“Come now girls. Our destiny awaits.”
The Sirens continued to walk down the school halls, each radiating in their unique confidence to the point of looking annoyingly smug. Drops had been following them for long enough. It was now or never.
The sound of a trigger being pulled three times in quick succession startled the Sirens, but their reflexes weren’t fast enough to avoid the three pellets that hit them each in the back of their heads. They let out little grunts at the impact before turning around to see who dared interrupt their gloating.
Now facing Drops—who stood at the opposite end of the hall, holding her pistol steady—they gave her an annoyed look.
It seemed as though those pellets, which would have knocked out a normal person, annoyed more than hurt them. This worried her as, even though she knew some of what the Sirens capable of in a fighting environment, no one really knew just how powerful they were.
Her worry intensified when Adagio grinned. “Awh, the poor little junior recruit is trying to stop us. How cute.”
Drops stepped back slightly, causing the Siren to laugh.
“It’s just so foolishly brave. I almost feel bad for what we're gonna have to do to her,” she said with a wide grin.
Drops fought the urge to step back once more. She managed to hold firm, but her face was sweating. The top corner of her glasses’ computerised display showed her heart rate was increasing too fast. She did her best to ignore that and focused on the left-hand side of the display. Right now, the glasses were scanning the Sirens for any weaknesses, but they were so far coming up empty.
“Why is she in a suit?” Sonata asked.
There was a moment of pause. Adagio stopped moving forward and instead gave Drops a look somewhere between confusion and intrigue.
The sight confused Drops for a few moments, but then she realised what was going on. Discounting their surprise attack on Swift Glider, it had been decades since anyone in the agency had faced the Sirens directly. They had most likely never seen an Agent’s Suit, or its abilities.
This may have become easier. Drops at the very least now had some surprises for the Sirens.
“Who cares why she’s wearing a suit,” Aria groaned, moving in front of the other two Sirens. “Listen, you guys need to go set up, I’ll catch up once I’ve dealt with her.”
The two other Sirens gave her a confused look, something that Drops couldn’t stop herself from also doing.
Aria stretched out her arms. “What? She’s a junior recruit, no point wasting our time on her. I’m just in the mood to let off some steam.”
Adagio turned to Sonata, who replied with a shrug, before giving Drops a quick look up and down. “Sure, why not,” she said nonchalantly. “Have fun.”
Aria didn’t turn to look as the other two Sirens left, the Siren just continued to stare at Drops with an eager grin. “I have a very good feeling you’re gonna regret this.”
There was a temptation to agree with her, but Drops did her best to at least seem calm, remembering she didn’t have to defeat them, just keep it busy.
The Siren began to move forward, walking slowly towards her.
She quickly glanced at her glasses’ on-screen display, checking that her suit was working properly—making extra sure her Agency earpieces were in properly—and saw that the scanner had not yet found any weaknesses.
When she was only a few feet away from the Siren, it went in for its attack. It pounced, raising its fist for a punch.
Drops fired her pistol at the Siren's eye. She knew it couldn’t do any damage, but there was a flinch and, more importantly, an opening.
Drops threw her gun into her left hand, moving her right down to her belt to yank it off. With only a bit of pressure to the right point, the gadget activated and it slid off her waist as she pulled it up, then spontaneously hardened into a stick like weapon which she whacked the Siren in the face with.
Surprised at both the gadget and the strength at which Drops hit her with it—the suit had given her some much-needed extra force—the Siren was knocked off balance and it fell straight into the locker to its left.
Drops wasted no time. She skirted around the Siren and moved a few feet away from it, pointing her belt gadget with her right hand while aiming her pistol with her left.
There was a sigh of relief from Drops despite her still precarious position. That little exchange had at least shown she could damage the magical creature, something she had not known for certain going into this.
The Siren shook its head with a groan. It looked up at Drops, regaining its confident grin. It got back to its feet, revealing the impact had dented the locker it had fallen on. “Seems like you’re gonna be more fun than you look.”
The Siren let out a screech. Drops’ earpieces activated in response to try and block out as much noise as it could, but the magical voice still caused her to flinch in pain. This gave the Siren a chance to rush her.
Drops did her best to dodge the Siren’s punches, her suit adding speed and pulling her out of small errors. She kept this up for a bit and even managed a few jabs back, but she failed to get back on the advantage or do any harm.
This frantic struggle was cut short when the Siren managed to get one punch to connect. The force of the impact was so great that Drops was practically thrown backwards, dropping both her gadgets and landing on the hard floor.
