Hello, everybody! The New World Fool and CloudStrife07 here, coming at you with a new chapter of The Royal Strikers! Again, we'd like to thank you all for your support on this endeavor. We can see that Joker's little comeback towards Shadow Alice caused quite a bit of excitement, if the reviews and comments are anything to go by. We actually got that line from a P5S let's play that we are using for research in addition to playing the game for ourselves. In fact, and we apologize if this disappoints anyone, Ren and Sumire haven't quite gotten that far into their relationship… yet.
That aside, it is our hope that we can continue to entertain you all as we have been. Well, I think that's about enough on our end. Let us start the game!
Chapter Four
Humanity's Companion
Joker, Crow, Mona, and Skull were all escorted to what seemed to be the castle's garbage chute. Each of the human thieves were being dangled in front of the chute by their restraints while Mona was being manhandled by one of the Shadows. One by one, the Shadows cut Joker, Crow, Skull, and Mona free from their binds, making them all fall down the chute. Mona was the last one to follow, simply being tossed down the chute like an inanimate object.
At the bottom of the chute, everyone was piled onto each other, Mona on top of Crow, Joker underneath Crow, and Skull piled on by everyone else. Everyone except for Mona groaned from the pain in each other's backs, especially Skull.
"Ow ow ow ow ow…! Hey, you guys okay?" Skull asked with his eyes closed tight.
"What do you think, dumbass...?" Crow groaned.
"Crow, don't be a dick…" Joker groaned. "...Skull's just being courteous."
"Well in any case, we're all still alive, luckily," Mona said.
Mona hopped off of Crow so that he and the others could get up. Once he was up, Joker took his knife and cut Mona loose from his bindings before taking a look around, quickly realizing that he and his companions were in a large garbage dump.
"Okay, I've heard of getting dumped by a girlfriend or boyfriend before, but I'm pretty sure that's just supposed to be an expression," said Joker, before wincing as a brief spike of pain ran through his head from where he'd been whacked by both that Sentry's baton and Shadow Alice's cane.
"Hey, man, you okay?" asked Skull, a look of concern on his face. "She whacked you pretty good."
"Doesn't help that one of her Sentries hit me in the head not long before that," Joker said. "But, yeah, I'll be fine."
"Good to know. Damn that Alice, acting like she's top shit. I'm gonna be so pissed off until we finally get back at her! No way in hell does she get to have any right to act like she can just step all- " Skull paused, feeling that awkward feeling returning to him. "...over you ...like that."
"No worries, I'll get back at her before long." Joker said. "... Although, as much as I hate to admit it, it actually did feel kinda good."
Skull looked at Joker, dumbfounded and in utter disbelief.
"What are you, some kind of masochist?!" Skull practically shouted.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I honestly always thought that you were more of the sadistic type," Mona said while shaking his head with his eyes closed.
"...I suppose I'm a bit of both." Joker said as he shrugged his shoulders. "But, more importantly, we need to look around for a way out of here. Once we're out of this place, Skull, Mona, and I will meet up with the others and figure out our next move. If real people are getting pulled into Palaces and having those strange jewels taken from them, then the Phantom Thieves can't leave this be."
"And what am I to do while you and your friends are all huddled up making your plans to come out of retirement?" asked Crow, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms as he spoke.
Joker hissed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Right… I'd say come with us back to Leblanc, but considering how Sojiro now knows you were responsible for the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns, including the one that happened to Oracle's mom… I think he'd probably try to choke the life out of you the second he saw you," he said reluctantly before heaving a sigh. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, we need to get out of here."
"Okay, but how're we supposed to get outta here?" Skull asked while scratching the back of his head. "Just where the hell are we in this dump?!"
"We were clearly taken all the way back down to the first floor of this castle before being thrown away down here, so it seems that we are more than likely underground." Crow said with his arms crossed.
"Yeah, and if this place is a garbage dump, then there should more than likely be an exit for when Shadows come to empty it out if it gets full," reasoned Mona.
"Then we best start making our way through all this garbage until we find the exit." Joker insisted "Though we don't know what we'll run into either. Let's keep our eyes open while we're searching."
Joker started making his way across the sea of trash and garbage while the others stayed behind to do some digging around in search for the exit. Needless to say, none of them were having a pleasant time with it.
"Blegh, this is just disgusting!" Crow complained as he growled "I am officially going to add that wannabe idol's screams of agony to my MusicCloud!"
As Joker progressed, he suddenly came to a halt with a very bizarre sight sitting right before his eyes. A giant, black steel cube with a strange circuit-like pattern design plastered onto all of the sides… Just what was something like this doing in Shadow Alice's garbage dump? How did she even get something this huge down here? Better yet, where did she or any of her sentries get a hold of something this huge?
Joker slowly walked towards the giant black cube and placed his right hand in the middle of it. Suddenly, without warning, the circuit patterns started to glow a bright white light, so bright in fact that it was almost blinding. Joker pulled his hand back from the cube and held his right arm over his eyes, blocking out as much of the light as possible while still trying to get a good glimpse of the cube.
Shortly afterwards, the entire cube suddenly broke out into many smaller cubes. The smaller cubes began to move around and sink right into the bright white light that came from inside of the bigger cube. As the smaller cubes moved around and withdrew into the light, the shape of the light began to get small, but it also grew much brighter. Joker lifted up his other arm and tightly closed his eyes to block out the ever-growing light as much as possible.
