"Officer Ederne, Candidate Schnee, and Hill. And I assume he is prisoner 0618?" What greeted them after landing were armed soldiers and a few military personnel dressed similarly to Elm. "Welcome to Atlas Military Base M-24. Please, this way; your ride is waiting for you at the gate."
"Thank you, Commander, let's get moving; General Ironwood commanded us to collect the evidence as swiftly and quietly as possible." The other two nodded at Elm's words, but Simon didn't show any reaction, simply looking around with an absent look while being dragged along.
"Base M-24 is meant to house the emergency response unit for possible attacks that might happen in Mantle and the safe zone in dire need, which is why we are built on top of an underground shelter..." The commander responsible for the base started explaining its purpose and history. Simon ignored most of it, occasionally picking up a line or two; his eyes mostly remained on the blur of buildings they passed.
If there was one thing Atlas wasn't shy about spending money on, it was either military or science, but considering how interconnected they are, you could almost say for Atlas, they are the same thing. Anyway, that is why they are generous with such things as military bases; if memory served him right, roughly twenty percent of the city of Mantle is occupied by military-related facilities. This was why they needed a vehicle to reach the base's main gate.
"It's almost pitiful to look at." Buildings rising high above, covered in a thin veil of grey fog, looked even more gloomy than they already were. Even from a distance, one could see the pitiful state Mantle was in. They claim it is a city independent from Atlas, except in everything important to survive in this frozen wasteland of Solitas. "If they spent at least half of the budget they use to maintain bases in the city instead of developing this place, then things would have been a lot different."
"If only things went as we wish..." Robyn muttered beside Simon; even if she was reluctant to do so, she had to agree with Simon's comment. There are few things more uncomfortable than taking your first breath in those foggy streets they were heading toward. "I heard Mantle wasn't always like this. Why do you think it has become like this?" She looked at the local kingpin for an answer; she didn't understand why—perhaps she just wanted an honest answer from someone who wasn't blinded by Atlas's brilliance, or it was simply because they were speaking right now.
"They say the darkest place is under the candlestick. Every flower needs to dirty its roots to grow; it just so happened that Atlas is the flower and Mantle is the root in this situation." Robyn nodded her head; she agreed with his answer, but that doesn't mean she liked it any better. "Which is funny because, at the beginning, there was no Atlas."
Robyn looked at Simon in confusion. Simon didn't look at her; he continued, "Do you know what Mantle means? It means to conceal; that whole white aesthetic used by Atlas belonged to Mantle at first because it was meant to conceal the city among the snowy land of Solitas. A white city in a land of white snow; that was what Mantle was meant to be." He then glanced at Robyn. "Why the confused look? Did Atlas stop teaching history after I graduated?"
Robyn scratched her head in embarrassment; it was obvious she wasn't exactly keen on history lessons. Can't blame her; Simon knows these kinds of things because the school years were the easiest ones to separate and bundle together from his original memory. Not putting it together correctly, of course—the amount of data was just too much—still, they were distinct enough to pick out and pile up in one corner. History was the subject he paid the most attention to, though.
"Then the Great War happened. Tragedy brought by the war made cities succumb to negative emotions, calling the Grimm towards them. The old Mantle, located in the cold regions of Solitas, had no chance of surviving a prolonged fight against Mistral and the Grimm at the same time. For their survival, they used part of Mantle as a decoy, distracting their enemies there while the rest of the city ascended to the sky." Simon looked at the unexpected assistance in his history lecture. Winter still looked at him coldly before looking at Robyn. "Don't get confused by him; he is a criminal, no matter how he acts."
Robyn nodded her head foolishly while Simon stopped paying attention once again. Banter like this happened a few times on the way, but nothing too noteworthy. Soon, they arrived at the main entrance of the base.
"When I heard it was prepared by the military, I'm not going to lie, I was expecting something different. Maybe something more... tame?" Upon hearing Simon's comment, Elm and Winter couldn't help but fake a cough with a faint blush. They both glanced towards the commander, who simply looked away in embarrassment.
"My apologies, Officer Ederne; the general ordered us not to use military vehicles so as not to draw too much attention." He said hesitatingly; it was obvious he wasn't sure of his words. Who can blame them when the ride they were supposed to use looked like whatever hell they were looking at? Right now, they were looking at a brightly decorated pink sports car with cartoonish, half-naked cat girls painted on it. One could see the seats were covered in a cheetah-skin pattern. "So... we needed to borrow one of the cars the police confiscated from one of their latest raids. It was all according to the general's order not to attract attention to you guys."
"Right, it won't attract attention at all," Simon commented once again, which completely silenced all the military personnel around him. "It might as well draw a target on us."
"Actually, it just might do the complete opposite of that." Upon hearing Robyn's words, everyone looked in her direction. Robyn took a step forward and checked the car. After circling it a few times, she looked toward the commander. "If I guess correctly, this car belongs to the Flower Boys, right?"
"That would be correct... no one would drive something like this other than them." The commander confirmed her guess.
"Flower Boys?" Elm asked confusedly.
"They are a group of local hooligans who run around in brightly decorated vehicles, causing problems. Because the crimes they commit are light and often only public disturbances, and adding to that, they are just teenagers, the punishment for them is light. So they act lawlessly all year long; the police often raid their gathering places because of resident complaints."
