//File 1.2 - A Piece of the Pie//

The Tennobashi-zu station was the third stop of the Narita Subway Line, an important line to affordably ferry passenger arrivals into Japan to neo-Tokyo. The stop lay on the outskirts of greater neo-Tokyo. Passengers who used that station did not intend to enter the city proper, but were likely to be headed to the suburbs. Neo-Tokyo had grown exponentially in the 21st century, co-opting all its neighbouring regions, towns, and even satellite cities to become the largest megacity in the Sixth World.

This suburb station was atypical. A quiet affair, its ground floor was open access, wide shallow steps led to the station. To the left were the escalators leading downwards, to the right, a lift took one to the ticketing level. A drop off point and a car park occupied the space in front of it, beyond which was the road leading out to various turnpikes and exits. Down at basement level 1 was ticketing and the turnstiles. The station control office occupied the middle of the floor, but it was largely unmanned and automated. Ticketing itself was an entirely electronic affair as well, with transactions made by commlink scanners for the most part, and by credsticks for those who avoid electronic payments. Basement 2 was the train platform. Trains ran every ten minutes on both sides of the platform. The centre was largely clear space, glistening white tiles in perfect symmetry, interspersed with upright holopanels displaying train routes, arrival times and assorted ads.

As Clint entered the station at the ground level, he noticed two things. One was a man exiting the elevator on his right. He wore a long hooded coat, and moved smoothly towards the car park and exit. He looked nothing like the picture nor description of Jacques Etienne, nor was he carrying anything. One or two other people were also at the station, heading down via the escalator. He had to decide where to intercept the courier. The layout of the station was easy to figure out from the station map he browsed and memorised easily. The other thing he noticed was a police squad car turning into the car park. Down below at the station platform, Hotaru wasted no time in slaving the rotor drone to his rig. His father had somehow made sure he had all the resources he needed, even as he sent his son out of the country to protect him from danger. Unfortunately, danger seemed to have followed him to Japan, beginning with the betrayal by a false Dillon Halbert. All the same, having his familiar drones gave him a sense of security, so much so that even the current police surveillance didn't bother him momentarily as he fired up his drones and directed them expertly to the various locations. The two Hornets and one of the Horizon Eyes began to fly their way towards the escalator exit, while Hotaru stood at the elevator to wait for its arrival. Another Eye he sent towards the side of the platform where he had alighted from the train. The three passengers at the platform all turned to Hotaru as he began his acitivity. "Excuse me, what is going on?" One of them asked, his polite Japanese belied his concern. Another passenger nearby mentioned something about alerting station control.

Hotaru turns toward the passengers. He imitates one of the deep bow he seen from other in Japan and address then in the most formal and respectful tone he can muster in Japanese (rank 3). "My deepest apologies Jōkyaku-sama, your inconvenience is my shame." Using is knowledge of SIMRIG stars, Hotaru choose the name of a popular Japanese SIMstar. "Fukakyon-sama is considering this location for her next SIMshow and I was humbly tasked with scouting it with my cameras. The authorities are informed of course and even directly on my commlink at this moment. To express properly my regret in disturbing your peace, I will endeavor to have the PR team send you VIP access pass for the next show if you just give me a contact info. My deepest apologies again."

The Hornets and an Eye ascended to basement 1, where the turnstiles and ticketing machines were. Again, the station was not at all busy that time of night, with only two people ready to take the escalator down. The drones were able to see the entire layout of the level.

The Eye near the tunnel could see that there was no train arriving, as all it detected was darkness. The Eye near Hotaru continued to view the entire station platform. Max was able to pick up smells associated with train stations, the smell of the passengers and Hotaru, all human, and one other unidentifiable but increasingly significant smell.

The passenger whom Hotaru spoke to hesitated when Hotaru spoke so persuasively. The other two passengers, on on this side of the platform, the third on the other side, also turned to listen.

Lucky for Clint, there wasn't many people in the station so he started observing each face to try and find a match to the comm picture he had received... He moved in a position where he could keep an eye on those exiting and on the exit leading to the car park, where his own extraction should be waiting.

There were only three people in Clint's line of sight, two of them were entering the station, going down the escalator. They couldn't be the courier, as the courier would've been exiting rather than entering. The third was the man in the long hooded coat exiting the elevator, who didn't match the photo of Jacques Etienne. After a couple of moments, the ground level of the station was empty. Whomever was in the lower levels of the station naturally Clint couldn't see.

The police car began to turn in.

Well since there was nobody else on his level, the courier was probably down the escalator... So Clint goes down the escalator.

ClintDescending down to the first basement, the first inkling of something out of the ordinary was that there were drones flying about inside the station. Small surveillance ones, but nonetheless atypical of a subway station. They seemed to have come up from the level below. The two people ahead of Clint looked warily at them.

HotaruHotaru's scanning of basement level 1 saw two more regular-looking commuters about the descend the escalator, as well as a more out-of-the-ordinary-looking man in a long leather trench coat and what looked like body armor also approaching, presumably to take the train.
The two commuters, especially the one who spoke to Hotaru, didn't look very convinced at what Hotaru was claiming. The drones didn't appear to be focused on the man who was controlling them, but looked like they had spread themselves out in some sort of hovering and scanning pattern. This minor complication though, was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream from the other man, the one who thought of calling station control. His body seemed to contort and crumple onto the floor. From the tunnel, in the direction where Hotaru's earlier train had left, two shapes began to appear. They looked like, like, and there was no better word for it, large insects!

