I checked my location. Was this even right? I should be right on top of him. There shouldn’t be anything below either, at least not according to Eidetic Schematic. I paused for a moment to think things through.

 Were new caves formed recently? It wouldn’t be surprising. The aftershocks from the AEZ could’ve caused the earth to settle better, creating all sorts of new pockets around the area. Unfortunately, while I did have a good idea of where he could be, my knowledge was rather limited.

I leaned against the mouth of an alley and channeled my ambient charge into my chrome’s converter. With that taken care of, I pulled out my phone and called the reporter. “I’m here.”

”That’s a relief!” Saint sighed. “Pretty sure I had something rumbling from deeper in a few minutes ago.”

“Haah…” A sigh left me. Hopefully nothing would eat the reporter before I could figure out where he was. “How’d you even get down there? I don’t want to root around for the entrance all day.” 

The reporter went silent. After a few beats, I heard the shuffling of equipment. “One moment. Let me play it back.”

The moment stretched on. A minute passed. Then ten. My back started to ache from the rough wall. I should’ve picked a cafe or something instead. So much for a moment.

”Alllrrright.” He drew his words out as the sound of a video played back briefly. “I entered through Antonio’s Laundry. Decent place with a friendly man running it. In one of the back rooms, the floor collapsed.” 

Antonio’s Laundry? There were a surprising amount of them throughout this area. First one’s the charm? I hopped back on my bike and headed down a couple blocks to the laundry shop.

The door dinged as I entered the facility. About a dozen or so people sat scattered around as they worked on one thing or another. A gruff man with a Raijin left arm watched over the place like a hawk, a constant sneer on his face. Was this the friendly man? He looked… noticeably not friendly?

Then there were the three corpos trying to blend in. Even at a glance they were easy to pick out. A lot more subtle. Didn’t look like operators though. Maybe just Shock Troopers in plain clothes?

All of them were armed with Medtech chrome, which wasn’t that odd. I brushed up alongside one of them, sending a pulse through it. The chrome being mil-grade, on the other hand, was odd. Medtech’s stuff was almost never mil-grade. There had a lot of chrome, but it was mostly just medical stuff available to the public. 

Definitely the right place. I cast a look around one last time before backing out of the shop. My focus shifted down the alleyway behind it. I wrapped around the place, passing a small homeless camp, and worked toward the back door. 

A man leaned against the wall across from the back door, casually smoking a cigarette. Lazy trails of smoke breathed out, gliding gently toward the sky. He pulled the cigarette up with his chrome hand, taking another puff. 

Just one? It looked like just one. I waited a while, watching for others just in case. He tossed a cigarette bud at the ground. One of several, it looked like. “Fucking hell. Why can’t we just go get him?”

He tilted his head as if listening to someone. Probably comms. Was it just the four of them? Or did they have someone playing an overwatch position.

A growl practically ripped from the man’s throat. “I don’t give a shit. We could just wipe the gang off the face of the city if this was really that important.”

He pushed off the wall, pacing back and forth. “Fine- fine… how much longer will this take? I was supposed to be off today.”

His hand flipped up to his head, rubbing at it as he returned to his original position. He pulled another cigarette and lit it, mumbling underneath his breath, “this is why I hate bureaucracy.”

If I took him out, I’d be on the clock. I slid along the side of the alley. My body shrunk into the shadows thanks to Illusive. Combined with Stalk? He had no chance of noticing me.

The attack ended as quickly as it began. I lunged forward grabbing onto him and dumped the full force of my Kinetic ability into him. Sparks arced from his shoes as his entire body spazzed out. I followed it up by slamming the dazed man’s head harshly into the wall. He collapsed a moment later, dropping into the alley.Security was a simple lock and camera, both of which I bypassed with a little finagling. 

‘Come up.’ I sent Saint a text and worked my way through Antonio’s door. It was easy enough, though the man had opted for five separate deadbolts. Ironically, it slowed me down more than most security systems around the city would. Although I could get through them in a flash, the sheer number of them delayed me for several long moments.

A text came right as I got the door open, popping into my HUD. ‘Got it.’

