Kei was doing some late night work, sipping on her coffee when she heard the crash. She got her pistol, ready to shpt down any monster that thought it was funny to sneak into the Basilicom. She stalked downstairs from her room, and in the center hall she found Shachor gashed and bloody on the ground. She bit her tongue to hold back the scream, not wanting to frighten him. She walked over briskly, and felt for a pulse. He was barely breathing, but she knew this was by choice. She went to the front desk and received a first aid kit, and brought out a needle and string. Slowly she got on her knees and began to stitch the candidate back together, perpetually silent as she worked, and the candidate did his job in staying quiet. After sewing together most of him, blood leaking out of the holes she went to one of the many rooms in the Basilicom to grab a small Sharicite. She held it over the boy, and yet she noticed cracks beginning to form in it, and she quickly returned it and switched her healing ointment to Nep Bull, which glazed over the skin with ease.
A minute later Shachor struggled to stand, as if he had a the weight of Gamindustri on him. "I'm sorry Kei... I lost." Shachor admitted, sitting down in a chair that seemed to falter a bit beneath him.
"You went to try and save Noire alone, didn't you?" Shachor nodded, and Kei finally noticed it. "Anti Crystal weights?" Shachor nodded, which explained why the young god looked consistently tired. "How much do they weigh each?"
"One million pounds each. That's a rough estimation but since it is hard to move, I can assume no less." Kei nodded, tapping her foot.
"I made sure not to inform you of your sister's location for this reason alone." Kei turned angry two pearls towards her pseudo-son. "How?"
"This ASIC grunt. She mocked me and released the information at the same time. I was going to end her life in a blast as I should of when I first met her, but one of CFWs came and saved her worthless life." Kei narrowed her eyes, hearing malice behind the tone of the usually emotionless god.
"She's enraged you..." Kei noted, smirking. "I suppose this is a positive." Shachor raised an eyebrow. "Yes... This is actually good." Kei nodded. "You goddesses are fueled by Shares and emotions by most studies, as your separate, at least the elder goddesses' personalities fuel them with spirit, which gives them incentive to fight like the warriors they are."
"So much emotion did for them." Shachor stated, leveling his dampening fire eyes at his mentor. "They were beaten and detained. If their emotions and Shares did so much for them, why did they lose?" Shachor asked, and Kei shook her finger.
"They had not trained for years and didn't know the enemy beforehand, having no prior investment to spike rage, one of the volatile and powerful emotions humanity as a species has." Kei clucked her tongue. "This is my fault. I trained you to be a machine, not a man."
"I'm like the others. Blood and bone, not metal and machine." Shachor explained calmly.
"A package doesn't always match it's labeling." Kei brought up. "One who didn't know would figure you the eldest of the gods, however you are younger than the main four. Isn't that right?" Shachor nodded. "Also, considering Noire had the most Shares, regular humans believe she was the strongest. However, even when she vanished you were the strongest and most skilled of all the gods." Shachor nodded again. "Some may believe that since you were sheltered, you would know little of human interaction. On the contrary, you seem to be fine after making friend with CyberConnect2, and blasting the Planeptune party." Kei sighed. "Either way, in the morning you report back to your party, most likely. I will speak with IF. Sleep well." Shachor stood with a wince, and went to his room to finally pass out.
IF was trained for anything, except for an angry mother in the middle of her morning jog. "IF, you have one minute to explain before I send nuclear warheads at Planeptune." If knew she had to pick the right words.
"May I know what I have to explain?" She asked.
"Why Shachor was found as a bleeding body at one in the morning on the Lastation rug." Kei said, calming her tone.
"I don't know why!"
"Use that big brain of yours and look at what happened yesterday. I'm prety sure 'a top guild agent' could figure out why Shachor found about his sister's whereabouts." IF stopped her jog and tapped her chin. Then it came to her.
IF cursed. "I know how. That ASIC Underling told him and get backhanded for it. He must have tracked her somehow."
Kei was silent for a moment then sighed. "Your stories match. I want to blame you for not outlasting him in staying awake, but he did have a thirst for blood. That would keep me up for sure." IF agreed, duly noting this fact. "Well, he should warp to you soon enough. He is hoping to get back to you."
"He is?" IF asked. Shachor seemed to have his own agenda, considering the only thing he had done with the party is travel with them. Even then he would run away sometimes.