She grabbed her stomach, desperately trying to hold back a scream from the pain. Critical damage to lower stomach armour her suit’s alarm displayed through her glasses.
The Siren chuckled. “You’re annoyingly slippery,” she said, moving forward for another attack.
Drops didn’t have time to concentrate on the pain. She pushed the ground, her suit giving her enough force to fling her up into a standing position. The Siren was surprised to see her do this, which gave her time to reach for another gadget.
With her anger feeling more prevalent than the pain, Drops decided to give the Siren a taste of her own medicine. She reached into her back pocket and whipped out a small device with a speaker on that she pointed at the Siren.
She pressed the button on top of the device and her earpieces activated. She couldn’t hear it, but the vibrations of the high pitched noise rippled through Drops’ arm as the Siren recoiled in pain.
Once used, she quickly threw the device to the side and, seeing that the Siren had not recovered, she lifted up her leg and kicked it as hard as she could in its face.
The Siren was knocked off balance once more, giving Drops enough time to grab her belt gadget off the floor, which she used to give a quick wack to the back of its head. She then backed off, not wanting to get ahead of herself.
The Siren looked up quickly, shooting Drops a look devoid of her previous cockiness; it was now replaced with annoyance.
It placed her hands around the small necklace hanging around its neck and it suddenly started glowing.
Drops’ display showed her scanner was beginning to pick up a massive amount of magical energy and, more importantly, it had found a weakness.
The source of the Sirens’ magic seemed to come from the crystal within the necklace. If they were removed, the Siren would be rendered powerless. The crystal most likely had some kind of defence mechanism in it, but this gave her hope.
Her display flashed with warnings. She had been so distracted by the new information that she had completely missed what was happening.
The Siren flung her arms out towards her and a fire of magical energy headed straight for her. The suit did its best to force Drops out of the way, but her carelessness meant she could only move so fast.
The fire tore through her shoulder padding and sliced open her skin.
She had lost balance trying to dodge the attack and she now found herself on the floor, grasping the wound with her left had to try and stop the bleeding.
There wasn’t time to see how bad the cut was, as the Siren quickly tried to make the most of her advantage. It lifted its foot into the air and slammed it down. Drops only just about managed to roll out the way, and the floorboards cracked open upon impact.
Realising the danger of her position, Drops reached into her back pocket for another gadget which she threw on the floor between them. The gadget, a small metal tube-like device, suddenly began spraying out a thick grey fog that quickly began to cover them both.
Drops quickly attached a little breathing device to her mouth as the Siren began to panic slightly, going in for a few more hits that Drops easily dodged.
The Siren was unable to stop her, and they now both found themselves within the thick fog.
Drops picked herself up and the glasses began showing an infrared display so she could keep an eye on the Siren. To her disappointment, the Siren seemed unaffected by the gas and, while it couldn’t see, there was only a slight cough from the knockout gas it found itself in.
Looking over to the cut on her left shoulder, her scanner noted that the cut hadn’t penetrated any artery, so she didn’t have to worry about suddenly bleeding out. That being said, it was bleeding bad enough to warrant looking through her medical supplies—located in her shoulder holster—for the first-aid foam spray to stop it.
The Siren, getting annoyed with her current lack of sight, screeched once more, again causing Drops to flinch in pain.
She was surprised by the feeling of gas rushing past her, but then she realised the screech wasn’t done to hurt her, it was to push the gas away so the Siren could see again.
Not wasting any time, Drops readied her belt gadget and ran at the Siren. It still couldn’t see properly and was startled when Drops hit her on the back of the head as she rushed past her. It tried to hit her, blindly wailing its arms around, but she had enough distance to not have any worry.
The Siren screeched once more, but Drops fought through the pain and went in for another attack. This time the Siren must have heard her footsteps, as when she went to strike, the Siren swung its arm to try and hit her. Drops just about managed to dodge the hit, but she had lost her balance and gave the Siren enough time to screech the thick gas away at last.
They now found themselves face to face in the clear once more, something that put Drops at a dangerous disadvantage.
The Siren, sensing its opportunity, rushed forward towards Drops. There was a moment of hesitation, but Drops held her position firmly, managing to parry some of the punches the Siren threw at her.
Unfortunately, Drops simply wasn’t strong enough to keep this up for long. The Siren grabbed the belt gadget, pulling it and Drops closer. It then picked up Drops by the shirt.
Drops instinctively hit the back of the Siren’s elbow as hard as she could, but it didn’t release her, only hurt it enough to throw her to the ground with enough force she heard the floorboards crack underneath her.
