A Scandal in Fortune Bethany's ability to solve seemingly impossible and strange cases, garnered her the respect of many in Fortune City (and the hatred of quite a few as well). Time and time again, she helped the people of Fortune City in unveiling the truth behind many schemes and plots. From simple cases of theft, to finding missing persons and murder mysteries, and from the richest banker to the poorest of the poor, Bethany never denied her skills and expertise to those who had been wronged. It's no surprise then, that Bethany received quite a few delicate cases from people in power. This is one case very much like that. It all started in a windy morning. Bethany had just arrived at the office, having overslept due to her night activities, May however was already in the office. "Sorry, bed was too comfy this morning..." Bethany said, still a bit groggy, "I told you that you need to rest from time to time..." May replied, "I know, May. I'll take it easy this weekend." Bethany resigned, knowing that otherwise she would be dragged into an argument she wouldn't win. "Anyway, anything interesting for..." Before Bethany could finish her sentence, someone knocked at the door. Bethany opened the door and found a very well dressed man waiting for her, "Good morning, how may I help you?" Bethany asked, still groggy, "Good morning, Ms. Hunter, I come with an urgent matter." The man replied, "You have me at the disadvantage, sir, who are you?" Bethany replied, "Ohh pardon my manners miss Hunter, my name is James Fisher. I'm here on behalf of mayor Blair." Fisher said, "Mayor Blair?!" And just like that Bethany was fully awake, "What could mayor Blair want from me?" "The matter is too delicate to discuss here, miss Hunter, if you agree to hear her out, then I'll schedule you to meet her in an hour." Fisher replied, "Very well, I want to hear what the mayor has to say. I'll be there in a hour." Bethany replied, "Thank you, miss Hunter. Good day." Fisher gave a courteous smile and left. "Well May, it seems like we have quite the case in our hands!" Bethany chuckled, "You better get some coffee, don't want to fall asleep during your meeting." May replied, "I'm fine now, believe me! But a cup of coffee never hurt, so I'll get us some coffee and in the meantime I want you to build me a profile for Mayor Elise Blair. I want to head in with an idea of who my client is." Bethany seemed hyper. Bethany prepared two mugs of steaming hot coffee and she sat next to May, eager to see what May had. "Alright, hit me up, what do you got?" Bethany asked while handing May her cup, "Seems like mayor Blair is pretty young, 27 to be exact." May said, "Wow, we are the same age." Bethany added, "She graduated magna cum laude from political science and then went to work with the local representatives. She had direct work with the less fortunate of Fortune City which gained her the approval of many. Her ties with the local representatives and her popularity quickly made her a viable candidate during these past elections. Mayor Thompson's endorsement of her candidacy gave her the final push she needed. Many consider her a worthy successor to Thompson and so far she seems to be working pretty well. So far that's all I got on her, apparently during the elections there wasn't much the opposition could do to tarnish her reputation." May said, "That gives me a good idea of who I'm facing. Seems like it would be a good idea to solve her case and have a potential ally in her." Bethany pondered, "Yeah, she could prove useful." May nodded, "Alright, well I'm off. You are in charge while I'm gone, I'll let you know once I talked with the mayor." Bethany finished her cup and got up, "Be careful." May replied, "Always!" Bethany wins. Almost an hour later, Bethany was waiting in front of the mayor's office, her mind lost in thought as to what the mayor could want from her. "You may come in, Ms. Hunter." The mayor's secretary said, opening the door for Bethany. "Thank you." Bethany nodded and headed inside, quickly scanning the office for any details. Seeing Bethany, the mayor got up from her chair, "Good morning, miss Hunter. I trust my impromptu request didn't inconvenience you?" Blair extended her hand to offer a handshake, "Not at all, mayor Blair." Bethany said, shaking her hand. Bethany as always, quickly scanned her client in order to finalize her profile. Like May had said, the mayor was indeed young and it showed, not only in her physique but rather personality and demeanor. Her expression showed an eagerness and fervor to do her job and there was also a bit of innocence in her expression, one characteristically of a person who hasn't been in contact with the harshness of life for too long. Nevertheless, she also