4.7
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Okay, I'm getting busy with exam and crap already.
But i will not put this fic on hiatus until I finished arc 4!
So anyway, new chapter.
As per usual, credit to Ziplops as my one and only betareader.
You guys want a fight? You got a fight.
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Chapter 4.7
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Nora (Mouse Protector)
"Team Alpha, spread out and search the floor. The boss wants every crook and cranny to be checked and get those captured asap. We are already down two men from them and even Circus is gone. Team Bravo, pack up the supply and ready to be moved. The Protectorate will be onto us any second now and every second counts. Team…" the one she presumed as the second in command ordered as they sneakily sneaked away from the rows upon rows of evil mercenary army.
Well, guess the easy ways out had been blocked by guards already, both the official and secret entrances. That meant only one way remained, going deep into the base and locate the anti-power tinker.
There's also waiting for rescue to arrive and save the day but that option was too boring and mundane for Mouse Protector, the rodent knight of justice and getting drunk off her ass!
Still, she couldn't help but wonder just how supervillains always manage to build a secret elaborate underground base. She had raided so many of these bases, she couldn't count the number with her fingers and toes anymore. Isn't building an underground base is supposed to be stupidly expensive? Why are they everywhere!?
But then again, that might have explained why Coil's force (judging by elimination) had such a small but elite force with barely any territory. It's simply too expensive to maintain a force bigger than a company or so. However, each and every soldier under his command was basically the best that money can buy and this man really wanted his pay to be worth it.
They also had freaking laser beams, and that's really bad.
This meant they would have better chances of escaping if they avoided any confrontation with them and luckily, she knew exactly how to sneak away from the guards with years of experience in surprising the hell out of people. Ah, those were good time.
...Were indeed.
The drug ingested by her Ward was affecting her badly. Her movement was getting sluggish, she couldn't focus on anything on her own and she had to be told just to do anything. And if what she said about the drug was correct...it can't be good. She needed to get her out fast and get Panacea to clean the drug off her system. And if that didn't work…
No, it had to work!
The staircase had ended in a hallway. They were at the final floor now.
"Okay, Lily. Stay beside me, I will do my magic." she said and Lily simply nodded.
Those emotionless eyes on her face were really unnerving.
But nevertheless, she pressed on and walked towards the two soldiers guarding the only door in the entire floor. Definitely something big and important behind that door.
"Hey!" she called out and the two soldiers paid their full attention to her.
"The boss called, we need every man to evacuate the base now! The Protectorate has found our location!"
"Damn! Right now!?" the soldier on the left yelled.
"Yeah! The two bitches escaped and called reinforcements in."
The two soldiers slowly raised their rifles, "...Wait, we weren't told that the captives were fe-"
Two throwing knives flew past her side and right into the soldier's neck. They both gargled as they tried to stop their blood loss and fell. Crimson blood slowly spread on the white floor and she looked back to her Ward, more throwing knives brandished in her hands.
"I found these back in that henchwoman's room. Could be useful." she coldly replied.
Nora swallowed her fear, "Yeah."
Stepping over the bodies, she raised a pistol and pressed the switch to open the sliding door. What she found inside the room really wasn't much different than any other Tinker's lab she had been before. But stuff like high-tech computers, robotic arms workshop, material components and laser welders once again said much about how much this Coil had paid for his operation. It was also fortunate that this was another hardware tinker, bio-tinkers were super creepy and she hoped that she would never get close to one in the future.
"I'm working now. Please return in another time." a...children's voice replied from another room, tinkering with sounds of mechanical tools putting a sophisticated something together.
"Erm...hello?" she raised up her hand and, Lily staying put behind her.
"...Who's there?" the voice weakly replied, almost like he didn't want to put up a fight at all.
"It's okay, kid. We are the Protectorate." she said.
…
"Technically only one Protectorate hero and one Ward, and we also have a severe case of nullified power. Could you please get these collars off us since you clearly made them so we can get you out of here?" she corrected herself.
"...Really? Are you guys really the Protectorate?" the boy skeptically asked as he walked out from the room. She immediately recognized symptoms of malnourishment and tiredness on the boy's skinny body as he shuffled towards them with a wrench in hand.
Okay, it's a good time to show off Mouse Protector's legendary skill of talking her way out of everything! "Well, kid. Mouse Protector herself is here to rescue you even if she has to crawl through the tiniest hole. By the way, the whole damn Protectorate is cracking this nut open like a swarm of squirrels right now!"
She took off the balaclava and her brown hair spilled onto her back, "Anything I could safely juggle here to give you a show since I can't do that smoking yoyo trick right now? I probably can't do that either after injuring my wrist with the Slipper."
The boy chuckled, "You...you really are her," and cried into his hands.
She proudly continued her line, "Yup, I'm the one and onl-"
"You are three years late, Mouse Protector." that immediately stopped her cold.
"Where the hell were you when my sister and I needed you and your team of furries dressed up like a bunch of animals!? My parent were killed, we were both fucking drugged by the Merchants and I saw my sister doing anything she could just to get another shot of her life! And look at me! I couldn't get away from it either!" he grimaced, fist shaking from the sheer rage he felt.
"If it wasn't for some super shit power lottery, I would still be rotting on the fucking streets like a fucking corpse. I was dragged off the fucking streets all of a sudden and even now I still have no idea what the fuck happened to my sister. She's probably working as a prostitute or worse, a fucking slave like me." he wiped his face but tears kept on flowing.
"This man with a snake on his black suit asked me to make everything I could think of and I did. I don't know what the hell he wants with all these...things in my mind but I don't care because I want to eat and sleep and just...not die like a rat."
"Like a mouse." to her, those eyes on the boy's face felt more painful than bullets and knives.
Each step he took towards her sounded like thunder to her, like it was clearing something up inside her. Like a...distant memory.
I'm so sorry. We can't get to him in time.
Tears almost threatened to leak out of her eyes but a smack on her chest held it back.
"Why are you here now!? Why aren't you here earlier!? Why don't you just leave now!?" the boy screamed and yelled as he slammed his arms on her, but it felt...so weak, like the boy hadn't grown a bit from the day he lost his innocence.
He did what he felt was right.
She didn't know why the boy stopped hitting him. she didn't know why the boy looked up to her with a strange look.
