WD Spy rule two sixty six is entitled 'The peace during the eye of the storm is second to none...'

Previous rule two sixty five: Saving the princess is the hero's job, and his friends responsibility. 

Next rule two sixty seven:  ...Because everyone knows it's usually after the eye of the storm passes that shit gets real.

Summary page

-Short summary-

With Ruka now in Sector Seven's custody, both they and Vestige experience are allowed a soft sigh of relief...but how long will such a thing last?

-Long summary-

In the helicopter manned by Jax, Nolan and Ruka's team known as 'Vestige Experience', silence reigns supreme. The radio had just buzzed to life only a mere seconds before with Lukas's confirmation that he had found Ruka and she is uninjured. The relief had caused them to silently thank whatever was convenient to them, that is until one young man from Ruka's team; Tariq complains about not being allowed to go in with Titus and the other Sector seven members. Kharl idly paints his nails a fluorescent color and shrugs it off, being rather happy to not have to deal with the Li se xing xuo. After a glare from Tariq, Kharl amends his statement. Like the rest of the team he's worried about Ruka, but not having to die is somewhat important to him.  Tariq then turns his ire to Jax and asks why they had been so dead set against letting the team go in. Why was Titus so special that he got to go? Why should he be denied his right to fight for his leader? Philipa tries to offer Tariq a juice from an ice box on board to help him calm down, but drops it as soon as she picks it up causing it to spill. Nolan glares at her and puts his arms into the air, until Tariq sighs and holds him back. Kharl comments that even in the air Philipa's legendary clumsiness is something to be feared. He recommends she doesn't move until they land, since dying in the air instead of the hands of the Li se sing xuo isn't much better.

Jax replies to Tariq without turning around, pointing out that Titus was already wanted for a lot of the fires he had set as a youth, and Ruka had more or less been hiding him from the authorities using her links to the Yakuza. He also knows that despite all their successes and power struggles with Sector seven, the Vestige experience is nothing more than a gang of vigilante civilians. If they were to let them lose in the same building as actual government operatives who are fighting in a battle this huge, even if they won they'd be accused of knowingly allowing civilians to get caught up in this whole mess. Jax then admits that their asses are on the fire even if they didn't allow the team in, since this whole mission is their personal vendetta. Management isn't going to be satisfied just court marshaling them to be sure. Tariq is right about one thing though, they did have the right to be there for their leader, which is why Jax had decided this was the best avenue of action. If Lukas deemed it too dangerous for them to remain, the helicopter could get out of there.

Jax then turns to Tariq and makes it clear that an operative has times where he must decide which is better. Losing everything, or losing everything. Lukas had done a lot to get this mission off of the ground, even knowing that he is not only putting his future at risk, but his present as well. Jax handed over the reins of Sector seven to Lukas with the hope that he knows what he's doing, and frankly he's pleased with the results. A good operative knows how to follow orders, but more than that he knows when there is an order that needs to be disobeyed for the greater good. A good operative will never lose himself in the waves known as 'hierarchy'.

Tariq sits in his chair and digests Jax's words, as Nolan calms down enough to take a pair of binoculars and survey the area. He stops and notes a red blinking light in front of them, to which Jax turns and takes out his own binoculars. Upon spotting what Nolan is talking about, his eyes widen.

Inside Ruka wipes her eyes as Lukas sits beside the door spying into the hallway to avoid being ambushed. She apologies as she cleans her face, and Lukas smiles warmly telling her to take her time. Ruka puts on her glasses and picks up her mother's memento, glad that she didn't need to use it for anything. She then glances at Lukas and is surprised at his expression. He wears a grim face that looks shockingly similar to what her siblings look like when they're about to kill someone....

