Only around two months, and BAM! Here we are again!
Yes, people, I have managed to upload a File as large as this in the span of but two months! (Yet somehow could not finish it before Winter Break ended) Don't get used to it. College has started up again, and this semester promises to be very busy. The good news is that File 5 is officially done! The bad news is my Outline got corrupted (which also a reason this was delayed), meaning I'm going to have to rebuild the entire thing, slowing down this story even more. But I am used to it. Besides, I'd rather wait for something good than rush out something terrible.
Either case, after much checking over with Donjusticia (Go read his stories if you're a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V) and Deadcoder (Go read his reviews of CL if you desire), I present the final part of File 5! File 5.3: Challenge of the City!
EDIT: Similar to the previous File, this one was edited due to a tonal conflict that arose from an idea I did not properly refine, along with trying to prevent spoilers for later parts of the story. Apologies to those readers who had to sit through the original version and apologies to Deadcoder for the various minor Discord rants made behind your back while I sorted this out and read Initial D (I don't have time for an anime binge, people. Reading the manga is faster) to get a grasp on things again.
I do not own Code Lyoko, all rights go to the proper copyright holders.
Garage Kids
File 5.3: Challenge of the City
Much as Jeremie preferred typing notes as opposed to writing them, he couldn't deny that pen/pencil on paper offered a tad more flexibility when organizing his thoughts before committing them to cyberspace.
'There are so many variables. Things are proceeding at an unknown pace.'
'Could/should we recruit others? What's going on with the Specters? What's going on with Odd's ability? What are the variables in it? Is there something similar in Ulrich and Yumi's powers? Why was Xanadu made? What was the Professor trying to do here?'
The computer genius rolled his chair around the supercomputer monitors, looking at the hodgepodge of scrawling that he had written down in his notebook. Feeling confident that he had all his points laid out, Jeremie rolled back over to the main monitor and began typing. He had come up with the idea of keeping a permanent record of his research, so that others might be able to build on/continue it if he failed. He suppressed a slight shudder at the thought of failure however and continued to type.
Log of Jeremie Belpois, October 13, 2001
I'm reviewing our plans to investigate the alleyways, checking the conspiracy sites regarding the Billancourt Panic, reviewing modern Parisian history, and compiling it down for us to study (if I can get Ulrich and probably Odd to focus on it. Yumi shouldn't be too much of a problem). The conspiracy sites have revealed excellent places to research, even if the sites themselves don't have all the info I want. After all, they do still correlate to a certain set of programs the Professor created, but I'll get to that later.
For now, I'll talk about the plan. I've made a deal with Sebastian to guide me through the Alleyways, under the pretense, well, partial pretense, because it's true that I require them, of obtaining new robot parts for the inter-school competition on the 20th. I have a design at the ready, which I'll be fine-tuning once I get a closer look at Odd's dog, since I based the design off quadruped animals.
Of course, that brings up my actual goal: Finding programs related to Xanadu (And maybe some additional hardware on the side, it wouldn't hurt). When we first discovered the supercomputer, there were five folders to open. One opened the supercomputer's interface, one has the Professor's message to us explaining what Xanadu is, and a third is the basic guide of how to run the supercomputer itself. But two others contained a set of 'Assorted Files', and 'Encryptions'. The first, obviously, contains assorted files that have the code of several programs that seem to have been derived from Xanadu's programs. It's from this that I obtained the means to create firewalls for my computers.
Most of these programs are supplemental, and not very complicated, they're just there to help run/enhance running the supercomputer…but some of them seem incomplete, and despite my best efforts, I haven't found a way to finish/run them. This is where the second folder comes in, the Encryptions. They're, as the name says, an encryption of additional files. A few of them I've cracked, but most of the others I haven't…and I don't think I'll be able to crack them without additional information. Of the files I've decoded, one of the most prominent ones was a JPEG map of Boulogne Billancourt from 1994, with some areas marked here and there, with formulas. These areas seem correspond to areas in town that nowadays, seem to be where a lot of the conspiracy sites get their information from. That means that if we want to find out more about Xanadu, we'll have to investigate these areas, hence why I'll need Sebastian's help while I write a program to narrow the search options…and speaking of Sebastian (well, typing, since this is a written log) …
He's the first candidate (barring Odd), who I think we should reveal the factory to, which is another reason I've approached him for Sunday. Whether or not he joins us as a combatant or an ally to help us maintain the secret and give us some breathing room…is something I don't know. Honestly, I thought he would be more of a wild card, but Hugo's increasingly dangerous mood has put him in that category instead. Honestly didn't expect that...so I'm hoping that if Sebastian joins us, he can keep Hugo off our backs…but of course, this depends on how cooperative he'll be if he knows…I'll admit this is risky, but there's not much else we can do.
Jeremie then let out a long-suffering sigh. He really didn't know what to expect during and after Sunday, but unable to do anything else, he immediately resumed typing.
My fourth and final priority is learning just what is going on with Odd's powers. His ability to see in the future isn't as direct with dealing with enemies like Yumi's telekinesis and Ulrich's Super-Sprint, but its effects on his dreams opened a huge can of worms when it comes to anticipating what's coming for us down the line. AKA, the 'Grim Reaper'. This entity, and several others similar to it that Odd described in his visions yesterday afternoon and this morning, are…worrying, to say the least, not to mention the symbol he described to me this morning.
Jeremie immediately inserted the PNG of the new Xanadu symbol into the log and continued typing.
I'm hoping that tomorrow, I can make some progress on these four points. I'll be creating a plan for the others to go over this afternoon. Jeremie out.
And with that, Jeremie leaned back in his chair, deep in thought now that he was organized. Four objectives to accomplish tomorrow, and now, two objectives to complete today: Get his robot's prototype ready and prepare a dossier for his friends. Jeremie stretched, got out of his chair, and began to walk towards another area of the factory. During the first few days of learning about the factory and Xanadu, Jeremie had immediately began searching the abandoned complex trying to learn everything about the supercomputer and its hardware, until he understood it from top to bottom. Throughout these sweeps, he had come across a massive bounty of discarded wires, computer chips, scrap metal, hardware, piping, etc. Some he had moved to his space in the group's territory, but he kept the majority in the factory, eventually choosing to store most of it in an area of the factory that was originally bare and empty.
Of course, whether or not this space once had another purpose was still something to discover later.
Traversing the labyrinth of metal and circuitry, Jeremie made his way to the Northeastern end of the factory, where the exterior walls curved around. Originally, this area had been relatively bare and open like a foyer, with only spare circuits and wires lying on the ground, with three large cylinders atop of a crook similar to the one holding the interface for the supercomputer overlooking the area. Next to these cylinders was a metal pillar with ladder rungs attached, leading to an upper level, but this only consisted of several catwalks that hung over the area. Some had railings, others did not. The crook itself contained what seemed to be a switchboard, though Jeremie had yet to discover its purpose, or if it was even operational and/or relevant. In fact, of the areas in the factory that he had taken the time to study, besides the room holding the Nuclear Fusion reactor down below on the lowest floor, only the main supercomputer terminal seemed operational.
That being said at such an early stage of the game, anything seemed possible.
"Let's see here…" Jeremie said to himself, chewing the inside of his cheek as he rummaged through the piles of equipment, remembering the blueprints of the design he had created. "Need this for the legs, this sensor would be useful, and this covering is more durable than the metal in the junkyard…"
Jeremie was lost in thought as he gathered the components for the robot, placed them into a cardboard box, and exited the factory, taking a few moments to save some files into a spare flash drive for his dossier. With that complete, he reached the manhole cover, tucked the box into his arms, and slowly made his way down the ladder.
His plans for the day were set, and nothing seemed out of order. There were no calls from Ulrich, Odd, or Yumi, so he assumed things were going by well: Ulrich had probably avoided Sebastian at this point and was doing his own thing, Yumi was helping Milly and Tamiya write an article on the community, and Odd was goofing off on his skateboard.
Of course, unbeknownst to Jeremie, events had already plunged the day into chaos, and his best-laid plans were about to be twisted beyond even his own expectations.
Though, not exactly for the worst, nor better…
"Yo, Burrel, are you there?" Sebastian called.
"Sebastian?" Matthias' voice asked grumpily. "What is it? If you're asking about the director's cut of the Hospital of Horrors movie, I don't have it yet, so-"
"Not important." The lanky boy interrupted. "Listen, Solovieff and Diop got it into their heads to write an article about lemonade dealers, and Ishiyama went along as their bodyguard, while asking me for help, and – "
Matthias' voice was clearly angry as he shot back, "What did I ever do to you? Why would you send me Kadic's gossip queens?! Are you TRYING to get Delmas to shut us down?'
"I just sent them there to negotiate with you." Sebastian defended calmly. "Besides, I don't think they'll actually succeed writing their article. Diop was pretty spooked about everyone in town ganging up on her and Solovieff, and plus, Ishiyama seemed hesitant about it."
"Just get to the damn point already!" Ulrich snapped, keeping an eye open for William and his harem.
"Wait, was that Ulrich?" Matthias asked. "What does he want? A katana? Tell him I don't carry those."
"I don't think Stern would care about buying anything from anyone." Sebastian commented, but he quickly got back on point, somewhat. "But that's not the reason I called. I WISH it was, but the last time I watched something involving wishes, I nearly lost my lunch doing water painting the next day. So, uh, yeah, I'll be blunt, when I was helping Solovieff and Diop out, we ran into Dunbar's harem."
"Oh no, WILLIAM?" Matthias gagged. "Last time we dealt with him and his crazy goons, I almost got my hair dyed blonde!"
"Well, this is even worse." Sebastian drawled. "Ishiyama managed to piss off Dunbar's harem for committing the high crime of not falling for Dunbar's so-called charm, and now they're going to perform 'Plan Aphro' on her since she also managed to tick every box in Dunbar's fetish list."
There was silence on the other end. "…So first you tell me I have to make a deal with the Kadic News, and THEN you're telling me William's going to do THAT disgusting thing to someone? What is this? 'Give Matthias a Migraine Day'?"
"You know what I want you to do Burrel." Sebastian ordered, ignoring his associate's snark. "Same thing we did to help keep them off LeDuc's and Knight's backs. Get Ishiyama into that safe room until Dunbar's attention span makes him start admiring his own reflection…or until Stern and I beat some sense into him...Or at least whatever passes for sense in Dunbar's so-called brain."
There was a loud sigh at the end as Matthias seemed to start walking. "Glad to know kicking William's ass finally became a valid option at least. Anyways, how do I deal with Milly and Tamiya? Kind of hard to hide someone if those two are chatting away like they always do."
"Hide them away too. Besides, Ishiyama's able to keep them on the straight and narrow, she'll shut them up if they get too loud."
"Alright, fine." Matthias replied. "Maybe we'll finally get rid of that harem for good today."
"When the Seine is safe to drink from maybe." Sebastian remarked cynically.
"Yeah…" Matthias mumbled. "Good luck to you…Ulrich too."
And the young entrepreneur hung up, leaving Sebastian and Ulrich to walk down the alleyways in silence, Sebastian still leading, with Ulrich following closely behind. For most people, such silence would be awkward and unbearable, but for Sebastian and Ulrich, the silence helped them think. Both were still mulling over the information their opposite number had given: Sebastian's mind continuously thinking about the government experiment that lay somewhere in town, fear seeping into his bones with every theory, while Ulrich's imagination thinking of the many horrible things William and his harem were planning to do to Yumi, each scenario worse than the last, filling him with anger.
When they reached a crossroads, with one pathway leading straight down, and the second leading to an immediate right turn, Ulrich immediately stepped forward. "Let's split." He said, only for Sebastian to tug on the martial artist's jacket.
"Are you crazy, Stern?" he hissed.
"We'll cover more ground that way!" Ulrich retorted.
"If we were dealing with three or four goons from one of the public schools, I'd agree, but 1) you barely know the area, and 2) Dunbar's harem has more than two dozen chicks combing this place right now! We've basically entered the lion's den, so there's safety in numbers!" Sebastian explained.
"I've faced worse." Ulrich grunted, eager to get away.
"What kind of worse?" Sebastian asked in dread, mind immediately going back to the anime that he had mentioned to Matthias.
"Man-eating black monster-worse." Ulrich replied nonchalantly. "I can take these chicks."
"Our goal isn't them!" Sebastian revealed while suppressing the idea of an ebon-colored, giant three-headed man-eating bear. "We're going after Dunbar himself!"
"…Keep talking and maybe I'll listen to your plan." Ulrich said after fifteen seconds of quiet contemplation that had consisted of subjecting William to the most brutal beatdowns Pencak Silat had to offer.
Sebastian nodded. "You may not want to know how Dunbar works, which is understandable because his brain is a place so horrible that the town garbage dump is cleaner, but I, unfortunately, do. He's going to rely on most of his harem to keep away stragglers, while he and a few chosen partners go in for the kill." He paused to let that sink in before continuing. "The problem though is that he plays dirty. He's plenty strong on his own in a fair fight, which is bad enough, but the bastard has some connections in the REAL Alleyways and their districts, so he's got access to tricks to turn the tide in his favor, like say, stun guns and chloroform. It's why I told Knight and her sister not to try directly fighting him when they had to hold him off, he'd have just come up with a sneak attack to turn the tide."
Ulrich looked at Sebastian. "So, you want us to sneak up on him instead?"
"Hoist him by his own petard, as the good website says." Sebastian answered. "We'll have a better chance if we attack him from two sides. That'll distract him long enough for us to deal some cheap shots of our own on him and knock him down…well…I'll probably be the one landing the cheap shots. You probably have some fighting technique that could take him out instantly."
Ulrich was sheepish, but only for a moment. "Not 'instantly', but I've got a few that might stun him for a little bit before we finish him off."
"Anything goes." Sebastian shrugged as he turned his phone back on and showed Ulrich another view of his map.
"Ishiyama, Solovieff, and Diop are on this route." Sebastian pointed to a set of lines colored purple. "We're on an adjacent route a few turns away from it, starting from the path that turns left." He pointed to that direction. "If we take the right turn, which goes straight down, there's a dead end…but halfway there's a turn that would take us directly to that route as well. By this time, the girls are probably past both points, but it'll let us catch up."
"The way you're talking sounds like we should've just joined them from the start." Ulrich pointed out.
"And thus, Dunbar orders his entire harem to close in on us in a pincer strike and we're overwhelmed." Sebastian deadpanned. "Not too far down from where the second turn takes us, there's a left turn that eventually crosses back over to the main route through two right turns." He showed Ulrich the resulting 'n' shape, marked in green. "But that second turn is a crossroad, leading to a completely different location. This is the first route Dunbar might come down, not counting him directly tailing them from the original route." He revealed theses pathways in red, which overlapped the purple. "There's also a second, a four-way turn that leads to two different areas. These are the second and third routes Dunbar could use to start coming after Ishiyama." He showed Ulrich the routes, also marked in red. "Finally, making a right turn about 30 meters down from this intersection leads to Matthias' little shop. It's located 40 meters away from that turn, and that route leads to another crossroad. These are the last two ways Dunbar could come after Ishiyama. You got that?"
"…Yeah…" Ulrich nodded. "So, there's six ways he could try to get Yumi."
"And we're only in a position to hit two of those routes from where we are." Sebastian revealed. "Either we directly tail Ishiyama and the press, or we try to overtake them and hit whatever group Dunbar sends first."
Now Ulrich's irritation began to return as he looked at the other paths. "What about the others then?!" he snapped, "what do we do once we close off those two exits? There's still four more William could use to get to Yumi!"
"I was getting to that, Stern." Sebastian replied calmly, "first we -"
"Just show me how the routes work." Ulrich cut in. "I can cover that ground easily."
