Potenza

Walking through the halls of the Academy, Lucia was quite curious as to just how urgent this sort of training exercise was. She had read the notice, of course, as it was impossible to miss. Plastered across every sort of entry point, every bulletin board and spread like wildfire throughout the entirety of the school's halls. This person in question must've been someone who was extremely dangerous if they were given this much notice about them. Then there was the thing about damaging the Special Forces and by extension the school's reputation with rumors that they could be spreading. Though, while it was nothing new that some people just wanted to paint the SF in extremely unflattering light, Lucia knew not to believe them. But still, to the extent they were going to to stop one person seemed a tad excessive.

It was while she was caught up in her thought that Lucia had failed to notice that one of the notices fell off the wall and onto the ground. Having not noticed this in the slightest, Lucia stepped on the paper and quickly fell all flat one her back. "Ow." Getting herself back up, she rubbed her back and only to simply launch herself back up in a sort of eureka moment. Obviously, she should go out of her way to fight this loony person. It would be the perfect way for her to get better in her training to become one of the best darn Special Forces members that ever would exist. Though there was the problem of the notice saying how she should probably only engage the target if she was in at least a pair, though that problem would probably sort itself out in no time.

 

Nasir casually flicked through the roll of notes he had in his hand. He had just collected his payment from a client he rarely saw. He was disappointed he didn't see that particular client more. Their personality sucked, they were horrendously ugly, but damn they were loaded. Whenever he did see them, he could afford to buy a hell of a lot of things after it due to the mass amount of drugs they purchased from him. Inhaling a huge amount of air from sniffing the money, he couldn't help but smile. Not particularly nice smelling, but the very idea of having money with him was an appealing one. As he walked along back towards his apartment, he couldn't help but think of all the other clients he had to see over the next few days. "Lets see..tomorrow I should be able to make some dough. Wednesday, even more, but dang..thursday's going to be a low pay. Hmm..maybe I can extort a little more out of him" he said, thinking aloud as he walked towards his home. Only five minutes away, it wasn't particularly far away, so he picked up the pace a little.

Arabella Oblea was in the shooting range. She was practicing with a standard pistol, nothing particularly fancy. Closing one eye as she held the gun steady, she aimed it carefully at the target at the other end of the range, against the wall. She took a deep breath now and allowed her breathing to slow down a little bit, to relax, before opening fire. Three shots fired before she stopped to admire her work. Two out of three shots were dead center in the skull, but the third was a little off; it had hit the area right next to the skull. If it had been an actual opponent, she'd be fine, but she wanted 100% accuracy and would settle for nothing less.

"That's enough for now though, time to take a breather" the girl said, hanging up the head equipment and putting the gun down. She turned around and was about to leave, but there was a notice on the wall that caught her eye. Taking a step over to it, she looked at it long and hard. She didn't know who the person was, she didn't even look familiar, but one thing stood out in particular to her; there was a dangerous person outside in the city. Sure, there were probably a lot of them already, but this one was dangerous enough to warrant a mission. Knowing her brother, there was a chance that he could be tangled up with the girl, which meant he could be in danger.

Arabella looked at the watch on her right wrist. It was around midday, which meant there would probably be people eating. First, she would go get some people to help her with this criminal, and then she would go to the armoury to get her sniper rifle. Taking a step outside of the firing range, she then turned to her right to head towards the mess hall, making note of the girl that had looked almost like she was trying to find something or someone, and giving a quick "Follow me" as she passed and continued walking towards the lunch hall.

Samuel Agnès was busy eating inside the lunch hall. It wasn't anything special, just a steak and some vegetables. As nice as it was, he couldn't help but wonder, who eats steak for lunch? But that wasn't important. Once he finished eating, he would have to move onto his practice. He could visit the armoury and grab a katana (who knows why they have them there) and then go find somebody to spar with, assuming he could find anyone. His attention was suddenly grabbed by a small notice on the wall.

