World Walker got changed and grabbed his cane. He looked towards Ed and spoke in a serious tone, "We should probably bring some backup along."
"Eh, it's that dangerous?" Ed questioned
"Mm." He nodded. "We'll be going into a government controlled mine. Mechs and soldiers will be on guard everywhere. The two of us alone won't be enough."
"Hmm." Ed frowned. "All the espers here are fairly busy. I'll see if Dupe can send a clone or two. Follow me."
The duo traveled out of the building and headed for Dupe's office, which was adjacent to Ed's office.
Ed pounded on the door.
"Come in." A voice rang out.
The duo entered inside and saw three Dupes huddled over paperwork at three separate desks.
"Yes?" The center Dupe questioned.
"I need a clone." Ed replied. "A disposable one. We're going on a dangerous mission that's essential to our future plans."
"No can do." He sighed while shaking his head. "I'm at my limit. I've got clones spread out all over the state in preparation to frame the mayors of every city. I'm up to my neck in paperwork here as well. For once, I actually don't have enough hands to get everything done. I've even freed up some of my clones traveling in Europe to make room for more here."
"So even you have a limit." Ed lightly bit his thumb while thinking. "What about Terra? I haven't seen her since we rescued her. Maybe she'll be useful?"
"Well, she is available, but I'm not sure she'd be very useful. She's been holed up in her room ever since we rescued her."
"I'll take a look myself. Thanks." Ed left the office and headed for the building complex where the officers lived. Terra was given a room on the top floor when he had rescued her, but he had been so busy that he'd all but forgotten about her.
He banged heavily on the door. It was several moments before a timid voice replied, "Who is it?"
"Forge. Open up." He replied.
The door slowly creaked open. The light from outside poured into the room, brightening up the darkness. A frail girl stood within the darkness. Her brown hair was neatly combed. She wore a white sundress and sandals.
Most men would swell up with desire to protect such a girl when laying their eyes upon her, but Ed just frowned. "Where's Terra? I have something to discuss with her."
"I... I..." She stammered trying to answer with her head lowered towards the ground.
"I'm in a hurry." He gently pushed her aside and looked around the dark apartment. No one else was there.
"I... I'm Terra." The voice quietly whispered from behind him.
"You?!" Ed spun around and took another careful look. On 2nd glance, she had the same amber eyes that Terra had. "Talk about a complete 180. You look completely different. What's with the sundress?"
She clenched the hems of her dress while trembling. "Ni... Nick said. That you. Like these clothes. On girls."
"Where did Dupe get an idea like that?!" He rubbed his eyes while sighing. "Whatever. That's not important. I have a mission and need extra help. It's extremely dangerous. Think you're up for it?"
"What kind of mission?" She glanced up at Ed before quickly lowering her head back down to the floor.
"We're infiltrating a government mine to steal as much manullium as we can. We'll be facing mechs and unknown espers."
"Manullium?!" Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked up and stared towards him. "You want to make more mana-collars?!"
"No." He shook his head. "Even if I wanted slaves, manullium wouldn't be a necessity for me to get them. I have far more important uses for it. Can you help or not? I'm on a tight schedule for the next few months."
"If it's a mine... then I think I can help." She nodded. "My powers work well in mines and I'm used to them."
"It might not be that simple." Bolin interrupted while looking towards Ed. "Manullium naturally interferes with esper powers. Everything is going to be more difficult. I can't teleport straight into the mine. She won't be able to move the earth if too much manullium ore is present within it. Even the flames from your limbs will be canceled by the power of it. I wasn't exaggerating when I said we might die."
"I see." He nodded. "In that case, let's take the exo suits. I looted four of them a while back. We'll have Gunther come with us as well. He's been rather free ever since most of the guards have become soldiers underneath Ray's command."
The trio met with Gunther, who also had possession of the exo suits within the guard's armory. He quickly agreed to go with them and they all got changed. Terra's suit was a bit large on her, so Ed had to slowly resize it with his powers. The black gel within the suit made it a difficult process, but he eventually succeeded.
"With this, we're all equivalent in strength to C grade espers." Ed smiled and glanced towards Bolin. "Let's go."
