Ghosts of the past: Steal the Phasetech

High above in the skies close to Motor City, Killua hovered in his experimental flight suit. In the visor of the helmet, a simple message was displayed that the young dark mage read over and over again, each time lingering on the name that signed off on the document. Jaylin Jasper, a name he was quite familiar with over his course in Bosco's Military their best informant, if they needed information on, he had it, there was one problem, he was supposed to be dead. Yet here he was reading the same message over and over again, there was no one else that could access these channels without them being given, as they were his previous team's personal private channel.

'Let's see what dead men have to tell.' He thought taking a look at the given location one more time. The engines of the jetpack revved up as he made his way towards the given coordinates in Motor City. As the clouds cleared up he looked over the bustling city, with different technologies that one would rarely see in Fiore, here looked like a daily occurrence. He looked one last time at the location he was given in the message and removed it from the visor as he brought himself down.

The compound didn't look like much it mostly looked like a small company building with a few garages. Putting himself down in front of the building he was quickly met with a few armed guards that quickly surrounded him. They looked like a private military brigade that was assembled to guard the location, dressed in an all-black combat outfit, they had aimed it him up with standard-issue M4 carbine rifles, meaning that they were not elite in any way but enough to guard the premise. Kil stood his ground without moving as to not show any malicious intent, they were doing their job and he was here for a meeting there was no need on his side to escalate.

One of the guards tilted his head if he had to guess he was receiving information on the earbud connected to his radio. Soon he lowered his rifle slightly, holding it in a defensive stance, ready to aim if the need arose, the rest followed suit quickly. "Follow me." The one that received the orders just said, and Kil simply nodded, following suit without removing his set of armor. The establishment didn't look like much but since they were moving towards a cargo elevator he quickly found out where they were going, two guards went in and Kil continued to follow, a specific code was inputted and instead of going up as the elevator showed, they started to descent into the underground.

After some time they finally reached their destination, as the doors opened the ex-operative looked behind him and the two guards nodded him forward. With Kil stepping out they quickly closed the elevator and were nowhere to be seen anymore. Kil looked forward as he now entered a well-lit room, one half looked like a study full of books, the other like a spy master's den, filled to the brim with monitors and different lacrima based devices that he had no idea what did and in the middle a simple desk in front of an active fireplace, with a chair that was facing towards it.

" Well, it really is you. Of course, I knew that but seeing you in the flesh is quite a relief." The chair was turned around to reveal a rather tall individual that was dressed in a simple black shirt. As for looks, he looked quite older than Killua himself, donning a grayish beard, and very short hair that was gray-ish white as well due to the age of the person.

" I thought you were dead old man JJ." Kil said with a smile hidden under the helmet of the armor.

A short laugh emitted from the other end of the room. " You're still a twirp I see. You can remove little Valk's armor and come have a seat."

Kil nodded, a short blue light enveloped him as he was now in his shorts and a white T-shirt. " So what do you have for me JJ, especially if you faked your death so good that you can fake out the S&I department?" He asked as he took a seat in front of him.

" What I can't say hello to an old buddy? You've gotten bigger since the last time." He laughed again. " I built a small empire for myself here in Fiore under a new name, but you can still call me JJ, the fewer connections between us, the better our partnership will be."

" Partnership?" The young dark mage asked as he raised an eyebrow.

" Don't look at me like that, once I tell you why I brought you here, we'll be working more closely together like before. A drink? Carbonated of course I can't give you alcohol before a job, even though you should be in the drinking age in Fiore." He said as JJ poured himself a beverage and poured some kind of carbonated drink for him, pushing the glass to his edge of the table.

" Okay, I'm listening, better be worth my time. You know I joined a guild, no longer the small freelancer taking odd jobs here and there." Kil said as he took the glass and tasted the drink, soon he found himself taking a bigger sip as he quite liked the taste.

" You like it? Special made, preparing to ship it out under one of my new companies. As for that, I know that you've joined a guild. Errings Rising? I've had people watching you as soon as the video of you executing a magic representative. Ha! I knew it was you as soon as I saw the lightning plus your mop of white hair."

" I'm not surprised now that I know you're alive and operating in Fiore. So why contact me now, why not sooner?" The god slayer asked, placing the drink back on the table.

" Bosco has a new operative department, that follows a modified program of the one you were being indoctrinated to follow without question. Well, it's doing quite the job in training new agents that are older and physically stronger, old agent's that had reported back to Bosco after your little ploy, are also part of the program, as I've noticed that their files have been taken down, unlike yours which stay M.I.A." He paused for a moment. " A lot of agents have returned, I don't know if they were forced, captured or not but I am sure some have joined, and they are people that you knew on quite a personal level."

" I thought I cut off the head?"

" Naive, I expected something like this, I was closely following the event and it seemed far too easy, maybe if you had told someone they snitched, or they had their own spies looking at you."

Kil thought about this, not many people knew about his intention as he warned them to take on missions for them to be away during this time. He had to think about this, and if he could get in touch with some of the people if they are still alive.

