Terra arrived at her apartment and opened her closet. There were a couple things covered up with sheets. She took the sheets off. Revealing a fully finished breast plate. And two almost finished gauntlets. They were both raw metal. She looked at the text from Leon. The info about the job. Hunt down rouge MFI remnant. Need an extra set of hands. Signed "Gashadokuro" Call this number. But the president's offer was better.
Terra: Gashadokuro?
Terra searched up the Gashadokuro. A gigantic skeleton creature from Japanese mythology. It creeps around town at night. Killing any humans it can find. It bites off the heads of humans and drinks their blood. Making it even taller and more of a threat.
Terra: Person must be crazy.
Terra equipped the two gauntlets and the one breastplate. The armor fit well over her button-up crop-top. There was a sling on the breastplate. It fit Terra perfectly. Along with the gauntlets. She took a deep breath and tried to bring in the power of olympus. Nothing. Before she left she opened her closet again and grabbed her spear.
Terra: Just these jobs. That's it.
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Terra was walking down an alley. With a feeling of dread in her stomach. She'd be free for 5 months of rent with the money she'd be making. In that time she could get a good job. She traveled down the alleyway. Her hand on her spear. She could hear something on the building above.
???: Ginger? Didn't expect to see you here.
Terra: ...Sae?
Sae jumped down. Terra held out her spear to block an attack. Sae landed on her spear. Balancing on it. She looked into Terra's eyes. Sae backflipped off of Terra. Landing right in front of her. Sae wore a large cloak. She slipped it off, and tied it around her waist. Revealing her battle-ready gitup. A black sports top, her cloak was over briefs that came down to augmented MMA shoes. That seemed like they could hold something. She kept her long white hair. One of her arms was prosthetic and so was one of her legs from the knee down. Very obviously prosthetic too.
Terra: I saw you...I saw you die.
Sae: No you didn't. You heard an explosion and assumed I died. Stick was nice about his bomb placement. One in the leg. One in the arm. Either way, you look like you've been places since we last saw each other.
Terra: You aren't...mad? I mean, it was my fault that the hand and MFI attacked us.
Sae: I wasn't thrilled. But that was still two years ago. Plus, I wouldn't be who I am now if it wasn't for Stick pressing the big red button.
Terra: Of course…
Sae was inspecting Terra's armor.
Sae: New armor. You look so tempting.
Terra: ...I've been through multiple sets of armor.
Sae: Come.
Sae jumped all the way to the top of the building above them. Terra had to jump up using multiple balconies. They started walking across buildings.
Sae: I heard that you were the one to take down Integer. Well, not with that armor.
Terra: Exactly. My armor was destroyed in the fight against her.
Sae: So what did you do to em? Kill? Toture? Murdered their family in front of them?
Terra: I'd rather not talk about it. I did what I had to.
Sae: Still trying to stay pure? Guess what? This job proves you aren't exactly an angel.
Terra: I know...Where are we going exactly?
Sae: Vera Thorne. You'd guess her power was plant manipulation. But it's not.
Terra: And what are you exactly?
Sae: Oh, I'm part of B.L.A.D.E now! We are the stealth unit. T.H.O.R.N.
Terra: Cool I guess. So you're the Gashadokuro right?
Sae: That's what they call me.
Terra: Why were you in Leon's text then?
Sae: I do other things then be a B.L.A.D.E dog. I have ambitions. Plans for the future.
Terra: That doesn't sound good at all.
Sae: And it starts here, Ginger. Getting rid of the trash you left when you took down the big lady.
Terra: You know we're supposed to keep them alive, right?
Sae: She's close by.
Terra: Sae, you heard me. Right?
Sae: Yes yes Ginger. She is supposed to be right below us.
Sae flipped her sword up into the air. She jumped down after it. And caught it with both of her feet. She fell down. But saw nobody below her. The sword was stabbed into the ground. And Sae ripped it out. Terra jumped down and landed with a roll.
Terra: Nobody's here, and you were supposed to be stealthy!
Sae: Well yelling at me isn't exactly stealthy either.
Terra: Whatever. Let's look for her.
Sae: The store is empty. Let's find out if anyone is in there.
Terra: Got it.
Terra went to move.
Sae: Stop! What are you doing?
Terra: Oh. I get it.
They both stood next to each other and closed their eyes. They heard one person sneaking around.
Sae: Wait for it…
Vera was seen through the window glass. She was wearing an orange button up shirt with rolled up sleeves. Along with black pants and a belt. She had unkempt brown hair they came a little past her shoulders. Sae quietly stood up and positioned her sword. Terra realized what she was doing. Sae stabbed her sword straight through the window. Sae felt a cold chill. And realized Vera was gone.
Sae: What the hell?
