"Well, this might be a problem," Ess said as he looked at the fast-moving traffic going in and out of the great city before them while the sad, yet gracious hue from the day's sunset illuminated everything.
Unlike a town like Giant Milkshake, Green Lolli was littered with what most would call a small army of infantry Bureau Agents and police officers at every possible exit or entryway into the city, all closely vetting the identities of everyone going in and out with a mix of Utilities and high tech.
A large digital billboard erected beside the equally large 'Welcome to Green Lolli City' sign – hilariously featuring above it the flashing hologram of a cute, short, mature lady in a skimpy dress doing the floss – displayed the images of Bee and Ess.
The two's visages were only emphasized on one half of the screen, however, while on the other, live footage of a certain, large building was showing.
Many paid attention to the latter half even as they drove by, but Ess and crew were more concerned about how they were going to enter the city.
They couldn't use the same method they had used in Giant Milkshake as easily here. Security was much tighter, and that meant many Agents with unique Utilities would likely be surveying for any unnatural phenomenon that stood out.
"Yeah, we're abusing the hell out of D-dee the moment we find her. I can't bear to think about the ways to get around all this," Twist said as he slumped deeper into the car seat.
"What do we do now? Short of fighting our way through, I don't see a way to get in. I can sense people in the skies too," Bee said with her usual placid expression.
And indeed, while invisible to the naked eyes and ears, aerial vehicles were circling around the city, paying keen attention to most details. It seemed the Bureau had spared no expense in making sure that the criminals responsible for the destruction of Red Biscuit City were apprehended. But of course, there was another reason.
"I might have an idea," T-96 suddenly said, and every eye turned to him at the wheel. "I believe we have a Bureau Agent at our disposal who is neither legless nor armless."
"So? Even if we use your Utility and make him cooperate, we still have to find a way to smuggle ourselves into the city. We can't just disguise ourselves and hope for the best, especially with Bee and Brother Ess' faces so… common. Can't do that with the V-Amp either. They'll probably recognize it from the images they have," Twist reasoned.
T-96 twiddled his fingers over the wheel and had the car advance further as the long track of traffic lurched forth.
His eyes behind the mask darted around and then they sparkled.
"Master Ess," he then said. "Might I ask a sensitive question?"
"What?" Ess asked with a brow raised.
"How much pain can you endure? Might I be bold enough to assume you are still as resilient as before?"
Ess's eyelid twitched and he looked out the window.
"Yeah."
"Then, please may I propose a rather odd plan to circumvent this obstacle we are faced with?"
*
Nine Level 3 to Level 5 Agents along with roughly twenty standard police officers trained in basic Fint manipulation were stationed on both sides of the roadblock which was essentially composed of two large booths and two lengthy boom gates.
Even more Agents, all with dark helmets, heavy armor, and Anti-Abberant rifles were stationed beyond the boom gates, making sure no irregularities occurred.
Three Agents dealt with the traffic on each side of the road: one ensuring that there were no disguises at play; another checking the driver and passenger's identifications, and the last checking the vehicle for anything unusual. (All three were done using Utilities, of course.) The process was rather quick, though. No more than seven seconds were elapsed per vehicle.
"Do you think we'll actually catch anything unusual here? I mean, they speculate that the bastards responsible for all this are Hired Heathens. Surely, they wouldn't attempt to come in such a straightforward way," one Agent by the booth impeding the way into the city said skeptically.
"Don't matter," another said. "We still got a job to do. Besides, that sort of thinking is how 'em villains in 'em movies catch law enforcement by surprise. What's that saying? 'Hiding in plain sight'?"
"Yeah, well, considering it's rumored that one of them caused Lusa to drop out of the fucking sky, I wouldn't be surprised if—"
Suddenly, a commotion from the incoming traffic into the city cut the doubting Agent off.
There was a shudder in the air, and Fint was used to push other cars aside, making way for a large red twin cab to bound its way toward the boom gate which had just risen to let one vehicle pass.
"CLOSE THE GATE!" one of the Agents cried to someone in the booth and immediately the boom gate dropped.