showed wisdom and determination in her demeanor, explaining how she had come to be mayor at a young age. "Please, Ms. Hunter take a seat and we'll discuss the matter," Blair motioned for Bethany to take a seat, "I have on good account that you are one of Fortune City's best detectives if not the best." Blair said, "You are too kind, Ms. Blair," Bethany secretly felt proud of the acknowledgment, "I am in dire need of your help miss Hunter. I have a matter too delicate and I can't even trust the police with it!" Blair's expression quickly showed signs of distress, "Well, Ms. Blair, that's what I specialize in. You tell me what's the problem and I will do my best to solve it." Bethany replied, trying to comfort the mayor. "It happened yesterday. I was about to leave the office and head back home when I received a email from an unknown sender, no address. The email was a threat, it detailed a plethora of things they wanted from me, including money and even favors. In exchange they promised to not reveal some very private things about me...."Blair looked down, "And I take it that these private things would put in jeopardy your career. I understand that, but just to be clear, if this information gets out how much of a threat is it to the people of Fortune City?" Bethany asked just to confirm her hunch on the data, "It's not anything that would put anyone other than me at risk. Rest assured, Ms. Hunter, I am not talking about shady contracts or anything of the sort. Merely information that would be scandalous and would quite frankly embarrass me in front of the people." Blair already looked somewhat embarrassed. "I get the picture, Ms. Blair. I see that it's quite an issue and I will not tolerate this invasion of privacy and bullying." Bethany replied. "Thank you, miss Hunter!" Blair seemed somewhat relieved. "Now in order for me to have a clear idea of what we are dealing with, we need to discuss the details..." Bethany crossed her arms. "Very well, Ms. Hunter. Go ahead and ask anything, I'll do my best to answer," Blair replied. "Do you have any idea of how they came to find this information? Was it stored in your computer, available in a website or anything of the sort?" Bethany asked. "Last year when I began my campaign, I searched for all my pictures, videos and other data that could give me trouble during my candidacy. I store all of it in a usb drive and removed any potential web versions or anything of the sort. I kept the usb hidden in my home. Yesterday when I got the threat, I was shocked to see that they did had the information and when I searched at my home, the usb was gone." Blair said. "With all due respect, mayor, in retrospective it might have been a good idea to delete the contents of the usb." Bethany said, "I know and I planned to, but a part of me kind of wanted to keep some of those memories. Some of it is embarrassing, but some of it is also good...." Blair sighed. Bethany paused for a few seconds before replying, she had gathered her thoughts and was beginning to establish an idea. "How many people knew about the USB?" Bethany asked, "Not many, my secretary, my assistant and a couple of friends involved with the contents of the usb, no one else. I should point out, that none of them knew the location or even if I still had it." Blair replied. "This is peculiar, before I do my work, do you suspect anyone in particular?" Bethany asked, though she already imagined the answer. "No at all and I can assure you that it wasn't my staff, they are very loyal," Blair quickly defended. "While, I'm sure that they appreciate the vote of confidence, you must I can't rule them out." Bethany quickly shot back. "I know, but you should know that both my secretary and my assistant recommended you for this. If either of them didn't want this solvec, they would have tried to get me someone incompetent. Still, I fully understand your suspicion..." Blair sighed, "Speaking of, do you have any enemies or anyone that has recently been on the wrong with you?" Bethany asked. "Well, you could consider my opposition, other than that I can't think of anyone...." Blair shrugged. "If your opposition had this, there would already be a scandal. The person who has this information, doesn't want to flat out ruin your life. They simply want you to do their bidding." Bethany replied. "That makes sense, still, it's odd, I can't think of anyone that could had gotten access or would even know..." Blair sighed once more, this was quickly becoming the norm. "We can't rule out chance, but before we can attribute it to chance, we have to rule out every possible suspect. Now mayor, do you have potential ex-lovers that might have some scorn towards you?" Bethany kept a mental note of all the possible