She slowly asks Lukas if he had to....bump off anyone on his way up. Lukas without turning to her replies that he didn't, as the Corpse walkers were too busy taking on Mafia operatives to notice him slipping past them. Ruka sighs with relief, but is still disturbed by his expression. Despite the situation, she doesn't want Lukas to lose that unrelenting somewhat jaded innocence that she had fallen for. Lukas stands up and opens the door slowly, turning to Ruka and extending his hand. He guarantees her safety, and asks gently for her to follow him. She takes his hand and the two walk into the hallway. He then lays out his plan; he intends to get Ruka to the helicopter that Jax and her friends are in, and once she is safely aboard they will escape to another location. Ruka shakes her head and proclaims her intention to stay and fight. Lukas turns to her quickly, the same expression on his face and whispers angrily that he won't allow that. If she should get hurt now, everything that had happened up until now would have been in vain. Ruka stands her ground and counters that this is exactly the reason why she should stay...these are her friends too after all, and for her to run while their lives are in peril would be against everything she stands for. She won't go, even if it's the man she loves telling her to. Lukas regards her for a moment in silence and then looks out the window for the helicopter. They would need to move quickly, and this is exactly what he doesn't need right now.

Meanwhile Mugen, Meifa and Penbur all stare each other down. Mugen then jovially states that this is giving him a lot of time to think....about who should die first. In this situation he'd normally kill the daughter so that the father can revel in despair before he dies, and since his hatred of Penbur paradoxically is the one thing that makes it difficult to kill him he feels killing Meifa would be the way to go. He wants Penbur to say alive to suffer, to squirm to struggle until at long last he deems the time for him to die is just right. Kind of like waiting for a fruit to ripen, his despair has to reach a certain 'age'. Penbur thanks Mugen for the consideration, but reminds 'Satan's child' that there is the possibility of neither one of them dying. More than that, there's the possibility that only Mugen dies.

Never the one to use words, Meifa lunges first and Mugen swats her back with a kick to the abdomen. Meifa counters by sweeping him off his feet, but he only staggers slightly and manages to regain his balance quickly. Meifa nearly kicks satan's child in the face, but he instinctively leans back and hits her with a headbutt. She staggers backwards and out of irritation asks what Mugen's deal is. He wants to destroy the world, which she sorta gets but wouldn't that mean that he'll die too? Even if he succeeds, if he dies wouldn't it all have been for nothing?

Even from under the hoodie he's wearing, Meifa can see Mugen's eyes slowly turn into two voids, abysses that reflect no life. He asks the operative 'so what?' So what if he dies too? His life, no...no lives really hold any special meaning in general. Mugen's goal isn't self preservation, but mass destruction, to unleash his pure malicious intent on anyone and everyone. He then holds himself and in a breathless whisper laced with ecstasy gushes on how much of a high it will be to have people cursing and lamenting his name long after he has died. When ever people think of despair it will be with his likeness in mind. People will fight wars, kill each other, and ransack the earth to ensure that another 'Mugen' will never be born. When childless mothers and widows alike talk about the departed it will all be because of Mugen. He will be listed alongside Dahmer and Hilter as one of history's greatest abominations. For millena after he dies he will be remembered as a blight upon the world. Mugen stares at Meifa with a face of pure, unbridled pleasure with just a hint of sexual lust dancing in those voids once known as eyes.

Penbur thinks to himself that this is why Mugen is an absolute terror. Most villains can be bartered with on a level of self perservation, but Mugen doesn't care about such things. He glances at Meifa who's frozen in place, and shakes his head. He had reacted the same way when he met Mugen, like he had opened his skull and unraveled his brain. There's no way that poor Meifa who had so far only seen things in black and white could see the darkness known as Mugen and come out unscathed mentally. This is what 'Satan's child' counted on, that people would be so disoriented that they'd be unable to fight. That his lack of self preservation would cause them to give up out of frustration and despair.....not to say that what Mugen wishes for isn't true.

He yells over at Me-Ameile to snap out of it. Forget about saving the world from Mugen for now, and remember that they are in a fight for their lives here. They have to live today in order to stop him tomorrow, and that's not going to happen if they stand around gawking. Meifa smacks her cheeks and yells at her father not to call her Ameile, and she already knows all of that. Penbur can't help but smile, her reaction exactly like her mother's. Mugen is less than impressed and decides that he'll kill Penbur first, since he's become that 'boring father type'. Meifa stands in his way and repeats her intent to kick her father's ass herself, which means that Mugen had better step down, or be ready to have her foot so far up his ass that he'll be able to taste the gum she stepped in on her way here.