Smuggling

[Madotsuki]

The man gasped, holding up a hand to block the camera's rouge debris. Just as he lowered it to see what was going on, the window shattered into countless pieces as Sabitsuki rolled in and set off another alarm. With her pipe at the ready, she raced towards the desk and swung at him, barely missing him and knocking several of the computers to the floor. The man pulled something out from one of the drawers --a controller with a giant red button-- and pressed it, putting it into his pocket as he withdrew a laser pistol.

Before he could start shooting, Madotsuki dashed in and thrust the knife toward him. He dodged, but the dreamer took the opportunity to pull out her diary and summon the giant fist. It delivered a solid impact, knocking the lawyer to the wall and upending the shelves. He had lost the gun, struggling to find it amongst the countless figurines. In the end, the duo backed him up into the corner, weapons raised.

The Night Terror's hands twitched, ready to plunge the knife deep into his chest. She was so close to enacting revenge, but somewhere in her rage-addled mind she remembered that she didn't come here just to kill him. 'Where's Madeline?' she hissed, briefly glancing behind her at Sabitsuki. 'And Errol?'

The man didn't reply, only looking at her with a smirk on his face. Madotsuki trembled in anger, gritting her teeth. 'ANSWER. NOW.' Slowly, she lowered the blade towards his torso, pressing harder and harder. She would've began to cut into the skin, but something froze her in her tracks: deep, clunky footsteps reverberated from behind one of the doors, growing louder.

And that was when the robot interrupted. With a well-placed kick, the humanoid machine knocked the door right off its hinges and into the opposite wall. It turned to the gang, its blue LEDs for eyes flickering in analysis. Unlike the other robots Madotsuki had encountered as of late, this one was designed to look more like a human. Infact, it appeared to be some type of Vocaloid model, judging by the blue hair and scarf it wore. It seemed to be incomplete, though, considering the LED eyes and the chrome skin weren't typically something one would see from such an android.

"Kaito!" called the man, scrambling away to behind the desk while the two were distracted. "Destroy them!"

That didn't sound good.

Kaito's eyes turned to a deep red as he lumbered forward, raising an arm to punch at the dreamer. She ducked, feeling the power placed into the attack as it swiftly stopped where her head had been. Readying the diary, she launched the fist towards the Vocaloid's torso. It connected, but all the robot did in response was stumble slightly; the attack had left nothing but a small dent.

Sabitsuki tried to launch a surprise attack from behind, but the android spun around 180 from the chest up and grabbed a hold of the pipe, its eyes flashing. The two struggled to force the other off-balance, yanking and pulling like it was a game of tug-o'-war. The robot won, pushing down the gang leader and pinning her to the ground.

The Night Terror was about to assist her, but she caught the kidnapper trying to sneak away from the fight with the two suitcases in hand. As soon as she noticed, she chased after him with her knife raised up high. He tried to flee, but she was faster, colliding with him in a full-on tackle as she plunged the blade into his thigh.

The kidnapper cried out in pain, dropping the suitcases to clutch at his injured leg. "You insufferable girl!" he growled. "You don't know who're you're messing with." He turned to look at the android, raising a bloody hand. "Save me, Kaito!"

The Vocaloid immediately let go of the pipe and lunged forward, barely missing the dreamer as she hopped to the side. However, she didn't anticipate the robot lashing out with a backhand. She tumbled forward until she hit the wall, powered forward by what felt like a wrecking ball. She landed next to where Sabitsuki was. The albino's hands covered her face, slowly turning into claws. As soon as she heard the growling, Madotsuki suddenly realized what was about to happen. Sure, the robot was bad, but she'd much rather fight it than the monster that the gang leader was about to turn into.

Scrambling to her feet, she dodged Kaito's fist and backed up towards the wall with the broken shelves. Now the robot stood between the duo, dead set on defeating the dreamer. She sidestepped a kick, then rolled to the side as the android made a large sweeping motion in front of itself.

Seeing that Madotsuki had put herself into a vulnerable position, the prototype pulled back it's arm, about to launch the hardest punch of the century. Before it could pull it off, however, something suddenly yanked its arm free of its body. Sparks flew as black claws scratched into the chrome casing, reaching into the hole where Kaito's arm used to be and ripping out countless wires. The dreamer could only watch in shock, (or awe. Or terror. Potentially all three at once) as the monster Sabitsuki became pulled the robot away and started shredding through the casing. The android flailed, unsure how to respond to the situation.