Walking over, he realized it was a warning; or rather, a mission. There was a girl trained in dual wielding knives that was was apparently disturbing peace, but more importantly was dangerous. Had this girl, as he did once, found a joy of killing people? Or, if she hadn't, would she find it soon? He wouldn't allow it to happen, not when he himself knew the consequences of it. "Well, it looks like lunch is over, and I've got a new mission" he said quietly to himself. He turned around though, eyeing off the food he had left on his plate. "You know what, I'll find that girl later. They can shove the notice up their ass if they think I'm going to miss out on a good steak" he added with a slight laugh before wandering over and beginning to eat once more.​

 

​

After one final loud bang, the silver-haired girl lowered her gun, raising her visor looking down the shooting range. Where the target was supposed to be was a headless wooden figure. About 90% of her shots hit all the head, the rest either hitting its arms or chest. With a heavy sigh, Sasha placed her gun away and made her way out of the empty shooting range before one of the instructors came in and started to nag her. She had already gotten complains for using up too much of the academy's supplies of ammunition. She didn't want to get into the point where she would be fined for her overuse. "They wouldn't know...how worthless all that is..." Shaking her head, she made her way into the Academy.

After walking down the corridors down a bit, she walked into a girl that somehow slipped on a piece of paper. Clumsy...She shook her head. Before she reached her though, she noticed another girl walk out and gave the girl a notion to follow her. Right as Lucia hopped on her feet, Sasha then got a good look of the flyer she was holding in her hands. "Hmm that girl...hey mind if I tag along with you?"

 

The general sat across from his assistant. They were in a chain coffee shop you could find on any corner. Buckstars, as it was called. He never knew why they decided to name it that, but at least their products were decent. Sipping his double mocha frappuccino latte, he listened to the message which had come from the director. Honestly, he had never trusted the director much. Of course he'd never expressed this distrust. His job likely depended on it. Not that he liked it much. "Do you have to add on the title? Can't just call me Quinn?" He requested. He always had hated formalities. Yet, he was promoted time and time again until he was one rank below the director himself. He knew he excelled past his classmates...But was he really THAT skilled? He himself had never thought so.

And that's when the man across the cafe let out a confused sound. Sighing, Quinn just held out his hand and curled his fingers twice. "Give it here." He said casually, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary. In all honesty, at this point it wasn't. She was always getting herself into trouble. It was his job to keep her in check, but to be honest he didn't mind it himself. It kept things from the mundane routine. Nothing ever happened in the city. Although, with this Mila person, that may change. "Send a reply to the director. Tell him I'll handle the situation personally." He'd see how dangerous she was for himself. Then he'd decide exactly how much of a need to bring her in there was.

 

All was silent around the white haired body as he focused on his target in the firing range. Unlike the regular targets that just stood still, this one moved form left to right at a medium pace, which was as close as they could get to simulate an actual person moving around in combat. Not that there was anything wrong with that. To Takeshi it was all the more reason to concentrate and focus on getting the kill. So as he gazed at the target through the other end of his scope, his breathing slowed down to the point where he was holding his breath.

The reticle was trained on the target representing the heart. His rifle, breathing and aim were all steady, all that was left was to wait for the right time to pull the trigger. Time seemed to drag out as the swing slowed down from him in his eyes, and when the target had passed over the reticle.

BANG!

The bullet left the barrel of the gun and flew towards the target. Takeshi's breath soon returned to normal as he looked to see his handy work. The bullet hole was right where he'd wanted it to be, through the heart. A easy kill if the dummy was a real person. Still as he packed up his gun, something felt off about this to him for some reason, was the it notice that he'd read about this Mila person. If her mental state was as the notice had said, then getting a clean shot on her may not be as easy due to any unforeseen actions. Still worrying about it wouldn't help at all, so he simply stopped thinking about it was and left the shooting range to head towards the lunch hall.

~

Sitting in at one of the back tables was Hawk, who from a distance looked to be taking a nap with his feet propped up on the table that he was sitting at. Probably not the most professional way to see someone of the Special Forces, not that that mattered to Hawk. The laid back personality he was currently showing was just one of the many that he'd developed during the time he'd spent drifting from one place to another. It was good for throwing people off guard by lowering whatever expectations that they may have made of him via first glance. His actions on the other hand were more than enough reason, to him at least, to no worry about many things. Though with that being the case, the notice was still on his mind.

