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Fragile Fates: Chapter 8

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Ch. 8: Raid


The night of Crystal's ball was already getting a bit hectic.  The amount of people invited was ridiculous large.  Anyone who was someone was in attendance, meaning all the political big wigs as well as the richest folks in Great Metropolis were there.  None of those people actually mattered, of course.  They were there simply to stay in good standing with the all powerful Tyrantess.  After all, the more they could get into her good graces, the more lenient she would be about letting them keep their positions, or their money.

Jewels, a black cat with pencil straight hair, and dressed in a formal black and white skirt and blouse as well as white stiletto high heels, checked off guests' names on her clipboard as she greeted the incoming arrivals.  As Crystal's right hand woman, she was in charge of starting the event, shaking the hands of all the attendants, and making sure it ran smoothly.  The Ferret of Honour wouldn't be arriving until a bit later, which gave Jewels and the security more time to scope the crowd.  In the middle of the crowd, a certain skunk could be heard speaking.

"And so, Mr. Purtsnount, this dress was designed by none other than the latest at Monique's Unique Fashion Boutique and...Uh, ahem, please excuse me one moment."  Diamond, a black and white furred skunk dressed an elegant red silk dress, gave a quick curtsy in the fastest way possible while retaining her lady-like composure before heading into the restroom and into the nearest cubicle.  After a few moments of fishing around her purse, she pulled out a bottle.  Flushing the toilet, she set about fixing herself up.  Moments later, she emerged from the restroom and returned back to the ballroom floor and continuing her idle conversation.

"Hey, Digs," Pete said, as the convoy he was were in drove on towards the ball, only a short distance ahead of Crystal's convoy.  "What sort of stuff do you expect will happen tonight?"

Remaining silent, Digs simply turned away from the rookie and looked out the window at the crowd in the distance.  What was all this for anyways?  Crystal was all about glam and glitter ever since she got this position, and he thought none of this kind of scene really meant anything to her.  At least, it didn't used to.  To Digs, the Tyrantess' posturing all seemed rather pointless.  It was just another thing to frustrate the purple echidna.

"C'mon, man.  We're partners.  You should at least say something and keep conversation," Pete stated flatly.

"I don't have to do anything for you," Digs said, shaking his head.  "Just do your job and I'll do mine.  Don't bother me."

"Sheesh, fine then." The canine said, turning to stare out his own car window, taking a view at the large crowd just as they were pulling up to the party.

At this point, the rest of the agents had already been set in position, including the snipers.  All that was left was for the two partners to set up where they were supposed to be stationed.

"Let's go," Pete said, as he opened the convoy's door and stepped out.  Shaking his head once more, Digs did as he was told.  Both immediately headed towards their posts, with Digs' being stationed by to the Tyrantess' chair, and Pete being set more towards the entrance of the ball.

Once they were in position, the Tyrantess' limo pulled up.  Out stepped the ferret, waving to the masses that had come to greet her and heading in through the entrance, past Pete and towards her seat.  A loyal escort of guards followed her in as she made her way through the crowd.  After taking a seat, an attendant came up with a clipboard, reporting what had happened thus far.  The ferret nodded as she read it over.

"Looks like everything's going as the data indicated," a resistance member said into his wired microphone as he watched the ball from a safe distance with a set of digital binoculars.  His post was set up far from the scene, allowing him to easily go unnoticed by anyone in the area.

"Good. We'd better carry out our plan soon," Aust replied from the group's temporary HQ.  "You've got everything set up, right?" he asked as he turned to his technician.

"All clear and ready to go, sir," Rio responded.

"Alright, don't go until my signal," Aust said to his two team leaders, Alex and Rose.

"Roger that," Alex replied.  He was in charge of the relatively small group who would specifically attempt to abduct Crystal.

"What are we waiting for?" an annoyed Rose asked.  "So the rich old folk can stuff their fat faces?"  She was quite agitated at having to wait at all.  Her team was in charge of the large group that would serve as the main distraction while Alex's team moved in to nab Crystal.  She also had the three key sharpshooters, whose job was to make sure those enemy snipers never got a shot off.  Rose was somewhat reluctant to lead, and the only reason she agreed was that being a distraction meant she'd get the chance to punch someone.

"We've got to wait for an opening, Rose," Aust answered.  "Even Alex understands that."

After a few more excruciating moments, Crystal rose from her seat, preparing to give the speech she prepared for the night.

