Stand Off

01:47

Shirogakichi,Kadoma, Osaka

Naoki and Lola found themselves in a standoff. Naoki asked, "Do I know you?"

Lola replied, the mischievous smile still stuck to her face, "You should, but you don't. My your Junior, Senpai."

"Junior? Oh… So, you're the new monsters that piece of shit created?"

"Now now, aren't you being a little too harsh on us, Senpai? Calling people monsters isn't really cute."

Naoki said, "You think I care?"

Lola replied with a nasty smirk, "I think you should. A knife in the neck is actually pretty scary, you know?"

Naoki noticed someone creeping behind him and he quickly jumped away. He looked at where he was standing and saw Mimi standing there with a knife in her hand. She was wearing some sort of bodysuit. It was mainly dark blue with a little hint of orange in places.

Shadow asked, "Another one? You got good stealth abilities. But not enough."

Lola said, "Mimi, you heard senpai. You need to train more."

Mimi replied with a big smile, "Yes, I got it."

Lola was going to say something, but she got interrupted by the sudden voice of Annabelle. She said, "Stop right there, Lola."

She got into light. She was aiming a Tauras GX4 TORO pistol towards Lola. Lola said, "Oh, isn't that Ms. detective? Thanks for helping us track down our senior here. But that's all the help we needed. We can take it from here. You're dismissed."

Ann was shaking a little. She replied, "What? Drop the gun and stand down."

Mimi noticed Annabelle's nervousness and decided to take a chance. She quickly lunged towards Annabelle and with a quick push, dropped her on the ground.

Naoki noticed Mimi lunging towards Annabelle and tried to stop her, but he was quickly stopped in his tracks by two high-calibre bullets in the ground before him. He quickly looked up and saw a drone with a barrel on it. Ida's voice came through a speaker embedded in the drone: "I'd recommend you to stay still, senpai. Or the next bullet might hit you."

Naoki stopped moving. Mimi held Annabelle up and put her on a deadlock with a knife on her neck.

Lola said, "Looks like we're done. Senpai, you'll be coming with us. Mr. Kuroshima wants to have a talk with you."

Naoki was a little confused. But he didn't show his confusion and said, "I'm afraid; that'll have to wait. I got a doctor's appointment tomorrow."

Just then a Toyota stopped, and Sohel came out, aiming his pistol. He said, "Finally found you, major. You've been ordered to report back to New Eden ASAP."

Naoki looked as Sohel with a hint of pity and regret in his eyes. He said, "I warned you, Ghost. You should've listened."

Just after saying that, he turned around and started running towards the Neya River Canal and jumped in the canal. Ida's drone quickly turned towards Naoki to shoot, but before it could shoot, Sohel shot at the drone, destroying it before he could take the shot.

Just as that, Naoki had escaped, and everyone else found themselves in a deadlock. In a few seconds, a few more drones arrived at the location and started hovering over them.

Lola said, "Both of you, drop your weapons and surrender. We've got the upper hand in manpower here. You can't win."

Sohel replied with a smile, "Upperhand? I think it's us who've got the upper hand."

Lola replied, "Huh? It's a three-v-two situation. And we've got drone support too."

"Take a closer look. Are they really your drones?"

"What?" Lola looked at the drones hovering above them and noticed the different pattern. She tried to contact Ida through her earpiece, but Ida's voice came in from in front of her. Her confidence level dipped even more when she saw Ida walking up to them with both of her hands up in the air and a drone closely following her.

5 Minutes Earlier

Sohel was flooring his Toyota, trying to get to Annabelle and Naoki. As soon as he turned a corner, he hit the breaks as he saw the Silver KIA parked in a corner. Sohel said, "ARIA, deploy them. Send one to the KIA in front and assign the others to follow me."

ARIA replied, "Yes, Captain."

************************

Sohel said, "Now. I'd recommend that YOU drop your weapons. You see, the ones behind these drones are kinda... heartless."

ARIA's voice came through Sohel's glasses: "That's harsh, Captain."

Sohel chuckled and replied, "Sorry, sorry."

Lola and Mimi reluctantly put down their weapons and got on their knees. Sohel said, "Ann, there are handcuffs in the glovebox of my car."

Ann nodded and quickly ran towards the car. She soon came back with two handcuffs and started cuffing them. As Ann was cuffing Lola, she said, "You are making a mistake, detective. Messing with the SNA isn't going to be good for you."

Just as Sohel heard this, Sohel indicated Annabelle to stop. As she stopped, Sohel went and crouched in front of Lola. He said, "Who are you?"

Lola replied, "I'm an operator of the Seven Nation Army. All three of us."

As Annabelle and Sohel heard this, both of them almost laughed out. Sohel controlled his laugh and said, "How am I supposed to believe you? What's your ID code?"

Lola hesitantly said, "LYP117."

Sohel said, "ARIA, log into the SNA directory and search for an operator. Code: LYP117"

"Yes, captain. Scanning… no entry found."

"Say that again using the normal speakers."

ARIA said out loud, "No entry found for the code LYP117."

The Yu sisters seemed visibly distraught. Sohel said, "Look, lady. You should know that impersonating to being a military official is a really big crime."

Ida was the one who was most panicked. She said, "I... We aren't lying. We actually…"

Before she could say anything else, she suddenly fell down on her face. Sohel quickly ran to her and turned her over. She looked like she was having trouble breathing.

Sohel said, "Hey, are you okay? Hey?"

She stopped moving before Sohel could say anything else. It didn't take long for Sohel and Annabelle to realise what was going on. Annabelle quickly took out her tablet and logged into the main UAV ARIA was controlling. She then used the UAV to fire a small-scale EMP.

Once the EMP was fired, all the drones fell to the ground at once. Sohel too lost control of his arm, and it started hanging from his shoulder. As Sohel got up, he said, "ARIA, boot in local mode and turn on scanning."