~

"Thank you for your service...sucker." Said the con artist known as Leon. His latest scheme had him posing as a alley informant giving out information of various credibility. Some of the people that came to him were so gullible that he could blatantly lie to them and they would not only believe it, but they would pay him for any additional information. "Man the people here are easy to fool." As it was right now, he's yet to meet anyone who could see through his lies or came back doubting his information and to be honest, he wasn't worried about that should it happen. Leon's been doing this for quite some time now, so one little bump wouldn't deter him much.

 

As Lucia had managed to bring herself back up, she continued walking through the halls on her way to...wherever it was she was going. School stuff was to be done though, and so she would go do it. However, the flier that she had read was more or less the only thing really on her mind. And so, she was more curious to learn about this person who was apparently spreading lies and was most likely some sort of ax crazy psychopath. She shivered at the thought, even though that was probably taking it a bit too far. She was then snapped out of her thoughts as one of her fellow classmates passed by and quickly told her to follow. While at first she was confused, she was taken even more a back when another classmate walked up to her and asked if she could come along.

While she had no idea what the other girl actually wanted with her, at all, she cheerily replied with a smile saying, "sure thing!" She mentally face palmed at how dumb she sounded, but whatever, there would be many a good time to work on her professionalism later. Turning back to the girl who told her to follow her, Lucia then walked to her, still confused, she asked, "so-uh- Miss. Did you need me for anything?"

 

Leon stayed in his spot, selling questionable information for a few more minutes before he closed up shop. He'd made a good enough profit for today and thus it was time to find another place to set up shop. He never made his location well known so that he wouldn't have to worry about any people coming to him with complaints. They never could find him after he left, which showed wither how stealthy he was or how foolish his clientele are.

His waled had taken him to the main square of Potenza, where a girl seemed to have walked into the center. Leon didn't hear the firs thing that she'd said, but her yelling came in loud and clear. Weird, the things that she was saying sounded similar to the things that he made up, but of course people believed him. It probably helped that his lies were slightly more believable. That or people who came to him were idiots.

It was pretty clear that no one was going to listen to the girl and it was pretty sad sight to see. Leon stood there for a bit, watching the other people in the surrounding area walk by and sighed. He figured that he might as well humor the girl. So while the other people walked to wherever they were planning on going, he approached the girl and asked. "Is what you say true?" A pretty standard question for a situation like this.

 

Arabella slowed down a little bit as she got to the doors to the lunch room. Stopping in front of it, she went to open them, placing both her hands on the doors, but stopped. The girl wasn't sure if taking on this mission was in the best interest. As a member of the academy, she was required to do it, but the girl mentioned in the flyers hadn't directly threatened them to their knowledge, so how likely was it her brother would be harmed in an attack? She shook her head slightly and swallowed the thought. If she was a threat to anybody, she had a responsibility to bring her down, and from the looks of things that's exactly what she was. "I do need you, both of you. You'll both know why in just a second" she said, unsure if her wavering confidence was evident in her voice or not. Shoving the doors open, Arabella stepped through the doors.

As expected, nobody paid her attention as she walked in. She wasn't an official messenger at all, just another student, so why would they? She was about to give them a reason. "Listen up everybody, and listen good! I'm not sure how many of you have noticed, but-" she started, before cutting herself off. There were people that weren't paying that much attention, but most of those people had at least given her the respect to acknowledge her presence when she spoke. Most of them, not all. Walking over to Samuel's table, she pulled back her hand and swiftly hit him across the back of his head as he was eating.

"EVERYBODY" she stated, her voice booming through the area. "Now, as I was saying. I'm not sure how many of you have noticed, but we've been given another assignment. Arguably the most important assignment we've had, actually. Somebody's terrorising the city, from the looks of things, and we've been told that for our next mission we have to take her down, and restore the peace. We can't do it alone though, not according to the flyer on the wall over there" she spoke, motioning towards the wall as she did so. She then motioned behind her at Sasha and Lucia, pretty much volunteering them but not sure if they would follow what she was about to request.

"Now, I've got a small group ready to go and take this woman down, but we need as many out there as possible. So, form groups and get working on bringing that girl down, alright? This isn't some kind of humble request or anything, this is an order. I might not have the proper authority, but I can guarantee you I can kick the ass of anybody in here that disagrees, now don't make me prove it" she said, a sly wink at the end to hopefully lighten the mood a little.

