Unplanned Return [Hiatus]

11th

"What's going on, Shinku? You look pale. What happened?" Éclair asked, her tone tinged by both worry, and terror.
"I- someone's kidnapped Becky." Shinku replied, his voice low with fear and worry. "they want the two of us to meet them for some sort of information.
"What!?" Éclair almost yelled, but held herself back as she leaned over the remaining forkful of cake on her plate. "Where? And did you say they wanted both of us to come?"
Shinku nodded." They specified, my green haired friend."
"Does that mean they, know about me?"
"I don't know. They just said that if we met them at Warehouse E11 in the public docks they would let Becky go."
Éclair nodded, then stood up and grabbed her school bag from the back of her chair and slung it over her shoulder. "Then let's go save Becky." She said, completely sure of what she wanted to do.
Shinku nodded and stood up grabbing his bag. "I don't have Palladion though, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to use it."
"Then we'll find you something, I have my daggers in my bag so I'm good." Éclair explained as the two of them rushed away from the café and down the street.
"Didn't mum insist you keep them in your room?"
"So I'm paranoid, let's just go save Becky!"
"Yeah!"
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Sherry Izumi leaned against the alley wall of a café and sighed as she heard her son and Éclair rush off down the street. She had been out doing some casual shopping when she had noticed the two of them at a café instead of at school. She had been intending to sneak up on them and catch them off guard to ask them, but then Shinku had gotten a phone call.
And then the situation changed.
Pulling out her own phone Sherry quickly tapped out a number and brought it to her ear, waiting for the tone.
"Hey Robert, it's me. We have a problem!"
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The public docks were little more than chains of small warehouses and boat launches, places where people could keep their boats and launch them for whatever reasons. People needed a permit to keep a boat in them, but the docks themselves had no security, and did not even have fences around them. Warehouse E11 was not a large warehouse, maybe two or three times the size of Shinku's house. The large sliding metal doors still looked ominous though, and everything was far too quiet.
"I don't like this." Éclair said as she knelt down and pulled her daggers out of her bag and tied them around to her back like she would normally hold them, then swung her bag over her shoulder and back, using it to cover them.
"Yeah, but this is where they said to meet them. I guess we have to go in." Shinku said as he hefted the metal pipe they had found lying just outside the docks area. It was shorter than most poles Shinku used, especially Palladion, and he hoped he wouldn't have to use it, but at least it was something.
"That would make sense. But this feels like a trap. Shouldn't we have told someone, like your mother maybe? "Éclair asked in hindsight.
"They said not to tell anyone or they couldn't guarantee Becky's safety, but you're probably right. . . . So, shall we then?" Shinku asked as he walked up to the metal door.
Éclair nodded and stepped up beside him. Together, they pulled the two doors apart, their heavy metal grinding and screeching until there was enough room for them both to walk in.
The inside of the warehouse was sparse and mostly empty. A single brown colored van sat to one side near a pile of metal boxes and the windows were boarded shut. In the middle of the room sat the chair that Rebeca was tied to, and on either side of her stood a man each wearing a grey suit and black sunglasses. Two other men dressed the same stood by the van. All four of them looked calm, and one of them standing to Rebecca's right was holding a file folder in his hands.
The man holding the file folder looked up to Shinku and Éclair, smiled, and closed the folder before passing it to one of his comrades. "Ah good, you came. I was almost beginning to worry you would not."
"Shinku! Éclair!" Rebeca yelled as she looked up at the man's words and saw her friends.
"We're here to get you out of here, Becky!" Éclair declared.
The man to Rebecca's right smiled. "I apologize for the misleading conversation we had before. But none of you are going to be leaving. We need that information, after all."
"We'll give it to you, just let Becky go and tell us what you want!" Shinku yelled, noticing the two men near the van open it up and rummage around inside.
"Yes, the problem with that is what information we need. One of you is from a different world. We know that much. What we want to know is everything. Not just words and stories, but technical and biological information as well. As such, we'll be taking all three of you with us now. But don't worry; you won't feel anything when we do our tests." The man declared as the two by the van climbed out of it holding small automatic weapons that Shinku couldn't name. They were guns, and that was all he needed to know to tell him that they were in over their heads.
"You lied." Shinku hissed as his grip on the pipe tightened and Eclairs legs and arm tensed.
"Yes, I did. Now be a good boy and drop the pipe. I don't want to have to tell my superiors I was forced to gun you down. If you don't resist, you'll find all of this painless and easy."
For a moment nothing happened, and then Shinku dropped the pipe at his feet.
"What are you doing, Shinku!?" Éclair hissed in surprise.
Shinku shook his head. "They have guns. It's not like combat on Flonyard. If they hit us, there's no going back.
