A young woman shambles back into her apartment in Vale. She's got a bag of groceries in one hand. With the other she's closing the door and locking it. She sighs heavily. Before she can start relaxing she has to get everything put away so it doesn't spoil. She thinks about turning on the television as a quick detour before heading to the kitchen, but decides not to bother for now.
After getting everything sorted into the fridge and the freezer respectively, she sets the bag out of the way for later. Sometimes it was handy to have one of those to carry something. With that done, she takes a drink out of the fridge, and heads over to the couch and unceremoniously plops onto the cushion. She leans forward to pick up the remote from the table, and then notices something new placed on the table.
She arches a brow, and picks it up. At first she thought it was an envelope or a letter, but it appears to be a card instead. She looks it over. The back of the card has an ornate design, but the front of it looks blank. It leaves her a little dumbfounded; she didn't pick up anything like this. What would she even use it for?
But as she's questioning herself silently about the purpose of this card, something is suddenly projected from it via holograph. A figure in a red cloak.
"Greetings. I've heard you have a useful set of skills."
The voice came from the hologram, no question about it! Not that the woman was able to process that much, flinching and dropping the card onto the table. The next thing she can think of is grabbing her laptop and flipping it open, only to find no notices about security breaches.
The hooded figure smiles. "Relax. I'm not one of your enemies. Nor am I here to turn you in. Rather... I would like to assist you."
The woman closes the laptop and eyes the holographic figure. "What do you know, and why do you want to help me?"
The hooded figure gives a nod. "Straight to the point, then. I can work with that.", she pauses briefly -- the voice was certainly that belonging to a female, at least. "I know you have a reason to be very unhappy with the Akuma."
The woman's expression immediately tenses at that declaration. The hooded figure continues; "I also know that you are trying to confront them through indirect means. I'm here to offer you a way to deal with them in a very direct manner."
Naturally, the woman was skeptical. "I suppose there's a catch?"
The holographic figure then shakes her head. "No catch. Right now I'm searching for people that I can trust. There is no price to this, other than my hopes to secure an alliance."
If it was true... It was pretty hard to refuse; besides she could very easily deduce that whoever this was, they weren't working with the Akuma.
"Let's say I'm interested.", the woman muses aloud. "What happens then?"
The figure entertains the question, surprisingly enough. "Then we'll meet in person and begin working right away. We have a lot to do, and the sooner we get started, the better."
Well, she seemed like a professional... With these kinds of circumstances involved, she wasn't exactly in a position to refuse the help; not many people wanted to tangle with the Akuma, and just asking the wrong questions about them could get you in all kinds of trouble. As frustrating as it was, it was either go along with this, or make the exactly zero progress she had been making so far.
She considers this carefully, before responding. "... Alright. Let's do it."
The hooded figure nods. "I'll be arriving shortly. Make whatever preparations you deem necessary."
With that, the hologram faded out, and the woman was left to collect her thoughts about all of this. It was nothing short of crazy, but it was the exact kind of opportunity she needed, too...
She runs a hand through her hair, her head hanging low as she ran all of this through her mind. She stops her hand to scratch a spot on top of her head, as if trying to jog some sort of answer out in an obscure way. Eventually, she lowers her hand and takes a deep breath.
A short time later, she hears a knock on the door. Checking the peephole, she can see that it's the same person from that card, so the woman unlocks the door and opens it.
"Come on in.", she invites the girl in the red cloak, whom promptly accepts the invitation.
The woman closes the door and locks it once more, then she turns to face her guest. "So... What's first?"
The hooded girl looks the woman over for a moment. "First, I'm going to unlock your Aura. We're going to be heading into combat, and you'll need it to defend yourself."
The woman is surprised by this declaration. "Whoa, whoa! Are you suggesting we just march in and start bashing their heads? There's no way I can do something like that!"
But the girl in the cloak simply gestures for the woman to calm down. "I'm not suggesting anything as crude as that. But you will need to have your Aura unlocked, otherwise you won't be able to pull off the plan."
The woman begins to pace. This really WAS crazy! Now all this talk of unlocking Auras, and actually confronting the Akuma... But... Okay. What other choice was there? Frustrated with her indecision, she decides to leap at the chance once more.
"Alright. Do it."
With that stated, the hooded figure would place a hand on the woman's shoulder, and then power suddenly surged through her body. It didn't hurt or feel unpleasant. If anything, it... Felt energizing. Like she was a brand new person!
"I... Feel like I could take on a whole group of people in a fight!", the woman states, looking at her own hands in amazement, then smiling at the hooded girl.
She was smirking in response, and then replies; "Fortunately, you won't have to. Here's the plan, we're going to start with recon. You already know where their little hideaway is. I want you to get into their security system and turn it to our favor."
The woman grins, and takes a seat on the couch once more, popping open the laptop and tapping away on the keyboard -- it was about then that she noticed how much faster she was able to type. And uh... She realized how much noise she was making too.
At first it sounded like she was angrily tapping away at the keyboard, but she gets used to the Aura increasing her physical abilities pretty fast. Soon enough she's going at an even faster pace than she could before, all without damaging her equipment.
"We're going to take note of how many there are, what the environment looks like, how many exits and entrances... Then we're going to ambush them. If we do this right, they won't know what hit them.", the hooded girl then explains.
The woman was listening, but also paying close attention to her screen. Soon enough she gives a thumbs up. "I'm in. I can see everything they're up to now."
The red cloaked girl then offers the woman some basic weaponry to get started with. Nothing crazy, a baton and a rifle. This is the sort of thing you'd see issued to Militia.
"Keep yourself ready, and keep that card close. I'll give you the signal on what to do when it's time.", she instructs, and then steps over to the door.
The woman stands up and quickly unlocks the door, allowing her ally to leave the apartment. This was it, it was really happening now... She shakes that off, closing the door and locking it yet again, then she sits down and watches the cameras.
Soon enough that hologram appears on the card again.
"Alright. How many are in the main room?", she asks.
The woman checks that over, and then replies; "Five."
The cloaked girl then adds; "Alright. I'm going to get started. I want you to set the card in an open space on the floor. When it's time, you'll know. Just step onto it and you'll be joining me in the ambush."
The woman seemed a little skeptical of that, but follows the instructions...
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