Samuel nearly started choking on his food as he was hit in the back of his head. After a brief moment of spluttering due to the unexpected attack, he regained his composure and glared at the girl to attack him. He didn't know her by name, all he knew was she spent most of her time at the shooting range. What gave her the right to assault him, just because some mission demanded teamwork? How did that work anyway? Hitting people wasn't likely to get them to work with her, was she messed up in the head or did she just like abuse?

These thoughts, and more, swirled around in his head as Arabella said her piece, trying to get people to work together. He mentally sighed at the end of it. He didn't speak to many people at all, so he would be surprised if anybody wanted him in their particular team. If worse came to worse, he'd do exactly what the mission specifically said not to do; tackle it alone.​

 

"You never struck me as much of one to stick to the rules, Robyn." Quinn said, half serious. At least she added it into the end. It was better than nothing. He waited quietly while she wrote the reply. He trusted she knew what she was doing. After all, she hadn't let him down before, and he didn't see that happening in the near future either. He occasionally sipped his coffee, which was evidently extremely complex and supposedly a total contradiction for a drink. Once she finished the reply, she brought up some information on the girl. "Let me see it." He didn't expect she would refuse, so he slowly took the tablet from her. He read over the information. First thing he checked was her skill set. Evidently, she was highly skilled in CQC, just like Quinn. Only difference was that instead of hand-to-hand, she used a weapon. Likely she'd be put on assassination type jobs. She had an honest, innocent face. Not something one would immediately suspect as a trained killer.

He looked up at Robyn and pretended not to notice her "Side activities" while he began to question her directly. "You said she was one of your classmates right? What was her mental state last you saw her? Did she seem depressed or angry?" He asked, trying to get an evaluation of the girl. If she seemed totally normal, then it's fairly possible whatever "Rumor" she was spreading was true. After all, that message from the director did sound a bit suspicious. Usually people don't order a faction wide dead-or-alive search for a girl spreading rumors unless they're trying to cover something up. He wanted to talk to her, and maybe get some more information on something going on he wasn't entirely aware of. If it turned out that she was just your average lunatic, then he'd bring her in as expected. Although, if not...That was another story altogether.

 

​

Sasha gave Lucia a smile. "Great. Thanks for having me tag along. Might as well since I don't have much to do today anyways." While following along Lucia and Arabella, she studied a flier she passed by and plucked it off the wall. Mila. It's as if she should know her, but can't pull up anything on her. Not like she was the best as pulling up names to information. She had little care for people back then as the majority of her confrontations of people were usually fights. Either that or Mila didn't do anything out of the ordinary to keep a mental note of.

In the room, Sasha tapped her head. She really didn't pay much heed to Arabella since it was usual pep talk before a mission anyways. Even though Mila was from the academy, the flier really didn't explain the situation other than spouting random nonsense. Even so, would that be reason enough to send in elite students and Special Forces to go after her? "It just doesn't add up...disturbing the peace isn't reason enough to mobilize an operation like this...it's not like she's a terrorist or making propaganda on any sort. She just sounds like...those random people on the streets that always speak out against the government because they have conspiracies and all that sort of nonsense." She leaned back into her chair, scratching her head. She was mostly talking to herself so unless someone was really close or listening well, she was not really heard. "Then again...those people never tend to show up again. I mean sure for safety, we could use backup since she was trained under this facility...but is she really doing anything that's causing enough harm or trouble for a group of highly trained personal to come in and fix it?"

Sasha frowned, looking back up at Arabella. "Ma'm, I don't understand the reasoning behind this. I don't see why we have to mobilize such a large force to take her down even if she was in a mental state. It's not as if she's causing large amounts of casualties or damage. As far as I can tell, she's just talking about government nonsense like those people on the street always talk about. What makes her any different from the others? Just because she's trained under this facility that it's OUT responsibility to respond to this "threat?" I apologize if this sounds off tangent, but I'm not seeing the clear reason. According to the flyer, it simply states it "wants to keep the peace that we worked so hard to make." Is that really the only reason to remove her?" She sighed, sitting down on a nearby chair. "I don't mind helping out, but I think there needs to be some stronger reason before I go out there with the intention of taking her down."

