Operation Reclaim

Metal Squirrel Solid: The Twin Acorns
Even so, the group were heading towards the Magic Council's new headquarters- however, questions still persisted; Iris, by now, was complaining. "Are we there yet? ....This is taking too long. I'm bored. And hungry." And probably a whole lot of other things which had nothing to do with anything, such as pro-abortion.

Either way, once they reached the bottom of the raviene, the group stood before the front of the complex. "Okay, so do we enter or..." Iris walked towards the building, before getting a nasty electric shock. "Ow! What was that...!?" Her tail stood on end in fright.

"A defensive electrical field..." Jason frowned. "This will be difficult to get past, without exerting so much power we trip an alarm."

This actually stopped Mary, who had been about to attack the barrier. "Dammit."

Iris glared at the barrier. "Ah, inanimate objects. My natural enemy." Truth be told they really were her mortal enemies- it all started with that trashcan back when she was a wee young'un. "So...what do we do then? Sneak past? Put all our power at once into it?"

Jason silently gnashed his teeth, as if turning over an unpleasant thought. "If any two of us use, perhaps, a Unison Raid, we can break it down. However, that won't go unnoticed. We will have to watch out."

Iris began to think; for once. "Oooh! Mary uses Water Magic! I've done several Unisons with that before with Momoko and her Water Dragon Slayer Magic! I think we have a solution!"

"Will the bad people, come, Onii-chan?" Mina asked him, sounding petrified at the thought. "I...don't make them come out..."

Jason put on a soft smile. "Don't worry. The destruction of a barrier like this will only bring out the foot soldiers. My guild can destroy them with no problem. You're safe with us, Mina."

Mary walked over to Iris, cracking her knuckles. "Finally, let's get something done."

Iris enthusiastically grasped Mary's hand, shaking it rather happily. "Okay! Let's focus our magical energy into our hands, while aiming at the barrier! My Fire Magic and your Water Magic should cause a paradox that'll deflect the barrier!"

"...Iris, you have a brain?" Mary was shocked. "I though you were just our cute, laid-back friend."

Iris retorted with a hint of deadpon, "I'll have you know that my IQ is 126. I can be smart...it just seems that you never come to me for advice. I'd advise that you did so if you wanted to get anywhere." Her mind blanked. "...Whaaaaa?"

"Let's just do this." Mary extended their hands, pointing it towards the barrier, and it began to glow with her own magical power, dueled by it's water-like properties. "This better work..."

Iris focused her Fire Magic into her hands, "Ready? Three....two...one! UNISON RAID: The Hundred Shooting Stars!" Fire and water, yin and yang combined- two polar opposite streams of energy which shot forth in a spiralling ray of pure energy, contacting with the barrier and phasing through it and spreading out, latching onto the field in the four cardinal directions before detonating with enough force to completely obliterate it.

"Amazing..." Olivia was awestruck, never having performed a unison raid, she was surprised to see the level of power it could put out. In fact, it was dangerously close to...

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The alarm went off, tripping the woman's thoughts up, and causing her to instinctively turn her head as if searching for the source of the noise.

"Don't waste your time." Jason called her off of this, and they both walked over to where Iris and Mary stood. "Mary, feel like cutting the door apart?" Jason suggested. "My hands are tied." Mina had fallen asleep, resting her head comfortably on his shoulders.

"Naturally." Mary gripped the large bulk wrapped in cloth that, which unwrapped to reveal an uniquely-shaped broadsword with a blue blade and a golden edge. It glinted as she raised the blade, preparing to strike. With ease, the girl slashed at the doors, chopping them into pieces so small they were barely noticeable, creating them their entrance, before wrapping the sword in cloth again and holstering it on her back.

"So you picked up swordsmanship?" Olivia inquired, and Mary, despite herself, flashed a bit of a grin. "Yeah. I figured, the rest of our guild does it, coordination attacks and group battles would be easier if I picked up a blade as well. I call it Eisivori."

Iris' ears drooped all of a sudden. "Sometimes you don't need a sword...why not use it as a club? It'd be a better weapon. Why just slice people in half when you can whack them a new one? There's too many swords, it's like a kitchen drawer...."

"The intruders!" Figures moved from the shadows, encircling them. Figures clad in white robes with crosses adorning them.

"And we have guests." Jason let out a small sigh. "I suppose this makes sense, ring the doorbell, someone is bound to answer."

Iris' ears perked up once more. "Hello~ Pizza delivery! What you ordered: an asskicking~!" There was something strangely badass about this- as she took out numerous guards with a powerful haymaker.

"No, Iris, let me." Olivia slowly stepped in front of her, a small smile on her face. "I've rarely gotten the chance to help Master or anyone else out — not since that corpse incident. The least I can do is take out the minions."

