Entropy Through Order: Case Files of the Order of Freelance Mages
Second Order: Platinum Lucifer/Silver Angel
She was running.
As fast as her legs could carry her, she ran through the darkened city streets, aware of the presence just behind her. A vicious presence - that of her enemy.
Non-Administered World 214, MC073
"Not good," she said to herself as she dived into an alleyway, scrabbled back to her feet, and made a run down it. "Not good. This is really not good!" Searching around wildly, she found an emergency ladder hanging some fifteen feet above her, too far above her head to simply reach. "Very bad; wait, no it's not!"
Crouching low, the girl bent her legs, shifted her weight, and called upon a certain part of her brain; a part not entirely human. Receptors took the signal at the speed of light, sent the signal to receivers in her thighs; computer parts. The signals activated the "muscles" in her legs, and they activated the response to the stimulus. Translated into English, when the girl leaped, she leaped twenty feet straight up
extremely quickly, grabbed the
top rung of the emergency ladder, and pulled herself up.
Without pausing for breath, the girl quickly as she could ran up each level of the emergency exit, reaching the top of the building and flipping up onto the roof. Below her, the angry shouts of armed men could be heard getting closer, then fading.
Sighing with relief, the girl looked around before opening up a holographic computer screen. "This is Lance One," she said. "Undercover mission is botched. They're onto us..." On the screen, Franz Jaeger looked back, not at all amused.
"Emili," he said. "What happened? The disguise was perfect. The mission was simple!"
"Search and disarm?" Emili recalled. "Well searching became a problem when our contact blew our cover."
"Our contact?!" Franz echoed. "But we've been working with Jack for months! He doesn't just blow our cover!"
"Yeah, well, he won't do it again," Emili told him, holding up her right arm and forming a samll blue gem in her palm. "They put him in a meat grinder when they were done with him... literally."
"Ouch..." Franz muttered. "So what's your SitRep otherwise?"
"Not good," Emili said as she heard what sounded disturbingly like a tank drive by the building. "I think they have the whole platoon after me... and I think that was a tank..." Emili squeezed the gem. "Dagger Form,"
The gem morphed into a pair of daggers. Emili slid the two weapons into sheaths on her side.
"What did you do?!"
"Well..." Emili bit her lip. "I panicked."
"You didn't..." Franz groaned.
"Sorry," Emili said, smiling nervously. "But it just comes so naturally to me! Sure, I left ten people as a giant block of ice, but I got away!" Emili didn't miss Franz's palm smacking his face.
Every day, more like your teacher... "Anyway, what now?"
"We'll have to evac," Franz said. "Regroup, and try again. If that bomb goes off in the meantime..."
"Then it could mean the death of millions, I know." Emili said, grimacing. "Look, I can complete the mission, but I'll need equipment."
You're with me, right, Sidewinder?
[Yes, my friend.]
"What do you need?"
"Guns," Emili replied. "Lots of guns; any reinforcements?"
"Sorry," Franz shook his head. "Everyone else is deployed around the world; the only one nearest to you is Psycho, and-"
"No," Emili answered. "Just give me what I can get."
"We'll drop you your fifteen-two and SMAW," Franz said, typing a few keys. "We can also drop a pair of forty-fives."
"Ammo?" Emili asked.
"And plenty of it. Where do you need the drop?"
Emili stood up and searched the skyline of the city. "One kilometer west of my position. I can make it there easy."
"The drop might not be there, but we can try," Franz said. "Go!"
Emili broke into a run.
-
Franz leaned back in his chair as he sent the request to the bridge. "One launch pod, loaded with one 15.2mm Anti-Tank Rifle, one Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon, two forty-five caliber pistols, and 3 reloads for each."
The mission was supposed to be simple; each agent (minus Franz, who was to be the shipboard contact) of the OFM was to locate and disarm 50 massive versions of chemical weapons. Each weapon had been deployed by a terrorist group intent on overthrowing this world's various governments by detonating the bombs in each major city. Following this would, theoretically, be a major coup d'etat by the terrorists. The problem wasn't the coup d'etat - in the Order's opinion, that would be impossible to do - rather, the problem were the bombs. Each bomb was a cluster of chemical explosives, releasing the equivelant of VX Nerve Gas into the air. Given the proper wind conditions, the fatality rate alone would plunge the world into chaos, even before a coup d'etat.