" I'll see what I can find about that but I may need your help." Kil said as he took another sip of the carbonated drink.

" See I told you, we're already partners. Now to get to the main point you are here today." He said fishing for something in the drawers of his desk. Soon he found it and pulled out a tan folder with the big red words 'Confidential'. Kil pushed forwarded and grabbed the folder, however he was met with quite a bit of force on the other side, not letting the folder go, shooting him a questioning look, he waited for JJ to explain himself.

Jaylin looked him in the eyes. " I have to warn you if you open this, you'll be doing this job 100% there is no turning back, and not because I will force you, because of the contents inside and with what they are connected, so if you want to pull out, it's now or never." He said seriously, never breaking eye contact. Kil simply nodded and after a few seconds, the older man released the folder from his grip, letting Killua take it completely in his hands.

Kil looked it over one more time, eyes lingering on the giant red 'Confidential' before he flipped it open and started to draw the first of many notes and pictures in it. He hadn't even taken the full picture out and his eyes shifted towards JJ. He hated it when he was so right, there was no pulling back now, he had already accepted the job even before he knew any details as to what it was expected of him to do.

WC: 1508
TWC: 1508/10000

light blue Kil
Orange JJ

The young dark mage looked at each and every paper that was cramped into the folder. It contained everything from schematics, to photos of the inside of some facility, to more schematics. Everything was in great detail, picking up one of the schematics he held it up towards JJ. It looked like a small ball with a few spiky edges, with the word at the top of the blueprint saying PhaseTech.

" I thought this was too dangerous and that's why they resorted to using humans for this? "

"Yes, it was that's why we scrapped it and decided to inject humans with the magicues that would let them open rifts and their bodies wouldn't be taking such a toll when they enter the rift."

" So many other kids died on this program, only a few of us survived and now they are trying to the opposite? What exactly is this, a device that will let them open rifts? It's got no other reason to have Phase in it name? "

" From the limited knowledge I have on the actual thing, the Phasetech is another try at creating phase runners without the risk of giving them special powers, should they go, rogue, as you did. Back then it was too dangerous as the tech was unstable it was better to use actual humans, even when it was such a low chance for the host to survive. And we gave you drugs to suppress your powers after each mission that you were allowed to Phase run. " JJ explained as he fished for something on his desk.

" I didn't really want to believe that I didn't take out the head. " He said as he stared into the blueprints. " So what do you want me to do, destroy it? "

Placing a small bottle on his desk and moving it to Killua, the older man looked back at him. " No, I want you to steal the device, from the limited information I was able to get, the one on the blueprint is quite small and it will be the main thing that controls the whole unit that will be creating rifts. I don't know much, so I also want you to steal as much information as you can, papers, portable devices, everything that you think will be useful, and finally, I'll give you a backpack of explosives so you can blow their base up. I don't want them in Motor City, they'll be annoying to deal with if one of them is an old operative and if they recognizes me... " He stopped, Kil knew what he wanted he meant so he didn't push forward on that topic.

JJ continued. " On the blueprints you'll find where to place the explosives, make sure you do it was quite expensive to get all this information, one more thing, except normal soldiers, there will be an elite operative... "

Kil interrupted him. " Elite? "

JJ nodded " There is supposedly a ranking system now, depending on how good you are, you are promoted and if you ask me it's more if you indoctrinated further. So you'll need this. " He pointed at the bottle as Kil looked at him puzzled. " This will let you use your Phase abilities, you'll need them, and don't mind if the explosion rocks the city, I'll deal with the aftermath. "

As he took the bottle into his hands and looked it over. " Is it possible to regain this ability without these pills? I started hearing voices again.."

" It's not impossible, we never got to fully test the project out before it was closed due to how dangerous it was, but I'll not fully count on it, voices were a minor ability that you got. "

" And now they are trying to start it again. " Kil sighed as he took looked at the blueprints one more time, trying his best to memorize as much as he could before going in.

" Indeed, but it's more stable from what I've heard, most likely it's not far from completion but if you can take it for me, I'll reward you quite well, and don't worry I don't plan on using Phase I'll break it down and use the power source if it's in there. Are you still sure you want to do this, it's not too late to back down I know you won't leak anything? "

" I'll do it, nobody has to go through the same thing we, especially people from the previous Directive... "

" They no longer use kids, I don't know how they keep the people, but we'll find out in the future. Now swallow those pills and take these. " Taking out a flashlight and a spray can he placed it in front of them.

Complying Kil swallowed the pills and shook slightly in the process. " I forgot how bitter these things were. " Pointing to the two new items on the table, he continued. " What are these for? "

" You'll need them, the entrance is going to be through a big drainage pipe, that's right here. "
He pointed towards the name of the street that's close to the facility in Motor City " The spray can is to freeze a bit of the metal pipes so you can break them down. The flashlight is self-explanatory, you'll have to follow the schematics on where to break the pipe after that. "

" Anything else I need to know? " Kil asked as he got up and threw the folder on the table picking up the other two items.

