"Hahaha, looks like you finally realized." With a light laugh, William casually confirmed Jonathan's suspicion.

However, finding absolutely no humor in it, Jonathan narrowed his eyes as he continued to stare at him. "I felt there was something strange from the start, but seeing you act all calm like you were already expecting us to get caught was what really made me doubt it, so tell me something, you didn't also plan for Ivan to turn us in, did you?" He looked at him suspiciously.

Hearing Jonathan, however, the corner of William's mouth twitched slightly. "Who do you think I am? Aizen? Of course I didn't plan that, my intention was to make us go down directly without waiting for the girls, Ivan turning us in was just a coincidence."

"Sure..." Jonathan didn't seem to believe him one bit.

In response, William just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

While they talked among themselves, the trio nearby only listened in silence to the exchange of words, finally realizing they had been completely played by William.

"I'm a little scared." Ivan said after a moment of silence, looking at William. "You're kind of scary."

"Yeah, and that wasn't cool, man." Alex looked at William like a disappointed father with his arms crossed.

"Next time I'd like to be informed first about something like this." In front of them, Yusuke looked over his shoulder with his brow slightly furrowed.

"I get it, sorry about that, but as you already know we didn't have much time and I couldn't explain things in front of the girls." William said, signaling for Yusuke to keep moving as he raised his weapon again.

Reactivating his holographic shield, Jonathan put it in front of himself, protecting Alex and Ivan as well while walking a bit behind William. "But what's the reason for you doing this? Or are you going to tell me you wanted to make us the real bait because you thought it was too risky for the girls?" He asked while looking around, seeing all the women wearing lab coats who looked like scientists hiding in the corners.

While waiting for an answer, Jonathan only heard a weak laugh, a laugh that sounded somewhat awkward.

And that immediately made him look back at William, his expressionless gaze fixed on the back of the other's head. "...Are you serious, man?"

With his back still to him, he saw William shrug slightly. "Well, what can I say? It would be somewhat dishonorable of me to let women do such risky work, if someone's going to get hurt it should be us."

And with William's words, everyone stopped moving.

In front of him, Yusuke looked back with a face that seemed to say 'really?'

"That was stupid." That was Ivan's response as he stared at him.

"I agree." Alex nodded, looking at him in disbelief.

And Jonathan felt his face twitch as he held back the urge to just slap the back of his head, in the end he only sighed. "Do you really think you're James Bond or what? There's no room for British chivalry in our situation, you piece of shit, the girls might not like that either, at the very least I'm sure Vanessa is going to curse you out with all her strength when she finds out."

William responded casually with a calm smile. "It's fine, it's just a small problem, and I'm sure Xiao realized what I was doing, or at least suspected something too, as for me being a British gentleman, I'm sorry but I can't change that." He said, smiling lightly at Jonathan before turning his gaze forward. "Now, leave that aside, we have more important things to do."

Right at that moment, the moment William finished speaking, the lights flickered briefly, trembling for a second before going out completely, leaving them and the remains of the scientists there in the darkness.

"Oh, perfect timing." William commented with a smile, the power outage meaning the girls had done their part of the plan.

Guiding Yusuke to keep going, William followed by the others then walked toward the back of the room, passing by several glass cylinders containing different things.

Until they reached a specific cylinder and stopped in front of it.

"This is it, right?" Yusuke asked no one in particular, seeing what was inside the cylinder.

"Yes, this is the objective of our mission." Passing by him, William approached the glass which, if it weren't for the power outage, would be surrounded by an extremely dense and very hard to break energy barrier.

Without ceremony, William raised his weapon and struck the glass, shattering it in response, then stretching out his hand and grabbing the small piece of metal and bringing it to himself.

The others stretched their necks, wanting to see better.

"It's kind of small." Alex said as he looked at the small piece of metal.

"That's what she said, hahaha." Yusuke said, laughing amused at the end.

But hearing only silence, he looked at the others and found only silent stares, which immediately made him stop. "Ahem, sorry, bad timing." He said, coughing into his fist, then as if nothing had happened he went back to seriously staring at the piece of metal.

Ignoring Yusuke, Jonathan looked at the piece of metal and it really was small, a bit smaller than the palm of William's hand, but it was exactly what they had come to get.