She didn't know where all these tears nor this salty taste on her tongue came from.
"Mouse...Protector?" the boy asked, sincerely worried about her.
He was quite surprised when the woman hugged him tightly. it was the first time ever that someone hugged him in three years.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" and she kept on saying it over and over like a madness mantra, like a broken record.
"I'm sorry for being late. I'm sorry that I couldn't save your sister and you and I'm sorry for…" her mind just stopped there and she can't think of anything to say.
"For...I...I can promise you one thing. When we get out of here, I'm going to take good care of you like a mother, caretaker, foster mom, whatever the fuck you called that!" she yelled in frustration, "I will take you to school, I will give you TV and-and I will treat you like my own child. I promise, okay?"
The boy hugged her back and thought deeply on what she just said. he made his decision.
"Okay, I...accept."
She sniffed back a tear, "Thank you..."
"But can you please let go of me first?" body armour ain't exactly good hugging material either.
She released him and stepped back, "Erm, yeah. Sorry about that, I was…a thing popped up in my mind and just…"
"Clear."
"Huh, wh-"
A splatter of blood shot out onto the boy's body and face as a loud crackle was heard.
Feeling an intense pain on the side of her waist, she reached down with her hand and saw red on the glove. As she looked further down from the scorch mark on the wall, she saw the right side of her waist reduced into a bloody mess, bits of gut spilled out of it and onto the floor.
She fell on her knees as her body gradually felt weak and her vision turning black. Leaning against a table, she looked up to the boy and saw a frown on his face.
"Sorry." the word echoed painfully.
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Lily (Flechette)
Just half an hour ago, her head felt light and dizzy as if she got hit by a truck head-on. But the headache gradually faded away and her head felt clearer than before. So clear that she's starting to be incapable of thinking anything on her own.
Now, Nora's voice sounded louder and clearer than before. Her every movement looked sharp to her and all the other voices sounded dull compared to hers. At this rate, Nora might be the only one left that could control her every aspect. Fighting, working, eating, showering, changing, all of those thoughts would be lost if Nora didn't remind her of them.
She felt a trail of tears flowing from her eyes. She understood the fear but she didn't understand the reason as to why she cried. With her glove, she wiped it off as the tears were obstructing her sight on the two soldiers.
Nora said she would handle it, but the way the soldier moved their rifle was alarming.
Like the collar on her neck. When Nora asked whether it was uncomfortable or not, she's reminded that there's a collar on her neck and it's becoming more and more uncomfortable with every movement of her neck. She really shouldn't have asked that, But the current her was incapable of complaining now.
Within the lab was a blonde haired boy who had clearly seen better days. Again, Nora ordered her to stay put, so she settled on guarding the door instead, intended to shoot anything that walked through that door.
She heard Nora talking with the boy, trying to sound cheerful to push the kid to her side. It didn't work as the boy said something that shocked her very bone and continued to yell at her. If this isn't working at all, she might needs to press on a more direct approach.
They then separated after a while, the boy slightly choked from the hug and Nora wiped her tears aw-
"Lily…" her voice was barely audible.
"Nora." she paid full attention to her even as the mercs slid the doors open.
"You...get him out of here, fight your way out if you have to."
"You get out of here, get him to the Protectorate and PRT and listen to all the members of the Protectorate and Wards from now on." the brunette held her hands tight with all that's left of her strength.
She nodded again, trying to remember the faces and names of the heroes and...her friends…
But...she can't.
The bloody hand that was holding hers slowly loosened its grip and dropped down to the floor, splashing some blood onto her face.
"Get down on the floor now!" she couldn't managed to do so as she was slammed onto the floor hard and her head exploded in pain.
A kick to her stomach forced her to roll on her back and she saw the threatening end of a rifle aiming at her face.
"Don't move!" the man above her yelled, but his voice sounded so dull…
Her eye turned right and saw the boy was escorted out by another soldier rather forcefully. Before he was dragged away, she saw regret in his eyes.
…
She can't remember how her friends look like.
She can't follow her last order.
And...the one she can and wants to follow…
Might be dead.
…
She needs something, she can't accomplish the task alone.
Something more…
Something like...more power.
She needs more power to-
She grabbed the rifle.
"What are you-!?" the merc were alerted and put his finger onto the trigger.
But not before she pushed the rifle aside and fired the laser right onto her collar.
She felt an intense burn on her neck as molten metal dripped onto her skin. Nonetheless she shrugged it off and pushed the collar off, activating her power.
The merc's hand was cut in half as she pulled the rifle out of his hands, fingers falling to the ground. Half of his torso slumped as his shoulder strap phased through him,
Blood and guts splattered all over her body and face. It didn't matter as she didn't care about her current attire, but the blood in her eyes was blocking her sight.
Yet somehow, she felt like she could still see the mercs as shadows in her eyelids. Choosing to use this newfound power, she opened fire blindly at their general direction. The cry of pain she heard was the sign that she was looking as she emptied the mag. With the chamber dried, she switched to the laser and kept on firing until there's only a crackle of lasers and screams of pain in the air.
When even the laser gun was emptied, she ducked down and wiped blood off her eyes, allowing her to see the scenery of carnage she had created.
Blood everywhere seemed to be the theme there. Rifle wounds caused blood to pour out, but lasers caused flesh to explode from the boiling steam. Mixing lasers with a filled magazine was a good way to have something exploding in your face as well, judging by the lack of hands from the merc in the corner there.
He looked up right in her eyes and she saw fear in his eyes, fear of what might happen to him.
"Get up." she ordered.
The boy didn't hesitated to stand up, too used to listening to someone else's order instead of his own mind.
Nora told her to take the boy out for safety even if she had to fight her way out. But…
She can choose to ignore that order and follow the previous order instead, and that's getting Nora and her out and by extension, the boy as well. And for that to work, she needed to…
"Boy, your name." she demanded.
"J-J-Jus...tin." he stuttered.
"Get the collar off her." she ordered and he got to work without complaint.
But whatever he needed to get the collar off, he had to do it fast as she was sure that reinforcement will be coming soon.
"Faster." she ordered as she searched for a working rifle.
"I'm trying! Fuck myself for making this lock so fucking sturdy..." he complained as he searched for the correct tool.
