Mü, Part 17

Three Hours Ago

Rose was wearing her Phantom Thief outfit. It really was the be set of clothing that she owned. Practical, comfortable, and stylish.

She tapped her watch and the door into her workshop slide closed making the entrance invisible again. There there was a grating sound, she knew her entire workshop was lowering into a lower apartment floor. It would be bad in the University Security found all of that stuff, plus she didn’t want her motorcycle to accidentally get damaged. Rose then switched her watch into safe mode. It won’t be able to help her like that but nobody would be able to distinguish it from a regular watch.

Rose looked at the spot Lynn and Emiray had been standing just a few minutes ago. She had wanted to tell them the entire plan but there were several reasons why she hadn’t been able to do that. She hoped that the two of them would be alright on their own.

She strapped on a small bag around her waist that carried all of her useful thief tools that Lynn hadn’t taken. She pulled out a small stun gun and raised the power on it a little. It was a newer model, much like a regular gun except with non fatal consequences. The security almost certainly weren’t using live ammunition, the Entertainment District wouldn’t allow that sort of things, so they were going to be using a weapon like hers. Of course they would be wearing armor which would protect them against her weapon. Without a direct hit on an unarmored location she would be unable to take them down.

She waited next to the door for the security to approach. Then one of the officers kicked in the door and two of them stepped into the room. Rose had been waiting for that moment. With to clicks and an electric sounding bang the two officiers where on the floor. She had managed to hit both of the in the groove at the neck where the armor barely covered them.

Rose then retreated back through the living room, keeping out of the way. There was certainly more then two. There were probably 10 or more, plus an esper or two. She slipped into her bed room hand put her back to the wall. She could here them starting to enter her main room, this time being more careful to avoid being hit. She wouldn’t be able to get another easy shot off like she had before.

She peak around the corner and saw that there were seven of them, at least that she could see. The Esper was not visible, probably waiting for Lynn to make her appearance and then make a surprise attack. That sort of thing worked on most people, even level 8 Espers. Rose supposed that once they realized that Lynn wasn’t here that she would be the person surprised.

There, she moved just enough to give her a clean shot and one of the security officers went down. She managed to pull back fast enough to see the stream of needles going by. One hit from one of those and she would be immobile for hours. So they were using that type of stun gun, unlike the electrical version that she was using.

She now kept her back to the wall. Now that they knew where she was it would be difficult to get another attack like that. She could probably hide under the bed or in the closet to catch another one or two of them off guard but then she would be caught by the rest of them. She guess it was time for the escape plan. She moved over toward the other side of the room and pulled the concealed latch, opening the door which lead into the apartment next door. On one side of her apartment was her secret workshop while the other had this secret exit, all self respecting Phantom Thefts had a few extra escape plans.

She pulled a sleeping gas canister out for her bag, pulled the pin and through it through the door into her living room. The soldier’s helmets probably filtered gases but it would buy her some time. She moved it the other apartment, which was empty. She owned this apartment too, to make sure she could escape at any time.

Even though it was supposed to be empty she was careful. The officers might have suspected that she would have a secret exit here and placed guards. She closed the secret door behind her and crept through the apartment to the door. She peeks through the peep hole and seeing nothing, opened the door a creak to look outside.

There were two more security guards standing outside of the door to her apartment. She wouldn’t be able to sneak out without both of them seeing her. She pointed the stun gun at them and shot once, then twice. The first one crumpled into a heap before he even realized what had happened, however there was a long enough gap between the two shots that the second guard managed to scream a warning before he too collapsed.

Not wasting any time Rose darted from the apartment and began running down the hallway toward the stairs down. She could hear commotion in her apartment she they must not have been effected by the sleeping gas, but luck seemed to be on her side and they took a while to exit her apartment. The gas must have at least hindered their visibility.

That is when she saw the young kid at the end of the hallway, near the stairs. The boy was wearing a school uniform. She couldn’t turn back now, so she pointed the gun at the boy and shot. The air between them suddenly grew and the air seemed to boil between them. The electrical charge that had been going toward him was gone.

Rose felt the gun in her hand begin to grow hot and she was forced to throw it away before it burned her hands. She had suspected the boy had been an Esper, no kid like that lived in this apartment, but she hadn’t expected that a fire esper was going to be sent to stop Lynn. This kid was obviously fairly high level too. Rose kicked down the door of another apartment and was about to enter when a wall of fire blocked her path.

