Chapter 132

After Alvin told his side of the story, he was asked by Gordon to meet with him back in the Nighthawks' office behind the cathedral.

Alvin nodded and accompanied Hannah as they went back, and she filled him in on what happened after he decided to walk away from the factory.

Apparently, the explosion he set off severely injured both the Werewolves and the two people in the room filled with gunpowder, and all 4 of them were complete incapacitated when the Machinery Hivemind went into the smouldering remains of the place. The Machinery Hiveminds easily managed to subdue them all, and they went on to start fighting the remaining 3 Beyonders in the factory. By then, alerted by the explosions which were apparently heard for quite a distance, every church and the MI9 had already sent someone to check it out. The 3 Beyonders surrendered when they saw that they had no chance against the Machinery Hiveminds who had made extensive preparations. And coupled with the two Beyonders who were injured in the gas explosion and then captured, and Goatee who was unconscious the whole time, the entire offending team was caught.

On another note, apparently Blondie had boldly stolen the safe when the church was capturing the other Beyonders. The entire wall half-collapsed after the explosion, and the safe was not completely attached to the wall anymore. He managed to wrench it free, grab the safe, and used the stick mystical item, which apparently could be used for long-distance teleportation also, to escape.

Luca who came to investigate alerted by the noise apparently saw him do that, and got a clean look at his face. While no one was sure what actually was in the safe, there would be wanted posters put up for him soon, and the Machinery Hiveminds were especially angry, because they were in charge of this operation, and all they did was capture 3 Beyonders and cuff the remaining 5 incapacitated ones, and two slip-ups occurred when they were doing so.

One was Blondie making off with the safe right under their nose despite Alvin having told them he was after it, the other was of course that they let both the Werewolves escape. Even Hannah was unsure how this had happened, but the Werewolves suddenly broke free, and ran in different directions.

Luckily, just as a precaution, Alvin had written out the entire plan of action to Hannah beforehand, in casual conversation. He didn't expect anything out of it just out of caution in case the operation failed and he was blamed he would have someone to back his story that he was acting according to instructions, but Hannah, who happened to have nothing to do came by and stood some distance away. She rushed closer after the explosions occurred, and managed to reach when the Werewolves started escaping. When she saw one of the Werewolves was escaping in her direction, she used her spirits to slow it down, allowing the other members of the Machinery Hivemind to catch up. They together brought down the Werewolf.

Also, in the discussion while fighting, Hannah realised that Alvin had caused the explosion, so she quickly had Gordon hurry over, using a secret communication method.

Gordon used a mystical item to quickly come by, and personally channelled the Werewolf. And knowing what happened, he immediately set his foot down on the fact that it was the Machinery Hivemind's unwillingness to follow the plan and incompetence in not securing the Werewolves were what caused this mess to happen.

Bruce had arrived by then, as did the others, and Gordon apparently took this to his face. Bruce was forced to admit that Alvin has no fault in the incident, and promise to investigate what happened.

Hannah was sent to track down the Werewolf with Harrold and Fred went with her, while the rest stayed behind to put set the fire, ensure that the structures do not collapse, and to escort the prisoners to somewhere they could be interrogated.

"I see. Thank you for coming to help me" said Alvin gratefully.

"You are welcome. Ever since I heard Freeman was coordinating this mission, I already felt like he would be up to no good. I was right" said Hannah.

"Freeman? The guy from the Machinery Hivemind?" asked Alvin, remembering the guy he saw in the basement of Saint Hierländ Cathedral.

"Yes. Him. He isn't a pleasant person" said Hannah.

"Is he a friend of that Captain Zachary you were talking about too?" asked Alvin.

"You could say that. Actually, he is an interchurch liaison. He is one of the persons in charge of coordination with the other churches, the MI9, and other local forces like police stations when there is something that requires us all to work together. Captain Zachary used to be in charge of all of the matters of the Red Gloves in Backlund, and he worked closely with Freeman when he was here. But a few months ago, he applied to go to headquarters for some important responsibilities there to rack up merit for the possible promotion. Ever since then, Captain Gordon is in charge of matters that require the attention of the Red Gloves in Backlund, and he has been coordinating with Freeman. They never hit it off I think" said Hannah.

"What was Freeman trying to accomplish?" wondered Alvin aloud.

"My guess is that he was thinking you would die without the backup by the rest. It was already determined by divination that we would face multiple enemies with at least 2 Sequence 6. The Machinery Hiveminds were armed to the teeth and fully capable of taking them. But you weren't. So when he saw an opportunity to give orders that would screw you over and push you to death, he took it" said Hannah.

"Well, if I really did die in there, not knowing about the letter I wrote to you, I guess he could have blamed the deviation from plans on me" thought Alvin.

"Don't worry. Captain Gordon will make sure he suffers. He doesn't take lightly to his subordinates being ill-treated. And he will negotiate a massive bonus for you from the church as well as compensation" comforted Hannah seeing Alvin in deep thought.