Her attempt to find a working rifle was to no avail as her rapid firing extermination just now had shot off most of the explosives, killing the soldiers and ruining their rifles beyond usability at the same time. She couldn't even find a pistol that wasn't melted or broke into a dozen pieces.
...But what if, she used her power to make a weapon instead?
Eyeing a massive block of metal, she walked towards it and charged a knife with her power. The knife went into the side easily and fused with the metal block. With her power, she charged the knife-block fusion and easily lifted the makeshift weapon like it was completely weightless. With her mind focusing her power into a shape she wanted, the rest of the block fell to the ground with a massive thump.
With the finished product in her hands, she looked at it. It was a one edged sword made in a fraction of a second with her power, the blade was grey like unpolished metal yet the edge was smoother than any grinding could achieve. It didn't have its blade folded a thousand times, but she sure as hell could use her power to cut anything in her way.
More footsteps were coming. they were right outside of the hallway and setting things up, probably machine-guns or maybe even rocket launchers. She didn't care about herself, but if Nora and the boy got hurt, her order would not be completed. The more time they spent preparing, the less chance she could fight back.
She had to strike back now.
"Continue." she gave one last order to the boy before stepping out.
"Open fire!" and was immediately greeted with a hail of bullets.
But she knew that no matter how quick she was with the sword, she couldn't block all of them. Like a voice commanding her from within, she simply charged her armor and ran towards the mercenaries. Bullets dematerialising as they impacted the armor, yet her skin was unharmed from her charged uniform. The mercs were clearly taken aback by this and quickly retreated, like the shadows predicted.
Not letting this chance go, she charged the armor again and dashed. The weightless armor, unbounded by gravity, carried her through the air as she leaped, allowing her to swiftly slice a merc in half without stopping. Seeing her squadmate's guts were splattered against the wall, the next merc quickly counterattacked as she spun around and fired at her face.
Her hand immediately moved to block a shot to her unprotected face, glove absorbing the bullets. But the distance between them was still crossed in an instant. One of her hands reached for the rifle and ripped it out of the merc's hands, the other palmed against the merc's face.
A charge of her power, and every single one of the mercenary's bones were ripped out of her body in a sickening explosion of blood and gore. The remaining skin flopped onto the floor bloodily as the mercs in front of her screamed and their shadows ran off before they did.
Not intending to let them get away, she threw two throwing knives towards two of the mercs with a swipe of her free hand. The one on the right screamed in pain as her left arm was cut lengthwise, two halves of it still dangling from her elbow, dripping crimson from the cut.
The guy on the left received a painless death as the top half of his head was cut clean off. The rifles in their hand fired as their fingers tightened around the trigger. Rifle rounds tore through the ranks of mercs as their rifles fired aimlessly towards them before falling onto the blood splattered ground. Everything happened just as their shadows predicted. Seeing the merc girl was still alive, she ended her life with a slash of her blade.
The mercs at the end of the hallway continued firing despite their loss, but no matter what, it would not stop her at all. Bullets, lasers, grenades, all of them failed as her uniform charged by her power simply absorbed everything, and anything aimed at her head was blocked by a quick slash of her makeshift sword. She was invincible, indestructible, invulnerable, she was completely fearles-
But in the midst of gunfire, she didn't notice in time as a rocket was fired at her, exploding right in front of her face.
…
There's smoke all around her. Was she dead?
…
When the smoke cleared up, it's clear that she's still standing in the living world. She felt cold air brushing against her skin as the armor she was wearing was completely ruined, all that's left were just the remains of the sleeves and pants on her limbs.
The mercs fired, thinking that it was the last chance they ever had in killing her as she was completely exposed in every sense of the word.
But they didn't have that chance at all as air particles bounced off her white skin were charged with her power, blurring the light around her as even photon beam was deleted by her power. All the mercs could do was waste their ammunition and laser charges again as nothing worked against her at all. Not even a second rocket worked as it phased into nothing against the dark blurry cloud around her as she slowly walked towards them.
Soon enough, their gun clicked as they ran out of ammunition.
She charged.
------
She tiredly walked back to Justin's tinkerlab, expecting the collar on Nora's neck to be fully removed by now.
She...wanted to say that she felt nothing for killing those men and women for attacking them, but something was clearly gripping her heart.
And all these ideas in her head, those were certainly not something she could think of right now. This definitely had something to do with the visions of...things she has saw. The worm, the tesseracts, the power and the men in black. There was a desperation inside her, the need to tell or ask someone about it but she couldn't without anyone asking.
…
She couldn't even hope that if someone could fix her at all.
"Nora…" she moved in to sit on the other empty spot besides her.
"Nora, wake up." she nudged her arm.
…
She slapped her face with a loud fleshy smack
"Ow, ouch! Can't a dying person have a painless death at least!?" Nora's hand rubbed to ease the pain off her face, despite the fact that she had a much major bleeding wound on her waist.
"Wait, why are you naked!?" she asked. Only now did Lily fully aware that she's wearing absolutely nothing, except for all the blood that somehow got onto her skin, giving some scary-looking stripes of blood like a tiger. She had lost even what's left of her uniform except for her shoes, but she didn't care, not for one bit.
The Protectorate heroine palmed her face, "Ne-Never mind. You got the collar off, right?"
The boy nodded and was split between staring at the dying woman with half her guts exposed outside and the naked girl that had killed a bunch of people like it was nothing.
"Okay, touch my hands before I lose consciousness." they both did it without questioning.
"Now, prepare for the magic!"
All three of them poofed into a black smoke..
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Colin (Armsmaster)
"How's the preparation for the assault?" he asked.
"Ready to go on your mark, sir." the First Lieutenant Wendy, Brockton Bay PRT leader replied. He knew the woman ever since he was assigned to Brockton Bay 9 years ago. She had been dependable in every operation the PRT had conducted so far and in several incidents, saving each other from close calls. It's good to know that her passion in serving the PRT wasn't replaced with a greed for bribes and blood money.
However, there had been a few occasions where she gave him her phone number for 'a good time'. That would have been a violation of position abuse if he had reported it. As one of his few long time friend, he decided to look away from it. Some problems didn't need to be solved by the book after all.
"Roger, standby for ord-"
"Sir, your ass is smoking!!!" a PRT trooper warned.
Of course…
As soon as he heard that familiar poofing sound whenever Mouse Protector showed up for a prank even when she's half the states away, he turned around as if he trained for this situation everyday.