Getting on basement 1, Clint scans around to see if his target is there. After a few moments, if he sees nothing out of the ordinary, he'll keep going down the the next basement, where this Mr. Etienne is suppose to have gotten off...

Et merde Natto, are you seeing that? What kind of grenade are in those eyes exactly? I think i'm gonna need them.

The unflappable Natto let out a couple of choice curse words over Hotaru's audio comms, before turning all business-like. "Back up is on the way. A squad is topside right now. Mage ops will follow asap. The Eyes contain one tear gas grenade each. Meant for riot control in train stations." Hotaru wasn't patched to the rest of the police comms network, but he could imagine the transmissions spoke over it. The elevator wasn't far from Hotaru, he had just picked up his crate from it. And the lift was descending, doors ready to open any second.

Over at the escalator, Clint had begun to descend into basement 2 when he heard the first shriek from a passenger standing by the platform. A quick survey showed three commuters standing there: the one who screamed, and two others in conversation. One of the two matched the description of Jacques Etienne. What was obvious was also a number of drones flitting about, orbs, a rotor drone and a drone-dog. Finally he saw the source of the commotion. Emerging from the platform tunnel were two humanoid-like insects, each slightly larger than an average human. It was as if they appeared out of nowhere. At the moment of their appearance, the screaming passenger completely collapsed on the ground, and the two others on the escalator with him began to panic.

Seeing the bugs, Clints springs into action, running through the panicking passengers towards Hotaru. Hey boy !! Hurry up and help the passengers take cover, I'll take care of the bugs !!

Seriously what a day Hotaru quickly analyse the situation glancing is shared and recording gaze on the weird bugs, the gunwielding maniac (who at least wasnt shooting at him, that was almost surprising), the fallen passenger (hopefully just unconscious) and the progress of the elevator.

@Natto Got a weird guy here addressing me and shooting the bugs, doesn't look like one of yours. Elevator look like my best way out, but i'm worried about the commuter who crumbled.

Clint pushed past the two commuters in front of him on the escalator, who attempted to run past him, back up to the storey above. His speed propelled him forward, and he expertly shot at the nearer of the two strange insect-creatures.Clint's shot was true, and his powerful revolver would have made short work of a regular person. However, the insect's body carapace seemed to deflect much of the bullet, leaving it hurt, but by no means seriously injured.

I see the guy. He's not police. Looks and sounds like he's doing the hero thing. Continue to the elevator.

Hotaru wasted no time in heading for the elevator as quickly as he could as the man who just arrived opened fire on the insects. The passenger who was speaking to him earlier followed suit, whimpering in fear. "Yokai!" was all he could mutter.

He did direct the nearest Horizon Eye slaved to him to target the creatures with its pre-loaded grenade, hoping to blow them up.

As Hotaru and his drones moved towards the elevator, and the commuter some meters away, the insects were right behind them both, scaring the living daylights out of the whimpering Japanese man. Neither of the insects seemd to pay any attention to Clint at all, even though Clint had injured the first. In fact, as Clint shot them, he noted how their chitinous exterior seemed to deflect much of the force of his bullet. He was lucky to have gotten a shot in between the plates, and a lymph-like fluid appeared to ooze from it. Sometimes bullets were less effective than blades.

The first insect fired some sort of spittle at the rotor-drone which was carrying the case, and the second did the same at Hotaru.

While this was happening, the other commuter, the one who had collapsed earlier, began to get up. But as he did, both Clint and Hotaru could see, even through the gas, that he had changed. What was a human face now looked like he, or it, had the beginnings of compound eyes, like an insect, and small antennae were starting to grow out of his forehead. His mouth appeared to sharpen, like a proboscis, and sounds were trying to come out of it. Giive uzz back ourr blood! Not steal from uzz!

The two insects closed in on Hotaru and the rotor-drone, directing their gobs of viscous spittle at them. Neither managed to reach their targets, splattering on the nearby floor instead. The transformed commuter behind continued to call out to Hotaru the same words, "Give uzz back ourr blood!" Hotaru continued to head towards the elevator with his drones, and the lift had nearly reached his floor.

What happened next was utter chaos. The Horizon Eye Natto had put under Hotaru's control were meant for surveillance and crowd control purposes. When necessary, they could be activated to blow themselves up, releasing a cloud of CS gas over a blast radius. The Eye moved as accurately as it could between the two insects, and detonated. Tear gas began to fill the station in an increasing radius. Caught in the middle of the blast, the two insects began to writhe in agony and let out a high pitched buzzing, like the sound of hundreds of little bugs scraping over metal. The blast cloud also caught the Japanese man near the insects, who fell to his knees coughing and choking and throwing up. Hotaru had in his carelessness attacked an innocent man!

What have you done?! The urgent and angry voice of Natto immediately came over his commlink. Immediately Hotaru found that his remote connection to the two other Eyes and both Hornets was being terminated, land only Max and the Rotor-drone were still being controlled by him, for the moment. Your orders were to escape, not engage!

Continuing his sprint, Clint changes the hand holding his pistol before drawing his new katana...

Clint closed in towards the chaos of the two insects, the passenger and nearly Hotaru. The tear gas obscured some of the line of sight, but it was still enough for him to see through his enhanced vision. He was now nearly upon them, but had to find a way to approach them without succumbing to the effects of the CS gas himself.

The commuter-turned insect continued its droning, repeating the request for the package to be returned to them, but otherwise made no move towards Clint nor Hotaru.