After what felt like a long half of a minute, Joker opened up his eyes again and saw that the light was completely gone. As he lowered his arms, his eyes bolted wide open behind his mask at the new sight that stood before him.
A young girl who looked around possibly the age of ten to twelve. She had a petite frame and white skin, with cyan irises with large black rings. Her hair color was something that Joker could describe as a combination between Sumire's natural crimson red and Futaba's orange dye. A bright red color. She had M-shaped bangs and a very short back, as well as rounded tips. She also had a small ahoge and seven hearts on each side of her head, all of them being red with hearts in deeper shades of red within the middle of these. The hearts also curved inward much like pigtails, each becoming smaller towards the ends.
She wore a white one-piece outfit with large sleeves opening up at the ends and a dress section ending just at her hips. The chest area had a hoop-like extrusion with black markings on it, and similar extrusions are seen on the end of the dress, as well as the top and ends of the sleeves. She also wore tight black shorts and black rubber knee-length boots with a large ring-like extrusion on the tips and large white soles that covered up the heels and toes, nearly making it look like she was wearing a pair of black stockings with cozy white slippers. Most of her neck section was surrounded by a large ring with a tip on the back side.
The young girl looked around the garbage dump; her eyes full with curiosity at her surroundings.
"What is this place?" The young girl asked in a high pitched, very young sounding voice before she stopped to look at Joker and tilted her head to the side "Who are you?"
Joker, his jaw hanging open and his body practically frozen in utter disbelief at the sight before him, could make some small faint sounds at the attempt to respond to the young girl's question. Joker managed to lift up his right hand and point his finger at the young girl.
"Who are YOU?!" Joker practically shouted before immediately covering his mouth with his hand, recognizing his outburst.
Joker expected the young girl to be freaked out by the way he shouted at her, but she did not budge at all. Instead, in return, she only smiled kindly at him.
"I am Sophia, humanity's companion." The young girl, now addressing herself as Sophia, answered.
"...Um, what?" Joker said in confusion "Humanity's companion?"
"Correct. That means I make for a good companion to people." Sophia responded in a rather programmed manner
Joker could only feel a drop of sweat roll down his face as he raised his eyebrow in utter confusion from behind his mask.
"Are you human? Do you have a name?" Sophia asked.
"Uhh… Joker." Joker answered.
"Joker… Okay, I memorized it." Sophia said once again in a programmed manner before continuing "Joker, do you know where this place i- "
"Hey, what the hell was that bright light just now?!" Crow's voice came from behind Joker.
Joker turned around and saw Crow, Mona, and Skull running up to him from the trail he was walking down before. The three of them all looked past Joker's shoulders and saw Sophia standing right in front of him.
"What the- ?" Crow started with his eyes bolted wide open in unexpected surprise.
"Uh, who are you?" Skull asked, his eyes also bolted wide open.
"Joker, who is this?" Mona asked while looking up at his leader.
Sophia's attention was drawn to the small, cartoonish looking feline creature that stood next to Joker's leg. Her eyes widened in awe. Mona seemed to have noticed Sophia staring at him and began to feel a flow of awkwardness.
"Uh, can I help you?" Mona asked in an awkward tone.
"...A raccoon?" Sophia asked while tilting her head to the side.
"Wha- ? Try a 'cat'!" Mona corrected Sophia with his paws on his hips.
"A cat… Okay, I have it memorized." Sophia responded in a programmed manner.
"All that nonsense aside…" Crow began as he looked back at Joker with his arms crossed. "Joker, just who the hell is this small lost child? Where did she even come from?"
"I don't really know," Joker said as he scratched the back of his head "I found a big black box, I touched it, it glowed bright white, it broke into many smaller cubes, the cubes rearranged themselves and faded into the light, the light got brighter, and then POOF! Here she is."
"...What?" Skull asked with his eyebrows raised in confusion from behind his mask
"I am Sophia, humanity's companion." Sophia said in the exact same tone she had when Joker first asked who she was
"...Riiigghht." Crow said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Anyway, were you dumped down here by that wannabe queen too?"
"Hmmm…" Sophia hummed to herself.
Sophia placed a hand underneath her chin as if she was going into deep thought. After a few seconds of supposedly thinking, Sophia had a look on her face that showed some disappointment.
"I just learned that I have no memories, so I do not know." Sophia admitted.
"Wait… what?" Skull asked, once again in utter confusion.
Crow sighed in irritation.
"Skull, I am going to slice your jaw clean off of your face if you do not stop saying that." Crow threatened, his voice filled with irritation
"Easy, Crow, let's all talk about this somewhere else." Mona suggested, trying to ease Crow's tension.
Joker, Crow, Mona, and Skull all moved back to an area further away from Sophia where they could talk amongst themselves. Sophia herself looked around at the many piles of trash laying around the dump, her eyes beaming with curiosity.
"So let's just recap what Joker said earlier." Mona started the conversation "He said that girl came out of a giant box after he placed his hand on it and somehow activated it."
"What kinda crazy shit is that? Way too weird…" Skull said in complete disbelief.
"She also said that she doesn't have any memories, so that just makes this whole new mystery much more frustrating." Crow said, clearly scowling from behind his mask.
Mona looked back at Sophia, who was still innocently looking around at the various items within the trash piles.
"She doesn't seem to be a Shadow, though…" Mona said just as he turned to face the group once more. "She doesn't even seem hostile."
