Above the cave floor, pebbles are flung and kicked by the silver toe cap striding along the landscape. Those silver shoes are worn below the black pants complementing the grayed leather jacket worn by Meditat, who glides below the ceiling, his gaze tight and alert. Locks of his hair wave in the gentle breeze as his eyes gleam an artificial blue on his otherwise dull white face.

Beside him follows the old bald man in the overcoat, Ekitai, also observative with his yellow eyes dialed in, concentrated in the suspiciously quiet environment yet still managing intermissionary swigs.

Behind the two soon follows the grown woman in the blazer, Dana, who occasionally glances to her sides, her golden eyes analyzing discreetly under her amber hair.

Next to her tails the exuberant woman in the hoodie, Kokei, who casually turns her head to get a decent portrait of the scene through her pink eyes only partially obstructed by her graceful long pink hair which also is slightly picked up by the wind although not as lightly.

Around the four are no longer any inhabitants, for they’ve found themselves in a fully secluded district, one composed not of unkempt stacked stories but rather of huge dirt blocks, blocks much longer than the standard housing, with no apertures but for their red energy doors all of which are active.

After having traversed such dense crowds, the complete absence of voice and any other sound is uncanny, unsettling, for just the soft footsteps and even the minute crunch of rocks beneath the feet is distinctive and audible.

There is also much scarcer lighting, the district being very much dim even compared to the rest of the bleak city. There is still some natural light from the cave itself as well as the distant lanterns, but nothing that even attempts to be lively.

Not a single man, woman, or child is in sight besides the group of four. The only artifacts of civilization in fact are the persistent litter, sticks and bottles some of which cracked and split, which cover the edges of the street as well as between the giant dirt cubes themselves.

Upon reaching an intersection in the district exclusively composed of these dirt cubes, Meditat comes to another casual pause, his expression cold and contemplative, and with it he gazes around the region cautiously and meticulously.

What is not meticulous is the rupture of silence by Ekitai when he pulls his flask off his mouth twines incessantly, “What are you waiting for? Come on, I don’t even see a house in sight, now’s no time for a break. I thought you were the hardass, let’s move it we don’t have all day.”

However, Meditat remains stationary, at first unreactive even to Ekitai’s rants. He just continues to gaze around the area to which Ekitai carps even louder, “Yo, bud, snap out of it, we got places to be!”

“Shut up,” simply orders Meditat while still continuing his reconnaissance, to which even Kokei blinks in astoundment at such disregard.

Moreso Ekitai argues back, “Excuse me, what’s the big deal? You want your pod or you want to be stuck in this shithole of an Earth? Dammit, use my list next time.”

Fatigued from the long trip on foot, Meditat closes his eyes and lets out a gentle sigh. He then reawakens and moves his gaze to Ekitai before calmly explaining, “The tracker pin is not located in a residential district, it is located in this one. That is why I am currently working to pinpoint its precise whereabouts. It would be most beneficial to my reconnaissance if your whining is subdued. It should only be a few blocks from where we are now too, so I’d prefer if you moderated your volume.”

He then shifts his attention to the right of the interaction, and with a firm face he commands, “There,” before resuming his silent march.

Following right behind, both Dana and Kokei resume too, leaving Ekitai dumbfounded with him now as the only one standing still. While it cannot be excused that Meditat’s focus hadn’t been perfect over the course of the day, which Ekitai was genuinely attempting to moderate for their shared best interest, he did not anticipate the truth that Meditat was indeed focused, a truth that was expressed with a hard reprimand.

He lowers his head and grunts before mumbling under his breath, “Moderate some bitches, can’t imagine your attitude getting you anywhere on a date past the check,” before following too, defeated and bitter again taking an angsty sip.

Trekking between the tall dirt cubes each the size of warehouses, all of them inactive judging by the lack of any visible or audible life, Meditat scans all before him with bright eyes, calculating and studying keenly.

Right behind Meditat follows Dana, who somewhat has stolen Ekitai’s position as he instead now drifts further back by Kokei resentful. She too observes the buildings by her friend’s side, and she tenderly remarks, “If the tracker is leading us to the correct hideout, then it seems these thieves also like to hide in abandoned warehouse lots, or at least that’s what this seems to be judging by its hollow interiors. It’s a bit reminiscent, even in faraway Earths these people use these kinds of bases.”