A curved, silver piece of metal with openings on the inner side of the curve, with thin blue lines of energy running vertically across the entire surface of the metal.

Even though it was just a curved piece of metal with holes, those glowing blue lines gave it all the futuristic look it needed.

"Y-you can't take that!"

Suddenly drawing their attention, an anxious female voice spoke to them.

Looking in that direction, they saw a scientist hiding behind one of the cylinders, staring at them tensely.

"Do you have any idea how important that thing is!?" The short-haired blonde woman said in an almost desperate tone.

"Uh, didn't she realize we came here exactly for that?" Yusuke asked, looking somewhat doubtful at the woman.

"I don't know, I think she's just in shock." Alex shrugged, scratching his head.

"Or maybe she just didn't know." Ivan said, mimicking Alex's gesture.

While the others also showed their doubt, Jonathan and William only watched in silence, both finding it strange and immediately feeling suspicious, the former with his paranoid mindset already imagining the worst-case scenario and the latter trying to understand what it could be.

"Let's go." Not wasting any more time there, William immediately turned around, pulling Yusuke forward and moving back toward the exit.

"W-wait-"

The scientist didn't have time to finish when a shot from William's weapon hit her, killing her instantly.

With the woman now lying on the ground with a charred hole in her chest as blood began to pool beneath her, William kept walking as if nothing had happened, not even sparing her a glance.

"Keep going." He said to Yusuke, who had stopped after seeing his cold and unhesitating action.

"...You're really scary." Alex said as he looked at the woman's corpse, with Ivan beside him nodding silently.

While Jonathan looked at the corpse without changing his expression, a hologram appeared in front of him on its own, the implant in his eye receiving a message.

And upon reading it, he immediately went on alert. "Let's go!"

He called out to the others, who promptly responded by starting to run alongside him, having received the same message.

And it was a request for help from the girls.

...

Going back a short time earlier, right after Xiao Xun'er jumped from the air duct, what she had pulled from the bag on her back extended, revealing itself to be a long staff.

Pointing its tip at the ground, a bolt of electricity shot out from it, stopping her fall momentarily as she raised her other hand to shoot.

Firing a shot that exploded another cluster of computers, Xiao Xun'er finally descended to the ground gracefully, using the staff as support.

Aiming her weapon in another direction, she spun the staff in her other hand quickly and raised it to her side against the agents who were pointing their own weapons at her.

When the shots were fired, the energy bullets were blocked by electricity that crackled from the staff whenever they got too close.

And meanwhile, Xiao Xun'er fired another shot, her calm face looking unperturbed as it caused yet another explosion.

Along with that, Vanessa descended from the duct, floating through the air, her boots that glowed faintly at the soles being the apparent cause of her flight.

Aiming the weapon she had picked up at the agents firing at Xiao Xun'er, she began to shoot without hesitation, her face furrowed in concentration as she tried to take them down.

In the midst of this, Emilia, Nina, and Nalini had also descended with the help of the former, who had used one of her devices, a ring that projected a circular shield, to control their fall.

Already on the ground, the three drew their chosen weapons and prepared to help the two, but soon they realized they didn't need to do anything, the two alone were already killing all the agents present there.

So they just stood where they had landed, watching the two closely, looking for a moment when they might seem to need help.

However, that moment never came.

After a short but tense minute, all the agents present there were dead, leaving only the five of them standing.

"Damn, that last one was close." Descending from the air, Vanessa landed on the ground with a jolt, breathing deeply, sweat lightly forming on her forehead.

She was more mentally tired than physically, she had to be extremely careful at all times not to get hit, although she had a vest similar to Jonathan's, she still didn't want to take a shot, not to mention that the vest's protection had a limit.

An example of that was that she had been hit a few times, and in that last shot the barrier protecting her trembled as if it were about to break.

"I'm going to ask for something better when we get back." Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she shifted her gaze to the others, seeing the three of them silently staring in one direction.

And seeing that, she looked in the same direction, which made her stop immediately.

Because at that exact moment she came across Xiao Xun'er doing a somersault to dodge a shot and returning one of her own, taking down another woman, then spinning the staff around herself and throwing it toward another who was getting up, hitting her square in the chest and electrocuting her.