"Whatever she is, we still gotta find a way out." Skull said. "Nobody's solving any problems in this dump, that's for sure."
"In trouble?" Sophia's voice came from behind Skull.
"WHOA!" Skull cried out as he quickly turned around to see Sophia standing right behind him with an innocent look on her face. "When did you- ?!"
"If you're in trouble, I can help." Sophia said while holding up her right index finger. "I am humanity's companion. My purpose is to be helpful to humans."
"Do you honestly expect us to believe that you're actually going to be of any help to us?" Crow asked with his arms crossed
"Correct. What is your problem?" Sophia asked in a rather programmed manner.
Joker thought about what Sophia said. Could she really help them get back home? He and the rest of the guys have only just met her and she says that she is a companion to humanity. It honestly felt like something of a gamble to him… but it was probably a gamble he was willing to take.
"Well, we're kinda stuck down here. So we need to find a way out of here and back up to the surface." Joker explained to Sophia.
"Will reaching the surface solve your problem of 'a way out of here'?" Sophia asked politely.
"Um, yeah it would." Joker answered honestly.
Sophia smiled.
"Okay, I've got it." Sophia said as she turned away from the group "I'm searching for 'a way out of here'."
Sophia suddenly dashed off running in an airplane styled run, with her upper body bending forwards and both of her arms pulled backwards.
"Hey, wait!" Joker called out to Sophia while reaching out his arm. "Don't go out there alone!"
"Well, it looks like we're actually going to rely on her." Mona said "Who knows? She might actually be able to get us out of this dump."
"I can't believe we're letting a child take the lead." Crow growled in frustration.
Joker and the others dashed after Sophia. Now that the big black box was gone, the path that was blocked off was now clear. Joker and the rest simply followed the cleared path that led closer to the other end of the dump, hoping to catch up to Sophia.
"Hey, you'd better watch out for Shadows!" Skull called after Sophia. Unfortunately, by the time they caught up to her, Sophia was already coming face to face with a Sentry that was standing in front of a stairway. "Crap, too late!" he cried before leading the charge to Sophia's aid with Joker, Crow, and Mona right behind him with their weapons drawn.
As soon as they reached Sophia and the Sentry, a small number of enemy reinforcements arrived, although this did little to help their chances against the Thieves and the power of their Personas, although they were relatively weak due to their inactivity. The fight was over in a matter of minutes, with the Shadows completely decimated.
"Hmph, pathetic weaklings." Crow scoffed.
"Sophia, right?" Skull asked as he looked at the child. "You hurt or anything?"
"No problems here, thank you for saving me," Sophia said kindly as she smiled "But, why were we attacked? Assaulting others without a viable reason is not proper behavior."
"Gee, you don't say?" Skull quipped, looking at Crow as he spoke. Crow, for his part, looked very much like he wanted to strangle Skull, if his flexing fingers and the hateful glare he was giving Skull were any indication, which sent chills running down Skull's spine.
"Well…" Joker started. "I'm not quite sure how to properly explain it, but what you encountered just now was not a human. Those creatures are actually called Shadows. And the reason why they attacked us was because they see us as a threat to this whole area. The ruler of this place views us as dangerous intruders that must be eliminated."
"A dangerous threat?" Sophia asked while tilting her head to the side
"That's right. We are the Phantom Thieves… all except for Crow. He's… more of an associate." Mona explained further.
Sophia's eyes were suddenly glistening with intrigue and excitement.
"The Phantom Thieves… That's really cool." Sophia exclaimed as she bounced her body up and down like an excited child
Joker felt himself in awe at Sophia's sudden childlike behavior. It was a strange feeling, but he just couldn't help but feel his heart melt at the sight of this child getting all excited at knowing that they are Phantom Thieves.
"That's what you have to say? ...Thanks for the compliment, I guess." Skull said with his head lowered.
"Regardless, we're still bound to run into many more Shadows as we progress further. So do us all a favor and don't go running off on your own like an utter fool." Crow insisted while glaring at Sophia through the lenses of his mask
"Why are you upset?" Sophia asked while tilting her head in confusion "You asked me to find you 'a way out of here', and that's what I'm doing. You only need to wait for me."
"You mean we should just wait for you to go get yourself butchered by Shadows? Yeah, no. I am not an idiot." Crow retorted while still glaring
Sophia's look of confusion now had a mixture of sadness in it.
"I don't understand, I thought you wanted me to help you… Do you not want my help anymore?" Sophia asked.
"No, Sophia, that's not what he's saying." Mona reassured Sophia in a soothing tone "What he means to say is that it's better if we all go together instead of just waiting for you to scout ahead for an exit with so much danger lurking around."
"He's right. You can lead us as we move forward, but you just need to let us know when there are Shadows around. That's where we come in." Joker helped explain further. "We'll take care of the shadows, and you can continue helping us on with getting out of here."
"I see." Sophia said as she smiled again "Okay, I'll do just that. I hope we'll get along well, Joker."
Sophia then turned to face Crow, Mona, and Skull.
"Along with the cat, the… skeleton, and uhh… pterodactyl." Sophia finished
"...I don't know whether I want to smack you or stab you… or do both." Crow snarled as he squinted his eyes in irritation.
"Hey, I'm not a skeleton!" Skull snapped as he stomped his foot down onto the ground
"Nyahahaha!" Mona laughed "Skull's short for Skullington, now!"
"Shut it, cat!" Skull shouted at Mona before turning back to face Sophia "I'm SKULL. Don't screw it up."