" Pick up the backpack that's next to the door, it's filled with explosives, some tools and another schematic of the inside with markers on where to place them. Also, one last thing, be fast, you won't have much breathing room once you enter and you'll need this. " JJ getting up, gave the white-haired slayer a black keycard with an address on the back.

Kil nodded as he took the keycard and left, taking the backpack as he used the elevator to get back up, using his requip to change his clothes to a dark brown military combat outfit albeit without a hood. Once he started using his abilities inside they were quickly going to find out who it was, he just needed to hide the Errings Rising guild mark on his shoulder, there was no point it giving away his current home..

WC: 1093
TWC: 2601/10000

Dusk was approaching fast, Killua had spent most of the day perched up in the crown of a tree, looking at the main entrance of the facility, on the outside it didn't look like anything much, a simple small factory, with workers coming in and out regularly and most of the time carrying things that he couldn't identify inside. Some cloaked people would come in and out from time to time, but he didn't pursue them and risk exposing himself.

The facility and people working on the inside should know the risks if on the inside they were working on top-secret tech and would be on high alert, anything out of the ordinary will tip them off. The only thing he wondered was why in Fiore, and not in Bosco, there was something valuable here that they were using or it wouldn't be worth the hassle and extra security. He had adorned, a simple dark gray poncho with a hood before moving toward the facility. Pulling said hood up, he hid his white spiky hair, it was at the moment the only thing that could help them identify him if anyone from Bosco knew who he was.

Jumping down from the tree, he blended in with the people moving throughout the street and hed towards the location of the entrance he was given, all the while keeping his hearing and senses heightened for any that would try to trail him.

It wasn't long before he had reached his destination, a rather large drainage pipe with a metal bar stopping any entry. Pulling the backpack that JJ gave him from his requip space, he rummaged through it and pulled out a very cold spray can. He was given tools that would make him get inside quite easily. Giving the spray can a little shake he pointed it towards the metal bars and covered his face, a colorless gas came out of it and focused itself forwards from the extended tube that guided it, spraying it around a small portion, fit enough for him to use to enter, he soon saw the portion freezing up. With one swift kick, he knocked the fragile frozen bars and climbed inside the drainage pipe.

Pulling out a flashlight he lit the dark tunnel and he stayed close to the left side of the wall, his hand trailing the wall as he walked forward, feeling the wall as he shot trace amounts of electricity into it, waiting for a signal to bounce back.

He perked up and stopped shining a light at the wall, as an electrical signal bounced back to his fingertips. Focusing he could trace the faint electricity through the stone wall. Dropping his backpack, he took the blueprints out of it, this should be the service room that he could enter through. Looking at the wall again he began to shine on the different portions to inspect it closer. And upon closer inspection he noticed a portion that was standing out towards him, digging his fingers as deep as he could, he pulled and a chunk of the wall began to tear towards him. This was the hidden entrance that JJ had made his workers dig out and create an entrance for him.

It was time for his mission to finally start.

WC: 549
TWC: 3150/10000

Killua was annoyed, no where in the plans said that he would need to crawl through a ventilation shaft after pushing himself between concrete. Why was he annoyed so much? Crawling through vents wasn't exactly sneaky, contrary to popular belief, and him dragging a backpack with explosives by his leg certainly wasn't helping with the sound. He would need to frequently stop when he heard that someone was coming close. He could see a larger vent coming up, and pushed himself as quietly as possible towards it.

Pushing the grilled vent, he was surprised to see that it wasn't held by anything and he could just push it open, probably for cleaning, seeing as he now found himself in a cleaning closet. He pushed himself down landing as lightly as possible on the glossy floor beneath. He didn't waste time, he strapped the backpack to his back and moved towards the door of the service room.

Opening the door ever so gentle, he peered into the corridor to make sure that no one was there, once he was certain, he opened the door just enough for him to pass through and close it. For now, he couldn't see any cameras. There were also no signs directly where he was, so he took off towards the left corridor. If he remembered correctly from the schematics, this should have been the way to one of the laboratories. He wanted to get some information on their research, before attempting to steal the tech itself.

It wasn't long before he found his first door, and he quickly found himself hiding behind a column, as someone opened and exited said door. He waited for a bit and with his enhanced hearing he could hear the person going away, he peaked behind the corner and saw that the person wore a white lab coat and was looking at something in his hands.

The slayer took his chance and moved towards the door the worker exited from. Upon reaching the door he noticed that it read 'Lab F3' and that a keycard would be required. However, he smiled instead, placing his hand on the reader, black lightning flashed around the device, as Kil concentrated, directing the current and using his electromagnetism.

Soon the reader flashed green and the door unlocked. The young dark mage pushed it open and entered. To his surprise the lab was empty, looking around he noticed that this was for small testing purposes, due to the small glass isolation units. Seeing as there were some documents on one of the desks, he quickly moved to view them. He wasn't getting much as it was research on some material named Duraweave, a lightweight material used for clothing, the only thing that he found of interest is that it was associated with a project named 'Ethereal'. He would need to find another lab that dealt with this or the main lab if he wanted more information. That is if the said project was being developed here.

WC: 501
TWC: 3652/10000