The captain and his men began to run across the rubble. Their wheels and cables were of little use in the large amount of debris, so they were moving rather slowly.
'Shit… Should I just kill all of them? No, I'd probably get blasted apart by their mana-ammunition. Hell, I'll just tell them the truth.' He climbed down the back of the mech slowly. 'They couldn't add a freaken rope ladder or something?' He put his hands behind his head and slowly began to walk towards the HQ men.
After several minutes, they met atop a pile of rubble. He spoke, "Captain! This isn't what it looks like!"
"Like hell it isn't!" Fang responded angrily. "I saw the fire. To think you were a fire esper this entire time. We almost made a huge mistake by trusting you."
"You're wrong!" He shook his head. "I was experimented on by the espers I mentioned previously. The king has a crazy esper named Luny who tried awakening humans into espers through torture."
"So, you got your powers by awakening through her experiments?" The captain sneered. "Doesn't matter! You're still an esper!" He lifted up his rifle and aimed at Ed's head.
"No! I didn't awaken! She cut off all four of my limbs and replaced them with metal ones that use mana-powder to create fire! I managed to escape and join Sinless after!" He explained.
"That's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard! Men!" The captain yelled while lifting an arm. "Take aim!" The 100 men all aimed their various steam weapons.
"WAIT!" Cold sweat dripped down his neck. 'This bastard is really impatient. He shot me last time without a 2nd thought as well…'
"Speak your last words esper!" Fang commanded.
"I can prove I'm not an esper! I won't resist. Send one of your men forward to cut through any of my arms or limbs. You'll see they're made of metal underneath!"
The captain stared at him silently for a moment. 'Last time, I was mistaken and shot him anyways. Could I really be repeating the same mistake again? Espers experimenting on ordinary humans is extremely rare in the east, but in the west it seems rather plausible…' He looked up and spoke, "Fine. I'll do it. Men, shoot us both if he tries anything!"
He walked forward and pulled out his vibro-knife. It hummed as it vibrated and released a dark aura. He grabbed Ed's left arm and began to make a long cut down the bicep. Flesh split open and blood poured out, causing Ed to grit his teeth in pain.
"Looks normal to me?" The captain questioned.
"Keep going. It's fine even if you remove more flesh." Ed responded.
"Mm." He continued to dig deeper until he felt bone. Then he widened the wound until he saw a shiny metallic bone. "This?!" He responded in shock.
"These are the limbs she gave me after the experiment. Each one contains mana-powder used for creating the flames you saw. I kept it secret in fear of people thinking I'm an esper." Ed explained.
Fang frowned, "How do you control the metal arms then? And what is all this flesh?"
"She used mutant flesh to cover the arms and create muscles. She told me she attached the mutant nerves to my own nerves to allow for movement. I don't really understand all the technical details, since I'm just an engineer." He sighed, "You have no idea how hellish that torment was. I'm lucky to even be alive."
"Hmm…" The captain crossed his arms and tapped one of his fingers repeatedly in thought. "This is too serious an issue to just ignore. I'll believe you for now, but you're coming back to Europe with us to get tested. The local base will be fine in your subordinate's hands for a few months. Do you agree? Or should I just cut you down here and now?"
"Sure!" He nodded while smiling. He put his arms back down and followed behind the captain as he returned to his men. 'That bought me some time… Am I really going to have to go to Europe with him? There'd be a lot I could gain there, but my base is in its most important stage… Damn! Maybe I should just send Dupe in my place. I'll figure it out when the time comes.'
They continued killing mutants throughout the west side of the city. Ed bandaged his wounded left arm and shot flames from his limbs to kill the mutants. He had no reason to hide it anymore as he had already been caught. The soldiers could no longer keep up with his kill count. Ashes flew in the wind as large carcasses were repeatedly burnt to nothingness.
"That's enough for the day." The captain ordered. "Let's return." He seemed to be in a bad mood as they made their way back to the railroad tracks they used to get here.
"Captain. What should I do about the mech?" Ed questioned.