When the TSAB discovered of this potentional incident (through scouting fleets and communication intercepts, among various other forms of intelligence gathering), they sent in the Order. Deploying their men all across the world with the ship
Aus'ruf watching them in space, the OFM had been spending the last three months going deep undercover to find and disarm the bombs. Since their presence, the OFM had succeeded in disarming 36 of them, but the remaining ones had eluded the members... until now.
As Franz listened to intercepted communications, he realized that Emili had inadvertenly locked the bomb in place. By casting her
Permafrost Coffin on it and, assuming it was on the ground, the terrorists would have to spend quite a bit of time defrosting the weapon. However, there was a contingency; the terrorists would probably start trying to root out other OFM members now, as quickly as possible. They had to be warned. Franz quickly opened up a spam channel and relayed a message, hoping everyone would get it in time.
Although I have to wonder... he thought as he typed the message to all members involved.
Did they really deploy a tank, somehow, or was that Emili's imagination?
-
[Barrier Jacket, Daggerspell Form.]
Emili's disguise (that of a standard terrorist operative) turned white and blue before shattering. In its place was a sleeveless white suit that resembled vaguely a one-piece bathing suit with a cut of fabric down the front. An armband formed on either arm, and on the right arm a series of circuits connected to a white gauntlet. Her boots were replaced with white shoes and long thigh-high light blue socks. The twin daggers on her hips moved to her back.
Emili leaped into the air, between buildings, and landed easily on the next roof. Scanning the area near her (including the building the bomb was in), she quickly began to hop from rooftop to rooftop, hoping she wouldn't encounter the suddenly-active terrorists. They seemed to be coming out of the woodwork.
There's too many of them to simply be terrorists... she thought. She pulled out one of her daggers and jumped into the alley between buildings. Clutching the wall with her gauntlet and boots, she slid down the side of one of the buildings before hoping the last ten feet down and landing. As the shadow of one of the terrorists walked by her, she quickly moved out of the alley. Coming up behind him, she sneaked up and grabbed him and covered his mouth with one hand. With her dagger, she quickly slit the terrorist's throat, dropping him instantly.
As he died, Emili let him go and noticed the symbol on his shoulder armor.
The symbol of the military force of this nation. she realized.
I get it; they must be using the terrorists as a diversion, blaming them for the WMDs while using their military to "maintain order".
Ha, Order through Chaos... how clever. Looks like we have to assassinate some people next.
Looking up and leaping, Emili quickly made it back to the rooftops and continued her movement, storing the knowledge away for debriefing later. She focused on her jumping skills, a trait she had picked up training with the Assault Platoon.
-
To cope with the stress of having mechanical parts along with human ones, the surgeons that pieced Emili back together had to do other modifications to her body in order to ensure that it wouldn't suddenly collapse under its own pressure. Many of her muscles were supplemented with injections that increased their density slightly, allowing Emili's body to handle the weight of the cybernetic replacements. While not granting her "super strength", she was stronger than the average human, though her right arm - the cybernetic one - was still far stronger. Further additions were metal and ceramic layers grafted to no more than three percent of her skeletal structure - mostly at points where her cybernetics met bone. These parts of her body were virtually unbreakable, and was a good reason her bones didn't snap in two as Emili hopped between buildings.
Her Cybernetics as well gave her abilities beyond the norm. As she hopped from rooftop to rooftop, evading capture, Emili's cybernetic legs produced enormous amounts of power for her size. Able to leap almost forty feet into the air unaided by magic and fall sixty without serious harm, Emili could easily outjump someone, let alone outrun them; without magic or sonic move, Emili was capable of speeds averaging 45 kilometers (28 miles) per hour in a full run (to compare, Earth's fastest human has been clocked at 10 meters a second - Emili's running about 12 meters a second).Her right arm is capable of lifting one and a half times her body weight and can absorb the recoil of her "big gun" as she puts it.
Perhaps the two most advanced features of her cybernetics, however, would be her brain and her eye. Her brain had to be meticulously worked on to support the cybernetic replacements, and the results did affect her personality to an extent. Her eye is like a living Heads-Up Display; telling her relative coordinates, the status of her body and enhancements, telescopic vision, and a direct link to any weapons she uses.
