The Red Hand

Chapter 73  – Libra’s Internal Struggle, and the Young Girl.

After the events of Kyoto and receiving Akagi's declaration, Herlex called an emergency meeting of Libra's top players. They were currently meeting in the large compound Alice created North of Nagoya. Akagi had waltzed into the base and delivered a message to the angel man, something that required the full attention of all top members.

"There will be no next time, Herlex." That was what Akagi had told him as she dropped the horribly mutilated bodies of Hijax and Sumeralia into the courtyard.

 Akagi's threat was unexpected and the angel was initially confused, he didn't know what could have pissed Akagi off enough to get involved. Also she some how got into the base and bypassed the magical barrier that even artillery rounds from the military couldn't budge. Once she explained that Hijax and Sumeralia had harmed her sister, Herlex's heart sank. He knew antagonizing the assassin wasn't a good idea and involving her would only cause issues. He did plan on facing her eventually, but right now was not the right time. Once Japan was dealt with, only then could they plan her downfall. So, in the mean time, he decided to play nice and apologized for involving Akagi's family and told her he'd keep better control of his people in the future. Her declaration about Kansai as a whole was a bit more problematic, and the need to deal with Akagi was going to be a topic of debate within Libra. Herlex had an idea of how to bring her to heel, but that was for later.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

"What the hell do you mean we're not going to retaliate!" The fox man screamed at Herlex. He couldn't believe how easily Herlex caved to Akagi's demands and he was annoyed that they wouldn't do anything to get payback.

"Calm down, Merkyul. There's no need to start screaming." A small girl clutching a teddy bear admonished him for his behavior.

"Where do you get off telling me to calm down, Alice? And why are you even here?" Merkyul looked at her with irritation. "You literally call Akagi Mom. How can we even trust you? Especially since you're with her all the time."

"Enough!" Herlex slammed his fist on the table. "We're not here to argue, and I'm not about to get into a discussion about Alice's relationship with Akagi." He was completely done with Merkyul's antics but tried to control his anger. "This meeting is about bringing people up to speed. I've specifically told people that messing with Akagi right now is not a good idea. We already lost two idiots, and I don't want to risk her getting antagonized further. Defeating her can come later when we've wrapped up our terror campaign. 

"Hmpf." Merkyul turned his nose up at Herlex. "Even just pretending to go along with her bullshit is ridiculous! We look like idiots!"

"I have to agree with him, Herlex." The fox woman next to him chimed in. "We can't let the deaths of two of our members go unpunished. Akagi is strong, but we should strike back and remove her. Even if those two did go off on their own, they were still part of Libra."

Herlex sighed. "Please understand, Sabia, it's not like I don't care at all that they died. It's just that right now, the last thing we need is to also have Akagi after us." They were already having enough trouble dealing with the RRT and the U.S. military; adding Akagi into the mix would make things worse. "I plan on handling her later, so for now lets just focus on our preparations for Nagoya."

"Herlex is right," Alice spoke up. "You shouldn't be so quick to pick a fight with Mama. Especially since you would lose." She said as she stroked the bear in her hands. "She got beat you easy with a one-two punch!" She did a little boxing pose and threw out a few punches.

"Do you doubt me and my team? Do you think we can't beat that idiot?" Merkyul gave Alice a look of contempt. "She's just one person. If Sabia, Roxlex, Hitamaguchi, and I hit her together, she's done." He and his team were undefeated in the game and their teamplay was excellent. He'd wanted to go after Akagi in FWO, but was always stopped by Hishya. Someone he feared much more than Herlex.

Alice sighed. "Think that if you want, but I refuse to fight Mama." Her relationship with Akagi was, complicated, and her fellow members of Libra knew better than to pry too deep. "If you want to go die horribly, be my guest but don't drag the rest of us down with you."

{Stupid brat!} Merkyul was getting annoyed with the girl.

"Calm down." Sabia put her hand on his shoulder. "She's just a kid, leave it." She shook her head and Merkyul backed off.

"I still question your loyalty, Alice." Merkyul wanted to say more, but Herlex's glare stopped him.

"I'm not saying we just let Akagi get away with their deaths, but Hijax and Sumeralia knew the risks of going to Kyoto, and what could happen if they fought Akagi." Herlex shook his head. He was angry when he found out they'd ignored his orders and attacked that mall, he been seeing more and more instances of liberal interpretations of his commands and that was starting to get old. "Right now, we need to continue our successful operations throughout the country. We still have the numbers and the power to contest the government. Once we topple it, we can turn our attention to Akagi." Herlex tried to lower the temperature in the room, but Sabia and Merkyul weren't having any of it.