"Right." World Walker nodded and created a portal. The group stepped through it. The distorted space flashed by, causing their chests to feel compressed and their breathing to momentarily stop. They soon arrived atop a white landscape.
"A mountain?" Ed asked as the cold winds whistled past his armor.
"Right. Mount Washington within New Hampshire. The tallest mountain in the northeastern United States." Bolin pointed towards the peak far above where they currently stood. "The mine is located at the top. Manullium usually exists in very high or very low places, so it's not actually that hard to find. Unfortunately, this also means that almost all manullium is already controlled by existing organizations."
Ed tried looking towards the peak. The blinding rays of sunlight reflected off the snow, causing him to squint his eyes. He could just barely make out the vague image of a building. To be able to see it at this distance, the building was likely to be large in size. He turned towards Bolin. "Just to clarify, there's zero chance of them willingly selling us some manullium, right?"
"Yes." Bolin nodded. "I've never heard of a single scrap of it being sold. The government believes it to be a valuable resource on par with uranium during the nuclear age. They may not be using much of it, but they'll be damned if they let any of it enter the hands of citizens or other countries."
"Figures." He sighed. "It'd be too easy if they sold it willingly. So much for capitalism. Fortunately, violence is the solution to all problems." He lifted his arm up at a 90-degree angle and waved his hand. "Let's go. Open fire on sight. We have no friends here."
The group marched forward through the rough snowy terrain. Crunching sounds rang out as their feet sunk into the snow. It took them almost two hours to get close to the peak. Ed activated his powers, causing the snow beneath them to melt. It turned into a whiteish fog that covered them.
"I can't see." Gunther whispered.
"I can sense the surroundings." Terra replied.
Ed frowned. "Follow Terra. Prepare for the fog to dissipate at any moment. I can feel the fog becoming unstable. Manullium is definitely here and is already interfering with my powers."
They walked in nearly silent blindness for several minutes. The only sound that could be heard was the crunching snow beneath them. Suddenly, the fog began to turn to snow and fall to the ground. Ed had finally lost control of it.
The mining base slowly came into view as the snow cleared away. A Steel structure towered into the sky. Walls covered the entire length of the mountaintop. Numerous soldiers patrolled back-and-forth. Each one decorated in a thick white jacket that camouflaged them against the background.
"This is going to be even harder than I thought." Ed sighed. He could already see an unexpected problem. They had come prepared to fight ordinary mechs. The kind that his father had used and the kind that were commonly used in mutant cleanups. However, there were four 10-meter-tall mechs standing in front of the gates. He recognized them as Mr. Ardy's designs. "I guess production has really taken off since they recruited Dexter. Our powers are unreliable up here and the mana-ammunition doesn't stand a chance against those mechs. Any ideas?"
"Maybe we could distract them somehow?" Gunther questioned.
"Humph!" Bolin snorted. "Do you want to be the sacrificial pawn that dies to do so?"
"Never mind." Ed sighed while shaking his head. He closed his eyes to think. It was unlikely they'd be spotted at their current distance. 'Should I just use a large explosion? That's my usual course of action, but that would alert the whole mining base. We'd be swarmed in no time. Sneak in? It's not impossible with the grapples, but they've got men stationed all over the wall. An alert would definitely get sent out before we made any significant progress. Gunther was right, we need a distraction of some sort, but what?'
He was completely out of his element way up here. Florida was a flatland without a mountain or snowflake in sight. This was as far removed from his experience as he could get.
"I... I have an idea." Terra rose a shaky hand while speaking with a trembling voice. "I... I can. Make an avalanche."
"An avalanche?" Ed thought for a moment and frowned. "How will you control it? Our powers are too unstable up here."
"I don't think I can control it." She nodded in agreement. "But I should be able to start one. We'll probably be able to avoid it and they'll think it was natural. It's a good opportunity for us to sneak in."
Ed hesitated a moment before nodding, "Fine. Do it."
