04/27/2013, 06:02 AM #108 Back of Recette's Armory - Manhattan - United States
Snake had been pouring over the documents for days now. He sat hunched over a small cardboard box that had been flipped upside to make a makeshift table. He had a single fluorescent lightbulb hanging in the room. The only other source of light was the holographic display he worked on, a device he was borrowing from Recette while researching. Snake knew that he was onto something. He just wasn't sure exactly what. He had learned through logs and recordings, some of which definitely had not been from the armory and were most likely acquired in shady manners, that there were three individuals who seemed to run most operations, or at least direct them. Their base of operations was in the Bronx, across the small stretch of the East River. They seemed to have several "districts" of operation that were about a dozen in number located around the five boroughs of New York. The closest one seemed to be somewhere around W 23rd St. and 8th Ave. Though Snake had checked through the information a dozen times to make sure he was interpretting it correctly, it came across as strange. 23rd and 8th was essentially Pennsylvania Station, one of the two major train and public transport stations in Manhattan. Why would the district of a terrorist syndicate be working so close to so many people?
Snake shook his head. It was his best lead right now and he hadn't found out much else in terms of locations. The one thing that irked him is that from the logs, it seemed like the organization had been racking more and more names to assassinate, something that seemed strange considering they were trying to recruit Characters into their ranks. Why would they try to eliminate so many of those they tried to recruit? Snake stood up with a loud bang. Snake crumpled over.
The one thing Recette didn't mention was that she quite literally meant that the rooms might be a tight squeeze for a man of Snake's stature. He couldn't stand in the room without his head hitting the ceiling.
*** "I swear to god I am going to punch a fucking hole in this ceiling..." Snake cursed as he rubbed his head.
Snake left the room and straightened up in the hallway, which was sized proportionally to satisfy Snake's vertical talent. Walking out the door that led to the counter Recette sat at, Snake greeted her.
*** "Mornin', Recette." Snake yawned. Having been researching over the past few days, he hadn't gotten much sleep.
*** "Good morning, Snake!" Recette beamed. "Anything interesting?"
*** "Well actually, yes. I believe I've found, though hard to believe, that the closest district to us is actually at or near Penn. Station." Snake informed. "It seems that their front cover operates as a 'food stand'. That's about all the information I could get. I figured it's enough of a lead to go on."
Snake finished his explanation and waiting on hearing what Recette thought.
Just south of Montargis - France
Dawn approached. Remilia was excited. The air was ripe with the stench of death. Remilia flew low, coasting over the trees and plains at incredulous speeds. The sun was rising to her right in a large simmering glow. After having devastated the previous town, Remilia had taken a quick nap. After having done so, she had proceeded to fly northwards, aiming to find more heavily inhabited locations. She was sure that had she paid more attention to the surroundings, she would have noticed more of the scenic beauty of the French countryside, but Remilia was too preoccupied for that. Her head was filled with excitment and anticipation for what she could do to larger town and cities.
It was strange. Having lived in Gensokyo for over four hundred years, Remilia had lost, or at least learned to hide, her desire for destruction and death. Prior to being teleported into Gensokyo, she had been known as the Scarlet Devil, a name locals had given her for she would appear red with the blood of her victims staining her dress. Yet strangely enough, in less than a year since having been teleported back into the Outer World, Remilia had lost all of that restraint she had gained over her time in Gensokyo and had let her inner demon come forth. After all, she was a vampiric devil. Death and destruction were as normal to her as sleep and food. Yet, underneath all of that...
Before she could finish her thoughts, Remilia noticed a glint to her right. She noticed several specks far off that would occasionally glint of the sun. She ignored them. They were too far away to warrant her attention. She looked back towards the now quickly approaching sights of the outskirts of another town, this one visibly larger. The farms and fields were expansive and large. This kind of produce could probably feed a small city or large town. Suddenly, she noticed something to her right again. However, unlike before, as Remilia turned her head, she suddenly saw several mettalic objects wizzing towards her. Frantically rolling out of the way, Remilia barely dodged the path of three cylindrical objects that seemed to be propelling forward by spitting fire out the back ends. Remilia watched incredulously as the objects turned in the air and re-aimed themselves to come at a nother pass at Remilia. Realizing that these things must be another one of the human's inventioned, Remilia quickly fired a spray of danmaku at the objects. Yet again she was astonished as the impact of her danmaku on the objects caused an enormous explosion, sending Remilia tumbling through the air, fighting to regain control. Flame and debris showered from where the three objects had been a moment earlier. She quickly turned her head back towards where the glint had been earlier. She noticed that those specks that she had seen earlier were now much larger.