suspects, trying to rule them out as Blair eliminated them, "No, not really. I been in steady relationship for the past three years, in fact I'm engaged. All my relationships ended in good terms." Blair replied, "This is pretty damn odd. It's too specific to be the product of a random burglar, but nevertheless, has there been any break-ins, any other stolen valuables?" Bethany seemed perplexed by the peculiar scenario, "No. There's never been a break-in at my home." Blair replied. "Odd, simply odd. By the way, something I had forgotten to ask but it's very important, do you have any idea of when the usb was stolen?" Bethany asked, "Not particularly, but I imagine it hasn't been too long. Don't think they would sit on that for too long." Blair pondered. "Let's assume it's been at most at week or two. During that time-frame, have you had any visitors or parties?" Bethany kept pondering, "Well, my mom has visited me, I don't think she would do this, though. And no, I haven't held any parties or anything of the sort. I been to a couple of late night activities, don't know if that helps." Blair replied, "I see, very interesting." Bethany was once more, perplexed by the peculiarity of the case. "Well I think you told me everything I need to know from your end, mayor. That said, I have to deal with two tasks right now. I need to figure out who stole the usb and I also need to find who is blackmailing you. I believe these are two different people, which means I'll have to work this from two angles." Bethany explained. "I understand and I thank you again, Ms. Hunter. Is there anything else I can do?" Blair asked, "As a matter of fact yes. Like I said, I need to track the blackmailer, now I know someone pretty good at this, but I need to forward the email that you received." Bethany said, "But...there..is some of the stolen content in the email..." Blair sighed, "Don't worry, mayor, I'll be able to delete the images before I forward it. But I really need to do this if you want to me to track those files." Bethany said, with a rather firm tone. "Very well, then...." Blair stood up from her chair and motioned for Bethany to take her seat. Bethany decided to give her young hacker friend, Heero, a call to see if he could help her. "Hello! Yes, it's me. Listen, I need your help with something..." Bethany explained the situation, "Yeah, I'm sending it right now..." Bethany erased the emails and forwarded the message, "Yeah, if you could help me track the source, I can take care of the rest. Also, I'm gonna need something to wipe off an entire network, could you cook up something like that. Really? Awesome, let me know once you have everything. Alright, I'm counting on you." Bethany ended the phone call and stood up from the chair, "I'll be back once I have everything. Now if you excuse, I'm gonna have a chat with your assistance, Mr. Fisher. Rest assured, mayor, I'll get to the bottom of this and I'll find your stolen content." Bethany began to walk towards the exit, "Thank you, Ms. Hunter. I knew I could count on you." Blair shook Bethany's hand, before the detective left, closing the door behind her. Bethany had a quick chat with the secretary, though it didn't yield too many results. Nevertheless, Bethany asked her if she could point to where Mr. Fisher was and the secretary was happy to assist. Bethany made her way to Fisher's office, casually listening in on the conversations going on at the office, though again, it didn't prove too yield anything interesting for her case. After a short walk, she arrived at Fisher's office and knocked, "Come in!" A voice replied. "Excuse me, Mr. Fisher." Bethany opened the door, "Ahh, Ms. Hunter. How may I help you?" Fisher gestured for Bethany to take a seat. "Well the thing is..." Bethany sat, "I spoke with Ms. Blair and got everything I need from her. Problem is, her testimony didn't exactly give me a good list of things or people to work with." Bethany crossed her arms, pondering for a moment. "I expected as much, I can't for the life of me come up with a possible explanation. Do you have any theories?" Fisher asked. "Yes, I already have a couple in mind, which is precisely why I'm here." Bethany answered, without revealing too many details. "Very well, I will help as much as I can. I imagine I'm probably a suspect as well, in which case I hope I can help prove that I'm not involved." Fisher replied. "Mr. Fisher, please understand that I'm not here to accuse you, I'm merely here, because I think you might help me confirm my hunch. That said, I can't deny that until I find the culprit, everyone close to Ms. Blair is a suspect." Bethany quickly replied, making sure to calm any nerves. "I understand Ms. Hunter and I would expect no less from a