"I'm glad you see reason, boy. Now if you'd just-,.." the man began to say as every boarded up window above them suddenly blew inwards in a hail of wood and glass splinters. Immediately, almost a dozen men wearing strange equipment rappelled through the now open windows and slid down toward the floor, their rifles sending out straight beams of red lights, telling everyone exactly where they were aiming.
After a full second of silence one of the people in special ops gear walked over to Shinku and Éclair and took of her helmet, revealing a head of short blonde hair and light teal eyes. "You really shouldn't have accepted such a situation, ya know that, right?"
"I know, but we had to rescue Becky!" Shinku explained, causing the woman to heave a sigh and look toward where Becky was tie up.
"Alright, release her."
One of the woman's people began walking toward Becky, causing the suited men to stagger backwards and raise their weapons, finally realizing what had just happened. "Who are you!?" one of them demanded.
"My name is Chantelle Aria, Captain of the UNPSF Squad 1. And all of you are under arrest, effective immediately!"
"To hell with-!" the one man began to say until every armed UN soldier opened fire, covering the man and his three allies in small yellow darts. They stood there for a second before all falling to the ground in limp piles, drool slowly forming at the corners of their mouths.
Without saying anything else Chantelle walked over to the chair Rebecca was tied to and deftly pulled a knife out and cut the ropes in one stroke. With a nod she gestured over to Éclair and Shinku, allowing Rebecca to run over and hug both of them. "You two need to be more careful about what you do. If we hadn't come it could have become very bad for you both." Chantelle explained in an annoyed tone.
"Uh, yeah, sorry. We should have told someone or called the police, but- we were worried about Becky." Shinku explained to Chantelle.
"Well, now you know. Just be thankful that nothing happened to you."
"We are! But um, I've never heard of the UNPSF. What is it?" Beki asked, causing Chantelle to scrunch up her nose.
"It's a United Nations organization. Other than that all you need to know is we're responsible for you until you're home, so let's get moving."
Shinku looked to Éclair and Becky then back to Chantelle and nodded, "Alright, thank you."
Adel had been holding back on her reaction to Valerie's usual antics, hoping to catch him off-guard and find out what he had been hiding from her. And finally, after days of waiting, he finally slipped up, and she found what she needed.
"Valerie! What is this?" Adel exclaimed as she stood in the doorway of D'arquien's place. She, Isuka and Valerie were sitting around the table in the room's centre. At least Valerie had been, right up until Adel spoke up and terrified him, even more so when he saw the small vial she was holding between her fingers to him.
"Ah, Adel!" Valeri exclaimed as he turned to her and frantically felt his pockets when he saw the vial. "I- I can explain. I just-"
"This is truth seed oil!" Adel roared, causing Valeri to flinch, and D'arquien and Isuka to look in surprise.
"Oh, that's pretty rare. Where'd you find it, Valerie? Isuka asked with a laugh.
Valeri did not look amused as Adel continued to demand answers. "Who did you use it on, Valerie! You know truth seed oil is dangerous on its own to peoples bodies and-,"
"Alright, I get it!" Valerie suddenly called back, stopping Adel from continuing for a moment as he continued. "I didn't use it by itself, I mixed it into a drink okay, there's no worry of danger. I also diluted it just to be sure!"
"Who did you use it on?" Adel asked again, looking extremely cross.
"The little green haired floppy ears." Valerie said with a sigh. "When the Hero was off sulking I knew someone would come by and I figured it'd be her. With what we saw happen to him with the star reading, I figured she'd need a push to help him, so I mixed it with some orange juice and gave it to her as a drink. Its effects should've only lasted an hour or so just long enough to make Floppy Ears a little more honest with the Hero when she found him."
"Trying to cover your ass, huh!" Adel glowered as she began walking forward and pulled out her gun, causing Isuka to begin chuckling to himself as D'arquien sighed.
"Hey, everything was fine so what's the big problem!" Valerie complained as Adel stepped forward and placed her gun against Valerie's head, just as the outer door opened and Yukikaze came in.
"Lady D'arquien I- . . . oh, am I interrupting something?"
"It's fine, Yuki. What happened?" Darquien asked, causing Adel to scowl and holster her gun before backing away from Valerie.
"We got a letter from Tatsumaki. Éclair is in Shinku's world and is staying with him and his mother. Apparently they say that she'll be able to come back here on Shinku's break!"
"Well, that's excellent!" D'arquien said with a smile.
"Yes. Yuki, did they say anything else in the letter, like the name of Shinku's mother?" Isuka suddenly asked with a slight smirk.
"Um, no why?"
Isuka forcibly stopped smirking and took a drink from his cup wondering if she was the person he thought she was. "No reason."