Keeping his eyes ahead on any potential destinations, Meditat collectively scrutinizes in a formal tone, “Logically there is good reason for this, these buildings are typically spacious and thus have the necessary and even surplus capacity to house weapons and people. Abandoned there is little reason to concern over being inspected by any outside parties, and whatmore this concentration of identical buildings allows them to be concealed in plain sight, making a hunt for them more difficult simply by the fact they do not stand out. While their decisions and overall choices on how to lead their lives are unagreeable, I must admit they pose rudimentary intelligence and can prove themselves rather cunning.”

Somewhat awkwardly Dana giggles to Meditat’s completely tonedeaf response, and she then lightly recontextualizes, “I understand that, I was just commenting on how similar this is to missions we used to do, so many years ago. I do understand how dire this situation we’re in is, don’t get me wrong, but it’s strangely nostalgic I guess: doing these sort of missions, not only the super chaotic giant battles but just the quieter investigations. It’s…something.”

Just then Meditat immediately comes to a halt, to which Dana does instantly after with wide eyes, the sequence of events painting the picture that what she had said may be one of fault, and such a sudden stop might lead into a harsh scolding over how she had essentially glorified a matter she knows he takes very seriously.

In fact, only a second after stopping she immediately blurts out, “Wait no, I didn’t mean it like tha-,”

“This one,” determines Meditat in a calculatory tone, before he then glances back to Dana with a perplexed expression to which he inquires, “I was honing in for acoustic anomalies and to do so I had to tune out any sounds any of us were producing, which meant I was unable to perceive any conversation directed to me. Were you speaking to me?”

Instantly Dana’s jaw drops from the flood of embarrassment by the reveal, and she desperately scraps herself together to shake her head and refute, “No no, I wasn’t, don’t worry.”

Apparently oblivious, Meditat nods his head to deceit before shifting his gaze back to where he formerly was focused on, and announces: “Then I digress, we’ve arrived,” as Ekitai and Kokei stand behind him with wonder in their eyes, Ekitai adhering to the call to action and stashing his flask in his inner pockets.

In front of the quad, one of whom was quite taller than the average man, was a colossal dirt cube in comparison, the same size as the others of course yet still even then inspecting it so intimately its grand scale is almost intimidating.

Tall enough to contain multiple stories, with a base that accumulates to as much if not greater than a typical warehouse albeit in a square chunk, the building towers over the four just as the others amongst the district.

The dirt composite walls are solid and thick too, with only a few square apertures discernible in the building, although their perfectly polished edges present themselves as intentful rather than signs of deterioration. Those apertures are also not anywhere near the ground, but rather just below the roof of the building, too high for anyone to simply walk or even crawl into as they are clearly not intended as entrances.

From the front the only deliberate entrance is the door in the center of the front face, closed off by a red energy barrier, although the group are by the edge of the building thus are still quite some steps away if they were to use it.

Staring at the wall made of grains and rock-like materials, Meditat’s beaming eyes tighten and he nods his head before quietly confirming, “I have visual of all four of them and the pod. They are yet to be alert, although that cyborg is inside the pod, likely working on the unlink process. The systems are still intact so she hasn’t completed the process yet, an effective D-12 infiltration should suffice.”

Immediately then he steps back, aims his hand at one of the openings up by the rooftop, and projects a blue cable from his hand up to the bottom edge of the makeshift entrance.

Latched on and prepared to reel, Meditat begins to lift his feet off the ground, but that’s before Ekitai suddenly exclaims albeit in a raspy whisper, “Woah woah woah, excuse me buddy but even grade school coaches do better than that. I have no clue who these people are, you like sprinkled some details but I have no idea if one of them is going to be some giant or alien or something, I mean like what is the plan, do we just run in through the front door because I don’t have one of those grapple things, I mean to be fair they’re overrated as hell but-,”

Stepping in before the tangent can spur on, Meditat returns his feet flat to the ground, maintaining the blue cable but visibly paused by the sudden burst.

He tilts his head with a raised eyebrow, for Ekitai’s rambling had little structure to it, leaving much to ask which Meditat does quietly: “What are you attempting to express? As I said, there’s four of them, we just need them to be dangerless which we will limit to rendering them unconscious and nothing more, and once they are sedated we can retrieve the vehicle. “

Blinking twice from the absurd ignorance displayed by the man who was just about to drag himself into the base, Ekitai taps his temples with both heads before mocking, “Are you…is this a joke, are you aahing me, because man we need to work on your sense of humo-.”

