Chapter 96: Dealing With Loose Ends

As Mansfield prison got embroiled in anarchy, Ash and the others just walked out of there leisurely. "I mean, isn't this a bit too anticlimactic?" Anthony was walking out of the prison like he was free.

He even changed his clothes and was wearing a suit now. Making him look respectable.

"I don't know what movies you're watching, but real life isn't like that." Ash looked at him like he was stupid.

Ash then prepared a chopper for Anthony so he would go to Paradiso. They needed to clear things in Columbia first before Simon co. can start again.

"That was fun, let's do this again." Ifrit had a beaming smile and Ash ruffled her hair.

"It is, right? Making things explode is an art after all." Ash nodded sagely and Ifrit's eyes shone. Awakening something inside of her.

"Hah, I can't stop her from being a pyromaniac anymore. Forgive me, world." Silence prayed for its safety.

"Don't be overdramatic Silence, we won't endanger any civilian, probably." Ash wasn't sure that Ifrit had that much control.

"Okay, let's go back to Rhine labs." Saria wanted to end things now so Ash called for a limo again and they went to Rhine labs like they didn't just burn down a tower of Mansfield.

Meanwhile, Mayer and Muelsyse were running away from pursuers. The latter can turn into water and get away more easily, but Mayer will be hunted down.

"Hah, hah, what in the world did you find, boss?" Mayer asked while huffing.

"It's Clooney, that bastard is doing something. He is colluding with a group, calling themselves the union army. They want to take over Rhine labs. They are dissatisfied with Kristen." Muelsyse pulled Mayer as they ran.

"What!? That bastard is trying to take over? What's their plan?" Mayer sent out her meeboos. Her mechanical otters exploded to give them some breathing room.

"They're gathering people and have been doing experiments on them. I don't know exactly what it is, but they're disappearing." Muelsyse frowned.

"Where is it? We have to inform Kristen immediately. Wait, chief Saria can deal with them! She's insanely strong. We have to stop them boss." Mayer suggested.

"Ugh, that guy is with them... They'll definitely deal with them. The experiments are in site 359 outside Trimounts. It's nearby, we just have to give the location." Mayer quickly nodded and she took out a pager.

She gave a message to Kristen the location so control could give out orders to investigate there. "Wait... Isn't Kristen busy? She definitely won't see the message..." Mayer had a realization.

"Fuck! I forgot about that! Curse you Ash! Putting your grubby hands on Kristen! He's the reason why she is holing up in her office!" Muelsyse cursed and Mayer had a grave expression on her face.

"Kukuku~ you did well in trying to get this far. But this is out of your paygrade. I should at least get in his good graces." Somebody appeared and Muelsyse tried to use her arts.

But her water suddenly got blown away and the air around them disappeared. "I... I can't breathe." Mayer tried, but she felt like she was suffocating.

"Ara~ don't try to resist it. Just accept the sweet sleep." The hooded woman chuckled.

"S-Saria, she should know." Muelsyse tried to take out her own pager, but she fumbled due to her decreasing level of consciousness.

"Hmmm, I think I can request him for a little ride with this? These two are Kristen's subordinates after all. Kukuku~" Ho'olheyak picked them up with a gust of wind.

The gang arrived at Kristen's office and they sat down on the couches to relax a bit.

"Ash? What happened, you guys look tired." Kristen tilted her head and he waved it off nonchalantly.

"Nothing, we just burned down a prison and helped someone escape." Ash replied and Kristen chuckled.

"Funny, so are you done here in Columbia? You're a busy man." Kristen wondered and he perked up.

"Actually, my good friend Clooney needs a visit. Where is he?" Ash smiled and Kristen shrugged.

"Sorry, but I do not know where my employees are Ash." Kristen shook her head and Ash tried to get a feel on his signature everywhere.

'The bastard isn't here in Rhine labs... Hah, what a troublesome smallfry, making me go for a hunt.' Ash sighed.

He then felt something vibrate beside him. "A pager? You still use pagers here Kristen? Isn't this place supposed to be the most advanced country in the world?" Ash thought that was ironic.

"Ohh, my pager. I've been looking for that for months." Kristen's eyes swam around and Saria knew that she forgot about it.

"Oh well, it says here... Trimounts site 359, anything about that place special?" Ash wondered and they shook their heads.

"That's a research facility outside of Trimounts. But it isn't currently in use really." Kristen tried to recall.

"Wait, Kristen doesn't care at all about what her researchers do. So let's investigate this place. It must be important." Silence whispered to Ash.

He smiled wryly and thought that was true. 'I can feel my Murphy senses tingling, it checks out too. A facility not in use, those scheming bastards really love these kinds of places.'

"Well, see you later Kristen. Good luck on your project yeah?" Ash waved goodbye and Kristen nodded with a sad smile.

"Don't worry, call me from now on if you don't understand something. I'll put some of our radio towers here." Ash assured her.

He would need to anyways, with Simon co. starting back up. Anthony would need some help to get rid of Hydebro. Then they'll focus on laundering the money.

"Come on, let's go." Ash brought them with him and Saria pointed them to the location of the facility.

"Hmm, this place certainly doesn't look like it's not in use." Ash squinted his eyes. There were tons of electricity being used, he could feel it.

The originium reactors of the place is active too. Meaning that someone inside of there is doing something. And it uses up a lot of energy, i.e. experiments.

"Movement, up ahead." Saria noticed something and they prepared for a scuffle.

"Robots?" Ash saw some armored robots and thought they were being controlled remotely.

He released an EMP, not really wanting to deal with that crap. But they didn't stop moving.