She turned back to the boy and then back over her shoulder. A wall of fire was there too. Slowly Rose raised her hands signaling defeat. The raging fire behind her lowered and several of the security officers come up behind her one of the pull out handcuffs and locked her wrists together. The other began searching her.

The bag around her wast was swiftly taken away from her although it took them several minutes more to be certain that she wasn’t carrying anything else dangerous. Once they were satisfied they stepped back and let the boy take a step forward. Rose noticed an armband around his right arm. So he was a member of the student council, that explained his presence here and his high level.

“Where are the others?” Asked the boy.

“They aren’t here anymore.” Rose decided to answer truthfully, at least mostly truthfully. That made it easier to slip small lies in when she needed them to count. “Lynn brought Emiray away while I stay behind to distract you and make sure they had enough time to escape.”

“I see.” The boy motioned to the security officers, “Take her up to the helicopter. We are going to bring her back to the University District. The other two are most certainly going to be heading there. We can use her as a hostage to ensure their cooperation.” The officers saluted and they forcefully brought her up the stairs and onto the roof. Here there were several helicopters. Some of the officers were carrying their stunned compatiated up onto the roof.

Rose was forced into one of them and the boy took a seat across from her. “If you try anything then I am going to burn you until you stop. I hope you understand that.”

Rose nodded as she sat down in between two security officers. Once a couple more hand taken seats near the boy the helicopter began to take off. Moving through the sky it was bringing them toward the University District. It would take a couple of hours to get there by helicopter, by that time Lynn and Emiray would probably be worried about her. However Rose would be at the University District before them.

Rose had to conceal a smile. Things were going according to plan.

Rose had kept silent most of the trip. The officers surrounding her seemed to glare down at her even though most of them were about the same height as her. Eventually when she saw that the University District was getting near she asked, “What is it that Professor Gray is attempting?” Asked Rose.

“I don’t know what you are implying,” Said the boy. “Professor Gray is acting in the best interest of the University District. A criminal like you wouldn’t understand.”

“Yes, I find it difficult to understand why somebody would want to help Professor Gray activate the Euclidian Key using the full power of the Ark Tunnel Reactor. Or why he would any to do it in the first place.”

“I’m afraid that you are mistaken then. Professor Gray is only helping us protect the Euclidian Key from thieves like you and Lynn. If it gets activated then that is Lynn’s fault. If she plans on stealing it when she should expect that we would us it to keep that from happening. That is the only reason the Euclidian Key is being kept at the Ark Tunnel Reactor.”

The helicopter began to pull into a landing stop outside of what looked like a large power plant. Rose recognized it as the Ark Tunnel Reactor. She had looked over the floor plans enough that it wasn’t very difficult to recognize. “No wonder you where the one to retrieve Lynn. You don’t know what is really going on do you?” Asked Rose with a mocking smile on her face. “Had you gone up against Lynn then you wouldn’t have had a chance. You were sent because it didn’t matter if you succeeded or not.”

The boy glared at Rose, “I was not sent anywhere. I was assigned this task as part of my duties to the student counsel. You on the other hand are a theft, collaborating with criminals to steal the Euclidian Key. Why should I believe anything you have to say to me.”

The guards pushed Rose out of the helicopter and onto the landing zone. “Because you care about what is right don’t you? Don’t let the sweet lies fool you. Don’t let my words push you around. Find out for yourself what is really going on.”

“Take her to a storage room and lock her inside. Make sure to post guards and send for that noisy Inspector. Hopefully he will leave off of us if he get what he has been looking for.” Ordered the boy.

Rose cooperated with the guards as they led her into the facility. The room that they led her too was small and was generally used as a storage room given the stuff that was scattered around. The officers removed the cuff from one of her hands only to attach it to one of the pipes running through the room. Then they made about clearing the room of everything. They must have deemed the random things around the room were to dangerous to leave with a Phantom Thief. Eventually they left her alone in an empty room.

Alone she smiled to herself. “Hello ladies and gentlemen. Watch in amazement as I am locked inside a box and then miraculously escape.” She the began her magic trick. The guards outside never saw her escape.