"Upload it, Rio," Aust commanded.  "She's starting to move."

Rio took the straw of her slushie out of her mouth and poked the enter key with it, initiating the virus.

Crystal went up to the microphone on the main stage and tapped it a couple of times, both testing it and asking the crowd for silence.

"Go, now!" Aust shouted.  With this, the plan was sprung into action.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming this evening..." Crystal started.

However, she was interrupted as the robot guards around the entire perimeter and within the ball itself suddenly started collapsing, their red iris flashing before going out.  The virus was working its magic.  What Rio had uploaded into the robotic mainframe of the government HQ was a program that would eliminate all the robots assigned to the squads protecting Crystal.  The nine robots for each squad crumpled to the floor, leaving only the five agents, two snipers, Digs, and Pete, greatly evening out the numbers.

This wasn't the only thing that interrupted Crystal's prepared speech, however.

"Oh, shut up already!" Rose shouted, grinning as she punched out the agent who had been near her.  As the Imperial snipers whirled to take their shots, each of them was pegged by the gunners in the distraction team.

As Rose's group continued to pummel the agents who closed on their position, the crowd turned into a teeming mess of screaming panic.  Most of the guests ran off in any direction they could, not wanting to be any part of what was happening.  Jewels did her best to direct the crowd out of the building and out of harm's way, just as she was instructed to.

"Get behind me, Crystal!" Digs shouted.  Being the experienced veteran, he had already moved into position, making sure that securing Crystal was his top priority.  Pete, however, was in a state of shock.  Seeing those robots collapse like that was incredible, in a bad way, of course.  He fumbled with his gun as he tried to remove it from its holster, only to drop it on the ground.  As it hit, the gun discharged, and the shot made its way into Rose's group, hitting one of the sharpshooters and rendering him completely immobilized, and probably dead.  If there was anything that was good about Pete, it was that he was extremely lucky.

One of the other sharpshooters in the group found himself faced with one of the Imperial agents far closer than he expected.  Before he could take a step back to attempt a shot, a clawed uppercut shredded through what protective armour he had.  Heist, a punkish, ragged, bright pink and black spotted hyena with a black mohawk and a wickedly large grin on his face, had been set in dismantling the opposition.  As he recoiled from his uppercut, his grin began to fade as another agent hit him with a strong right hook, sending him sprawling back.  Even a talented agent like him clearly wouldn't have an easy time against these numbers.

Crystal turned to Digs, saying, "I can handle this fine, Digs.  You exit the building.  Make sure that none of the Rebels here escape."  And for a second, Crystal's eye colour changed, though it changed back just as quickly.

Finally, after the majority of the agents had closed in on or been immobilized by Rose's group, Alex's group sprang into action, emerging from the shadows and advancing on Crystal's position.  While Digs was still distracted by Crystal's strange behavior, Alex took the opportunity to smack the echidna right in the back of the head, spending him flying forward.  He landed face first, sprawled out a bit behind Crystal.

"You're mine!" Alex shouted.  He moved in to grab the ferret and drag her off.

However, just then, something entirely unexpected happened.

"What the hell is that, Rio!?" Aust asked in surprise, staring at the motion sensor readings.  They'd set it up just in case Crystal somehow managed to order in some backup while they were executing their operation.  But what he saw couldn't have been backup troops.

"No idea, sir!" Rio responded, equally shocked.  "It's barely readable on radar due to its incredible speed. Could it be...?"

As if coming out of nowhere, a blue, red, and gray blur of color blazed in, snatched Crystal, and left, all in one, swift moment.

The entire battle stopped dead, as the fighters from both sides stood in place, or alternatively, lay on the floor, absolutely dumbfounded, the thought, "What the hell just happened?" passing through everyone's mind.
This particular chapter was probably the first time I really set any sort of plan into motion. The whole thing was mostly ad libbed as we went along up until this point, but for whatever reason, I decided I wanted to plan this particular portion out, making this more into a story than just random characters interacting, among other things that will be revealed later.

The raid itself made sense, but the ending was part of what my 'plan' actually consisted of. It'll make more sense in the next chapter, of course. You'll just have to wait and see. Though, I'd be surprised if no one could guess just what exactly happened at the end.

EDIT: Made a few minor alterations, fixing a few spelling errors and adding descriptions to the newer characters introduced, as per request.
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