The relative calm in the area was punctuated in the distance by sounds of monstrous roaring and the stomping of feet. Julian and the others spent some time searching through the nearby area looking for anything of value in the battered wreckage of the gunship. Despite searching quickly, knowing every second spent in Bresha was another second that the Guardian Corps or PSICOM could use to catch up, it still took a fair amount of time to search through every nook and cranny. 

>Spoils: Doctor’s Code, Black Belt, Rune Bracelet, Ember Ring, Spark Ring

Indeed, even as they looked over the spoils from their search, they were unaware of the incoming danger. A trio of shapes were traversing quickly, silent aside from the distortion of noise which warped to make way for the mass of their identical, asexual black-clad armor and muscular figures. 

[url=https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/1/10/FFXIII_enemy_PSICOM_Tracker.png/revision/latest?cb=20140221150546]PSICOM soldiers[/url], and highly trained ones at that, leapt between the stone structures nigh invisible by how they kept to the dark, revealed only by how the indigo reflectors of their armor juxtaposed to the lack of light. One of them vaulted over the rails of the buildings, padding quickly over the broken line of rock before bounding, their hands catching them on the rails, and springing upward onto a different structure’s spire. The other two stopped nearby, one hanging on one handed to the spire while their feet embraced against it and the other leaping into a sitting position on the opposite side. The one perched upon the thin point of the building’s peak withdrew a high-technology binocular device from the side of of their armor and held it over their eye modules. A brief moment of silence wrapped around them as the one holding the binoculars searched, and found, what they were looking for. Handheld imagery gave him ability to spot a certain, dark skinned, top-hat clad man holding the hands of a dainty girl with large alligator tears rolling down his eyes. 

“Target Located,” A masculine voice thrummed through the armor, satisfied. 

“A foolish endeavor, coming about here. What could he be thinking?” The one that held onto pire just below the perched one chippered in a soft, female voice. 

“Doesn’t matter. We have a job to do.” The third, deeper male voice rumbled. He brought his hand up, stroking the underside of his jaw to engage the communicator. “Sir, we’ve found Julian. Moving to secure the target.” The third turned, giving a brief nod to the other two. He was the first to leap away, dropping from the ledge elegantly and running on ahead. The female was soon to follow, flipping away in her own stride and taking to the rooftops. The last male that had taken root on the spire watched the other two duck away and wrung his hands slowly. He stood at full length on the spire, his hands tucked behind his back once he’d slipped the binoculars back into the holster on his armor. He waited until he could see the other two had slipped silently into place. 

His knees bent slowly, building power, and then jumped off powerfully. His long body rocketed through the air, twisting slowly as he sprang from the top of the spire and landed, rolling with the fall to take away any threat of damage, into the very courtyard in which Julian, Nadia, Noir and Molly stood. His body lunged forward so low that it nearly grazed the ground in its speed. Sliding beneath the legs of the imposing Noir, the other two that had taken position nearby also dropped into the center of the ground. All three brandished their military-issued dark swords and held them in threatening formation, their backs to Julian and blades drawn to those that surrounded him.

“Sir!” The female chirped loudly, her back close to Julian's right hand side. “We have come to extract you!”

“Clear the area!” The deeper-toned male shouted, holding formation on the left. The center one said nothing, merely glancing betwixt the opposing three; Nadia, Noir and Molly in turn. 

Julian looked around at the group with bewilderment, his hand on his cane. They didn’t seem to be attacking at the moment, but this group of soldiers was again not part of the plan. PSICOM interfering in this mission could end with everyone in the group behind bars or killed, or even worse if the rumors of PSICOM’s crazy experiments held any water. “The situation is under control, PSICOM,” Julian spoke up. “Please stand down. These three have agreed to join my investigation, and I believe you have no jurisdiction in my investigations.” It wasn’t Julian’s finest bluff and he knew it, but the situation had moved beyond his control. He kept his hand on his cane, leaning against it nonchalantly even as the soldiers surrounded him. 

Even as the top-hat clad man spoke, the center PSICOM soldier crouched down and sprung off of the pads of his feet with a small grunt. His body flipped back behind Julian’s, embracing him suddenly with his arms wrapped around the shorter man. The other two acted accordingly, tossing down a bottle of a grey, swirling mist that exploded in density in front of them. It seems that they ignored Julian’s words, instead favoring the orders of whatever higher up had given them their commands. Under the cover of the smokescreen, the soldier that clenched his arms around Julian held onto the smaller man tightly in a bridal position and ducked through the smoke away from the others, the other two soldiers following suit behind him. The deep-voiced soldier that ran behind them stroked the underside of his jaw once more to engage the communicator.

“Target Acquired, moving to the rendezvous.” 

“No, you don’t,” Julian muttered under his breath as he conjured forth the power that his l’Cie mark had bestowed. In the blink of an eye, lightning sparked all around, temporarily shocking the PSICOM units as Julian wriggled free. The soldiers all skidded to a stop in their tracks, reeling as the dapper man leaped free from the grasp of the centermost one who huffed, his hand finding the ground and glaring after his target. “As I said, you have no jurisdiction,” Julian called before sprinting back to his allies faster than one would expect a man with a cane would run. 

“He’s l’Cie! Traitor!” The woman stood up fully, her rage only pertinent through the way her shoulders raised. The deep-voiced one spoke through the communicator. 

“He’s gone rogue. What do we do, sir?”

“Our job.” The centermost soldier hissed, answering the deep-voiced soldiers’ question himself before flicking his weapon back out before striding right back after the escaping top-hat. His subordinates followed his lead.

Julian could hear footsteps from all around as he darted forward, dodging a spray of bullets from the female PSICOM soldier. He could see the squad and Nyxia approaching the group from the corner of an intersection, and Julian put an extra burst of speed into his escape as he neared the smokescreen. “We’ve got company!” Julian called out to the others as he leapt through the fog, nearly crashing into a dark crystalline figure. 

“You aren’t kidding,” Molly called out, pointing at several angry-looking Cie’th that had surrounded them. The fog cleared slightly to show the PSICOM troops right on Julian’s heels, but they stopped short as they saw the Cie’th. The largest one let out a roar and brought a mighty crystalline paw down to smash the ground. At the last second, Nyxia jumped in front, taking the blow meant for Julian with her weapon as he rolled away from the creature. 

“See, this is what happens when PSICOM sticks their noses where they don’t belong!” Julian called out, frustration evident in his voice. He brought his cane up, wielding it as a magic wand as they were caught between a band of Cie’th and PSICOM. “Let’s do this!”

From the shadows stepped a man wearing [url=https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/8/89/FFXIII_enemy_PSICOM_Executioner.png/revision/latest?cb=20140221145726]slightly garish armor[/url] and wielding a three-pronged spear. “And this is what happens when a rogue investigator overturns things he should never see,” the PSICOM officer replied calmly, tossing his spear lightly from one hand to the other. “And so it falls to us to take out the trash yet again. A pity, Lieutenant Cagle. We had high hopes for you.”

Julian narrowed his eyes as the Executioner approached. There was little time for argument now, nor room for maneuvering out of this situation. “Fine. If you prefer to waste time on me than protecting Cocoon, come at me!”

>Start combat. You have a chance now to change Paradigms and equip new Accessories.