"...Forgive me for stating the obvious Stern, but that's physically impossi-" Sebastian began, only for Ulrich to disappear, leaving behind a gust of wind. Before Sebastian could yell for Ulrich to return, the boy had returned in the space of a few seconds.
Sebastian's jaw dropped, and he rubbed his eyes. "Um, uh…what the…uh…" he stammered before gulping. "H-how did you do that?"
"That's the other thing about that experiment we found." Ulrich said. "The place gives you superpowers. For me, it's super-speed. Now can you give me the maps?" His default stoic expression returned then as he looked at Sebastian's shocked face. "Without looking like you've seen a ghost?"
Sebastian's mouth moved up and down as he processed the information. He looked at his map, then at Ulrich, then back to his map, and back to Ulrich again. He struggled to get his next words out. "I-I'm...uh…okay…" he wet his lips nervously. "I'm sending you the information."
Ulrich's phone buzzed as he received the notifications. Without another word, the boy sped off, leaving Sebastian in the literal dust, causing the lanky boy to cough violently. The sudden activity didn't last though. As soon as the dust had settled, Sebastian stood motionless for several minutes, mind blank with shock. Once the shock had passed, he sat himself on the ground, took several deep breaths, and became lost in his thoughts. So, Ulrich and probably Yumi and Odd had superpowers as well…which in the short-term, probably gave Ishiyama a knee-up on Dunbar, but in the long-term…
He knew nothing. Sebastian Toup knew absolutely nothing about this…threat, for lack of a better word besides some curt explanations given to him in the past ten or so minutes, and Ulrich Stern was not the kind of person who would go 'Oh wait, I need to explain all of this to you' even if Ishiyama wasn't in danger, though Sebastian suspected that said danger was much lower than he had originally believed.
He weighed his options. He could try to call Amare and Hugo immediately and give them the details of what he had learned, or even call Yumi demanding a more detailed explanation (Jeremie was out of the question due to his…eccentricities, and Odd seemed about as clueless as everyone else). He had even prepared to dial a number…but something stopped him from doing so. On the one hand, it might've been caution. After all, Hugo would've exploded hearing that Ulrich was now the Flash, and instead of solving the problem, the blue-capped boy might just cause the situation to implode in on itself. On the other hand, though…
It might've been because Sebastian had not kept his guard up, and in the time he had wasted staring into space, several girls had snuck up behind him, and one of them jabbed a stun gun right into the back of his neck, knocking the boy out before he had even registered what had happened.
There were four of them, and three were content to remain in the shadows. The fourth was the very girl who Yumi had insulted earlier: Brynja Heringsdotir, with a vindictive sneer on her face. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
"John, we've dealt with that Sebastian like you recommended." She sneered. "What do we do with him?"
"Hmm. I almost didn't think we'd get this far ahead..." A boy replied on the other end, looking down at his…prey, for lack of a better word. "I assumed somebody would have screwed it up by now. Eh, let's get them into our territory. That way, we can consolidate guards and minimize the chances of one of them escaping. After all, I've already managed to capture the other one."
A boy around Sebastian's height had been pinned down onto the ground by four girls, each holding onto a limb. The boy had black hair, glasses, an orange shirt, green pants, and black sneakers. The appearances of the four girls were of no interest to Matthias Burrell though. They were just lackeys for the enforcer who had ordered them to burst into Matthias' shop, hit him in the chest with a taser, and pin him to the ground. The enforcer himself had loose dual-shaded brown hair, dark on the top, and lighter on the bottom, wore a rainbow-colored shirt, tight blue jeans, and glow-in-the-dark sneakers because subtlety was not John Watson's thing.
"Sorry about this Matthias. You know, I don't hate you. I can even forgive your taste in outfits and decorating. But you've opposed William's efforts to spread love in this place in need of it. That is evil." John said with a sickening smile on his face that made Matthias want to hurl. "And you've even directly stopped our attempts to spread love in this place of self-interest and exploitation twice. But you got lucky those times with me being sick with food poisoning, because then I couldn't lead our idol to victor, like I am now! We will soon be spreading love to this town once again!"
"…You're calling brainwashing gangrape love?" Matthias gaped, before struggling to take in another breath of oxygen from the exertion. "I have other words in mind, how about 'monstrous'? 'Horrifying?' Or is 'Disgusting' the best word for it?"
"You call a beautiful being who seeks to spread love in a place of evil and hatred monstrous?! You really are a capitalistic monster. He is beauty in a place where ugly has poisoned the society and land!" John ranted before his voice suddenly went down to a gentler tone of admiration. "He is a figure of beauty and acceptance and love in this vile city of a vile world where ugly people kill different ugly people for things!"
"Please stop the insane ranting before I see any bulges or darkening in your pants." The young dealer deadpanned. "My shop isn't a love shack."
"Don't worry about it. Nobody is going to have any bulges within 3 kilometers of THAT outfit." John scowled, pacing around the small area. "And what would you know of love? You're a mere pimp of consumerism in a place where human life is but a disposable commodity. You know no passion for others, only buying and selling." He accentuated the point by walking towards a shelf of dry snacks, and knocked several bags to the floor, scoffing in disgust.
"If I didn't have passion for others, I'd have let William have his way with Emily!" Matthias spat out in defiance.
"Oh, I know you had ulterior motives in that matter." John mumbled.
"So, I think she's cute, okay?" Matthias snapped, causing some of the girls pinning him to coo in interest and causing the dark-haired shopkeeper to blush in spite of the bad situation he was in.
John rose an eyebrow. "Well, that's something to add to the gossip file tonight. But we've got better things to do. Let's get this over with-"
But before he could finish, one of the shelves of the store suddenly collapsed, tipping over atop the girls holding Matthias' left arm and leg.
Matthias' shop was a somewhat simple area, located in the incomplete lobby of a boarding house whose construction had gone unfinished. The lobby itself was rectangular in shape, and while somewhat roomy, was not too large due to the original plans projecting a building of moderate size. It had been a perfect place for the boy to create a makeshift store/warehouse of sorts, with the reception desk serving as his counter, and the empty space having plenty of room for shelves of various contraband goods such as lemonade, video games, and other enticing products for people his age arranged in aisles, not unlike a General Store. A set of stairs near the reception desk that led to the rooms of the boarding house were dusty, with the rooms only serving to hold excess stock. A feature unbeknownst to everyone except Matthias however, was that some of these rooms had less space than the others due to leftover building material.
This may have seemed to make the rooms too cluttered, but in truth, these held the hiding spaces that Matthias occasionally offered to kids who might need them, as Emily, Samantha, and Taluma had when avoiding William's harem.
Sadly, it seemed that it would not be available for Yumi and the heads of the Kadic News today.
Then again, they would not be necessary.
Once Yumi had received the warning from Sebastian, she immediately grabbed Milly and Tamiya by their hands and started running, belting out orders for which way to turn next. Tamiya had desperately held onto the map Sebastian had marked while Milly kept an eye for any rabid she-jackals. They had run far ahead beyond Sebastian's original projections and had reached Matthias' shop early…only to see the boy having already been captured. Yumi was half-tempted to barrel into the abandoned building and let her powers loose, but the movements of the young reporters, huddling behind her, kept her mind on task.
So, hiding them behind the entrance, Yumi focused on an empty shelf near where two of the girls holding Matthias down were, and using her Telekinesis, dropped the heavy object atop of them, knocking them unconscious. To everyone else, it seemed like unfortunate/fortunate coincidence (Depending on who you were), but to Yumi, it was planned and calculated. With the enemy distracted, she rushed into the lobby.
"Ugh, now that's just shoddy craftsmanship-" John began, but Yumi swept her legs underneath him, knocking the crazed pervert to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, Yumi back-flipped behind the remaining two girls, who tried to defend themselves, both pulling out stun guns, only for Yumi to quickly high-kick the weapons out of their hands before delivering a quick punch to their solar plexus. The two girls collapsed onto the floor, groaning at first, before falling quiet just like their allies.
Yumi looked at the entrance of the shop, where Milly and Tamiya were peeking in. "Help this guy up!" she called. The two reporters squeaked, running into the store to assist Matthias back to his feet.
"Ow…" the boy groaned as he got back up.
"Are you okay?" Tamiya asked.
"I've been better." Matthias grumbled, clutching his chest to steady his breathing.
"That was amazing Yumi!" Milly cheered, stars in her eyes. "You just went in and knocked these guys out like a storm!"
Matthias nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I won't lie about that. Nice one."
"It's not over yet." Yumi grunted as she looked down at the still-conscious John, who was only just sitting up, rubbing the back of his head. "You," she barked to get his attention, "are you that Watson guy Sebastian told me about?"
"Possibly, it's a common name." John replied in a voice far too calm for Yumi's liking, "can you give me some details?"
The black-haired girl scowled at him. "The only guy in a harem full of braindead streetpunk whores worshiping a braindead rapist. Is that enough detail for you?"
"Hey, we are NOT whores." John protested, standing up and dusting himself off. "After all, we're not being paid for any of this. And look at my outfit! This rainbow of life! I'd never wear clothing that screams death!"
He then found himself shoved against a wall, the tall, dark-haired girl now gripping his shirt with one hand, lifting the token gay option off his feet. "Well, that confirms it." Yumi hissed. "Now then, Sebastian said that you were the most reasonable of these so-called people, but considering what you were doing to that guy," she pointed at Matthias, who had grabbed a bottle of water and was downing it fast. "I'm going to guess that either that's a pretty low bar to set, or he got you mixed up with someone else."
"Yeahhh, the bar's pretty low." John admitted, seemingly not concerned with how Yumi literally had him up against the wall. "There's only like 4 or 5 of us who can accomplish a task."
Yumi stared flatly at him, before narrowing her eyes at him again. "Fantastic…how wonderful…" she muttered. "Anyways, Sebastian said you were the one most open to negotiation, so I'm going to ask you to get your 'friends' out of here and tell William that if he ever tries that Plan Aphro on me, he's going to have Hell to pay." She accentuated the point by pressing John's body onto the wall, causing the boy to grimace from the force being applied to him.
"…Should I also point out that William's done Plan Aphro to a lot of other girls?" Matthias put in, settling back behind his counter. "'Bout half of them were all brainwashed by him and the other half."
Yumi's hands trembled in increasing anger at this revelation. "Thanks for the reminder." she replied sarcastically, now subtly applying her telekinetic grip onto John's body, causing the boy to wheeze as the wind was knocked out of him. "Let me rephrase that, if William ever tries Plan Aphro on me or anyone else ever again, he's going to have Hell to pay."
"W-well," John croaked, "I'm happy to go back and tell him that the plan failed because my team was a bunch of incompetent fuckwits, but you really can't stop William from doing Plan Aphro. I mean, the capitalist and the dismisser of hormones and love paused it twice, but stopping it altogether? Fat chance."
"Are you really so sure?" Yumi asked, voice low and dangerous as she glared daggers at William's enforcer.
But John was not intimidated, if anything he seemed completely unfazed. "Oh, definitely. There's so many of us you'd get overwhelmed if you tried anything, and most of them have terrible impulse control. Not to mention that once the ceremony is complete, there's nothing that can be done."
"Ceremony?" Yumi spat in disgust. "You're calling a glorified gang-rape a ceremony?"
"That guy's completely insane." Matthias coughed, resting his hands on the counter. "Don't be surprised that he'd say something like that, Yumi…and anyways, that last part refers to how William brainwashes his victims."
"Sebastian said that they do…things." Tamiya ventured, both her and Milly seeming to debate on whether or not to write it down...and whether or not this was something they actually needed or wanted to know.
"Well, if you want me to really get into it-" John began, only for Yumi to slam his body against another wall, knocking the breath out of him.
"I'd rather not." She said, before taking a glance at Matthias. "What exactly is he talking about?"
Matthias looked hesitant, then he looked at the still-unconscious girls lying on the floor and sighed. "What Sebastian was talking about mainly referred to the…specific actions that William and the harem perform on the victim, but the clincher comes from how William has this steady supply of mind-altering nanobots which make up this weird gel…that he uses to alter a girl's personality however he wants."
Milly and Tamiya gasped, hands falling to their sides as the horrible revelation sunk in. For her part, Yumi's eyes widened in complete and utter horror as what Matthias informed of her registered in her head, threatening to remind her of…no…no…suppress, suppress. Just remember enough to be motivated to stop William.
"You know, I could've explained it." John pouted, clearly not caring about the disgust, dread, hatred, and horror present on the faces of the other conscious people in the room. As if the action that had been described was as normal as a trip to the grocery store. "You missed out on a LOT of technical detail."
"I don't think the details are very important in this case." Yumi hissed, voice lower and yet, so much more furious than earlier. "Matthias didn't get it wrong, did he?"
"Well, he's oversimplifying it, but yeah, he's not wrong." John replied nonchalantly. "He did leave out how once the nanobots are completely absorbed into a person's body, the person is forever enlightened to William and his beauty."
"I don't need to hear anything else then." Yumi growled. "You tell me where William is right now, so I can beat him to a pulp for this!"
"Honey, if you go there, you'll get overwhelmed and be turned anyways." John chuckled, voice light and calm. "Besides, everyone there is devoted to William. You hurt him, and they'll rip you apart. Not only that, but you've really caught his eye. He'd probably get turned on the whole time. Do you really think you can defeat William all by yourself?"
It was then that a yellow-green blur (though no one noticed said blur) passed by the store, before almost immediately, Ulrich's head peered in, and saw the mess inside. The martial artist ran into the store, and looked around, seeing that everything was…actually under control. Yumi had apparently even caught one of them and was interrogating him.
"It's Ulrich!" Milly cheered.
"Eh, William's hotter." John commented.
"Shut up." Ulrich said, glaring at the crazy person before his gaze turned to Yumi. "What's going on?"
"William's token yaoi option pulled one over Sebastian and held Matthias hostage." Yumi explained. "Right now, I'm interrogating this lunatic so I can find William and give him a piece of my mind."
"You're giving yourself up? Good choice!" John exulted. "I mean, they're all expecting you anyways, so if you could just let me go so we can begin the ceremony that would be great!"
Yumi threw John to the ground. "I'll give myself up when the Earth is proven flat. I'm going to pulverize William for his crimes. I just need to know where his hideout is, so Ulrich and I can smash him into the pavement like the rotten piece of trash that he is."
Ulrich raised an eyebrow in intrigue. Being allowed to beat William up sounded like a dream come true. However, a certain question was nagging at his head concerning Sebastian's prediction of the enemy forces' distribution. When Ulrich had ran through the routes that Sebastian had revealed, he had seen no sign of the harem until he had arrived at Matthias' shop. While Ulrich was having a hard time trusting Sebastian with the secret of Xanadu, the topic of problems rooted at home didn't seem like something the Street Kid would lie about, so figuring out how Sebastian's hunch about William's harem was wrong took priority.
"Wait." He said.
"What do you mean by 'wait'?" Yumi asked, shocked that Ulrich would even consider the idea.
Ulrich looked down at John, who made no motion to get up from his spot on the ground. "How did you plan this out?" he asked, "I thought there'd be more of you."
"Oh, that!" John chuckled as if he was being told a humorous anecdote instead of being interrogated. "Like I told Matthias, the last two times we tried Plan Aphro, I was nursing this beating some ugly Detroit people over from Hellison gave me, and in the hands of incompetent people, our plans just fell apart! I've made sure that we'd be a bit smarter with this: Neutralize you, Sebastian, and Matthias first before taking our prize! So, I just set up two squads and sent everyone else over to our territory where we would hold the ceremony!"
"…You're calling a plan where you brainwash and rape girls a ceremony…" Ulrich deadpanned. "You're insane."
"I am among people who accept me and care for me." John replied with a snobbish smile. "A mind that results from that would be alien enough to be considered insane by most people in this town, and I suspect by you in particular."
