure. A submachine gun that was strapped to his waist, a rifle that went over his back in case he got into a ranged encounter. There were some smaller weapons, too, but they weren’t any less deadly: portable explosives, throwing stars, small knives. Finally, the figure reached for the most prized weapon of all, the one that could end his enemies with one stroke. A katana made from the best material, its edge glistening in the light. The figure slid the katana into its scabbard, which was on his waist opposite of the SMG.
He was a warrior that was now ready for war. He turned towards the exit of the building, shutting off the lights behind him and locking up as he left. It was time to make a trip back towards the bright lights of the cities, to Saitama specifically, where he would embark on a personal mission that had been building for years. The goal was simple. To make sure that if he couldn’t have a good life, the ones who were responsible for that couldn’t have one either. The figure stopped, for a moment, looking at the photograph he had pulled from the board back in the house. It reminded him that he would destroy as many other lives as he needed to accomplish his goal.
***
Ana Henare
Ana Henare
Paralysis. Venom coursing through her veins. Shutdown of her muscular system, freezing her in place as the terror in her mind ran wild and left her wishing desperately that she could run away. And then gunfire and screaming. The bright flash of a pistol muzzle, the sound of bullets breaking the sound barrier and cracking the air, and the sound of frenzied screaming in Cantonese once two of the bullets hit their mark. Blood on the ground. Raw terror, as others entered the room.
Each thing was going through Ana’s mind quickly as she found herself frozen in bed, suffering from a case of sleep paralysis that brought her back to a time that had nothing to do with this. One that she wished she could forget, but also one that she likely would never get out of her head. Those moments had played on repeat so many times in the past, and it wasn’t going to be the last time. But right now, Ana felt the same thing that she had felt back then. It stayed with her until the sleep paralysis wore off, allowing her to get up and move to get dressed.
Her outfits weren’t usually too complex, and this one was no exception. Black tank top, cargo pants with enough pockets to hold the smaller pieces of equipment that she used in her hacking. Even as she got dressed, the flashback lingered in her mind, not fading away like an early morning dream usually would. But to be fair, it was no dream. It was something different entirely, something that might just be PTSD even if she refused to call it that and admit that she had a problem.
She sat down in front of her desktop monitors, and flicked a lighter on. She lit up the joint in her hand, and put it to her lips. It was part of her morning ritual, and while others liked to get coffee or tea in the morning, she liked to smoke. It calmed her racing mind, and not many other things did that. “Let’s see what’s happening today,” she said, waking the monitors from their sleep and looking at the security footage that was rolling from the hacked camera feeds constantly on all but the main monitor. She blinked a few times and muttered some words in Korean, after something caught her eye on the bottom left monitor. “What do we have here?”
She looked closer at the monitor and enlarged the feed on her main screen, looking at the grainy figure that she didn’t recognize as any current staff member or anyone tied to the program. No, the person who was climbing over one of the fences didn’t look like someone from the Guardians at all, and she looked at them with suspicion before deciding to gain more favor with the staff because of this. She made a phone call to the HQ’s main desk. “You have an unidentified person wearing body armor and carrying a number of weapons scaling the fence at the northwest side of campus. Thank me later for the tip, and don’t even think about asking how I know,” she said, before hanging up.
Afterwards, she put on a leather jacket and took one more drag from the joint before getting up and starting towards the door to her room. It was time to investigate this person a bit more. After all, there wasn’t much else of interest going on around the headquarters building, and the quiet had Ana itching for a bit of adventure. There was also the chance to gain an advantage from this, somehow...
