021

The morning started normally. Coffee, breakfast, exercise. Halfway through, I saw Neil and Twain head around back. Haven't seen them for an hour now.

Currently, Haya and Cassandra are busy with stitching up the headquarter's schematics. While Daphne and I are just outside the cottage, we both put up a standard CQC stance. She asked me earlier if we could spar, "For old time's sake." She said.

We stood across each other inside the small arena she made. Her stance evoked a sense of aggressiveness. And her constant moving proves it. In standard fashion, I managed a defensive stance. Preparing to use her weight against her.

She stepped forward and threw a punch, dodging it as I prepared to grapple her from the side. Yet blocked by her knees as she kicked me away.

I barely pulled myself together before falling out of the arena. I heard her sigh and say, "You're getting pretty weak, boss. Hope you remember what we talked about last night."

"Oh, I'll never forget." I wiped myself off and stood up, changing my stance to match hers. For a brief moment, I saw her flash a smile which came back to her serious stature. Eyes still blockaded by her tinted shades.

We both stepped forward and threw the first hit, our punches connecting to each other's faces as it sent us both back. She spat on the ground, "Now that's more like it."

"Heh, better not think me down, kid." We charged once more, our punches connecting at each other yet not bringing us both down. 'Thud' 'thud' 'thud' 'thud' punches, kicks, weaves. Floating through each other's punches, floating to each other's punches. Her hits felt as solid as mine.

She threw another punch, a huge one, leaving a large opening for me to grab her and bring her down. She fought back but there's no use now. I spat on the ground.

"I won." I said standing up as I put my hand out to bring her up as well. I feel her glare from her shades but I don't want to think about it too much. She pushed my hand away as she stood up on her own.

"Rematch." She stanced up once more. Though. Her stance is the same, but it felt different. I notice the lack of openings in her defense, as well as a short red glimmer in her right eye.

"S-sure." I hesitantly say, stancing myself up. Then, she charged, I noticed it and tried to attack yet she weaved right under it and scored a direct hit to my body. Bringing me down to my knees instantly.

She spat on the ground, "I win." Leaving me on the ground as she started walking back to the cottage I stared at her as she didn't stare back.

Yet I saw the door slam open as Haya came out, yelling, "SCHEMATICS ARE DONE!"

I tried to stand up, coughing my way as I tried to recover. For a moment I saw Daphne walk past Haya, followed by Haya wearing a worried face. Perhaps on something she said.

I persisted and made my way back to the cottage. For a moment, I lost my footing as Haya caught me on the way in, "Shit, you okay, partner?"

"Yeah, yeah. Daphne's just… too strong, I guess?"

"Yeah, well, you trained her yourself after all." Haya brought me to my feet as she got me back to the bed, sitting me down on it. Weird, it felt softer since she slept on it.

"Huh, can you tell me about it?"

Haya glances to her side as Daphne goes back outside, "I guess so."

"Oh."

"You met her in Vega 3. Weak, alone, when you brought her to the team you said that you found her in a decrepit bunker surrounded by corpses."

The memories flashed from my dreams. Of the corpses that were leaning on the girl, how her eyes shaked to cry, but there were no tears.

"Then you just kinda raised her as one of us. I saw how frequent the both of you sparred. Like you saw some innate fighting talent within her. And perhaps from there she just trained herself, until she met you again, that is."

"What… kind of person was I, back then?"

She looks down, "It's better if you're the one who finds out, no?"

Daphne comes back in, groaning an annoying noise, "Where's the fucking shit, Cassandra?" She yelled towards the indifferent tech witch.

The schematics flashed holographically in the center of the cottage. With its three-dimensional shape, we see its hundreds of underground floors and a pitfall at its centre. "It extends down to the core." Cassandra explained, swiveling around her chair to face us, crossing her legs. She leaned towards the hologram.

"But you don't have to go down to the core," Cassandra continues, "If we're only looking for Cecil's office, it's on the 5th underground floor, section D-13." She fixes her glasses, "Haya and I managed to install a few of our… 'softwares' into their own control center."

"So you best believe I'll be giving you as much support as I did when I was in your head!" Haya continued it. Smacking my head lightly as she leaned towards the hologram. "That said, this operation might take more than just a few blackouts here and there."

"How are we even going to get there?" I asked as the door behind us slammed open, as Nick and Twain came in, they wore blue overalls and had oil all over them.

"Gotcha covered there, commander, oh, and." Neil took a book, staff, and knife from the bag he was carrying, "Got this fixed and sharpened for ya."

"Oh, thanks." I grabbed the weapons. The book felt full, while the staff felt lighter. All the while the knife looked brightly sharpened;.

"And we got the Stag Hare fixed up and ready." Twain said, dropping a heavy wrench on the floor, we all heard a loud thud, perhaps the floorboards are broken.

"The Stag Hare?" I questioned them, and perhaps their naming choice.

"It's the van, boy. She's a great one I'm tellin' ya. Bigger on the inside than the outside." Perhaps that's how they managed to fit Cassandra's entire headquarters-esque computer system.

"And it flies!" Neil enthusiastically says.

"Oh, that's perfect!" Haya and I both exclaimed.

"We'll just clean ourselves up and then we'll leave." Said Twain, "We'll also have to help our Cassandra here to get her monitors back in.

We nodded as Cassandra closed the Hologram, then her computer. Unplugging something and pocketing it inside her lab coat before sitting down in a quiet corner once more.

"I'm going there first." Daphne said, pushing out of us and leaving the cottage, heading straight into The Stag Hare. I looked at both Cassandra and Haya and they both just shrugged.