"Yes. He is finally down on a level where he can train with others, which makes him extremely happy." IF smiled. "Oh, he senses a power spike. He'll be there fast. Goodbye IF." Before IF could ask how because Nepgear never spiked her power in the morning, the Oracle was gone.
Shachor walked through his portal to find himself standing over a crying CPU candidate. This was the one that didn't attack him, and he decided to be more human as Cyber had requested. He got down on his knees and tapped on her shoulder. "What's the matter little Rom?" Shachor asked, and the candidate looked up.
"Mr. Shachor?" She asked, voice shaking, and her fellow candidate nodded with a slight smile. "I... I lost my special pen that Ram and I have..." Shachor nodded, and retraced the chase. He had seen something on his run, but he never picked it up. He wrapped to the place he remembered seeing it, picked up the novelty pen, and warped back to a shocked Rom. He handed the pen back and sat down wit her on the sidewalk. "Thank you..."
Shachor smiled. "Not an issue Milady." Shachor thought of something else. "Why did you refer to me as madman?" Rom looked up.
"You looked scary and angry. You look nice now..." She said with a smile, which made Shachor happy as he looked off into the horizon. "You're weaker..." Rom said, and Shachor nodded, gesturing to his restraints. "Bad?"
"It varies. If I were to fight any of the CFWs alone by this point, and be quickly destroyed if I did not transform." He turned to her with a gentle grin. "Though now if you and your sister join us, we could. Train until we are all as strong as I was. Even stronger." He underhandedly offered.
"Ram wouldn't like that..." Rom said nervously, startled grays dancing around the morning terrain.
Shachor tilted his head to the side. "It's in our nature want to grow in ability. Why wouldn't she want to?" Rom paused. She didn't really know... She liked fighting, and she knew Ram did too. They looked for every excuse to do it as long as it wasn't work... "May I meet Ram again? I wish to undertake a battle." Rom nodded happily and Shachor had chase after her. They ran through the Basilicom doors, and Shachor stopped by a hand in front of his face.
"Oh, you must be Shachor." The woman said with a knowing smile. "Rom informed me about you." Shachor nodded, stepped back and bowed. "Why thank you. Kei raised you well." Shachor smiled. "I am Mina, the Oracle of Lowee, caretaker of the CPU candidates."
"Um... Ms. Mina?" Sachor began nervously. "Can I fight the CPU candidates?" To Shachor's surprise, Mina didn't appear tthat annoyed or shocked.
"Why? According to what Rom has told me, you already defeated Ram with ease." Mina said.
Shachor nodded. "Yes, however that was Lady Ram alone when I was allowed my maximum abilties. Right now I'm only at..." Shachor looked at his hands, clenching them. He spiked his power to his curent available peak, gaining a slight data burst, but nothing more than average. "About 49% my full potential. Maybe they can beat me then." He offered.
"Well... If you really want to I can allow them to challenge you. Girls, do you mind?" Rom shook her head, and Ram who had just walked in had happly raised her axe. Shachor smiled himself, and summoned his scythe. It seemed heaivier than before, but he didn't mind. He tightened his grip, and Mina started the duel. Shachor had to block the two strikes he had planned to dodge, but he couldn't move nearly as fast as he was used to. He blew the two back with a Hyper Burst, but it did just that. Knocked them back. He tried to pick up the pace, yet couldn't as his power was at what it could be at before he wouldn't be able to take on their transformed states. He bloced two more axe swings, and forced himself to switch his tactics. He leapd to the rafters and perchd there, his scythe switching to sniper mode. He checked through the scope before he fired, and nailed them both in the forehead. The two were down and he gulped.
"I have become so much weaker..." He muttered, flexing his hands after he dismissed his scythe. "Under half my full power thanks to these things, and now I have to revert to long range tactics." Shachor tugged on the weights, having no effect. "Ma'am, please. I... My party needs these candidates." Shachor bit his tongue. "No... I need them. I've degradged thanks to my harsh actions of fighting the CFWs... I need their help to get strronger to save my... Our sisters! We can't run the nations on our own. We need them, so having them would make the prrocess go so much faster. Please ma'am," The candidate fell to his knees hands folded. "we need them. We don't even need the Mascot, just them!"
Mina was quiet. The Lastation candidate was sincere, but she couldn't give up Lowee's only line of true mobile defense of ASIC. She need a way to clear out the orginaztion. How though?
Sorry. I can't say much more othe than teh fact that I' sory this too so long. I just felt like writing lighter for awhile, so there. BYE!