Victory and Defeat

It started off as a quiet morning. Yashiro, Rando and some of the other students who were still to excited they were students of the horizon Academy were already at the gym exercising. All of them immersed in the music they listened to as they worked out.

The guardian pathway Yashiro chose was proving to be a challenging one, especially physically so he decided he'd try to stay a step ahead.

Rando followed suit mainly because he was trying to extend the time at which he could hold his steel form. While also secretly competing with Yashiro as they always did, to see who was stronger. Most of the others at the gym didn't necessarily have a goal in mind, it was just a daily routine for them.

On the other side of town, Yagita did the same, though her thoughts were distracted. She couldn't stop thinking about the robberies and the warning from Akira Utari.

She unconsciously worked herself harder than usual. Her daily jog lasting 40 more minutes than it usually did, she furiously struck the punching bag with her bare fists, and the overall workout session took about 1.5 hours.

[Damn, I overdid it again] she thought, as she sat down on a bench, sweating and breathing heavily and staring at her wounded fists.

She shook her head, went home and showered then prepared to go into work.

On her way there, she decided to call Fuhira to see what he was up to.

She gave a voice command to the AI in her car saying, "Enma, (Enma is what she calls the AI Kaneda recently installed in her car)"

The screen on the dashboard of the car lit up and a robotic voice responded, "yes? Ms Yagita. What is your request?"

"Call detective Fuhira"

"calling" Enma said, as it dialled Fuhira's number. He answered a few seconds later, sounding like he had just woken up.

"You're going to be late again aren't you?" She asked.

After looking at the time, he said "Shit" and ran straight for the shower with his phone still in his hand. "I overslept again"

Yagita sighed, "I'll drive by your house. Be ready by the time I get there." She hung up immediately after she said this.

They got to the police station just in time for the morning briefing at 8:30 am.

Imahaya waited for them to take their seat before speaking.

"Good morning officers. I'll go straight into it. Does any one have any news regarding the robbers? Yagita, has your source given you any new piece of information?"

"No, nothing new. I'm still trying to decrypt the writing on that map and trying to figure out where that map fits"

Imahaya waited for a few seconds to see if anyone had anything to add before continuing.

"In the mean time, while Yagita and Fuhira try to decipher that map and surrounding writing, I want uniformed officers patrolling museums and stores where they could potentially attack next.

From Yagita's investigation, we know that there are about 3 of these artefacts left. It's our job to make sure that they do not successfully steal the rest. I'll be randomly assigning officers to different locations. If no one else has anything to add, that will be all for this briefing"

The officers got up and went about their day-to-day activities.

Yagita tapped Fuhira on his shoulder, "Let's go see Kaneda. I gave him a copy of the map to see if he'd be able to decrypt it."

"Do you think he's made any progress?" Fuhira asked, as they made their way to Kaneda's workshop

"hopefully"

Meanwhile, the group attacking the police station finalised their plan, making sure that no mistakes were being made and everyone was on the same page.

"5, I'm sure 1 already warned you. This isn't a mission where you go off doing your own thing. Keep your temper in check."

5 smiled and raised his hands defensively, "yes, your highness"

She shook her head, "get some last minute rest guys. We have four hours before we commence."

"I'm still unclear what we do if the plan fails" 4 said, "The escape plan relies heavily on 8 getting us out of there if the situation gets too hairy but what if something unprecedented happens and she can't get us out in time?"

2 sighed again, turned around before responding, "respectfully 4, we are members of the order. 8 is only there as a last resort, we shouldn't be relying on her to escape. If shit goes tits up, retreat and try to escape yourselves. Only if we are all simultaneously cornered should 8 intervene."

4 nodded and walked off, 5 smiled and teased, saying "well someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning"

2 scorned at him while 7 laughed.

As she left the room they were in, she said one more time, "Just be ready in four hours"

12:40 PM

Yagita and Fuhira worked closely with Kaneda to decrypt the map. It had been 4 hours but they had made some progress. Kaneda realised that the map depicted their city from about a hundred years in the past. So he tried to add the modern monuments and roads to the old map to see where everything would fit.

A few minutes past 11am, she called Aihara to see if he had made any progress and share with him the progress they had made at the police station. He told her he was checking ancient texts to see if any matched the writing on the map.

