It was their second day in Mitras.

The air below ground was stank, like a mixture of feces, trash and the rotten smell of corpses. It wasn't entirely dark, but it wasn't with light either, with the altitudinous ceiling that separated the underground civilization from aboveground soaring high above a cluster of aged houses with chipped walls and splotches of dried blood painting some nicks of the infrastructures. Several bricks that comprised the olden pavement have been plucked out, the streets now littered with the occasional fragments (and even bones) while some civilians wandered around, bodies malnourished and faces gaunt, a dulling glazed look washing over their eyes; it wasn't hell itself, but the Underground City was close to one.

A trio of soldiers, with their trademark jackets displaying the all-too familiar Wings of Freedom of the Survey Corps, marched down the narrow streets, the soles of their boots crunching the cement below them.

Isanna casted a cursory glance at the emaciated civilians leaning against walls, shadows of the houses shading their figures. Due to the dearth of sunlight, it wasn't uncommon for some of the underground citizens to lose function of their legs.

It was pitiful, and Isanna frowned at the stark contrast from the stable life in Mitras. She had seen the same images during her short visit yesterday, but she still couldn't get used to the forbidding gloom hovering in this place.

Hanji had snooped around here and there and managed to get her hands on the information Isanna wanted on the said underground thugs that were causing trouble for the Military Police, so Erwin had decided to check for himself shortly before they continue on with the issue about Nicholas Lovof and the signing of the petition.

"If they stole those vertical maneuvering gears only about a year ago, that means they're already better than those unicorn bastards who trained a whole three years," Isanna broke the silence as she pointed out to the two of her friends that were with her, "those MPs really like to bring shame to the rest of us."

Mike kept his steady gaze around their surroundings, cautious for any unusual movements. You could never be too careful in the Underground. "Are we really going to make them join us?"

"That depends on their skills," Erwin replied without looking back, as he was at the front, "we're only here to survey them."

Isanna snorted with a deadpan. "I guess that's why we're called the Survey Corps."

The two blonds paid no attention to the girl's (lame) pun and continued walking, with the raven clicking her tongue while rolling her eyes at the lack of response.

"A little gesture of support would be appreciated."

"Haha." Isanna squinted her eyes at Mike, whose eyes were still fixated at the front.

She decided to just let it go and redirected her attention back to their surroundings. Her gaze landed on a group of burly men who were lounging on the sidewalk, some sitting on boxes, some leaning against the walls where scratches of paint were tearing off. They were staring intently at something.

No, Isanna corrected herself as she followed their gazes to see three figures wearing faded gray cloaks walking down the street, from the direction opposite Isanna and her friends. They're staring at someone.

The girl could feel the air above the street decreasing as she watched the three figures with wary eyes.

"Erwin, Mike, hold on."

The two blonds stopped in their tracks and glanced at the girl, before they followed her eyes.

Isanna observed the man in front of the other two, his gait screaming of 'leader' as the man with dark hair in an undercut marched down the street with an undaunted, intimidating stare, his cloak ruffling behind his back. Despite his relatively short stature, his footsteps were heavy, an exuding amount of stealthy confidence emitting from him.

One of the men Isanna noticed to have been staring at the trio shifted from his leaning position against the wall of an abandoned house and stalked towards the three cloaked figures.

There was a weighty silence, the suspense somewhat exciting Isanna as she watched the stout man bump his shoulders into the man with the undercut.

"Ow! It hurts!" The stout man bellowed rather forcefully, so painfully obvious that Isanna had to roll her eyes. "Hey you! You run someone over without so much as an apology?!"

The two other cloaked figures seemed to have engaged in a conversation, the stout man - whom Isanna knew was being overly dramatic over a bump in the shoulder - yelling something else before he took out a gun from behind his vest along with a threat.

Had this happened aboveground, a citizen randomly owning a gun would have induced dire consequences and a heavy punishment, but this was the Underground. Everything illegal was legal.

The man cocked the gun towards the man with the undercut, who didn't look fazed in the least.

Then, Isanna saw it.

From under his cloak, the undercut guy shifted his hand and pulled out a familiar handgrip, just enough for Isanna to catch a glimpse of it, and shot a hook towards the stack of empty wooden barrels behind the stout man who flinched at the object latching right beside his face.

