Chapter Fifty: Hijack

The Six Guns pushed enemy forces out of Yokohama. Though, they weren't able to arrive before the city took heavy casualties. The enemy numbers were were large, and only kept coming. While they had time to relax now, they knew it was only a matter of time before the next assault. "We're like sitting ducks in this situation" Haru says. "We haven't been able to end the conflict here no matter how much time we've spent. We couldn't keep in contact because of the EMP attack before they invaded. While we restored the city wide power grid, long distance communication has remained unusable."

"Why haven't you been able to restore it?" Tanya asks.

"Well, a lot of our servers are fried" Haru says. "To get that back up, we'll need to build entirely new server computers, rebuild the software and retrieve all the data we'd need to restore everything that the internet essentially is based on our servers. It's not an easy process, and with all the fighting going on, it's simply not been possible."

"Then how do we end it faster?" Siran asks.

"We'll, I'm not sure..." Haru says. "The only things I could think of is pushing their forces to the shores and that's not even guaranteed to work. They could just come right back with more firepower."

"And if we push them back into their own country?" Siran asks.

"Suicide" Haru replies. "You think you can push them back into their own homeland and keep up the fight?"

"If it ends the fighting faster..." Siran says.

"What's with the rush?" Satomi asks. "I mean, I get wanting to end the fighting as fast as possible, but you're not being yourself. This is crazy, even for you!"

"We need to get back soon" Siran says.

"What's going on?" Mikoto asks.

"His wife is missing" Holly says.

"Zia's missing!?" Mikoto asks.

"She has been for a while" Holly says. "Not long after the crew split up. Ares must've known we all split and took advantage of that. I've heard the details from Demetri. It was only about a week after we all left Pilloa."

"Oh no..." Satomi says.

"But gathering everyone to go save your wife..." Haru says. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"I'm not here to gather everyone to go look for her" Siran replies. "I came here to pull you out of danger first."

"He wants to looks for Zia now" Holly says. "But with everyone recently being in more danger, we had to make sure you guys were safe."

"More danger?" Satomi asks. "What's with the more danger?"

"The Americans got the data off of my laptop" Holly says. "The data to track you guys down."

"Shit" Haru says. "From bad to worse. How'd they get the data?"

"We were captured and tortured" Blake says. "Long story."

"I want all of the details..." Haru says as she squints at Blake.

Holly explains the story to Haru and the others, as she removes the scarf from around her neck to expose the scars she got from McNamara. As she finishes the story, Mikoto says "Then we have to hurry and get the others!"

"Correct" Holly says. "Which is why we're in a rush."

"But why come for us first?" Haru asks. "Wouldn't Japan be the last place for the Americans to attack?"

"Not necessarily," Holly says. "As well as, with the complete loss of contact with you three, we assumed you were in the most danger. Plus, if we ran around in order to reunite, China probably would've taken notice and acted on that."

"That's a good point..." Mikoto adds.

"Then, what's the plan?" Haru asks.

"Push them back to the shores." Siran says. "Attempt to hijack one of their ships, drive that straight back to China, and confront an old friend."

"By old friend, you mean Xiaobai?" Holly asks.

"Li Xiaobai?" Haru asks. "President Li Xiaobai? You've met him before?"

"Yes we have" Siran says. "Maybe it's about time we revisit him."

"I don't like where this is going" Satomi says.

"I don't either" Haru says. "Going into enemy territory is still suicide! You better have something up your sleeve!"

"To be fair, it's Siran" Mikoto says. "He has to have something up his sleeve."

"Always with a Plan B?" Holly asks. "Just like old times?"

Siran takes out his gun and inspects it a bit. It glows with endo before he releases the endo and powers down the gun. "Just like old times" he says.