Several armed Agents aimed their rifles and rapidly moved in to block the path the speeding car aimed to take on the wide tar.
Once all the cars in the way were shoved away by the Fint – likely the handiwork of the driver – the twin cab came to an abrupt halt ten meters from the line of Agents, and the door to the driver's seat opened with a bang.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Dein popped out of the car with his hands raised. His sunflower blonde hair and true sapphire eyes quaked with agency. "My name is Dein Bhrook! I'm an Agent based in Silly Cone Valley! You can verify my identity later, but right now I have a heavily wounded man in my car who might be able to help us find the sons of bitches who destroyed Red Biscuit! He needs medical attention now!"
"On your knees! Put your hands behind your head!" the armed Agents commanded as they closed in on him.
"We have no time for this!" Dein screamed with a vicious expression but cooperated still. "Contact an Agent named Rhos Good through the Bureau Branch number 633-987-001 and he can confirm that we engaged these people just three days ago and he thought he was the only Agent to get out alive!"
A few of the Agents looked at each other. The ones closest to the booth got to doing as Dein asked while the rest moved in, restrained him, and checked the twin cab.
Upon looking into the car, the Agents saw a man with the most ordinary face possible looking at them with a strained expression from the back seat.
One of the Agents was about to say, "Freeze!", when he saw another person resting his head on the ordinary-faced man's lap.
He reeled in shock.
"Oh, shit! There's someone wounded here! Urgh!" he cried with hints of disgust and the others mimicked his sentiment.
There was indeed a heavily injured individual in the car, only, the term 'heavily injured' was a grave understatement. Just looking at all the blood the person was losing, looking as though he had been mauled by two, no, four bears, sent a shiver running up the Agents' spines.
Sensing their shock, Dein turned to the Agents by the twin cab with difficulty and bellowed:
"If that man dies, I'll make sure you all are held responsible! Unlike you bloody underlings I know just how much the President and the Director are itching to get their hands on those two!" he gestured towards the digital billboard. "That man is our only lead to them, dammit!"
"Let him through!" an Agent dashed out of the booth urgently. "He's telling the truth. I got in contact with his branch and they verified what he said! Let him through and escort him to the nearest hospital now!"
Without taking no more than a few seconds to consider, the Agents restraining Dein let go of him and he hurried to the driver's seat of the twin cab, turned to look at the state of the injured man in the back seat, audibly clicked his tongue, and started the car. One of the armed Agents jumped into the passenger seat (Dein didn't question it), and before long the car made its way into Green Lolli at high speed.
Another bulky vehicle packed with four more Agents followed after the twin cab and overtook it in order to help give it passage through the other, smaller, inspection checkpoints ahead.
On the way, Dein maintained a stressed look, but through the rear-view mirror, he glanced meaningfully at T-96, the ordinary-faced man.
T-96 – as he was indeed, but without his mask – turned to Ess, whose entire face was unrecognizable because of the dark blood staining it. What had irked the Agents most about his ghastly wounds, was the way his intestines spilled out of his ripped belly, with a nasty gash on his chest making his strained breathing all the more vivid by exhibiting his left lung expanding and contracting.
It was quite the sight.
The Agent sitting beside Dein turned to look, grimaced, and faced ahead again.
"So, what happened to him?" he began when T-96 rushed up and touched his shoulder. The Agent tensed and attempted to turn, but he quickly grew at ease, slumping back into his seat.
He had succumbed to T-96's Utility, Bewitchment, just like Dein.
The twin cab followed the bulky vehicle ahead past the two inquiry points, and upon passing both of them, T-96 pulled out his phone, took a picture of the car with the Agents – with a bit of the city's surroundings in-frame – and sent it with a caption noted 'four hostiles inside' to a number saved as 'Master Twist'.
At once, the four Agents leading the way in the bulky vehicle ahead were suddenly replaced by four clueless civilians, and in the next two seconds, said clueless civilians were replaced by Bee, Twist, 'Elliot', and Agent Jayne.