"I still say it makes us look weak." Merkyul scoffed.

"I agree with my brother on this one, Herlex. If we abide by her terms and stay out of Kansai, it makes Libra look like a joke." Sabia believed that if they started kowtowing to Akagi, people wouldn't take them seriously. "Armalthy, how are you ok with this?" she looked at him. He was quite a loose cannon and one of the gang of misfits in FWO, so him just sitting on the sidelines was unexpected.

"Because I trust Herlex's judgment." His defeat by Superbia hit him hard and caused him to rethink things. If it wasn't for Herlex's healing, he would have lost his arm permanently. "If my battle with Superbia taught me anything, it's that were not as invincible as we believe, and those of us that joined the RRT can't be ignored." He harbored a grudge against the Oni and wanted to pay her back for his humiliation.

"Tsk." Merkyul clicked his tongue. "You've gone soft Armalthy. Whatever." He and Sabia turned to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Herlex called out to them. "This meeting isn't over!"

"Just forward me the minutes, Herlex. I can't be bothered to listen to you drone on." Merkyul stretched his arms as he walked away.

"Merkyul! Don't go doing anything stupid! You hear me!" Herlex yelled as the two foxes walked out the door. "Fucking idiots!"

"I really hope they don't do anything to upset Mama." Alice rubbed her head against the teddy bear.

"Knowing them, they probably will." Herlex's face grew dark.

{That brother and sister share one single goddamn brain cell between them, I swear.} (Herlex)

"Whatever. If they don't want to be here, fine. We'll continue without them." Herlex looked around at the remaining members. "Elna, Armalthy, we've got some work to do. Alice, how's production going?"

"Hmmm." She swung her legs off the edge chair. "I believe the numbers are already at four thousand. The resources that we've been bringing in are more than sufficient, and Imperial's crafting and directing skills are amazing for creating the equipment for the army." Imperial was their equivalent to Imp. The gnome man was quite good at crafting and building, though nowhere near as capable as the insane Imp.

It was the first good news he had today. "Good, tell him to keep going on producing equipment. I want to shoot for the middle of January for the invasion of Nagoya. Can you do it?" In the game, mass production of Alice's puppets in such a manner wasn't possible, and the basic ones only had minimal combat power. But in the real world, with modern tech combined with Imperial's skill, they were able to turn those puppets into effective soldiers and mass produce them. What they might lack in firepower, the more than made up for in numbers. With magitech weapons they'd be a credible threat against both military units and RRT members.

Alice nodded. "We should be good to go by then. I'll bust out Fluffy and Floofy if we don't have enough." Alice was the youngest player trapped in FWO, as she was merely ten years old at the time. However, it would be incorrect to assume that her age or childish appearance meant she was harmless. She herself was quite weak, but with her puppets and other summons, she was dangerous. Nor was she stupid. She might be quite childlike in most instances, but she was a veteran of FWO and when it came down to it, she could act surprisingly mature and collected. As to why she was a member of Libra? That is a sad story for another time.

"Good to hear it!" Armalthy exclaimed. "Slaughtering the people of Nagoya will be a great pick me up. We've been focused on pin-prick strikes until now, so an assault on a major city will be fun!"

"Yes, but I would prefer we take out at least one member of the RRT before the operation begins. Fighting six players will be annoying, especially if they're backed by American military power." Herlex started flipping through pages in a binder in front of him, stopping on the portrait of a girl with short purple hair. "Arlmalty, Elna." He looked over at them. I want the three of us to ambush and kill Wexel. Her summoning magic could be annoying and I know she's been using her familiars to track our movements. She needs to be removed before we can begin the strike. Alice's plan might run into some issues if she's still alive." He looked at his two teammates. “The three of us combined should be able to Alpha strike her and take her out before anyone can come to save her.”

"How are we going to separate her?" Elna asked. "Don't those idiots usually travel in groups?"

"They do, but we just need to make it so that they can't do that, don't we?" Herlex gave a nasty smile. "If we hit several targets at once, they won't have the luxury of sticking together, and even if it's just for a few minutes we just need to pull her away from the rest of the team and take her out." He knew the RRT was being forced to respond to almost every attack, and political and public pressure was already mounting.

"So basically you want to use our numbers to spread them thin?" Elna mused. "Not a bad plan, but why not hit someone with more punch? Like Superbia or Minazawa? Wexel is probably the least threatening of the bunch." Killing either of them would cripple the RRT.

"Because we probably can't take the others out quick enough." Armalthy shrugged, guessing Herlex motive. "Both of them are durable or quick enough to make killing them hard."