"…Shut up." Ulrich said flatly, shaking his head in disgust.
"Wait…" Matthias spoke up, causing all eyes to turn to the shopkeeper. "Where IS Sebastian?"
All eyes then turned to Ulrich. "…Crap…"
"Call him!" Yumi ordered, panic evident in her voice. Ulrich complied and dialed Sebastian's number, but only got voicemail.
"This is Sebastian, leave a message."
It was then that the voice of a bubbly Japanese singer began emanating from John's pocket. He drew out his cell phone, hit 'speaker', and let out the voice on the other end for everyone else's benefit as they all stared at the boy in ever-increasing dread. "Okay, John, we've brought Sebastian over! What do we do with him?"
"Keep him as leverage." John answered. "I think Yumi's ready to give herself up now."
"HA!" Brynja chortled. "Then bring her over here so we can punish her for daring to disrespect William in public!"
"Give her some time." John said casually. "If she's willing, let's not rush her. I'll see you all soon." Then he hung up.
"…What was that?" Yumi asked, voice deathly quiet.
"Well, we've got Sebastian as a hostage." John answered in a tone as if he'd been asked what time it was, getting up and dusting his pants off. "Now we'll be making a deal: You get Sebastian, but you have to give yourself up."
"Forget it!" Ulrich hissed, getting between Yumi and John. "I am NOT letting William do anything to Yumi!"
"Well, I suppose we can finally enlighten Sebastian then." John said airily. "Be nice to have him realize that trying to live in a world as ugly as this one is pointless without something beautiful to wash over it."
Matthias gaped in horror, understanding the nature of John's threat. Likewise, Milly and Tamiya looked at each other, and then at John, horrified at what he was implying. Ulrich and Yumi remained stone-faced, but their bodies were trembling in anger.
"Now, I know you probably won't want William or myself in your contact information, but I'll still need your phone number, so I can give you the directions for where we're holding the ceremony. That said, I'll give you an hour-and-a-half to think it over." John serenely explained with an equally serene and satisfied look. "We won't do anything to Sebastian until you call and make up your mind."
"In your dreams!" Milly shouted. "Yumi and Ulrich would never agree to anything you monsters come up with!"
"It's only up to Yumi, to be honest." John shrugged, ignoring the insult within Milly's protest. "I mean, we might as well give her enough time to say good-bye to everyone before she joins us."
"But-" Milly tried to protest again, but Yumi interrupted.
"Fine." She said.
Milly, Tamiya, and Ulrich looked at her in shock, while Matthias seemed resigned. Completely stunned, for one reason or another, everyone was equally silent as Yumi and John shared contact information, John putting in his number, followed by William's. Immediately, he sent Yumi the directions she would need to get there. Everyone else glared at John, who ignored them and went over to help the fallen girls. Slowly roused, they got up shakily, and John explained the situation to them. All four of them cooed, two even congratulating Yumi on what was to follow, while another two said that she was getting what would come to her but would accept it soon enough. Yumi idly wondered which of them had been brainwashed, or, even worse, which of them had joined willingly and helped William brainwash other girls. The thought disgusted her.
And with that, the five harem members left, leaving everyone else behind to stew over what had just happened.
"…So…what do we do now?" Tamiya asked after what felt like hours.
Yumi relaxed her shoulders and sighed. "I'm going to want you two girls to go back to Kadic."
"What?" Tamiya whispered, not wanting to believe what she had heard.
"NO!" Milly cried, grabbing Yumi's waist, as if desperate to hold onto her. "I don't want you to go Yumi! If you go then that means that William's going to-"
"Did Tamiya ever talk to you that one time? When you lost your Teddy Bear?" Yumi cut-in.
"W-well, uh…" Milly stuttered, looking at Matthias, who had only witnessed Milly's initial temper tantrum in the cafeteria and not the…other part of that incident.
"A-are you talking about when it's time to fight and when you have to run away?" Tamiya ventured.
"It's exactly that." Yumi confirmed. "I'm not really going to give myself up, but now we have an idea of where they are."
"We?" Matthias asked before looking at Ulrich, who seemed ready to return to the warpath. "Ah, I get it."
"So, you two are going to fight William then?" Milly asked hopefully. "You're not going to let him brainwash you?"
Yumi nodded. "We're going to defeat him and rescue Sebastian. Maybe I can even see if Jeremie can find a way to reverse the effects of those nanobots and get the girls William brainwashed out of his grip."
Matthias slammed his head on the counter in exasperation. "And of course, the idea of approaching Kadic's resident genius never came to me and Sebastian! Ugh…"
"That crazy kid said you and Sebastian paused Plan Aphro twice?" Yumi asked. "At least you two managed to do some good by putting a wrench in William's plans. Better some than none at all."
"I never took you for the inspirational type." Matthias muttered. "So, what's the plan?"
"I want you to take Milly and Tamiya back to Kadic. If you happen to find Jeremie, I want you to tell him about this." Yumi ordered. "In the meantime, Ulrich and I will go after William."
"What about the new kid, Odd?" Tamiya asked.
"We'll leave him to his skateboarding." Yumi replied. "I get the feeling that if he sees William's harem he might be too lovestruck to actually do anything. Heck, he went over to some grime-filled skate park as soon as classes were through just to find a girl to flirt with, probably because all of his, and I quote, 'wit and charm was flushed down the toilet' as far as Kadic was concerned."
Matthias let out a laugh, before groaning in lingering pain from the taser. "The kid who went viral going crazy around the school had dating plans? That's new. And somewhat disturbing."
"If we have no choice, I'll call him." Yumi said. "But for now, Ulrich and I should be enough."
"Take those with you then." Matthias said, pointing to where the harem girls had dropped their weapons. "You're gonna need 'em."
So, it was decided. Matthias got to cleaning up the mess that had resulted in his store, with Milly and Tamiya helping due to Matthias still having trouble moving as he usually could. All thoughts of their story had evaporated. Ulrich and Yumi each took a stun gun, leaving the tasers behind, slipped out of the store and backtracked from the alleys to the main streets of town. Once there –
"What were you thinking?!" Yumi hissed angrily. "You just let Sebastian get captured like that?!"
"He's the one who screwed up!" Ulrich protested. "I thought there'd be more of these idiots, but then it turns out that one of them can actually plan ahead! Don't blame me for that!"
"I meant how you let Sebastian get captured in the first place!" Yumi said, almost yelling. "If you let the secret out, that means you should've kept a closer eye on him! Now he's in the hands of what might as well be a cult who have technology that can brainwash people! If William hits Sebastian with that nanobot gel, he might learn whatever Sebastian knows, and speaking of which, now that I have you here, what DOES Sebastian know?"
"He only knows that we're dealing with a government experiment and that we have superpowers!" Ulrich countered, continuing to defend himself. "Even if William finds anything out, what are the chances he'd believe him?"
"Milly, Tamiya, Sebastian, Hugo, and Amare were ALL caught up in the first attack in case you forgot!" Yumi growled. "That means Sebastian could easily blurt out what happened, along with whatever other personal suspicions he has about us! It'd be more than enough for William to get a basic idea of what's going on!" Then she started trembling, showing the hint of an emotion that Ulrich never thought he would see in Yumi, even when fighting in Xanadu; Fear. "I have a hard time believing that William would dismiss Sebastian like that. If he has some kind of mind-altering technology at his fingertips, then it might not be such a stretch to think that instead of just thinking that Sebastian's crazy, he might become interested by it. And if he's interested, then the rest of his harem's going to follow suit! You know what that means, Ulrich?"
Ulrich couldn't suppress a gulp. "Blackmail." He guessed quietly, his sense of dread overwhelming his irritation.
"They could reveal the secret to other people or keep it as a threat against us." Yumi muttered. "That basically means we'd have to do whatever they wanted, powers or no powers...And I think you know what that means for me."
Horror crept into Ulrich's face as the realization fully sunk in. Far too many worst-case scenarios popped into his head. He had screwed up, big time. He jumped into a fighting stance. "Then let's head down there and beat the guy to a pulp like you said!"
Yumi merely pulled out her phone and sent Ulrich a message. Soon, emblazoned on the screen, was the route John had revealed to Yumi. "Scout them out first." She ordered. "Find where they're keeping Sebastian. If you need to, call Odd and get him down there. Do NOT try doing it all by yourself, got it?"
"I thought you just said – " Ulrich couldn't help but speak up, only for Yumi to fold her arms and glare at Ulrich.
"I just said that to keep Milly and Tamiya distracted." Yumi revealed. "Might as well try to make Odd seem independent as long as we can. I wasn't lying about him being potentially distracted by William's harem but him seeing into the future is too much of a game-changer for us to pass up. So, I don't want to hear about any 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'. When you find William's hideout, and confirm that Watson gave me the actual information instead of sending me down a trap, call Odd after you call me. Understand?"
Ulrich nodded. Immediately, he slipped down another alley, and sped into the darker recesses of town, determined to correct his mistake.
Odd trailed behind Sam, her three companions behind him, with Fleur holding Kiwi's leash. Once he'd taken Sam up on her challenge, the girl had immediately ordered Odd to follow her to another section of the skate park. Odd was grateful for the opportunity, even though he hadn't expected, nor wanted, to think about what was going on. On a positive note, Odd was able to take in more details of just how big Blue Screen Skate Park was: It was truly a massive labyrinth but having something like this all to yourself was something like a dream come true to the boy, so he was happy to marvel at it, graffiti and grime aside of course.
But on a negative note, Odd's real thoughts kept on coming back to Sam, and the horrible vision that had come into his head just as soon as he'd met her. It was a repeat of his dream from last night, but now much clearer than before. For whatever reason, he and Sam were in his hometown…or at least, some place that looked like Palermo…and for some reason, Odd had been consoling Sam about him having to leave for somewhere…only for some horrible she-devil angel to descend upon the two, hug Sam in a manner that Odd found incredibly creepy, and call Odd a terrible person for abandoning Sam to a state of utter despair before everything turned to incoherent screaming. Mostly from Sam.
Not for the first time since arriving in Boulogne Billancourt and getting roped into the virtual fighter business, Odd was confused. Sam, and her friends for that matter, seemed way too badass to suddenly turn into damsels-in-distress and get driven insane by…that thing. Odd shuddered upon remembering the other girl, his mind immediately thinking back to the Grim Reaper in his previous dreams, forever immortalized in his sketchbook. Odd thought back to when Yumi had asked him why he somehow knew the Grim Reaper was a girl…and now he had an instinctive feeling that the two were connected somehow. For a brief moment, Odd even wondered if whatever the angel-girl looked like was what the Grim Reaper looked like underneath her hood. Then he shoved that particular thought out of his head. He really didn't want to speculate on that topic anymore than he already had.
And that was another thing Odd didn't expect today: Thinking about Xanadu much in the way Jeremie was probably doing. Odd made a mental note to NOT pick up the computer genius' other habits. He for one, enjoyed sleeping and eating. Particularly eating.
"You've been real quiet back there." Sam noted, looking back at Odd, who immediately shrank away from her gaze. "Something wrong?"
"N-nothing at all!" Odd replied, forcing a grin onto his face. "J-just thinking about what to do when this is over!"
"You mean after my sister smashes you into the pavement like a bug?" Taluma taunted.
"Wait, you two are sisters?!" Odd exclaimed, shock at that revelation immediately overwhelming any thoughts that could've led to a future sight where Sam might do exactly that.
"Isn't the resemblance obvious?" Sam drawled. "We're fraternal twins though, so that means no chance of doing a switcheroo…like that ONE time last week we could've avoided detention!"
"Hey, it could've worked if you figured out how to actually wear cornrows!" Taluma protested. "Fleur, Maddy, back me up here!"
"Ehhh…" Maddy said, tilting her hand.
"Honestly, I'm more concerned with how poor quality your attempt at graffiti was rather than that equally poor attempt to get out of trouble." Fleur replied thoughtfully.
"…You two are the worst, you know that?" Sam said, shaking her head in mild bemusement before looking forward. "Ah, alright! We're here! Load the challenger up!"
Maddy and Taluma sneered, immediately pushing Odd forward so that he was standing side-by-side with Samantha. Odd couldn't help but surpass a blush, before he looked down at the course in front of him. It was now clear that he was in very deep trouble. Sam and her gang had taken the boy deep into the park, specifically to a box that had three halfpipes sprawling from its sides, with a locker and bench adorning the fourth, along with a flight of steps leading to the structure to begin with. Odd noticed that whereas the course Taluma had was straightforward and near the entrance, the course Sam picked seemed to stretch into a much larger and twisted section that made Odd wonder just how large Blue Screen Skate Park was.
"Alright, listen up, this isn't going to be anywhere near as easy for you as before." Sam explained. "We'll start from here," she pointed to the half-pipe in front of them, "and jump to the right, across the end of this half-pipe to those inter-connected quarter pipes, leading onto that narrow path, so you'd better get your initiative, onto that bank, and jump onto that second double-sided bank, jump the gap in it onto the quarter-pipe, head down the stairs, into the pool, and head up into that set of half-pipes facing each other," Sam directed, before pointing to a rather…grungy looking section. "After that, we'll jump down the big gap, hop across those poles, and whoever gets through the slalom route first wins."
Odd noticed that the last obstacle went into the parts of Blue Screen Skate Park that seemed likely to hold a serial killer in them, not to mention that this course was more liable to cause either of them to wipe out. So of course, he asked the obvious question. "So, um, what happens if we crash into each other?" Odd asked.
"Oh, that's simple!" Sam chuckled. "We do it all over again, and if we crash again, then we go back to the start, over and over, until one of us falls dead on their feet!"
"…Oh." Odd replied, not unable to hide the look of terror on his face. So, Sam might turn this into a game of attrition…he was starting to understand how she got her reputation as the 'Black Knight of Asimov.'
"I still can't believe you actually did something right." The brown-haired boy entering the room said to the girls surrounding their captive.
"Like YOU could do better." The blonde sniffed.
Odd blinked. Another vision…one that was…really weird and unrelated to the matter at hand. He immediately chucked it out of his head. If it wasn't relevant to him winning a brutal skateboard competition, then it probably wasn't important, so instead, he focused on the course…and immediately blanched at the number of collisions with Sam that went through his head on the first half-pipe alone, mainly because the course was clearly designed for one person to use. It was becoming clear that Sam would be a very different challenge compared to Taluma.
Maddy cleared her throat. "Ready! Set! GO!"
Both Odd and Sam set off at the same time, Odd staying as focused as he could. The visions that flashed through his head, warning off a crash, were all centered on the first half-pipe. While it could easily take two people, the reason for all the crashes were for the same reason…
Odd tried to take the initiative onto the gap, but Sam had the same idea and the two slammed into each other, a tangle of limbs that slid down the first half-pipe
Sam tried to cut Odd off, but the boy sped ahead in an attempt to prevent that. The two crashed into each other, hitting the top of the half-pipe.
Just as Odd and Sam reached the bottom of the half-pipe, they attempted the jump…too soon, and neither of them were even close to continuing.
The stupid thing was still too narrow for proper jumps. While Odd was in a more favorable position than Sam to make the leap of faith, having started on the left side, it would still take time for him to build up the momentum, and it meant that either one could still take the advantage. The narrow pathway at the end of the disjointed quarter-pipes was likely to be the major deciding factor. It was only built for one person at a time. The only way to regain initiative would be at the hill-like bank, or if the person ahead wiped out.
It was only the first obstacle, and Odd was already finding the entire affair a deadly gauntlet…and even worse…There was likely no other to avoid a nasty collision. When Sam cut in front of Odd, he deliberately drew back and let her hold that side. Thankfully, she still needed to build up momentum to make the jump, so if Odd followed behind, but not too close, he should be able to follow her. The world turned orange again, as Odd saw the numerous ways that getting behind Sam would cause a wipeout…then Odd was shocked back to reality when after making only one return to the start-line, Sam immediately made the jump across.
