Phase 3: Corner Adder Adjutant before they can be extracted

The noise from the previous confrontation had made it hard to focus on any other sounds, but as soon as it cleared, you became aware of something you really wished you'd managed to hear earlier: the increasingly loud noise of helicopter blades chopping the air. You supposed you wouldn't be so lucky that Adder Adjutant had to swim for it or rely on a life-boat; the leader of Adder had instead called up a personal helicopter and was rapidly running their way towards it, across the deck. You knew that your Gambit ought to be somewhere in the area, but it couldn't risk uncloaking while that attack copter was air-borne and still a presence. While the Gambit might be sophisticated, technologically, it wasn't outfitted for combat. This Adder vehicle, on the other hand, was armed to the teeth with missile tubes on either side and a gatling turret on the underside, operated from a central point. Thankfully, the latter part didn't seem to be manned, but it would be as soon as Adder Adjutant managed to board.

Letting Adder Adjutant escape now would mean not just your surrender to Bound Blood, but also, perhaps, a far more immediate death by way of that gatling gun turning you to swiss cheese.

"Seize them!" Adder Adjutant shouted, sending two agents in your direction. The two raised their guns, but Au Revoir grabbed one length-wise and prevented it from being used, while Vaarvel used her strength and contortionist skills to wrap her way around the other, forcing him to drop his. Thus occupied, neither one of them was free to go after the leader of Adder; you gunned it yourself, feeling ridiculous as you carried out the most important mission in CEDIT history while dressed in your swim trunks. Nora hung back, helping the others fight. "Damn you, CEDIT! Persistent as ever! But you're out of time... The Palm of Royalty will be your grave!"

The chopper couldn't make any kind of landing on the boat; instead, it looked like they'd have to come up alongside it and lower a rope. You couldn't let Adder Adjutant take off on that rope! With desperation evident in your face and your movements, you threw a punch; it connected alongside the terrorist's head, sending their veil and helmet flying off and over the side of the ship. Shocked and agitated, they turned towards you with a snarl on their face. Their exposed visage was that of an Asian woman, with dark eyeshadow and lipstick; their black hair was cut short, for ease of concealing their identity, you assumed. One side of her face had already started to bruise from your attack. "You may come to regret that!" she warned you in her newly clear, feminine voice, then issued a martial arts chop to your shoulder. You weren't quite regretting hitting her, but you were certainly regretting not guarding yourself better.

It would be your luck that the leader of the world of terrorism would be an accomplished martial artist as well; you found yourself out-classed, taking hit after hit from the back of their heel, their palm, their fist, their knee, like a whirlwind of mixed discipline striking styles. "Ha ha... A pathetic final gasp from an unworthy agent. I'd kill you, if it was even worth my effort," the woman sneered, crossing her arms across the flat chest of her uniform and kicking you once more in the ribs for good measure. Fortunately, after spending several months with the Goodbye Girls, there was no further that emasculation could affect you... Rather than that, all you could think about was the best way to stop the Adjutant from escaping!

Au Revoir and Vaarvel were still both busy with their targets; Nora was just a scientist, if one also trained in a few field agent techniques. Injured and battered as you now were, it was your job to stop the Adjutant's escape. But did you have any means of doing so? This would have to be another of those occasions where you relied on the enemy's underestimation of your abilities to get the edge on them!

"She can't escape, Ciao! Adder is the center of everything, the root of terrorism! Kill her if you have to!" Vaarvel shouted, still busy locking an armbar in on the agent she'd subdued. Unfortunately, she seemed to have misread the situation as you holding back against a woman or a valuable target. It was pretty rare for her to misjudge a person's intent like that. "You won't escape, Adder Adjutant!

"Do not allow yourself to be defeated, Ciao! You can handle that helicopter!" Au Revoir encouraged you, while clenching a headlock against her gun-deprived target. It was nice to hear such confidence from her, but if you ended up fighting the manned helicopter, it really was all over...

The sounds of panicked party-goers and the thrum of the advanced combat chopper's whirling blades made focusing difficult, but still, you felt a rare moment of zen. Being a CEDIT agent meant taking down terrorists... when you'd joined on, you'd always imagined the chance to bring the biggest terrorist of them all, Adder Adjutant, into allied custody. This was that chance. This was the culmination of your entire career!

You were too caught up in the moment. Only much later would it occur to you how strange it was that Adder Adjutant hadn't simply issued a verbal command and used the effects of Bound Blood 1000 to stop you in your tracks or turn you against your allies.