42 Chapter 89 - Suspicion

"I've got a pair of Kings with a Jack kicker."

"Tough luck, I have two pair! 7's and 3's, hahaha!"

Randy Deer, a B Ranked guard working for the Angels Arcadia, glared at his fellow guard, frowning in annoyance as he watched the man scoop up the pile of poker chips lying on the center of a small table.

Randy's aged appearance gave him the look of an irate salaryman, despite the fact that he had the power to crush steel with his bare hands. His skin had a pale tone to it, his weak brown eyes matching. Like most of the guards on base, he wore a set of white leather armor.

The duo were currently sitting in an open hallway on a pair of wooden chairs. In front of them was a small, circular wooden table that had a deluge of playing cards and poker chips lined up on it.

The hallway they were in led to various rooms, including the large and open Amphitheater Room, several filing rooms, and a few storage rooms, including the Directive Storage Room that was visible from the large, open Amphitheater Room.

"Better luck next time, Randy! Bahaha!" The other guard, a heavyset, black-skinned man returned, taking a long drag from a cigarette.

"Whatever Marlo." Randy shook his head, leaning over to the side of the poker table.

"Wheeze~wheeze." He coughed for several seconds, pounding on his chest.

Marlo watched him for a moment, his eyes full of concern.

"It's still not better?" Marlo began, his gruff voice carrying a hint of concern.

"No, it never is. It's gotta be some blood thing, damn cough never goes away, even with all this damn magic shit." Randy grumbled in return, waving his hand around grumpily.

The duo continued to talk in a relaxed manner, their game of cards ongoing.

They were both B Rankers, assigned on duty to guard not only this floor, but more importantly, all of the storage and filing rooms, including the Directive Storage Room. While none of the information stored here was extremely sensitive, much of it was intel that wasn't open to the public.

Still, in the multiple years that the Angels Arcadia had controlled this Tower and Branch, there had never been any incident of any sort on this floor. The guards were posted here per the strenuous regulations set by Chief Enforcer Hannibal, regulations all Branches had to follow, but the security was rather lax.

As the duo were in the midst of shuffling the cards again, preparing to play the next hand, a warbling sound echoed out.

WEEEEoooooo WEEEEoooooo

Both of them froze and then looked up, the cards on the table scattering.

"That's… That's the alarm from the Directive Storage Room?"

"Huh?!"

The two exchanged glances.

"Do you think Sub-Commander Borial left one of the stacks tilted again?" Randy sighed with exaggeration as he stood up.

The duo walked over towards the door in a cavalier manner, unworried. There had been a few times in the past where the warning went off, and each time it had been for innocuous reasons.

"We'll go in, check the room, and reset the alarm." Randy took command as he stopped in front of the doorway, Marlo following quickly behind.

The Directive Storage Room wasn't directly locked. Instead, a large, chunk of metal was set around the handle, preventing it from opening without a key. It was a rudimentary lock that would only slow down a powerful warrior, but more than enough to give the guards time to respond.

Seeing that the metal lock was still intact, Randy calmed down. With that intact, it was almost certainly just a stray stack of papers or files that had collapsed again.

Randy withdrew a key from his Spatial Ring and opened the metal lock, pulling it off. It fell to the ground with a resounding thud, landing on the floor.

He then promptly opened the door.

The moment he did, the warbling alarm shut off. The light in the room was already turned on, maintained permanently. The alarm system was set to detect movement and lifeforms, a Stationary Magic Net that was created by an A Ranker from the HQ with the Magic Webber Type Ability.

The duo quickly scanned the room, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Inside were two dozen filing cabinets and a few tables and chairs full of paper. Their cursory examination didn't see anything untoward. All the cabinets were small, hiding behind one was unfeasible.

"Oh, there we go." Randy spoke aloud, pointing to the ground.

A stack of papers was on the floor, scattered as if they had fallen at some point.

"Must've been that." Marlo nodded in agreement. While the papers were lying still now, it was entirely conceivable they'd tipped over earlier.

They scanned the room again, taking a step inside. They craned their heads to look over and around the cabinets before both sighing, almost in disappointment at the lack of excitement.

"Just another false alarm." The duo turned around and left, shutting the door behind themselves. Marlo took the lead, starting to walk down the hallway.

The moment they did, however, the Stationary Magic Net triggered again, its siren sounding off.

WEEEEoooooo WEEEEoooooo

"The alarm reset but then turned back on? There's nothing in there." Randy looked over at Marlo in confusion. The other guard shrugged and looked back.

Randy opened the door, silencing the alarm again.

"Did it get messed up or-" Abruptly, Randy's voice cut off as he started, the world around him blurring. An instant later, a small, dim orb flew down and knocked him in the chin.

"Huh?!" Randy gasped out loud before falling forwards and collapsing, knocked unconscious. At the same time that he fell, a small emblem attached to his belt flashed with light.

"Randy, are you okay? You trip again or..?" Marlo jogged back to the entrance, his voice laced with suspicion. His hand rested on the hilt of a sword at his waist, moving cautiously.

When he reached the doorway, all he saw was Randy lying unconscious. Marlo blinked for a moment before taking a cautious step forward, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice.

"Randy," He began, his voice filled with concern,

"Are you alri-" Before he could finish speaking, he cut off as well, the world around him blurring as well.

The last thing that Marlo could remember before he fell unconscious was what felt like a heavy weight smashing into his chin from the side.

"Where?!…" He collapsed forward, his voice trailing off.

Just before Marlo fell unconscious, however, his Emblem flashed with light, just like Randy's.

