//------------------------------// // 11 - Twilight - The Girls Part 1 // Story: A Certain Scientific Twilight // by Babroniedad //------------------------------// Sunday, September 14, unspecified Tokyo time. Twilight gasped. “Kuroko was kidnapped! Do they have any idea where she is?” “Mikoto is looking for Kuroko. She was kidnapped from the hospital. She was sent there due to an injury she received during a fight the girls were involved in,” answered Sunset. “Let me see if I can find her fob.” “Maker above, what else can happen today?!” groaned Twilight. Dr. Long interrupted. “We’re going to set up. Come join us once you’ve sorted this.” She followed their armed escort into the secure facilities with the TACIT equipment. On her phone, Sunset pulled up the tracking app for the TACIT systems, searching for Kuroko’s signature. It was shown in a warehouse near the railyard that supplied the Institutes. “That’s odd. What is she doing over there? It shows her in a warehouse by the railyard.” “What?! That sounds sketchy. Go check on her,” demanded Twilight. “I got this. Go take care of our friends.” “Okay. Hopefully, I’ll be right back.” Sunset disappeared in a flash of Teal, keying her teleport to Kuroko’s fob. Twilight had barely started towards the facility when Sunset was back, looking slightly panicked. In her hands were Kuroko’s fob and daypack. “Ah, crap,” Twilight sighed. “This can’t be good.” Sunset excused herself, rolling back away as Twilight continued on into the facility. Pulling back out her phone she called Mikoto. “Sunset, thank the maker! Did you find her?” Mikoto asked immediately on answering the phone. “No. Where are you? I’m coming to you,” answered Sunset. “I’m in her hospital room. She was here, I left to get her a drink, when I came back she was gone,” Mikoto replied, sounding worried. “Okay, I’ll be right there. Incoming,” called out Sunset. There was a flash of teal and she disappeared. Mikoto looked up at the teal flash next to the bed. When it cleared, Sunset was hanging up her phone, then leaned over and hugged her. “Okay, tell me exactly what happened,” requested Sunset. “It’s like I said. She was being her usual clinging self, then wanted a soda. I left to get her one, then came right back with it but she was gone. That was the last I saw of her,” answered Mikoto. She then spied the fob and daypack in Sunset’s lap. “OMG! Did something happen to her?” Mikoto panicked. “We’re not sure, but we’ll find her,” promised Sunset, hugging Mikoto tightly. Releasing her embrace, she went though Kuroko’s daypack. Everything was in place, notes and homework all where she had left them. But there was no sign of her phone. Mikoto’s phone beeped with a text message. Looking at the phone, she smiled. “It’s a text from Kuroko!” she said in relief. She opened the message. “If you want to see me alive again, follow the instructions I am sending exactly.” Mikoto rolled her eyes then typed her reply, and sent it off immediately. “Where are you Kuroko?! Let me know. Sunset can come get you!” Sunset’s phone beeped. She opened the message app showing one new message from Kuroko. “You stay out of this if you want to see your friends alive again. I swear I will kill them both.” A moment later, a picture appeared on both their phones. Two girls were tied up in their underwear. One was their friend Yona, crying and clearly terrified. The other was Kuroko, who also had an IV hooked up rendering her completely unconscious. Kuroko looked like she’d been beaten; she was scratched and bloody with bruises on her torso and legs. Sunset raged. ‘I will find you and end you if you even harm a hair on my friends heads!’ she texted back. ‘That’s up to you. They will be completely safe if Mikoto does as I say and you and the authorities stay out of this. Otherwise, your friends lose,’ came the reply. Another attachment pinged. It was a short video clip. Sunset opened it. “Just a taste of what will happen if you don’t comply!” a heavily synthesized female voice said. A cattle prod appeared, arcing into Yona as she screamed in pain and terror, the violent electric shock jolting her body. After screaming for several seconds, her eyes rolled back in her head as a stain appeared on the floor beneath her. The clip ended. Sunset seethed. “She just signed her own death warrant!” she growled. Flames licked out from her hand grasping the phone. She dropped it into her lap before it was damaged. Mikoto’s phone pinged again. She opened the message. ‘Come alone to the warehouse you found her backpack in. And no fobs. I know what they are. If you have it when you come, your friend dies. No tricks. You have ten minutes.’ Mikoto ripped off her fob, tossing it to Sunset. “Please, send me there now! And please do as she said. I don’t want anyone getting hurt!” Sunset nodded, “But just because I can’t follow you doesn't mean I'm sending you in blind. I’m sending a drone. I’ll have it keep its distance, but at least I can keep an eye on you.” She reached into the backpack hung behind her chair and pulled out a tiny drone with a USB fob attached. “I’ve hooked it up to a TACIT fob to keep it powered and covertly see, no RF signatures from it. I’ll try to get it up near the roof in a corner somewhere, so whoever is watching won’t see it,” she explained. Loading up the drone controls on her phone, Sunset sighed. “Just as soon as Twilight gets the TACIT systems back online. Come on Twilight.” Checking her phone, she confirmed the TACIT receivers were still dark. A minute later they came online. “Thank you Twilight! Cutting it close there BFF,” gasped Sunset in relief. She thought for a moment. “There was an AC duct in the far corner. I’ll try to get it inside there. That should mask the flash when it materializes.” She held the drone in her hand, shut her eyes, then visualized the warehouse as she remembered it. There was a teal flash and the drone was gone. The drone app up on her phone showed it in a completely dark place. Placing the drone in whisper and night mode, she flew it carefully down the duct. Coming close to a grating the drone switched automatically to normal vision. She panned it around for a view of the warehouse. “Okay, set,” Sunset reached out to Mikoto. “Ready for this?” she asked, holding her shoulders. Mikoto nodded resolutely. “Okay. I’ve got your back. Off you go.” Sunset stated. Mikoto disappeared in a flash of teal. She appeared on the floor below in Sunset's feed. Mikoto looked down at her phone, clearly reading something. She walked over to a crate nearby and opened it up. Reaching inside, she took out an autoinjector then began undressing. Once down to her underwear, she climbed into the crate. Setting her phone down, she administered the autoinjector to herself then fell back into the crate. “Crap!” Sunset called out. “I can’t see over the lip of the crate! I can’t get eyes on her.” She panned the camera around following the duct. “There! If I can get over to that grate, I can see down into the crate.” The drone flew off down the duct again as Sunset expertly avoided hitting the sides and alerting anyone to their presence. Coming up to the grate, she flew up to it and panned the camera down. The crate was completely empty. Only Mikoto’s phone remained. A young woman watched the feeds from the cameras she’d set up around the warehouse. Things were going according to plan so far. She nodded her head, looking down at the drugged and now trussed young woman before her. There was a sudden flash on her displays as the older girl, the friend of the young woman trussed up at her feet, appeared in the middle of the warehouse in her wheelchair. The young women growled in annoyance. She picked up Kuroko’s phone and texted a message to them. ‘You really are quite dense, aren’t you? Who should I kill first? You have 1 minute to clear out of there, or one of them dies,’ she texted. She saw the redhead in the wheelchair read the message on her phone. ‘That ought to slow her down,’ she thought to herself. What she saw next shot a spike of fear through her heart. Through her feeds she watched the redheaded girl in the wheelchair as fire shot out from her hair, hands and eyes. Two large angelic wings sprang from her back. Trailing flames, the girl launched herself up into the air. She spun around then looked directly at one of the cameras, then flew up to it as fire poured out from her aura and eyes. She hovered right next to the camera looking directly at her. The terrifying girl mouthed one sentence. “I’m coming for you.” “Shit!” the young woman startled, jumping back from the monitor and nearly dropping Kuroko’s phone. “No one told me they were level 5’s too! Crap!” All the cameras went offline. The young woman put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath. “Okay. I need to move up the timeline.” She lifted the trussed and unconscious girl at her feet over her shoulder then left the room. Mikoto woke up with a start, panicked. She opened her eyes, then realized she was underwater. Some form of breathing apparatus, a mask, was strapped to her face. She was bound tightly in cloth garments and silken ropes. Looking around, she could see she was held imobile in the middle of a large tank of water. Calming a bit, she tried reaching out with her electromagnetic powers, looking for anything to help her break free. “I’d stop that if I were you,” a voice echoed through her head. She looked around, trying to find a source for the voice. “If I feel you are trying to escape, I will just put you under again, then kill your friends. You wouldn’t want that now, would you, ‘miss perfect hero’. Try me. I’d be happy to show you just how wrong you are,” the voice challenged. Not seeing any sign of speakers or any other source of metal she could use, she stopped twisting around and listened. “Good girl! You can be taught,” commented the voice dryly. “Very good. Let’s start with introductions. You don’t know me. Why would you?” the voice stated drolly. “People like me are so far below you, you probably think we don’t even really exist. We’re disposable. You’ve made that clear.” “You don’t know me!” Mikoto yelled through her mask. “I’m not like that!” “So you don’t even know yourself. Why am I not surprised?” questioned the voice, then continued. “So miss level 5. How many people have you killed? Do you even know? Better question. Do you even care?” “I’ve never killed anyone!” shouted Mikoto. