What's in Your Head?

Chizuru and Shion could hear the heavy breathing and the splashing of footsteps as they led the combatants away from the rest of the battalion. Once they came to an open space Shion and Chizuru nodded at each other and they both lit a flare and tossed it in opposite directions.

The light revealed about a dozen humans in varying stages of decay or disease. All moved with jerking motions like doors on ungreased hinges. One lunged forward trying to grab Shion, and as it lunged, Shion saw an expression of fear, pain, and anguish on its face

.

Rather than crush it as she usually did, Shion took a more gentle approach and snapped its neck before laying the body down carefully.

"Poor things. They look like they are suffering. Look at their faces, it's sad. Look how they are moving, I think they are being forced to do this against their will."

Chizuru looked at the people as she dodged their attacks and it was true. Some of the people had skin that was barely clinging to their bodies, or sunken collar bones from not prolonged starvation; some had fungus growing on them. Despite their aggression, all of them had looks of despair and Ouroboros tattoo with missing tongues.

"I can't help feeling sorry for them, Shion. Whoever did this to them is cruel. I think we should put them out of their misery".

Chizuru sheathed her knives and started breaking their necks and laying them down softly. The barely human creatures began to slow their attacks and started to shake more violently as if resisting some unseen force so the girls could catch them more easily. After a few minutes, the two had dispatched all of the tunnel people and gently folded their arms over their chests.

Shion was visibly distressed as she leaned over one of the bodies, "I think these people were discarded test subjects. They have all the same things as the other guys, including the mystery chips. Poor things,they look to have been trapped down here for a long time."

Chizuru nodded in agreement, "Why would anyone just keep them alive though? What purpose does making people suffer serve?"

Shion pointed to a camera mounted on the ceiling, "They wanted to watch and see what happened. Probably just to test the limits of human survival. I know of one Nazi scientist that gets off on watching people suffer. I think this may be the clue we need to start our manhunt. I'll brief you as we walk towards the exit. I really wished we could talk to these guys though to see what they are thinking about and what happened to them, but most of them are so damn aggressive and can't speak anymore without tongues. I wish we could learn who their families were so we could put them to proper rest too.”

As the two continued down the damp and purulent tunnel the light of the flares began to die out, returning the tunnel to pitch black darkness.

Shion beemed Chizuru a photo of a man in his 40's with a thick mustache and smooth chin, it was titled Dr. Kazuma Tanaka a.k.a the Voyeur.

Shion began, "The rebellion has been watching this guy for a long time. He first caught their attention after an incident involving psychoactive drug trials. He created a compound that caused hyper aggression in test subjects and watched them tear each other apart and eventually cannibalize each other. A frequent flyer at Lavender books, he enjoys to watch acts of sexual torture. This level of cruelty sounds like his kind of deal. Luckily for us, that crazy bastard would need to get his rocks off even during an invasion. I'm pretty sure that we can pay a visit to Ms. Bunny and catch the bastard there, plus we can get a change of clothes, and we can take advantage of the chaos to get some intel."

Chizuru clung to Shion's arm as the two continued down the seemingly endless tunnels. After a 20 minute walk, light could be seen in the distance, Chizuru tried increasing her pace, but Shion held her back.

"Chizuru, stay close to me if you don't want to be shot on sight." Chizuru clung even harder to Shion's arm.

"I'm super nervous, I've never been to this platform before, my handler won't be there either. Can we trust these people not to hurt me?"

"Honestly, I think you will be fine if you just let me talk these guys down. Just stay quiet and let me do all the talking on this one. Ok?"

As the two closed the distance between themselves and the artificial glow, Shion heard the cocking of a gun from behind them.

Without turning around at all, Shion raised her arms up and greeted Cooper in a backwards wave, "Hey there Coop aren't you even gonna buy her dinner first?" as he pressed the muzzle of the gun into Chizuru's back.

Cooper nervously chuckled, "Who the fuck is this bitch?"

In a flash Shion knocked the rifle out of Cooper's hands, discharged the bullets in the chamber and tossed the lot to the floor.

Shion started, "Cooper meet Lt. Chizuru Yamamoto, my fiance and Upperclass defector. Wait, before you sound the alarm, hear me out. Chizuru is working for us. I just found out. You know we aren't supposed to know about other field agents in case one of us gets caught so we can't rat everyone else out. Let Matt have a look at her and he can verify."

"How do I know you haven't switched sides and that you won't just kill us all once you get inside?"

"Cooper, first of all you know me. Second, if I wanted you dead, I would have already killed you a dozen times over," Shion hissed as she appeared next to Cooper in a literal blink of an eye and disarmed him in an instant.

"Say Coop, why don't we try that introduction again? This is Chizuru, my FIANCE. Chizuru, this is Cooper, we grew up together."

Awkwardly the two shook hands.

"Now that that's over with, take me to Matt. We have something he needs to see right away. It is related to the chaos happening uptop."

Cooper hesitantly let the girls into the platform. When eyes were first made on Chizuru everyone started drawing their weapons. Matt stepped out of the corner and got up close to Shion, "There better be a damn good explanation to bring THAT down here," he shouted while pointing his handgun at Chizuru.

"Chizuru, who is your handler, tell him now so he doesn't have a stroke," Shion pointed to Matt.

"My handler is Miriam Bergstein," Chizuru shouted.

Matt gave the hold signal, did a search with his neurolink and gave the at ease command. All members on the platform lowered their weapons. Matt gestured towards the couple to follow him to the master computer where he sat.

Shion held Chizuru's hand as the two sat across from Matt. Matt started talking in a serious tone, "What brings you down here? There better be a damned good explanation for breaking your cover and bringing an agent from another station here."

Chizuru placed the devices she had taken from the corpses on the table in front of Matt. His eyes narrowed as he picked up the peculiar devices. Chizuru explained, "We pulled those out of the corpses of the people who invaded the uptop, have you ever seen anything like that?"

Matt shook his head as he began to analyze some of the structures. Shion beemed Matt the file on Project Adam. After taking a quick look at the images, Matt's face turned pale, and just as he was about to speak, Shion interrupted.

"Don't even say it Matt. I'm doing this and that's it. We are gonna get those fuckers no matter what. It might actually be related to what's going on too so, If the Rebellion doesn't support us that's fucked..."

Matt smiled, "I'm not going to try to stop you. I just want to wish you good luck. And Shion, try not to get yourself killed. And you, Chizuru, if Miriam trusts you I can too. Keep my girl safe ok? Know when you need to back out. Lastly, ladies go with the techs to get a different set of clothes. There is something back there I know you'll love."

Shion and Chizuru got up and a technician led the pair to weapons and supply storage. In several well lit compartments there were all black bodysuits. The fabric, though thin, was durable with Kevlar embedded in each strand of the suit giving it bullet and penetration resistant properties. This material also was body conforming making it easier to move in stealth mode. This light weight suit would be perfect for the mission Chizuru and Shion were about to embark on. The pair couldn't help but feel excitement as they readied themselves for their first ever joint Rebellion mission together. Both were capable of collaboration but hadn't ever had the chance to work so closely with each other for an espionage assignment, and after years of working in solitude for Shion at least, this was an exciting first.