As soon as he said the word "Ancient", something clicked in Fuhira's head.

"We might be looking at this wrong" He looked at her map again, inspecting the writing with his finger "It may not be ancient. It might just have a pattern, like a cipher of some sorts so there might be a code to decrypting this. Kaneda could you try a search from that angle?"

Kaneda nodded.

"I'll check some cipher books afterwards, I'm still going to try it from the ancient text angle, just incase. I'll keep you guys updated" after Aihara said that, he hung up.

As they were about to join Kaneda, an emergency call came from Imahaya on Yagita's radio.

"All available officers report to the national bank. There's a robbery in progress. Assailants are said to be powered and heavily armed. Fuhira, Yagita; it might be them again. I need you on the scene ASAP."

Fuhira said to Yagita as they both ran to the garage, "I'm gonna take my motorbike it'll be Faster"

"okay, I'll see you there. Be careful"

Though there were rushing to the scene they both couldn't help but think that something was wrong.

The common thought was [it is unlike them to attack a bank. Could an artefact be there? Or is this a different group?]

There was a high degree of uncertainty as they rushed to the bank, skipping multiple traffic lights as they did so.

By the time Fuhira got there, the robbers had finished at the bank and were now engaging in a gunfight with the officers who were already at the scene.

"what's the situation?" Fuhira asked one of the uniformed officers, as he took cover behind a bulletproof barricade.

"We intercepted them as they left the bank. We are unsure how many of them there are but we know there's at least 8 of them. They all have automatic rifles so we can't move past this point."

Fuhira nodded then looked around, there were tall buildings around the bank.

"I'm going to get a better vantage point and maybe flank them " He said, before leaping several meters in the air, jumping between buildings till he reached the top of one of the taller ones.

As he did that, Yagita arrived on the scene and a police van shortly after her.

"Where's detective Fuhira?" She asked, looking around.

The officer pointed upwards, "he's on one of those buildings trying to get a better view of things"

Imahaya stepped out of the van with 2 members of the special powered unit of the police, and several more highly trained uniformed officers.

As they discussed tactics, the robbers began speaking.

With a grin on his face, 5 peeked from behind the car he and was hiding behind, which was about 50 metres from where the police were barricaded, pressed his earpiece and said, "the cavalry is here. Shall we begin?"

As he said this, he changed his arm to the barrel of a rocket launcher.

"4, you ready?" He said, excitedly. 4 was on the side of the bank building, hiding aswell.

"Ready as I can be"

5 jumped out and fired a rocket where the officers converged, screaming "woo-hoo" as he did so.

"What the fuck?" Yagita exclaimed, as she dove for cover

One of the officers yelled, "everyone get down"

As the rocket was about to land, one of the powered officers, Amino Jashin, who came with Imahaya jumped in front and shot a beam of green radiation energy at the rocket, causing it to explode.

No one was harmed during the explosion but the wide barricade protecting them took a lot of damage.

"is everyone okay?" Fuhira asked, through his radio. Yagita responded, telling him everyone was okay.

Before he could say anything else, about five men hiding behind buildings came out and fired at the dazed officers.

Amino couldn't react in time and was hit several times by the barrage of bullets. He fell to the floor, bleeding heavily.

The men who fired went back into hiding as 5 got ready to fire another rocket.

Fuhira noticed this and jumped down from the building he was currently on, which was directly above 5.

As he landed, he slammed his fist on 5's head. Created a ball of black flames in his hand and punched 5 in the stomach. As he did this, a few officers behind the barricade stepped forward and pulled Amino backwards so he could get immediate medical attention.

Before Fuhira could do anything else, more men came out and started firing at him, from different positions this time. He jumped backwards behind a different car and crouched, giving 5 some time to recover.

[They do everything in sync, they are well organised. Also the same height. Are they being controlled? Or is their teamwork just this good? Something doesn't feel right.] Fuhira thought, as he watched the men disappear into the shadows again.

Still crouched, he activated the infrared vision in his cybernetic eye and scanned his surroundings. What he saw confirmed his hunch.

The scan picked up 2 heat signatures. One belonging to 5 who was doubled over behind a car recovering, the other belonging to who he believed was controlling the shooters.

He tapped his earpiece and reported this to Imahaya and Yagita.