Even when seeing a boy that's in need of proper meat, a Ward wearing nothing but blood and his own annoying but somewhat dependable long time partner that was currently bleeding all over the floor, he remained calm and steady.
As if he expected this to happen, he quickly opened the com channel, "Panacea, the Protectorate requires your assistance on healing the secured hostages."
"Yeah whatever, I'm walking over there right now since my sister is playing baseball with those two retards."
Frankly speaking, the whole event was so stupid and silly. Nobody suspected it to be part of a kidnapping plan, not even himself. It was genius in a way.
"Velocity will be on transporting duty for you. Can you remain still for ten seconds?"
"Erm, sure? I just called Laserdream so maybe you don't need to se-Holy shit he's fas-" the line was cut off suddenly.
Without skipping a beat, he crouched down and scanned all three of the hostages for any internal injuries and sickness. Other than Nora having a major wound on her waist, he detected some narcotic substance affecting the Ward's mental capability.
The boy was a special case on his own, a mysterious factor that popped out of nowhere. With his scanner, he detected the two main components of a parahuman's brain inside that boy's cranium. He will ask a PRT officer to handle him for now.
"You don't need that fancy glowy shit to tell that we got fucked up, Armsy." Mouse Protector commented while a medic patched her wound with bandage.
"Panacea will be here soon to heal you. Don't move too much."
"Silly Armsy. Get Panacea to this girl first, those fucker forced her to take some drug that's fucking with her mind." she pushed his worry aside.
"Mouse Protector, your intestines are leaking your lunch on the floor right now. You should worry about yourself more sometimes."
"If a hero worries about themselves, then who will worry about the public?"
Heroes that don't care about themselves tend to die faster.
But he wisely shut his mouth and walked outside of the van.
"-aaaaahhhhhhh!!!" and Panacea quickly arrived in Velocity's arms, struggling and screaming along the way. When Velocity let her down, she immediately kneeled on the floor and started kissing the ground as well as praying to God she probably didn't believe in much.
"Panacea, thank you for your assistance. The patients are inside the van." he pointed.
Panacea wobbly got up and walked inside the van,silently complaining about everything.
Armsmaster opened his com channel.
"To all teams on the field, the hostages have been secured along with an extra package. Plan on assaulting the base will be changed to assault and secure only, but keep in mind on potential prisoners and dangerous parahumans. Over?"
"Miss Militia here, the breach team is ready. Bomber Two is still insisting to be on the team. I will give her support duty for now and see how much she can do."
Bomber Two...was a girl who was certainly in way over her head. For her first crime, she decided to nearly bomb her college to oblivion. And even afterward, he had to repeatedly tell her to not overdo her tinker tech as they had no need for anti-state non-lethal bombs. And now...she asked to be part of a strike team with barely a week of training.
All of her current armaments were packed with non-lethal tech for not only PR reasons, but for her own as well as other's safety too. And even with that, he's not even sure if the girl will just do something brave but stupid to prove herself as a member of the Protectorate. He can see her coming home on a stretcher from miles away.
Either way, this will be a headache for the amount of paperwork he needed to work on. But it couldn't be as bad as him silencing Director Piggot with totally legitimate space duct-tape. He wasn't even sure what monstrous amount of paperwork would be required to finish for that.
Still...there's no turning back now.
"All teams. Began operation."
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Author Note: I pretty much know that this chapter will be another hit or miss as I did just that.
But I do hope you guys would accept it as part of this fic.
And yes I know, more OC. Goddammit brain.
Oh, and as a reminder, the next chapter is 7000 words long.
Because we definitely something long and thick to fuck Coil with.
EDIT: And I totally can't forget this. YAY MORE DEAD PEOPLE.
But i will not put this fic on hiatus until I finished arc 4!
So anyway, new chapter.
As per usual, credit to Ziplops as my one and only betareader.
You guys want a fight? You got a fight.
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Chapter 4.7
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Nora (Mouse Protector)
"Team Alpha, spread out and search the floor. The boss wants every crook and cranny to be checked and get those captured asap. We are already down two men from them and even Circus is gone. Team Bravo, pack up the supply and ready to be moved. The Protectorate will be onto us any second now and every second counts. Team…" the one she presumed as the second in command ordered as they sneakily sneaked away from the rows upon rows of evil mercenary army.
Well, guess the easy ways out had been blocked by guards already, both the official and secret entrances. That meant only one way remained, going deep into the base and locate the anti-power tinker.
There's also waiting for rescue to arrive and save the day but that option was too boring and mundane for Mouse Protector, the rodent knight of justice and getting drunk off her ass!
Still, she couldn't help but wonder just how supervillains always manage to build a secret elaborate underground base. She had raided so many of these bases, she couldn't count the number with her fingers and toes anymore. Isn't building an underground base is supposed to be stupidly expensive? Why are they everywhere!?
But then again, that might have explained why Coil's force (judging by elimination) had such a small but elite force with barely any territory. It's simply too expensive to maintain a force bigger than a company or so. However, each and every soldier under his command was basically the best that money can buy and this man really wanted his pay to be worth it.
They also had freaking laser beams, and that's really bad.
This meant they would have better chances of escaping if they avoided any confrontation with them and luckily, she knew exactly how to sneak away from the guards with years of experience in surprising the hell out of people. Ah, those were good time.
...Were indeed.
The drug ingested by her Ward was affecting her badly. Her movement was getting sluggish, she couldn't focus on anything on her own and she had to be told just to do anything. And if what she said about the drug was correct...it can't be good. She needed to get her out fast and get Panacea to clean the drug off her system. And if that didn't work…
No, it had to work!
The staircase had ended in a hallway. They were at the final floor now.
"Okay, Lily. Stay beside me, I will do my magic." she said and Lily simply nodded.
Those emotionless eyes on her face were really unnerving.
But nevertheless, she pressed on and walked towards the two soldiers guarding the only door in the entire floor. Definitely something big and important behind that door.
"Hey!" she called out and the two soldiers paid their full attention to her.
"The boss called, we need every man to evacuate the base now! The Protectorate has found our location!"
"Damn! Right now!?" the soldier on the left yelled.
"Yeah! The two bitches escaped and called reinforcements in."