"You will be screaming the entire time we're escaping this dump if you don't address me as Crow." Crow threatened
"Calm down now, Skullington and Pterodactyl." Joker quickly quipped.
"Nor you too, man?!" Skull shouted at he glared over at Joker
Crow suddenly drew his sword and pointed it directly in front of Joker's face all while glaring lividly at him and hissing, but Joker just laughed it off, not feeling the seriousness of Crow's attempted silent threat.
"Anyways, let's go ahead and press on." Joker said as he turned around to face a stairway that the Sentry came from.
"Agreed." Mona added "Also, if we by any chance come across a shadow that's too much for us, let's try staying out of its line of sight since we've got Sophia with us."
"Understood." Joker commented.
With that, Joker and the others pressed on as they climbed the small flight of stairs that took them out of the garbage dump and into what could only be described as a sewer, only without all of the nasty sewage and dirty water since it was all most likely within the pipes on the sides of the walls. As they progressed further and came up to a turn to the left, Joker suddenly raised up his arm in a position that signaled for the others to stop.
"What's wrong, Joker?" Mona asked in a whisper
"Just as you predicted, Mona, there's a really powerful shadow just passed here." Joker whispered back.
Mona quietly looked over the corner and noticed a Sentry with a dangerous red aura surrounding it.
"Shoot. I didn't think we'd encounter one this early." Mona said.
"Then let's just destroy it already." Crow insisted.
"I don't think that'd be wise." Mona argued. "Even with the four of us, given how weak we all are now, we'd have some real trouble trying to fight that thing. Plus, we've still got Sophia to worry about. Let's just try waiting back here and see if it leaves."
Even though Crow very much loathed the idea of waiting and not getting to rip the Shadow apart, he still understood full well of what Mona said. The team waited for presumably a good ten minutes for the Shadow to move, but it didn't even budge from it's current spot.
"Shit, it's still hanging around." Skull complained.
"Are you saying that Shadow's in your way?" asked Sophia.
"Unfortunately, yes." Joker answered honestly. "We're most likely not strong enough to fight against it, and we won't be able to escape until we get past here."
"Okay, I've got it." Sophia said before she ran out from behind cover.
"Wait! Sophia, get back here!" Joker shouted. Heaving a sigh, Joker, Skull, Mona, and Crow emerged from cover right behind her, before coming to a halt right behind Sophia as she stopped in front of the Sentry, who turned to face the five of them.
"Who are you?! Intruders?!" the Sentry cried before convulsing and splitting apart into three Jack-O-Lanterns, one of which immediately casted an Agi directly at Sophia. The fire attack exploded into Sophia before any of the Persona-users could do anything to save her.
However, when the smoke cleared, the four Persona-users were shocked to discover that a bunch of black and white boxes of some kind had materialized and formed a protective barrier around Sophia. When the boxes parted, the Persona-users were further shocked to discover that Sophia's outfit had changed. Her heart-shaped pigtails had become a single long ponytail, her boots were now extended up to her thighs, she now wore a pair of black gloves, and a modified version of her dress that now included a hood over her head that completely concealed her face, save for a pair of large electric blue emote eyes.
Spinning in front of her outstretched hands were a pair of oversized yo-yos, which were immediately introduced to two of the Jack-o-Lanterns' faces, destroying them in a single strike, while the boxes that had previously formed a barrier blasted the third Jack-o-Lantern with that seemed to be Bless energy.
Sophia crossed her arms as her yoyos returned to her hands. "We are… the Phantom Thieves," Sophia said.
Joker and the rest of the group felt his own jaws drop to the ground at what they just saw.
"Holy shit! She just destroyed them!" Joker exclaimed.
"She didn' just do that, man! She blew them up… WITH YO-YOS!" Skull yelled out in shock and disbelief
"No way! Was that a Persona?!" Mona exclaimed in shock
"Well I'll be damned… Perhaps this child isn't as much of a liability as we previously thought…" muttered Crow. "And yet, the mysteries surrounding her only deepen…"
Before any further discussion on the matter could take place, a large number of Shadows materialized into existence. "Who the-what are you doing?!" the leader of the newly arrived group of Shadows demanded.
"I am helping the Phantom Thieves," Sophia explained. "Don't take it personally."
On that note, Sophia launched herself into the fray once again. Mona shook himself out of his shocked state. "...well, in that case, we should get in there too!" he said before following Sophia into battle, with Joker, Skull, and Crow right behind him.
Against the onslaught of five Persona-Users, the horde of Shadows could do nothing but get thoroughly destroyed by the power of the group's Personas and the melee attacks of the Thieves themselves.
Once the last of the Shadows had been struck down, the large blue electronic emote eyes that were where Sophia's face should have been dissipated, revealing Sophia's face underneath.
"Okay, we beat them," Sophia said cheerfully.
"Wait, wait, wait…" Skull said, his surprised expression still on his face. "You're so effin' strong! You shoulda told us right away you could fight!"
"But, you never asked," Sophia said innocently.
"Well, that is true," Joker admitted "But even still, you could have at least let us know that you were capable of fighting, regardless of whether or not we asked."
"Not just that, but your clothes! What in the world…?" Mona said. "It's completely different from our own transformations."
"I copied what you do, and ended up like this," explained Sophia.
"You copied us…" Crow said thoughtfully. "Hmm… what a mysterious little girl you are, Sophia…"
"Do you guys think she could be a Persona-User too?" asked Joker.
