Subterfuge

Hunter walked into the shack carrying Sophia in his arms.

Aislinn who was on her laptop swiftly turns. "What the?"

The sprite gently places the stone blue-skinned woman on the floor.

[Your blood should heal her.]

Hunter turned to the cinnamon redhead. "Dagger," he requested.

Aislinn picks up Sasha's dagger and hands it to Hunter who stabs himself in the hand and feeds the blood to Sophia.

It took only a second or two before the stone blue skinned girl sat up, the blood already taking effect. "H - Hunter? W - where am I?"

"Safe," the teal green-eyed boy replied.

Sophia starts to cry and hugs the sprite tightly. "It's alright ... You're alright."

They remained that way for a while and when they broke away, the dark-haired boy wiped the tears off her face. "What happened to you? How did you end up at Dreieck?"

.

.

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MEANWHILE

•Leinheim

"So what do you think?" Jason asked Maxine. "Is that good enough to put her away?"

"These are ..." Maxine set the papers on the table between the two of them. They were seated in a garden outside the Archaeons' mansion.

"It's not enough, is it?" The pearl white-haired boy sighed.

"The council of mysticism would refuse to hear the case since most of the evidence here aren't indisputable. You can't take it to the Bureau's criminal court for obvious reasons so you'd have to request that an independent regulatory commission preside over the case. As I said earlier, none of the evidence is indisputable, she could easily shift the blame to someone else and admit to an oversight on her part or challenge the evidence since most of the testimonies here are from convicted criminals and fugitives."

"What would it take to have her impeached?" Jason asked.

"A miracle ... and this," she said, passing an envelope to him. "What's this?" Jason asked.

"It's the only surviving report from the now defunct Mystical Organizations' Clandestine Service about the Stoneview Heights massacre."

Jason opens the envelope and looks through the papers inside. "This is the file on Baron," he said.

"Yes."

"How did you get this?"

"Well ..."

/////

•SECTOR 5

"So ... erm ..." Camille looks around nervously. "Would you like anything to drink, or eat, or?"

"It's fine," Olivia said walking through the ship's hall.

"Thank goodness; our food is rationed."

The director of the Bureau stops and turns to face the leader of the Alpha Sector. "Please tell me you're not serious," she said.

"I'm not," Camille scratches the back of her head. "That was a joke," she said.

Olivia narrows her eyes and stares at the dark-haired woman. "What?"

"Where's Skylar's office?" The Bureau's director asked.

"Over there," the red-eyed woman pointed to the med bay prompting the younger director to turn towards the location.

"Hey! Don't bring age into this, we look like we belong to the same age group!"

Olivia frowns. "What are you talking about?"

Camille smiles awkwardly while Olivia shakes her head. "Wait here," Olivia said.

"Oh? A secret m--"

"Don't." Olivia shook her head before walking into the med bay.

Skylar was arranging some test tubes in a centrifuge when Olivia walked into. "Olivia? And here I thought we were doing a full dive."

"Someone got into the Bureau's mainframe and accessed our archive files," the director said.

Skylar quickly wore her surprised and confused face. She was the one that took the files and she knew that the dark blonde had only come down to sector 5 so she could confirm whether or not it was her.

The aqua blue-haired woman was ready for whatever the director was going to throw at her thanks to Hunter and Diana who had warned her earlier of Olivia's arrival. Skylar had practiced - in her head - several scenarios of how her meeting with the director of the Bureau was going to play out and knew that nothing the dark blonde say or do would catch her off guard.

"How?" Skylar queried. "I thought you were the only one who could access that file?" She asked.

"I thought so too." Olivia sighed. "They got the original report on the Stoneview Heights incident," the director stated.

Skylar's expression changes. "How's that possible?" She said angrily.

"Skylar --"

"No!" The doctor cut her off. "Stoneview Heights didn't happen, the MOCS was never there. You told me that, remember?"

"I know I said --"

"Then why did you save the original report?" Skylar asked.

