The TSD Kids:

The Adventurer’s Agency

Lv. 15

Rescue Mission

Last time we found this mysterious Reina person, and she help us get over the wall. Now we’re finally in the Inner City, where the Officials reside.

I went off by myself, leaving the other ten to split into two groups of five.

Tracy: “Hm, these houses seem pretty classy…”

Group One, having Tracy, Sean, T-na, Rick, and Cotton as the party members, was walking down a path lined with buildings.

Cotton the Bunny: “(It doesn’t seem fair that the villagers’ houses don’t look as good as these!)”

T-na: “These guys are living in style! Aah, look!”

Rick: “W-what is it?!”

T-na pointed to a house, saying,

T-na: “That house there has the same chandelier that’s in my bathroom!”

Tracy: “What? You spooked us for that?”

Sean: “I almost thought it was an Official… try and keep it down, T-na!”

T-na: “Sorry. So what do we do?”

Tracy: “We gotta find one of these robed jerks and grill him!”

Cotton: “(Grill? We can’t burn him; Eiji’s not here!)”

Rick: “She doesn’t mean we’ll fry the guy, Cotton. We’ll force him to tell us where they’re keeping Nadia.”

Tracy: “These chumps think they’re law enforcers, but no! Regardless, they must be keeping her in a prison of some sort.”

T-na: “Just to be safe, we should just look for one who’s by himself, right?”

Sean: “Right. Encountering a group would not bode well.”

Tracy: “I doubt we’ll just bump into a group right off the bat; that’d just be some rotten luck! But it’s still unlikely!”

Cotton: “(I wouldn’t speak too soon, Tracy!)”

Just as Cotton said this sentence, a group of Officials turned the corner and faced them!

T-na: “Eep! Not good!”

Official: “Hey, who let you kids in here? State your business!”

Frantically, they said their reasons/lies all at once!

T-na: “Pizza delivery!”

Rick: “We’re mail carriers!”

Sean: “Traveling salesmen!”

Tracy: “We don’t know!”

They wound up saying what each other said, then they finally came up with something to agree on.

All: “We’re on a field trip!”

Official: “You brats are lying! Get em’!”

They turned the other way and ran.

Tracy: “Just like I said; what rotten luck!”

T-na: “We gotta lose them!”

Rick: “I got it!”

After transforming, Rick created a dark fog to keep them from seeing them!

Official: “Hey, what happened?!”

When it cleared, they weren’t there!

“Where’d they go??”

They left the scene quickly to look for them.

Tracy: “Heh, heh, boneheads…”

The five of them climbed on top of a rooftop to escape.

T-na: “That was a close one! I thought we’d be screwed for sure!”

“Oh, but you still are!”

Cotton: “(Who’s that?)”

They turned around to see a fat man in a robe; of course, he was…

Rick: “Another Official!”

Tracy: “Ah, well. At least it’s only one this time.”

Padre: “Only one?? I am not ‘just one Official’! I am Padre, leader of the Sniper Division of the Inner City Officials!”

T-na: “Sniper Division? Is he saying there’s more than one division?”

Padre: “Oh yes! My division specializes in espionage and striking down our opponents from afar!”

Tracy: “So what? You’re not gonna stop us!”

Tracy ran forward, but…

Tracy: “Ow!”

Something sharp struck her on the arm! It was bleeding.

Tracy: “What hit me?”

Cotton: “(That!)”

Something silver was spinning around Padre.

Rick: “It looks like a boomerang…”

T-na: “If it is, how come it’s hanging in the air so?”

Padre: “It’s the power of my sword!”

He held his sword out. It had many segmented parts, which resembled the boomerang object flying around him.

Padre: “This is how I’ve taken down my prey! Now fly! 100 Boomers!”

The blade separated and soon the air was full of spinning silver boomerangs!

Rick: “What do we do now?”

Tracy: “Don’t get axed!”

Padre: “You can’t escape! It’s hopeless!”

They dodged as best they could, but soon they began getting cuts here and there!

T-na: “These things are fast!”

Tracy: “I can’t even get close to him! Those things just block for him!”

Cotton: “(Sean, why haven’t you used your Cyber Bow yet?)”

Rick: “Yeah, why haven’t you? You didn’t draw that thing out for some time!”

Sean: “What do you think this is on my hand?”

He held up his gloved hand.

Sean: “I guess it’s finally time to use it… Cyber Bow, emerge!”

Sean held his hand out, then two curved rods stretched up and down from his hand, forming the bow!

Tracy: “Whoa! Your bow looks all new!”

Sean: “And I’ve made some more new upgrades! Tech Arrow, Spread Shot!”

He loaded and shot an arrow.

Padre: “What’s this? You think one little arrow will stop my 100 Boomers? Ha!”