The next two days, the SAT task force set up their own armored vehicles in preparations for an assault on the Chinese carrier ships just off shore of Yokohama. As well as, Japan had mobilized several fighter jets that were armed with bombs. Though explosives were deemed illegal, they were prepared to use any means necessary to push back. When the day for the strike finally came, everyone was on edge. Nervous about the battle's outcome, but ready for anything. Many people prepared to put their life on the line. When it started, many anti-aircraft tanks rolled onto the shores. China immediately began firing back at them with canons from the carrier ship, utilizing endo packed into tanks that would fire blasts capable of toppling a small building. Tank after tank was being taken down, but not before the aircrafts came in from above. China tried deploying their own jets to counter their strike, only for them to be shot down by Japan's tanks. With air superiority gained, there was nothing stopping Japan from dropping bomb after bomb on all of the carriers except for one. They had designated a single carrier ship to be spared as The Six Guns got on a small RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat). From there, the crew snuck onto the single carrier unnoticed, under the cover of all the chaos around them. The crew successfully climbed the carrier ship and boarded it. Using surprise as their first weapon, they took the crew on deck by surprise and wiped out the enemy forces on the surface. However, wave after wave of soldiers came out from inside the ship after noticing The Six Guns, and began to attack. However, they couldn't push through Holly and the rest of the crew's shields.

The battle took several hours, as there was a lot of soldiers to fight through and a lot of the boat to explore through. The inside of the carrier being narrow, yet still large enough to house an entire small town inside of it. While The Six Guns crew pushed from the deck on top, a couple units, including Haru's squad pushed in from the bottom. Taking another RHIB, they snuck around towards the back of the carrier, where a giant hatch was. After The Six Guns pushed hard enough, some of the soldiers attempted to take a heavy armored boat that was stored inside the hull of the ship. As soon as the hatch opened, the SAT opened fire and caught them off guard. Killing the small squad that was taking the boat, they boarded the boat and turned it around to go back inside of the carrier. Utilizing the gun placements on the armored ship, they opened fire on anyone else who came into the docking station of the carrier. From there, they could push from the bottom of the ship as The Six Guns pushed from the top, successfully pinching the forces that manned this ship. "Don't let them push back!" Siran calls out as they run through the narrow metal halls of the carrier ship. "If we ease up now, they'll get their footing."

"I feel like we've been running forever" Blake says.

"Well, these ships are big" Mikoto replies.

"Considering the distance of the inside of a carrier ship these days is roughly 5,950 meters long" Haru says. "I don't think we're even halfway there."

"Have we even run a kilometer?" Satomi complains.

"Stop complaining" Haru says. "Focus. If someone comes at us, you need to be ready."

"My legs are tired" Blake complains.

"Suck it up" Haru replies.

As time passed, more and more SAT squads come aboard the ship and aid in the fighting to commandeer the ship. Eventually, after taking out many of the head officers and the captain of the ship, the Chinese forces surrendered. They replaced a crew of nearly 6,000 members with a new crew of only 3,300 members. Japan utilizing their forces as a whole to go with this operation, they filled the ship with their own engineers, mechanics, soldiers, captain, pilots, cooks and field medics. Using this Chinese vessel to first push into China, they followed far behind it with their own carriers that they had designated more crews to. Now Japan was sending their own carriers to China, as well as one of their own. Which was also boarded by The Six Guns. With the plan set in motion, Japan and The Six Guns now made their way to China, Holly removing the tracking chips in their phones and throwing them into the ocean as they go.

"Kid" Athena says as she shows back up at Pilloa HQ. "You're in danger."

"What's going on?" Silas asks as he, Dana and Carl stand in the hallways of the castle.

"Ares is coming for you. We have to hide you." Athena says.

"I'm not going anywhere" Silas says.

"Kid, if you don't-" Athena begins to say.

"No" Silas interrupts. "If you don't listen, there will be a problem. Right now, my dad and my best friends' parents are out there somewhere, and I'm going to be here when they get back. We've trained for this, and sure there's a lot we still don't know. But I'm not going to spend my life on the run, especially when my dad already has one person to search for. Last thing I'm going to do is add to that burden!"

"Be sensible" Thor says as he places a hand on Athena's shoulder. "He's right. Adding to the list of problems that need to be taken care of would likely be what Ares wants. He wants a war, and war happens when people are separated, and chaos ensues. The kid is wiser than you think. He's old enough to know what's going on."

