"Well, I'm surprised nobody started shooting." Jason commented wryly once everyone more or less agreed there would be no more killing, at least between them, for the day, It did little to wash the sour taste of being used out of his mouth, however. He knew there had to be a reason why they were hunting their own and that AMRO didn't like having loose ends, but he didn't want to believe he was quite that expendable. More the fool he.
Fiora nodded to his comment, though she too was deep in thought. Calm and expressionless as she usually was, her misgivings did not show on her face though they were many. There was no guarantee this Chrono would be a better option than what AMRO had in mind for them. They were disposable. Weapons to be pointed at an enemy and nothing else. Their victories would be claimed by someone else.
Jason and Fiora made their way to the rendezvous point as planned, all the while discreetly making sure they weren't being followed. They took a cab, stopped somewhere for a bite, took a bus somewhere else, did a bit of shopping for useless stuff, and at each pit stop they made they profiled each face they saw. None of them were familiar. No vehicles were following them. Nothing was going wrong.
It only meant everything was about to. There was no way their enemy was this careless. Someone was letting them get close, Jason surmised. Someone wanted them to go where they were like moths to a flame... or was the better comparison baiting a mouse trap with peanut butter? Jason had no intentions of just letting some trap snap his neck and kill him like a meek little mouse, however, and neither did Fiora. Midnight was the hour people feared - the hour of ghosts, phantoms and nightmares. None of those things could be killed.
As Jason suspected, it was a trap. The ground caved in and found them all split up and unable to use their Alchemy. "Quite an elaborate set up just to kill a handful of Asylums... I'm not sure if I should be worried or flattered." He commented to himself. "Divide and conquer... They know Asylums work in pairs so they force us to divide up into very different groups and throw off our ability to work together. Cunning. Though if they were going to deny us our Alchemy simply opening up on us with heavy gunfire could have worked... Such an overly sophiscated plan..."
It was only then that he noticed he had company. An English woman was laying on the ground beside him. "Where are my manners. Jason Frost, at your service, my lady." He introduced himself again, extending a hand to help his temporary partner up, going back into his flirtatious rogue routine once more. A polite, charming smile and a bow, as if they were not in hostile territory. "It's a pleasure to meet you, though I wish it were better under circumstances."
Fiora panicked a little when she realised her link with Jason was cut off, and her Alchemy was unusable. She still had her weapons and that was enough for an Asylum, but as she looked around and noted the two other Asylums with her, she got nervous. She would have rather ended up alone than have to work with strangers. It wasn't that she disliked her current company or that she was anti-social, she just doubted her personality would work well in a group setting.
While she waited for the two to get a bearing on their surrounding and collect themselves, the woman checked her pistols, sword and other equipment to make sure nothing was damaged. Without her Alchemy, she needed to be in top fighting condition in every other respect. She sat on a rock, patiently waiting for the others to wake up and do the same. In the meantime, she fished out her MP3 player and earphones, and started listening to music. If she was going to be trapped here, she might as well make the most of it to pass the time. There were no signs of movement in the tunnels and it seemed the enemy were waiting in ambush, so they didn't have to worry about danger until they started moving.
Though, even if that were the case, anyone lying in ambush nearby might think they were going up against a crazy bitch, the way Fiora started humming along to the
song as if this were an everyday stroll through her own neighbourhood.
Plank Sinatra