"Come in, I'll introduce you to everyone," the tall lady said.
Ken stepped into the SUV that was suited with a sleek rubber-like flooring. The car was separated into two parts by a large black wall with one window in the center displaying the empty driver's seat. Along the walls there were benches and lockers all but one of which was open.
"Everyone, this is Ken," the lady said. "He's going to be working with us for this mission, and this one only. So, I'd like to introduce you to everyone. I'm Hahashimi, Ichigo, but you will address me by my surname, Hagashimi. I'm the team leader."
In front of her and Ken, there were 4 people each wearing a bulletproof vest with a large logo covering the front. The logo featured a bat holding a sword with his feet.
"This is Fuyuji Nakamura," she gestured to a boy leaning against the wall. He was about Ken's height and had orange dyed hair. His eyes were narrow and he was wearing a pair of infrared goggles on his head.
"Don't bother calling me by my surname, it's too formal. You can call me Fuyuji," he said, scratching his head.
"He's new too," one of them said. She was short, just barely 5'2. She had short pink hair with bangs that stopped right before her eyebrows, where she had bead-like piercings.
"And that's Georgia," Hagashimi told Ken. "She's one of our team strategists. Over there is Ryu Fujisaki, he's our brute."
She was referencing a man messing with one of the crates on the floor. He was really buff, his biceps were almost as thick as his head. He stood up to shake Ken's hand and towered him by at least a foot.
"Nice to meet ya, Ken," he said passively, squeezing his hand.
Ken managed to force out "nice to meet you too," while holding onto his hand, which had gone completely red.
"And that's the team," Hagashimi said. "Except for Bruce but he isn't here today. You should suit up while before the mission briefing. Oh, before I forget, stay on channel 4 for the coms. I've got a few things to check on before we head out, so you have a bit of time." She climbed a ladder by one of the lockers onto the roof.
Fuyuji walked up to Ken, bringing a pair of keys with him. "These are for the locker. They only had one extra so we have to share if you don't mind," he said smiling nervously.
"I don't mind."
"Great, ours is the one on the very end. It's the only one that's still closed."
Fuyuji walked back to the bench he was leaning by earlier and started fumbling with some cards, Ken couldn't tell what kind. After a little while, Ken was all suited up. He had a bulletproof vest under his coat, a pocket knife, and an uzi. He packed lightly bringing only useful and important things. He was used to operating with very little equipment in the first place, so too many things would weigh him down. Ken typically resorted to using his khami and martial arts in fights.
As Ken closed the locker and clipped the keys to his pants, he noticed Fuyuji was still playing with the cards. Although, he was now wearing a mask decorated with card suits. It was a similar style to Ken's, just without the long nose. Elsewhere, Ryu seemed to be flirting with Georgia, unsuccessfully by the looks of it. Hagashimi climbed down the ladder into the middle of the car.
"Alright, you should all be ready now, so let's go over the mission highlights," Hagashimi said gaining everyone's attention. "Madame Rosa Rosette is our target." She held up a picture of a woman with long, curly pink hair wearing a large red dress. "As you already know, our employer's son was killed in a confrontation between her people, the Guns with Roses, and the Tōhoku Yakuza clan. After the fight, Rosette's people broke all of the cameras and stole the records. Our employer wants to bring her down in court and expose the gang, so top priority is retrieving the stolen files.
"It'll be in a flash drive almost identical to this," Hagashimi held up a green flash drive. The insignia of the AGUS x Japan branch was engraved on the side. It was an American flag with the red circle from the Japanese flag in the middle, although it wasn't colored on the drive. Next to the logo was the date August 16, 2046. "The only difference is that the date will be August 6, 2046. There's only one with that description, so there's no reason anyone you should grab the wrong one if you are paying attention. I'll be giving you each a fake to replace with the real one."
She handed one of the fake drives to everyone. Ken noticed how the end was filled in, unlike a normal USB. Ken thought he would use it to tell the real from the fake if it came down to it.
"Georgia, you've been studying the base layout so you'll be our lead."
"No problem."