Before long, the Vocaloid had been torn apart, almost looking nothing like the robot it had once been. Madotsuki glanced over at the lawyer, who stood there, frozen with fear. "H-how could you!" he wailed, halfway between panic and rage. "He took me months to make! Nevertheless, I have more where that came from!" His hand was barely halfway to his pocket when Sabitsuki turned in his direction and landed in front of him, her serpentine tongue lolling out of her disjointed mouth.

He froze up again, trying not to look the albino in the face. "Uh... you there! Madotsuki! Call off your attack dog!"

The dreamer tilted her head in thought. 'Only if you tell me where Madeline and Errol are.'

He hesitated, glancing at the beast before he spoke again. "Fine! They're a floor above us, one door to the right after you ascend the stairs. The key is in the bottom left drawer over there." He nodded over at the desk where he had been working at just a few minutes ago. The Night Terror slinked over to where he had indicated, sifting through his stuff until he pulled out a golden key.

"P-please," he stammered, tears lacing his eyes as Sabitsuki drew closer, "call her off..."

'Alright,' she said halfheartedly. 'Down, Sabi.'

The beast did not respond. 'Sorry, I don't think I can help you.' And with that, she spun on her heels and ran up the stairs, ignoring the screams as she unlocked the door and moved in.

The room appeared to be some sort of of engineering lab. Parts of robotic suits laid haphazardly across the floor. Some blueprints were rolled out on bolted desks, one of which Madotsuki recognized as the building she had picked up the package at. Along the opposite wall stood about four more robots, designed as far as Kaito had been. She knew the one with the pigtails was Miku, but she wasn't sure who the two with blond hair and the adult with brown hair were. With a start, she realized that Miku's hands were coated in a suspiciously red liquid, as if she had already hurt someone.

In the corner were Madeline and Errol, tied up and bound. They were alive, but sleeping. Madeline had a set of faint claw marks on her left cheek. The dreamer wasted no time in cutting her partner free of the ropes. As soon as Madeline opened her eyes, she burst into tears and wrapped herself around Madotsuki in a hug. "Oh, Mado you wouldn't believe how worried I was-- I mean, he took me and I had no clue how you and the others were doing and I didn't know if I would ever get out of here and he made his robots hurt me until I told him about those Rust guys and--"

'Don't worry,' she comforted, embracing the hug. 'We've taken care of him. He won't hurt you anymore.' Pulling back, the dreamer couldn't help but feel a little guilty. It sounded like she had been through a lot. Silently she wished she found out about this sooner.

"We've? Are the others there too?"

'Not exactly.'

At the moment, Errol woke up and began struggling in his bonds. 'Speaking of which...'

After they had been freed, they made their way back to the second floor. It was an utter mess, even when the pile of flesh that had once been the kidnapper wasn't included. Madeline nearly gagged at the sight, and Errol looked alarmed when he realized that Sabitsuki was in the middle of the wreckage. She was normal again and on her knees, breathing deeply in exhaustion and covered in red. Errol ran over to her, coaxing her to her feet with some encouraging words.

Madeline and Errol poked around the desk while the duo retrieved their suitcases; hey, if they weren't delivering it, they may as well do something with them. The sounds of sirens began to blare, letting them know that it was time to bail.

'Everyone grab onto me.' The others placed their hands on her, whereupon she stealthed, phased, and passed through the building.

They waited until they were several blocks away before they returned to normal. Madotsuki nearly collapsed in exhaustion while the others caught their breath.

"Now what?" Sabitsuki asked, an uneasy tone in her voice. "I'm guessing we'll just head home from here?"

"Actually..." Madeline pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to the albino, who read it aloud. It was an address in Tier 3, and it mentioned that two suitcases worth of Blissium was to be delivered there. "I would've shown this earlier, but we had to go."

Madotsuki glanced between her and Sabitsuki. 'How about we just get this over with? We've made it this far.'

Sabitsuki shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

It didn't take long before they arrived at the one story home nestled in the boulevard. Now that they were out of the fancy district, the houses appeared normal again. Cautiously, they knocked on the door until a man in a grey suit and fedora answered. He looked startled at the sight of Sabitsuki, who was still covered in the remains of the kidnapper, but the tension seemed to drop when they presented him with the two suitcases.

'We got your stuff. Now let us in. We need to talk.'