The two soldiers slowly raised their rifles, "...Wait, we weren't told that the captives were fe-"
Two throwing knives flew past her side and right into the soldier's neck. They both gargled as they tried to stop their blood loss and fell. Crimson blood slowly spread on the white floor and she looked back to her Ward, more throwing knives brandished in her hands.
"I found these back in that henchwoman's room. Could be useful." she coldly replied.
Nora swallowed her fear, "Yeah."
Stepping over the bodies, she raised a pistol and pressed the switch to open the sliding door. What she found inside the room really wasn't much different than any other Tinker's lab she had been before. But stuff like high-tech computers, robotic arms workshop, material components and laser welders once again said much about how much this Coil had paid for his operation. It was also fortunate that this was another hardware tinker, bio-tinkers were super creepy and she hoped that she would never get close to one in the future.
"I'm working now. Please return in another time." a...children's voice replied from another room, tinkering with sounds of mechanical tools putting a sophisticated something together.
"Erm...hello?" she raised up her hand and, Lily staying put behind her.
"...Who's there?" the voice weakly replied, almost like he didn't want to put up a fight at all.
"It's okay, kid. We are the Protectorate." she said.
…
"Technically only one Protectorate hero and one Ward, and we also have a severe case of nullified power. Could you please get these collars off us since you clearly made them so we can get you out of here?" she corrected herself.
"...Really? Are you guys really the Protectorate?" the boy skeptically asked as he walked out from the room. She immediately recognized symptoms of malnourishment and tiredness on the boy's skinny body as he shuffled towards them with a wrench in hand.
Okay, it's a good time to show off Mouse Protector's legendary skill of talking her way out of everything! "Well, kid. Mouse Protector herself is here to rescue you even if she has to crawl through the tiniest hole. By the way, the whole damn Protectorate is cracking this nut open like a swarm of squirrels right now!"
She took off the balaclava and her brown hair spilled onto her back, "Anything I could safely juggle here to give you a show since I can't do that smoking yoyo trick right now? I probably can't do that either after injuring my wrist with the Slipper."
The boy chuckled, "You...you really are her," and cried into his hands.
She proudly continued her line, "Yup, I'm the one and onl-"
"You are three years late, Mouse Protector." that immediately stopped her cold.
"Where the hell were you when my sister and I needed you and your team of furries dressed up like a bunch of animals!? My parent were killed, we were both fucking drugged by the Merchants and I saw my sister doing anything she could just to get another shot of her life! And look at me! I couldn't get away from it either!" he grimaced, fist shaking from the sheer rage he felt.
"If it wasn't for some super shit power lottery, I would still be rotting on the fucking streets like a fucking corpse. I was dragged off the fucking streets all of a sudden and even now I still have no idea what the fuck happened to my sister. She's probably working as a prostitute or worse, a fucking slave like me." he wiped his face but tears kept on flowing.
"This man with a snake on his black suit asked me to make everything I could think of and I did. I don't know what the hell he wants with all these...things in my mind but I don't care because I want to eat and sleep and just...not die like a rat."
"Like a mouse." to her, those eyes on the boy's face felt more painful than bullets and knives.
Each step he took towards her sounded like thunder to her, like it was clearing something up inside her. Like a...distant memory.
I'm so sorry. We can't get to him in time.
Tears almost threatened to leak out of her eyes but a smack on her chest held it back.
"Why are you here now!? Why aren't you here earlier!? Why don't you just leave now!?" the boy screamed and yelled as he slammed his arms on her, but it felt...so weak, like the boy hadn't grown a bit from the day he lost his innocence.
He did what he felt was right.
She didn't know why the boy stopped hitting him. she didn't know why the boy looked up to her with a strange look.
She didn't know where all these tears nor this salty taste on her tongue came from.
"Mouse...Protector?" the boy asked, sincerely worried about her.
He was quite surprised when the woman hugged him tightly. it was the first time ever that someone hugged him in three years.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" and she kept on saying it over and over like a madness mantra, like a broken record.
"I'm sorry for being late. I'm sorry that I couldn't save your sister and you and I'm sorry for…" her mind just stopped there and she can't think of anything to say.
"For...I...I can promise you one thing. When we get out of here, I'm going to take good care of you like a mother, caretaker, foster mom, whatever the fuck you called that!" she yelled in frustration, "I will take you to school, I will give you TV and-and I will treat you like my own child. I promise, okay?"
The boy hugged her back and thought deeply on what she just said. he made his decision.
"Okay, I...accept."
She sniffed back a tear, "Thank you..."
"But can you please let go of me first?" body armour ain't exactly good hugging material either.
She released him and stepped back, "Erm, yeah. Sorry about that, I was…a thing popped up in my mind and just…"
"Clear."
"Huh, wh-"
A splatter of blood shot out onto the boy's body and face as a loud crackle was heard.
Feeling an intense pain on the side of her waist, she reached down with her hand and saw red on the glove. As she looked further down from the scorch mark on the wall, she saw the right side of her waist reduced into a bloody mess, bits of gut spilled out of it and onto the floor.
She fell on her knees as her body gradually felt weak and her vision turning black. Leaning against a table, she looked up to the boy and saw a frown on his face.
"Sorry." the word echoed painfully.
------
Lily (Flechette)
Just half an hour ago, her head felt light and dizzy as if she got hit by a truck head-on. But the headache gradually faded away and her head felt clearer than before. So clear that she's starting to be incapable of thinking anything on her own.
,';
Part of her might be screaming inside her right now, yelling at her to do something about it. But she can't hear that voice now.Now, Nora's voice sounded louder and clearer than before. Her every movement looked sharp to her and all the other voices sounded dull compared to hers. At this rate, Nora might be the only one left that could control her every aspect. Fighting, working, eating, showering, changing, all of those thoughts would be lost if Nora didn't remind her of them.
She felt a trail of tears flowing from her eyes. She understood the fear but she didn't understand the reason as to why she cried. With her glove, she wiped it off as the tears were obstructing her sight on the two soldiers.
Nora said she would handle it, but the way the soldier moved their rifle was alarming.
.,./,;
A swift throwing of two knives solved that problem quickly. She didn't understand nor care as to why Nora looked scared. There's nothing to be afraid of going somewhere faster.,,.