“I think what Ekitai is trying to say…,” intrudes Dana, stepping beside Ekitai to suspend his well meaning yet resulting childish rant. She takes another step towards Meditat, who slowly relinquishes his cable and returns his hand to his side due to how it seems the interjection would take a prolonged period to resolve.

Dana slides her amber bangs to the side gently with her fingers to make her face more presentable before then gently decoding, “...is that we haven’t been given much information on the enemies here, or what exactly the plan is. You mentioned there being four and there being a cyborg offhand but nothing concrete for us to go off of. We probably need to act more cleanly this time too because there’s a chance the thieves may damage the pod or worse if they figure it’s their best bet, and if that happens then we’ll have a far greater problem.”

Still visibly perplexed, Meditat turns towards Dana, and he steps towards the three before inquiring quietly, “Then what do you wish from me? I implied that we’d need to keep the pod protected, and regardless I thought Ekitai claimed to be here on his own volition so it seemed he wouldn’t want instructions. I’m here to fight and claim back my pod, you all chose to be here yourselves, what am I to do with that?”

Dana emits a soft sigh and lowers her head, understanding what her friend was trying to express, although there was a potent stench of criticism, an incompliance to the vague suggestions she was giving. Those weren’t enough, and they wouldn’t be enough to complete the mission, and the result of such would be catastrophic.

She raises her head and proposes assertively, “I understand that, but right now if we want this to work, we need to work together. Ekitai was right somehow again, these people are dangerous, they stole the pod from your grasp, we can’t run in blind. We need organization, we need a plan, we need communication or we’ll be left stranded here. Come on, Medit, help us help you. We don't want to be dead weight. We’re here to fight with you, we’re your allies.”

First Meditat instinctively opens his mouth to argue back, but no words are pronounced, rather he just stands in place with his jaw hanging out in silence. Instead he closes his jaw, deciding away from arguing, and he lowers his head down to face his jacket.

Silently he softly places his right hand over his heart on the jacket, first resting the hand against the jacket feeling its shell wilted and damaged but still held together, still with him after all the years of suffering.

He then intensifies the tenacity on his coat, gripping it more tightly, and concurrently his soft expression sharpens, his tranquil gaze becoming a determined glare, a glint flashing in his eyes for while not a word has been spoken he’s already expressed his thoughts.

He then places his hand off of his jacket, and waves it forward, to which his body emits a bright blue bubble which rapidly expands, consuming not only him but the other three.

Bewildered by the sudden summon, Kokei glances backwards to see the bubble expand for a few more feet past them before its growth concludes, yet it remains in place, creating a translucent blue tint around them that still allows visibly of the outside world albeit now in this strange contraption.

Flabbergasted by the unannounced generation, she hesitantly asks, “Uhm, what is this exactly??”

In the origin of the blue globe before the other three stands Meditat, who raises his head up to inspect the construct whilst explaining in a louder, assertive voice, “This field is concealing the sound we make and while simultaneously displaying an illusive screen from outside which will make our bodies imperceivable. Our voices will not be caught nor will our presence for as long as no other beings enter this bubble, thus we will be safe here and even if anyone approaches we can simply relocate and the bubble will follow.”

In front of his body then projects a three dimensional gray cube, specifically with the texturing of the dirt material composing the warehouses, and even with the exact apertures by the top same with the one right by them. The replica rotates passively before its walls then become progressively translucent, revealing shafts from past the vents, shafts that move in a complex path before leading to exposed rafters by the ceiling of the interior.

Below said rafters is a widely open interior, with only a few isolated rooms by entrances on the face of the cube opposite from the face with the sole door that the group is standing by, and even those rooms are rather small and simply lead into the main space.

In that larger space there are multiple arrays of what appear to be warehouse racks, humongous and surplus, rows side by side all parallel normal to the entrance with marginal aisles, the widest being the one down the center. Among the racks are four humanoid figures, all highlighted red but with distinctive features as one of them is dressed in a bomber jacket with a heavy choker device on its neck, another seems to be suited in some kind of light armor with upper body padding, another is embellished in a varsity jacket worn over their petite body whom flashes noticeable rich hair, and the last one is in a sleeveless hoodie, although the last specifically is inside another construct this being highlighted green and sculpted precisely to the sleek pod they just lost.

