One of the masked members came up by his side with some curiosity. “Found something boss?” They turo lean around their leader’s tall figure, but got blocked.

  “I told you to stop calling me boss,” he corrected, ign the question pletely. He turned away to face the pod that they had e for. His haed on the smooth white painted metal. “I’m only taking over until we get the boss back.” Cheg for the signal from the others ieam as they messed around with the equipment, the all clear came.

  He gave a gesture to the one on the opposite side of the pod. Their fingers dug into the metal bending it with ease. Uhe vault gate, this was a weak and thial. It took almost no effort to destroy it. In a siion, they ripped it out of the seating on the pod exposing the individual ihe pod. Their real boss was covered in thin clouds from the sudden ge of the sealed enviro of the medical pod.

  Taking their boss out of the pod and throwing them over his shoulder, he threw out his arm them to the other pods. They quickly made easy work of the other nine pods freeing those held captive by the UN.

  The raid’s time started to tdown fast in their efforts to give everyone a fighting bsp; Their signal to leave came as a distant rumbling that they reized. Trouble was on their way and it was early. A full four minutes early, but they had no time to pin about it.

  “Our wele is overstayed, guys! We’re leaving!” their leader ordered carrying their boss with him out of the bank vault. He felt the danger on his heels as they sped through the halls to make a escape.

  Chapter 369 – Broken Defense

  “Sir, the reports are ing in that the enemy is retreating.”

  Evans gred a the monitor, still running off back-ups until the engineers restored power. He watched the updates e across the map making very clear to him what happened. Everyone was worthless. And the most worthless of them all just walked in. “’t sleep, Shigemitsu?”

  Unfazed by the General’s annoyed barb, Shigemitsu walked over o him looking at the map to see what the situation was. “It’s a long walk from my office when the elevators are down.” Fog over to the red marks on the se to dehe attack points, he picked up on things quickly. “The tai cell was their target. I thought you kept the locations a secret, General.”

  Crossing his arms not liking the accusation, Evans didn’t bother looking at the annoying man. “Limited UN personnel know of any of the cell locations, even less know about Alpha.” He already khat he had a great distaste for the man, a businessman and a shrewd ohat knowingly carried superiority and fidence over all of them. ‘Our relian their teology might e back to destroy everything that we’re w for, but we don’t have a choice if we are to have peabsp; But I don’t have time for this snake. We’ve got ten escaped B Ranked her criminals and a leak to find.’ The General’s m started early.

  Far north of the UN base and out into the free stretches of the city, the masked team arrived at their destination. A rge seemingly abandoned apartment plex stood in front of them. Such a pce came a little off for such a band ues and ruffians. Knog on the service door, they were greeted by fh looking individuals that seemed to have no es to each other.

  Through the halls, they carried their objectives with them inte ba on the ground floor of the plex. It used to be the staff room where the owner would meet with the employees or the day’s schedules were handed out. Now, it had a makeshift fill of tables, supplies and cots or bs. People quickly rushed to aid the rescuers with those that they freed.

  The leader was met by several happy faces to see that he was successful. However, not everyone was as happy. It was difficult for everyone. It might have been a successful raid, but it came at a prid even worse. Those that they rescued weren’t who they hoped for. Not a perfect rescue, but they just had to make do with it.

  It was some time before Saki came to and found herself in unfamiliar surroundings. She had children as well as teenagers h around her. As her eyes readjusted to everything, she saw adults further babsp; It was hard to get a read of the pce that she had found herself in. ‘Not the UN,’ she o herself as the only obvious point. Seeing where she was made her think that Hiroshi did something stupid and rescued her, but he would have been around or Yuki. But there was no ohat she knew around her. It was a strange pce.

  “Hey Miss!” spoke one kid, leaning into her bedside.

  “Are you a bad person?” a girl asked.

  “Bad person?” she answered ba an echo. It seemed like a strange question, but also an accurate one. She couldn’t a as holy as she would have done so in an immediate gut rea to such a question. It made her think about things that she o fully face.

  “They said you were with the others where they hold really bad people.”

  “Huh?” Saki still tried to get caught up ohing that happened. The st thing she remembered was going into the pod and seeing Masayuki’s frustrated fabsp; Everything else was a bnk.