Then, with a grace incongruent with the moment, she approached the woman being electrocuted as if she were on a runway and retrieved the staff.

Sighing softly and not looking tired at all, she turned toward them, meeting their gazes.

"What?" She asked calmly, raising an eyebrow.

"That was amazing!" Nalini said, looking impressed, her eyes practically shining.

"You really do have some kind of specialized training." Emilia pointed out with her arms crossed.

"That was really impressive." Nina said, nodding in surprise. "And kind of hot too." She finished with a faint smile.

Something that made Nalini shoot her a sideways look before silently taking a step to the side, which Nina noticed and smiled at her, only making Nalini take another step.

Regaining her composure, Vanessa finally holstered her weapon and approached, that really had been impressive, she looked like one of those martial arts movie characters, and it had nothing to do with her being Chinese...okay, maybe a little, but impressive was impressive.

As Emilia had said, Xiao Xun'er really seemed to have trained for this kind of situation.

Stopping near the three, Vanessa looked along with them toward Xiao Xun'er, who was retracting the staff back into the bag on her back as she approached a specific table.

That table had several buttons and screens and was the control table related to energy distribution.

Xiao approached, looking closely as if searching for something, but seemingly not finding it, she shrugged slightly and raised her weapon, aiming at the control table.

Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger, creating a large hole and releasing sparks amid the melted metal.

And the result was immediate when the lights inside the room went out.

Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Xiao Xun'er holstered her weapon. "Let's go." She said, stopping near the others and looking toward the air duct.

Without waiting for a response, she took a metal ball identical to the one William had from her bag, splitting it in half, throwing one part that stuck to the duct, and pulling herself up, she propelled herself upward and in a smooth motion entered the opening with a spin.

Looking down at them from above, Xiao Xun'er called to them again. "What are you waiting for? Let's go."

"Now she's just showing off..." Nalini muttered quietly as she looked up.

The others heard her but said nothing, though internally they agreed.

What they didn't know was that Xiao Xun'er had heard her and was only smiling imperceptibly at that moment.

"Well, can you take me up there?" Speaking again, Nalini asked, smiling lightly at Vanessa.

And with the latter staring at her without saying anything, she clasped her hands together while blinking rapidly, putting on a puppy-like expression. "Please~?"

"Fine." Rolling her eyes, Vanessa ignored Nalini's thanks and activated her boots, taking her to the duct and then doing the same with the other two.

Inside, the quintet then proceeded with the next part of their plan, retreating to a meeting point where they would reunite with the boys.

In silence, they moved quickly through the air duct, until abruptly Xiao Xun'er at the front stopped.

"Wait." She said quietly, raising her hands.

While the others behind her waited in tense silence, wondering what it could be, nothing happened for long seconds, but just when Vanessa was about to ask, something pierced through the duct from one side to the other in front of them, leaving melted metal behind.

"Go back!" Xiao Xun'er exclaimed, turning to run back.

The others followed her example, reacting quickly and turning around, but they only took a few steps when the same thing pierced through the duct in a line, leaving only melted metal on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

And as a result, they fell.

"Fuck!"

"Kyaaaaa!"

"Shit!"

Amid Vanessa and Emilia's curses and Nalini's scream, along with Nina's fear and Xiao Xun'er's tension, they hit the ground.

Still disoriented from the fall, Xiao Xun'er was the first to get up and check on the others.

But just as she was helping Emilia to her feet, something pierced through the wall of the duct section they were in and tore it open, revealing them.

"Well well, if it isn't our little invasive mice~? How are you, enjoying your stay I presume~?"

A voice they all recognized spoke toward them, and as they looked at the source, their worst premonition became reality.

"Shit..." Vanessa cursed quietly, frowning, in front of them, along with several other agents, was the last person they wanted to find in that base, suspended off the ground by two robotic arms with two more rising behind her.

That woman with the Doctor Octopus cosplay was the leader of that base.

"Warn the boys." Xiao Xun'er said with a furrowed brow, her hand already reaching for her staff again.

"Already did." Nalini replied, a bead of sweat running down her forehead, the hologram from her implant incessantly sending a distress message.

In front of them, seeing the tension in their faces and bodies, the woman smiled widely.

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