The ground beneath their feet rumbled as Terra set to work. The landscape appeared to shake violently as a result. A small crack spread from her feet towards the peak of the mountain. Bits of snow began to flow downwards like streams of rough water. Soon, the streams joined together into larger streams. Piles of snow fell and hit larger piles of snow, causing the process to repeat.
The group hurriedly shot grapples towards a tall rocky outcrop that was nearby. They climbed atop it as the snow shuffled underneath them. More and more large piles of snow fell from atop the mountain. The roaring sounds echoed in all directions. It sounded eerily similar to a steam quadcopter's engines. The rumbling continued to grow in intensity.
"Incoming!" Gunther yelled in shock. A wave of snow was heading straight for them! The avalanche was beyond what they had anticipated. It was likely to wipe them off the face of the mountain at this rate!
"We're going down!" Ed yelled. He quickly created a large hole beneath the rocky outcrop they were standing on. He tried activating his powers to block the snow but failed. It poured into the hole. "Ugh!" He groaned as he felt the pressure on his chest. His entire body was being squeezed between the compressed snow and the rocky walls. The same went for the rest of the group.
It was nearly a minute before the rumbling stopped, though it felt so much longer. Ed tried melting the snow and failed again. "Damn manullium." He grumbled as he diverted the mana towards his arms. Flames appeared in his hands and the snow began to melt, forming a pool of water and steam.
He glanced at the others and they appeared to be fine. The exo suits easily withstood the damage. Water dripped from their suits as they climbed out of the hole, atop the rocky outcrop.
"Wow!" Bolin exclaimed in surprise and glanced at Terra. "Not bad, little girl. I'd recruit you if I was still running Blood-Lust."
"Eh?" She nervously looked back-and-forth at him and the ground. "Th-thanks." She whispered while fumbling with her hands.
'Was she this shy when we picked her up?' Ed wondered. 'No, she wasn't. Perhaps this is her original personality? Or maybe she's just not be used to interacting with others as equals? I doubt she had the energy to think about social interactions when she was still a slave.' He looked towards the mining base and smiled. "Good job Terra. Couldn't have done better myself."
The four mechs had been buried by the snow and carried down the mountain. Various types of 3-meter-tall mechs and soldiers were descending from the base, seemingly intent on recovering the mechs. This left the gates wide open and the walls sparsely guarded. Now was the best opportunity.
"Let's go." Ed gestured towards them. "I want in and out as fast as possible. Grab as much manullium as we can. Kill on sight." They marched towards the walls.
"Woo." Bolin whistled while looking straight up. "Must be at least thirty meters. Looked smaller from far away. No wonder the guards looked like ants."
Ed fired a grapple towards the top of the wall. He placed his feet against the wall and steam blasted out from the skates as the wheels began to rapidly spin. The ground quickly grew farther away as he climbed the wall. Grapples shot past him as the others prepared to follow.
He pulled himself up towards the top of the wall and his eyes widened in surprise. "Damn!" He had run into one of the remaining guards. He quickly hurled himself over the top of the gate. Mana poured towards his arm as he tried to convert it into a knife shape, but his powers failed once again. 'Fuck!' He complained to himself. Habits were hard to break. It wasn't easy switching from a combat style that relied solely on mana to a more traditional combat style.
He reached for the sheath attached to his waist and pulled out a Sinless vibro-knife. It failed to activate its vibration and corrosive functions, but it still made for a good piece of sharp metal.
"Hmm?" The guard heard a sound and turned around. "INTR-!" He screamed, but it was cut short as Ed's knife slid into his throat. The warm blood soaked onto Ed's glove as some of it splattered onto his helmet visor. He quickly grabbed the body and hurled it over the wall behind him. The body fell past the others still climbing the wall. They soon climbed over the wall and joined him. They knelt down while peering towards the inside of the mining base.
The base was fairly large. It had barracks, a kitchen, and even an infirmary. "There!" Bolin pointed towards a metal contraption. It was a steam-powered elevator shaft. "We should be able to get to the mines through there. It's likely the only entrance. Things are only going to get more dangerous once we're inside."
"Mm." Ed nodded. "Let's go now, while they're still understaffed." The group began to make their way towards the elevator shaft.