professional like you. I read some of your stories and I must admit, I'm impressed!" Fisher couldn't hide that he was somewhat impressed by Bethany, "So anyway, how may I help?" "Ohh well, here is the thing. If I believe everything Ms. Blair said, then there's simply no suspect, the usb was stolen by a ghost. This leads me to a couple of scenarios, either this is the result of pure chance or there's a third party that we are unaware of..." Bethany pondered for a moment, "Now I don't know about you, but I'm not a woman that likes to leave things to chance." "And you want me to see if I can think of anybody else who Ms. Blair might have forgotten?" Fished asked, "Precisely so, Mr. Fisher. I think Ms. Blair might be accidentally forgetting a detail or someone." Bethany replied, "A valid theory and believe me, bless her heart cause she is a great leader, but Ms. Blair can be quite forgetful at times. It's why I have a job in the first place!" Fisher laughed and Bethany chuckled, "Here let me check the agendas. I write her a daily schedule, so that might help." Fisher began to look in a couple of notepads he had. Fisher began to narrate the contents of the notepads, but Bethany began to ponder on an particular idea, "So far I seen this case from only one viewpoint, someone stealing the usb from Ms. Blair. From this angle, there doesn't seem to be a perpetrator...but...what...if...what if I flipped the case!?!" Bethany thought as she began to tie some of the ideas in her head, "What if Ms. Blair unknowingly gave someone the usb?! In a way, that would explain the absence of a perpetrator, they wouldn't need to know the location. But how and why would she willingly do that? Hmmm...maybe.." Bethany came to a sudden realization, "Mr. Fisher, has Ms. Blair attended or hosted any parties recently?" Bethany asked, wondering if her hunch was right, "Hmmm, let's see. Four days ago, she attended a late night event, though the specifics of the events are lost on me." Fisher replied, probing his memories, "Alright, did she met anyone in particular that night? Did she had any alcohol?" Bethany asked, "I think she had a couple of drinks and fell a bit dizzy, I remember she telling me she needed to go home fast. But I don't remember anyone in particular." Fisher was doing his best to remember the details, "Interesting. Did anything unusual happened? Doesn't matter how small it might, any inconsequential detail might help." Bethany was forming a clear idea now, "The only peculiar thing was that Ms. Blair's usual driver wasn't feeling well, so he had to leave early. Luckily a police officer drove Ms. Blair back home." Fisher replied. "Wait..WHAT?" Bethany was starting to feel dread, having a good idea of where this was going, "Could you describe the police officer? Was it a man or a woman? Do you have a name?" Bethany stood up from her chair and paced a bit, "I can't remember the name, but I'm sure that it's in the registry here. It was a woman, tall, long dark hair, I can't remember her name, but I can look for it. It might take a couple of hours digging the past paperwork...." Fisher replied, somewhat confused, "No no, that won't be necessary, I have a good idea of who it might be. Oh no, oh dear. I have to leave now and run to the police station. Thanks for your help Mr. Fisher!" Bethany replied quickly and left in a hurry, Mr. Fisher was shocked but nevertheless, impressed. Bethany frantically made her way to the police station. She barged into the lobby, asked the receptionist for someone and quickly ran through the hallways, her heart beating faster with each step. She arrived at her destination and without hesitation, barged in and there she saw it. "It was you, wasn't it?" Bethany shouted, "Me? What are you talking about?" Jolene replied, somewhat in shock by Bethany's presence at her office. "You damn well know what I'm talking about. Mayor Blair, you are the one that escorted her, am I right?" Bethany glared, "Holy crap, I know you are good, but I didn't think I would have to deal with you for at least a week. Damn, kitty, I'm impressed." Jolene chuckled, "This wasn't mere coincidence. How and why, NOW!" Bethany demanded, "Jeez, calm down, kitty, you are gonna get me in trouble. But I do enjoy bragging about a good job so, I'll give you the tale. You are right, it wasn't coincidence, I studied her movements and her patterns for weeks. I had a client that wanted some dirt on her, anything." Jolene said, boasting, "So anyway, an appearance of you know who was too risky, so I decided to apply some charm and infiltrate her ranks. Luckily they were hosting a party so, I volunteered to be part of the mayor's security...."Jolene was grinning, "And the driver feeling sick wasn't a coincidence..." Bethany