One of them then pointed a rocket launcher at them and Ash snapped his fingers.

"Huh... It's some type of kinetic firearm that launches steel bullets. I thought it was a rocket launcher, what a disappointment." Ash shook his head as the bullets stopped right in front of them.

'Big bro Ash is so cool!' Ifrit's eyes were shining in excitement. Kids love superpowers after all.

Ash flicked his wrist and the steel projectiles went back at the robots with twice the power.

And to be doubly sure, he willed gravity to increase. The robots were crushed into a pulp and they investigated.

"These things aren't being moved through electronics. I used an EMP and they still moved, how curious." Ash checked their internals and there was something akin to a circulatory system inside of them.

"What's that white stuff?" Silence pointed out and it was a metallic substance. Similar to mercury in its consistency.

"It has arts on it, what in the world is it?" Saria raised a brow and she touched it with a calcified finger.

The fluid then wrapped around her finger and in their surprise, it assimilated the barrier around her finger.

Ash quickly pried it off with telekinesis and he observed it more closely. "It is deconstructing mass and adding it onto itself. What the hell, isn't this stuff like grey goo?" Ash checked even further, but they weren't nanobots.

"Isn't that insanely dangerous?" Silence stepped back from it.

"Yeah, it is honestly." So ash destabilized its atomic bonds, turning it into liquid metal that just dropped on the ground harmlessly.

"I guess our little friend Clooney is having some dangerous experiments over here. But he is neither smart enough or charismatic enough to get a scientist that can make these." Ash furrowed his brows.

'Whoever made this is a genius of the highest caliber. These are basically weapons of mass destruction, whatever these are.' Ash looked at the facility.

They would definitely need to investigate further and clean up everything in there. Even he was reluctant to use something like that.

"Come on, we have to check out what's happening inside." Saria glared at the facility.

"So, I can blow things up?" Ifrit tilted her head and Ash just wanted to erase it to oblivion, but there might be civilians and innocents inside.

"Yeah, but only when I tell you to. The liquid is resistant to arts. And it is basically indestructible against physical attacks. So stay close to me, Saria. Protect Silence and Ifrit, we move together."

Saria nodded and took a cylinder from her back. She activated the mechanism of it and a shield appeared on her hand.

They started to go in and they were greeted with tons of robots surrounding them.

"Ifrit, test your arts on them." He gave her the special arts unit made for her and she grinned.

Having a conduit to use her arts, the case on her back glowed as the originium started to react to her will.

"Burn, trash!" Ifrit released a torrent of flames from her flamethrower and Saria had to shield Silence from the flames.

The external armor of the robots got melted down, but the liquid that was making them move were tougher than expected.

"They don't really have that much reaction to arts, damn. How did that idiot manage to find someone that can make something like this? I'm so jealous, ahem. I mean, concerned." Ash corrected himself.

"Focus Ash, this might be a huge conspiracy that went under our radars!" Silence glared at him.

"I'm already treating this seriously Silence, you guys don't know what I just did earlier." Ash snorted and he also did the same for the ones they just defeated.

"What exactly are you doing to these things?" Saria was curious, it just plops down and turns into normal liquid metal.

"Hello!? Is there help out there?" A man suddenly appeared and he raised his arms in surrender immediately.

"Hmm? Who are you?" Ash raised a brow and pointed a finger at him. He wasn't taking any chances here, those things can even harm him if he wasn't careful.

"Speak up or I'll blow your brains out, try me." Ash shot a warning shot near his head and he shivered in fear.

"I'm Sonny! We were pioneers from the Columbian wilderness. Rhine labs invited us to be volunteers. But my acquaintances are disappearing. I suspect that we are lab rats..." Sonny frowned heavily.

"It was in exchange for free oripathy treatment they said." Sonny explained and Ash sighed.

"You should know better than to trust corporations giving free shit, especially something expensive like oripathy treatment. Paradiso is the leading place for that, why not go there?" Ash raised a brow.

"Well, we thought it was too good to be true. So we accepted the offer. Isn't it too suspicious? Paradiso is said to be a utopia that will give you jobs, cure your oripathy, and be given housing if you wish to live there." Sonny reiterated what Paradiso offers.

"Well, it might be. But Paradiso has been doing it for years." Saria deadpanned at him.

"Oh yeah... They do." He had a realization and Sonny sheepishly smiled.

"Hah, this guy must have studied in McDonald's." Ash shook his head at his logic.

"Chief Saria? Silence?" Another person appeared and she was a blue haired girl. (pic)

"You! You're a researcher of Rhine labs!" Sonny pointed at her accusingly.

"Shut up, or I'll kill you." Ash was getting annoyed due to Murphy and Sonny was screaming like a banshee.

He gulped and cowered behind Saria. "You, what's your name?" Ash squinted his eyes, he does not want to play around.

"E-Elena Urbica... I'm a protege of Ferdinand Clooney. I'm an engineer in the energy department of Rhine labs." She introduced herself nervously.

"You know where he is?" Ash raised a brow and she nodded. "He is on his way, I informed him that something weird is happening here."

"Good." Ash gave a twisted grin and he would wring that fucker's neck himself later.

"I... I'll call the police, I have an acquaintance from there." Sonny ran away.

"Sure, make yourself useful. And you, the one with the fake name. You're going to learn today." Ash chuckled.

'How? I've been using Elena as my name for years now.' She broke into a cold sweat, not knowing that Ash felt her heart rate increase when she said her name.

"What's happening here Elena?" Silence went up to her. They needed to learn exactly what was going on.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.