"Listen --"

"No! You know what would happen if those files got out and yet, you kept them anyway because you wanted to have that power ... That control over me and everyone who was involved in the Stoneview Heights incident!" Skylar exclaimed.

"It's not --"

"Leave," Skylar said cutting her off.

Olivia looked into the aqua blue-haired woman's eyes, all she saw was pain and hurt. "Skyl --"

The aqua blue-eyed woman turned away from the Bureau's director. "Please ... Leave," she repeated.

Olivia sighed and walked out of the office, leaving the doctor alone. The latter does not move, remaining in the same position until the door slides open and Camille walks in. "Hey, are you okay?"

Skylar turned to the Alpha Sector's director, a huge grin on her face. "Is she gone?" She asked.

Camille raised an eyebrow, confused by the aqua blue-eyed woman's expression. "She left a while ago ... What's happening?" She asked. "I thought you were pissed?"

"No, I was just acting. Sit, I'll tell you everything once I call Max."

\\\\\

"It's a long story," said Maxine. "... Know that most of the people here are reputable in the mystic world and would gladly testify against Olivia."

"You think this would be enough?" Jason asked.

"Not necessarily ... but it should be enough to warrant an investigation into her activities as director of the Bureau."

"Great! This is Great! Now all that's left is for Baron Hubert to come with some good news."

"Looking for me?" A third voice said, the duo turned to see Hubert wearing a black bulletproof vest over a black military uniform and holding a rifle.

"Baron?" Jason said surprised. The Archaeon looked around the garden to see if anyone was around. "We talked about this Baron, we meet on my terms," said the pearl-white-haired boy.

"We have a lot to talk about, boy," Baron said. The man sat on the bench facing Jason and Maxine, placing his rifle next to himself. "The mission turned out to be an ambush," Baron stated. "I lost all the girls I sent there. Well, not all but the one that survived is a useless piece of shit," he added.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jason asked.

"Why am I telling you this?" Baron chuckled. He glanced at his gun and sighed. "Oh well," the dark-skinned man grabbed a dagger and leaped at the pearl-white eyed boy. Max reacts swiftly, using her left hand to hit Baron's hand and pushing the Archaeon to the ground.

Baron takes a step back and picks up his rifle, raising the firearm to his shoulder. Max turned quickly and kicked up a bench just as the former Black Cloud member opened fire on them.

"What the hell's wrong with him?" Jason asked Maxine as the two of them hid behind the bench.

"Well, he is a criminal for a reason," said the curly-haired woman as she looked around the garden. "On the count of three, you run that way on a straight path," she said.

"What?"

"One ... Two ..."

"Maxine, wait!"

"Three!" Maxine kicked the bench at the dark-skinned man, forcing the former agent to stop shooting and get out of the way.

Jason bolts one way and Maxine goes the other, grabbing the former agent's rifle and striking him with a knee to the midsection. Baron stumbled backward, letting go of the gun.

Maxine throws the gun away and pounces on the dark-skinned man, delivering a flurry of hits and keeping Baron on the defensive.

Although Baron blocked every one of her attacks, Max didn't stop, she threw a hook, a cross, a jab, a kick, a cross, an uppercut, a hook, a jab, an uppercut, a cross - all of which the dark-skinned man blocked successfully.

Baron then dropped his hand and took the kick the curly-haired woman threw, moving several feet away, this created space between them. The dark-skinned man had figured out the brown-skinned woman wanted him to keep blocking her attack without doing much else, she was stalling for time but what for?

Suddenly, a ray of energy narrowly misses him and lands on the floor next to the former agent. He looked around to see he had been surrounded by several mystics, many of whom had white hair.

"Did you really think you could successfully attack anyone in the Archaeons' mansion?" Jason, who was also among the crowd of mystics asked. Baron's eyes moved from side to side, he knew he was outmatched in every way and no miracle would save him if he were to engage in a fight with the group.

Baron takes out a smoke bomb and throws it on the ground next to himself. The device releases smoke into the air and when the smoke disperses, the dark-skinned man was gone.

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