The man with the undercut propelled himself towards him in quick speed and leaped upwards to dodge a bullet that was released from the stout man's gun. In the next second, the undercut guy flipped his body in midair and pushed a rough landing on the stout man's chest, shoving him hard on the ground with a yelp of pain.

Isanna also saw the other two cloaked figures, a younger girl with fiery red hair and a man with blond curls, take out the other two men who were acquaintances with the stout man.

After exchanging words with what Isanna deduced were his friends, the man with the undercut hooked his 3DM gear line to the tall wall of a nearby building and shot upwards, the wind fluttering his cloak and allowing Isanna and her two friends to catch a glimpse of his 3DM gear that was strapped around his body as he flew upwards.

The undercut guy's eyes flickered downwards over towards the trio of soldiers for a brief moment, his steel grey eyes clashing with Isanna's dark irises, then flitting over towards Erwin. His mind immediately recognized the two-winged crest.

As Isanna watched the trio of thugs fly away like birds into the skies of the Underground city, only one thought dominated.

"Boys," she called as both Erwin and Mike glanced at her, "we just found our new friends."

•

After that brief encounter with the underground trio, Isanna and the others had returned to Mitras and began enacting their plan: persuading Nicholas Lovof to avoid signing the petition.

Isanna's figure crouched atop a bricked house that was situated right by the street, a brown cloak wrapping her form and pulled over her head to conceal her identity. The afternoon sun rays were raining down, harsh and prickling, but the girl didn't allow the heat to affect her as she strained her eyes for a certain carriage to pull through the street.

"Engagement party?"

"Correct." Erwin nodded to her. "According to Hanji's sources, Nicholas' son, Baldrick, will be holding an engagement party tonight at his mansion. Security will be tight and we cannot afford any unnecessary havoc, so we'll slip in the party using him."

Isanna wondered what kind of idiot would want to marry that prick and felt sorry for them. However, the prospect of reuniting with her lovely fellow training cadet was certainly exciting.

She had a bone to pick with him.

Isanna grinned at the thought of her nearing reunion with Baldrick, but her thoughts were interrupted when she saw carriage turn around the corner of the avenue, pulled by a horse that was manned by a rider. She shot a curt glance to the figure down the street by a post and saw Hanji nodding at her in confirmation.

That was her cue.

The girl stepped nearer to the edge of the rooftop, still in a crouch as she waited for the carriage to get closer. When she judged it to be a good distance, she pushed her legs and leaped off the house. The wind was whistling loudly in her ears, her hood sliding back from her head as Isanna stuck out her legs and kicked the unsuspecting rider off the driver's spot of the carriage, the man releasing a pained yelp.

She grasped the reigns and whipped the horse to increase its speed; the horse neighed as it picked its pace up, causing the carriage to roughly bump over the bricked street.

"Fiudus! Slow down!" A man's voice commanded from inside the carriage. A voice too familiar to Isanna's ears.

In less than 3 minutes, Isanna stopped in front of an old warehouse. There weren't any people in this part of the street, which made it easier. She hopped off the driver's spot and stalked around the carriage, pulling the door open.

"Fiudus! What the hell - " the man sitting inside, who looked to be in his early 30's, abruptly stopped himself as his eyes landed on a woman instead of his driver. It didn't take long for him to register her identity, and when he did, his eyes widened like saucers. "You're - "

"Surprise," Isanna cut him off with a flat voice and face equally as flat as she reached and latched a grip on the man's shirt, dragging him out of the carriage as he stumbled on his legs.

The man struggled from the girl's monster grip. "What are you doing in Wall Sina?!"

As soon as they entered inside the barren warehouse, Isanna flung Baldrick away as if he weighed nothing more than 3 legs (being in the Survey Corps, she definitely knew the feeling of carrying 3 legs), the man letting out a small 'oof'.

"Herrmann!" Baldrick was about to stand up when Isanna grabbed both of his hands and began tying it with a thick rope behind his back. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"What?" Isanna focused on tightening the ropes. "Aren't you happy to see me? We shared some fun memories years ago and - goddammit Lovof stop squiggling like a dying cockroach! As if you need any more similarities with one!"