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “And the sad part is you probably really don’t. That’s just how little we’re worth to you. We’re just blood on the sidewalk you have to step over. You don’t even realize what you’ve done. You don’t even care,” informed the voice in a level tone. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” insisted Mikoto. “Do you know how many people have suffered from your arrogance?” asked the voice. “Well here’s a newsflash for you. Add your two friends to the list. Every time you take that tone with me, they will suffer. You act up, they pay. Listen to this.” She heard crying. A sharp zap and a grunt with a terrified shriek sounded. Mikoto could hear a young girl crying, pleading. “Please no! Please not again! Whatever you want! I’ll be good! Please stop!” The terror in the young woman’s voice cut through Mikoto’s heart. She thrashed around again trying to get free. “Bad girl, Mikoto. I did tell you not to do that. Time to pay,” intoned the voice. A prolonged zap sounded. The young woman screamed in anguish, shrieking out in agony. Within seconds she stopped. Shortly after the zapping stopped. “I’m not sure how much more of that she can take,” the voice informed her dispassionately. “Her heart may stop if she gets too many more of those. And that will be on your head too. She suffers for you, Mikoto. Like we all do. You think you’re above it all, but you’re just walking on the bodies of those of us beneath you. “Time for your wake up call. “I will say one thing,” the voice added. “You’re little friend Kuroko? She was a tough one. She’s probably not going to wake up ever again. You’re the only chance she has. But keep screwing up and there won’t be enough of her left to wake. “Think about that for a while.” “Who are you? What do you want?” screamed Mikoto. Silence was all she got back. Mikoto cried in frustration, feeling completely helpless for the first time in years. Twilight answered Sunset’s call. “I saw your drone feed. I cut all her video feeds. She stealth routed them out through the building control network. If they’re anything worth their salt, they’ll have them back online in a few minutes. That gives you a short span to search for clues before she starts threatening the girls again,” Twilight stated. “Thanks, Sparky,” replied Sunset, moving through the rafters physically disabling every camera she could find. When she was unable to find any more, she returned to her chair. “What did you find?” “Nothing that could trace back to them. You have time for one more quick scan then you need to get out,” Twilight answered. Sunset quickly moved through the rest of the warehouse, but found nothing. Whoever was behind this, they had planned well and were quite thorough. “Okay, you’re nearly out of time. You need to bug out now,” Twilight called through the phone. Sunset dropped into her chair then disappeared in a flash of teal. In the now empty monitor room, several of the screens started coming back online one by one, showing an empty warehouse. Back in her apartment in her normal form, Sunset called Toma. “Toma! Thank the maker!” Sunset exclaimed when he answered the phone. “Sunset, what’s wrong? You sound really stressed,” answered Toma. “Bad news! Mikoto, Kuroko, and our friend Yona have been kidnapped. We’re not sure why or what’s going on, but we’re afraid they may target you and Index next. Do you two mind getting off the grid for a bit while we sort this out?” asked Sunset. “Someone kidnapped Mikoto! Hell no! I’m going to help! Point me at them!” exclaimed Toma. “No! Toma, we need you to take care of Index. We don’t have any clue yet who, how, or why they took the girls. I’m assuming it’s to hurt us, but I could be wrong, I’m getting a really weird vibe from their messages. Please? I know you want to help and that you care about Mikoto very much. But right now we really need your help protecting Index. Can you do that?” answered Sunset. Toma sighed. “Yeah. Okay, what do you need?” he asked. “We want you and Index to hang out with Chang’e and Dash on Tranquility Base while we sort this out. I don’t think they know about that. You should be safe. And Dash and Chang’e can keep you that way,” suggested Sunset. “Okay. Do you want us to head over now?” Toma asked. “No. Instead, I’ll get you. Just pack what you need for a few days away. See you in a few,” Sunset signed off. “Okay, see you then,” agreed Toma, hanging up. Sunset dialed Dash. She answered the phone, her groggy voice slurring her words. “What the heck, Sunset! Do you know what time it is?” she rasped. “I’m so sorry, Dash! We have an emergency. Can you and Chang’e help us out for a bit?” answered Sunset. Hearing that, Dash awoke. “Sure! What do you need? Do you need me to head over