A few hours prior.
"The auction house is located just ahead." A stern voice spoke, "As per the briefing, Auction Hijack is now in operation. We are to enter and attack. No hesitation. No backing out. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" A chorus of voices replied.
"Save the girls and capture as many members of The Rift as possible. Kill if necessary."
"Yes ma'am!"
A soft sigh rang out as the leader of the group relaxed her stance, the ground below them letting off a soft rumble and then stopping, "But most importantly. Come back alive." She let out a weak smile, looking over at the members of the operation, her arms opening wide as they all came in for a hug; Vera and Ivanna among the group.
Another loud rumble as the wall of the truck which they all stood within lifted, displaying the giant auction building to their right.
"Go go go." Her face slowly stiffed up again as every one of them backed up, hopping out of the truck and running towards the direction of the building.
"Entrance is clear." A voice reported, "There's a burnt smell in here."
"Understood. Be careful." The leader replied, her hands glowing yellow as a bright orb flashed in front of them. "It's awfully quiet…"
The group stopped in front of the auditorium entrance, the leader alerting them to move to the side.
"Ma'am," A worried voice suddenly perked up, and everyone's attention turned to her, "There's no one inside. I don't sense any human presence in there."
An eyebrow rose on the leader's face as she glanced over at the door, pushing it open as almost simultaneously everyone dropped to the ground with absolute disgust and fear in their eyes.
In front of them was the aftermath of a slaughter. Hundreds of bodies lay burnt to a crisp on the ground. Some looked like giant lumps of deformed charcoal whilst others seemed like they were in the process of being merged to the carpet, their flesh melted to the bone. Black specks of debris like dust waved around in the thick dusty air, the putrid smell of death flooded out without mercy.
"Oh god!" The sound of vomiting and gagging echoed out as they all rushed their hands in front of their nose and mouth,
"We're too late…" A frustrated grunt from the leader sounded out, her fists tightening as she turned around, her eyes squinting as she wrecked her brain.
"Ma'am!" A voice suddenly called out from the entrance of the auction house building, "There's someone here!"
The group all glanced over in the direction of the voice as a member of the Resistance walked in with a nervous and confused elderly couple.
"Who?" The leader glanced at them,
"My- My name's Ester Jones! We- We came over looking for Alice! Alice Liddell" The elderly woman spoke, raising up her phone, "We- We tried calling her but she didn't answer her phone!"
"Alice?" the Leader simply repeated, "Who's Alice Liddell?"
"She's a girl we saved… She said she was trying to find her family." Mrs. Jones said with a worried tone, "We gave her a phone and told her to call us, but my husband said he saw her being kidnapped by a group of boys near the convenience store. So we tried to follow her phone GPS and ended up here." She pointed over to a car parked by the entrance.
"We found this phone when we broke open the trunk of the car," The resistance member nodded, pulling out the phone Reina had dropped, "Her story checks out."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, ma'am," a voice suddenly cut in as Vera stepped forward, Ivanna looking slightly concerned behind her.
"Everstein?" The leader turned to her, confusion written in her eyes, "Speak up,"
"Did you say the girl's name was Alice Liddell?"
"Uh.. yes. That's what she called herself." The elderly woman nodded.
"Ma'am, I believe this 'Alice Liddell' may be a fake name." Vera squinted.
"And why do you believe that?"
"'Alice Liddell' is the name of a character in a child storybook." Ivanna suddenly spoke up, "Alice's Wonderful World. I would recognize that name anywhere. It was our favorite bedtime story growing up, we would make our sister, Raina read it to us over and over every day until we fell asleep." A small smile emerged from her lips as she reminisced on the memory.
The leader nodded as she took another look at the worried eyes of Ester Jones standing before her. She pulled out a small notebook, jotting down the name, "It may simply be someone using an alias, but if you could give me the appearance of this 'Alice Liddell', just in case."
The elderly woman nodded as she described, only resulting in more frowns and confusion for Vera and Ivanna.
"That's…" Vera raised her hand to her chin, "That's the character's exact appearance as well…"
The leader raised her head as she glanced over at the sister's strange reactions, "Do you think this 'Alice Liddell' may have the ability to disguise or shift their appearance?"
They nodded.
"Commander Rechi." A distorted voice suddenly rang out from a small device by the leader's hip,
"This is Commander Rechi," She replied, raising the device up.
"The Target has been located. Bring your squad back to HQ as soon as possible. Operation Golden Goose will be commencing soon."
Commander Rechi's eyes widened at the last sentence, she rose the device to her lips as she glanced over at the squad. "Understood, sir. We are heading back now."
"Ma'am?" Vera stared at the leader as the elderly couple left the vicinity, being told that they would do their best to investigate this 'Alice Liddell'.
"We're heading back." Commander Rechi looked back at her squad, "Operation Golden Goose. They've located a Rift main base."