Slowly, they both walked into the tinkerlab. Lots of moving machinery and scientific tools for making devices, devices that not even the world's smartest scientist could understand.Like the collar on her neck. When Nora asked whether it was uncomfortable or not, she's reminded that there's a collar on her neck and it's becoming more and more uncomfortable with every movement of her neck. She really shouldn't have asked that, But the current her was incapable of complaining now.
Within the lab was a blonde haired boy who had clearly seen better days. Again, Nora ordered her to stay put, so she settled on guarding the door instead, intended to shoot anything that walked through that door.
She heard Nora talking with the boy, trying to sound cheerful to push the kid to her side. It didn't work as the boy said something that shocked her very bone and continued to yell at her. If this isn't working at all, she might needs to press on a more direct approach.
.,;;,';/,';,/.;',
She thought something was up when Nora cried, but she couldn't attack the boy directly when Nora was hugging him with her arm around him. She kept apologizing to the boy, saying things that Lily was struggling to understand.,.,;'/,;
The word 'sorry' felt heavy on her heart for some reasons, reasons she couldn't understand.They then separated after a while, the boy slightly choked from the hug and Nora wiped her tears aw-
,./,;'',',/;,}.;,'
A laser crackled and pierced right through Nora's abdomen. Seeing her being wounded, she dashed forward, dodging the laser fire as she ducked down the table to be right beside her..,;,'/';,'//;'[,';/],',',
She would have screamed at herself for not remembering that the laser gun these mercenaries had could pierce through solid walls. It was just logical that they could have been armed with tinker tech to see through wall as well, so hiding underneath a table won't do any good unless….),;'',];,;'
She violently pulled the boy down, keeping him as close to them as possible. With him as their meat shield, she could buy some time before Nora can tell her what to do.,;Er./';,
But...the wound was not stopping. Even Nora's own stolen uniform was soaked in blood."Lily…" her voice was barely audible.
"Nora." she paid full attention to her even as the mercs slid the doors open.
"You...get him out of here, fight your way out if you have to."
,.,{,'/',';ror,';],;
Lily nodded, but she could feel herself being distressed at the order. And the boy was too surprised at her words to add his own response."You get out of here, get him to the Protectorate and PRT and listen to all the members of the Protectorate and Wards from now on." the brunette held her hands tight with all that's left of her strength.
She nodded again, trying to remember the faces and names of the heroes and...her friends…
But...she can't.
.;,'),;,
She...can't remember them. everything felt fractured into a million tiny pieces. A frog hoodie, a kinky smile, a metal lance, red eye lens, rings of pink, a camo uniform, a teal coloured skirt, a face of clock, a gunmetal sword, a red hoverboard, a pair of...something bouncy (?), a red cross and….,';;{,';,',];,./,';'},';,';/.,';
A pair of...iridescent eyes….;,';,/,[';',B,o.,';st';
"Drake." she said. It wasn't an emotionless reply and her voice was shaking as tears trickled down her cheeks.The bloody hand that was holding hers slowly loosened its grip and dropped down to the floor, splashing some blood onto her face.
.,;',;';/',',;';,act/;';'',;*(',;',',',
"Nora." she held her hand out, trying to grasp...something, anything as Nora slowly closed her eyes."Get down on the floor now!" she couldn't managed to do so as she was slammed onto the floor hard and her head exploded in pain.
A kick to her stomach forced her to roll on her back and she saw the threatening end of a rifle aiming at her face.
"Don't move!" the man above her yelled, but his voice sounded so dull…
Her eye turned right and saw the boy was escorted out by another soldier rather forcefully. Before he was dragged away, she saw regret in his eyes.
…
She can't remember how her friends look like.
She can't follow her last order.
And...the one she can and wants to follow…
Might be dead.
…
She needs something, she can't accomplish the task alone.
Something more…
Something like...more power.
She needs more power to-
[Social Link established]
A worm of incomprehensible size swam through the dark void of space, stars, nebula and sun moving on the background. Surrounding it were near countless amounts of tesseracts, each with layers upon layers of crystal shards on it surface, reflecting and absorbing light from the stars, making it as black as the void.[Power Shard Assimilated]
Unknown to the great being, a small number of its hundreds of trillions of tesseracts, completely unnoticeable to the sheer scale of the being, collapsed and imploded upon themselves, crushed to a size smaller than a speck of dust. Iridescent beams of light shot out from dozens of specks and traveled towards...her?[Power-Existence Link Established]
She felt something growing within her as the beam reached her in an instant. The feeling spread from within and outward to her skin, a warmth that should have cooked her alive but didn't. She felt...powerful, but there was something else. Something burning into her mind, like electricity running through her nerves.[Artificial Second Trigger Initiated]
No longer was she seeing the giant worm as she fell back to somewhere familiar. A world with solid ground, clear water and blue sky, just the way she remembered…but where? She moved around, and found herself flying above the land. Yet she felt no flowing air, as she didn't find a body of her own, only eyes to see.[Detecting Nearby Power Shard]
Eyes to see a single golden being levitating in the empty sky. She didn't know why, but she felt a connection between the worm beyond the cloud with the golden man in front of her.[Three Active Shards Detected][One Inactive Shard Detected]
But it won't be lonely for long as people dressed in black levitated around the golden man. She found herself dragged towards something, unable to fly away until she was suddenly pulled towards it like a powerful magnet.[Effective Power Upgrade detected][Powers Upgrade Copied from Power Shards]
The feeling of being dragged was gone, and she found herself in a body dressed in black. Only then did she realise she was one of them, but when? When and where did this happen? Before she could answer that, one of the black one with a blade at hand charged towards the golden man.[Final Power Reconstruction achieved][Finalizing Perfect Combat Program]
The blade went in, but it didn't go through the man. It was sunk into its chest like a ocean with infinite depth, sinking hilt deep into the wound yet never emerge on its back. She saw static in her eyes as the black one pulled out his blade and let the golden man fal-[Perfect Combat Program finished]
You don't need to know the end.[Starting Perfect Combat Program][Rebooting]
All you need is-[Objective: Get Nora and the boy out of the base]
The familiar sight of a normal violent world came back.[Combat Mode On][Emotional Suppression Level 1]
And she immediately knew what to do.She grabbed the rifle.
"What are you-!?" the merc were alerted and put his finger onto the trigger.
But not before she pushed the rifle aside and fired the laser right onto her collar.