to you guys?” “No. Someone is coming after the girls and we’re not sure who else they may target. We were hoping you and Chang’e could watch over them, Toma and Index. Chang’e’s lair is far enough away they should be safe. I hope,” Sunset added. “I don’t think Chang’e will mind. I’ll head over to NASA to let them know what is happening, then over to Tranquility base and let Chang’e know,” answered Dash. “That won’t work. Tranquility Base is gone. We had to move the TACIT receivers. Are you ready to go now? It’ll be quicker if I just use the fobs to teleport you,” answered Sunset. “What?! What the hell happened? Give me a few minutes. I’ll text you when I’m ready,” answered Dash. “I’ll explain when I see you. Thank Dashie!” replied Sunset, then she hung up her phone. Sunset next called Ruiko and Kazari, telling them to pack with a brief explanation. She disappeared in a flash of teal, reappearing a few minutes later with Ruiko and Kazari, their bags over their shoulders. “So we’ve asked Chang’e and Dash to watch over you, Index, and Toma while we find them and sort this out,” she finished explaining. Both girls were near tears. “They took Mikoto and Kuroko? And Yona was the girl who stayed with you for a few days after Twilight helped her, right?” asked Ruiko in shock. “Yes, that’s her. We will get them back. Trust me, we won’t let this slide,” promised Sunset. The two girls nodded, both deep in shock. Sunset’s phone chirped. She looked down, seeing Dash had texted her back. “Okay girls, let’s go.” She held both of their hands, and in a flash of teal they disappeared. They appeared in Rainbow Dash’s bedroom where it was still dark outside. Dash was sitting on her bed reading her phone. “I texted Drs. Moonshot and Long. They know we’re coming. They said go ahead,” responded Dash, rising from her bed. “Good. I’m taking us there directly,” answered Sunset.’ She pulled Kazari onto her lap then took Ruiko and Dash’s hands. “Let's go!” There was a flash of teal. They appeared beside the TACIT receiver in Chang’e’s lair. Dash led them through the passageways towards Chang’e’s room. They rounded a corner and came face to face with the goddess herself. “I sensed you were coming. Come, come!” Chang’e invited as she turned and led them back down the hall into her room, then closed the door. Taking a seat on the sofa she invited them to sit with her. Dash left to get drinks for everyone, returning with them then sitting next to Chang’e. “So tell me, my dear Sunset. What seems to be the problem?” asked Chang’e. “Mikoto, Kuoko, and our friend Yona have been kidnapped. We’re not sure if they are coming after all our friends or even what is going on. So Twilight and I were hoping that you two could watch the rest of our friends while we sort this out and rescue our missing friends,” requested Sunset. “Please?” Chang’e leaned forward placing a hand on Sunset’s knee. “Of course, my dear. We would be happy to help in any way we can. “Are these your friends?” she asked, smiling at Ruiko and Kazari. “I do remember you, girls! You were such delightful guests last time,” she smiled. The girls bowed back. “Yes, and also Index and Toma. I’ll be bringing them shortly,” answered Sunset. As she said that her phone chimed. She read the text from Toma. “That’s them. They’re ready. I’ll be right back,” Sunset added. She rolled back from the couch and in a flash of teal, she disappeared. A minute later she reappeared, holding Toma’s left hand while Index snuggled in her lap. Knowing Index, Dash led her to the kitchen to pick out some snacks. They brought them out to the living room to share. After pouring half the chips into the bowl, Index sat down with the half full bag, nervously munching on the chips. “That’s the full set. Thanks so much Chang’e! You too, Dash!” Sunset nodded. Chang’e nodded back. “Anytime, my dear!” Index scooted over to the girls, offering to share the chips. Ruiko nervously took a handful. Glancing briefly at her now safe herd, Sunset nodded. “Okay, I’ll keep you posted. Later guys!” She disappeared in a flash of teal. Sunset appeared in their living room, taking out her phone to call Twilight. “The rest of our herd is safe with Chang’e. So what’s the scoop?” asked Sunset. “Kaori and Stiyl are still working through the mess we left them. We still have no idea where the two escapees went. She also said thank you for looking out for Index and Toma,” Twilight coughed. “Though Stiyl wanted it to be clear, mostly Index.” Sunset grinned briefly. “Yeah, he needs to let that go.” She sobered. “So up to us then. Okay. Time to find our friends and pay whoever is behind this back.” “Seems so,” agreed Twilight, then she continued. “I ran a traceback on the video feeds from the warehouse. They dead dropped into a switching relay that had been hacked and scrambled after you left apparently, so no luck there. Whoever they are, they knew about the pendants, so unsurprisingly no luck there either. “I’ve set up trace searches across all the video feeds I can access, looking for any sign of any of them. But no