"I'll send my men to retrieve it later. You must have really done a number on it to use up all the power so quickly."
"Mm." He nodded. "I used the full vibration mode for defense against those worms. What's the power source anyways? Doesn't seem to be steam."
"I originally planned on giving you some extra batteries for it before leaving. You'd need to purchase additional ones from HQ. We can't pass out the way that technology is made to outsiders. I'll leave the batteries and mech with your subordinates when we leave in a week."
"Alright. Sounds good to me."
Ed returned to his office and collapsed in his chair. He sighed, "What a fucking mess. To think a mech test-run would turn out this way." He opened a drawer and pulled out a small book. 'Whatever, focus on one thing at a time. Let's read up on the slavery method they use. It might save my neck later and I'll also need to understand it to save Terra.'
As he read the book his shock continuously grew. 'To think the method they use is so simple but effective. How barbaric.'
The slavery method uses a metal collar around the neck of an esper. A small cable on the collar is forcefully wired through the back of the neck of the esper and pierces directly through the skull and brain. The cable is wound around the mana-core in the center of the brain. Should the slave ever disobey orders, then the owner can simply press a remote switch and an electric shock will travel through the cable. This will shatter the mana-core and instantly kill the esper.
'However, what's truly shocking is the material used in the collar and cable construction.' The collar made use of a lightning mana-battery. This meant that Europe had already started to find ways to utilize the most unstable mana-powder. Additionally, the collar and cable were constructed with a special metal called manullium. This metal is extremely strong and is completely immune to mana!
'I need to find out where they find manullium or how they make it. However, it's good to know the collar has a weakness. The remote switch uses mana-waves to activate the electric shock, but manullium is immune to mana. So, they had to leave an opening for that part of the collar and use ordinary metal for the internals. This small area on the back of the collar is where the cable comes out. The owner can use tools to remove the collar by accessing the key components in that area. I'll have to study Terra's when I get the chance. Hopefully I don't kill her by accident.'
Ed stood up and stretched. 'We leave in a week. Operation Terra begins in five days. I've got to start getting things in order in case I do end up leaving.' Over the next several days he held meetings with Dupe and Gunther to prepare for his absence. He gave Gunther the mech and operation manual. He handed over operations and leadership authority to Dupe. Several days quickly passed, and the night of Operation Terra arrived.
"Are you ready?" Ed questioned.
"Of course!" Dupe smiled. His body slowly began to transform. His hair turned black and shrunk. His skin turned darker. His height increased. A thin mustache appeared on his upper lips. "How do I look?" He questioned.
"The voice is wrong. Can you change that to?"
"Sure." He nodded. "How's this sound?"
"Perfect! I don't think I could tell the difference between you and the real Captain Fang anymore. Here's the plan." Ed sprawled a crude map out on his desk and pointed at a building. "Terra is being kept at this skyscraper outside the base. It has 10 floors and was taken over by the HQ as their lodging since they felt the base was too cramped. Terra should be on the highest floor." He continued explaining the plan to make sure they were both on the same page.
Ed put on a brown cloak that completely hid his body and face. He looked like a monk hanging his head down in prayer. He followed behind Dupe, who was disguised as Fang, as they left the base. They only had to travel a few streets before reaching the building.
Dupe held his head up high and confidently walked straight past the guards while smiling. The soldiers stared curiously at the cloaked figure walking behind them. Several soldiers nodded towards them but didn't bother them in any way.
They reached the 5th floor when a soldier suddenly ran in front of them. "Captain!" He yelled as he saluted. "I thought you already headed for your quarters on the 10th floor? Anyways, we have an urgent issue that needs your immediate attention. A small mutant flood has broken out in the west part of the city. If left alone, then the mutants may move to the areas we already wiped clean previously. We need to stop them immediately to prevent our hard work from going to waste! What are your orders sir!?"
"Hmm." Dupe nodded. "It's dangerous to fight in direct combat at night, but we should be able to handle it with ease. Gather the men. We'll head out immediately. I have a pressing matter to attend to, so please defer to the 2nd in command for this mission."
