7-4 Change Of Plans

Date: September 10

Place: unOrdinary Locations

[Cedrick]

Once we arrived at the ground where we were supposed to meet her, I saw Rei looking so frustrated and tired at the same time. I can even see the bags below her eyes in this distance.

"What took you so long?" she said, slowly walking towards us as if she couldn't wait any longer. "And what is with that outfit?" she says, eyeing Noel and sounding more annoyed.

"We've got held back," I try to reason with her. "I'll tell the details later," I replied, still trying to avoid conversing with her as much as possible.

"Understood," she replied, taking my hand. I was a bit stunned and when I looked at her, she was smiling at me. But I immediately grabbed Noel by his neck when I saw Rei holding the mass teleportation crystal.

Then we teleported.

"Hey," he objected and removed my hands.

"This should be the place," she quickly let go of my hand right after we arrived at our first destination. She then checks the holographic map that is projected by her watch.

"You've marked the map," Noel mumbles as if he was in disbelief.

"Don't you have it marked too?" Noel couldn't speak when he sensed incoming scolding from Rei. "I even told you to study it thoroughly," Rei says in disappointment.

"Don't worry, I'll just give you a copy," I cut into their conversation just to stop the two from fighting. She just sighed as I send him a more detailed copy.

"Thank you," Noel says sniffing as though he was crying.

I smiled at him and strike up a conversation with Rei. "So how are we going to approach this?" I asked when all she was doing was staring at the map.

"Bait," when she said that word with a small grin as she slowly looked at Noel, my attention also turned to him.

"Bait?" Noel repeated. But just a few seconds, his expression changed and I assumed he finally got what she was referring to. "Me?" he pointed at himself.

[Rei]

"But, why?" he seems to hate the idea.

But I need to do this for a simple reason: to communicate with Cedrick without Noel noticing. And to do that, we need to be at least as far away from him to freely speak with each other.

"Don't worry, you'll be safe," Cedrick nonchalantly reassures him to calm him down.

"That's not the problem," his face suddenly gloomed.

"We'll be just right behind you. All you have to do is keep them distracted while we use the element of surprise to attack," I explained, in a term he can easily understand. But when I was about to speak again, we heard footsteps and some drooling noises of an unOrdinary nearby.

"Here we go!" I say.

[Noel]

As soon as Rei shouted that phrase with such an enthusiastic tone, both of them vanished. And without telling me proper instructions to follow.

After I took some glances at my surrounding in hopes of finding them, I failed to see even a single strand of their hair. And when I was about to go look for them, an unOrdinary suddenly jumps out of a bush to tackle me.

I was laying, pinned on the ground, and with its heavy weight at an advantage, I couldn't even move a single finger moreover scream for help.

[Rei]

"So what happened earlier?" I asked him in a hurry over the one-on-one line in the transmitter.

"Long story short; a girl from the same island as them, deliberately bumped into him when we were eating and spilled some kind of acid on his back," he explained.

"What?" I yelled out of disbelief. When I was about to ask him more, he suddenly yelled back.

"Rei," he says in a panic as I see him jump off of the tree branch where he was hiding, running full speed in Noel's direction. And when I saw what was going on, I used the branch I'm standing on to my advantage and launched myself to the unOrdinary as if I was on a catapult.

"Cedrick!"I called out when I successfully kicked the unOrdinary away from Noel. Cedrick then appeared behind me, running to it while removing the sheath from his blade, beheading it in one strike.

[Noel]

"Idiot!" Rei scolded Cedrick as she was helping me get up when I accepted her hands that she offered.

"Whaー" Cedrick sounded so lost as he swings his blade in the air to clean it from the green blood which stained it.

"We need those," Rei paused. "Alive," she then sighs and gave up being furious. "Forget it," she then looks at the map again.

"Sorry," was all that Cedrick could say in a situation like this.

We quickly moved into another location. And this time, we're at an abandoned farm. It looks like we were inside an empty barn with no sign of life instead of us.

[Rei]

I was about to suggest that Noel would also be the bait this time, but I revised the plan when Noel's earlier expression, which was being helplessly pinned on the ground, flashed in my mind.

"Let's take turns being the bait, " I say. Cedrick looked puzzled as he sparred me a look. And I'm positive that he was thinking about why I did that when I know that we need to discuss some unfinished matters. "Cedrick, you'll be the bait this time," I was trying to hint to him something but he looks like he didn't get it at all.

"I mean sure, butー" I didn't let him finish his sentence as Noel might suspect something.

"It's settled then," I announced as I picked something out from the small backpack I was carrying. "Take this just in case," I gave Cedrick a small gun with tranquilizer syringes as bullets.