"Go sis!" Taluma cheered.
"Try beating that!" Maddy jeered at Odd.
Fleur, for her part, was quiet, clapping, while Kiwi barked. The worst part was that Odd couldn't tell if even his dog was cheering for Sam, or if the pooch was barking at his owner in disapproval. Either case didn't change the fact that Odd was now at a severe disadvantage. Gritting his teeth, the boy picked up speed, taking the cautious route of building up just a tad more momentum on another run, before successfully making the jump.
Unfortunately, Sam had already sped onto the first bank, jumped over the gap to the ramp-box, and halted at the top of the slope, preparing to gather the momentum to jump over the gap onto the next quarter-pipe. Odd had to catch up, and fast. Thankfully, Sam's lead was easy to cover, the disjointed half-pipe was easy to traverse, as was the narrow path, especially since Odd didn't have to worry about crashing into Sam. However, the bank and its gap were trickier: There was no track beneath the gap besides some padding that had been installed to catch wipeouts, so Odd would only have one shot at making the jump.
The boy gritted his teeth and planted his feet, riding up to the top of the bank, before rolling down and jumping over the gap. That being said, Sam still held the lead, having managed to get enough momentum to climb up the quarter-pipe and roll down the stairs. Odd was catching up, but his chances of actually turning things around were still rather low.
Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't stop trying.
Immediately, Odd rode down the ramp, and jumped off before the gap, speeding up onto the quarterpipe. He only had one shot to complete the climb; failure would likely cause Sam and her posse to kick him out of the park, probably quite literally. He focused on the top...only to realize that the designers actually had had some sense for once and so made the quarter-pipe a tad lower than what may have been originally planned. So Odd was soon down the stairs, but Sam still held the distance by jumping out of the pool and onto the half-pipe pair with a parenthesis-shaped gap. Odd would need a quick way to make up the distance…
A flash of orange went through his eyes as he focused on the pool's rim. It was risky...but he really didn't have any choice at this point.
Immediately, Odd jumped into the pool, heading up to the top...and then ground his board onto the rim.
"What's he doing?!" Maddy gaped as Odd grit his teeth, rounding along the rim until he reached the first halfpipe, which was somewhat lower than the edge of the pool, allowing Odd to drop down.
Yet still Sam was ahead, but she did catch a glimpse of Odd as she sped down the second halfpipe. Odd couldn't help but notice a grimace...or was it a sneer? He shook his head and rode along the first halfpipe, gathering momentum. The face of the second halfpipe faced the end of the first, making the jump rather tricky: Try making a backwards jump while heading up the first half-pipe, or try to drop from the top to the second half-pipe and undoubtedly wipe out. Odd couldn't help but have a few visions where he simply slammed into the halfpipe, or fell in-between the gaps...only then…
"OH! That's how you do it!" he said to himself as the successful vision came to his eyes.
Odd made a second pass, but just as he began to climb, jumped across, barely keeping his board on the track as he rolled along the second half-pipe. Now he had a proper chance of clearing the course. He breathed, steadying himself as he prepared for the drop-jump, focusing on the visions, looking for his best route to clear the next obstacle...
"He might actually win this." Fleur muttered to herself, with Kiwi in her arms, looking at his owner quietly, before he suddenly began growling, causing the blonde to pet the dog on his head to calm him down. "Shh…" she soothed. Kiwi stopped growling, but his eyes were still narrowed at Odd...
Taluma became defiant at that idea, not enjoying the possibility of some guy popping out of nowhere and beating both her and her twin in skating.. "Yeah right, Sam's still ahead! Get him sis!" she called.
Sam had just made it down the drop portion, and was jumping her board across the pillars, when she saw Odd speed down and jump across the gap himself, right into the safety zone. Her eyes widened as Odd, with what seemed to be almost inhuman agility, quickly turned around and began jumping the pillars himself with what seemed like cat-like trend.
"Well, well." she complimented. "I never thought you'd actually make it."
"What can I say…" Odd replied. "Never underestimate Odd Della Robbia!"
"Oh trust me…" Sam grinned, seeing they were coming onto the final part: No Man's Land. "I'm not!"
To Taluma, Fleur, and Maddy's surprised eyes, Odd finally caught up to Sam. Both reached the end of the pillars at the same time, turned, and rolled into the final part. This area was technically a slalom course...but to most, seemed quite improvised, being filled with discarded piles of rubble, the odd piece of metal sticking out of the ground, and the occasional attempt to plant trees in the park, which only resulted in twisted, splintery branches that looked like they could poke out a person's eyes. The actual slalom posts were put in haphazard areas, as if the builders had just given up.
This was an area even Sam had to be careful in, being quite familiar of the risks associated with the hazardous road. She had honestly expected Odd to fail, being completely inexperienced with the area, but much to her surprise, he was blazing right through it! It was quite rare for her to meet a skater capable of taking her on like this. Even rarer that he didn't have a great deal of bravado...well...okay, he did seem to have a reasonable amount of bravado, he just wasn't a showy braggart like the ones that filled Asimov and Hellison who couldn't back up their boasts.
Odd for his part, had lost track of Sam, he had no idea where she was, being hit with vision after vision of him running into one of the deadly pitfalls in the track. Armed with this knowledge, Odd just avoided them, almost by instinct now that he was in his element...he even felt that he was one with the course at this point, dodging the posts, branches, and poles as easily as he might devour a sandwich.
His mind drifted back to Samantha Knight...honestly, despite everything, he was having fun with her, enjoying himself...sinking into the rhythm of his board and the adrenaline of the race, which allowed him to actually start following his visions, narrowing down the possibilities. For a brief moment, they came to him naturally, each possibility and how to achieve the one he wanted…he wondered if he should start thanking the one Sebastian had called 'The Black Knight of Asimov'.
Then his sight was filled with nothing but dull yellow and orange, a blank void...which slowly gave way to a new scene. Now Odd was no longer seeing the park, but instead...
"GET OFF!" Sebastian snarled as the gloved hand drew near with the syringe, but despite his struggles, the Street Kid was helpless to prevent the needle from piercing his flesh. "Damn it! DAMN IT! NOOO! TAKE IT OUT!" Sebastian screamed as the vile serum was injected into his bloodstream, before his eyes started to go blank, the light in them dying.
"So...who you do love and respect with all of your heart?" the injector of the serum asked, a sadistic smile on his face.
"William Dunbar." Sebastian droned in a zombie-like tone.
"And would you mind explaining your sins to everyone here?"
What followed however, were words far beyond anything the group had ever heard in their life. For a moment, they found the story too outlandish...but it was not long before their bearings returned, and they realized that they had stumbled on...an opportunity.
The world then turned completely orange, shifting to a new scene.
Ulrich watched in horror as Yumi was led to the interior of the warehouse by a sneering man with more than a bit of resemblance to William, and when the doors slammed shut, he glared at Sebastian in anger, but the boy did not respond. It was as if he'd been lobotomized...which in all honesty, he pretty much had been.
"You don't want this getting out, do you?" a blonde girl whose face was caked in makeup sneered, flicking Sebastian on the forehead, which brought out no reaction from the empty shell. "Then get the hell out and let us work our magic! We've already told Uncle, and he'll keep the secret so long as you do what we say! And what we say is for you to get out!"
Ulrich's face twisted in white-hot rage, but impotent to do anything as the full magnitude of his failure finally came crashing down. Roaring in anger, he sped out, back to Kadic...
And the world turned into an orange void once again, with only voices breaking through.
"I'm sorry…So sorry..."
"For the glory of Shangri-La!"
"Such a first-rate catch. She's the perfect offering. Of course, first we'll need to fatten her up a tad and input more...experience."
"HOW DARE YOU!"
"I'll do whatever it takes to stop it..."
"They are not the enemy…"
"I'M DONE!"
"Welcome to Earth."
When the orange blank gave way to details again, Yumi was sitting in what seemed to be a...disco house of some sort, on the edge of a stage. But instead of her usual clothing, she wore a heavy overcoat that should've been too big for her, but instead seemed to fit over her body perfectly instead, just barely hiding her profile. On her left was...an unfamiliar individual, whose identity was concealed by a hood, who seemed to be comforting Yumi, to a degree. The black-haired girl had uncharacteristic tear-tracks on her face, and her eyes looked dead and lifeless. The other person reached for Yumi hesitantly, touching her shoulder, causing Yumi to jerk away, before she seemed to remember who this person was, and let this person slide closer to her. The enigmatic individual leaned into Yumi's ear, causing life to return to Yumi's eyes.
The telekinetic looked down at her hands, before gripping them. "I accept." she whispered, her grey irises turning a deep blood-red as she and the hooded person embraced…
"Then, let us return to our true home, shall we?"
Then the scene changed again.
"Wha-what did you do?" the dark-haired boy asked, looking on in horror at the red-eyed demon. Glowing particles surrounded her, as did a large number of unconscious bodies, all female. Standing over the boy was the same hooded figure from before.
"I freed those who needed freedom. Dealt judgement to those who needed to be judged." the demon answered. "And now, it's your turn."
"No, please, NO!"
But God and her agents were not merciful. The dark-haired boy began to choke, and saw his body glow with white aura, feeling his body tear at itself. He looked up, as if he was begging for forgiveness. The audacity of him to believe that he even DESERVED forgiveness after all he had done was sickening to the administrator. She did not care for his past. In the present he had brought harm to so many, under a twisted idea of what the Will of the World truly wanted. As a product of the experiments, he had let their scope expand.
Now he would suffer for it.
The red-eyed demon closed her eyes, and in that instant, the dark-haired boy was no more.
Orange again. Yellow again. The two mixed together, white patterns dancing in the void, until another scene opened itself before him. The urban landscape had been replaced with the rampant growth of nature. Trees, bushes, grass, water in place of skyscrapers and brick walls. A lone samurai with a polished blade stood at the shore of a lake. In front of him, levitating above the water, was a red-eyed woman with long black hair wearing a large, elaborate kimono, her mouth concealed by a fan, that, if one looked closely, had ones-and-zeros within its folds.
"Let it all out. Come at me with all you've got" the woman said, as the samurai, whose face was a demonic visage, charged at the woman, blade drawn.
Sword and fans danced as the two fought each other. To some, it might have looked like the samurai had arrived to kill his former nobility...but to these two, such conflict was but a natural ritual between them. When their blades crossed, when the samurai sped around, dodging the floating discs and telekinetic bolts...it meant something. So they continued in this way, until the princess had pinned down the warrior...and knelt down upon him, covering him in her lush robes.
Gazing upon them, atop of the Tower, above all others, was a large animal. It was darkly-colored, or perhaps it was just because there was so much orange tinting the vision that the beast looked the way it did. The creature was cat-like, seeming a combination of a tiger and lion, the so-called 'Liger', as it were. Armor adorned several parts of the beast's body as it gazed upon the scene that had unfolded. It roared atop the Tower, as a hand appeared to pet the animal, scratching its fur as if it were a simple household cat instead of a ferocious beast.
Then the ears of the beast turned up, as if it sensed something, and looked back, revealing sharp orange eyes tinged with yellow, as it gazed at whomever had...arrived…
"O-dd…" A voice called.
"Wh-wha?"
"Odd!" faint now...what?
"ODD!" and then a painful slap woke Odd Della Robbia up as he jolted up from the ground, panting heavily.
Odd blinked, wondering what had just happened. He saw his board lying on the ground, and that he himself was a fair distance away from it. Then a sharp pain shot through his skull, and Odd rubbed an area that smarted from whatever he had hit. A metal pole was not too far away from where Odd's board had rolled away from, so Odd had probably crashed into the pole. Or something. Odd struggled to remember what had just happened. He had arrived at Blue Screen Skate Park to seek out 'The Black Knight of Asimov'...
Asimov...that was the school that that Herb guy went to. Given her title, Sam probably attended it as well...Right, Sam! He had decided to see if she was worth her clout...wait...no...she WAS skilled, no question about that. Didn't he come just because he wanted to see what she looked like?
Then he immediately thought back to the vision: Ulrich being unable to stop something, Yumi being led into an abandoned building and coming out fawning over some tall, dark-haired guy...by sheer instinct, Odd's mind flashed back to a person Sebastian had talked about who fit that criteria, what was his name again?
SLAP!
"OW!" Odd cried, being shaken out of his thoughts to see an irate Sam standing over him, with Taluma, Fleur, and Maddy beside her. The latter two were now carrying skateboards of their own, colored black and purple/yellow respectively.
Kiwi barked, growling at his owner, but not in the way of being irritated of him losing or wanting to pounce on him. The little dog barked angrily, but it was only when Odd turned around to see him that the mutt stopped, before cautiously walking over to his owner (while still being restrained by Maddy), and sitting down obediently, but the look in his eyes looked very much like a glare of suspicion.
Odd didn't get the chance to comment on that though, because Sam spoke up first.
"Okay, what the hell was that about?!" she yelled. "You had the lead, then you crashed into a pole like an amateur, and when I came over to see how you're doing, you act like you're high on LSD! And what was up with your eyes? Do you have digital cat-eye contacts that turn on randomly, or did whatever drug you take earlier finally kick in?!"
"W-wait, what?" Odd spluttered. "I've never done drugs! I'm on the straight and narrow! Like an arrow!"
"Then what was up with your eyes?!" Sam countered, "They looked like cat-eyes! Plus they turned this weird orange color and were all, glowing and twitching! Explain that!"
Before Odd could try thinking of an excuse/lie, Fleur got right up in his face, holding his face tightly in her hands as she analyzed him. "Hmm...his eyes look normal to me. No glowing, no slits, and no orange. Regular blue human eyes."
"Personal space!" Odd protested, freeing himself from Fleur's grip and getting on his feet.
"Still doesn't change the fact that you lost though!" Maddy cackled. "Let's throw him out!"
Taluma put a hand on the orange-haired girls shoulder, but seemed to have accepted her friend's suggestion. "You seem like a nice guy Della Robbia, but Blue Screen's our territory, so if you could get moving, that'd be great."
Sam however, did not seem willing to simply let the issue stay down, and had opened her mouth to continue, but then Odd's phone rang.
"Just, um, let me get this first, okay?" Odd asked nervously as he picked up the line. "Hello?"
"Odd, this is Yumi," came the voice of the japanese girl, "I need you to stop whatever you're doing and go help Ulrich with a certain task today."
"Oh, Yumi! Hey!" Odd chuckled nervously. "D-didn't expect you to call!"
"...Is something wrong?" Yumi asked.
Odd was immediately reminded of what he had just witnessed. A vision unlike anything he had seen before, being long enough that Odd had fallen into a trance and was rather detailed to boot. Which was extremely ominous. Odd felt sick thinking back to it, and began breathing deeply, trying to compose himself and not throw up as the weight of the visions slammed back into him. There was something wrong, a lot of things that were wrong. A cult, some kind of vision involving a samurai fighting a geisha, and a liger. Sam had also just informed Odd that his eyes had become cat-like and orange. Too much was going on at once. Again. He needed to sit down. He needed, he needed, he needed...
"Breathe." Sam scolded, holding Odd's chest, causing him to look up. "You were starting to hyperventilate."
"Odd, who is that?" Yumi asked, voice sounding cautious.
"Um, well, I found the 'Black Knight of Asimov'." Odd said sheepishly. "She's right next to me, so…"
"Just call Ulrich." Yumi chastised. "He'll tell you what's going on. I have something to prepare for right now…"
And with that, Yumi hung up.