  A couple of women came over along with a man to pick up the children, who seemed to be their parents. “We’re sorry, they didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “It’s fine. It’s uandable.”

  “So you are a bad person?”

  “Sakura!”

  “I guess that would depend on who you ask,” she replied finally. The girl looked a little fused and bothered by the answer. It wasn’t the sort of ahat she wanted. She seemed to want something simpler, but such things were never so simple. Saki khat too well. What she did could be written any number of ways to suit whoever needed a message.

  “The mystery girl’s awake!” an unknown voice shot across the room at Saki. Wheuro face the voice, she found a young man with a couple of scars on his face, which looked ret, that otherwise held a handsome appearanbsp; His shaggy dark brown hair kept him from looking like he might have been tid. He was older than her, probably college age if she had to guess.

  Turning out of the bo get her feet moving, she staggered a bit to get her banbsp; Her body felt unusually weak even though she didn’t feel in pain or fatigued. It was a strange feeling.

  “Careful, pod sleep knocks it out of ya!” he cautioned as he tried to help her to her feet.

  Saki stubbornly refused the help and found her own footing. Her head felt a little loopy still, but she could walk at least. “Where am I?”

  “A stubborn one, sidering where we found you I guess that makes sense.” Saki gred at him not wanting light banter when she asked questions. A bit of sweat dripped down his face seeing how much of a presence she carried while still being weakened. “Damn woman, if I didn’t know better I’d swear you’d rip off my head.”

  “Don’t make me sider it.”

  “Yeah, yeah, just my luck that I always find the troublesome ones.” He turned around and motioned with his hand for her to follow him. The strange man escorted her out of the rge room and down the hallway.

  She found the state of the building to be in surprisingly good repair sidering the state of the city. ‘Are they actually keeping this pce running? Figured that they were just squatters, but maybe that’s not the case… Everyone just sort of seemed to stop g after things went to hell…’ It made her even more curious who it was that was running the show here. The sights of children and adults with no es to the rougher looking people in the room made her think more of Hiroshi. ‘I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that people would band together, especially with the UN. What Hiroshi did probably isn’t that unusual.’

  Taking the elevator, they rode up to the top floor of the plex. She still couldn’t see outside to know where iy she might have been. The hallway only went through the inside of the building. But once she made it to a room, as she expected them to be going, she should start to know where they were.

  Stopping at room 1609, the man opehe door for Saki. A rge apartment, a single room was bigger thaire apartment her family lived in, spread out before her. Knowing the situation, she khat they didn’t rent the room. Though she wondered if the inal residents still lived in the building or not. It was very empty as though no one lived in the room. But there was still furniture and on the couch sat several different individuals all with expressions that she koo well. They were leaders.

  “Yht the girl!”

  Saki immediately received the attention of the entire room. Whatever versation that she interrupted no longer seemed to matter. Though she did wonder what they were pnning. She had a lot of questions. “Who are all of you?” It ended up being a toss which question she picked first. They all seemed important.

  A woman’s voice from out of the room broke through to answer Saki’s question. “The North Byakko Alliance.”

  Seeking out the voice, she couldn’t find who it came from just yet. The stranger wao stay out of sight. Though something else bothered her as well. “Byakko? Shouldn’t it be Genbu?”

  The unseen woman ughed loudly through the room. She seemed to find Saki’s retort very eaining as she couldn’t stop ughing for nearly a minute. Everyone else in the room looked a little bothered by the whole thing. But then the door to the room creaked open as the woman made her appearanbsp; “I like your spirit!” she barked, revealing herself to be a very tall, thi fit woman. She wore a simple white hiyoku, the under-kimono, which gave her a very simple appearao flict directly with her wild eyes and aura that she bled. Saki could tell that this woman was the ohat was the real leader of everyone. She carried herself in a way that none of the others did.

  Staring at Saki for a moment, the woman grinned widely revealing a bit of her teeth in her excitement. “I like you. There’s a good fire in yer belly.”

  “Eh?” She really didn’t uand what was going on anymore. Giving a name didn’t really answer much of anything to her situation. Everything remained clueless for her. But the woman invited her further into the room.

  Taking up a stance by the windows, the boisterous woman faced everyone and Saki direg her words to Saki most importantly. “We fight against the UN and would like for you to join us!”