Did You Get What You Wanted?

Natomi hoped Samuel was okay but at the least they had a trail for them to follow now, but there was no idea what exactly they would run into. Jack was right, it could very well be a trap.

* *

Jerod decided to check on Alice, he was a therapist so while he couldn't fight or do much else he could help in small little ways. Alice seemed to have some personal problems to resolve.

He knocked on the door. "Alice? It's me, Jerod. May we talk?"

It was about fifteen minuets and the coms beep "Checking in. We've tracked the truck to a warehouse on the docks, but it turned out to be empty." Marcen says "This tells us they're underwater. Will check back in fifteen minuets." he says, then the com goes dead.

* *

The door cracks open and there was a rather Unhappy Girl peeks back out "Um...Alice doesn't want to talk now...so, yeah..." she says, sounding down and slightly depressed.

Manny didn't like waiting in a time like this, but at the moment it was really all they could do But wait until something came along. If Macen didn't come back in fifteen minutes after this, they could safely assume something happened.

* *

Jerod frowned a bit. "..All right. But when or if she does let her know I'll be around if she wants to. Just tell Alice she has friends that care about her." In his limited experience Alice seemed to be a rather troubled young woman that really needed some friends so the last part of letting her know she wasn't alone was important. He couldn't force Alice out of her shell but he could gently nudge things(hopefully) in the right direction.

Sighing the man went to head back to his room for now.

It was almost fifteen minuets when the coms beep "Checking in. We took a dive under the wharf, but we couldn't pick up their trail. We're heading back to base." Marcen says as the com goes dead.

It didn't take Marcen and Jack long to get back to the base. Marcen looked a bit pissed, but Jack was in high spirits "Well, we couldn't find them but not to worry! I'll send a U.U.V. out and see what I can see." he says as he heads to the garage.

Marcen walks over to Emanulle "So, what's the word with Alice?" he asks.

Natomi was not in a good mood but she hid it relatively well for the most part.

Emanulle turned to Macen, a bit confused since he hadn't seen Alice since they got her so he wasn't sure exactly what he meant. "Hm? Not sure what you mean. What I do know is, I'm worried she may do something reckless with Samuel being kidnapped like turning herself in exchange. Alice has a low opinion of herself in some respects and on top of that doesn't consider herself a real person. Those two mentalities together is asking for a disaster."

"Alice reminds me of..we'll, me in some ways when I was younger. I guess that's part of one of the reasons I want to help her so much is because I've been there."

Jack grabs something and takes off again. Marcen considered going with him, but Jack could take care of himself and if he got into trouble, he would link in.

"We have an incoming message from Samuel's link." Buddy says "The D.N.A. doesn't match Samuel. I'm guessing it's a ransom message. Shall I play it or wait until Jack returns?" Buddy asks.

Emanulle shook his head. "You may as well Buddy." He figured they'd ask for their taken sniper or Alice or probably more likely both. But if it was just one, it would be who ever was the higher priority.

"I agree." Ramona said and Natomi nodded.

The com beeps "I'm sure you know who this is." says a young woman on the other end that almost sounded like Alice. Which meant it was probably Lexica "I'll make this simple. Give us back our man and we'll give you back yours." she says "You have ten minuets to decide." she says as the com goes dead.

It was pretty much what Emanulle thought, he hit his own com. "Jack, we got contacted from Lexia. They said to hand over our prisoner in exchange for Samuel and we have ten minutes to decide."

Ramona was silent before speaking up. "What's to ensure they keep their end in the bargain and just further go their advantage however? There's a reason the words 'don't negotiate with terrorist' is actually a thing. You give your cards to them and there's no gurantee they'll play nice."

The com chirps "I heard. Buddy contacted me with it as well." Jack says "He also tracked their position. So we now know exactly where they were calling from..." he trails off "However, it might not matter. I think I just picked up Sam's trail." he says.

This gets a frown from Harlan "You mean Sam escaped? Can you tell where he's heading?" he asks.

"Yeah. He's not heading to the base...I assume that's because he thinks they'll follow him back there. He's heading to the ruins of the old Hunter HQ building." Jack explains "I'll head over there now and report back anything I find." he says, then the coms go dead.

"The old Hunter HQ?" Emanulle frowned thinking about it, he wondered how Samuel escaped in the first place but he Was an assassin so he was bound to have a few tricks up his sleeve.

Marcen nods slowly "That makes sense. It's a public place, lots of places to hide or escape and Hunters still patrol that area." he says "So, what do we do about where our enemies are broadcasting from? Should we wait until Jack returns or go after them?" he asks the others.

Emanulle shook his head. "Personally? I want this cat and mouse game to finally end and get this done. But I don't think charging in is the best idea."

"I think together we'll be fine. It'll take Jack a few minutes at the most to get to Samuel and then get back to us." Natomi glanced at Ramona. "You?"