Sophia tilted her head in confusion. "Persona?" she asked.
"Those things you used during the fight," Mona clarified. "Those boxes flying around."
"Oh, you mean Pithos?" Sophia asked. "That was a weapon. I needed it to fight."
Mona, Skull, Joker, and Crow heaved a collective sigh and shook their heads. "Sophia… just what in the world ARE you?" asked Mona.
"I am Sophia, humanity's companion," Sophia said once again in a programmed manner.
"Thank you, we've established that already," said Crow, a hint of irritation in his voice.
"Hmm…" Joker said thoughtfully. "There's just too much we just don't know about Sophia, but I don't think we have the time to stand her trying to figure her out."
"Right, getting out of here needs to be our number one priority." Mona said
"Yeah, we really don't need her getting any more attention from the enemy," said Skull before an idea popped into his head. "Hey, why don't we have her just help us out?"
"Hmph, that may just be one of the few actually smart things you've ever suggested in your life, Skull." said Crow before laughing.
"Oh shut up, you jackass!" Skull complained
"Either way, Skull's actually right." Joker said "Considering what we just saw, I don't think we'll need to worry about her getting in the way."
"Agreed. We have no idea what's ahead of us," agreed Mona with a nod. "The more firepower the better. Can you lend us a hand, Sophia?"
"Okay, I've got it," Sophia said happily.
Joker gave Sophia a warm smile. "We'll be counting on you, Sophia," he said.
"Right, you'll be counting on me," Sophia said as she excitedly pumped her fist high into the air
Once again, Joker felt his heart begin to melt at the sight of Sophia's behavior. Besides her beyond impressive strength, she was showing a very adorable side of herself, which probably shouldn't be surprising given that she is a child. But even still, Joker hadn't felt his heart melt like this since the very moment that he fell in love with Sumire, back when she finished dancing for him at the Shujin post-festival party.
"Well, let's move!" Skull said as he rolled his shoulder. "Lead the way, Shorty!"
"Understood!" Sophia said happily.
And with that, the group of five continued to make their way through the underground area.
A Short While Later…
"I've got eyes on them!" the leader of a sizable group of Shadows called out before some of them exploded into more Jack o' Lanterns and Pixies, and were promptly mowed down by the Phantom Thieves. However, instead of dispersing into nothingness like the rest of the Shadows, one of the Pixies transformed into a replica of Joker's mask and was sucked into the mask that was on Joker's face, something that Mona took notice of.
"Ooh, you got another Persona!" Mona cheered. "Looks like that power you've got is alive and well!"
"The enemy became a mask? Explain this," asked Sophia as the electric blue emote eyes under Sophia's hood suddenly turned into stars, indicating her excitement
"Joker has the ability to seal a Shadow's form and power into a mask, turning it into a Persona and allowing him to use multiple Personas instead of just one. It's an ability called the Wild Card, and it's something that only a handful of Persona-users can use." Mona explained.
The stars underneath Sophia's hood then turned into an emote of two upward pointing arrows, indicating that she was feeling happy.
"Oh. Interesting," Sophia said happily.
"Come on, let's get moving!" said Joker.
And with that, the group of five continued to make their way through the sewers.
"We must be getting close to the surface by now," muttered Joker.
"We'd better be. This place is as disgusting as it is gianormous," said Skull.
"Enemy ahead!" Mona called out.
Sure enough, standing directly in the way of the group of five was what appeared to be a lone Sentry. However, it had an ominous red aura around it that filled Joker with a sense of apprehension.
The Sentry said nothing, but instead erupted into a black horse with a white mane, demonic red eyes, and a pair of black and green horns. Joker immediately recognized it as a Bicorn. But, unlike the Bicorns he had obtained through fusion or Shadow Negotiations, this one was massive, towering over the five Persona-Users.
"Joker! Try that Persona you just got!" cried Mona.
"Way ahead of you, Mona!" cried Joker as he grabbed ahold of his mask and removed it. "Come forth, Pixie! Zio!"
The small fairy appeared in a burst of blue fire and blasted the large Bicorn with a bolt of lightning, staggering the beast and allowing Crow to seize the opening that was created to strike with his sword. The oversized Bicorn let out a loud whinny, summoning a small platoon of regular sized Sentries, Jack O'Lanterns, and Pixies to its aid.
"Never mind the small fry!" Mona called out amongst the crowd as he became what equated to a buzzsaw and rammed himself into the giant Bicorn. "Focus on the big Shadow for now!"
"Screw that!" Crow called out. "You guys can focus on that oversized Dirty Two-Horned Beast if you want! I, however, will not stand for small fry try to harass me when I'm trying to put down a big fish! Every single Shadow that crosses my path will be ripped apart and destroyed!"
And with that, Crow threw himself at the army of regular-sized Shadows. Joker, meanwhile, couldn't help but smirk as a memory floated to his mind. Back when they were trying to change Kamoshida's heart, Joker, Panther, Skull, and Mona had run from their infiltration point all the way through the castle to the Treasure Room, taking out every single Shadow unfortunate enough to cross their path. However, their little spree had exhausted most of their Stamina, making the fight against Shadow Kamoshida's Amodeus form a bit harder than it needed to be. From that point on, Joker made sure to use the Safe Rooms' strange fast travel network for the other Palaces.