joy yet. Given how thorough this person has been, I really don’t expect much there either.” “And I can’t run a magical trace on them, because psychic powers have no trace,” stated Sunset. “There’s got to be a way to figure this out. “Okay, how about this? Whoever this is, they obviously know a lot about us. If they’ve had us under surveillance, maybe we can find them through that? Maybe they still have us under surveillance?” Sunset mused. “Thought of that,” answered Twilight. “Ran a full scan of the apartment. There was no sign of any active surveillance. I also ran a pattern match looking for any individuals who might have shown around or in our building but not residents in recent history, but never before two weeks ago and not since yesterday. It’s a huge list, but so far nothing.” “Okay. Oh! Yona! They knew about Yona. Look for individuals who were in the vicinity of her dorm who match your other criteria. That might help winnow it down some,” suggested Sunset. “Yes! Thank you!” agreed Twilight, keying in the new parameters for the search on her phone. “Let’s see what that gives us.” She scrolled down her screen. “Wow, okay, that actually helped a lot. Down to less than 30 people. Checking them out.” Sunset listened as Twilight pulled up the matching names and verified each one. A few minutes later she sighed. “Well, that was a bust. None of them are our kidnapper. I verified their whereabouts for the last 24 hours. What else?” Sunset thought for a bit. “Okay, so we probably excluded too much. We could play with the dates a bit,” she mused. Twilight brightened. “Or we excluded a group of people we shouldn’t have. How about this? We don’t exclude residents of our building. Maybe they actually live here.” “Huh, good point! I assumed they wouldn't want to be that close to us, but in hindsight that seems an unwarranted assumption,” agreed Sunset. Twilight adjusted her search parameters then examined the new list. “Adding in being tagged by Yona’s dorm, that actually gives us two more names. Checking them out now.” A moment later she commented. “Well that one was a bust. Last one.” Several moments later Twilight was still scrolling. “Something interesting, Sparky?” asked Sunset. “Yes. Robin Campbell. She dropped off the radar yesterday evening. She lives in a single room in the dorms two floors down from us. She’s a level 4 in teleportation. She fits the search parameters,” answered Twilight. “If she’s a teleporter, she might actually be in,” noted Sunset. “Can I get a drone into her room to check it out?” “No, that’s too noticeable. But her room does have an outside window. Try getting a drone over to her window. Maybe we’ll luck out and find something that way,” Twilight agreed. Sunset held out her hand, teleporting her little drone back from the warehouse. She then teleported it just outside their window. Using the control interface on her phone, she piloted the drone down the side of the building then around to Ms. Campbell’s window. The drapes were drawn closed, but there was a crack between them just big enough to see into the room. Sunset panned the drone around but it was clear that the room was empty. “Maybe I should pop in and check around,” commented Sunset. Just then there was a flash on her phone screen. The girl in question appeared in the middle of the room then went to her closet, digging through for something. Sunset disappeared in a flash of teal. She appeared in her wheelchair right next to the young woman. “Robin Campbell! I have some questions for you,” she said as she grabbed the girl’s arm. “Ahh!”” the girl cried out, spinning around. When she saw Sunset her eyes bugged out. “Crap!” she swore. There was a flash and she vanished. Twilight watched the feed from the drone as Sunset appeared, said something, then the girl vanished. “Well, she bolted. She definitely looks guilty with that,” commented Twilight over the phone. “Oh, it’s her. I saw her memories before she teleported out. Who is Hughie Ward?” Sunset answered through her headset. “Apparently she’s convinced Mikoto killed him.” “Were you able to track her?” asked Twilight. “No. Psychic teleport. Plus I was floored by her memories. I didn’t get a chance to drop a magical marker on her,” replied Sunset. “I’m going to see what I can find in her room.” Sunset went through her personal effects first. Going through the back of her closet, Sunset came across a scrapbook. Pulling it out, she set it on the small table on the kitchenette side of the room. Going through it she found it was filled with print stories of one of Mikoto’s battles in the business district. It was one of her more destructive battles it seemed. There was a completely demolished high rise office building in one photograph. A few pages later, Sunset came across a photo of the same building with a young man standing before it. The caption read ‘Hughie’s first day at the new job!’