"That's part of it, but also, Wexel isn't as useless as you think, Elna." Herlex looked at the elf. "Sure, she might lack strength. However, as you know, summons are much more useful and versatile in the real world versus the game." He gestured towards Alice. "Wexel's been using them to scout our movements and greatly bolster American and Japanese Intel networks. Taking her out will give us an edge over the RRT and temporarily blind them. If we leave her alone until we strike at Nagoya, they'll likely detect our attack before it begins and be waiting for us." Having their surprise spoiled would be a problem, they were already taking a risk with the current plan and Herlex wanted to reduce the chances of failure.

"I guess that makes sense now that you explained it." Elna was more of the punch problem until it went away, person. "So, what's the plan?" She looked down at the table which displayed a map of Japan.

"We have separate teams do hit and runs, here, here, here, here, and here." He pointed to locations on the map. "We're not aiming to do any real damage, but we need to make it look convincing enough that they can't ignore us." Herlex continued. "Wexel is usually stationed in Tokyo, so all we need to do is draw her out into one of the outlying areas and strike her en-route. If we do it right, they won't be able to spare any backup for her, at least for a short enough time for us to strike."

{We get her away and jump her, its pretty simple.} Herlex mused.

"Will they even send her out?" Elna was doubtful that the RRT would send a lone summoner to fight in the field. "She's far too vulnerable to go into combat alone. They have to know that."

"Exactly, that's why I picked these targets, plus if we send only puppets at one of them. They'll most likely send her to deal with them." Herlex pointed to each spot again. "Each of these is a major population center or important place for business or government work. They have no choice but to send people to defend them. If they don't people will start getting more restless. So it will be a win-win even if they play it smart, but I doubt they have the luxury of doing so." Libra was playing a game where no matter what the RRT did they'd always lose. That was the advantage of being a de-centralized group who was focused on terror attacks.

"Makes sense." Elna's mouth contorted into a smile. "Taking the fight to them and reminding them that we can kill them, that sounds nice."

"Just remember, no overconfidence," Herlex warned. "If anything seems off, we back off. I have no interest in losing any more of us too stupid mistakes or hubris." They had just recently lost three members of Libra. Two in Kyoto to Akagi and one in Hokkaido to a joint U.S. JSDF strike. Luckily the three that died were some of the least important, but it still stung to be down three members.

"Yeah, getting exploded by a drone strike isn't really something I'm interested in." Elna shrugged. Ichimon got a bit too sure of himself during that attack and died as a result of his arrogance. "Stupid Rabbit should have listened to us." She laughed.

"Alice." Herlex looked at the girl. "Keep an eye on those four idiots. If they do anything stupid, let me know." He wanted to pre-empt any stupidity this time and he knew if anyone would do something dumb it was Sabia and her brother's team of misfits.

"Gotcha." Alice nodded. "Is it really a problem though, if I go see Mama? They seemed quite upset with that." She was wondering if it would be a problem.

"For now, I don't care." Herlex sighed. "Akagi isn't our enemy yet and perhaps you can keep it that way via your connection to her. Just don't go sharing any secrets with her." Having Alice to act as a go between was quite useful and he was hoping their connection would keep Akagi at bay.

"Yes, I know that." Alice giggled. "We mostly just play games and have tea, she's never asked me about Libra." Though Alice probably would tell her if asked, but she wouldn't admit that. Libra and its mission aligned too perfectly with her goals, so she decided to put up with some inconvenience. She'd wanted to spend more time with Akagi, but she also wanted to get revenge on the world that had wronged her. It was a difficult choice to make, but she decided to primarily work with Libra and spend time with Akagi on the side.

In fact, Alice was slated to spend some time with Akagi this weekend. She had spoken to her via her puppets but hadn't seen her in person since the Kyoto incident. She was wondering just how Akagi would treat her now that members of the organization she was a part of harmed her sister. She didn't think Akagi would be mad with her, but she had some anxiety about it. The tea party this weekend would be a nice change of pace for the girl, though she was sad she wouldn't get to see Kana. Akagi had been trying to keep her presence at the estate a secret from Kana and the others during the times she'd visited, so they had no idea about the two's relationship. Alice had never once met Kana, but she still felt bad that she was hurt.

{I hope Mama's not mad with me...} Alice was worried that Akagi would be angry with her for the actions of Hijax and Sumeralia. She didn't think Akagi would ever abandon her, but she was still worried. She knew just how important her sister was to the assassin and she figured in a contest of who was more important Alice would come up short.

{Maybe I'll give Kana Onee-chan a get-well teddy bear! Snuggling with them always makes me feel better!} Alice giggled as she thought of this upcoming weekend.