"He wanted $15 for dinner!" Master Card and Visa To store electrical energy. He was accused of assault. They were entrusted with reforming the system. Rush forward in attack. Electrical phenomena existing in a positive or negative form. A thrill. A quantity of explosive to be detonated. So, what are those things? A Charge! Go on and charge in with your response!

[unrecoverable text]

Nambu at this point has kind of earned the whole "Watching with morbid curiosity to see what dumb thing will happen next" thing.

You would think Nambu, at this point in time, would know that there are no secrets at Crescent Coral and you can't do anything without everyone finding out!

It was a temporary diversion, but it worked. Jun kicked out a foot in a sweep, catching the man at his heel, the man firing his gun as he went down, the bullets hitting the canopy of branches and leaves above them. Bits of green leaves rained down on them as the man regained his balance and lashed out at her, one fist reaching while the other still held the gun. Jun dodged his round-house throw, stepping forward so that her back fist caught the man's jaw and snapped his head back as her reverse punch found its target in the man's solar plexus. With only one hand free, he threw out a punch, then another, but Jun easily deflected them, landing a solid side-blade kick into the man's ribs. He grunted and staggered, but did not go down. In fact, he had not even let go of his weapon yet. Just as he brought it level, Jun fired her yo-yo at him, catching the man square on the temple. He grunted, went down hard, and stayed down. The gun clattered to the ground, only half of its ammunition spent. When Jun looked over at Red Impulse again, he was standing next to the prone figure of the first man, brushing his hands together as though the action of cleaning would make them so. "Well," he said matter-of-factly, "that answers that question." Jun looked down at the two unconscious figures who wore the uniforms of Galactor foot soldiers. "But we still don't know who sent them or where they came from," Jun said. Red Impulse walked over to the side of the van and ran a hand along the panel. Then his fingers seemed to catch and, very carefully, he pried up an edge, followed by a corner, and then it seemed as though he were removing the entire side of the van until Jun blinked and realized that what he was doing was taking off a large white square magnet that had been affixed to the side of the van to cover up the lettering that had been painted onto the side. Parnell Industries, along with the now-familiar swoop of its logo. Jun felt her throat constrict. "So that's it now? All we had to do was find the link and you can't get much closer to Galactor than this." Red Impulse cut a look over to Jun and frowned. "This is not it, not by a long shot." "Why? What else would need to be done, except tell Hakase that we found the link?" "For starters, we didn't find the link," Red Impulse said, putting the magnet back into place. He walked back to the rear of the van, stepping over the body of the Galactor soldier he had fought and downed. "We merely found two soldiers in a van that belongs to Parnell. That proves nothing. Who sent them? Was it, in fact, Parnell? Or was it someone in the company? If so, who? A corporate officer, or someone lower down on the totem pole? How far does this go in the company? Is a grand scale operation or is it still in its infancy stage? And this still doesn't answer whether or not Reading is involved, if at all, and what they have to do with Parnell." Jun pursed her lips in thought. "And now there's that corporate merger that was just announced. We would have to find out if they're involved too, then." "Exactly," Red Impulse said, peering into the back of the van before hopping up inside. Jun made to follow him, but he held out a staying hand. "Keep back. If this is a trap of some sort, we don't both need to be caught in it." Jun hung back, but stood as close to the bumper as possible, trying to see as far as she could into the van's dark interior. "What's back there?" she called out after a minute had gone by. "Not much," Red Impulse replied, making Jun pull back by appearing at the door as he spoke. He jumped down. "Tracking equipment, mostly. Hard to tell if they were able to send a message out, but if they're tracking the van itself, they'll already have figured out that it stopped, so long as the equipment batteries hold their charge." "So they're probably sending someone else?" "By now, probably, which means we need to make tracks or else face another showdown." He began to step away from the van, but Jun stood there a moment longer, contemplating the two men still on the ground. It was hard to tell if they were unconscious or deceased. "Are we just going to leave them here like this?" she called out to Red Impulse. He turned at the sound of her voice, looking over one shoulder at her. "Why? What would you have us do with them?" Jun shrugged. "I don't know. If they're alive, shouldn't we bring them around to question them?" Red Impulse sighed. "We already know they're with Galactor. The snappy uniforms tell us that. We already know they're following us and that they're connected somehow to Parnell Industries. Most likely, these guys wouldn't know anything more than that. If I had to guess, I'd say the ones who knew anything about who hired them and why were the ones who left, not the ones who remained." "I suppose you're right. Besides, it's not like we have a place to detain them -- what was that?" "What was what?"

Aieee, cliffhanger ... get ready for round 2?