"Whatever" Athena scoffs as she grabs Silas's arm forcefully.

Athena feels her body being rapidly drained of energy. Athena tried to pull on Silas, but he wouldn't budge. "You have no power here" he says. "I won't fight you, but I'm not going to let you separate me from my friends."

Athena was stunned, and she couldn't use any magic. "Kid..." she says in surprise.

"Maybe we're the bad ones here" Thor says gently. "I think we should stay with them. If Ares wants to come, we will have better chances if we stick together. If Ares is in some way able to know where we are, then sticking together may be able to slow down his plans. Knowing we have the force to fight, as well as the kid to take away his power. I believe this is the safest route to take."

Athena thinks for a minute and finally slowly releases Silas's arm. "Dammit" she says. "I hate it when you're right."

"What about the streams?" Carl asks. "Have you figured a way to close them yet?"

"And where is Loki?" Dana asks.

"Loki is..." Athena says as she thinks. "Loki is gone."

"He's dead!?" Silas asks.

"I don't know" Athena replies.

"What happened?" Dana asks.

"We were attacked by Ares and Dolos" Thor says. "Loki stayed behind for us to get away. We do not know yet of his fate. It will be hard to tell, until we see it for our own eyes."

"And the streams?" Silas asks.

"We have a way" Athena says. "It's just... none of us can do it."

"No way..." Silas says in sorrow.

"None of us, as in, gods" Thor says. "This is where Silas comes in."

"I can do it?" Silas asks. "Is it because of my capacity or something?"

"That is exactly it" Athena says. "We need to teach you the concept of sealing magic. We can't teach it directly because it's beyond our abilities. But you should be able to pull it off. While we wait for your father to return, we'll try to familiarize you with the concept. Hopefully you can pick up on it soon enough to stop whatever Ares is planning."

"Do you know what he's planning?" Dana asks skeptically.

"Unfortunately, no" Athena replies. Dana looks at Athena skeptically. "What? I'm being honest. I'm not like Loki" She argues.

"Strangely enough" Thor adds, "Ares offered us some kind of deal. A deal for him to close the streams for us. But he wanted us to wait for something. What the entails is beyond me, but it seems he is either lying and wants to kill of the planet as his own domain, or he doesn't intend on killing off people. Though, some part of me fears the worst about the second choice."

"Well, it is really ominous sounding" Dana replies. "As well as vague. It's either a scare tactic, or something else entirely. If war is what he is looking to start, it might make sense that he'd try to bring everybody to the brink of death and watch them fight for dear life."

"Unless there's something much more to it" Athena says. "With the seals breaking, it would bring this world and Valhalla closer together. But if they're doing it in a specific way, like they are, it may even link more than that. The fact they had collected most of the shards of Chronos speaks for the possibility the streams can even be used as portals to the other universes. Seeing as how they brought Zeus into this world as well as Eris with those methods solidify the idea."

"So, if it brings the universes together..." Dana says as she thinks. "Then would their goal be to collide all possible realities together?"

"What would even happen then?" Silas asks.

"No idea" Athena says. "But it wouldn't be good."

"It would be more than not good" Thor says. "Each universe has a different passage of time. Even though they're the same world split into endless possibilities, they all exist in a different time. Bringing that all together, everything would certainly be destroyed. You can't introduce time to a lack of time without cataclysm. It'd be like making a universe explode inside a universe that's exploding inside another universe. Even if they could make it stable, which would be impossible, the realities should never meet. It's simply worse than just this planet alone dying off."

"Is that true?" Dana asks.

"Well, Thor may be wise" Athena says, "but I wouldn't count on him to be smart. Chances are, all of that is inaccurate. But the good thing to take from that rant is that no possible outcome of it would be good. Even if it's not something like clashing universes together, whatever they intend to use these streams for is automatically our goals to put an end to. Now, Silas. Are you prepared to learn sealing magic?"

"I am" Silas says sternly.