added, "Of course not. I took care of him with a little food poisoning, then I volunteered to drive her home. She was already drunk, so I got her to talk and talk. Once we arrived, I kept making friends with her. I went inside and had a drink with her and another and another. The poor thing was almost on the verge of passing out, so I got her to tell me her dirty little secret." Jolene chuckled, "I almost had some fun with her too, but I decided that was too risky. So I gave her a little something to forget everything and then left. Though I did see her lovely shape in lingerie..."Jolene laughed, "Of all your stupid schemes, this has to be the absolute worst. You are an idiot!" Bethany shouted, "Hey! Give me some credit, at least." Jolene smirked, "You do realize that they can track you, right?" Bethany asked, "Nah, I covered my tracks pretty well." Jolene shrugged it off, "No, not at all. Your name is in the office's registry, with the time and date that you took the mayor out. You are the only outsider that has visited the place and interacted with her. Your fingerprints are all over the place and it's only a matter of time before the mayor recovers her memory regarding that night. This could very well be the end of both of your careers...." Bethany was now the one smirking, "....Shit..shit.shiit. What do I do now?" Jolene asked, "Simple, you help me find the the missing usb, stop the blackmailer and hope to the lords that's the end of this business." Bethany replied. "But the problem is, I never saw him physically, it was mostly done by proxy." "I have someone tracking them down, but I'll need you to come with me once we have confirmation of the location. And no funny business." Bethany glared once more, "Got it, boss! Damn, you are even sexier when you are bossy, kitty." Jolene chuckled, "One more thing, did you saved a copy of the data?" Bethany asked, "No, they expressly told me not to. I was forbidden from getting a copy, as to ensure that I wouldn't sell it again." Jolene shrugged, "How nice of you to play by the rules." Bethany said, coldly. "I'm not too good with tech and it didn't serve me any purpose. I couldn't use the info, nor sell it. If I sold it to someone else, they would know and I would be toast. And believe me, these guys know how to track." Jolene expressed some degree of fear towards them. Bethany's phone began to ring, she picked it up and it was none other than Heero, "Hey what do you have for me?" Bethany asked, "This one was tricky, but I manage to track the source, I'll send you the coordinates. I suggest you go prepared, from what I dug, these guys are big business." Heero said. "Who exactly are we dealing with here?" Bethany asked. "Well from what I gathered, it's a group of information brokers, as you might expect, they extort people through blackmail and hold political power through it as well. They are know as The Hive. I have no idea of their structure though." Heero replied. "Well, it seems like we are gonna need what I asked you. Do you got it?" Bethany asked. "Yeah, I got it. This baby will send them back into the stone age. Quite proud of it, if I may say so." Heero chuckled. "Give it a name if you want to, I'll have May pick it up. Thanks Heero!" Bethany replied, feeling joyful for the first time in the day. "Anything for my two favorite ladies. Alright, I'll see ya later, be careful." Bethany hanged up and quickly called May, "Hey May, I'm gonna need you go grab our gear and meet up with Heero, he has something for you to pick up." Bethany gave May her orders. "What's going on Beth?" May asked, "We are going to deliver a present to a bunch of scumbags ," Bethany answered, "Awesome! We'll I'll go get our and stuff and then I'll meet up with Heero! See you in a bit!" May sounded ecstatic, "Alright, see you then." Bethany and Jolene tracked the location Heero gave her and scouted the area. Their hideout was located on the outskirts of the city, a secluded building. Bethany and Jolene scouted from afar and saw that the building which seemed to be like a normal five story office was heavily guarded. On the surface it looked like an investment company named Gladestone Financial Corp., but Bethany knew that their business was blackmail. "Alright, Heero managed to text me the building's blueprints. Apparently, their servers are located in the fourth floor. The fifth floor being the CEO's office." Bethany pointed at the blueprint, "Alright but do we know exactly where they stashed the usb?" Jolene asked, "No, but my best bet is that the head honcho has it and I'm inclined to believe that's the CEO, William Gladestone. On top of that, we need to wipe the servers off." Bethany said, "So what's the plan?" Jolene asked, "We don't have much