. He was dressed smartly in a business suite, and was clearly happy. Below the caption was a story about an accounting firm located in the building. She could only assume that was Hughie’s place of employment. Sunset flipped back to the front of the book. There, in one of the articles, she found what she was looking for. The accounting firm’s office had been completely destroyed along with the entire building. Only one fatality was mentioned, everyone else had been successfully evacuated. Sunset groaned. “Mikoto,” she sighed. ‘You said you never killed anyone. Did you not know?’ Hearing her groan, Twilight asked, “Did you find anything?” Sunset sighed. “He worked in a building Mikoto demolished during a fight,” Sunset answered. “Oh,” was all Twilight could say. “Well, crap. So at least now we know why. She was never after us, Mikoto was her target all along.” Sunset nodded, closing the scrapbook and putting it into her dayback. She went back to searching the room. Sunset went through the desk trash can, pouring it out on the table to sort through all the papers in it. Among the discarded school work and draft research papers were a handful of receipts. Sunset went through them one at a time, looking for anything useful. Almost all of them were for coffee shops or restaurants nearby that Sunset knew. Only three were places she didn’t know. She pulled out her phone to look up the three she was unfamiliar with. Two of them were places nearby, but the last one was a place near the manufacturing district. “Hey, Sparky! I may have something here,” Sunset called out. “I have a receipt. Can you get any footage of this place on this date and find our Ms. Campbell?” She read off the address to Twilight from the receipt. Twilight connected to her tools site and started a face search for Ms. Campbell in the area of the coffee shop on the day of the receipt. She quickly found a match. “Found her. Tracking backwards and forwards. Let’s see if we can find what she was doing there,” commented Twilight. Splitting the display on her phone screen, she tracked both the coming and the going, bouncing from camera to camera following the match traces. Both ended up at the same place, an empty office building. She watched as she entered the building on the return screen. “So any footage inside the building?” Sunset asked hopefully. “No,” answered Twilight quickly. “It was slated for tear down. External cameras only. Everything else was supposedly gutted.” “Are you finished at NASA? Care to take a look with me?” asked Sunset. “You bet. Give me a minute and I’ll join you,” Twilight responded. Sunset held out her hand, teleporting her drone into it then shutting it down and returning it to her backpack. A few minutes later in a flash of magenta Twilight appeared. Immediately placing her hands on the back of Sunset’s chair in another flash of magenta they disappeared. The lobby of the building was partially demolished. It looked like all the fixtures had been pulled from the wall with little care given to any damage to the wall itself. Sunset rolled over to the entrance desk, checking for any signs of power. None of the switches seemed to do anything. Twilight walked over to the elevators, and pushed the buttons, which were unlit. No response. “Stairs it is,” she called out. Sunset groaned. “Meet you at the top then,” she called out. “I’ll start on this floor.” She rolled into the hallway behind the desk and started opening doors and searching rooms. Twilight went up the stairs to the next floor to do the same. Finding nothing on the bottom floor, Sunset teleported up two flights of stairs to start on the floor above Twilight. She went up and down the halls checking each office the same as before. She got a text from Twilight. ‘Finished here. 2nd floor then?’ ‘I’m on the 2nd now. 3rd maybe?’ Sunset texted back. Sunset heard Twilight running past on the stairs. “Third it is!” Twilight called out as she passed. Sunset grinned, returning to her search. Finding nothing of note on the second floor, Sunset teleported to the fourth floor. She had just started her search when she got a text from Twilight. ‘Found something! Come here.’ Sunset teleported directly to Twilight. She appeared in the middle of a room, one wall covered with monitors. About half of them were offline but the rest still showed the warehouse where they had found Kuroko’s fob and dayback then lost Mikoto. “Bingo,” breathed Sunset. Twilight was tracing wires as they ran out from behind the wall and into a conduit in the corner of the room. There was a terminal in the corner, powered on but not logged into any service. Twilight removed a USB dongle from her daypack and stuck it into the side of the terminal. For a moment the terminal went dark, then came back up with a countdown timer. When the timer reached zero a summary screen appeared. “3 trojans, 15 viruses, 7 unsafe threats found. System purged. HackOS installed. Hit Enter to continue.” Twilight hit the enter key, then loaded up the interface to her tools site. She pulled up a building schematic, and identifying the conduit, traced it to its terminus. “Be right back,” Twilight called out before disappearing in a flash of magenta. A few moments later she reappeared