Despite the Bicorn's massive size and therefore it's naturally more resilient defenses, and the large number of reinforcements it had called in, it wasn't long before the massive beast was brought down and the reinforcements had been wiped out, giving Joker and his crew the opening they needed to wallop the massive monster with an All-Out Attack. Upon delivering the coup de grace to the massive Shadow, Joker, Skull, Sophia, Mona, and Crow couldn't help but strike a pose. There was just something about taking down a huge Shadow like that that made them feel like, well, badasses.
"Yay! We won!" Sophia cheered happily with her electric blue emote eyes once again turning into upward pointing arrows "We're not far from 'a way outta here. This way!"
And with that, Sophia broke into an airplane run and darted away, with Joker, Skull, Mona, and Crow right behind her.
A Few Moments Later…
Joker, Crow, Skull, Mona, and Sophia emerged from the underground waterway. As soon as the five of them set foot outside the waterway, Skull heaved a sigh of relief.
"Whoo! We finally made it out of there!" Skull said.
"Don't celebrate just yet. We're not home free." Crow pointed out
"He's right, this is still the Metaverse." Mona added
"That is true." Joker said. "But, in any case, I suppose we owe Sophia a thank-"
"Please wait..." Sophia interrupted
"What is it, Sophia? Found something?" Mona asked
Sophia stood there, pondering in silence.
"I found it!" Sophia cheered happily. "'A way outta here' is nearby."
"For real?!" Skull practically shouted
"How do you know that?" Joker asked
"I suddenly knew it. Like, PHEEW!'" Sophia said, making a verbal sound effect that sound like either a gunshot or an explosion
Skull looked confused. "'Like 'pheew?' Seriously?" he said.
"The exit is close, follow me!" said Sophia as she broke into another airplane run
"Hey, wait! Damn it, Sophia!" Joker shouted as he and the rest of the group followed after Sophia
Sophia led the guys to what seemed to be the connecting bridge that the Phantom Thieves had previously used as their base of operations while carrying out their second and third Palace heists. The Shibuya Accessway. However, for some reason, the bridge seemed to be under construction, and at the far end was a green vortex of some kind that had the occasional pixel manifesting on it.
"Is that the way out you mentioned, Sophia?" Joker asked
"Yes, this is what I had detected previously," confirmed Sophia.
"Uhhh… and it is…?" asked Skull.
"It's fine, it leads outside," said Sophia.
"Leads… outside?" asked Mona, confused.
"Everything will get all WOWOWOWOWOWMO for a moment, but then you'll be outta here." Sophia explained, trying her best to mimic a warping vortex sound effect
Joker suddenly found himself snickering at Sophia's explanation. Not only did Sophia have a clearly adorable side of herself, but was apparently quirky too. It all just added to what made her seem so adorable.
Crow shook his head, a skeptical look on his face. "Well that's easily the worst kind of explanation you could have ever given us..." he said coldly
"Trust me, Joker," said Sophia.
Joker pondered at the situation. It's true that Sophia's explanation wasn't really the best, but she also hasn't done him or the rest wrong so far. Plus, a lot of Sophia's have turned out to be correct.
"Well, considering that she hasn't steered us wrong yet, I'm willing to put my trust in Sophia's judgment." he said while smiling. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all."
Sophia smiled. "I'm glad you're willing to trust me," she said happily as she once again bounced her body up and down
"Hmm…" Mona said uncertainly. "I guess we really do have only one option here."
Joker, Skull, Mona, and Crow began to walk towards the vortex, only to quickly realize that Sophia wasn't following them.
"What's wrong?" asked Skull. "Ain't you coming too?"
"I am…" Sophia suddenly paused in the middle of her sentence, feeling uncertain "What should I do...?"
"Come back with us." Joker insisted "It'd be way too dangerous to stay in the Metaverse."
"Joker's got the right idea, Sophia." Mona added "Staying here will only end up badly for you."
"But…" Sophia paused with uncertainty again
Before Sophia could ponder any further, Crow huffed in irritation before marching up and grabbing Sophia's hand and pulling her towards the portal.
"Wha- what are you doing?!" Sophia cried out as she tried to pull her hand out of Crow's grasp, only to no avail
"Stopping you from making the idiot's decision, that's what." Crow snarled
"We don't leave folks behind to die." Skull added "Just get in the damn portal with us."
"So...you want me to come with you?" Sophia said, worry evident in her voice. "Okay…"
Skull turned back to face the vortex and swallowed. "Welp, here goes! One, two-"
Skull got to finish his preparation count as he felt the rough delivery of a kick to his back, causing him to stumble and fall into the vortex. It was Crow who kicked him into the portal, who's actions earned himself a disapproving glare from Joker.
"Was that really necessary, Crow?" asked Joker.
Crow didn't answer. He only merely scowled before entering the portal while still dragging Sophia along with him. Joker sighed just before entering the portal himself.
Shibuya-Station Square-Nighttime
The entire scenery was turned back into the normal Shibuya. Ryuji was back in his normal clothes while also laying face first on the concrete ground while Ren stood behind him with Morgana popping out from inside Ren's shoulder bag. Ren was also once again back in his regular clothes while Morgana looked like a normal cat again.
Joker looked over to his left and noticed the living presence of his old rival/friend. Akechi. Akechi was noticeably wearing a white dress shirt underneath a blue vest that had a white net-like pattern sewn on it. Akechi was also wearing some black jeans that had a black leather belt holding it up, and a pair of black dress shoes.
