Liberation Front (1)

Jin sat in a fairly comfortable white plastic chair inside a building that he could barely call livable—an abandoned construction site, underground.

"Let me tell you all… this place could really use some basic hygiene, not even talking about those who live here," said Jin, his voice altered by the stag mask he still wore on his face.

Just before Jin, the red-haired terrorist leader sat, the two of them were separated by a broken wooden desk.

The leader had her hands locked together, gazing at Jin with a mixture of fear, worry, and awe all at the same time.

"How can I address you?" asked Jin, mirroring the leader's movements, his hands interlocked while he gazed at the woman before him, his mask's blood-red orb-like eyes fixed on her.

"My name is Natalie Dawn, leader of the Liberation Front. And who am I speaking to?" inquired the leader, introducing herself as Natalie Dawn.

Her bandana was no longer on her face, revealing her features clearly to Jin as she sat before him. She had glossy lips, slightly cracked—a sign of thirst for a long time. Yet, she was still charming in her own strange way, her eyes now gazing at Jin even more sharply.

"Jin, don't give her your name, just come up with some random one," Thirteen's voice sounded in his ears from the earpiece. Thanks to Jin's increasing control, it had not been destroyed by the electricity he used in the middle of the fight. 

"God damn it... I'm bad with names," Jin cursed to himself, remaining still and making the leader wait, adding to her cautious worry about him.

"Just call me Jim," answered Jin, continuing to stare at the leader, who was left flabbergasted by the obviously fake name given to her by the monster-like Cypher before her.

In the earpiece, a loud sound could be heard, obviously Thirteen face-palming at Jin's choice of a fake name.

"Jin... you did not just introduce yourself as Jim, right?" asked Thirteen, still in disbelief at the choice of name.

Jin obviously didn't answer Thirteen in the presence of a bunch of terrorists, but he fought back the urge to facepalm himself.

"Yeah... bad with names," he continued to fight back the urge to curse his own panicked response. But as he felt the eyes on him, he knew he needed to speak up.

"Is there something wrong?" inquired Jin, his distorted voice echoing in the underground tunnel.

"Is your name... uhm, is your name really Jim?" Natalie asked, her tone betraying her disbelief as she fully saw through the fake name.

"Yes," Jin answered brusquely, not offering any further explanation.

"Well, in that case, Jim, thank you for the help you gave us against the Genesis bastards. Without you, it wouldn't have gone as well as it did," thanked Natalie sincerely, though her trust in Jin remained somewhat uncertain.

"Of course not," laughed Thirteen in Jin's ears, almost causing Jin to chuckle as well.

"It was nothing, always happy to help fight against the corpo bastards," said Jin.

Hearing this made Natalie frown initially, but her expression soon changed to one of absolute joy.

"Say, Jim, wouldn't you want to join forces with us against Genesis?" asked Natalie, her expression hopeful, desiring nothing more than to utilize Jin's power against the corporations.

"Hmm, I think we should agree. They make great temporary partners and would make our job against Genesis that much easier," said Thirteen in Jin's ears, almost prompting him to nod in response.

"I do believe that would prove beneficial for both sides," said Jin, standing up from the plastic chair and walking to Natalie, offering his right hand for a handshake.

"I'm glad you think so. I believe that as well," said Natalie, reaching for Jin's hand with her own as she stood up from her chair.

Now that both of them stood, Natalie began to walk towards one of the countless tunnels in the place they called their headquarters.

"Allow me to show you around the Liberation Front's headquarters," said Natalie, leading Jin into one of the tunnels. She walked confidently, without consulting her holographic watch, demonstrating that she knew the headquarters like the back of her hand.

"If you don't mind me asking, the one on the screens, that wasn't you, right?" asked the leader as she continued to lead Jin through the empty tunnels, illuminated only by a few sparsely placed lamps on the walls.

Thirteen and Jin didn't even try to hide the fact, as their outfits were completely different; the only similarity was the stag mask.

"You are right, that wasn't me. That was my partner…" Jin answered, hesitating as he considered what name to provide. They could never find Thirteen, but he couldn't just give away his name.

"Twelve," he finished his explanation, only to hear another loud facepalm from Thirteen's side.

"I'm not even going to say anything." Said Thirteen.

Meanwhile, Jin was still carrying his electric handgun, now without any ammunition. On his shoulder, his hunting rifle remained, but his knife had been destroyed. Now, he carried his new katana, taken from the now-dead B-rated Cypher.

Meanwhile, Natalie and Jin finally exited the tunnel, arriving at something like a server room. 

It was filled with all kinds of technological devices and monitors, with a supercomputer in the middle of the room.

Behind the computer, a short black-haired woman could be seen. There was something strange about her; she was no longer entirely human.

At least not completely, as she was more machine than human. Her eyes were replaced by a special kind of goggles that granted her improved vision.

"Well, Jim, allow me to introduce you to Anna Armstrong, our technician. Don't mind her cybernetic enhancements; she was a member of—"

"Hyperion," Jin said aloud, cutting Natalie off from her explanation.

"Yes... Hyperion," murmured Natalie. Jin could sense a deep anger in her voice the moment that corporation was named, but he decided not to voice it.

"Good to meet you as well, Jim," greeted the woman named Anna Armstrong, the hacker modified by Hyperion, the corporation that deals in cybernetic implants and upgrades.

"I was watching the fight through camera feeds; what you did was impressive, not to mention your partner who hacked screens," said Anna. Jin could hear a smug hum from Thirteen on the other side of the call.

Before Jin could say anything, the monitors before Anna changed as well, showing the same thing on all of them: another Stag-like mask-wearing individual, Thirteen.

"Nice to meet those of the Liberation Front. My name is... Twelve," greeted Thirteen, his orb-like eyes shining in an otherworldly blue light.

"Nice to meet you as well. A hacker of your skills is hard to come by," commented Anna from the side. She was one of the few who truly understood Thirteen's skill when it came to hacking.

Overriding almost all cameras and screens in the tenth district, even if the corporations did not monitor these things, hacking into them at the same time wasn't something that anyone could achieve.

"I'm glad that my skills are appreciated, but I do believe that we don't have that much time for pleasantries," said Thirteen, his voice low and distorted, much like Jin's.

"Let's talk about the really important stuff... about Genesis."