(Oh, yeah.)
The Prime Minister and his entourage drew back as Aiko summoned a huge sword, not accustomed to seeing something like that in real life. After she left, he straightened his tie.
"Those two are Japan's best hope. I hope that they can work together."
He turned back to his entourage.
"Now, let's talk about emergency provisions and barricades."
The taxi dropped Aiko off at Kishonsu, where thirty men stood at perfect attention and in formation.
"We are at your command, General Aiko!" they said in unison.
They then saluted her and then dropped their arms back down.
Well, Aiko, you have your soldiers. I can only hope that they prove to be what you needed. Working with Scott and his team might have been a more reliable option.
Scott pressed onward, leading them further down into the sewers. Every now and then, Siren would ask them to stop and they would go down a different tunnel. Within about twenty minutes, they had found another hive.
"Ugly creatures, aren't they?" asked Scott.
Siren drew back, but Rocky put a hand on her shoulder.
"Honey, can you hypnotize them into sleep?"
"I'm not sure. I've never tried it on a large group, and these things aren't human, so I don't know what effect, if any, they would have on them."
"Well, try anyway, darling."
"Okay..."
Chelsea closed her eyes and began to focus. Her hands began to glow a soft red, and she began sending out psionic waves toward the drones.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Then, little by little, the drones began to fall asleep. After about ten minutes, every drone appeared to be asleep. Chelsea stopped not long after that, panting and sweating bullets. Nick handed her some water, and she chugged it gratefully.
"Good job, Siren."
Scott proceeded forward, leaning over a drone.
"Weirdest creatures I've ever seen. I would imagine this to be the offspring of a bee and a chameleon in a cheesy sci-fi flick."
He could hear Valor chuckling.
We should get a sample of them and give it to Japan's lab.
Good idea.
Scott wrapped his hand around the throat of one and effortlessly crushed its neck, killing it instantly but relatively silently. He picked it up and they began heading back to the surface. It was slow going and always done while looking over their shoulders, but they made it back to the surface undisturbed. They slipped the corpse into a bag and began making their way to Japan's Diet building in Scott's car. Scott went in alone to meet with Nakai, and laid it on his desk. Nakai gave a slow whistle.
"Ugly beast, isn't it? I'll have some of my boys at the state forensics lab take a look at it."
One of his people took the corpse, which was as large as the desktop, and hustled out of the room with it. Scott sat down in the chair, and Nakai told him of what had happened.
"Well, I agree that we should make no further moves until we know what we're dealing with. We'll wait on the results from the lab, and with whatever Aiko is doing."
Scott left the building and took his team back to the hotel.
"I will try and get in touch with Aiko later today. She's a bit eccentric, but she does have a competent grasp of the situation. I think we can trust her...maybe..."
Nick was about to crack wise, but Richard silenced him with a look.
"I guess we play the waiting game now."