"You had these?" he says with an expression saying; Why only now?

"I kind of forgot about those," I confessed. "Just do your best not to kill or fatally wound it," I warned him with a serious look.

"I'll try to," he replied and looked uneasy as he left the barn silently and then came back with a long and sturdy branch while his sword was hanging on his back thanks to the leather harness tied with the sheath.

"I heard you were a sharpshooter based on the three," I turned to Noel and advised him to shoot from the window or the roof for backup.

"But, I'm not though," he genuinely looked honest when he gave a reply.

"Don't worry, we can lure it near you if you want, just tell us through the earpiece," I say, not convinced by his claim. Because two out of the three praised him for his skills.

He then nodded and held the sniper, which I just assembled, close to him after I gave him another pair of bullets that resembled Cedrick's. "Don't worry, if you can't then just say so, I'm not forcing you," with that said, I and Cedrick jumped out from the second floor's barn window and started to position ourselves.

[Noel]

I decided to climb up the stairs so I had to find a stair when I went outside. I only sat there and focused my vision on the two who were walking straight to the field. Then just a few minutes later, Rei was already up a tree, sitting and tying her shoelaces more tightly, which I saw within my scope. She then looked my way and waved her hand.

"Are you all set?" I hear her speak in my ear.

"More or less, yeah," I replied. She then gave a thumbs up and probably went ahead to check in on Cedrick.

[Rei]

"Continue with the details," I say to Cedrick after I finished a conversation with Noel.

"Right, so we ended up going back to the lounge to change his clothes," I cut him before he could finish.

"What? The lounge? Thenー" I was also interrupted by an irritated Cedrick.

"Can you just listen first before reacting?" I didn't say another word and just waited for him to speak again. "Patrick was there looking for something he forgot and Vincent came to fetch him so the alibi you came up with is quite believable," he continued and I was waiting for a full minute for the continuation but he didn't utter another word.

"And? What about the acid?" I asked and I heard him gasp.

"Oh, yeah. Honestly, I didn't know it at first and if it wasn't for Patrick, I don't think I would've noticed it," he admitted. "Also, Noel doesn't seem to feel the pain so we kept it a secret. His comment considering the matter was that it only stings," he sounds like questioning himself when his intonation went up on the last word. "But we just told him that it was just a slight burn, nothing to worry about," he says finally taking a stance when he reached the middle of the field.

"Thanks for everything," I didn't hear a reply so I spoke again."Did you perhaps see their faces?" I was curious as well so I couldn't help it. "I want to conduct a proper investigation when we get back," I say. We just lost a lead and it'll be super convenient if we'll be able to find another one again.

"A glimpse," he shortly replied. "And I already performed some first aid at him if you're worried," it was faint but I can hear his uneasiness from how he delivered that.

"Thanks," a grin forced its way on my lips.

"I can see one coming in fast," Cedrick says, with a sudden hint of tension in his voice.

"Noel, get ready," I say to him. "Waitーthere's more," I see something moving by the corn field's crops. "Two on the left and three on the right," I say to warn them on the transmitter where we're all connected in one line.

"I see another one coming from behind Cedrick," Noel says, and when I checked it, the one from behind seems much bigger than the rest. I quickly jumped down from where I'm hiding and run towards the one that was coming from behind.

"Cedrick, we're going to kill the one behind you and lure the others to the barn," I say. "Noel, if it's alright with you, target the one from the middle and one from the left," I issued.

"No problem," Noel answered unhesitantly.

"Got it," says Cedrick. I slowed down a bit to let him catch up to me.

[Cedrick]

I threw away the branch that I was supposed to use and unsheathed my sword as I catch up to her. And when I was running side by side with Rei, she gave another order.

"You go left, I go right," she said. "Then we take care of one each and directly stab the other with the bullet," she said and I just gave a nod as an answer as the both of us picked up the speed.

So what's going to happen is we get two opponents each, Noel's unOrdinary will all be shot by the tranquilizer's bullet while I and Rei will kill one and leave one for the mission's task after we killed the one that's coming from behind us. Leaving us four test subjects to submit.

But nothing went as planned.

[Noel]

I stood up and positioned myself at the end of the roof, just standing there and aiming at the unOrdinary that were approaching the barn behind them. I was confident of my aim but when I was about to pull the trigger, I almost fell off the roof when an earthquake, noーwhat was that rumbling?

I didn't mind it and regained my position again but another rumble messed with my balance and this time, I found myself falling. I luckily grabbed a piece of wood to hold on to and tried not to look down to prevent scaring myself with the height that was below my feet if I somehow fall.

Just like when I was pinned earlier, I couldn't even ask for help. So here I am, just hanging and hoping that someone would notice my distress.