time, we have to get there before anyone leaves, but we are at disadvantage, it's broad daylight, so an infiltration is going to be hard. " Bethany said, "I can work with that. I have a set of sleep bombs. Basically they have a concentrated sleep powder, on detonation they release this powder over a 100 feet radius. The effect is almost instant." I could place a couple of these around the entrance, they detonate and everyone falls asleep, once inside, we'll have to improvise." Jolene explained, "Well in the absence of time and a good plan, might as well go with that one." Bethany shrugged, "That's more like it, kitty." Jolene chuckled. The girls momentarily retreated and an hour later, returned as the fierce Nocturne, Nightshade and the clever Viper. The trio scanned the area and noticed that the area was being guarded by at least 8 guards. "Alright you girls know the plan. We only got one shot, make it count!" Nocturne rallied them up, "Alright, Viper is your turn." Viper nodded and headed into the battlefield. She cleverly evaded the patrols' eyesight and placed the bombs in strategic positions. In one swift move she detonated them and the entire area got covered in a purple mist, which rendered all the guards unconscious. Nocturne and Nightshade quickly descended from their vantage point and moved to the entrance along with Viper. When they arrived, they noticed that the door was locked with a passcode system. "Damn, now what?" Viper asked, "Now's my turn." Nocturne replied, taking out a small device. She scan the lock system with the device and proceeded to make some input in her device, "Got it!" Nocturne put the code in the lock and the door opened, "Nice job!" Viper said. Once inside, the trio noticed that there was no staff other than guards. They quickly hid among the shadows to survey the area. Nightshade took vantage position and scanned the area, "This one isn't heavily guarded, there's only five." She said. Nocturne motioned for each of them to take position. "On my mark, I take the two on the left, Nightshade you take the one in the middle and Viper you take the other two." Nocturne threw a couple of smoke pellets into the floor and in a matter of seconds the entire place was shrouded in smoke. The trio launched into action, Nocturne swiftly moving to take the two on the left, incapacitating both with powerful strikes, meanwhile, Nightshade rendered one unconscious with a choke hold and Viper took the other two with her paralysis poison. Once cleared, the fearsome trio reassessed their situation. With the coast clear, they moved their way into the second floor. This one again wasn't heavily guarded and much like last time, they applied the same strategy and worked perfectly. They quickly searched the floor for anything useful, but quickly found there was nothing of use in these abandoned offices. Two floors down, three to go. When they arrived at the third floor, they were in for a surprise. It was a lot more crowded, there were people in suits, though strangely enough they didn't look like executive workers. What was more shocking was the fact that there weren't any guards. "I have a feeling that these folks aren't your average suits. Stay on your guards." Nocturne said, "Well well, look what we have here." A voice from behind the trio spoke, when they turned they saw they were cornered. The trio quickly moved into the center of the floor, but they found themselves surrounded on all corners, "The famous Nocturne and her sidekick, what business do you have here?" One of the brokers asked, "I came here looking for information." Nocturne shot back. "Information is our business, but I don't think you came here to buy. GET THEM!" The broker shouted. Nocturne was right that these were not average suits. The people in suits moved like a highly trained unit as they tried to overwhelm the three intruders. The trio got attacked from all sides but they quickly sprang into action, Viper evaded and stunned any who came her way, while Nocturne took down all opposition with solid strikes, Nightshade on the other hand relied on outsmarting her opponents tricking and stunning them. The numbers game proved no match for the trio as they outlasted everyone. They had taken care of all the opposing forces, but Nocturne noticed that there was still one who hadn't lost consciousness, she quickly grabbed him by the throat, almost choking him. "I want information, now!!" Nocturne shoute. "What...what..do..you..want?" The man was terrified. "I'm looking for the mayor's missing usb, have you seen it?" Nocturne made her hold on the broker stronger. "The the the the boss is the one with that info!!" The broker was terrified, "Good, how do I find him?" Nocturne asked, once again in a