She felt an intense burn on her neck as molten metal dripped onto her skin. Nonetheless she shrugged it off and pushed the collar off, activating her power.
The merc's hand was cut in half as she pulled the rifle out of his hands, fingers falling to the ground. Half of his torso slumped as his shoulder strap phased through him,
Blood and guts splattered all over her body and face. It didn't matter as she didn't care about her current attire, but the blood in her eyes was blocking her sight.
Yet somehow, she felt like she could still see the mercs as shadows in her eyelids. Choosing to use this newfound power, she opened fire blindly at their general direction. The cry of pain she heard was the sign that she was looking as she emptied the mag. With the chamber dried, she switched to the laser and kept on firing until there's only a crackle of lasers and screams of pain in the air.
When even the laser gun was emptied, she ducked down and wiped blood off her eyes, allowing her to see the scenery of carnage she had created.
Blood everywhere seemed to be the theme there. Rifle wounds caused blood to pour out, but lasers caused flesh to explode from the boiling steam. Mixing lasers with a filled magazine was a good way to have something exploding in your face as well, judging by the lack of hands from the merc in the corner there.
[A Reality He Wanted detected]
And in the midst of the massacre, the boy was somehow safe from it all despite all the blood splattered onto him, shaking and shivering while making his own clear coloured puddle among the red.He looked up right in her eyes and she saw fear in his eyes, fear of what might happen to him.
"Get up." she ordered.
The boy didn't hesitated to stand up, too used to listening to someone else's order instead of his own mind.
Nora told her to take the boy out for safety even if she had to fight her way out. But…
She can choose to ignore that order and follow the previous order instead, and that's getting Nora and her out and by extension, the boy as well. And for that to work, she needed to…
"Boy, your name." she demanded.
"J-J-Jus...tin." he stuttered.
"Get the collar off her." she ordered and he got to work without complaint.
But whatever he needed to get the collar off, he had to do it fast as she was sure that reinforcement will be coming soon.
"Faster." she ordered as she searched for a working rifle.
"I'm trying! Fuck myself for making this lock so fucking sturdy..." he complained as he searched for the correct tool.
Her attempt to find a working rifle was to no avail as her rapid firing extermination just now had shot off most of the explosives, killing the soldiers and ruining their rifles beyond usability at the same time. She couldn't even find a pistol that wasn't melted or broke into a dozen pieces.
...But what if, she used her power to make a weapon instead?
Eyeing a massive block of metal, she walked towards it and charged a knife with her power. The knife went into the side easily and fused with the metal block. With her power, she charged the knife-block fusion and easily lifted the makeshift weapon like it was completely weightless. With her mind focusing her power into a shape she wanted, the rest of the block fell to the ground with a massive thump.
With the finished product in her hands, she looked at it. It was a one edged sword made in a fraction of a second with her power, the blade was grey like unpolished metal yet the edge was smoother than any grinding could achieve. It didn't have its blade folded a thousand times, but she sure as hell could use her power to cut anything in her way.
More footsteps were coming. they were right outside of the hallway and setting things up, probably machine-guns or maybe even rocket launchers. She didn't care about herself, but if Nora and the boy got hurt, her order would not be completed. The more time they spent preparing, the less chance she could fight back.
She had to strike back now.
"Continue." she gave one last order to the boy before stepping out.
"Open fire!" and was immediately greeted with a hail of bullets.
[Emotional Suppression Level 2]
But her hand immediately raised the sword and caught the bullets with the flat of the blade. With her new power, she could see every single trajectory of not just bullets, but people as well before they moved into position as smoky shadows in the air. It was as if she could perfectly predict where and how they will reach before they even started moving.But she knew that no matter how quick she was with the sword, she couldn't block all of them. Like a voice commanding her from within, she simply charged her armor and ran towards the mercenaries. Bullets dematerialising as they impacted the armor, yet her skin was unharmed from her charged uniform. The mercs were clearly taken aback by this and quickly retreated, like the shadows predicted.
Not letting this chance go, she charged the armor again and dashed. The weightless armor, unbounded by gravity, carried her through the air as she leaped, allowing her to swiftly slice a merc in half without stopping. Seeing her squadmate's guts were splattered against the wall, the next merc quickly counterattacked as she spun around and fired at her face.
Her hand immediately moved to block a shot to her unprotected face, glove absorbing the bullets. But the distance between them was still crossed in an instant. One of her hands reached for the rifle and ripped it out of the merc's hands, the other palmed against the merc's face.
A charge of her power, and every single one of the mercenary's bones were ripped out of her body in a sickening explosion of blood and gore. The remaining skin flopped onto the floor bloodily as the mercs in front of her screamed and their shadows ran off before they did.
Not intending to let them get away, she threw two throwing knives towards two of the mercs with a swipe of her free hand. The one on the right screamed in pain as her left arm was cut lengthwise, two halves of it still dangling from her elbow, dripping crimson from the cut.
The guy on the left received a painless death as the top half of his head was cut clean off. The rifles in their hand fired as their fingers tightened around the trigger. Rifle rounds tore through the ranks of mercs as their rifles fired aimlessly towards them before falling onto the blood splattered ground. Everything happened just as their shadows predicted. Seeing the merc girl was still alive, she ended her life with a slash of her blade.
The mercs at the end of the hallway continued firing despite their loss, but no matter what, it would not stop her at all. Bullets, lasers, grenades, all of them failed as her uniform charged by her power simply absorbed everything, and anything aimed at her head was blocked by a quick slash of her makeshift sword. She was invincible, indestructible, invulnerable, she was completely fearles-
But in the midst of gunfire, she didn't notice in time as a rocket was fired at her, exploding right in front of her face.
…
There's smoke all around her. Was she dead?
…
When the smoke cleared up, it's clear that she's still standing in the living world. She felt cold air brushing against her skin as the armor she was wearing was completely ruined, all that's left were just the remains of the sleeves and pants on her limbs.
The mercs fired, thinking that it was the last chance they ever had in killing her as she was completely exposed in every sense of the word.
But they didn't have that chance at all as air particles bounced off her white skin were charged with her power, blurring the light around her as even photon beam was deleted by her power. All the mercs could do was waste their ammunition and laser charges again as nothing worked against her at all. Not even a second rocket worked as it phased into nothing against the dark blurry cloud around her as she slowly walked towards them.