-
Emili stopped to take a breather, leaning against the stairwell of a rooftop and taking in some much needed air. The sound of rotors in the distance told her that the enemy/government had launched helicopters to search for her.
They're relentless! she thought angrily.
Well, at least I lost them on foot... staring back from where she came, she nonetheless sighed.
But I'll have to go back and get that bomb...
She opened up a channel to the ship. "Franz?"
"We're working on it," he said without pause. "The others have been warned and have made moves to disarm the last few bombs... but one of ours have been caught."
Emili stopped breathing. "Who...?"
Franz looked grim. "Natalia..." she looked away as Emili's eyes went wide. "...Lance 2..."
"We have to save her!" Emili shouted. Franz shook his head.
"No, the colonel said to get the bomb and pull out. We'll just have to let her go."
"No! We can't!" Emili protested. "She's still young! We can't just leave her!"
"Ma'am, you'll have to do as your ordered... I'm sorry..." Franz stared at Emili heavily. "Please, Emili..."
"..." Emili's eyes darkened as she looked down, her violet hair covering them. "...my guns..."
"Emili?"
"I'm going to take down as many of the bastards as I can..." Emili growned. "Franz, my guns."
"Th-they've dropped," Franz knew better than to argue with Emili by now. "The pod should be in visible range."
Emili looked up, tears visible in her good eye. "I'm on it... and Franz."
"Hm?"
"Tell Glen I'm sorry."
"For what?"
[Frost Fin.]
"For breaking protocol..."
Emili took to the air, cutting the channel, and flew straight upward, toward the drop pod as it sailed through the sky with all the grace of a rock. Like a streak of lightning, she flew, aiming straight as an arrow for the pod as it fell. She caught up to it and grabbed ahold of it tightly with her right arm. Using it as a base, she swung around and landed on top of the pod. Using both arms, she forcefully ripped open the pod's "door", revealing inside more than a few of Emili's favorite toys:
guns.
Emili reached into the pod and quickly pulled out the two forty-five caliber pistols.
"Ah, forty-fives," she said. "The holy pistol, made by God and given to Saint John Moses-
Damnit, Franz!" Pushing the idiotic thought aside, she quickly holstered the two guns on her hips and pulled out three large, heavy cases. Grabbing two with her cybernetic arm and one with her human arm, Emili leaped off the pod as it entered visual range, flew off a considerable distance, and landed. She quickly ascertained her new toys.
Ripping open one of the cases, Emili found her favorite gun; her Anti-Material Rifle. Designed to fire 15.2 millimeter armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds, the weapon could easily punch sixty millimeters of rolled homogenous steel armor using velocity alone. Emili grinned wickedly as she loaded the 5-bullet magazine into place, pulling back the bolt and loading a cartridge. Grabbing the other two clips in the case and loading them into magazine holders on the rifle's strap, she quickly pushed the case aside and opened the next.
What greeted her was something Emili wasn't expecting; 6 kilograms of plastic explosive along with a detonator, plus her forty-fives' extra clips, four per pistol. Emili had a special modification for this; extra slots on her cybernetic legs, designed to hold various sized clips, could easily hold two 7-shot clips a piece. Loading them so, Emili took the plastic explosive and shoved it into a pack provided, keeping the detonators separate, of course.
Opening the third case, Emili's already half-insane grin was supplement by gleaming eyes as, in all its glory, was her "big gun"; her rocket launcher. Officially known as a Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW for short), with Emili it was essentially her trump card. The only person on the OFM that could use it solo (normally a SMAW requires a crew of two people to use), this weapon was designed to kill anything and everything. Loaded with a single HEAA (High Explosive Anti-Armor) rocket already, plus three more in the case, Emili could easily take out the incoming helicopters and tanks... assuming they existed.
Emili picked up the SMAW with both arms. Loaded up with it, her Anti-Material Rifle, two pistols, six kilograms of plastic explosives, plus ammo, Emili was carrying on her about forty extra kilograms, or about 88 pounds, of equipment. A normal person would strain under the weight and probably collapse, but Emili simply shrugged the SMAW to rest on her left shoulder and decided it was time to go hunting. She couldn't fly with all this equipment, but she could empower her jumping skills.
"Right, time to go disarm a bomb," she said, licking her lips. She ran forward ten feet and leaped into the air.