Even more impressive is the live movement of all of the humanoids, as while the hooded one is quite still, the other three pace and move their hands as though conversing with one another, all entirely oblivious to the eyes set on them.

Standing before the holographic model, Meditat in a direct voice briefs, “As I mentioned prior, there are four members in what likely is a gang; there is the aforementioned cyborg who has displayed projectile capabilities, but given it seems the majority of her body is plated in metal it should be assumed she can be lethal in close quarter combat. Then there is a man equipped in paramilitary gear which I traced varying components to distinct pirate factions all of whom have made expeditions to this Earth, he has displayed proficiency with an MX-17 although it is possible he has other weaponry. The other two members are Exhumans, one of whom has what I best describe as an energy extraction ability, she was the one who momentarily depowered my cables, although I did also notice a siphoning of my own body’s energy, thus her abilities are not limited to technology. The final member of whom I identify as the leader of this gang who contains a magnetic variant, having exhibited repulsion competence yet inferring by the nature of this class he should have more potential.”

Sincerely Ekitai observes through the translucent walls the four thieves, indicating that the short woman stands by the back while the suited man patrols in a loop from her to the jacketed man who remains by the front entrance beside the pod, which resides in the center of the building where the hooded woman actively works.

He does this while also keenly following the lecture, “Directing your attention to the model, you will see that there are several entrances into this facility, although we will be excluding the front as that will result in the most suboptimal initialization. There are doors in the back of the facility which lead to secluded vestibules that can be hidden in before striking, and the ventilation ducts I nearly entered earlier lead to these beams that will provide an excellent vantage point to ambush.”

In the model that Kokei monitors, four other blue humanoids appear, although differing from the red figures they don’t move, instead they’re posed and stationary like statues. Two of the figures are positioned on the rafters, posed to focus by the pod, and uniquely enough one of them is dressed in a familiar biker jacket with four locks while the other is styled in a blazer with thick bangs.

Down below the other two are inside one of the vestibules, one of them in a long overcoat holding the revolver-styled handgun, and the other in the oversized hoodie albeit much shorter than the companion.

In front of her the lecturer continues, “The best initial positioning I calculate is for me and Dana to start on the beams which we will enter through the ducts, and for Kokei and Ekitai to enter through the vestibules, as this way we will be able to target from above and behind. I have also recognized that the armored thief routinely checks with the extractive Exhuman who will be by the back, thus leaving both of them vulnerable to a strike in that designated location. Concurrently me and Dana will dive from the ceiling to intercept the leader and hacker, which will obstruct their unwiring process but also place the both of us at the center where we can immediately guard the pod.”

Before Dana’s studious gaze, all four of the models then begin to animate with blue vector lines following their paths, the two in the back moving into the wider space straight towards the center while the other two from the ceiling dive down to said center. The two figures representing Ekitai and Kokei join up with the latter two, the four grouped by the green pod.

Supplying commentary by the one who commands, “I need both Ekitai and Kokei to reach the pod as soon as they can, even if an immediate takedown of the two thieves fails I want priority on guarding the pod. This is necessary too as the leader will likely have airborne abilities, thus I may need to pursue him in which case I need you both on the ground by the vehicle. I will do my best to protect the pod as well, although I require cover on that front. Now I must address the fact that there are four of us just as there are four of them, and this will likely naturally result in each of us honing on one target, in fact I may have to take a similar approach given the leader’s mobility. However, such strict assignment is suboptimal given that it will then be purely a matter of combative prowess of our individuals against them, an unnecessary wager as instead I opt that we capitalize on joint strikes; I recommend you intertwine your battles with one another, create openings multiple of you can take for more effective attacks, as in doing so our efficiency will far outweigh that of our individual efforts, a restrained technique many gangs will fall prey to.”

Finally, Meditat, who firstly has his hands behind his back instructs, “To best carry out these collaboratory tactics, communication will be essential, and while certain callouts may be simple enough that explicit announcements do not pose issue, more precise setups especially those requiring nondisclosure to the enemies for maximum tactical success will be inadequate to voice plainly.”