and started typing a search query into the terminal before announcing, “She had the video feeds wired into the public internet feeds. She also had a private exchange wired behind it. Tracking that now.” A few keyclicks later, she waited for the results. “The other side of the private exchange is registered to the accounting firm her friend worked at,” noted Twilight. “Clearly a red herring, but this address looks legitimate. It’s about 5 blocks away. Feel like taking a spin?” “Lead on, McDuff!” called out Sunset. Twilight took the handles of Sunset’s wheelchair. They appeared just outside of the abandoned building, startling several people walking by. “Sorry!” called out Sunset as Twilight raced them both down the street. Sunset held on tightly to keep from getting tossed from her chair. A few minutes later, they arrived at the address on the private exchange registration. It was a modern office building, and fairly busy. They entered the lobby and moved to the bank of elevators. “Office number was 647,” Twilight noted. The elevator arrived and Twilight pushed Sunset in hitting the 6 floor button on her way by. Arriving at the 6th floor, they exited then followed the signs to Suite 647. There was no placard on the door, and the door was double locked. Sunset pressed her ear to the door, hearing nothing. Looking around, no one was watching, so with a flash of magenta they teleported in. Office was a bit of a stretch. The office was just an oversized room, empty save for dozens of boxes and a wiring rack along the back wall. The exchange terminus was clearly present, bridged into an encrypted packet router connected to the building's public internet. “Crap,” sighed Sunset. “Now what?” “No worries. I got this,” Twilight said. She opened a terminal app on her phone connecting a USB-C to RJ45 adapter to her phone’s port. She plugged the RJ45 connector into an open slot on the router and started typing. A few minutes later, she grinned. “Gotcha!” she called out. “Did you track her?” Sunset asked hopefully. “Yup. I used her own encrypted connection to piggyback onto the server she is using on the other end, then hacked into a privileged account. This one’s too far to jog. Hold on to your tonsils. We’re gonna make one more trip,” Twilight called out. She removed the dongle and placed it back into her dayback then grabbed the handles of Sunset's chair. “And we’re off!” They disappeared in a flash of magenta. They appeared a few blocks down from their target. “I think this is her base of operations,” Twilight whispered. “Likely she’s there now, and especially likely she has it covered top to bottom with surveillance. We need to get the lay of the place before we go barreling in.” In response, Sunset nodded. Twilight reached into Sunset’s backpack and pulled out the trusty little minidrone. Firing it up, she piloted it up over the building they were hidden behind, then across the roof to view the building they were stalking. Panning down and around, Twilight could see several external cameras monitoring the exterior approaches to the building. Panning up, she could see that all of the windows in the building had been covered over from the inside. There were several more cameras on the roof looking down and across the face of the building as well as across the roof itself. Twilight zoomed in on the AC equipment on the roof. Sighting a large duct going down from the unit into the building, she pulled the drone back to below the room lip. There was a flash and the drone appeared before her. A flash again and it was gone. On the drone display on her phone were the sides of the duct on the roof. “Damn girl! You’re good!” nodded Sunset in appreciation. Twilight smiled briefly. “Thank you! But we’re not there yet. Let’s see what’s going on in there.” She carefully maneuvered the little drone down the duct, low light settings allowing her to see the sides so as not to make any noise. She came to a junction, then flew down the horizontal path to find out more about the floor the drone was on. Eventually, she came to a grating. She panned out to see what was in the room beyond. To their surprise, it looked like several floors had been cleared away leaving a large open area in the middle of the building. Low light settings were still in effect, meaning the area was basically unlit. In the center of the room was a several story tall tank of clear plastic, silky ropes going from the corners to a bundle in the middle of the tank. Bubbles were coming off of one end of the bundle, following a plastic hose up to the top, where the hose passed through the top plastic sheet of the tank and over to and through the nearest wall. Suddenly the bundle started thrashing and twisting. It stopped, slightly turned towards the drone. They could see the outlines of a face, with a wisp of hair coming loose from the cloth bundled around the figure's head. Twilight adjusted the drone, zooming in on the figures features. As she adjusted the focus the girl opened her eyes, looking around the room. The girls gasped. It was Mikoto.