 

Lucia sort of followed behind Arabella as she was lead to the dining area. It was there, that she gave a rousing speech, a call to arms if one would. She talked about just what their mission was and just what they were tasked with doing here. Lucia was in utter awe and being completely inspired by Arabella at this moment, though was slightly confused when the attention was shifted to her about already being member of a task group. However, that quickly vanished and she could do nothing but feel ready to go on this mission.

It was then that the Sasha girl chimed in about how none of this seemed right and it all seemed way to blown out of proportion. That they didn't and probably shouldn't take action against someone who had defected and was doing nothing but spreading lies about the government. But it was one of the last things that she said that really got to her. "We shouldn't go after her because she hasn't killed anyone yet? That sounds like entirely a terrible idea. The whole purpose of us mobilizing as fast as possible is to keep it that way. Just because she hasn't killed anyone yet doesn't mean it's going to stay like that forever." Her tone then started to become a more nationalistic one as she continued saying, "our academy has given us every reason to go after her. Being someone who has defected from here, she does not fall under the jurisdiction of a regular police force, and thus is a matter that only we and our seniors can solve. Furthermore, I for one believe in our government to be one that has done nothing but keep our country the way it is, in total prosperity. To think that they'd be lying to us and deem this important mission they've tasked us with as pointless is just too hard for me to believe." After she finished her own speech/rant, she turned to Arabella with a clueless face and said, "so where do we start?"

 

The more Leon listened to what the girl was saying, the harder it got to tell whether or not she was lying or actually being serious. She'd attempted to show him something on her hand, but stopped mid way. If her goal was to entice some interest out of him, then she succeeded in that. "Alright I believe you." How could simply playing along with someone turn into something like this. Judging by how desperate that she was sounding, it would probably take some time and effort to find out everything that she new about this apparent secrets this town had.

Takeshi had gotten to the lunch room and found himself a quiet place to sit. He wasn't feeling all that hungry so he didn't bother to grab any food yet, in fact he soon placed his head down on the table as he attempted to clear his mind. His eyes were just about to close when he heard someone start shouting. He looked up to see that the culprit was a blonde haired girl.

She was clearly talking about the notice that everyone had gotten. The idea of working together in a team made sense. No one knew what she was capable of so going in alone could spell disaster if the target got the upper hand. Great, now he was back to worrying about the mission again. So much for clearing his mind. Takeshi then looked up from the table that he was sitting at and turned his attention towards the table that the girl was at. He could see that there were two other people there with her, probably the small team that she was referring too.

Well seeing as how he had no team of his own to participate in, maybe it would be in his best interest to join them. It was all that he could think of and it was better than nothing. So he got up from his seat and made his way towards them. When he had gotten in front of the table, the first thing that came out of his mouth. "Is there any room on your team for one more person?"

 

Arabella was getting irritated very quickly with everyone in that room. Normally she was a very patient girl, but when there was even the smallest chance her brother could be in danger, there was no time to wait at all. Thankfully, Lucia explained things rather nicely, putting Arabella's mind at ease. "She's right, we can't give this fugitive the chance to hurt anyone. If you want to argue about how morale it is going after somebody, feel more then welcome to do it once we've captured her. I hate needless violence, but if she's as unstable as the notice makes her seem..we may not have a choice" the girl stated. She was ready to leave, but then she heard a boy asking a question. Great, more delays, she thought to herself.

Arabella shook her head quickly in response. "Technically there's no limit on how many people per group, so there's nothing stopping you there, and if you really insist on it, I can't stop you. But, the longer this takes, the more people that will be at risk of getting hurt. If we have smaller groups, we'll cover more ground and track this Mila girl down faster, so please just form another group. It doesn't matter who you take, we just have to find the defector fast. Take anyone, how about.." the sniper started, eyes scanning the room quickly. Most people had formed a group already, there were very few people left. Suddenly her eyes rested on someone, the boy that had ignored her before. "He'll do" she finished.


Samuel's face was a look of pure shock at first. He hadn't expected to actually be in a group with anyone, so he had almost completely ruled out the possibility. However, as much sense as it made for him to be in a group with the boy, Samuel preferred to work alone. What if somebody found out about his past? What would he do then? No, far safer to avoid that risk altogether. Shaking his head, his look of shock turned into a slight frown.