"It's a hunch, but I believe if I take out the one controlling those things hiding behind the buildings, they will disappear. After that, you can all swarm the one firing rockets"

Just as he finished speaking, 5 fired another rocket aimed at the car he was hiding behind.

He jumped, just missing the explosion, and climbing the building as he did so till he got back to the top. He sprinted forward, jumped to the next building and then dove downwards, hitting 4 in the head with his reinforced arm as hard as he could, knocking him out. Just as he thought, the shadowy clones disappeared as 4 fell to the floor unconscious.

Fuhira gave the command for the officers to swarm and they charged forward towards 5.

"Shit" He exclaimed, "8, pull me out of here right now"

A purple circle appeared beneath his feet and 4's feet.

Fuhira, who was standing over 4's body noticed this and said, "oh no you don't", pulling him out of the way. A split second later, the circle vanished, and so did 5.

Fuhira checked to see if they got to him in time and was annoyed to find the officers standing around looking confused.

[we got one of them at least] he thought, as he carried 4's unconscious body towards the police van.

Just then, Yagita received a call from Aihara that made her eyes widen with shock.

"Where's 4?" 8 asked, as an angered 5 got into the escape car.

"That damn cyborg cop. He ruined everything. He got 4"

[damn] 8 thought as she drove away

"Well, 2 and 7 are nearly done so it might not be in vain. Trust them to finish the job" She added

"Yeah I guess so" 5 said, holding his stomach "I'm going to take a nap"

Yagita didn't know how to process her words, so she immediately sprinted to her car.

She tapped her bracelet, "Enma, to the station, double time"

As she got into her car, Enma spoke, "calculating fastest route to the police station" As soon as it did so, the car drive off at an incredible speed, faster then when she was initially approaching the scene.

Imahaya and Fuhira were equally confused, till they received a call from her.

"Captain, Fuhira, I just got word from Aihara, he said one of the locations of the artefact is our police station. I had a feeling something was up when the report said a bank was being attacked"

"we'll be there shortly. Yagita if you get there first, please be careful" Fuhira said, hanging up and dumping 4's body in the police van before getting in his motorbike and riding off.

Imahaya looked around. "I need the fastest driver to take me back to the police station" He turned to the second powered officer he brought with him, Bokio Yadera.

"Bokio, if this man escapes, you'll be out of a job. I'm leaving everything here in your hands" before getting in the car of the officer who was driving him to the station.

12:53 PM

Kaneda successfully decrypted the cipher and realised that one of the artefacts was situated where the police station was built. He immediately grabbed his radio to report this.

As 5 said "the cavalry is here. Shall we begin?"

2 put her hood up and covered her face with a mask and entered Imahaya's police station.

7 stood outside the entrance, raised his hand and released a powerful surge of electricity that caused a black out at the station and fried some electronics.

Kaneda felt the surge and realised his radio was fried.

He grabbed his service pistol and stepped out of the workshop after hearing a few shouts and gunshots from a few of the remaining officers at the station.

[30 more seconds] he thought to himself

Two officers stepped in front of 2, who punched the first one, knocking him out instantly then quickly rolling to the side to avoid the shots the other officer took.

As she did this, 7 sent a bolt of electricity into the officers chest, stopping his heart and killing him.

They were both out in the open so Kaneda stepped out and took 2 shots, aimed at 7, but he missed, as 7's reflexes were too fast.

As Kaneda stepped back in, out of sight, 2 spoke loudly. "Please make it easy on yourself and surrender. There are two of us here and you're clearly a regular if you're relying on guns"

Kaneda laughed, thinking to himself [10 seconds]

He stepped out to fire again but 2 grabbed his arm and punched him, causing him to crash into the desk in his workshop, breaking it in the process.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay down" 7 said, walking in as Kaneda coughed.

"3, 2, 1" As Kaneda got to 1, A backup generator kicked in and he immediately pressed a button on his bracelet, activating 2 automated turrets in the ceiling of his workshop that immediately fired at both intruders. 7 fell to the floor as some of the bullets hit his leg.

Using the commotion to his advantage, he scrambled to his feet, placed his hand on a palm reading device mounted on the wall, which opened a hidden compartment.

He entered and was out a few seconds later, wearing what he called the "combat suit alpha".

The suit and the helmet were both made from tungsten alloys. The helmet was equipped with thermal vision and taking inspiration from Fuhira, infrared scanners.