"I can see both sides, but I believe it wouldn't hurt to be more proactive. I wish we at least had a idea of how many there are though."

Marcen shakes his head "As many as they have, we can have just as many." he says "I can build my chakra and use a Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu if needed. We also have Alice, who can summon as many reinforcements that we need." he points out.

Natomi turned to him. "Wouldn't that be counter productive? Jack pulled Alice away because he was convinced they were planning on something by having her and Lexia fight it out."

"True, but that was when she was alone." Ramona crossed her arms. "If no one is too opposed to it, we could go right now." One would think Ramona may have been a gun-ho sort of person far as fighting goes due to power but it was the opposite; she was very cautious and calculating instead.

Marcen nods "I agree. We should strike now. Jack trained us to work autonomously incase we needed to go out without him. So lets put it to the test." he says "We'll need someone to get Alice if this plan is going to work." he points out.

Ramona had some reservations about this still but nodded. "I'll grab her, I can get there the fastest. I'll be right back." In one moment she was there, in the next she was just gone as she had teleported. While that was happening, Natomi decided to briefly inform Jack what was going on since even if he wasn't there, it was important they let everyone know what they were doing.

Arriving at the base, she headed straight to Alice's room and knocked on the door. The young lady tended to keep in her room most of the time at the best times or when she was brooding. She may be doing that now considering so a short pep talk may be in order.

She knocked on the door. "Alice? Are you there? It's me Ramona, we need your help."

The door to Alice's room opens and a Nurse comes walking out "Hello. I'm Lily. Alice has sent me to speak with you." she says in a pleasant tone with a smile.

"Unfortunately, Alice isn't really feeling too well at the moment. But I assure you it's nothing too serious." she says, still smiling "So, if I may ask, how can I help you?" she asks.

Ramona sighed a bit to this. "I have a message to relay to her then. We have a location of Lexia and her group so we thought along with Jack and everyone we'd finally put a end to things but we could use her help. If she doesn't want to come, that's fine we'll handle it on our own."

Lily frowns at the message "I will, of course, relay your message. However, I will omit the last part. She's feeling rejected enough as it is and that part, perhaps, would be a bit too harsh for her at the moment." the fairy says, than heads back into Alice's room.

A few minuets later, Alice opens the door, looking quite miserable "I'm ready to go...you know, whenever you are." she mumbles, not making eye contact, in any way.

Rejected? That confused Ramona greatly, it made no sense what so ever to her. In her opinion Alice was being a bit on the melodramatic at the moment. The situation was nothing that couldn't be worked and let go of like mature adults.

Still, even if at first glance it didn't make sense she learned from her fiance that it was best to talk to people and hear Why they felt the way they do. Though it was rather hard with Alice.

"All right. We need to talk once this is over." Ramona sighed a bit, placing a hand on the young girls shoulder before both of them vanished where Manny, Macen, Natomi(and if he was there by now) Jack where at.

Jack wasn't there, but he was on the com, saying that he had found Samuel and they were both back on their way to the base and should be there in a few minuets.

Marcen looks over to the others "Jack and Sam will be here soon. Your call. Do we wait or do we go?" he asks, looking at his watch "Our ten minuet deadline's almost up." he points out.

Emanulle was really concerned about Alice, she seemed very down about something. He guessed it had to do with what happened earlier, there was a few reasons why that might be but in the end he'd be guessing without directly talking to them. If there's one thing he knew for sure about Alice was she definitely wasn't going to open in front of everyone like this, it would be best to talk to her one on one.

Easier said then done, it usually took some work to pull Alice out of her room even when she wasn't feeling that bad. Still, out of the others he knew thus far he had make the most progress so maybe she'd feel more comfortable with him. He wasn't sure, but he had to try.

"The dead-line doesn't matter, since they no longer have the card over us. But it does in the sense of them withdrawing." Natomi said. "I think we should we should go, if we wait too long they'll be gone too. The others are right behind us, so they'll be at most a few minutes late."

"Agreed. And if needed they can track with the com." Ramona said.

Emanulle was silent, then turned to Alice. "What about you? This more then anything effects your life so what you say has a lot of weight. Do you want to wait or go?" He didn't want Alice to feel left out, and it Was in a way her battle.

Marcen nods "I agree. The longer we wait, the more time they have to dispose of the link and the less of an advantage we'll have in a preemptive strike." he says.

Alice looks up at Emanulle, her eyes looked almost blank "I...I don't...feel..." she starts as she wobbles in place a bit.

"Someone catch her! She's going to faint!" Buddy calls from the monitor and sure enough, Alice passes out, falling backwards.

Emanulle of course quickly caught her being the closes. "Alice?!" Natomi and Ramona quickly rushed by their side once the young Heartless passed out.

"What's wrong with her?" Natomi asked worriedly.