Chapter 42: Seymours Rescue Plan

"Axel!" A voice cried in the distance.

Rubbing his eyes as he woke up in his sleeping bag, Lars faintly saw a child in the distance running toward him. The boy had tears in his eyes, and the tiny locks of his black hair were covered in mud.

"Shahir..." Lars said rising to up, what is it."

"It's Zrilla!" Shahir said crying. "They took her away!"

After Lars was breifed on the sitatuon, he 6 Lance, B and Reggie all gathered together.

"This situation is bad." Lance siad. "We can't do anything without blowing our cover... but if we let a child get hurt... can we really consider ourselves agents?"

"There is no question, we will be saving her" Lars said. "This whole operation can die for all I care! offering up a child to monsters is not something I signed up for!" Lars said.

The group nodded in silent agreement.

"Shahir can you show us tot he entrance to that secret passaageway!" Lars asked.

"I know exactly where it is!@ Follow me!" SHahir said.

"Wait just one minute!" Lance said sternly. "We are going about this all wrong!"

"Lance! Your cold but you can't possibly expect-" Reggie started

"Just hear me out," Lance said "We can't just run in there like this... we need a plan!"

"He's right" 6 said. "Were not just fighting some random shifters, these guys are strong! And we still have no idea what they are doing down there!"

"And most importantly they have a hostage! They can use that against us! Are any of us skilled in hostage situations?" Lance asked.

"What about Vincent!" Lars asked. "He can-"

"Vincent is strong, but what do you think he'll do if he hears about you putting your own life at risk?" Lance said.

"I.. guess you are right..Isn't he supposed to be here tonight its been a week since I have seen-"

"We need to stop dancing around the elephant in the room, I hate to do it, but if were going to jepordize the missoin shouldn't we involve the person leading it?"

"But how can we contact him?" Lars asked.

"Heh" Lance laughed. "Weren't you paying attention during the breifing Ax? He's just a call away!"

A few miles a way, in the corner of a comic shop, Seymour was sitting with a man discussing the politics.

"So you've told me about the asteroids and meteors hitting during surprisingly suspicious times... but what about Shara Sherief? What does he have to dow ith this?"

"HEh" The black man laughed. "Shereif is as crooked as they come, he's been taking money under the table from humans for years! There's even a rumor... he is selling Shifter Slaves to humans!"

"No way!" Seymour remarked. "This guy is the worst!"

"Drugs, slaves, you name it he sells it!" THe man said. "In comparison, Bali and Shine are like saints compared to him."

"So the main force behind it all is Shereif, and somehow he is tied up with the human government?"

"Correct"

"Thanks for this" Seymour said handing the man a card. "10,000 ether for your troubles."

"Your welcome to my shop anytime" The man said taking the card.

"Ex...excuse me" A teenage voice called from the back of the store.

"Welp that's a customer! I've got to go!"

"Very well" Seymour said taking his leave. "O'Brian.." Seymour thought. "Did you know all of this when you sent us on this mission?"

Ring Ring

Seymour looked down on his holipad.

"Incoming call from Lance Nozuka" It read.

Back in the shop the black Shifter helped a teenage grirl find a story.

"I'm looking for a Spider man comic, do you have something like that?" she asked.

The comic store owner was very suspicious of the girl, she was dressed in all black with a hoodie over her head, the only thing he could see were her long black locks of her, and a blue pendant necklace around her neck.

Standing next to her was a Shifter dressed in the finest clothes the man had ever seen.

"Hmmmmm" The man said. "Unfortunately The onlyoneI have is at another location" THe man said. "IF you come back here in a couple days it should be here/"

"Awesome!" The girl said raising her thumbs.

Back at Lagara, seymour had arrived on the scene still dressed in his family man clothes.

"So" He said adressing them. "Here is the situation."

"First, we have confirmed the existence of a Pandora, Obrian will be very happy to hear that. Second a little girl is being held captive at the site who has seen to much to be let go. And thirdly, there are at current 5 shifters holding her captive. Is that all correct?" Seymour asked.

"Correct" Lars answered.

"Then listen close, we are about to blow our cover completely, we will launch a missoin to rescue the girl Zrilla! Are we all in agreement?" Seymour asked.

"Hell yeah!" Reggie said.

"Youbet" B agreed

"Ofcoarse" Lance said.

"No doubt!" 6 said.

"Something about this whole thing is off" Lars said. "I can't shake it... but theres way more going on here then we can see... What will happen after we save Zrilla?" Lars asked.

"We will alert Obrian and tell him of the Pandora, after that S.P.A will launch an attack on the base and you kids will be sent home"

"But what about the people of the Badlands! If we hand the Pandora over to the humans nothing will change!"

"Maybe so" Seymour said. "But we have already blown our cover, after this we will have no way of making it inside there"

"I see..." Lars said. "Then I guess that's all we can do, but I just can't spot it, something feels wrong here."

Back in a dark room A human with white hair was on his holopad with Shereif.

"Have you found it yet! Have you found any Pandoras?" THe man asked.

"Unfortunately not, we will alert you as soon as we know anything." Sherief answered.

As he turned of his holopad, Shereif turned to Guille. "When will Eiham have the Pandora opened?" He asked.

"Within the next three days." Guille answered.

"Excellent" Shereif said. "Let's see for ourselves, what is the secret of this Matryoshka Pandora"