"They call themselves the rebels of this century, resistance against the system, and bringers of color to Mantle, and many other names hard to even say out loud. The people of Mantle simply call them Flower Boys because of how colorfully dressed they are, just like a field of flowers." After Robyn finished explaining, everyone understood what she meant. Indeed, if, as Robyn said, they could be mistaken for Flower Boys, the local troublemakers, it would attract less attention. Still, that doesn't mean it stopped being embarrassing for them.
In the end, it was Elm who took a step forward, dragging Simon, and Winter had no choice but to follow along after a few seconds of hesitation. "Robyn, can you drive?" Elm asked.
Robyn looked hesitant. "I-I can, but I haven't got my driver's license yet. It will be issued next month." She scratched her head in embarrassment. Elm looked toward Winter, who looked away, her arms crossed, huffing. She definitely knew what Elm was trying to do.
With a defeated look, Elm opened the backseat of the car, pushing Simon into it. "I guess I will drive it." She just knew that once the news of her driving something like this came out, she wouldn't hear the end of it from her colleagues.
"Please, Officer, before you go, I almost forgot something." One of the soldiers then handed over a metal suitcase in front of Elm; before opening it, Simon could glance at what was inside from the backseat of the car. "The general told me to make prisoner 0618 wear it before leaving the base."
It looked like some kind of collar. "Is that a fucking collar?"
"No, of course not; Atlas isn't that inhuman. It is an electric ankle bracelet. Once the wearer gets a certain distance away from the signal emitter, they will be electrified by 3 microcoulombs, rendering most normal people immobile. Also, the emitter can trace the electric signal left by the ankle bracelet." He then handed Elm a device shaped similarly to a remote, then handed the suitcase with the ankle bracelet to Simon. The sudden revelation of the device sobered the mood. "I hope you will be compliant enough to put it on yourself."
"Tsk." Simon obediently put it on before covering it with his pants so the ankle bracelet wouldn't be seen.
"Let's move. I hope the warehouse is close to here, Jenkins," Elm said in a serious tone, and the other two entered the car with solemn faces, too. Elm in the driver's seat, Robyn in the passenger seat, while Winter and Simon sat in the back; after putting on their seatbelts, they signaled the commander to open the base's gate.
"Now, Jenkins, where are we heading?"
***
Zycon looked at his Scroll screen one last time to confirm he was hovering over the right spot. The GPS showed that the vehicle containing Simon would pass by this spot in 20 seconds, which meant he had exactly ten seconds before the jump.
Let's start counting then. 10.
"You sure about this, boss? You could follow them to where they are going before killing that Jenkins guy. No need to do this kind of stunt." The pilot of the Bullhead said. He and Zycon had been working together for five years now. On the surface, he does Bullhead tourism, showing the scenery from the sky, but his main job is mostly to deliver him to the right spot where he can land on the right place and right people.
"Not sure where they are going; if it's a highly secured place, I can't risk that." Zycon put away his Scroll.
"If you say so." The pilot didn't question further. Zycon appreciated that. He needed to focus; after all, his stunts weren't exactly easy to pull off, even with his Semblance.
He looked at himself in the mirror, fully dressed for the job. It was a habit he developed before he even realized he had developed it. He liked to see himself before the job and after the job to see how cleanly he had finished the work.
Dressed in a black tactical suit with a Grimm mask that covered his whole face. His vest was designed with special slots to hold several grenades for his primary ranged weapon.
On the right side of his waist, hanging from the belt, was his trusty axe, his favored melee weapon besides the combat knives he hung around it. The modified axe was designed after a rock-climbing ice axe, small in size, but its shape allowed him to install a slot to put in Dust vials. With a press of a button, the type of Dust he put in the slot would cover the blade, imbuing it with elemental prowess.
On the other side of his waist was where he kept the Dust vials and his good old pistol.
'Well, the check-up is complete; it's showtime.' He took a deep breath, activating his Semblance as he felt his sense of touch fading away. He was slowly dissolving into the air.
His appearance faded, and his figure started sinking into the Bullhead floor. He could feel the hard surface he was standing on slowly rising, passing through his body.
The time had come; he spun in the air, facing downward. As he was falling from 300 meters high, he felt no air pressure; the only force affecting him was gravity. Fade Away, his Semblance, allowed him into this ghost-like state where he was invisible, intangible, and affected by only a select few laws of physics. Perfect for assassination, as the ground came closer, he saw the incoming pink sports car.
According to his calculations, he should pass right through them in a few seconds; thinking that, he pulled two grenades out from his vest slots. He pulled the pins as he fell. It takes an item roughly one second before it becomes tangible after it separates from him.
Which is why this is one of his favorite tricks. He and the pink car made contact—at least they were supposed to—but there was no physical sign they did. At his current speed of falling, he wouldn't be inside the car's interior space for a second. That's why he already let go of the grenades half a second ago. Perhaps they were still invisible to others; to him, he could not only see them but also sense them.
That meant they had successfully manifested inside the car.
As he passed right through the car into the ground and continued falling toward the underground tunnel, he felt the grenades being tugged forward before disappearing from his senses. He quickly pulled out his ice axe, which was preloaded with Ice Dust. The moment he felt his feet off the ground, he pressed the button, deactivating his Semblance.
It took a second for things that Faded Away to return to being tangible, so timing is crucial with his style. The moment the Ice Dust covering his axe blade became tangible, it exploded, manifesting ice all around itself. The suddenly manifested ice mixed with the cement and dirt, nailing him to the ceiling of the tunnel and breaking his fall.
'Seems like I am still in the game.'