"Fuyuji you will be our scout since you're good with the infrared. And you two," she pointed at Ken and Ryu. You don't worry about having a specific job just obey both Georgia's and my orders. Also, I should mention that we have permission to kill Madame Rosette, so long as it doesn't compromise recovering the drive."
"Like any of us ever needed permission," Georgia said as she cleaned a kunai knife. "Besides, everyone needs an ass-kicking every once in a while." She put the knife in a pouch hanging from on her side.
"God, I love you," Ryu said staring at Georgia.
"Save it Ryu," she said with a disgusted expression on her face.
She's kind of scary, Ken thought to himself. She was very stern about what she said. It was like anytime she spoke she was talking passively and not really paying attention to anyone.
"So, take out Madame Rosette, one of the most dangerous gang lords right now, while stealing incriminating evidence from her most secure base," Fuyuji said starting to scratch his head again. It looked like that was a habit of his. "Sounds easy." He said sarcastically.
"The front guards are switching shifts right now, so we have approximately 2 minutes to breach in. Everyone's ready?"
"Yes," they all replied.
"Then let's go!" Hagashimi said as she jumped out the back. They all followed suit.
"Finally! It's man-huntin' time," Ryu said with a fierce grin as he jumped out of the SUV, with no lingering reaction to Georgia's rejection. It didn't seem like he took things too seriously, Ken thought.
Georgia lead the team through the alleyway and up to the Grand Hall Ken has seen earlier. Now that he was closer, Ken noticed how tall it was. Right above the large doorway for the main entrance, there was a sign that had a gun shooting out a bouquet of roses. After the group had reached the street across from the building, they all used grapplers to shoot themselves onto the second-story roof. I'm the second story roof jotted our father than the third story, which was just taller than Georgia, the smallest one of them. Ken didn't bring a grappler, because he didn't need one.
"Hurry up Ken!" Hagashimi said over the com.
"I'm trying." Ken braced himself, and after a second, a pair of purple wings burst from his back, splattering blood onto his now ripped jacket. The constantly changing shape closely resembled a crackling fire. Although, they were completely solid. Ken bent to a knee and his khami arched in the air, and as he jumped up he forced his wings down sending him flying in the air. As Ken hit the second story roof, he landed in a roll to break his fall.
"Holy-" Ryu started to say. "No one told me we had another khami user on the team!"
"Another?" Ken asked.
"Yeah, I'm one too," As he did this, Ryu's left arm was surrounded by a thick membrane that burst from his shoulders. This made his arms about twice as large as they already were. This was Ryu's khami, one of the first Ken had seen beside his own. When he retracted it, they fell back into his shoulders.
"Woah, when did you find out you were?" Ken asked.
"I was 8 the first time I used them. How about you?"
"I was 18."
"Late bloomer, huh."
"Enough chatting guys, stay focused," Hagashimi interrupted.
"I cut through," Georgia said as she pushed a part of the wall she had been cutting with a blowtorch. "Fuyuji, is the security still down?"
"I just cut the cameras."
"Alright then, follow me," Georgia said motioning through the hole she had cut. She led the group through a narrow maintenance hallway. The floor was made of some kind of metal gate, and the sides were supported by a rail on the left side, below it were grand hallways with red carpets, and walls supported by gold-lined pillars. After a while, they had reached a large ballroom a bunch of guards.
Fuyuji put on his infrared goggles and started scanning the room about 50 feet below. "So, there are about ten guards I can see. Three on the bottom floor, one in the center another by the doorway, and one guarding the bottom of the staircase. There are seven around the second floor, one guarding the top of the staircase and the rest are positioned evenly circling the rails. Wait, make that eleven, there's one guarding the ladder over there." He pointed to where a man was standing holding a gun to his chest.
"The ladder is activated from the bottom, so one of us has to go to the second floor with one of the guards keys," Georgia said. "I can take care of the bottom floor guards and most on the top, but Ken I want you to take out the guards by the staircase and ladder."
"I can do that," Ken said.
"Great," she said as she put two disks into the boots she was wearing. "Now watch," and with that Georgia climbed up and jumped off the rail into the room below.