Odd looked at his phone with confusion, and was just about to call Ulrich when Sam swiped his phone. "Hey!" Odd shouted, jumping for his phone, but Sam had already thrown it to Taluma, who quickly ran back into the park. Fleur and Maddy had almost immediately gotten behind Sam, with Fleur holding Kiwi in her arms tightly, though the dog didn't seem to mind one bit.
"What the hell was that for?" Odd griped, before Sam grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"You just said that you 'found' the 'Black Knight of Asimov'." she said quietly. "And I'm not an expert in Japanese, but 'Yumi' sounds like a girl's name...I don't want to jump to conclusions…"
"T-technically you are…" Odd choked out.
"But you aren't with William's harem are you? That John weirdo is bad enough, but knowing that William has two options to swing with doesn't fill me with much confidence." Sam continued.
"Or, you're here to start a rival harem and want to use us." Maddy put in, cracking her knuckles. "Fun fact, we don't approve of rapists."
Odd's eyes widened. Firstly, he was not a rapist. Secondly, that name...William...it was familiar, when did he hear of it? Right, when Jeremie was recounting the story of Xanadu, and on the same day, when Sebastian had accused Odd of being a womanizer and brought up a person named William.
"You're not answering." Fleur chimed.
"Spill the beans, why are you really here?!" Sam demanded, looking ready to impale Odd on one of the sharp objects sticking out of the ground.
"I was looking for skateparks and Sebastian told me about this place!" Odd blurted.
"...Sebastian told you?" Sam asked, eyebrow raised.
"L-look I'm new here!" Odd defended before anyone could comment. "I arrived almost a week ago! I'm from Kadic Academy! Sebastian's one of my classmates and he told me about the 'Black Knight of Asimov' when I asked about skateparks around town!"
"So, you came right to us, eh?" Sam asked, glaring at Odd. "What were you planning?"
"Okay, I admit it, I was interested in meeting a girl!" Odd blurted. "B-but that doesn't mean I came here like some creep!"
"Still sounds perverted if you ask me. He's just more subtle about it than William," Maddy said. "I say we drown him in the Seine and let Fleur adopt the dog."
Kiwi barked in the affirmative, almost as if he had jumped ship to Team Sam.
"Sounds good." Sam agreed, causing Odd to panic even more.
"N-no, no!" he desperately waved, trying to get out of Sam's powerful grip. "I didn't even know who William was! All I know is that Sebastian called him a dumb womanizer! Plus, I have hobbies that don't involve being a playboy!"
"You never know." Sam muttered. "You could just be lying so you can try something later. They always say that it's the people you're closest to that have the highest chance of doing it."
"I'm not lying!" Odd protested. "I mean, yeah, I came thinking more about your looks instead of your skills-" Sam responded to that by slamming Odd against the pole he had crashed into. "b-But I'm not thinking about that now! I swear!" Odd cried out, trying not to groan from the painful impact. "I mean, you guys are awesome skaters! I didn't even care about you being girls when this actually started up!"
"Yeah, that sounds totally not-made-up at all." Sam deadpanned. "You still admitted to being a womanizer, and outed me just because you thought I was arm-candy. Let me tell you something, bub, after me and my sister had to deal with one, we don't take kindly to your type."
"W-wait, who was it?" Odd asked, wondering who was partly responsible for getting him in this situation.
"Who else?" Sam growled. "William Dunbar! That pervert once sent his harem after us to do some kind of weird 'Initiation Ceremony'! We had to hide out in this Kadic kid's general store until they all got bored and left to do other stuff! Then we learned from Sebastian that William brainwashes girls with some kind of goo he gets from the Alleyways!" Sam's grip tightened on Odd's shirt, her hand trembling as she remembered an always-present looming danger in her life. "We still have to keep keep an eye open for him and his goons! Some nutcase who came out of the closet outright told us once that we should've embraced being William's tools because he's 'beautiful' or some crap like that!"
And now Odd felt guilty. All of his thoughts about approaching Blue Screen were now accompanied by deep shame and loathing. He had basically reopened a constant scab in Sam's life, arriving at the skatepark without thinking about who Samantha Knight was beyond 'mysterious skater' and 'hot chick'. Now he was wondering about his little Future Flash episode on Monday, and if it had actually done more good than harm in the long run.
Granted, he did think that Sebastian could have warned them that the town flirt was also a serial rapist. Then again, Odd himself was helping the other Xanadu Warriors keep a secret about an evil virtual world that was threatening to kill everyone on the planet…
Odd sighed, and caught a glimpse of Kiwi, who looked at Odd with the same disapproval as when they had first arrived at the Ile de Puteaux. "Alright...you've made your point." he said at last. "I'm sorry for being a total idiot about this. I'll make sure to keep my distance. Just, give me my phone back. I need to make a call to a friend of mine about something, and then my dog and I will be on our way."
Sam grunted, and let go of Odd's shirt. "Taluma! Give this guy his phone back, he's leaving!"
Sam's twin ran back, and handed the phone to her sister, who gave it back to Odd.
"One call, and then you leave."
"Understood."
Odd dialed Ulrich's number. "What?" Ulrich grunted.
"Hey, Ulrich, Yumi told me to call you about something...just what's going on?" Odd asked.
"Oh, right, I was supposed to do that." Ulrich scoffed, failing to suppress annoyance in his voice. "I'm gonna need your help to deal with this jerk who wants to make Yumi a part of his harem with this brainwashing goo...and unfortunately to make sure that that happens we need to rescue Sebastian, who got caught by some of them."
Odd's eyes widened as he looked at Sam and her gang, and he spoke his next words a bit too loudly. "Um, would this guy's name happen to be William Dunbar?"
"It is." Ulrich said, voice filled with venom at hearing William's name.
"Yoink." Sam cut in, pulling Odd's phone out of his hands for a second time. "This is Samantha Knight, who are you, and what are you planning with William Dunbar?"
"Depends, did Odd meet a member of his harem and-"
"How about you stop that train of thought before I hurt you?" Sam smiled sweetly. "I don't exactly take this guy lightly after what he tried to do to me and my sister, and knowing that you have a friend who came here for similar reasons doesn't give me a lot of reason to trust you."
"He's threatening to do the same to one of my friends, the same one who called Odd." Ulrich replied. "I'm here to make sure that that plan of his doesn't happen...and I'm...going to need Odd's help to do it."
Sam almost thought she heard Ulrich throw up a little in his mouth, but… "Interesting...so you have a female friend that William's threatening with that 'Plan Aphro' thing?"
"Yes…" Ulrich replied.
Sam looked at Odd, who had gained a sudden interest in the ground. "Well, I'll be happy to let your friend help you then. That bastard needs to pay for what he's done."
And she handled the phone back to Odd, gathering her friends and sister into a huddle.
The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds. "What did you get yourself into?" Ulrich asked.
Odd took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "Let's just say that if we survive all of this, there's a few things about myself I've gotta work on."
"Hmph." Ulrich grunted. "I'll be sending you my location. Get over here as fast as you can."
"Sure," Odd said, before he remembered how the visions had started with a subdued Sebastian...who Ulrich had just confirmed had been kidnapped by William. "Uh, wait, Ulrich…"
"What?" Ulrich snapped.
"You might want to hurry it up…" Odd said, biting his knuckles and looking at Sam's group, discussing something amongst themselves. He didn't know how much he could say without leaking the secret to them, but he needed to warn Ulrich...though, Odd had to suppress the urge to vomit considering just how much had happened in his latest vision. He'd just give Ulrich the one detail he needed to know. "I uh...had a…'thought' of sorts, and well...I think something bad might be happening to Sebastian. I think it involved a syringe."
"...Then I'm going ahead." Ulrich said. "I don't know where you are, but get over here! I don't want this creep to lay even one hand on Yumi!"
"...You really care about her, huh?" Odd asked, failing to suppress a small smirk at how protective the Samurai was of the Geisha.
Ulrich responded by hanging up, though shortly afterwards, a map revealing a route along with Ulrich's location appeared on Odd's cell phone screen. Now knowing where to go, Odd looked around and noticed that Kiwi's leash was still being held by Fleur, so he might as well see about keeping Kiwi safe or bringing him along to trip up William. He walked up to the huddled gang, and lightly coughed. They were still talking, whispering among themselves, so they ignored Odd. In response, the boy then coughed a bit louder, this time clapping his hands as well to get their attention. The four girls turned and looked at Odd darkly.
The boy sweatdropped nervously. "Okay, um...hey...so...can I have Kiwi's leash back? Or could one of you look after him while I go help Ulrich and-"
Before Odd could finish, Sam interrupted. "There's no need to ask about any of that. We're coming with you."
Odd blinked as he registered what Sam said. "But I thought-"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed you came here just because you wanted to try flirting with me." Sam cut in. "And I really don't trust you right now, for more than a few reasons." She paused to let this sink in. "But if there's one thing my friends and I can agree on, it's that William Dunbar is a menace, and I don't know if it's because he's too stupid, too crazy, or if he's completely evil, but one way or another, he's someone who needs to be taken down. You want to beat him? Fine by me. It's about time he gets his fair share of karma."
"W-wait, are you sure?" Odd asked, before Taluma waved her hand dismissively.
"Like they say in the movies, I'm tired of running." she said. "That pervert has a lot coming to him for what he tried to do to us."
"And I have a few grudges against some of the people in his harem anyways." Maddy followed up, cracking her neck.
"Nothing to say that what's already been said." Fleur replied with a deathly calm voice.
Odd looked at the four, then he saw Kiwi barking in the affirmative. This was...unexpected. Though, it wasn't unwelcome either (That, and he had the feeling that if he said 'no' all four girls would beat him up, and he was pretty certain that there were no futures where he could avoid such a beatdown). Odd looked down at his phone, with the GPS marking Ulrich's location.
"Alright," he said, "here's where Ulrich is. Just need to figure out where it around here though…"
Sam took a look at the marked route, before pulling out her own phone's map. "Hmph, so that's where he's been hiding out...he's not that far away to be honest...also he's way too close to that 'Cult Zone' for comfort..." she muttered, before turning to her gang. "Let's go!"
Deciding to let Sam lead, Odd was obedient, picked up his board, and rode out of Blue Screen Skate Park, following the four girls. He grimly wondered if he'd managed to pick up the cavalry, before the vision of Yumi fawning over who he presumed to be William Dunbar passed through his head again. He really did not want that becoming a reality, in particular what it had led to. He had his suspicions about it, but one thing at a time…
Damn, he had only known him for a week, but Odd really was picking up Jeremie's habits.
Jeremie was contemplative as he made a quick run on his scooter back to Kadic. With all of the tasks set before him, preparing his robot for the inter-school competition, decoding the encryptions the Professor had left behind, analyzing Odd's visions, debating on each possible strategy concerning a candidate to become either a Xanadu Warrior or just an ally to help keep the secret, along with keeping his grades up, it was only inevitable that the computer whiz would forget something. He had been writing the basic code for his own, original programs to install into the Supercomputer, and planned to test them in the relative solitude of his lab in the underpass before using the Supercomputer, but he had forgotten the disks in his room.
Now he had to head back and retrieve them. He wasn't too concerned about being caught, but it was minorly annoying having to commute back and forth (There was the option of uploading the programs to a Cloud, but given what they were meant for, Jeremie had decided that the risk of a security breach was too great).
Kadic was now in sight, so Jeremie refocused his sight on the sidewalk…
And saw two individuals standing at the gates, a pimply black-haired boy with large glasses wearing a green sweater, and a taller, orange-haired boy with a blue sports jersey. The former looked up, and sneered. "Belpois!" he screamed.
Jeremie sighed, and braked in front of Herb. "What do you want?" he asked. "I'm in the middle of something."
"I don't care if you were stuck in traffic!" Herb barked. "Listen, do you know what's happening next Saturday?"
"The inter-school competition?" Jeremie ventured.
"YES!" Herb cackled. "Now, I hope you remember what happened last year to your precious school!" he pointed to Kadic to emphasize the point. "You were utterly defeated!"
"In the sporting events." Jeremie pointed out calmly. "And anyways, Ulrich won in martial arts, so it wasn't a complete loss. Plus, I still beat you in robotics."
"W-well that was last year!" Herb spluttered. "THIS year's going to be different! This time the competition is at Asimov, and I hear some new kid who just started at our school this semester has a very influential parent at Deckard Inc! With that in mind, I challenge you to a gentleman's wager, Jeremie Belpois!"
"Hmm…what else would I need…" Jeremie idly wondered, muttering out a list of parts and hardware. It was a long shot, but if Herb was offering some equipment, he might as well see what he had to offer, just in case.
Herb's eyebrow ticked. "Are you even paying attention?"
"Just wanting to know what you have to wager." Jeremie revealed. "No point in taking a bet if I don't win anything."
"How about respect and glory?" the orange-haired boy offered.
All was quiet as Jeremie and Herb stared at Nicholas. Then Herb rubbed his hands together, as if realizing something. "Yes! Nicholas is absolutely correct! A picture immortalizing my triumph!" he declared. "You must get down on your knees and submit to my victory, a moment that will forever mark the day I finally defeat you!"
"...You don't want anything else?" Jeremie asked.
Herb scoffed. "Proof of my beating you is enough!"
"Okay, but if I win, I want something that actually exists. I get some of your equipment. My choice." Jeremie replied.
"Deal!" Herb cackled. "I'll see you next Saturday, Belpois, and then, victory shall be mine!"
"Okay, okay, we've declared war on him. Can we go now? I'm hungry." Nicholas asked.
Herb's stomach growled as well. "My work here is done anyways." he admitted as he and Nicholas walked away. "You and me, next Saturday! Don't keep me waiting Belpois!"
Jeremie watched as his self-proclaimed rival sauntered down the street and sighed. "I wonder if he knows that we're not the only ones competing."
With the distraction out of his hair, Jeremie rode back into Kadic. He had just entered the courtyard, when he saw Milly, Tamiya, and Matthias of all people run up to him.
"Good, we've found you!" Tamiya panted.
"We've got trouble!" Milly panicked.
"Trouble? I thought you girls were doing an article about lemonade dealers in town?" Jeremie asked. "And speaking of which, I thought Yumi was with you girls, what happened?"
"They wanted to do an article on my business." Matthias grumbled. "Fat chance of that happening now though. It's like they've said, we've got trouble out in town, and we need your help. Well, I think Yumi and Ulrich are going to need your help. Sebastian definitely, and a group of other girls hopefully."
Jeremie was lost already, but Yumi and Ulrich getting into trouble was something he had hoped was not going to be a thing today. For a moment, the idea of the worst-case scenario popped up into his head, and he was cautious, choosing his next words carefully.
"Mind telling me what happened?"
While Jeremie was infinitely glad that it seemed that the three in front of him had no idea about Xanadu, it seemed that something equally troubling had arisen. Jeremie listened intently as Milly and Tamiya tried explaining everything, but only ended up stumbling over each other's sentences. Thankfully, Matthias took over and created a more cohesive narrative. Jeremie's relief was thus short-lived once Matthias quickly explained the truth of William Dunbar and his harem. Jeremie was no stranger to Asimov being host to...eccentric individuals considering the fact that Herb attended Kadic's primary rival school, but this strange and erudite harem was not something he had expected to see outside of a potential Xanadu attack. He also knew what might happen if William managed to brainwash Yumi with his nano-bots. On the one hand, Jeremie could play with the imminent blackmail by recruiting an army...but given that said army obeyed William's command, it wouldn't exactly be making the best out of the worst-case scenario, so it was best to simply ensure that said worst-case scenario did NOT happen.
"And that's the gist of it." Matthias grumbled. "I'm hoping you can help break William's hold over those girls so he can't do it to anyone else."
"Well...I'll admit, mind-altering nanobots are a fascinating development…" Jeremie began, only for Matthias to step forward and punch the bespectacled boy in the gut.