He then brings his right hand up and taps his ear whilst directing, “Thus to remedy this inconvenience I have installed a custom Link channel that we will all be connected to, in which we can telepathically communicate our ideas free from interception. The key is currently a placeholder, that being ‘Network,’ and with it you should be able to access the channel properly. I would also like to use this as an opportunity to remind you all that if you do wish to refer to me out loud, to all of you I am simply ‘Rohan,’ and the man Meditat is nowhere near to your knowledge. I would prefer to avoid such a drastic escalation, so please keep that in mind, in fact just to avoid slippage I recommend you all use that name on the channel just for homogenization.”

Then at last he waves his hand, and the holographic replica vanishes into thin air. He nods his head and concludes, “That should be all, firstly you all calibrate the channel, I will initialize the first transmission now.”

Then, he turns his head to the warehouse wall and speaks again, although without moving his mouth. His words also have a strange echo to them, similar to how the voice spoke into his head. Those words spoken are: “Link Network, hello, if you are receiving this transmission then please respond on the channel to verify your access.”

Amazed with a wide smile that assures him after such tension prior, Ekitai’s jaw drops with excitement. Without moving his mouth either he responds too with an echo, “Link Network, woah, just like that, didn’t even send an invite!”

Beside the amazed man, Dana delivers a gentle smile before nodding her head and also verifying with an enclosed mouth and echoey voice, “Link Network, I’m set alright, it’s been a while since we used something like this.”

Lastly, Kokei blinks her head twice, and shocked she staggers backwards nearly to the edge of the bubble before catching herself. She shakes her head before then facing Meditat, and same with the others she speaks echoed without a still tongue, although her internal voice is more apprehensive and suspicious, querying: “Link Network, wait I’m confused, how did you even do that? I never remembered giving you my Contact, nor did I even get an invite, so how did you make a channel like that?”

Again pulled back to answer questions, Meditat keeps his gaze on the wall while casually briefing, “I have my own servers, while it can operate with a user’s identified Connect, it also is able to locate a user’s position and seek for any devices within stable vicinity capable of Link lines before connecting them to a temporary ghost line with a phantom unit. You are correct, I do not have your Contact nor do I have Ekitai’s, but this alternative shall work. Now then, we should begin the infiltration so as to not lose time. I estimate we have about 212 seconds before the unlink is successful, but if this all goes well we will interrupt the process well before its completion.”

However, instead Kokei in a judgemental tone internally contends, “Wait a second, excuse me, you threw around a lot of big words but what I did catch was you saying you just search for nearby devices and use them to create Link lines, but doesn’t that mean you’re going into other random people’s Connects and then using their data for something like this?? Isn’t that an invasion of privacy, which is illegal? How long have you been doing this??”

Being dragged back into more inquiries but now with the clock ticking closer to the bell, Meditat moves his sight to Kokei with an anxious expression, called down on although with little time for such argument. He opens his mouth, but a response passes him, leaving him dumbfounded by the allegation.

Next to Kokei however Ekitai places his hand on her shoulder before assuring over the network, “Hey hey, don’t worry too much about that, besides I mean all the big companies do it anyways so is it really illegal?”

Kokei then fires a glare at him from the rather suspicious reasoning before Dana then intrudes with more eloquently put assurance: “There is a tactical reason for this, which we can discuss later, but we’re short on time. We need to move now, right Meditat, or I guess I should be saying ‘Rohan?’”

Nearly surprised by the reintroduction of that name which had become phased out almost immediately upon the truth’s reveal, Meditat blinks twice before nodding his head and supporting, “Yes, it is best we move into position to assure this plan’s success. Move into the positions I discussed, and strike on my mark.”

He then turns his head back to the wall, and at last he relinquishes the blue bubble, causing it to fizzle away.

In front of the huge block, Meditat raises his hand to the same vent he had focused on prior, and he projects a blue cable straight to its edge. Finally he can reel himself off the ground and up into the duct, beginning the mission.

At the same time Dana nods to Ekitai and Dana, both of whom begin strolling around the corner of the building side by side, heading towards the back where their positions are.

After Meditat throws himself into the vent and begins crawling inside, Dana then moves her focus to the same vent, and four golden tentacles emerge from her back, coiling around and up to the corners of the vent before then pulling her body off the ground. She’s dragged all the way up in front of the vent, and the tentacles carry her inside to which she begins the crawl, allowing the tentacles to release their grip on the wall and retract back into her body.

With that, the four make their way to their positions.

With that, the four prepare themselves for the battle that lies ahead.

With that, the four begin the mission.