-
The group of "terrorists" designated to protect the bomb were nervous. Though they had rolled out with everything they had on hand (especially after seeing the spy's odd power of ice manipulation), they had yet to find her, and she might be coming back with reinforcements. Though their government was quickly working on a way to find other agents, a few of the soldiers feared it would be too late, and soon they would be done for.
The two helicopters and three tanks protecting the building disagreed. The main battle tanks had been deployed in a triangular formation, with each one in front of an entrance, while the choppers maintained a steady watch. There had been three choppers as well, but something had caught their attention and so they sent one of them to investigate. Since then, the chopper had found an odd pod of sorts and had landed to take a closer look.
As the two helicopters and tanks kept a lookout, the soldiers maintained an ever vigilant watch... too bad for them, they were dealing with someone who was used to urban warfare and the concept of large explosions.
Emili landed on one of the buildings, hefted her rocket launcher, and took a breath.
"It's time to get this show started," she said to herself. "...
Sidewinder!
[Blitz Action!]
Using her rapid-movement magic, Emili leaped forward and up again, lifting her rocket launcher to aim, and fired at the nearest helicopter at the peak of her leap, right in between the choppers and almost 200 feet in the air. The combination of her
Blitz Action's rapid forward movement and her SMAW's recoil caused her movements to pause as the rocket exited the missile launcher. While the warhead moved toward the helicopter, Emili quickly reloaded the weapon and fired it again, this time at the second helicopter.
The second rocket was sufficient enough to break Emili out of her
Blitz Action. When her reflexes slowed down to normal settings, she watched as both helicopters react to the rockets all too slowly, and both of them met their demise as the warheads detonated, rupturing fuel tanks and armor plating and causing the helicopters to go up in blazes of fire and heat.
Loading her third rocket as she fell, Emili noted that below her the enemy finally reacted to what was going on. Gunfire erupted all around her as she spun around, her Device activating
Protection any time a bullet would have connected, thus protecting its master like it should. Emili aimed at the ground directly below her, which conveniently had a tank there. This time, she acquired a lock first as the tank started moving, getting away from the sudden appearance of the warrior in the sky.
Tone was acquired, and Emili let loose, firing the third rocket with impunity. As the tank rolled away, its gunner turned the turret around in time to see the rocket fly in between the main body and the turret itself, blowing the tank in two as it detonated. Emili landed, rolled, and stood up, quickly loading her fourth and last rocket as the enemy took cover all around her, sending bullets were way. The bullets were still easily deflected by her
Protection field, so she took her time in aiming at the front door and firing the rocket.
The second and third tanks decided at this point to roll around the building, taking aim at the mage. Cursing under her breath as the rocket destroyed the entire
wall of the building to reveal the still-frozen bomb inside, Emili dropped the SMAW and quickly ran backwards before turning and sprinting. One of the tanks fired its main cannon, showing complete disregard for any civilians that might be about. Emili responded by running and deploying a
Round Shield with an overlapping
Protection field.
The tank shell missed, but the resulting detonation from the High Explosive warhead was sufficient to break through the field and significantly weaken the energy shield. Emili used the smoke from the shell as a distraction and ran into the path between buildings. She didn't pause for breath as she ran, unstrapping the AMR and hefting it. She made a left at a fork and burst out from the buildings, right next to a tank.
Emili ran toward the tank, raising the rifle and blowing the tank commander in two with a well-placed running shot. As the turret moved to intercept, Emili leaped into the air while her Device activated
Blitz Action again. As time seemed to slow around Emili (though in truth her reflexes were speeding up rapidly), she waited for the right moment to strike. As her leap in the air seemed to extend, she twisted around to where she was upside down with her gun's barrel pointed at the tank.
Her barrel touched the tank's armor, bounced, and reached into the open tank hatch.
Emili cut loose, firing all four of her remaining shots into the tank's hatch. Time resumed to normal for her, and as she cleared the tank Emili rolled and flipped, landing in a kneel as the inside of the tank behind her smoldered, its crew dead and equipment ruined. Emili dropped the empty magazine and slammed the next one home, glaring at the tank next to her. The commander of the tank flipped and slammed the hatch shut, directing the turret to point at her. Emili was not an easy target, however, and before the turret had even finished rotating she had ran forward and leaped on top of the tank. Using her cybernetic arm, she punched a hole in the tank hatch and completely ripped it off. Aiming her rifle at the startled crew, she emptied the clip into the tank and jumped off of it.