They seemed to be metallic triangles that flew towards her at speeds even she had to respect. Quickly flying upwards to avoid their path, Remilia fired off several danmakus at the flying triangles. The triangles impressed Remilia as they seemed to graze the danmaku as they did fantastic twists and turns midair, dodging the danmaku.
This was getting interesting.
Remilia's grin widened as the cross her hands in front of her and shouted,
*** "About time I had some real fun!"
The flying triangles had by now already turned around and were heading towards her again. THey started to fire those tiny human danmakus rapidly from the noses of the triangles. Remilia dodged them with ease as they again flew past her. Aiming at one specific triangle, Remilia materialized her Gungnir and launched it at it. The spear hit true as it pierced through the front of the triangle, sending it tumbling towards the ground in flames. Remilia gleamed with joy. However, that joy didn't last long. She heard a strange sound behind her and noticed the remaining triangles dropping several of those cylindrical danmakus at her. Remilia swiped them out with her danmaku again, almost catching one of the triangles in their explosion. This was getting fun.
Remilia set her eyes on the closest triangle and thrust her wings, sending her zipping forward at speeds the even the triangles couldn't seem to achieve. She caught up to the triangle within seconds and latcherself on with a loud crunch. The metallic triangles, upon closer look, seemed to actuall consist of several triangles. The main "body" seemd to actually bea cylinder with two triangles coming off either side and two much smaller triangles coming off perpendicularly at the tail end. Humans made such peculiar objects.
Remilia crawled up to the front of the triangle where instead of metal, it was covered in a clear material. Inside it, Remilia saw a terrified human controlling the triangular object. She saw him jab at something before she was flung backwards and the clear covering of the triangle flew off, the human launching out with it. Did humans also learn to fly now? However, as the human that launched out fell earthward, Remilia saw a great white cloud appear above him. Was this some sort of shield? Remilia had no idea what the humans had developed in the time that had been in Gensokyo. Not caring at this point, Remilia flew down, chasing after the white cloud that seemed to move extremely slowly. The human seemed to be stuck facing only one direction and was frantically looking around him. Remilia stopped behind the human and grabbed his head.
*** "Mind telling me what those strange triangles and this white cloud is?" Remilia inquired in a sweet tone of a young girl, all the while tightening her grip on the human's feeble head. She could easily have turned it into mush should she have so desired.
*** "F-Fuck, what are you talking about?!" The man exclaimed, obviously terrified.
*** "Answer my question, please." Remilia asked, tightening her grip on the man's head. The man started screaming in pain.
*** "It's a fucking jet, for fuck's sake! Can't you goddamn see that? The damn thing above me is a parachute! Did you literally just come out of hell yesterday?!" The man sobbed as he answered the questions.
A jet? Parachute? They were new words to Remilia. She looked at the man who was now crying, saying something about not wanting to die and wanting to meet his mother. Remilia felt disgusted. She let go of his head and kicked him downwards. The man was ripped from the harness of the white cloud he called a parachute and plummeted towards the Earth. Turning around, Remilia could see the other two triangles, jets, retreating and flying away.
Though Remilia had not even yet reached the town that law ahead, she was starting to feel tired. When did the humans develop so many methods of imitating the youkai? Surely danmaku was supposed to be the one thing positively separating human and youkai in terms of strength. Yet, now the humans were able to fire smaller, faster danmaku by hand, launch larger, more powerful metallic danmaku from moving boxes, and now they had acquired a means of travelling by air in respectably fast objects called jets. On top of that, the danmaku these jets fired seemed capable of following Remilia, almost as if seeking her.
Remilia lowered herself from the air and down into a sparse forest that she had been flying over. The sun was almost in full view now as she heard the birds crying from within the trees.
*** "Maybe I'll get a full rest before moving on..." Remilia sighed as she looked for a suitable tree to use as a makeshift bed.