Soon enough, their gun clicked as they ran out of ammunition.
She charged.
------
She tiredly walked back to Justin's tinkerlab, expecting the collar on Nora's neck to be fully removed by now.
She...wanted to say that she felt nothing for killing those men and women for attacking them, but something was clearly gripping her heart.
And all these ideas in her head, those were certainly not something she could think of right now. This definitely had something to do with the visions of...things she has saw. The worm, the tesseracts, the power and the men in black. There was a desperation inside her, the need to tell or ask someone about it but she couldn't without anyone asking.
…
She couldn't even hope that if someone could fix her at all.
[Tagging Chaser detected]
She pushed past the door and saw the collar on Nora's neck removed while the boy kneeled besides her."Nora…" she moved in to sit on the other empty spot besides her.
"Nora, wake up." she nudged her arm.
…
She slapped her face with a loud fleshy smack
"Ow, ouch! Can't a dying person have a painless death at least!?" Nora's hand rubbed to ease the pain off her face, despite the fact that she had a much major bleeding wound on her waist.
"Wait, why are you naked!?" she asked. Only now did Lily fully aware that she's wearing absolutely nothing, except for all the blood that somehow got onto her skin, giving some scary-looking stripes of blood like a tiger. She had lost even what's left of her uniform except for her shoes, but she didn't care, not for one bit.
The Protectorate heroine palmed her face, "Ne-Never mind. You got the collar off, right?"
The boy nodded and was split between staring at the dying woman with half her guts exposed outside and the naked girl that had killed a bunch of people like it was nothing.
"Okay, touch my hands before I lose consciousness." they both did it without questioning.
"Now, prepare for the magic!"
All three of them poofed into a black smoke..
------
Colin (Armsmaster)
"How's the preparation for the assault?" he asked.
"Ready to go on your mark, sir." the First Lieutenant Wendy, Brockton Bay PRT leader replied. He knew the woman ever since he was assigned to Brockton Bay 9 years ago. She had been dependable in every operation the PRT had conducted so far and in several incidents, saving each other from close calls. It's good to know that her passion in serving the PRT wasn't replaced with a greed for bribes and blood money.
However, there had been a few occasions where she gave him her phone number for 'a good time'. That would have been a violation of position abuse if he had reported it. As one of his few long time friend, he decided to look away from it. Some problems didn't need to be solved by the book after all.
"Roger, standby for ord-"
"Sir, your ass is smoking!!!" a PRT trooper warned.
Of course…
As soon as he heard that familiar poofing sound whenever Mouse Protector showed up for a prank even when she's half the states away, he turned around as if he trained for this situation everyday.
Even when seeing a boy that's in need of proper meat, a Ward wearing nothing but blood and his own annoying but somewhat dependable long time partner that was currently bleeding all over the floor, he remained calm and steady.
As if he expected this to happen, he quickly opened the com channel, "Panacea, the Protectorate requires your assistance on healing the secured hostages."
"Yeah whatever, I'm walking over there right now since my sister is playing baseball with those two retards."
Frankly speaking, the whole event was so stupid and silly. Nobody suspected it to be part of a kidnapping plan, not even himself. It was genius in a way.
"Velocity will be on transporting duty for you. Can you remain still for ten seconds?"
"Erm, sure? I just called Laserdream so maybe you don't need to se-Holy shit he's fas-" the line was cut off suddenly.
Without skipping a beat, he crouched down and scanned all three of the hostages for any internal injuries and sickness. Other than Nora having a major wound on her waist, he detected some narcotic substance affecting the Ward's mental capability.
The boy was a special case on his own, a mysterious factor that popped out of nowhere. With his scanner, he detected the two main components of a parahuman's brain inside that boy's cranium. He will ask a PRT officer to handle him for now.
"You don't need that fancy glowy shit to tell that we got fucked up, Armsy." Mouse Protector commented while a medic patched her wound with bandage.
"Panacea will be here soon to heal you. Don't move too much."
"Silly Armsy. Get Panacea to this girl first, those fucker forced her to take some drug that's fucking with her mind." she pushed his worry aside.
"Mouse Protector, your intestines are leaking your lunch on the floor right now. You should worry about yourself more sometimes."
"If a hero worries about themselves, then who will worry about the public?"
Heroes that don't care about themselves tend to die faster.
But he wisely shut his mouth and walked outside of the van.
"-aaaaahhhhhhh!!!" and Panacea quickly arrived in Velocity's arms, struggling and screaming along the way. When Velocity let her down, she immediately kneeled on the floor and started kissing the ground as well as praying to God she probably didn't believe in much.
"Panacea, thank you for your assistance. The patients are inside the van." he pointed.
Panacea wobbly got up and walked inside the van,silently complaining about everything.
Armsmaster opened his com channel.
"To all teams on the field, the hostages have been secured along with an extra package. Plan on assaulting the base will be changed to assault and secure only, but keep in mind on potential prisoners and dangerous parahumans. Over?"
"Miss Militia here, the breach team is ready. Bomber Two is still insisting to be on the team. I will give her support duty for now and see how much she can do."
Bomber Two...was a girl who was certainly in way over her head. For her first crime, she decided to nearly bomb her college to oblivion. And even afterward, he had to repeatedly tell her to not overdo her tinker tech as they had no need for anti-state non-lethal bombs. And now...she asked to be part of a strike team with barely a week of training.
All of her current armaments were packed with non-lethal tech for not only PR reasons, but for her own as well as other's safety too. And even with that, he's not even sure if the girl will just do something brave but stupid to prove herself as a member of the Protectorate. He can see her coming home on a stretcher from miles away.
Either way, this will be a headache for the amount of paperwork he needed to work on. But it couldn't be as bad as him silencing Director Piggot with totally legitimate space duct-tape. He wasn't even sure what monstrous amount of paperwork would be required to finish for that.
Still...there's no turning back now.
"All teams. Began operation."
------
Author Note: I pretty much know that this chapter will be another hit or miss as I did just that.
But I do hope you guys would accept it as part of this fic.
And yes I know, more OC. Goddammit brain.
Oh, and as a reminder, the next chapter is 7000 words long.
Because we definitely something long and thick to fuck Coil with.
EDIT: And I totally can't forget this. YAY MORE DEAD PEOPLE.
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