"Nope, nuh-uh. Not happening. I do my missions alone. He'll have to find somebody else" he replied, showing his immediate refusal. He watched carefully as the girl that had hit him before turned around and came walking over to him.

"There is nobody else"
"Sure there are. Look at that guy over there, and the one over there. There are people left"
"I've seen you practicing. You're a capable fighter, we need people like you to pull their weight"
"No way. He'll just have to get someone else"

Five seconds later, the boy was hit across the head once more.
"Are you really going to refuse to help because you have too much of an ego to work with others? You'll help him, or you're going to get thrown out of this academy for refusing to follow a mission, and you'll get your ass kicked by a girl. Will your ego survive that?"

Samuel frowned once more, before standing up and walking over to Takeshi. He didn't like it at all, but he would have to listen to the bossy girl. The more he argued, the more people that died; and he didn't want to be responsible for any more deaths. Holding out his hand, he tried to force a smile, although he feared that his insecurities were showing as he did. "Samuel Agnès, lets get moving" ​

 

Despite things not going as he'd initially planned, Takeshi had still ended up being part of a team. Not that he had any say in it being formed mind you. His partner, Samuel, was the first one to speak. If not for the formalities, Takeshi might've just stayed quiet. While that probably wouldn't help with any "team bonding" that they could and probably would have to do in order to get through this smoother. "Takeshi." After that he just gave a simple nod before going on ahead. He was walking at a moderately slow pace, so when Samuel caught him he could pick it up without leaving his new partner behind.

 

Quinn waited patiently while she was on the phone with the police chief. It was fairly obvious he wasn't happy about their intervening, but they were special forces. He in particular was a high rank. That made refusing them even more difficult. He was glad that she'd learned pretty much how to handle most situations they'd be in. She gave him the location of their target and he stood up. "Alright, In that case, let's get going." He said. When she asked, he handed her devices back to her. If they were leaving, she shouldn't be able to do too much damage. "Keep in mind what gets those taken away." He warned, basically telling her to not hack everything in the area whenever her eyes were open. And sometimes even that wasn't true. He walked out the door and got into their car. It was a fairly nice car in a dark blue color. He got into the driver's side and waited for her to climb into the passenger seat. "Two blocks south, three east from here, town square you said?" He asked before starting the car. As she nodded that was correct, he began driving toward the specified location.

It didn't take them long to get there, and upon arrival, it wasn't difficult to find the girl they were looking for. She didn't exactly blend into the crowd. She was in the center of the square, yelling about conspiracies. There was another person speaking to her, but he didn't recognize them. Getting out of the car, he walked slowly over to her. "Excuse me, Mila? You probably know who i am. I just want to talk to you." To show he meant no harm, he removed the gun he carried from his belt and placed it on the ground in front of him before backing up. "I want you to tell me about what you're talking about. There's an order out that says to bring you in for spreading rumors to disrupt the peace, but i'm not sure i want to do that. Rumors aren't exactly jumped on to silence unless there's some truth to them. So, if there's something going on i don't know about, i want to hear it."

 

After Arabella had basically become the leader of the academy's student body and split everyone into groups, it was time to get going. Lucia was actually somewhat excited to get this sort of mission started. Not so much because of the context of it, but more so because she was always happy to do a mission. After all, completing tasks given to them by their country's greatest institution was the whole purpose of the academy and SF in the first place. However, in order to deal with someone as dangerous as her they needed to be armed with their signature weapons. Lucia had gotten her pistol, just in case the violence escalated to such a thing to be used. Fortunately for the crazy anti government speaker in question, it was currently filled with rubber bullets. Not lethal, but they hurt like hell and were good enough to knock someone out.

The trio that was Arabella, Sasha and Lucia soon left the academy and were now on their way to deal out justice in this sort of witch hunt. Their mission was a simple one, however, there was a good problem to take care of first. Lucia turned to the other group members and said, "so, if we're going to look for this girl, we need to know where to check first. Though based on the notice that shouldn't be too hard to figure out. She'll probably be in some large public place or at the very least, with a large crowd around her. People who rant about things need an audience after all, or else they're just talking to themselves." She tried to think of various locations to fit the bill...the only problem was that there was a good deal of public hot spots someone could preach in. So, looking for the input of her teamates she turned to them and asked, "So, you guys have any good starting locations?"