Sean: “Who said anything about one?”

Suddenly the arrow split into multiple shots and collided with just about every single silver boomerang! They all fell to the ground!

Padre: “My boomerangs! You insolent…!”

Sean: “Someone make a smokescreen!”

Rick: “Okay; Dark Haze!”

When the haze cleared, Sean was mere inches away from Padre, with a loaded arrow!

Sean: “Tech Arrow, Nullify!”

He fired it at close range. After a brief flash of light, the fat Official lay there, stunned.

Cotton: “(He’s not dead, is he?)”

Tracy: “Nah, the oaf’s still breathing.”

Rick: “But his MP’s gone! I sense none at all!”

Sean: “That’s because I took it.”

T-na: “How?”

Sean: “Thanks to that training session Gale put us through, I had a brainstorm. With this glove, I can transmit my MP into every shot I fire, increasing its power! I rendered this guy’s MP useless. He probably may never use it again.”

T-na: “Powerless as he may be, he’s now in no condition to talk!”

He was even foaming at the mouth… looked kinda funny though… The ground looked seriously cracked around him, probably due to the attack force of Sean’s arrow.

Tracy: “I guess we can’t interrogate him, then…”

Sean: “Uh, sorry guys…”

Rick: “Never mind, at least we’re alive!”

Cotton: “(So, let’s find some other way to get information!)”

They ran across the rooftops.

Later on…

T: “What a place…”

I was busy walking around the section of the Inner City I had run to.

T: “If I can just find one of these Official dudes, maybe they can tell me where Nadia is… then after I find her, I can get Les! The others will probably get rid of the rest…”

I was always up for heading into the unknown, but…

T: “Okay, seriously, where the heck am I?”

Then I came across a sign.

T: “What’s this?”

A red cross was on it.

T: “What does this mean?”

I then heard people approaching!

T: “Crap! Gotta hide!”

I took cover behind some crates. I looked on as two young-looking Officials were pushing a stretcher with some fat dude on it.

T: “Huh… I wonder where they’re going with ‘fatty’ there…”

“I’m beat! Why does Padre have to be so fat?”

“Yeah, he crashed through one of the roofs in the other district! Sure did shock everyone!”

“What did this to him?”

“Who knows? As if we should care, really… He and the others always ridicule us guys in the Medical Division!”

“Yeah, we’re the ones actually saving their asses…”

“That and they’re ungrateful…”

After catching their breath, they continued carting the piggish person ahead. When the coast was clear, I stepped out.

T: “Hmm… is this someplace where they treat any injured Officials?”

The wind was blowing so I heard an open door rattling.

T: “Wonder what’s in there…?”

Inside, I saw shelves with lots of medicine, and a bed with white sheets.

T: “Looks like a doctor’s office…”

I also spied a table. On it was a picture and a paper with a list of names.

T: “This picture… it’s Gale!”

It was a picture of her, at a younger age.

T: “What’s this paper say?”

It had a list of names.

T: “Huh… ‘Inner City Officials Medical Division…’ this must display all the members… looks like Miss Gale was second in command… and the first in command was a Dr.…”

Suddenly…

T: “Ow!”

A blast hit me and sent me out the door! I landed on my rear.

T: “Leaping Lakitus, who did that? I thought this place was deserted!”

“It’s not!”

Someone leapt out the door and landed on the ground before me.

T: “Who the heck are you?”

The man I addressed wore an Official robe, but it was as white as snow, like a doctor’s coat. There wasn’t a single strand of hair on his head.

“Please! You’re the one intruding; why don’t you state your name?”

T: “Gimme your name, and I’ll give you mine! Or should I just call you Chrome-Dome?”

Alonso: “I am the Leader of the Medical Division of the Inner City Officials, Alonso! M.D., Ph.D., and D.M.D.!”

T: “Okay then, I’ll call you Dr. Chrome-Dome! Now tell me what you creeps did with Nadia!”

Alonso: “Sorry, bud, you gotta take that up with another Division… wait… y’know, Warren did say something…”

T: “Who?”

Alonso: “Oh, now I know; you’re that kid Warren told me about. He said how you injured his arm. I bet he doesn’t even know you’re here!”

T: “So what? I promised I’d save my friend, and if anyone stands in my way, they’ll get their sox rawked!”

Alonso: "Too bad… you seem like a nice kid, looking out for a friend… but as per rules, all intruders like this have to be killed. I’d merely have arrested you and let you live.”

He took out his sword, which oddly resembled a scalpel with a shorter handle and longer blade.

T: “Huh, a doctor you may be, but you’re not cutting me up!”

We swung at the same time. The sound of metal and… whatever my sword’s blade was made of… colliding could be heard a great distance away.

Alonso: “Go, Lifesaver!”