"M-minions!?" One of the Rune Knights seemed to take offence towards this, actually charging in at her, swinging his weapon down with anger. Olivia raised her hand, stopping the staff with surprising strength. She kept a firm grip on it, extending her hand towards the man and sending him hurtling backwards through wind pressure.

"I suppose, before each of you fall, I can educate you on how one of these can actually be used." Her smile was unnerving, as if she'd seen combat much worse than this before.

"She's mocking us!" Whatever remained of the composure the men had vanished by this point, and they all simply rushed Olivia in a blind charge.

Clashing sounds could be heard as she parried each consecutive blow, but she never needing to move, remaining stationary as the Rune Knights needlessly expended their energy "attacking" her. She then utilised the blunt end of the sphere to wind several of the Rune Knights, and in a shocking display of brutality, chopped off the arm of an advancing Rune Knight through sheer strength; his cry of pain echoing as he collapsed in shock.

"I suppose I'll finish up here." She released the staff she had been holding, extending her arms towards the remaining Rune Knights. "Spear Frenzy: Spike Spurt." From her sleeve extended thousands of spears, and, targeting the remaining enemies, speared them brutally on the edge of the weapons, creating a massive pool of blood as they fell.

Iris leapt back in fright. Naturally blood didn't freak her out, but the fact that Olivia was so damn casual about the whole thing did. "...Wait, when did you become such a mean person...I guess that seven years was a lot~" Especially Iris' new habit of crossword puzzles.

Jason's eyes scanned the entire ordeal, limp bodies, broken bodies, and weapons lying in pools of blood. Olivia calmly stepped over one of the bodies, wiping her feet on the ground to get the blood out. "What...happened to you, in those past seven years?" Jason had to take a moment to get the words out. The shock of dead bodies was nothing; he'd racked up more than this as a younger man. What shocked him was Olivia was the one who delivered the carnage.

"Time..." Olivia let out a small chuckle. "Time is a strange mistress. I learned that the hard way, and it merely shaped me during our time apart. Don't worry Master, I'm still on your side."

Iris snarked for once, "So did that Len guy, and up and left. I'd be careful~"

"My my, Iris..." Olivia smiled, and, unlike the impression a smile should give, hers was truly disturbing. "Are you implying I would betray the Master? I'm loyal to him, and to our group. You hurt me."

Iris wasn't implying anything, but, "Geez, louise. It's a joke~ Calm thine mammaries~" It seemed that she wasn't joking about the IQ boost. At least she wasn't fence-post dumb like she used to be.

"Let's move, you two." Jason urged them, jerking his head to the destroyed door. "Gaikou is waiting on us."

"Of course." Olivia's strange smile flashed again. "Let us proceed."

They charged straight into the building, surprised that no alarms were tripped, confronted with what appeared to be a straight hallway.

"I suppose this will be easier than I thought." Jason mused, before looking at Iris. "Iris, sense anything?"

Iris' ears suddenly propped up. "Yes! It's a powerful, yet fading magical signal...coming from the top of the building. It's still significant, but it's fading slowly. I think it's Gaikou, so we should hurry."

"In that case, we have to head up." Jason concluded, and they pressed on.

"And it appears we have guests, Alexis." Len cast a look at what appeared to be a lacrima-powered monitoring screen, which showed the Akatsuki group navigating through the hallways. "And look, it's the Akatsuki no less."

Alexis, meanwhile...was roasting marshmallows on a fire. In a room with no campfire. "Ah, the defiance of physics, how I love it so." She turned to Len. "Oh, alright. You know what to do, send in the robots, activate the security systems, I'll do something as soon as my Highlander is complete. You and the other knight stall for time as well." She was so deadpan about all this.

"The Kingdom of Fiore wasn't built in a day..." Len sighed, exasperated with her demanding. "You need to learn a bit of patience. A task gets done when it gets done." He then added. "And threatening me won't make it go any faster."

Alexis slammed her fist on the table near her in annoyance. "Listen here, you fools. From what's written in the books, Fiore was, and I can threaten whoever I damn well want, got it?" She relaxed. Yes, really. "...Anyway, if you do good, I'll raise your pay and you can't complain anymore."

"The books you were reading have since been discredited." Len sighed, and pulled his labcoat over his figure. "Just sit back, be quiet, I'll put on a show you can clap your hands to." With those simple words, he departed, heading downstairs to deal with his former guildmates.

Camarada
Iris' ears suddenly perked up as she noticed, that yes, they were rather expressive today. "...Something's amiss. Like this is all a trap. I'm a bit worried..." What else was new?

"I would love to say we'd have nothing to worry about either, but..." Jason stopped, and the group stopped as well. Mina seemed to jolt awake from this sudden. "Onii-chan....did something happen?"

