Lin was too weak to fight against the men as they stuck the needle in her arm. It burned like nothing she'd ever felt before and spread through her body quickly. An explosion shook the compound and the men threw her into the steel cabinet she'd been kept in when they weren't forcing her to work.
Her last moments of consciousness were spent listening to the chains scrape between the handles and the lock clicking in place. But in what felt like moments later she blearily looked up into glowing blue eyes set into a featureless helmet before slipping under again.
~
Kurokawa Fuse didn't frustrate easily or get angry often, but seeing the girl abducted from C-Corp ten months prior had him frustrated and angry. He'd been in the brig when she was taken and wasn't released until two days after HQ had called a halt to the search, deciding that she was likely dead.
They'd operated under the assumption that it was just some half-assed ecoterrorists and that they didn't have the means to get far, especially with an uncooperative hostage. Fuse felt this was too narrow minded and voiced his concerns, which was seen as insubordination and he was sent back to the brig for two weeks to cool down.
The girl he'd seen in the picture and the girl curled at the bottom of the cabinet looked almost nothing alike. She hadn't been very big to begin with, but now she was practically skeletal. Track marks covered her arms and neck. His HUD told him that she had multiple contusions and was suffering from severe dehydration and starvation. She'd also overdosed recently on the cooldown to military grade stimulants. In short, it was a miracle she was still alive, let alone conscious enough to look up at him before passing out again.
(Sitrep, Sergeant. What've yougot?) Lieutenant Ray Bradley's voice asked over his comm.
The mission was simple, find and eliminate hostiles. They'd only dispatched two Vanguard units, thinking that would be overkill. Especially, as Ray had observed, since they took Fuse off the bench. It'd been six months since he'd been allowed to leave the Vanguard base, but how he'd decide to respond to the mission leader would determine if he ever got to leave the base again.
(Fuse, your comm working?) Ray asked.
"Copy. I've got an unknown in here. Please advise." He replied carefully. "It's the abductee from C-Corp."
It took longer than ten seconds for Ray to come back with a response. Fuse understood what that meant before the words came through. (She's to be considered a hostile.)
"Copy." He said back, but didn't disconnect the line as his HUD flashed and a message appeared.
[Bring the girl to Echelon]
The tracking software disabled as well as every other monitoring software installed on the armor. He stared at the message, then focused past it to the floor. There wasn't a decision to be made. If Echelon was willing to free him from the GA to see this girl brought to them, then that's what he would do. At the very least, she'd be better looked after by the oversight company than the R&D company that wrote her off.
"Consider me a hostile as well." He added, cutting the comm and drawing his sword as soldiers filed in, flanked by Ray in nearly identical armor.
"Fuse, don't do this, man." He pleaded.
The person commonly referred to as The Wolf of Wardham looked around the dim room as the soldiers nervously aimed their weapons at him. Ray shook his head slowly, then sighed when the lights on Fuse's armor went dark.
The soldiers were too well trained and didn't fire their weapons without a target in sight, and Fuse practically disappeared into shadow as he disabled each of them. Cutting through their weapons with his sword before knocking them out with the hilt. In seconds, there was only the two Vanguard members remaining.
"I'm taking the girl." Fuse said calmly, sheathing his sword as his armor lit back up.
"I have to try to stop you. I can't afford not to."
Fuse nodded, walking back over to the cabinet and gathering the girl into his arms, carefully putting her over his shoulder. "Then try."
Ray sighed and shook his head. "Just go. Can't guarantee we'll be friends next time we meet, though."
"We were never friends, Lieutenant. I just tolerated you more than most." He replied, exiting the bunker.