"Uhm… sir, I am the 2nd in command."
"Then what are you waiting for?!" Dupe yelled. "Get moving soldier!"
"Yes captain!" The soldier saluted and began to rally the soldiers from their rooms. Ed and Dupe continued heading upstairs in the meantime.
"Was that really alright?" Ed questioned.
"Should be fine. Even if they find out about all this later, they'll just think a sinner group acted against them. It's not like Sinless will know about me or anything."
They quickly reached the 10th floor and entered Terra's room near the back of the hallway. The captain's room was right across the hall. "We don't have long, so hurry up." Nick requested.
"Right." Ed nodded. He walked towards Terra. She was sitting in a corner of the room with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head was resting upon her knees. Suddenly, she lifted her head and glared at Ed with her amber eyes. They held a hint of caution and curiosity.
Dupe spoke, "Terra. Lay down on your stomach. This man is doing some maintenance on your collar. Don't resist."
She looked at the captain and frowned. "Who are you?"
"Eh? You can tell?" He smiled. His body began to shrink in height. His hair turned brown and messy. His body turned scrawny, as if he hadn't eaten in days. A high-pitched voice sounded, "I'm you of course!"
Terra's eyes widened in shock. "What a nice power. I wish my power was like that."
"Okay. We've already been exposed." Ed said. "Lay down. We don't have much time."
She looked back and forth between the two strangers before nodding and lying flat on her stomach. Ed tested using his powers on the collar, but they didn't work. 'Manullium. How terrifying. I might not be able to escape a collar such as this. I bet it wouldn't work on espers like Dupe or Mordy though. Hmm… The cable is covered in manullium as well. The inside must be hollow for the lightning to flow when needed…'
He pulled out a small screwdriver and began to fiddle with the back of the collar. A very small opening was there. It was only around 1 centimeter in size. 'Screwdriver's too big.' He frowned. He used his powers to shrink the screwdriver into a long and thin needle. 'Hmm, the mechanism isn't reachable with ordinary tools. It requires specialized knowledge and tools. Fortunately, I have a cheat code.'
He began to use his powers to carefully bend and guide the long needle into the collar. He didn't use his powers directly on the collar's internal structure, as it was setup to trigger the lightning-mana in such an event. Instead, he simply kept extending the tool longer and longer. It slowly stretched and curved from inside the back of the collar to the front. A small mana-battery was there. He stopped using his mana and used only the tool to carefully dislodge it from the collar. A small clink sound rang out as the battery moved out from the spring and nub holding it in place.
"Woo." Ed breathed out slowly in relief. He was covered in sweat from the nervous tension. "Almost done." Now that the mana battery couldn't trigger the wire, he began to destroy the internals of the collar. Then he made the long needle flexible and wrapped it around the mana-battery. He slowly snaked it out from the collar. A very tiny battery exited the 1-centimeter hole at the back of the collar.
"That should do it. I'll figure out how to remove the manullium collar later. Let's get moving. Will you come with me Terra?"
She looked at him and gave a very slight smile before nodding.
"Good!" Ed turned around. "Dupe! I need a favor. I left out one very minor detail of my plan!"
"Sure. What's up?" He questioned.
"Please stay transformed as Terra and pretend to be her on the trip back to Europe. We'll arrange an accident for your clone to die on the trip."
"What?!" His eyes widened. "You should have told me sooner, damnit! Fine, whatever. A single clone is no big deal."
"Thanks. Also, you left out the collar and clothes when transforming. Please do so now."
"Fine…" He began to transform once more. His clothes turned into ugly brown rags. Chains appeared on his body and a shiny metallic collar on his neck. "You know, this is my body that transforms into these things. It feels super weird making clothes. It's like walking around in the nude but everyone thinks I'm fully clothed."
"Just develop an exhibitionism fetish and enjoy yourself then." Ed grinned. He looked to Terra. "Let's go. We don't have much time."