"No, but it's about to." Jason sighed, and a door manifested, opening, and the very feminine figure of Zinzolin Bitfrost stepped out of it before the guild, smiling. "Hello, Akatsuki, so glad to see you could make it. Though I must admit, I am surprised you found this place."

Mary growled. "And it seems the first enemy is already here." It was obvious none of them recognised Zinzolin as Len.

Iris' nose twitched as she smelt something familiar about this man. "Heyyyyyyy....Don't I know you from somewhere~? Like, we've met before. Or haven't we...I'm not so sure..." She would close in to get more proof but she decided against it.

"Even his magical energy feels a bit familiar." Jason noted. "Who are you?"

Zinzolin sighed, he even seemed a bit hurt. "Such a keen nose, Iris. I assume you wouldn't remember me, seven years is quite a long time. My name is Zinzolin Bitfrost, current head of the Magic Council's development department, but I believe you knew me as Len Fauxfalsch."

Iris didn't really seem to give a hoot about it. "...Ah, I see. That's interesting. You're an interesting person." She nodded like nothing really happened, taking everyone off-guard...before she swung her fist towards his smug face at full pelt...

...only to be deflected by a spherical barrier, whirring and blinking sounds coming from it as several flatscreens manifested in front of Zinzolin. "I forgot about that, Iris always was the type to run in without thinking. You really should do that. What if I was a poisonous explosive?"

Iris growled like...a wild animal. "Shut up, now! I won't hear that coming from a traitor like you!" She withdrew her fist, stopping herself from assaulting Zinzolin further. Hopping back, Iris quickly surveyed her options while her ears stood straight on end, thinking of what to do while constantly moving, in preparation for Zinzolin's attack.

"So, you're Len, hm?" Jason cast the boy a look. "That explains why you didn't return to our guild when we all reunited. You were a mole from the Council."

"That's right." Zinzolin flashed a small smile. "I was sent to gather information and certain other necessities from your guild." His smiled widened, showing white teeth. "And I have to say, it went off with a resounding success. You see, I'm a terrible actor. So I had my memories reworked to infiltrate your guild. And you all accepted me easily. That was a bit careless, 'Master'." The last word dripped with sarcasm.

Iris didn't even care. "Shut up already. You make me want to rip you in half." Like she gave a damn about some C-list fodder who just pissed off the face of the earth and suddenly came back.

"That hurts my feelings, you know." Zinzolin's voice dripped in mock hurt. "I suppose next you'll be saying you're going to kill me."

Jason looked down at Iris, a small smile creeping onto his face. "You know, Iris, I heard physical therapy is a great way to get rid of negative emotions like frustration. We all know you're feeling pretty frustrated."

Iris looked back at him. "Oh, yes, I'm frustrated alright. Now, stand back, you people skeddaddle. I'll hold this wiry bastard off." Iris gritted her teeth as she stopped herself from wailing on him. "Now...how to get past this barrier deal-eo." Her ears twitched back and forth ,trying to figure out the best course of action. As for now, evading his attacks was the best decision.

"Good luck, Iris!" Jason called back as they dashed off, running past Zinzolin, who didn't turn to stop them from running.

"Not even I can take all of you on. I suppose it'll be wise to pick you off one at a time. Iris, you're so kind as to volunteer."

Iris sighed, resigned to her fate. "...Oh, I'm volunteering, alright. I'm volunteering to R.Y.N.O'ing you!" The squirrel girl gnashed her teeth, ready to attack as her magical energy flared up in the form of the aura of a squirrel surrounding her body. "Let's settle this, one on one. Your move, bucko!"

Zinzolin smiled, raising his hand from within his barrier, and manifested several large orbs of white light, floating around his barrier. With a snap of his fingers, they spread out, filling the entire hall in a large row. "Hindenburg - Toll Feld."

"...!" Iris' tail shot straight up, as she curled into a ball, gathering stray magical energy from the atmopshere momentarily before shooting forward in a rapidly spinning movement, darting nearly around the small openings between each explosions, missing each blast by mere millimeters while heading towards Zinzolin in an attempt to knock him straight through the building.

"Hindeburg." Zinzolin was unfazed by the evasion skills Iris displayed; snapping his fingers again, creating, near instantaneously, more spheres of white light appeared around his barrier. At the speed she was moving, Iris would not be able to stop or change her course in time, and Zinzolin knew these explosions would connection.

Iris' psychic visions activated- leaping back by quickly shifting the direction of her rolling to counterclockwise; however, she was blasted by the spheres, being thrown back before she could fully complete the motion. "...Wo~w. There's a lot of bright lights~" She seemed unimpressed; seeing Zinzolin as nothing but an annoyance.