*Department H*
Storm 01 sat alone on a table in the Cafeteria of Department H with a dejected look on his face. He leaned close and continuously stabbed the plate of omelette in front of him.
The cafeteria had very few souls in it. It was night and the other agents were probably in their pads or anywhere else, but not the cafeteria. The dark-haired man was completely lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize that he had completely crushed the innocent piece in front of him.
"Good lord, have mercy on that poor omelette, would you?" A familiar feminine voice stated.
Storm 01 blinked and raised his head to see the red curly-haired girl, Ada standing over his table. "Ada?"
"Stayed away for some time and you didn't even bother to check on me," she stated before descending on an empty chair.
Storm 01 forced a smile on his face. He dropped the fork on the plate and sighed before leaning back on his chair. "No matter," Ada smirked. "I reckon you won't forget me after I say why I came to you."
"What could you possibly say? You're my long-lost sister?"
Ada ignored his joke and take out a communication device from her pocket and placed it on the table between them. Storm 01 gasped in shock as he immediately recognized the comms; it was the same one he had used to communicate with Rory when he was to retrieve the laptop from Miss Havishma's pad.
Ada seemed to have gotten the full attention of the dark-haired man as he was now leaning forward, his left hand on the table and the other was under with sparks of electricity forming around it. "Wh-what is this?" He queried, pretending not to know what it was, but the look he had on already failed him woefully.
"I'm sure you know exactly what this is." Ada clasped both her hands on the table. "No need to panic, I won't say anything of how you snuck into Miss Havishma's pad, I'm not that kind of person," she reassured.
Ada looked around before pushing her hair back with her left hand. "There are not many ears here so I guess I'll just say it. I am not from Winter Weir."
"What?"
"I am a soldier sent by Earth to deal damage on Winter Weir," she revealed, but it was as if the dark-haired man hadn't heard what she had just said.
Both his hands were back on the table. He cast a long look at her before pinching the bridge of his nose.
"You don't believe me?"
"Why would you tell me your identity if you truly are from earth?" Storm 01 questioned.
"I've stayed on this planet, on this same mission for more than a decade, far too long for someone with my status back on Earth. We both know Department H and Miss Havishma are using you to get what they want, this whole planet is."
"So all this while, Jacob Marksman, the spy in D.H. the hacking of Aix, was it all you?"
Ada nodded yes. "Indeed. Even when Miss Havishma had us search the security footage for traces of the hacker," she started. "Percy found the missing footage and that would have really been a big hole in it all because the missing scenes could have been retrieved. But I managed to clear every trace of it when I said I could retrieve it," she completed with a smile.
Storm 01 remembered what she spoke about. He vividly recalled Ada claiming that the hacker was not an amateur and remembered to clean their footsteps."Is this one of your ridiculous jokes?"
Ada leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Miss Havishma plans on using the Moonfour to destroy Clave-Ar and other threatening planets like Earth. That woman has no heart," she emphasized. "The visions you've been seeing, weren't they all linked to Miss Havishma?"
Storm 01 furrowed in confusion. "H-how do you know about the visions I've been having?"
The red-haired girl smiled mischievously. "What? You think that loyal dog, Ishary won't report every conversation she had with you or anyone to Miss Havishma?"
Storm 01 scoffed as shivers went down his entire body. "Ishary," he shivered more.
Ada narrowed her eyes. "Judging by your expression, I'm guessing you already know that. Did she already reveal her true identity to you?"
The dark-haired man's jaw tightened as he listened to Ada speak. Ada's words were getting to him and he was already steaming up. "You are merely just a weapon to everyone here on Winter Weir. Replaceable…"
Once again, Ada had pushed the Storm agent to his sanity limit. He lunged over the table, knocking the plate of food on the table, and grabbed her by the collar, his right eye turning bright blue.
The red-haired 'Earthling' glared at Storm 01 without a shift of expression on her face. "Do you really wanna?"
Storm 01 stood like that before setting back on his chair. They both remained quiet until a man dressed in bartending cloth cleaned the floor.
"What makes you think I won't report this to Miss Havishma?" The dark-haired man queried.
Ada scoffed. "I know you were in Miss Havishma's pad and I saw you taking a laptop with you. It's my secret for yours."
"What do you want?" Storm 01 questioned.
"Nothing, yet. I am not your enemy, Storm 01. In fact, I am the only ally you have right now. I could start by helping you retrieve what was in the laptop."
"How'd you know about that?" Storm 01 clenched his fist. He was furious. The only thing keeping him at bay was the amount of information Ada held.
"Oh please, no one would leave implicating data out in the open if they hadn't already dealt with it."
"You are a terrible person, Ada, far worse than Miss Havishma."
Ada chuckled softly. "I doubt that. And you know, I actually succeeded in hacking into Aix's mainframe, and you'd be shocked to know what I found."
.
.
.
Rory pulled the door to her pad open. Her eyes widened as she saw Storm 01 standing in front of her. She looked over his shoulder to see Ada standing behind him with a wide smile on her face. "Hey there, sweetie," Ada waved.
"H-hi," Rory stuttered. She rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand. "What are you guys doing here?"
"The real question is, what is he doing here?" Ada pushed her way into the pad. Erins sat on a chair in one corner of the room. A table was set in front of him with some cards scattered on it. On the floor near the table, were a few empty cans of drinks and some yet-to-be-open cans on the table. "Greetings," Erins greeted, without a shift of expression.
"We could come back later…"
"No we can't," Ada chipped, cutting Storm 01 short. "We have no idea when Miss Havishma will be back and can't waste any time." Ada turned to Rory and mouthed the word: "Sorry"
"Fine," she surrendered. Is this about the laptop and Miss Havishma?" Rory probed while descending on the chair near Erins.
Ada turned to look at Storm 01. The said person glanced at Erins before turning to the golden-haired girl with his brows raised. "It's fine, I already told him about it," Rory stated.
Storm 01 looked at Erins again in a hesitant manner before finally speaking. "Ada here can help with the missing data on the laptop."
"How?" Rory questioned as she took the laptop out from a drawer in a nightstand. Ada snatched it out of the golden-haired girl's hand and set it on the table in front of Erins. She then looked at him with a smug. "Do you mind?" Erins held Ada's stare for a long while before getting up from the chair for the latter to sit.
"Now, I could explain how I'm going to get it back but I doubt any of you would understand so I'll just go ahead and do it." She began tapping rapidly on the computer.
Storm 01 walked up to Rory and stood by her side. "Sorry about ruining your moment, I wouldn't have come if I knew you two were together." Storm 01 smiled softly.
"Really?"
"No, I probably still would have come anyways." Rory giggled silently and bumped the dark-haired man with her shoulders. "Silly," she added before going quiet, letting the sound of the rapid clicking of the keyboard fill the room.
"How'd Ada come to know about it?" Rory asked silently.
"She found the comms I lost and apparently saw me leaving Miss Havishma's pad with the laptop," Storm 01 explained.
Rory sighed loudly. "Well, that's a good thing, at least now we get to see what Miss Havishma was hiding all this while."
"Got it," Ada said out loud. "But I need some sequence of numbers to get through. I tried and even I can't bypass it."
"I got it, I know the sequence," Rory said before walking up to Ada. She pulled the system to herself and typed in the code. A cold shiver rushed through her entire body as the screen changed to the home page.
The home screen had nothing but a single file on it, a video file. Storm 01, Erins, and Ada stood behind Rory, watching as her trembling hands slowly moved the mouse up to click the file.
...
ns 15.158.61.51da2