Loading her last clip, Emili walked into the building unopposed. The footmen, she decided, had run off like babies upon seeing her far superior skill. The bomb was still frozen in place, she noted, as she walked up to it and willed the ice to vanish, using magic similar to bind breaking but only useful upon ice she had created, not on someone else's or natural ice. Staring at the nerve gas bomb, she dropped to her knees and opened the detonation control panel; really a PDA that was set to make the thing explode when a trigger was detonated.
There was an easy way, and a hard way, to prevent the detonation of this thing. Emili chose the easy way and crushed the control panel with her cybernetic hand, completely preventing the terrorists from ever using it again. She grinned in triumph as the bomb became totally useless. Now for her, the only thing left was to get it the hell out of Dodge.
This was going to prove hard, she thought as she heard footsteps and tanks roll up behind her.
Reinforcements?
"Don't move!" One of the men shouted. Emili smirked.
"
Sidewinder!"
[Yes, my friend! Blitz Action!]
Emili not only moved, but coiled her legs and leaped straight backwards. Pulling out her gun in mid-leap, she twisted around and found herself going right toward two tanks and a helicopter, along with what looked like fifty soldiers. As her leap took her between the two tanks, she emptied her last AMR clip into one of the tanks, puncturing the fuel tank of the behemoth as she hit the ground running. "Time" resumed for her as she ran away from the tank. A spectacular explosion followed, destroying the tank utterly, but leaving the other one relatively unscathed.
Emili ignored the tank as its turret turned to fire at her, focusing instead on the men she was about to run into. Gunfire bounced off her
Protection field as she pulled out her dual forty-fives, opening fire as she ran between the men. Most of her bullets found their mark, piercing soldiers in the head or weaker parts of their body armor, dropping or wounding them. She opened the clip-holders on her legs and quickly reloaded her guns as she ran directly toward one of the soldiers.
Sliding on both feet, Emili ground to a halt right next to the man. His shocked face was the last thing she saw of him as she fired off a head-shot, point blank, before turning around and resuming fire on the others.
It wasn't looking good; Emili had more opponents than bullets, and it wouldn't be long before her
Protection field broke, unable to withstand this much gunfire for so long. If that tank managed to get a clear shot, or the helicopter-
Emili gasped. The helicopter! Cursing, she turned around and stared at the flying machine just as it fired two rockets at her. Emili quickly reholstered both guns and ran forward as fast as she could. The rockets impacted where she was just seconds before while the helicopter continued tracking her position, opening fire with an underslung vulcan cannon. Bullets rained down on Emili as the 20mm shells hit her field, weakening it at a much higher rate than the soldier's assault rifles. She had to think fast, if she wanted to live.
Emili got her idea from something Franz had watched once. Staring at the helicopter above her, she decided she was going to make it hers. She ran toward one of the buildings and, using a mix of her own speed and magic, ran
up the wall. The helicopter and soldiers continued firing at her, and just as her field finally broke, Emili leaped into the air, clear into the void, and landed on the helicopter's nose. The pilot and copilot, too shocked to act, only watched as Emili lifted her cybernetic arm and punched through the canopy, grabbing the pilot by the collar and pulling as hard as she could, ripping him through the canopy and out of the machine. Pulling out her gun, she shot the copilot twice, then leaped into the giant hole she created and assumed command of the chopper.
It was fortunate that the helicopters of this world operated much the same as the ones she trained with on Erusia. Increasing the helicopter's collective, she moved upward while pushing the cyclic forward, causing the machine to point down and move forward. Unpracticed hands aimed at the tank and soldiers while they were still wondering what had just happened. She pushed a switch on the cyclic control stick and switched to anti-tank missiles. Aiming at the tank, she pulled the trigger twice, sending both dumb-fired missiles right at the tank. The tank moved, but not in time.
As the missiles obliterated the tank, Emili decided that piloting this thing was more trouble than it was worth. So she cut all collective, causing the helicopter to quickly drop. Quickly jumping out of the machine as it fell, she decided that, since she had already broken protocol, why not do it one more time?
Emili pulled out her Device as the helicopter hit the ground and exploded. Setting
Sidewinder to Staff Form, she pointed at the soldiers below.