menacing tone. "He he is in the fith floor, it can only be accessed by elevator!" The broker was on the verge of pissing himself, "Take me there. NOW!" Nocturne demanded, the broker nodded, "You two take care of the servers, I'm gonna take care of the boss." Nocturne said, leaving Nightshade and Viper and moving into the elevator. The broker used the passcode and the elevator went up, being no longer of any use to her, Nocturne incapacitated him with a punch to his head. The elevator door opened and Nocturne found herself in a tremendously luxurious office. From the velvet carpet to the gold curtains, everything about the room screamed excess and overcompensation. It was an enormous room for just one man, William Gladestone, who was sitting behind his desk. "Ahh Nocturne. What an unexpected surprise. What brings you here?" Gladestone acted cordially, which irritated Nocturne quite a bit, "I'm here to take back the information you stole. Hand it over and this will be easy." Nocturne replied, coldly. "I believe that information is rightfully mine now. I paid a handsome sum for it and I will do with it as I please." Gladestone remained calm. "You have no right to extort the mayor. You are a sick bastard, leeching off other people. You are nothing but a parasite!" Nocturne shouted, "I'm a necessary evil, Nocturne! I am merely a provider. People crave information like how a junkie craves his next fix, I merely provide them what they need." Gladestone was starting to lose his temper. "You have extorted and bullied your way to power. But enough, I'm not here to discuss philosophy. I came here to get back what you stole." Nocturne shot back. "I think you don't see the irony of it all. You are here, invading my property and forcing me to give you what's mine. You are the one who is out of line. But no matter, it's good that you are here. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there willing to pay a good sum to know who is Nocturne." Gladestone quickly pulled a gun and tried to shoot Nocturne, but she was three steps ahead. She quickly leaped over his desk and caught his arm. In a twisting motion she disarmed the old man and threw him to the floor. However he didn't go down without a fight, quickly getting back to his feet and retaliating with a set of strikes. Meanwhile, Nightshade and Viper were fighting their way through the server room, dodging all sorts of attacks from all angles. Viper retaliated with her poison darts, rendering one too many guards unconscious. Nightshade handled herself pretty well as well, incapacitating many guards with her strikes. Between the two of them, they cleared the server room. Once the opposition had been eliminated, Nightshade moved to the main server, she took out a small usb and inserted it into the server. "Time to send these guys back to the stone age!" She proudly exclaimed, as the program within the usb wipe clean all the servers, taking away all the stolen information, including Ms. Blair's virtual files. Now it was up to Nocturne to recover the physical copy. Nocturne was having a tougher battle than she expected from him, as he managed to block most of her attacks and landed some attacks of his own. However in a swift move she managed to outmaneuver him and land two hard punches to his jaw that stunned him. She prepared to knock him down with a kick but with suprising speed Gladestone avoided her kick and elbowed her across the face. The blow dazed Nocturne and Gladestone used the moment to painfully pull her hair. Pulling her head back by her hair Gladestone send two devastating punches towards Nocturne's lower back. The kidney punches made her grunt in agony however Nocturne was able to slam her elbow back and nail him in the gut. Gladestone grunted but then kicked the back of her knee, making her collapse to the floor. As Nocturne hit the floor Gladestone gave a hard kick to her toned stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. Gladestone raised his feet to stomp down on her but Nocturne swiped her leg out and made him fall back against his desk as he lost his balance. Nocturne got back to her feet and moved towards Gladestone. She landed two vicious blows that made his head snap back. Blood flowed out of his nose but in a swift motion Gladestone pulled out his cell phone and threw it straight at her face. Nocturne raised her hand and knocked the cell phone away, however the action gave Gladestone the time to recover and move towards her. With trained precision Gladestone slammed his fist towards Nocturne's already battered abdomen and made her grunt in pain. With the heroine hurt Gladestone seized her hair again and this time forced her head forwards, bending her over his desk. Keeping her immobilized Gladestone