Cross-shaped rays came from his sword and hit me in the middle!

T: “Ouch! This purity… that attack was Light-based!”

Alonso: “You’re outta here!”

He tried for an overhead chop!

T: “Turtle Stomp!”

The force sent his arm backward. I swung at him with my sword, then I followed up with a headbutt!

WHACK!

T: “Ooh, I think I put too much power in that one… I’m bleeding!”

Alonso: “As am I… but no matter!”

Holding his sword a different way, a needle appeared on the bottom of the hilt!

T: “What’s…?”

He then stuck himself with it!

T: “Oh man, that looks painful!!”

Alonso: “Be that as it may…”

The cut I inflicted on his arm healed instantly!

T: “No fair, no fair! That healed you!”

Alonso: “I developed this solution myself. As potent as it is, I didn’t release it to my fellow Officials yet. But it works, even when applied on the skin!”

T: “Hmm… so what? I gotta win!”

Alonso: “Take this!”

He fired another ray of light that made me stagger, then he quickly closed in and struck me twice, sending me backward!

T: “Crap!”

It left an X-shaped slash on me!

T: “That’s it! Phoenix Rush!”

I was enveloped in a fiery aura as I rammed into him! When we were in midair…

T: “For a fighting doctor, you’re still out of shape! White Tiger Byakko! Feral Five-Star Slash!”

In retaliation for his two-hit slash, I landed five blows on him, in a star pattern, hence the name!

Alonso: “No… I can’t lose… to a kid…”

He tried to reach for his sword for the medicine, but I knocked it out of his hand.

T: “Give up. You lost, just accept it.”

Ellis: “(Gasp) What was that?”

Group Two, which had Ellis, Sofia, Cutter, Gale, and Kyle, were in another part of the Inner City, when they heard all the noise from my fight with Alonso.

Kyle: “I have no idea.”

Cutter: “It sounded like it was coming from the direction T was headed…”

Sofia: “You don’t think he’s in trouble, do you?”

Gale: “I was speaking of how there was one other Official who was the strongest. He’s the head of the Medical Division. I’m unsure, but if T were to encounter him…”

Kyle: “I’m going! I’ll catch up with him and help him out!”

Ellis: “Please be careful…”

After Kyle ran off…

Cutter: “So far, we haven’t see a single Official around here!”

Ellis: “Oh, think again…”

Suddenly, they all caught sight of an Official, who in turn saw them. All he did was smile as he leapt away.

Gale: “That was Otto.

Cutter: “Ugh, that grinning gremlin again!”

Sofia: “Let’s follow him, maybe I can shock that silly smile off his face!”

As Otto leapt from rooftop to rooftop, they gave chase after him.

Gale: “This is odd… normally he wouldn’t be so quick to run away…”

Ellis: “Maybe he’s not as strong as we thought…”

Cutter: “Did you see what he did to Sergueï? Maybe strong is an understatement…”

Sofia: “Our combined strength will beat him!”

The Official then jumped into the open window of a low-roofed building.

Ellis: “There he goes!”

They ran in.

Cutter: “All right, where is that creep?”

Otto: “I see… so you are naïve children after all…”

Sofia: “Huh?”

He stood before them all.

Otto: “You all ran right into my trap!”

Sofia: “That doesn’t sound good… Gale, what do we… huh?”

She wasn’t there!

Cutter: “Where is she??”

Otto: “How droll, she left you, just like she left us… but unlike us, you three won’t survive!”

Cutter: “We’ll just see about that!”

Ellis: “Besides, we already saw that attack you used on T; you use wind magic!”

Otto: “Is that so? Now that we’re here, I have another trick up my sleeve, heh, heh, heh…”

Four things appeared in the corners of the room.

Cutter: “Hey, what’re…”

Otto: “Now, Banshee… Scream!!”

As he held his sword up, a sharp noise filled the entire room! The air rippled with the shrill shockwaves!

Ellis: “My ears!!”

Sofia: “What is this?!”

Otto: “What’s wrong, is it too much for you? You’ll wish you were deaf!”

CUtter: “I gotta stop it… here!”

Cutter pulled out one of the smokescreen balls he and his siblings used for leaving a scene quickly. He tossed it at Otto, making him lose focus!

Otto: “Ow! That… hurt.”

Sofia: “Thanks for stopping it, Cutter; now we can transform…”

Shortly after Sofia and Ellis transformed the smoke around Otto cleared.

Otto: “Two of you look different… but do you think that’ll save you from the sweet power of sound?! Again, Banshee! Scream!”

The sound resumed, but louder this time!

Cutter: “It feels like my head’s gonna explode!”

Ellis: “It’s so loud!”

Sofia: “What? What’s so loud? I don’t hear a thing.”