"I've had enough of this!" She shouted as energy collected at the staff's blue-gemed tip. "
Sidewinder!"
[Charging Polar Ray! Count V!]
The soldiers, in confusion and fear, began to fire at Emili wildly. Bullets streaked by her, but a few lucky ones caught her right arm, shorting out a few of its circuits. Emili held the staff with her left arm as it charged.
[Count IV]
A series of bullets completely destroyed her right arm as she used it as a shield.
Damnit, gonna have to get that repaired...
[Count III]
Bullets bounced off her legs before their armor gave way, allowing bullets to hit the valuable circuitry underneath.
[Count II]
A bullet caught Emili in the chest, but her Barrier Jacket shrugged it off. Emili wheezed slightly as all the breath was knocked out of her as she focused on aiming.
[Count I]
"Polar... Ray..." Emili shouted. A series of bullets smashed into her chest. Bright blue cracks started to form in the Jacket. "...Freeze!"
[Yes, my friend.]
All went silent for a millisecond.
A bright blue freezing beam of energy ejected from the tip of
Sidewinder. The large beam cut a swath through the remaining soldiers as Emili cut through them. The beam of energy froze what it didn't kill, though the magic damage alone was sufficient enough to completely obliterate most of them from the face of the planet. As the beam faded, most of the soldiers were either dead or frozen, and those that weren't were too busy running away.
Emili grinned at her victory weakly. She had won. She had to break protocol, but she won.
Sidewinder slipped out of her hands and fell to the ground below, and she soon followed. Emili hit the ground hard, causing a small impact crater as her weakened Barrier Jacket absorbed what it could. Emili, half-conscious, stared upward to the sky, watching as the cruiser traced its way across space. Too weak to send a distress signal, she wondered how long before the enemy regrouped and took her out. Grasping painfully at her pistol, she lifted it up and readied herself against the incoming onslaught.
And then she fainted.
-
When Emili opened her eyes next, she was on board a Pelican Dropship, strapped onto a stretcher. "How..."
"It's over," A voice told her. Looking to the side, she saw much to her surprise, Erick and Glen. Both looked tired and worn. Erick was the one who spoke, his country drawl unmistakable. "Jus' go back ta sleep, Emili. We got ev'rythin' cleaned up. Echo 415 has the bomb. Ya did good."
"I... did... good..." she echoed, feeling sleep take her over. "Glen?"
As if snapping him out of a trance, Glen turned to look at her. "What?"
"Did you..."
"No, I didn't." he said.
"You're lying." Emili accused.
"Just... don't worry about it, Em," Glen said, raising a hand and lacing it with one of Emili's. "We got it covered. Okay?"
"O... Okay..." Emili replied. She smiled at him. "Did you rescue me, oh sir knight?"
Erick sighed and laughed while Glen merely gave her a soft look; usually the closest he got to smiling. "Yeah... I guess so." he told her. Emili laughed.
"I'm pretty torn up," she said. "How long before I'm operational?"
"We'll take ya back to th' ship," Erick answered. "But it's lookin' like we might hafta take you back to Mid for repair. We don' have that many replacement parts, hon,"
"Damn," Emili groaned. "I really fucked up, didn't I?"
"No more than any of us had," Glen assured her, squeezing her hand gently. "We all break protocol once or twice. Especially Franz."
Emili laughed again. "I'm tired," she said.
"Then sleep... it'll be a boring trip for you anwyay," Glen told her.
Emili nodded, and closed her eyes. Her cybernetic mind started its sleep sequence, and her human one followed shortly thereafter.
Sleep...
As Emili lapsed into sleep, Glen sighed and let go of her hand.
Sidewinder gleamed in his opposite hand.
[Is my friend alright?]
"She'll be fine," Glen told the Device.
[...Then I am glad.]
"Me too..."
"Will ya ever tell 'er?" Erick asked as he leaned back in his seat. Glen didn't have to ask as he considered the city that they had just left.
"No... let's not tell her about this time..." he said to Erick. "I don't want her to know that my hands are stained with the blood of innocent victims."
"The end justifies th' means, kid," Erick told Glen. "In th' end, they'll thank th' Fire Knight and Silver Angel."
As Glen thought about the night before, he sighed. "...Perhaps."