An Arcadia Emblem was tucked into the waistline or secured on the belt of each guard, locked into place. The moment they saw an intruder, recognized a threat, or were knocked unconscious, a magical alert was sent out, a warning sign that would connect directly to anyone of higher authority in the nearby area.

This was one of the many functions of certain Arcadia Emblems. Some could be linked together in a network, functioning excellently as warning indicators.

This was the real trap and security alert system set into place for guarding this floor. Even if the two B Rankers should fall unconscious, their Emblems would recognize their shock, alerting the entire Branch.

Such a system was impossible to circumvent unless one held a tremendous amount of power and could knock two B Rankers unconscious without them realizing they were being knocked unconscious, something even most A Rankers couldn't accomplish.

Killing them would automatically trigger the Emblems.

The moment these alerts went out, the entire base was kicked into high gear.

"Someone's interfering with the Directive Storage Room! Randy and Marlo are both down on the 36th, status unknown!" In a room several floors above where all of this was taking place, it took Sub-Commander Borial only a few seconds to realize what was happening, his Emblem alerting him.

Borial was a slightly overweight asian man with thinning black hair. As a Sub-Commander, he was an A Ranker, though one of the weaker ones. He had the Menacing Hands Type Ability, a special power that allowed him to infuse his attacks with Menacing Energy, a type of strange power that could disorient and confuse foes.

He was also incredibly detail oriented, his love for taking care of the records and information well known. It was no surprise he was the first to realize what was happening.

He, Sub-Commander Kathleen, and a group of other high-ranking officials were currently sitting in a late night meeting discussing a new directive for organizing large sweeping hunts. Abnormal Morenkai had on average, just within the past month, grown slightly more common. Most C Rankers could handle a single Abnormal if properly equipped and in a team. As a result, the increased rate of Abnormals, however slight, meant more Points could be gained.

Finding a Temporary Nest depended on luck and all of the Permanent Nests were extremely difficult to gain access to. The best way to get Points, therefore, was to go on long hunts.

The meeting was on its last legs. The unusual time for it was due to arguments about which teams would take the best times for hunting, arguments that lasted more than two hours, extending the planned meeting well past midnight.

Without the Commander here, little could be resolved, but that didn't stop all of the team leaders from arguing the best they could. Tempers were high and almost everyone in the room was annoyed.

The moment the alert went off, every single one of these officials found a way to release that pent up frustration.

"What?! How is that possible?!" Kathleen sputtered in disbelief, continuing,

"They're both B Rankers and they were downed in an instant, with no time to send out an alert?! Is this a malfunction..?"

"The Directive Storage Room's Stationary Magic Net went off twice in quick succession!" One of the officials, an Enforcer Team Leader named Brent, spoke aloud, the man holding up a small, short range walkie talkie that some of the guards used for communication.

For a brief second, there was silence.

"Enforcer Brent and Enforcer Catal, with me! Ella, alert the entire building, seal down all entrances! We have a Code 2, Hostile Attack! Quickly, we cannot let them disturb my data!" Sub-Commander Borial continued, his voice bellowing as he jumped up and ran out the door. Two of the officials broke out of the room after him, immediately sprinting away, up towards the 36th floor.

Immediately, a flood of thoughts raced through Sub-Commander Kathleen's mind. Who could've done this? What was happening?

A thought struck her and set her into action as well.

'An incident like this happened out of nowhere? The only unique thing that has happened is Emissary Heron's visit and the Commander leaving to scout out a Nightrunner intrusion on our territory…' Her eyes narrowed, light glinting in them.

"Enforcer Ayer, Enforcer Elissa, on me!" Her voice was harsh as she ran out the door, followed quickly by two of the remaining officials in the room.

"Right behind you, ma'am!" Enforcer Ayer called out, his hand reaching for his waist where his sword lay strapped in as he ran forward.

"Yes, ma'am!" A pale woman with brown hair that was tied up in a sharp ponytail followed quickly behind, her hand resting on the holster of a gun.

The floor they were on was the floor right above where VIP guests were held, near the center of the Tower. This entire area was a place for high-level meetings or important personages.

It took just seconds for the trio to race down a single floor, reaching the end of the hallway and descending the stairs in a matter of split moments.

The group then moved into the hallway, running down it till they stopped in front of a certain room. The well lit and warm setup of the VIP floor was ignored as they dashed down the carpeted ground, alert.

From the time that the guard's Emblem alerted the Branch to right now, a total of less than 15 seconds had passed.

"Emissary Heron! Sir! We have an active threat on base, we need to confirm your status!" Kathleen's voice was rough as she pounded loudly on the door several times, frowning fiercely

When she found that she couldn't open it, her eyes softened slightly.

She was met with silence for a few seconds as she waited, her voice echoing off.

When Kathleen heard no response, her face darkened, the suspicions she'd held rising to a grim certainty.

It was very easy to close a door and then make it seem blocked off from the inside, without remaining inside. There were many different ways, and many criminals would use such a tactic to make it seem like they were hiding within a certain area while making an escape.

Her hands took on a static, energy-filled glow, her eyes lighting up with power. She was a user of the Electric Touch Ability, something that cost 80,000 Points in the Shop. It allowed one to convey and use electricity for attacking and defending.

She began to bark out orders to the other two Enforcer Team Leaders,

"Get ready to blow it, we need to check the room, time is of the essence! Inform the Commander and Sub-Commander that we have a possible Code 9."

If the Emissary didn't answer the door... Then she could only assume the worst.

"Prepare to inform the Headquarters of a possible betrayal!"

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Been working hard on editing + even more Amazon stuff x.x