But there was something else that caught Ren's attention, something he never thought Akechi would have. There was a high quality, up to date digital picture camera that was attached to black lanyard that hung around Akechi's neck.
"What the eff, dude?!" Ryuji shouted as got up from the ground and glared back at Akechi.
"You were taking too long." Akechi responded, emotionlessly
Suddenly, a voice that Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, and Akechi recognized rang out from Ren's phone "You have successfully returned from the Jail. Welcome back!" EMMA said, causing the three humans and the cat to look at each other in confusion.
"'Jail?'" repeated Morgana in confusion.
"So… it wasn't a palace?" Ren asked with his eyebrow raised
Ryuji's eyes widened in surprise. "Hang on! Where'd Sophia go?!" he exclaimed, looking around wildly.
"Hmm…" said Morgana as he ooking around, trying to located the small bright red child. "I don't think I'm seeing her…"
"HEY, SHORTY! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" Ryuji shouted at the top of his lungs, causing nearby pedestrians to turn and look at the group and begin muttering to themselves.
"Don't say that in public, you idiot!" hissed Morgana.
"Morgana, this is Ryuji you're talking to. He's incapable of using his brain ninety nine percent of the time." Akechi groaned before heaving a sigh. "In any case, perhaps Sophia can't escape the Metaverse for some reas-"
Before Akechi could finish, a familiar voice spoke up from somewhere. "Need something?"
A surprised look emerged on the three humans and cat at the sound of the voice. "Is that… Sophia's voice?!" asked Morgana.
"Well where is she?" Ren asked
"I'm in here, inside Joker's phone!" said Sophia's voice.
Ren, Ryuji, Akechi, and Morgana looked at Ren's phone, where there was a small icon that resembled Sophia's head for whenever she was in battle and had the electric blue emote eyes covering her face. The little icon was floating around on the home screen. Ren tapped on the head with his thumb, and Sophia appeared on the screen. From what Ren could tell, Sophia was once again dressed normally with her hair hairstyle back into pigtails and her white one-piece outfit that didn't have the hood.
"Yo," she said.
"Whoa! She just popped up!" Ryuji cried out in surprise.
Ren found himself sighing in relief to see that Sophia was still with them… But it was strange to see her inside of Ren's phone and not in the outside world with him and the rest.
Sophia blinked a couple times as she realized that Ren, Ryuji, and Akechi looked different. "Oh, did you change your outfits?" she asked.
"Is that really you, Sophia?" Morgana asked in surprise.
"Yep. I'm really me," Sophia said, before a confused look appeared on her face. "But, who are you?"
"I'm still Mona. I just turn into a regular cat in this world," Morgana explained.
"Mona?! You're Mona?!" Sophia cried out in surprise. "So, you really weren't a raccoon after all…"
"I already told you that!" grumbled Morgana.
"Speaking of telling people things, care to share why exactly you're on Joker's phone?" asked Akechi.
"Why am I…? Because I am an AI," explained Sophia.
"An AI?!" Ren cried out in surprise.
"A… uhhhh, that's that smart thing, right?" Ryuji asked.
"Indeed, it's that piece of computer programming that's roughly fifty thousand times smarter than you, give or take a few hundred thousand brain cells," snarked Akechi
"Fifty thousand times zero is still zero, Akechi." Ren immediately quipped before snickering
Morgana quickly followed suit and started to laugh alongside Ren. But surprisingly, Akechi himself found himself chuckling alongside them. Even when laughing, Ren felt amazed to see Akechi actually enjoying the sense of humor instead of just belittling Ren for having fun. Ryuji, however, was not having fun.
"Shaddup, you assholes!" Ryuji grumbled
After a couple of minutes of laughter, Ren, Morgana, and Akechi all regained their composure and caught their breath.
"Anyway, Futaba told us all about it," Ren started. "Sophia is an artificial intelligence."
"For real?" Ryuji practically cried out
"Take a shot!" Both Ren and Morgana said before Ren pulled out two cans of Calorie Magic from his bag, tossed one to Akechi, cracked his can open and took a swig
"What? Take a shot for what?" Akechi asked in confusion
"Oh right, you don't know about it." Morgana started before Ren finished his sip and handed the can over to Morgana for the little feline to get a sip of his own
"Me and the rest of the gang have sort of created a drinking game where we all take a shot of any kind of beverage every time Ryuji or anybody else says 'For real'. Speaking of which: Take a shot!" Ren said before pulling the can back from Morgana's mouth and took another sip
"...You are all morons." Akechi deadpanned
Soon, Ren finished his sip and looked back down at Sophia.
"One way or another, Sophia, I'm just glad you're safe," Ren said with a soft smile.
"I have your phone to thank for that," explained Sophia. "I was thrown into endless light after I went through the portal with you guys. When I tracked down Joker's scent, I ended up here."
"Joker's scent…? What are you, a dog?" asked Akechi.
"Well, if I had to guess, since Sophia is an AI, she turned into data when she came to this world," theorized Morgana
"Zat mean you're living in his phone?" asked Ryuji.
"Correct. It is somewhat small, but it is cozy, and has everything I need. Care to join me?" asked Sophia.
Ren, Morgana, Ryuji, and Akechi all just sweatdropped.
"First off, Sophia, that's not physically possible for humans." Ren said "Second, it's a big relief knowing you made it out of there safely."
"Wait, what about those other people we saw inside that Pal- uh, Jail?" asked Ryuji. "Are they still… you know?"