"INTERESTING?! THAT'S YOUR RESPONSE?!" Matthias yelled, Milly and Tamiya desperately trying to hold him in place before he could land another hit on Jeremie. "THESE THINGS CAN DESTROY A PERSON AND LEAVE A MINDLESS ROBOT IN THEIR PLACE! THEY'RE BASICALLY MURDER FOLLOWED BY NECROMANCY!"
Jeremie coughed. Okay, unexpected. He needed to calm Matthias down. He really didn't need another new variable right now. "S-sorry, sorry." he choked out. "Wrong choice of words."
Tamiya gave Jeremie a look. "That's an understatement." she frowned disapprovingly.
"Yeah...I really didn't expect technology like that being used by a harem of all things." Jeremie admitted. "Sebastian did mention ghost stories, though. Probably should've taken those websites more seriously..."
Not a lie. He really should've tried a more concrete avenue of research in anticipation of this kind of situation. Relying solely on a bank of random urban legends and separating fact from fiction in regards to Xanadu had been too narrow of an approach.
"Can you stop this or not?" Matthias growled, with Milly and Tamiya looking at Jeremie with hopeful eyes.
Jeremie sighed. "I'd need to get a sample of these nanobots to study. But yes, I might able to reverse-engineer...hmm…"
"Do you have an idea? Please tell me you have an idea." Milly begged.
Jeremie thought back to the Factory. He thought back to the area he was using to retain his supplies, in particular the switchboard being held in a crook. While he doubted it was operational, at least for now, he wondered what it could actually do...combine that with the other areas of the factory that he hadn't yet studied...Yes...it seemed that this weekend could prove very fruitful. Jeremie looked down at the cub reporters, glasses shining as he pushed them back into place, the beginnings of a new avenue of research emerging in his head...another new avenue...Jeremie hoped that he wasn't about to be overwhelmed by all of this information.
"Well?" Matthias asked.
"I think I can do it, yes." the computer genius replied at last. "I don't know how long it would take, but I think I could find a way to reverse the mind-control."
Matthias sighed. "As long as you can do it. I want today to be the last time William ever tries 'Plan Aphro' at least."
"Of course." Jeremie acknowledged, taking a moment to ponder, before turning back towards the gates of Kadic.
"Where are you going?" Milly asked.
"If I need a sample, there's only one place I know where to go right now." Jeremie said as he messaged Yumi. "I'm going to see just what I can find over there."
Tamiya noticed a small smile of intrigue pass over Jeremie's face, and she immediately backed away, grabbing Milly. "And with that, I think we'll wait it out for now." she said.
Matthias nodded grimly. He had heard perfectly well of what happened when Jeremie had...inspiration.
The three thus stayed clear as Jeremie rode down the streets. Yumi had replied to the computer genius's message by revealing the route that had been given to her. Things were moving much faster than he had hoped, but it would still be quite convenient for tomorrow. One might've thought that all of his carefully laid plans had been derailed, but in truth, it was quite the opposite. This encounter with an unknown variable might prove useful, provided they avoided any hazards to reveal the secret any further. A new plan was carefully being laid out in Jeremie's brain, and this time, he couldn't suppress the grin on his face.
Eureka, as they would say.
"Ugh…" Sebastian groaned, as he slowly sat up. He tried to move his arms, but found them restrained via a handcuff that wrapped his arms behind a pipe.
He looked around, and saw Brynja idly looking at her cell phone, with a group of girls sitting down, whispering to one another, obviously planning gossip. Sebastian took in the details of the room he was trapped in. The concrete was smooth, though some parts were carpeted. The area was large enough to hold a truck. Blood-red drawers and cabinets took up the corner on the other side of the room, and the entrance-way held the track for a garage door, open to the afternoon sun, or at least, however much could get through the tall buildings that hid the area. On the back wall was a symbol painted in black spray-paint, as if marking the territory.
Sebastian then remembered what had happened earlier...and then realized that he was…
"Crap…" he muttered out loud just as a person who he really did not want to see made his way into the room.
"I still can't believe you actually did something right." The brown-haired boy entering the room said to the girls surrounding their captive.
"Like YOU could do better." The blonde sniffed.
"Oh, I have done better." John smirked. "After all, I've gotten Yumi to surrender herself to William. Now we just need to wait for her to come here."
"And I can punish her…" Brynja drooled.
"Please stop talking." Sebastian deadpanned. "I don't want to catch your crazy."
John took a condescending look at Sebastian. "Well, well, the dismisser of love and hormones. How does it feel to have lost to the power of love?"
"There's less bright strobe lights being flashed through my face than I expected." Sebastian replied dryly. "So at least I'm not being harmed by your sense of aesthetics."
"My sense of aesthetics is not harmful!" John protested.
"Watson, your idea of a living room is making everything a mix of neon blue with bright orange and green. It hurts everyone's eyes when they look at it." Sebastian said dryly.
Brynja snickered, causing John to glare at her until he walked up to Sebastian. "Y'know, I really don't care much for your attitude. Always so snarky and sardonic, always criticizing love, always rejecting higher powers...I really hate it."
"Because I actually have a better grasp of how to interact with people?" Sebastian smirked in spite of the situation. "And because I don't need to join a cult full of crazy just to actually talk with the other kids in my neighborhood?"
"William brought us all together in the name of love!" John ranted. "Thanks to him, we are many, and can stand against the darkness and ugliness of this town! This...this wretched ruin that is the source of the miasma that has bathed the world!"
"Are you sure it's in the name of love, or is it just in the name of Shangri-La?" Sebastian asked.
"What separates Shangri-La from other religions is how open it is! People can choose whether to fight or not, or choose to unite in thought!" John ranted. "William taught us that!"
"Pfft." Sebastian chuckled. "Sounds more like he was just repeating whatever another crazy person told him. Dunbar's too stupid to teach, and that's taking into account the standards of the educational system of your home country."
John responded by kicking Sebastian in the stomach, though the Street Kid merely gritted his teeth, refusing to show any sign of submission. "I've had enough of this." John growled. "Today is the day you fall to the power of love, Sebastian. I will make you see."
The mad admirer of William walked over to the cabinets, putting a pair of latex gloves. Next, he took out a bottle of clear liquid, and a bottle filled with a light lavender liquid. Sebastian's stomach churned as John poured the liquids into another bottle, mixing them, before pulling out a syringe to extract the mixture. He returned to loom over Sebastian, with Brynja and the other girls watching with interest.
"Do you know what this is?" John asked pleasantly.
Sebastian glared at the boy. "No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me."
"It's a mixture of truth serum and our precious stock of nanobot solution. Thanks to you, we have a bit of a surplus, and I'm going to take full advantage of that." John explained. "I'm going to inject this into you, so that you will expose your life in the presence of the symbol of Shangri-La. Then, the nanobot solution will take hold in your bloodstream, and replace all of your thoughts with those of William. You'll no longer get in our way. Instead, you'll help us. You'll make up for your sins, and finally, we can spread William's love across this town."
Sebastian's face was now full of fear and disgust, and John relished in seeing Sebastian's confidence crumble. But the Street Kid's eyes still had a spark of defiance. "Well, congratulations for finally graduating to supervillain, Florida Boy, I'll be sure to amend my observations of you the next time I warn someone about Dunbar."
"You won't be warning anyone!" John growled, "girls, hold him down!"
Four girls obeyed, grabbing Sebastian's legs and pinning them down. It was then that Sebastian began to struggle, desperately trying to avoid what was coming. "GET OFF!" Sebastian snarled as John's gloved hand began drawing nearer and nearer to his arm.
Then came Brynja's screaming, causing everyone to look at the front entrance of the garage. There was Ulrich, cracking his knuckles, standing over Brynja's unconscious body. The four girls loosened their grip on Sebastian, giving him the opportunity to kick them away, causing their bodies to trip John over. The rainbow-shirted boy gave a yelp as he dropped the syringe.
Moving quickly while everyone was stunned, Ulrich sped towards the syringe, picked it up, and immediately stabbed it into John's arm.
"AGH!" he yelled, and tried to swipe at Ulrich, but the martial artist responded by chopping John in the back of the neck, causing him to fall on top of the four girls.
"You better not make a scene about this." Ulrich growled as he looked at Sebastian's handcuffs.
"Given that I almost lost my free will, no sir, I will not." Sebastian said, cracking a nervous smile. "But uh…"
The four girls underneath John quickly began to stir, trying to disengage from the pile they were in. Ulrich, without a second thought, pulled out the stun gun he'd been given earlier, and quickly shocked the four girls unconscious with the weapon. With them all knocked out, Ulrich pulled them off of Sebastian's legs, allowing the Street Kid to move, but the pipe he was chained to was curved and close to the ground, making it impossible for him to move further up.
"Please tell me your...upgrade, or whatever helps you destroy handcuffs." Sebastian begged.
Ulrich cracked his knuckles, felt the handcuffs chain, and, grunting, tore it clean off. "It does." he said simply, pleased at the sight of his increased strength.
Sebastian stood up, feeling his wrists. "Thanks Stern." he said, before he scowled. "Seriously though, ditching me like that? Bad move on your part."
"You're the one who told me how these people operated!" Ulrich hissed. "You didn't tell me that the idiot in the rainbow-dye shirt had an actual plan!"
But before Sebastian could muster a retort, ten more girls swarmed to the front of the garage, looking at their fallen compatriots.
"How dare you!" they cried in unison, their faces twisting in anger as they each pulled out a weapon. Ulrich's eyes widened, slightly disturbed as two of each of the following: Nailbats, brass knuckles, stun-guns, knives, and...great, actual guns, were brandished at him and Sebastian.
"You also didn't tell me that they had guns!" Ulrich barked.
"I can see that I didn't, Stern!" Sebastian complained as the gang slowly backed them into the garage.
"What's going on here?" the voice of William asked, as he came upon the scene. The girls immediately parted like servants in two orderly lines, letting their master pass.
William looked at six of the unconscious members of his harem, and then at Ulrich. "What the hell, man?!" he asked. "Why did you attack them?!"
Ulrich looked at William incredulously. "Are you fucking serious?! You sent these people to try to capture Yumi, and then they kidnapped Sebastian! Of course I'm going to attack them!"
"William, let's hurt them back!" one of the girls cried out.
"He doesn't want Yumi to join us!" one of the girls who had attacked Matthias whined.
"I'll let Yumi join you the day my old man actually bothers taking a happy pill!" Ulrich growled.
William sighed, and looked at the one person he actually knew. "Really, Sebastian?" he asked. "Why can't you just let us have our way for once? I mean, even if you don't swing that way-"
"Which I do not." Sebastian grumbled.
"-It still doesn't mean you have to be like this. Come on, first Emily, then Sam and Taluma, and now Yumi? Why do you want to stop us? Haven't you ever heard of Shangri-La?" William asked. "I mean, we're all different, but all of us want to make the world a better place."
"...Brainwashing girls into loving you makes the world about as much of a better place as McDonalds contributes to a healthy diet." Sebastian deadpanned.
"Come on! They all enjoy it in the end!" William continued, spreading his arms open as if he was calling for a group hug. "If they enjoy it, then it can't be bad."
Ulrich's eyes narrowed while Sebastian hung his head in his hands.
"Dunbar, I can understand why some girls would enjoy your little 'spandex incident', because a lot of people are perverts deep down." Sebastian answered. "But trying to rationalize 'Plan Aphro'? Yeah...no. There is no way in Hell, that you could ever justify that kind of mess."
William sighed. "I'm sorry you feel that way. Girls, what do you want to do with them?"
"Let's kill them!" a girl holding a gun roared.
"Yeah!"
"We'll get rid of them, and show Yumi the true meaning of love!"
That was the wrong thing to say. Before anyone could react, Ulrich took advantage of the distraction William had unwittingly provided, speeding over to the first girl holding a gun before he punched her in the stomach, before jumping off her body and slamming into the second gun-holder, knocking both of them out.
"What the hell?!" William cried as Ulrich prepared to punch him in the solar-plexus, only for another girl to almost instinctively get in the way and take the blow in William's place. However, she still crashed into the dark-haired boy, causing both to fall to the ground.
Ulrich growled at the interruption, and yelled at Sebasitan, "Go! Get out of here, now!"
Sebastian nodded, and made his way through the opening Ulrich had created. The girls had been scattered by Ulrich's surprise attack, and most likely too stunned and full of adrenaline to realize that the martial artist was moving at ultra-fast speeds, at least for now. Sebastian ran out of the garage, gaining a full view of William's territory.
"So this is what it looks like…" he muttered to himself.
The garage was situated next to the entrance of a warehouse, both opening up into an alley road that ended just beyond the other side of the warehouse entrance. The other buildings, made of grey concrete, but splattered with multi-colored graffiti, loomed over the road, completely boxing it in with thick buildings that made it hard to spot, along with several other garages. For someone like William, who would want a place where no one could hear his victims scream, but large enough to hold his harem, it was quite appropriate. Looking down at the other end showed the darkness of another dead end, though Sebastian saw an open space just before another set of likely abandoned buildings, making it likely that it was the only way to enter the area.
Sebastian shivered, wondering how Ulrich had discovered the place, but grateful that the martial artist had succeeded. Then, almost instinctively, Sebastian looked behind him, and immediately ran out of the way of an aluminum baseball bat, running clear of the first garage to look back at another group of eight girls, all holding baseball bats, nailbats, and even discarded rebar.
"Someone's trying to escape!" a dark-haired girl at the front wearing a pink top and red skirt which exposed quite a bit of her developing body screamed.
"Get him!" one of the girls fighting Ulrich cried.
Sebastian looked down to see if anyone had foolishly (read: conveniently) dropped anything for him to use as a weapon. Unfortunately, only a large wooden stick was available. Sebastian sighed as he picked up the bludgeon.
"It'll have to do." he said to himself as the mob charged at him.
Meanwhile, Ulrich had jumped out of the garage, with five girls running after him, two more helping William up. Unfortunately for Ulrich, they included the pairs of knife and stun-gun wielders, along with a nail-bat user. Ulrich happened to look to his left, and immediately jumped out of the way as one of the girls threw a molotov cocktail of all things at him, creating a barrier of flames that seperated Ulrich from the mob...except when he looked back to keep his balance, saw six more girls creeping towards him, each armed with a taser. Immediately, Ulrich rolled from the electric darts that were fired at him, and thought about using Super-Sprint again to disarm the girls before they could figure out what was going on. He figured that as long as they were in their murderous adrenaline rush, they wouldn't be able to notice.
Then he heard the sound of a fire extinguisher, and four more girls walked out of the warehouse, one holding the fire extinguisher that put out the molotov cocktail fire, and the other three each holding a different weapon: A whip, a crowbar, and another stun-gun.
"Fifteen against one, huh?" Ulrich couldn't help but smirk, "I've faced worse."
"It's seventeen against one!" a pair of brown-haired girls identical to each other shrieked as they attacked Ulrich from behind. The martial artist barely had time to roll out of the way of two large hammers that slammed onto the ground.
"I've still faced worse!" Ulrich called as he ran back in front of the first garage, where William was regaining his bearings.
"Get him!" the second nail-bat using girl shrieked as she and her brass-knuckle companion tried to attack Ulrich from the side. Unfortunately for them, Ulrich was still faster and dodged them.
One of the girls attacking Sebastian looked behind her, and tapped her comrade on the shoulder. Both of them looked wordlessly at Ulrich, whose back was turned. When they turned, the girl at the center of the mob was still madly swiping her baseball bat at Sebastian, who was trying to dodge to keep her from breaking his only weapon. When she suddenly ran forward, Sebastian side-stepped her and turned around...just when the other five girls were following the leader.