It didn’t take much longer to find the way down. Part of Antonio’s floor had indeed just collapsed. Recently too by the looks of things. The owner had covered it up with a carpet, but the slight dip from the hollow space gave it away since I knew what I was looking for. 

It was a… unfortunate sight. I already knew my info on this area would be off after the aftershocks caused by the Blue Crusade, but seeing it first hand? I’d have my work cut out for me.

It wasn’t a deep drop, fortunately. Maybe a story? Easy enough to get in and out of too, so it was basically just a natural sub-level for the laundry shop. And indeed, it appeared that's how Antonio was treating it. The initial area was full of crates.

Antonio was running more than just laundry. One of the crates was cracked open, revealing rows of pistols. This one was much more lucrative too. Well, at least I had job security given the state of the city. I checked the markings on a few of them—they weren’t made by the tie-dye gang. It’d be a crazy coincidence if they were, but this appeared to be run of the mill Sentinel arms. The numbers were all filed off though.

I moved on deeper into the cave, past where the owner used the space for illicit storage. The stone walls soon gave way. Plants poked out here and there, the green shades catching my eye.

My pistol was out and in my hand before I even realized it. I took a shaky breath and used Aetherial Perception, checking them over. All mundane. Or, mostly mundane. An after effect of the World Tree seemed to promote plant life everywhere. Unfortunate.

My hands trembled slightly as I passed them by. They seemed to- no, not seemed to. They did move as I passed by. The plants trembled, almost as if in recognition of me. I felt a small, sickening connection to each of the cursed greenery. 

Innocent happiness radiated from them. The emotion was weird though. Closer to how a baby might feel something then how an adult. There wasn’t very much depth to it like they weren’t developed enough-

“Shiro! Thank goodness-” 

I flinched backward, barely stopping myself from pulling the trigger. I took a breath and dropped my gun, looking away from Saint’s startled face. “S-sorry. You surprised me.”

The man stood there, dressed in casual clothes. Everything he wore somehow looked refined though. Was that the magic of a handsome face? A windbreaker sat unzipped and a fancy camera dangled from his neck.

“No kidding…” His carefree attitude dropped slightly. “You- uh- okay? Look a little shaky…” 

“Chek… chek, I’m fine. Just plants, you know?” I shoved my pistol back into the holster and turned back to look at the greenery.

Saint stepped up beside me. “Face the demon plants of the AEZ? I’ve seen a bunch of other people with a similar issue.”

”Chek?” At least I wasn’t alone in my little issue. 

”I’d love an interview, if you want to talk about it. Might help,” He waved a hand toward the plants innocently growing on the side of the cave, “process it all, you know?”

“Maybe.” I had a psychiatrist appointed to me by the Blue Crusade, but I wasn’t required to go… so I didn’t. Maybe I should’ve afterall. Jumping at anything green couldn’t be healthy.

We were in a time crunch, so we couldn’t exactly just sit around. It was only a matter of time until the corpos did another check-in. ”Let’s go.”

”One sec.” Saint paused at the crates. His dangling camera practically teleported into his hands as he quickly snapped a dozen pictures. And here I was thinking I had a fast draw speed.

He climbed up out of the cave even quicker than I did and offered me a hand. I stared at it for a moment before accepting and allowing him to pull me up. He wasn't entirely useless. 

I grabbed his arm as he headed for the front of the shop. “Three of them up there.”

Saint frowned, halting slightly behind me. ”They don’t have anyone in the back?”

“Taken care of.” I moved down the hall and popped open the door.

Saint hesitantly followed me out. He froze, eyes snapping to the downed Medtech goon. Moving quickly, he snapped a photo of the downed guy. “Dang… What happened to him?

“Slipped and hit his head. Don’t really have time for this.” I motioned toward the shop.

”I’ll keep up.” He rifled through the man’s pockets and pulled out his ID, flashing another picture.

I turned away and headed back to my bike. To my surprise, he kept his word. Even when he stopped to take a picture here and there, he had no trouble keeping up with me. Even when I intentionally sped up to leave him behind slightly, hoping to make him feel the urgency of the situation more. 

Was I just slow? Or was he fast? Not quite to the point of using speed ware, but naturally? No wonder he could get away from the corporate strike so easily. 