Terra: There's someone else involved.
Someone stood at the end of the alleyway next to Vera. He had white hair and wore armor made out of ice. It covered all of his body but allowed movement. Someone else stood on top of a car. The street light in the alleyway broke. And a spark fell out of the light. Vera held out her hand and held it out like a finger gun and shot a beam out of it into the sparks. And a gigantic fire erupted in the alleyway and spread to the store.
Sae: Come on. Let's get out of here.
Terra: What about the store? It'll cause a fire all the way down the block!
Sae: You're insufferable sometimes. It doesn't matter! You can't even do anything.
Sae kicked off the wall and jumped onto the next wall. Jumping up on top of the building next to the store.
Sae: Lets. go.
Terra jumped atop the building. They ran away.
Terra: We probably could've taken them.
Sae: According to the pres, they are all 25,000 and above. You couldn't take them by yourself. He was expecting you to have your armor!
Terra: He should be thrilled I have no armor. I freed all those people!
Sae: You love running in head on! You didn't really change. Same old Ginger. You trained for years with the Chaste. A group who has to stay concealed. You didn't take from our example at all!
Terra: The Chaste are bad people! As far as I'm concerned they're no better than the MFI.
Sae: And? You blew up San Francisco! Great job at being stealthy.
Terra: …
Sae: Yup. Nothing to say to that, eh? Come on. We're going to meet with the pres.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Terra and Sae met up with President Borden.
Sae: We got a good look at them. We just need to catch them off guard.
Terra: If I can ask, why are we after them anyway?
President: They have a plan. To assassinate me. They think I allowed the slave camps to be a thing.
Terra: Well, did you?
President: That is none of your interest.
Terra: So yes?
President: It's complicated.
Tempest: Don't speak ill of him.
Terra: I'm sorry I don't trust most higher-ups in our society. The last one I met happened to be the fucking anti-christ.
Tempest: You met one. That doesn't make all of them the same.
President: Stop it you two. Terra and Sae will go and find intel about these people.
Terra: And if you know they are going to assassinate you, then don't you have proof?
President: That's not how that works.
Terra: What do you mean?
President: I don't have evidence. I have a lead. It's a warehouse by the Hudson River.
Terra: I've been there before.
Sae: Great. Lead us there.
President: Trust my words Terra. I have humanity's best interests in mind.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Terra and Sae got to the warehouse. She thought about the day Krilla was killed in front of her by Ivan. Among other things.
Sae: Hey! Earth to Ginger!
Terra: Sorry.
Sae: Come on.
Terra went to walk into the warehouse. Sae grabbed her and dragged her to the side.
Sae: The fuck are you doing? You'll die if you think you can go into there without dying. Wait here, listen in.
???: Come on, let's get out of here.
???: V. We're trusting you here.
Sae: I'm going to follow them. You take care of Vera.
Terra: Okay.
Sae snuck off. She quietly jumped to the top of buildings and followed the pair. Terra stayed where she was. She took Sae's advice. She listened in until she heard footsteps. But something clicked in her. She couldn't be an assassin like Sae. She couldn't senselessly kill like her. She saw Vera walking around. Terra snuck up behind her and got her into a chokehold. Vera lit up her hands and shot Terra in the chest. Lucky for Terra, it clinked off her armor. But she was blown back just a bit.
Vera: Are you another one of those assassins?
Terra: I'm not an assassin.
Vera: But you were with that girl. She killed one of our squads in one night. I'm not letting her or you get away with it again. We were freed out of those sites for a reason! And I'm getting justice for all the people that died in them!
Terra: I get where you're coming from. But sometimes we lose sight of why we fight.
Vera: What do you know?
Vera shot a bunch of blasts at Terra. She dodged two and rolled under one. She got to her feet and just barely dodged the last one. Which breezed past her arm. Burning it, and cutting off some skin. She felt her arm and quickly dodged another blast. She took out her spear and slashed at Vera. She jumped back and shot a bunch of blasts. Terra rolled under them. Vera timed it right. She threw out a blast. It hit Terra straight in the stomach. She folded like a chair. Vera's arm started to change the same color as her blasts. She stuck her arm through a blast and burst through it. She came out on the other end. Right in front of Terra. She pushed her back into the air. Terra landed with a back roll. She kicked up and hit Vera back. She blocked it and jumped back. Terra realized Vera's bad stance. Terra ran up and threw a punch at her face. She shot a blast right at Terra's face. She ducked out of the way, burning off some of her hair. Terra tackled Vera to the ground. She restrained her hands to the ground. Vera lit up her hands. And her powers came down to her wrists. She went to shoot a blast up. Terra quickly headbutted her. Knocking her out. Terra got to her feet. She slung Vera over her shoulder.
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