grabbed the office phone from his desk. Nocturne tried to push herself up from the desk but then she felt the phone cord getting wrapped around her neck. "Game over Nocturne! You made a mistake to come here and cause trouble. However I will make a massive amount of money for selling your identity after killing you." Gladestone hissed in her ear as he kept tightening the cord around her neck. Nocturne's head already began to turn red. However in a last ditch attempt she kicked her feet back and managed to knock Gladestone slightly off balance. Nocturne threw her head backwards and caught Gladestone right on the jaw, dazing him. Nocturne spun around and landed a fury of punches that knocked the fight out of him. Gladestone fell, but Nocturne grabbed him by the throat, "Where's the stolen usb?!" She shouted. "I'm...not..." He was having trouble with articulating his words, "Don't test my patience...." She replied, "You don't kill, I'm not afraid..." Gladestone replied, but only managed to anger Nocturne who strengthened her hold of Gladestone, draining the life out of him, "Try me..." She shot back, menacingly. "It's over there..in that compartment.." He gestured the location, Nocturne pushed him into the ground and went to look. She opened a file drawer and sure enough, she found a usb with a "Ms. Blair" label. "It's been a pleasure to do business with you, Mr. Gladestone," Nocturne took the usb, "But I must be going. Oh by the way, I cleaned your servers for you. Just a little token of my appreciation!" She chuckled, "YOU WHAT?!! NO! YOU B.." Nocturne punched him straight in the face, sending him to sleep, she then tied his hands and legs. With their business concluded, the trio made their way out of the building. "Viper you take care of the rest from here. Make sure to have them locked, I'm sure it would benefit you quite a bit, after all...." Nocturne said, "What about the servers? That would have been good evidence against them.." Viper sighed, "Don't worry, there's enough evidence there to incriminate them, even with the wiped servers. Just make up a story that they wiped the servers to protect themselves." Nightshade added, "Good idea, you are pretty clever yourself too, little kitty." Viper chuckled, "Alright, I'm heading off, the rest I leave to you two." Nocturne said, "I'll see you later, Nightshade." Nocturne waved goodbye and left. Now that the usb was back in her hands, Bethany took off her Nocturne persona and headed to Ms. Blair. Night had fallen by them, but Bethany wanted to make sure that Blair could go to bed without the stress of the whole ordeal. She knocked on the door and Blair came down to receive her. "Ms. Hunter!? I trust you have news?" Blair was wearing a beautiful nightgown, she was clearly preparing to head to bed. "Good news, I recovered the usb!" Bethany handed it over, "Wow, you actually did it!" Blair couldn't believe it, "It took a lot of work, I have to get in contact with certain friends, but I managed to get help from the city's heroine. She tracked down my leads and it all led to Gladestone Finacial Corp. The company was a smokescreen for what a was really an illegal information market. Gladestone extorted and blackmailed people into doing his bidding. But it's over now!" Bethany smiled, "I can't thank you enough, Ms. Hunter!" Blair was overjoyed, "I also have it on good authority that the servers have been wiped, effectively destroying their information racket and that also means there are no online traces of your stolen content." Bethany added, "I'm seriously impressed, I knew you were good, but I didn't think you would solve this in a day. I'll also have to meet this Nocturne heroine one day. She sounds like the kind of person that can help me fix this city." Blair said, "Ohh, I'm sure you'll meet her one day." Bethany couldn't hide a small grin, "Anyway Ms. Hunter, you have outdone yourself and I will forever be in your debt. You will be handsomely rewarded." Blair smiled, "Thank you, Ms. Blair." Bethany nodded. "And if you don't mind, I like to continue working with you in the future. I like to give you special permission to initiate investigations authorized by the police." Blair said, "Thank you, Ms. Blair. I'm honored!" Bethany couldn't hide her smile. "No, thank you, Ms. Hunter. You have saved my career and for that I can't thank you enough." Blair said. The two ladies parted ways, with Blair having the greatest relief of her life. Bethany got back in her car and headed back home. She was happy that she had managed to solve such an important case and more importantly, gain the trust of the mayor. Slowly but surely, she was starting to feel that she was making a difference on the city and she couldn't ask for anything better.