"Tee-hee!" the two girls who had stayed behind giggled, letting Sebastian pass them as they rejoined their fellows.
"Never laugh like that again, please." Sebastian deadpanned in disgust when he realized that the harem had boxed him and Ulrich in. "...Crap."
Ulrich grunted, and stood back-to-back Sebastian, looking at the gathered mob of twenty-seven girls. "You honestly think we can't take them?" he asked.
"We're outnumbered and outgunned." Sebastian grumbled. "Even you can't take on a number this big without support."
"Yumi and Odd are on their way." Ulrich said. "So we've got backup."
"Yumi's on her way here after all?" William questioned, having heard the two boys' conversation. "Well, that's good for us. Girls, take them down. Then we can welcome Yumi to the fold."
Ulrich and Sebastian readied themselves as the girls began to charge, when…
"IT'S PAYBACK TIME!" A voice unfamiliar to Ulrich roared.
Several girls turned around...too late as a dark-skinned girl with cornrows and an orange-haired girl slammed into them, knocking them down flat. The other girls tried to counterattack, but just as quickly the two intruders picked up their boards and slammed them onto the girls' faces. Seeing an opening, Sebastian slammed his bludgeon onto one of the remaining girls' head, knocking her down, but sadly breaking the staff.
"Of course." he grumbled, before looking up to see Maddy beat the last girl standing, the leader of the back-mob, to the ground.
Ulrich looked to his back and flipped around over the unconscious bodies, getting a greater distance away from the mob. It was a good thing too, three girls had reloaded their tasers and had fired more darts at him. Ulrich managed to watch them hit the concrete, barely avoiding them.
"Huh, so I guess you weren't lying after all." the voice of Samantha Knight said as she rode into view, with Odd Della Robbia and Kiwi, closely followed by Fleur, riding up behind her.
"Last time I tried fibbing like that involved a bunch of fish at La Pesceria!" Odd protested. "I'm not dealing with that again!"
Kiwi growled, indicating that that was not true and Odd did, in fact, fall into another such situation.
"Well, okay, yeah, but that time was different!" Odd claimed.
Kiwi just looked at his owner, as if rolling his eyes.
Sebastian stared at Odd. "...Why do I get the feeling that the dog's smart one out of all of us today?" he asked...only for Sam to smack him upside the head.
"OW!"
"Explain why you sent a flirt into me and my girls' territory and maybe I won't kick your ass after we're done here!" Sam demanded.
"So...you two know each other?" Odd asked as Fleur rode up in front, narrowing her eyes at William's harem in disgust.
"He helped keep that pervert away from us earlier." Taluma revealed, walking over to the gathering group. "Don't know why he sent another one towards us though."
"My thought process was: Della Robbia's being stupid, send him to someone who can kick his ass and be done with it." Sebastian revealed. "To his credit, he's way less annoying and disgusting than Dunbar is, so I just figured he needed a good ass-whooping to get his act together."
"...Are there any other guides out there?" Odd asked after staring at Sebastian for a few seconds.
"No." Sebastian replied, eyes focused on the small mob.
Sam's face was completely incredulous at the situation...but then again, she sighed, seeming to begrudgingly accept it, and looked at the gang of girls in front of her. "Either case, I'd say it's payback time." she said. "So this is your hideout, eh William?" she called. "I can't wait to trash it!"
"Sorry Sam, but my eyes are on a new girl!" William called back, posing in an exaggerated manner that everyone present found utterly ridiculous (and disgusting in the cases of Sam, Ulrich, Sebastian and Fleur).
"Yeah, well, we ain't letting you touch her!" Maddy retorted, brandishing her board.
"It's nineteen-against-seven, give up!" one of the harem girls cried. "Fire!"
The other three girls holding tasers stepped forward and prepared to fire, Ulrich likewise prepared to strike, only to feel a familiar tingly sensation that caused him to pause. One second later, the girl holding the fire extinguisher, who was just behind them, to yelp and drop the heavy object onto the ground causing a domino effect where all three girls, startled, fired the darts in completely random directions. Thrown into disarray, the motley group of seven found an opening and charged. Acting fast, Ulrich charged towards the four girls in the front, grappling their arms and disarming them, dragging them out of the mob. He received unlikely help in the form of Fleur, who had ridden over to the last three girls with tasers, and had begun slamming their faces in with her skateboard, her face remaining completely calm and semi-pleasant.
Sam, seeing the glint of knives as two girls rushed her, swung her skateboard, disarming them. The girls screamed in pain, which only increased in volume once Sam began to punch them in the face and stomach. However, her triumph was short-lived as the girl with the whip struck Sam right in the face.
"ARGH!" Sam cried, blood flying out of the wound.
Odd soon realized (Or rather, merely received a reminder of that fact), that outside of Xanadu, he was terrible at direct hand-to-hand combat as one of the girls with a mallet managed to bash him in the stomach. Kneeling down, wheezing, Odd fell to his knees, with only a barking Kiwi to defend him...until the little dog saw the second mallet-twin with a bloodthirsty glint in her eyes and chose to run instead from the crazy hammer-wielder, who began chasing Kiwi around the street.
"YIPE! YIPE!" The dog barked.
Satisfied that Odd no longer seemed a threat, the first mallet-twin saw Sam holding off the whip-girl. She turned and saw Taluma was busy holding off the two girls with brass knuckles while Maddy dealt with the girls wielding a crowbar and a stun gun respectively, and Sebastian, having picked up one of the rebar sticks, held off the girls with nailbats, trying to keep them and the remaining girls away from the fight.
Sneering with delight, the mallet-twin ran to get behind Sam and knock her out. Odd clenched his stomach, trying to breathe, when the first mallet-twin got behind Sam and slammed her hammer into Sam's chest, allowing the girl with the whip to strike Sam multiple times until she lay broken on the ground.
Odd blinked as the orange faded from his eyes, and he rolled onto the ground, seeing the mallet-twin attempt her sneak attack.
"LOOK OUT!" Odd managed to cry.
Reacting quickly, Sam ducked just as the mallet-twin swung, causing the whip-girl to accidentally strike her ally instead. Immediately, Sam stuck out her legs, causing the mallet-twin to trip and fall, head slamming into the concrete. Her foe down for the count, Sam immediately ditched her board in favor of the girl's hammer. She stood up, holding it with a smirk as she wiped the blood on her face.
"That does not belong to you!" the whip-girl shrieked, only for Sam to block the incoming attack with the hammer, and grab onto the whip.
"Yoink!" Sam teased as she pulled the whip out of the other girl's hand and kicked her in the stomach.
William growled as he saw his harem seemingly be pushed back...but then he saw some stun-gun users break free from their fights and prepare to attack the ones who had been preoccupied. However, his triumph was short-lived, as he saw the mallet-twin attacking Kiwi suddenly throw her hammer, striking one of these stun-gun users down for the count. Just as quickly, the mallet-twin fell down, only for her face to be slammed into the pavement by a powerful hand.
William drooled as Yumi Ishiyama arrived onto the premises. "Hello, Yumi!" William called. "Sorry we didn't get ready in time!"
Ulrich turned from the girls he was fighting, and saw that Yumi had indeed arrived, and was giving William a look that could kill. Ulrich felt Yumi's telekinetic aura as the dark-haired girl began walking towards William menacingly, only for a stray stun-gun user to charge at her.
"FOR WILLIAM!" she cried, thinking she had won…
Only to suddenly fall flat on her face, her stun gun sliding across the ground to Yumi's waiting right hand, as her left hand pulled out the stun gun she had received from Matthias earlier. Ulrich grimaced, having a feeling that Yumi had arrived sooner than he thought. He really didn't feel any pity for William, knowing full well what was going to happen next.
"You know, that wasn't very nice!" William called out as Yumi came closer to him.
Fleur was running to help Maddy, when she caught a glimpse of Yumi. Like Ulrich, she knew that William was screwed. She allowed herself to smirk as she pulled out a confiscated taser and fired, stunning the girl with a crowbar, thus allowing Maddy to finally beat her back.
"So, you mind giving us a hand?" William asked.
Yumi stared at William, face unreadable,. She activated both stun guns and walked closer to William, who smirked, closed his eyes, and reached over to Yumi's chin with his right hand, believing that he had won…
"AAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
His cry was deafening, causing the fighting to pause. Everyone looked up to see William, convulsing with pain from the electric shock, all while Yumi stared at him with an unfathomable expression.
"WILLIAM!" the girls screamed, distracted from their opponents, who didn't waste any time to gaining the initiative and beat the rest of the harem down.
"Yu...mi…" William gasped, before Yumi picked him up by the collar, and assisted by telekinesis, threw William down onto the ground, very close to where Odd was, causing the purple-spotted boy to get up in surprise from William's unconscious, but foaming and still-smiling mouth.
"...Did he enjoy that?" Odd asked quietly, but still loud enough for Sam to hear.
"Probably. He's weird. And gross." she replied, kneeling down to check on Odd. "You okay?"
"I've had worse." Odd coughed, shakily getting up. "Honestly, my sisters hit harder than that...oww...though, they never used hammers…"
Then he jumped into the air, hair standing on end as the unconscious bodies of John, Brynja, and the other girls landed in a pile atop of William. Sam watched in approval, and gave Yumi a thumbs-up. The japanese girl, who exited the garage, saw this, and nodded in response.
The battle was over. William and his harem had suffered a total and complete defeat. Taluma looked at Sebastian, who was panting heavily. "You honestly thought we couldn't handle this?" she asked.
Sebastian looked at Taluma tiredly. "You had...backup…this time…" he wheezed.
"I won't deny that." Fleur said sweetly, using one of the discarded stun-guns to shock another harem-member, just to be on the safe side (and to satiate her own grudge).
"So...wait...we won?" Odd gasped.
"It seems like it." a new voice said.
Everyone turned around to see the source of the voice. Two pinpricks of light shone from the shadows as the new arrival came on his scooter, stopping just in front of one of the defeated groups.
"Should I be concerned that Belpois is here?" Sebastian asked no-one in particular.
"I don't trust him." Sam said, readying herself to attack.
Yumi rose a hand to diffuse the tension. "We're okay. He should be here to help."
"Well, I heard that this particular group of people has...certain technology that I'd like to take a look at." Jeremie said, pushing his glasses into place.
"...Belpois with mind-control technology…" Sebastian gaped. "May Heaven have mercy on our souls."
Ulrich rolled his eyes, but even he had to suppress a shudder. Jeremie with mind-control technology seemed far more dangerous than William.
Sam and her group, obviously, were not very welcoming with Jeremie's choice of words. "And we should trust you why?" Sam asked. "You look like a mad scientist, kind of like Herb!"
"...Except he somehow seems scarier…" Maddy muttered.
"Well, I'd like to think I'm superior to Herb in several respects." Jeremie replied. "That being said, Yumi is right, I'm here to help."
"Fight was over just as you got here." Ulrich grumbled, cracking his neck.
"Could you just tell us how you knew to come here?" Odd asked, rubbing his stomach.
So Jeremie explained his meeting with Matthias, and how he had learned of the side-adventure. Obviously, since Sam and her gang were new to him, he didn't even attempt to mention Xanadu. He revealed his expertise with programming and machines, and hoped to understand how to potentially cure William's victims of the mind-control, depending on how many were unwilling compared to those who were. He didn't know how long it would take, but he seemed confident that, overtime, he could succeed.
"And how long would that take?" Sam asked, suspicious.
"I just said I didn't know how long." Jeremie replied. "But, I can manage it. If you want to help, I'd recommend that everyone start stripping this place down for parts. Anything that William has that could be useful, please present it to me. We can take this to our territory near Kadic afterwards, far out of William's reach."
After a bit of grumbling on everyone's parts, the examination began. Odd walked up to the first garage, only to blanch in horror at what he saw.
"AHHHH!" he screamed, jumping away in a panic.
"What's wrong?" Jeremie asked as Odd's mouth opened and closed wordlessly, his eyes flashing from their regular blue to orange with yellow mixed in. Jeremie stared in shock, he had never seen Odd's eyes turn such a color before, and wondered what it meant.
Odd only started talking when his eyes went normal again. "I-in there...s-symbol…"
"What, that?" Sebastian asked, walking up to the two, followed by Sam. "That's just the symbol of Dunbar's 'religion'."
"Religion?" Jeremie asked, intrigued. "I've done some research about some...unorthodox belief systems in town."
"...You're calling a bunch of crazy cultists 'unorthodox'?" Sam asked in bewilderment.
Jeremie shrugged. "Well, I didn't want to use that exact term...still though…might as well take a look for myself."
Sam looked at the thoroughly spooked Odd, and took him aside as Jeremie and Sebastian entered the garage. Once they were far away enough not to be heard, she began talking. "Y'know, we never did finish that race."
"Y-yeah…" Odd said, eyes pulsing, causing Sam to pause as she swore she saw them turn cat-like again. They seemed to stay blue however.
"Alright, listen up." Sam said, placing a hand on Odd's shoulder. "You and me, this Saturday, the inter-school competition has skating as an event. We'll finish our little 'contest' there."
Odd blinked. "Wait, really? I don't get it."
Sam looked down at Odd. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed about your motives earlier, but yeah, Sebastian was right, you don't seem as bad as William, I mean, he actually thinks that creepy symbol means something beyond 'evil cult', so I'll give you another chance to prove yourself. Kapeesh?"
"Uh, yeah." Odd replied, nodding. "I'll sign up."
"Good." Sam said. "Come on, let's help out your friends."
Silently, Odd followed, with Kiwi rejoining his owner, and whimpering to get Odd's attention. Odd looked down, and gave Kiwi a tired smile, picking up the little dog as the scavenging for parts continued.
Yumi had entered the warehouse, and stared at William's main base of operations, fists clenched in anger as the memories threatened to come back. "Let's get what we need and go." she growled, ripping open drawers filled with...various tools that most young folk would question their parents about (though after moving to France, Yumi had long-since gained an understanding of what these were used for).
Ulrich shoved several beads on a stick aside, and felt like vomiting seeing a pair of red undergarments with...extensions lying on the ground. "I'm not finding anything useful." he grumbled.
Yumi looked down at a table, and saw what seemed to be two jars of facial cream...except they were marked: 'Cream-Tech V.6.9'. "I think I found what we were looking for." she growled in disgust.
Ulrich came over and looked as Yumi opened one of the jars to reveal a thick lavender-colored cream. "I guess so." he said. "Let's just take it and get out of here."
Yumi nodded, but looked around to see if Sam and her gang were around. They were busy looking through the other garages, Odd having joined them. "Ulrich, keep them distracted. I'd like to...vent." Yumi commanded.
Feeling Yumi's telekinetic aura once again, and knowing that Yumi was...seething, for lack of a better term, Ulrich bolted out of the warehouse, letting Yumi tear William's torture-station to shreds. He failed to suppress a grim chuckle as he glanced at the unconscious womanizer lying on the ground, buried under his own servants. Ulrich knew that William was in for a very rude awakening, and it felt satisfying to know that some form of karmic retribution had been dealt to him.
Meanwhile, Sebastian glared at Jeremie, who was studying the symbol of a stylized Xanadu intently. It was identical to what Odd had dreamed of last night, and had opened yet another new vein of mysteries for Jeremie to pursue. He didn't get a chance to internally speculate though, as Sebastian quickly gripped Jeremie's shoulder.
"Ahem." Sebastian coughed. "So, uh, what exactly is going on here? Stern says you're fighting some weird black monsters that the government cooked up or something, and I'd like to know what they are."
Jeremie rose an eyebrow. "Hmm...I was planning on telling you later…"
"But plans change, don't they?" Sebastian asked sarcastically. "I'd prefer sooner rather than later."