The onscreen display flashed red with warnings as Drops cried out in pain. Her whole body was hurting and she couldn’t feel her leg. The shirt's collar, which had a built-in neck brace, was the only thing that stopped the impact from breaking her neck and now the display showed it was broken.
All Drops could do to stop the Siren from going in to finish her off was throw a handful of miniature explosives at her, which flickered red before detonating. She knew it wouldn’t stop her, but it might give her some time.
Drops did her best to pick herself up, but the pain was unbearable. Her suit’s display gave her a little heads up that it was going to Execute emergency medical aid and she let out another scream as it forced her hip back into its socket—the dislocation being the reason she couldn’t feel her leg.
She looked down at her watch, viewing all the damaged parts of the suit. This wasn’t working. If she continued on the defence, she’d get herself killed. She needed a change of strategy.
Looking up at the Siren, who was still disoriented by the explosions, and then back to her phone, she had an idea. It was a stupid and incredibly risky idea, but it was something.
She pressed a button on the watch and turned the dial. It read Suit mode 2 and she hit the accept button.
The suit forced her into the upright position. The top of her blazer sleeves disconnected from the rest of it and moved up to wrap around her hands. A few gears turned and the sleeves formed tight gloves with the inbuilt armour working as knuckle busters.
The rest of the blazers sleeves rolled back up her arms and peeled off with the top layer on the back, leaving Drops in a what had become a waistcoat. The removed fabric distorted on the floor and turned into a blocklike device the size of a backpack, which Drops quickly picked up.
The Siren, by then, had already recovered from the explosions. It was too angry to stop in confusion at the sight before it and went straight in for another attack.
Drops threw the box at the Siren and it once again distorted, covering the Siren’s right hand and arm before clasping onto it. The Siren was caught by surprise, giving the gadget enough time to activate its robotic movements which forced the Siren’s arm to the ground.
Now partly demobilized, the Siren was at the mercy of Drops who wasted no time in testing her new gloves on its face. They worked well.
The force of each punch knocked the Siren around wildly and she managed to get a half-a-dozen punches in before the Siren tried to use her left arm to retaliate. Drops dodged the attempt easily and gave the Siren a quick look up and down. It was now or never for her final assault.
She pulled the tip of her tie and it automatically detached at the back to come off seamlessly. She flung it at the Siren’s left hand and it tied around it before activating its magnet, pinning the Siren’s hand to the locker behind.
The Siren tried to pull on it, causing a slight movement from its position, but for now, it was stuck. Drops wasted no time, striking it in the face a few times in the hopes of disorientating it.
As one last punch connected with the Siren's face, it recoiled slightly as if it was close to losing consciousness. Drops knew this would be her only opportunity. She readied herself and moved her hand in to grab the necklace.
She was only an inch away when the necklace’s defence mechanism kicked in. Suddenly a field of dark red magical energy erupted from the necklace. It almost forced Drops to fall over, but she held firm and kept on trying to move that final inch.
The energy was chaotic, with flickers of what looked like fire and lighting radiating from it, cutting through Drops’ suit and into her skin. She used every ounce of her will to keep focused on moving closer, ignoring the pain as she did so. A flicker of energy sliced into her cheek so she moved her left arm to cover her eyes, but continued pushing forwards.
She could just about feel the necklace with the tip of her finger when her glasses’ display shot out a warning and her suit forced her backwards and to the ground.
Looking up she saw a flash of magical fire that would have cut through her stomach had she remained in place. She looked to her right to see the origin of the magic.
“Now this is just embarrassing Aria.”
The other two Sirens had returned. Adigo was standing tall with a smug smile, pointing her arm forward. Sonata was standing to the side of her giggling. She probably found the scene of a junior recruit almost beating a Siren quite funny.
“Shut up and help me,” Aria said with exhausted breaths.
Drops had frozen up. One Siren had almost killed her, three she wouldn’t stand a chance against.
Her display showed her suit’s armour was in tatters and she knew it had run out of cheap tricks to surprise them. It was plan B or nothing.
She took off her glove and pointed her palm out towards the Sirens, hitting the back of it with her other hand. The flash was quick and unexpected. The Sirens shielded their eyes but they weren’t quick enough, giving Drops enough time to get up and run out the school’s back exit, not looking back once.
Out into the street and in safety, she examined herself. Cuts and bruises littered her body, some cuts too deep to ignore. Her joints were screaming in pain, prompting her to realise the suit’s mechanisms were probably the only thing keeping her standing.
Looking at her watch she realised that the musical finale was a few minutes from starting. She may have held them up for a bit, but not much.
Drops grunted in pain as she spat out a bit of blood. She needed to get to that musical final.