I guess I should give him a bit more credit and stop treating him like a deadweight. Not just anyone could be a field reporter. At least, not while staying alive. “You have a car?”

”I take cabs.” He shrugged.

Looks like we were going for my bike then. We worked around back to the parking garage. I mounted my bike and started it up. The engine chugged a few times, though eventually kicked on with little issue.

Saint paused off to the side, staring at me. “Is there… enough room on your dirt bike?”

”It’ll be fine.” I patted the back seat. “Just ride bitch.”

”Ugh-“ He groaned and got on behind me. He hesitantly grabbed onto my sides. It felt… deeply uncomfortable. “Should I just call a cab?”

”If you want to sit around?” At his silence, I started pulling out of the parking garage. “Let’s just get out of the area, and then you can call one.”

— — —

We ended up getting half way back to Buckicho before he got off and called a cab. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. Sure, two people strained the bike more than usual, but all things considered? It worked.

When I get around to remodeling the bike into a hover one, I should really make it a bit bigger just in case I need to carry a passenger. It’d also have a bit more storage space that way.

Anyway, we met back up at a small store near Outskirts of Little Yukoto. The area around the city? Looking a lot more green these days. Grass was starting to grow in tiny patches throughout the dessert. And it was winter. I can only imagine how much it’d shoot up once spring wrapped back around.

I pushed the door open and stepped into Tony’s, a pizza shop recommended by Saint. I spotted him easily enough and headed over to the booth. Before doing anything, I pulled out my scrambler and set it up. 

Saint eyed me for a moment before pulling out a thick file from his bag. It was stamped with Medtech’s symbol, and had classified written all over it. “This is what my source got me.”

I opened the file. It was for something called Operation: Milburn. After a moment, I realized why Saint had sounded so excited over the file on the phone. It was the full documentation for what Medtech was trying to do in Little Yukoto, including all the unscrupulous methods. It even had the name of the executive who was in charge of the entire operation: Lance Brittlesmith.

”I’m impressed.” To be able to get this kind of thing out of Medtech? His source was high up. He wasn’t kidding when he said he had connections. “How’d you get all of this?”

”I signed a record of Sorrow’s hit releases.” He smirked at me and took the file back, tossing it into his bag. “We have all the information. I could write out the report now, but my source doesn’t want anything that ties back to him.”

“Makes sense.” No kidding. I imagine only a certain number of people have access to Operation: Milburn. If he just went ahead with this, his source would get found out.

”Yeah…” He sighed. “Besides, if it was just all their documents leaking, it won't blow up on the exec himself.”

“I could break into Medtech. Take care of the leak issue.” If ‘someone’ broke in and ‘stole’ the documents, the blame would shift. Then if it showed up in a report? It’d look like Saint just hired someone to break in. Shouldn’t be too hard since I knew where the original file was located now.

Saint eyed me. “Let’s be a little more realistic, kid.”

”Watch me. And who was it that saved you twice now?” Even if I wasn’t actually needed the first time. I pulled the encrypted black book from the tie-dye gang and tossed it to him. “I already hit that gang. Easy like your mom.”

“No need to get personal… Assuming you pull it off, what about the exec?” He sighed, rubbing at his head. “Even if they’re forced to stop Milburn, someone will just try it again in a different way.”

”Then…” What did corpos like the most? Killing him wouldn’t be an option. I could probably do it, but it’d just open the door for someone else. We needed something absolutely terrifying. “We strip Lance of his position and power? Scare the others off?”

He tilted his head, staring at me from across the table. “That could work. Do you have any ideas?”

”A few.” I had several bricks of Dark Ether and a Blue Crusade badge. If that didn’t work, I still had the nuclear option of Sentinel schematics and dozens of trackers from Raijin. But, of course, we’d need to get Medtech itself to turn on him. Hmm…

We talked more as food arrived, making plans. The guy was surprisingly good at coming up with ideas. Especially when he fully committed himself. Not only that—he knew how to get things. Things that’d grease the wheels and make an infiltration into the heart of Medtech even easier. 

Honestly? Even after this was all over, he’d be an interesting guy to keep in contact with. It never hurts to have more contacts.