"I don't know…" admitted Morgana.
"Realistically, it's rather likely that they're dead. Unless they awakened to Personas like we did, there's no way they're getting out of the Metaverse alive," said Akechi, sounding as though he couldn't care less one way or another.
However, on the other hand, Ren had a lot more feeling in his heart for other people, no matter if they were strangers or personally close.
"Then let's rescue them before that happens." Ren insisted
"Ren, I get what you're saying, but if we charge in without a plan, we're just going to end up captured again," said Morgana. "Still… it is very concerning… we've discovered a new aspect of the Metaverse that has its own version of a Palace that we access through EMMA… it even has a ruler Shadow."
"And if our previous experiences with the Metaverse are anything to go by, then I think it's a safe bet that something really bad is going on right now…" Ren added before heaving a sigh "I have a really bad feeling about all this…"
"Yeah, me too…" said Morgana while Ryuji and Akechi nodded in agreement. "Let's get in touch with the others. We'll hammer out our next course of action with everyone then."
"That reminds me, we still need to figure out how to get everyone together without Sojiro trying to strangle Akechi alive." said Ren as he pondered on all the best possible options they have "...Why don't we all get together at Shibuya Accessway instead? At least until Futaba and I can explain to Sojiro that we need Akechi alive for the time being."
Morgana heaved a sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right." he said.
"Hold up, what about Sophia?" asked Ryuji.
"It appears I cannot exit this phone," Sophia said sadly. "When I came to this world, I connected to the internet, and learned a great many things."
"Hm, that's pretty interesting." Ren commented with a nod "But just try to be careful with the kind of things you might find, Sophia. I once saw this movie from back in 2015 where another AI searched the entirety of the internet and determined that all life on Earth needed to be wiped out."
"You don't need to worry about that, Joker, such a thing goes against my programming and primary directive. How can I be humanity's companion if there is no humanity?" pointed out Sophia. "However, even with all I've learned, my memory is still erased, and I found no means of data recovery. Since I'm stuck in this phone, I don't know what I should do…"
"Don't worry about it, Sophia. You can stay with me and Morgana when we head back home." Ren said with a reassuring smile
Sophia's eyes were not beaming with joy.
"Really? I can stay with you?" Sophia asked, excitedly
"Of course." Morgana said "Introducing you to the rest of the Phantom Thieves will definitely make the explanation easier."
"There are more Phantom Thieves?!" Sophia cried out in surprise.
"Yeah, we got ourselves a whole gang. One of 'em will probably flip her wig over you, too," said Ryuji.
"Okay… that sounds pretty fun!" said Sophia.
"Speaking of which, I should probably go ahead and give Sumire a call." Ren said as he pulled up his phone call app.
"Man, wonder how this is gonna go over, especially when they hear about the Palace-type shit…" Ryuji pondered out loud
"Yeah… especially when they all realize that Akechi is still alive, especially Futaba and Haru." Morgana added as he looked over at the shaggy brunette
"Whatever happens happens." Akechi said nonchalantly
Suddenly, Ren winced out loud.
"What's wrong? Is your head hurting again?" Morgana asked
"No, it's not that." Ren said with his hand trembling a little "Looks like Sumire and the others have been trying to get ahold of me the whole time we were in that Palace… Hoo boy, I hope she's not too upset with me…"
Ren then pressed the dial button on Sumire's contact number. Ren placed the phone close to his ear, listening to the silent rings from the other side of the line. Suddenly, the ringing stopped.
"Senpai, Is that you?!" Sumire asked, her voice obviously filled with worry
Ren took a quick deep breath.
"Yes, Sumi, it's me. I- " Ren was suddenly cut off
"I've been trying to call you all day and you haven't been answering!" Sumire cried out from the other line " We even tried calling Ryuji-Senpai's phone, but when he didn't pick up either, we all got worried that something happened to you! I- I couldn't stop pacing or panicking at the that you- that you-"
Ren could tell that Sumire was on the verge of tears at this point. Hearing his dearly beloved breathe unevenly and make whimpering noises made his heart sink, and he couldn't stand to hear her this way.
"Shshshshsh…" Ren shushed soothingly "Sumire, baby, I'm okay. I'm not hurt or anything, I promise you that I'm okay."
Sumire began to collect her breathing and she sniffed a few times as she let out a few more whimpers. After about half a minute, Sumire was now more emotionally stable.
"Senpai… where were you all day today?" Sumire asked
"I'm sorry, Sumi, but Me, Morgana, and Ryuji got ourselves stuck somewhere the whole day." Ren answered as discreetly honestly as he possibly could
"What do you mean? Stuck where?" Sumire asked further
"Sumire, could you call up everyone else and tell them to meet up with us at the Shibuya Accessway immediately? We've got some extremely important things to inform you all about." Ren said, the tone on his voice sounding urgent, which Sumire picked up on
"Oh… uh, okay. I'll give them all a call right now" Sumire said
"Thank you." Ren said kindly before continuing, "And also, Sumi, be sure to tell them to brace themselves… because you guys are not going to believe who's with us."
And thus concludes the fourth chapter! Again, big thanks to my co-author, CloudStrife07, for all his help and support with this thing. Anyways, if you liked what you saw here, then be sure to fave, follow, review, and be sure to join as next time as the rest of the Phantom Thieves meet up with Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, and Akechi, meet Sophia for the first time, and begin their investigation into Alice and her victims! See you then!