Baldrick opened his mouth to snap at the woman behind his back when he felt another presence step in front of him. Bringing his attention to the front, the color from the man's face drained away, unpleasant memories of his last encounter with the blond flooding back.

"Baldrick." Erwin nodded at him in greeting. "It's been a while."

The man shook his head from the memories years ago and gritted his teeth in a snarl at him. "Guess the titans haven't got to you yet, huh?"

After making sure the rope was tight enough, Isanna stood up and whacked the man on the back of his head, her other hand on her hip. "Dumbass. As if I'd let titans touch him."

Baldrick shot her a glare and remembered how the girl had always been so overprotective of the blond. And vice versa. "Is abducting innocent Sina citizens the Scouts' new job?"

"Hell yeah, but we only target asshat pricks with ugly names like Baldrick Lovof, to be specific."

Erwin cleared his throat, causing the two to direct their eyes at him.

Now that he got their attention, Erwin thought to finally begin his proposition. "Baldrick," he began as he crouched in front of the man, "before anything else, I'd like to congratulate you on your engagement," he said, because Erwin was just a very well-mannered gentleman like that.

The man's face wrinkled. "You kidnapped me for that?"

"No," Isanna replied, "trust me, we're doing this for the better of humanity."

"Kidnapping me was for the better of humanity?!"

"Yes - " the girl nodded meaningfully at him - "actually, killing you would be an even bigger favor for humanity, but that's for another day."

Erwin gave her a pointed look that told her she said enough. He refrained from sighing at the girl's sharp tongue; she was already quite cynical back when they were teenagers (he had an inkling it had everything to do with their not-so delicate head instructor), but it seemed like her abrasiveness only worsened in her years as a Scout.

At her friend's look, Isanna pressed her lips together and looked away with a silent huff.

Erwin didn't waste any more time and proceeded to 'kindly' ask Baldrick to invite them to his engagement party tonight, saying that they had business to do with his father, Nicholas. Obviously, the son of the noble lord didn't take this too well.

Baldrick figured out the reason why they were doing this and glared at Erwin. "No matter what you do, the Scouts are going to disband. My father will sign the petition, and you can't do anything about it."

Erwin didn't look surprised at his refusal, as if he had already expected it. "Are you aware of your father's illegal dealings with the Lang company?"

The man's face slightly crumbled. "What?"

Taking out a scrolled document tied with a red string from inside his jacket, Erwin began reading the contents to a shocked Baldrick, the blond beginning to iterate the long list of his father's felonious crimes.

"You're lying!" He yelled, fury striking from his irises. "Those papers are fabricated!"

"Well - " Erwin rolled the papers and tied it again before he returned it inside the pocket of his Scout jacket - "I cannot persuade you to believe these papers. But there should be no problem if I hand these over to General Zackly, shouldn't there?'

Isanna noticed how Baldrick visibly stiffened, the hands tied behind him balling into shaking fists. Judging by his reaction, she could tell he had no idea about his own father's illegal businesses. It seemed like Erwin thought the same thing.

"All you have to do is to let us slip in your party tonight, and we'll find a way to talk to your father," Erwin added, standing up, "and I should have you know, if I give these to the General right now, you'll most likely be dragged in as well."

Isanna stared at the blond with an amused brow lifted, a small smirk on her lips. Erwin really had a way in convincing others to his favor; it was intimidating of him, yet satisfying to watch.

"By the way, Lovof," the girl said with crossed arms as Baldrick looked at her, "depending on your decision, I may or may not snap your neck because of what you did 14 years ago."

Baldrick flinched at the realization of her threat, his eyes flickering towards Erwin knowingly. He remembered that night years ago, when the blond had called him outside to have a 'talk', the talk that eventually led him to drop out of the Training Corps.

To make things short, Baldrick realized that Erwin was far more scarier than Isanna when angered.

And here I thought I was finally out of this psychotic duo's reach..

He cursed in defeat as he shot the pair a glare.

"I'm not about to invite stinking Scout soldiers wearing tacky uniforms," he grumbled, "get yourselves some fancy clothes for tonight."