Jeremie looked around. "Not here." he whispered. "Help us grab whatever equipment you can carry and I'll explain everything once we're back home."
"I'll hold you to that." Sebastian growled as he and Jeremie raided the tool cabinet John had used.
In the end, everyone had contributed. Sam and her gang seemed to have carried however many weapons that they could, while Odd was holding several bottles of rubbing alcohol. Ulrich had found a safe in one of the garages, while Yumi was still holding the jars of nano-bot slime. Sebastian was carrying the various vials and bottles of liquids that John seemed to personally use, while Jeremie had found several drives, which could prove useful.
"Let's get going before they wake up!" Yumi called, with everyone agreeing as they made a run for it.
The trades were made, and deals were struck. Sam and her gang wanted to keep the weapons they'd taken from William, which Jeremie agreed to. Everyone agreed it was better that Sam hold onto them, and the groups parted ways. Yumi immediately deleted the contact information of John and William, then made a call to Matthias to tell him that they had succeeded. The boy was apparently grateful, and offered free lemonade to Yumi until the end of the semester (unless Milly and Tamiya attempted another story, which Yumi assured him would stay onto school matters, which was helped by the two cub reporters being on the other end of the line and hearing every word. They agreed to focus on building hype for the inter-school competition instead of attempting whistle-blowing).
"Huh, I honestly thought we wouldn't get a solution for the fridge problem." Odd noted.
"...What?" Sebastian asked.
"He groaned a lot yesterday afternoon…" Ulrich muttered. "At least now he won't do it again."
Finally, with the 'excitement' having died down, everyone sat in the movie theater in the underpass, tense looks being exchanged all around. It was Jeremie who broke the silence.
"So…" he began. "Any questions?"
"You're not doing this to get a girlfriend are you?" Sebastian asked immediately, causing Ulrich and Yumi to facepalm and Odd to look at Jeremie in shock. Jeremie himself remained calm, though he raised an eyebrow.
"You're actually interested in someone?!" Odd exclaimed in confusion.
"...No." Jeremie replied shaking his head in confusion. "How would that make any sense?"
"It was one of Abel the Elder's theories." Sebastian revealed. "Might as well get that out there. But no, seriously, what the hell is going on?"
And so Jeremie explained. The events of the day involving Milly's missing teddy bear, the sudden appearance of the Specters, him and Ulrich trying to alert the authorities and failing miserably. A chance spot of research, Yumi joining in, discovering the factory, stopping the first attack from Xanadu, the danger of the secret, the powers of Xanadu and each of the superpowers it granted to those who were virtualized, Odd's recruitment, and the events of the previous week. When Jeremie had finished, Sebastian looked at Jeremie with nothing but dread in his eyes.
"So...the old factory was hiding something after all…" Sebastian muttered. "And that something is a computer that makes monsters on a daily basis trying to destroy the world…"
Odd looked on cautiously. "Huh, he's taking it a lot better than I thought-"
"WE'RE ALL DOOMED!" Sebastian wailed, flailing his arms in a panic, instantly proving Odd wrong. "Doomed! Finished! Kaput! We're all going to die like in The Lord of the Flies! Well, not everyone died, but they all still went insane! Same thing! We're dead! We're all dead!"
SLAP!
Sebastian groaned, face stinging from Yumi's hand.
"How about instead of panicking you get your act together?" she grumbled.
"I don't even know how you can remain so calm, Ishiyama! I've seen this kind of story before! All of us are going to die in horribly brutal ways! If even Belpois doesn't know what's going on, then we're all doomed! Either we'll go insane or be maimed to death!" Sebastian ranted.
SLAP!
"You done?" Yumi asked, shaking out her right hand. "I'm getting tired of you ranting about us all dying."
Sebastian gasped in pain from the second slap, but had to admit that he did feel a bit calmer. "S-somewhat."
He sat down again, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where do we go from here?" the Street Kid asked. "I'm going to guess the reason you wanted me for tomorrow is to investigate something related to this...Xanadu?"
"Essentially, yes." Jeremie nodded. "Though, I do have a school project-related goal I'd like to accomplish as well." he pointed to the entrance of the theater, likely towards his lab. "I have a design in mind for the inter-school competition next week. Based off of a recent...addition to the neighborhood."
Odd saw Jeremie's eyes wander over to the sleeping Kiwi and gave the computer genius a look. "I am not letting you turn Kiwi into a cyborg!"
"That was never my plan." Jeremie waved dismissively. "Besides it being illegal, it's also impractical."
Odd did not want to know of whatever universe where such an option was legal and practical.
"Either case, I just need some parts to finish the design, and I should be ready for next Saturday." Jeremie explained.
"That'll be the easy part." Sebastian grumbled. "The hard part is going to be that Xanadu stuff. It's news to me. All I know about it is the evil Teddy bear going on and on about the 'Will of the World' and other crazy ramblings…" his voice drifted back to the last few harrowing moments of dealing with Teddy. "...speaking of which...thanks. I mean it."
"No problem." Ulrich shrugged.
"I have a rough idea of what to investigate." Jeremie cut in before things got too quiet. "The Professor seems to have had some kind of influence on the city through his work. I don't know how much, but one of the files in the Supercomputer showed a map of the town that was dated 1994, with certain areas being marked. I want to research these areas and find out what could be there."
"Don't get why that would be useful." Sebastian grunted as he pulled out the map he had shown to Yumi and the cub reporters. "A map like that would probably be before the Panic...annnd I'm going to go out on a limb and pin the blame of the Panic on this Professor guy. I don't trust him."
"Same." Ulrich agreed.
"It'd be foolish to blindly trust him." Yumi commented.
"...And yet I get the horrible feeling we'll get to meet the guy anyways." Odd sighed.
Sebastian looked at Odd. "You saw it with your freaky vision power?"
"Just a gut feeling." Odd said. "Kind of like expecting the worst to happen. Y'know, what do they call it?"
"Murphy's Law." Jeremie replied, immediately returning to the topic at hand, but not giving his opinion on the Professor's theorized morality. Probably because he had a very different view regarding the enigmatic man. "Regardless if the Professor is alive or dead, the fact that this is our only lead concerning whatever led up to the origins of the supercomputer means that in order for us to make progress in stopping the virus, we need to start investigating."
Sebastian sighed. "Well, that sounds reasonable...even though I have a horrible feeling that tomorrow is going to be anything but reasonable."
Another silence took hold...a very uncomfortable silence as the major elephant in the room finally became a topic. Jeremie looked at Sebastian with an unfathomable expression, while Odd fidgeted uncomfortably and Ulrich and Yumi stayed silent, staring at Sebastian, whose eyes darted around, looking at each member of the Xanadu Warriors in turn.
"So...how do you feel about-" Jeremie began to offer, only to be interrupted.
"HELL NO!" Sebastian screamed, "I'm not setting one foot in that death-machine! I've seen this kind of story before! Kids discover computers, and then get thrown into Cosmic Horror doomsday shenanigans! Which basically means we all either die or go crazy! I'm not trusting my body to this thing! I'd rather move to Australia! At least there the place is straight-forward about wanting to kill you!"
"Wait, you're scared?" Ulrich asked. "We just dealt with a group of crazy people, and I didn't see you chicken out then."
"Keyword being that we were dealing with PEOPLE!" Sebastian ranted. "From what I've been told, this place is a supernatural horror show! It made a freaking evil teddy bear ranting about the 'Will of the World' or something like that!"
"It's SCIENCE, not magic!" Jeremie cried in annoyance, as if that was the most egregious thing to say, "is that so hard to understand?"
"You think that because Clarke's Third Law is in effect makes this whole thing better?!" Sebastian gaped. "That doesn't mean shit! At any moment, these black reality-warping computer ghosts could pop up and try to kill us, science or no!"
"You forget, I have a tower-monitoring program installed." Jeremie responded. "All of my computers have it. If it goes off, we'll know."
"Still doesn't change the fact that going in there means that this thing's going to literally read my subconscious and try to turn me into some kind of freakshow! That's about as dignified as splatting a pie on my face and swinging my pants around like a flag!" Sebastian ranted. "Honestly, it just sounds like Morton's Fork, don't go in and die, or go in and get turned into an even worse monster!"
Odd's breath hitched as the final parts of his vision came to his head. A samurai fighting a geisha as...she looked on with satisfaction...wait...since when did Odd know that the hand petting that giant cat was that person? Since when was Odd suddenly sure of what and who that person was? Especially because he didn't know who she was!
Odd's eyes darted around the room as he attempted to steady himself. Ulrich was too busy glaring at Sebastian while Yumi seemed to be looking for an opportunity to calm Sebastian down, neither of them seeming to consider the possibility of what Sebastian had suggested, at least outwardly. Sebastian likewise, was focused on Jeremie, whose eyes were hidden from the glare of his glasses, so Odd, as usual, couldn't tell what the bespectacled boy was thinking.
"Alright, we get it, you don't want to take the risk." Yumi cut in. "If you don't want to, we won't force you. We've dealt with enough people trying to force themselves on others today."
"There's no special condition, right?" Sebastian asked. "It's not mandatory?"
"There's probably some disadvantage." Jeremie mused. "But there's no procedures that I know of yet that would require a person to be virtualized when it comes to joining the group."
Relief filled Sebastian's shoulders. "So there is a silver lining after all."
"Are you going to help us, or not?" Ulrich asked impatiently, getting to the point.
"As long as I don't have to be sent to that Xana-whatever place." Sebastian sighed.
"Excellent!" Jeremie clapped. "As long as you can help maintain the secret and give us some breathing room. We came very close to a total security breach today."
No-one desired to make any further comment on their recent misadventure in the slightest.
"Well, that's two things to talk about." Sebastian grumbled. "First off, can you actually figure out something to do with those nanobots?"
"It might take some time, but yes." Jeremie replied. "That being said, Xanadu is the priority for now, so that's more of a side-project unless something comes up."
"Then that leaves the issues of the others in our group." Sebastian said. "I already don't plan on telling Solovieff and Diop. The rest of you?"
"No." Everyone replied in unison. It seemed that everyone, for one reason or another, was not willing to tell Kadic's junior reporters anything about the virtual world.
"Guess that leaves Arendse and the Abels." Sebastian sighed. "Fun fact: Arendse's the guy who thought you all were doing something to keep the rest of us safe...Guess he was right."
"I should've figured something was up with him…" Jeremie mused. "He was way too calm after all that had happened...does he know anything substantial, or was this just a theory?"
"Theory."
"Interesting...hmm…I suppose that makes him easy to bring into the fold…" Jeremie thought. He rubbed his hand along his chin for a few minutes before making a decision. "Alright. You can tell Amare what we told you after we finish up here. He seems cooperative."
"You know I'm going to warn him about this 'virtualization' or whatever." Sebastian warned. "I don't trust it in the slightest. No offense to you guys, but something about it rubs me the wrong way."
Odd was so tempted to pipe up and agree with Sebastian after all that he had seen, but for whatever reason, his mouth stayed shut.
"Just make sure he keeps quiet." Ulrich grunted. "It's harder to keep a secret the more people who know about it."
"He will, trust me." Sebastian confirmed. "We have to. Abel the Elder's on the warpath though. He's determined to shut the whole thing down, even willing to resort to petty gossip just to figure out what's going on. Arendse and I have been trying to keep him calm...so hopefully we can do a better job of it knowing about this damn problem at least."
"Anything else?" Yumi asked.
"Sebastian, follow me to my room here." Jeremie said. "I want to properly coordinate our plans. Once we're done, we'll share them with you guys tomorrow morning. Get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi nodded, and immediately vacated the overpass. Each of them had their own thoughts and apprehensions on the matter.
Ulrich was somewhat disappointed that Sebastian had backed out of Xanadu. It seemed wasteful to know about Xanadu but at the same time have no idea to actually join the fight. Hell, if Sebastian did have powers, there would've been a high chance that someone as pathetic as the shrill blonde harpy wouldn't have snuck up on him, and they might've defeated William quicker. He also wasn't a fan of Sebastian comparing his powers to whatever stupid TV show that he, Amare, and Hugo tended to watch. It felt undignified. Ulrich didn't have Odd's powers, but he had a feeling that tomorrow would be more than a bit troublesome.
Yumi wasn't surprised in the slightest. Xanadu was a dangerous, wide-spreading threat. Everytime she and Ulrich had gone, they had been putting their lives on the line. And of course, Odd was counted in that category. Considering how cynical Sebastian was, she wasn't surprised that he would hold severe apprehension about Xanadu. However, she felt that he was wrong in one regard about the powers. He seemed to fear them. Yumi though, saw them as an opportunity. With such powers, no-one could ever hurt her or her family again. She'd given William a lesson in that subject, and she was quite willing to teach that lesson to the Specters and anyone else, or anything else, who would inflict harm to those she cared for.
Odd was trying to keep calm. He didn't really care if Sebastian knew about the secret or not. No, it was more of the idea that Sebastian had entertained, that those virtualized Xanadu were susceptible to...something. All of his thoughts went back to the monster he had seen in his dreams. A looming grim reaper, a shining angel, a hooded figure, a graceful queen...all of them seemed to define the same person. The person who seemed to have seduced Yumi in that future...the person who had loomed over Sam in Odd's dream of her...the person who he could not seem to escape from…as she stood behind him, face covered in shadows, white pearly teeth showing as she smiled and gripped Odd's throat.
"AHHH!" Odd cried, crouching into his fighting stance from Xanadu, eyes darting around madly.
"Odd, what's wrong?!" Yumi cried.
"Is William back?" Ulrich growled, looking all over for the rapist.
Odd breathed in and out. She wasn't there. Thankfully. Not yet. "J-just...tired. Got hit in the stomach with a hammer...wasn't fun."
Yumi gave Odd a look, but unlike yesterday, she didn't seem to pursue the matter any further. "Let's keep on heading back. We've got a long day tomorrow."
Nodding, Ulrich walked forward, keeping pace with Yumi. Odd however, stayed a few steps behind, turning his head back every now and then to make sure that they weren't being followed.
"You know what I hate?" Molly grumbled as she and her two friends walked through the alleys leading to Hellison. "Not getting anything done."
"I have the bandages to prove that we did something all right…" Jordan grumbled.
Aikka was quiet while Molly and Jordan continued to bicker, but then heard a set of unfamiliar footsteps. Immediately, he pulled out a butterfly knife and turned around, much to the two's surprise. "Identify yourself!" he called.
"I-it's just me!" a male voice cried out from an intersection that the group had just passed.
"Oh, you're that new kid from Asimov." Molly said, recognizing the boy. "What do you want?"
"I believe you wished to know more about who to ask around?" Aikka asked. "I would recommend being patient. I'm afraid the guide we were hoping to ask will not be available tomorrow. I would suggest waiting for next Saturday before you attempt anything."
"Come on, we know our way around the streets fine!" Jordan protested, only for the voice to sigh loudly.
"I'll...take your word it." the boy said in defeat. "Next week's probably going to be my best bet then."
Footsteps echoed through the alleys as the boy left, growing quieter and quieter. The Hellison trio looked at each other, and then continued on their way, Molly going back to complaining as if nothing had happened at all. Of course, to say that nothing had happened at all that day was...well...quite inaccurate, all things considered.
Pulsing. Waiting. The land beat in preparation.
Analyzing. Prior attacks ineffective. Methodology...flawed. Analyzing new plan.
Black smoke turned liquid. Black liquid turned solid. Black solid churned with power.
Very little had been accomplished. That...would change.
Scanning...Scanning...Confirmed.
RESUMING EVOLUTIONARY PROCEDURE
DONE!
Well, this is interesting, isn't it? So many new developments that have come up! So many mysteries! What's going to happen next?
Find out in File 6!
Reviews are appreciated!
-Epsilon Tarantula-