Ellis: “Have you gone deaf?”

Sofia: “I can hear you, can’t I?”

Cutter: “Then why don’t you hear the noise?”

Otto: “I didn’t expect this… maybe you have a soundproof ability…”

Sofia: “Soundproof?”

Otto: “You use Thunder magic, so the electric field you generate can nullify sound-based attacks… quite intriguing… maybe we should have you examined…”

Sofia: “Not likely!”

Otto: “Fine… then try and fight me, while your friends suffer!”

Sofia looked at the other two, who were on the ground.

Sofia: “He’s right… they won’t last much longer… wait…”

She eyed the four round things in the corners of the room.

Sofia: “He started this as soon as those appeared… those look like speakers! Take this!”

She used thunderbolts to fry the four speakers! Though she could not hear it, the noise finally dies down for good.

Otto: “My amplifiers!”

She went to the other two.

Sofia: “Are you okay?”

Cutter: “I’ll be fine…”

Otto: “Foolish girl! Never have your back turned! Now, sing! Ban…”

Ellis: “No!”

While on the floor, Ellis sprayed Otto with a large blast of water!

Ellis: “Hit him! Hit him now!”

Sofia: “Thunder Pillar!”

Sealing the now drenched Otto in an electric triangle, Sofia caused a column of thunder to crash through the roof ring on him!

Otto: “AAAAAAHH!!”

When it stopped, he stood there smoking slightly…

Otto: “J-just as I thought…”

Cutter: “Hey, tell us where Nadia is!”

Otto: “Wouldn’t you like to know… heh, heh, heh…”

He still smiled as he fell over.

Ellis: “I don’t think he’ll be getting up from that one…”

Sofia: “It’s just as Gale said; we’ll have to be ready to eliminate them before they get us. But we can’t feel bad about it now.”

Cutter: “Not after all the people they killed… but speaking of Gale, where did she go?”

Ellis: “Who knows?”

Cutter: “You think she’ll be okay?”

Sofia: “She should be, having been an Official and all…”

They started to walk out, but…

Otto: “S-sing… Banshee!”

Ellis: “What?”

Before they could turn around…

Sofia: “AAH!”

Otto used the same wind attack he performed on me, and struck Sofia on her side!

Ellis: “Are you okay?!”

Otto: “Heh, heh, heh…”

Cutter: “You monster!”

Leaping at him, Cutter thrust his sword into Otto’s back, dealing the finishing blow!

Cutter: “Sorry you had to see that girls, but Gale’s point has been proven once over. You’re bleeding!”

Sofia: “Ugh, don’t worry, he just grazed me… I’ll be fine… let’s just get outta here!”

Alonso: “Ugh… h-huh?”

T: “Oh! Dr. No-Hair! You’re awake!”

Alonso: “You… how is it I’m still alive?”

T: “You were right; this medicine of yours works really well! Even you look a little better!”

I had used the medicine that was in the hilt of his sword for my injuries. I even applied it to the star-shaped wound on him.

T: “Of course I had to take the blade off. Sorry!”

Alonso: “I failed in my duties as an Official… normally my life would be forfeit for this disgrace, so why didn’t you…?”

T: “It doesn’t seem right to take the life of one who saves lives; you are a doctor. Let’s just pretend this never happened! All I want is to rescue my friend.”

Alonso: “You’re kindhearted… but naïve. Such sentimentality would get you killed…”

T: “But it’s because I feel for my friends that I’d go for it like this. I’m gonna hold onto this stuff, just in case; see ya.”

I started to walk off, but…

Alonso: “Hey kid! Wait!”

T: “Hm? What is it?”

Alonso: “If you’re looking for your friend, you’ll most likely find her in the prison compound, near the Club Gate. Diamond, Spade, Club, and Heart…”

T: “I’m aware of the gates.”

Alonso: “Oh. Then just go near the Club Gate… But this place is big, think you’ll get to her in time?”

T: “I know I’ll get to her in time! Huh, for an Official, you’re kinda helpful; thanks.”

As I ran off, he said to himself,

Alonso: “Of course I’m helpful, kid. As you said, I am a doctor…”

Warren: “Well, you still look rather down!”

Nadia: “In the position I’m in, I don’t anyone would be happy.”

Warren had been on his rounds when he found the time to visit the jail cells.

Warren: “I gotta say, this isn’t looking good for you. But Les is the one in charge, and what he says, goes…”

Suddenly, an alarm blared:

ATTENTION! THE INNER CITY HAS BEEN BREACHED! INTRUDERS ON THE PREMISES!

Warren: “Whoa, looks like trouble… guess I should get back to my rounds…”

He walked off.

Nadia: “Who could’ve gotten into the Inner City…? Unless it’s…”

To be continued...