Covering his torso was a region of tungsten that resembled a bulletproof vest. The suit was also well insulated.

Though they couldn't see it, he was smiling a lot.

He charged at 2, punching her square in the face. She rolled back a few metres. 7 shot a bolt of electricity at Kaneda but he was unphased.

2 noticed this and got up slowly, "7 you're a bad match up for him. Go get the staff fragment, I'll handle him"

7 did as he was told although he was injured. As he got up, Kaneda lunged at him but 2 intercepted him, punching his helmet and sending him flying.

"Hurry up 7, it's somewhere in the evidence lock up"

She charged at Kaneda hitting him multiple times but failing to break through his armour. He grabbed her head and slammed it into a wall, still holding onto her head, he threw her into his workshop. Realising his intention, she got up quickly and dove out in time just as the turrets fired.

When she got back to her feet, she was coughing up a bit of blood.

She charged again, hitting him with another barrage of punches, most aimed at his head.

She ducked in time, just as he swung his fist, jumped and punched him again, this time damaging his helmet.

Kaneda stepped back, but she was relentless. She lunged at him at punched him again, breaking his helmet and causing minor damage to his head.

Breathing heavily, she charged in again.

This time, realising how dangerous she was becoming, he swung at her before she got to him, hitting her hard on the head with full force.

She hit another wall, with her head bleeding even more, and as she hit the floor, she stopped moving.

Kaneda waited a few seconds, thinking to himself [how did her punches get more powerful?] before sprinting for the evidence room.

He heard footsteps behind him, turned around quickly, but 2 was too fast.

He put his hand up to protect his face but the punch was too devastating. He flew backwards, hit the back his head on a wall and passed out.

As they left the station, 7 limping and 2 bloodied and battered, Fuhira and Yagita intercepted them.

"Fuck", 2 said as Fuhira charged full speed at them.

He kicked 7's head into the entrance door. Then immediately went for 2, who punched him into his motorbike.

As this happened, Yagita's concussion grenade went off, stunning the both of them.

Fuhira inspected his arm, noticing that 2's punch had shattered it.

He got back to his feet, he and Yagita slowly approached the stunned duo.

Just then, a car drove past them. 5 looked out of the window, his arm, a machine gun.

He opened fire on the detectives and 8 yelled, "get in"

Fuhira and Yagita ducked behind her car to avoid the onslaught of bullets.

This gave 2 and 7 the opportunity to sprint for the slow moving car.

Yagita's eyes widened, she nodded at Fuhira then threw an explosive grenade in front of the car. This made 5 change his attention from the car to the grenade, allowing Fuhira to step out from the other side and Fire shots at the duo who were running. He charged his black flame into his revolver and shot at 7, hitting him in the back, causing him to fall. He screamed in pain as the flaming bullet continuously burned a hole in his back.

The grenade Yagita threw exploded and 5 resumed firing at Fuhira, who angrily hid behind cover again.

2 picked up 7, who was still screaming and threw him into the back of the car, got in and 8 sped off into the distance. 5 still keeping his machine gun trained on the detectives with a very bloody nose.

When they had gained enough distance, he stopped and passed out.

Fuhira went on his radio and told officers to be on the lookout for a black car with a licence plate he managed to memorise before they escaped.

Imahaya finally got the scene. As they walked into the police station they were shocked. There were dead and unconscious officers on the floor and the whole place was in ruins.

"Oh no, Kaneda" Yagita exclaimed, running towards the workshop before spotting his body slumped against a wall.

Fuhira walked further into the station and noticed that the evidence room was opened he walked in to a huge hole in the middle of the room, with the room itself in ruins.

They called the ambulance for the injured officers. Imahaya sat down in his office, defeated.

Fuhira walked in, "word just came in, they successfully transported the perp to the supermax prison"

Imahaya laughed, "A small victory I guess" He looked at Fuhira's arm. "You did well Fuhira. We managed to get one of them thanks to you"

"and we let four of them escape" He responded angrily

"Take the rest of the day off detective, go get your arm fixed"

"yes sir" As he walked out, he noticed Yagita sitting with her head buried in her hand. He figured it was best to leave her alone for the time being. He knew she would be blaming herself for Kaneda's injury.

He looked around the station again, sighed again then walked out.