Unyielding Resolve - Cecilia Alcott x OC

Chapter 20 - Pain And Memories & Painful Memories

Bold: Time/Location
Italic: Character Thoughts/Internal Monologue
Underline: Author's Note(s)

Abandoned Scorpion Base - James' POV

Whatever S.T.R.I.K.E. was hiding from me, I knew they had good reasons for doing it. At least, I hoped they did. I didn't know how Ramona and Scorpion had access to so much information, or how they planned on finding out the truth. Whatever their method, they clearly needed my help to find out. No matter how much I was tempted to search for answers, this group didn't particularly strike me to be the "good guy" type. I put on my best facade of compliance while I planned my escape, and played along. "What do you need me for?" I asked Ramona.

Her mouth shaped into another devious grin as she looked at me. "We have something that can help you uncover memories that have been repressed or blocked. You should be able to recall the events from the moment of your death, and anything after your revival. All you need to do is stay here for a few days." she said, which prompted an idea in my head. I wasn't in any rush, and I am a spy after all. I realized I needed to at the very least get a better understanding of what these people were up to. "Unfortunately for you...the mind must be in a distressed state for the procedure to work. That means lots, and lots of pain." she added on shortly after, causing my stomach to drop.

Whatever they were about to do would most certainly make finding anything out a lot more difficult. They seemed to know that my recollection of events after I was brought back to life was spotty at best. All I remember was that the scientists woke me up to put my body into the machine so it could heal. I never told anyone outside of S.T.R.I.K.E. that I had this nagging sensation at the back of my head, like there was more to it than what I remembered. The constant denials of my appeals for more information and clarification only added to that. After I got out of here, I was going to do my very best to find out how they were getting their intel.

I shot Ramona a glare of anger, and two more girls in similar uniforms entered the room with various small melee weapons. "Don't worry, we aren't going to kill you...though we might make a bit of a mess." Ramona sadistically told me. In my years of working for S.T.R.I.K.E., I've never been captured before, let alone tortured. I braced myself for the incoming torment which would last for days, as this was sure to be a wild ride that I was not going to enjoy.

Timeskip - Ichika's POV

Yesterday was a hell of a day. In addition to showing Charles the ropes, I also had to help most of the other first years practice operating an IS. Rin, Charles, Chifuyu, and Cecilia helped out, so admittedly it wasn't too bad. Before that though, Chifuyu arranged a match between Ms. Yamada who fought Rin and Cecilia in a practice duel. Though when Ms. Yamada arrived in her IS, she nearly killed me when she crashed into the ground, and I was getting really sick of ending up in craters. Unfortunately when she landed on me, I accidentally ended up cupping one of her breasts with my hand, which definitely angered and shocked some most of the other girls. Heck, Rin tried to kill me by throwing her IS' sword at me, but thankfully Ms. Yamada stopped that from happening.

During the match, Chifuyu told Charles to describe Ms. Yamada's IS. He went into great detail about how her IS was currently one of the top three mass produced IS units, and it was made by his father's company. Ultimately, Cecilia and Rin didn't end up working together well, and Ms. Yamada landed a shot from a grenade launcher directly at the two while they were close together which resulted in a loss for them. I was definitely surprised that they didn't win, especially after having fought Rin myself. Then again, I was pretty new to this stuff, so I guess my perspective wouldn't be good as a baseline.