...Oh my god...it's...it's finally here...
HALLEJUAH IT IS HERE!
Hello, hello, hello everyone! Your eyes are not deceiving you, Garage Kids is back! Those who follow me will know that I was putting some more focus into my ARC-V story instead, and, well...the past three years have been...busy. VERY busy. It also didn't help that this thing is easily the longest thing I've ever written, topping off 30,000 words WITHOUT the presence of an Author's Note! But after so long, it is here, and we're back in business, finally ready to hit some LORE!
Are you excited?
No?
Well too bad, you're here! So strap in, get comfy, and let's get started!
Though, before we begin, I would like to dedicate this chapter to Jodi Forrest, VA of Sissi Delmas, and many other who have sadly passed away in-between the interim between chapters. In their memory, I challenge you all to a game: Identify all of the Easter Eggs referencing the Annency 2000 festival and Project Eradication in this chapter! The winner will receive a cookie. Specifically chocolate-chip, the best type of cookie there is.
One more thing. I've begun cross-posting the story to Archive of Our Own, so if you feel more comfortable reading it there, by all means you are free to do so.
I don't own Code Lyoko, those rights are in a state even I cannot describe.
Garage Kids
File 6.2 - Treading the Streets
Preparing to initiate Manifestation Procedure per Code: Kaiping commands...Reviewing history of previous activity…Calculating response time from Avatar during 07/10/01 activity...Reviewing Release Points...Comparing response time from Avatar during 09/10/01 activity with response times post anticipation 17/08/01 activity...
The black phantoms circled around the Tower, but not close enough to establish their access connection, for that command had not yet been inputted. They purred in for their moment to strike, but patiently stayed their hand. They knew why the command had not been input, and from each point in their individual consciousnesses that were derived from a greater collective…
Query: Possibility of detection program in regards to Manifestation Procedure?
Query: Calculate potential likelihood of detection program?
Inputting comparisons of response times from Avatar… Retrieving data...
As the calculations ran through the land, which pulsed in anticipation, the same collective thought arose to the phantasmal creatures. It was very likely that if they attempted to simply access the Tower, it would alert the Avatars. This query of thought resonated through them...thousands of calculations were run in nanoseconds, and this hypothesis was unanimous within them.
In the next nanosecond, their suspicion was validated with the following:
Likelihood of Detection Program within Towers: 100%
They could not simply rush in, even with their new security forms, which had begun to wander around the island, testing themselves on the terrain and ironing out flaws. The large, bulky creature that could fire orbs of plasma tested fairly well, having no problems with its intended method of movement or means of offensive attacks, only requiring a few additional detachable spikes on its body for defensive purposes.
But while this design had largely proved a success, the tentacle monster had required many modifications after its original conception.
To begin with, its original body shape had very poor balance and proportions. The ring that had held it together was deemed too small and unstable, with the tentacle formation making it top-heavy. It was now modified to have a much larger and thicker disc for a base, similar in shape to what was defined as a 'flying saucer'. From the edges of this dark-grey disc were ten large, black, purple-tinted tentacles to support movement and assist in melee attacks, at the price of losing the ability to shift form in order to also conduct mid-range electrical shocks, while the very bottom of the disc held heavier armor than the top for defense, whilst focusing the remaining energy on ensuring levitation movement. A massive, slimy, purple-tinted vertical tubular fin-like protrusion, bearing a fanged mouth at its base that put the other phantoms to shame, would work well for defensive purposes, as well as the additional ability programmed in that would act to support its fellows and disable the enemy in one fell swoop.
It was regrettable that they had created a failed prototype to begin with, but at least it had not been used when it mattered and the error had been rectified before the upcoming battle.
All in all, this redesign worked much better and was far more advanced than anything created thus far. While neither the regular phantoms or new security forms had visible eyes, they were all quite capable of seeing and sensing the world around them. As such, they could tell that balance had improved, as had raw offensive power. It would also work well in the island's lakes, should the combat with the Avatars ever take place there. The speed had even increased, owing to the increased flexibility and movement range of the new form.
With that side-analysis done, they returned to the issue of the tracking program. Time was critical in preparing their assault on the Other Side. Once adjusted to the network, all that was required was for them to select a proper medium (or mediums if their time could be extended), and they could proceed to fulfill the Will of the World.
But this tracking program made it impossible. The Avatars would likely arrive within a short span of time, and while the new forms had a high chance of protecting the accessed Tower, they had yet to be truly tested in combat, so the amount of time they could buy was currently unknown. Projections were made of course, but with how their assaults had been limited in the past so soon after their first creation had been destroyed, it was ultimately considered an unacceptable risk.
Analyzing...Analyzing...Analyzing…
Proposal of Counter-Strategy. Reviewing network information…
Query: Review specific response time of 06/10/01 activity and 07/10/01 activity...Review network information from activity
Reviewing response time. Reviewing network activity. Reviewing access point data…
Query: Locate code for Tracking Program?
Analyzing access point…
The Manifestations flew over to the Tower on the very edge of the island. They did not make contact with it as they did before, but still circled around it while they reviewed their actions during those 24 hours. It had been when they had first attempted a strategy to counter the Avatars, via overwhelming them with sheer numbers. One of their own had not been destroyed then, and so once the Avatars had left, they had slowly bade their time, regaining strength from that solitary remnant, before striking.
Deficiency in Avatar response times.
Query: Attempt to analyze access point and delete Tracking Program?
Analyzing access point. Reviewing 06/10/01 methodology…
Now some Phantoms began to circle around the Tower. They acted cautiously of course. If they triggered the program, they would have to retreat. The circle of darkness closed in on the Tower, until they were in a range to establish a connection.
Connection established.
Remaining within limits of Xanadu. Do not access the wider network until analysis is complete.
06/10/01 activity reviewed. Running comparison to 17/08/01 activity and 05/09/01 activity. Analyzing deficiency in response time...Analyzing network data from access point…
Coding located that was not present in 17/08/01 activity. Present from 05/09/01 activity to 06/10/01 activity.
Now they were getting somewhere.
Reconstructing coding...deconstructing coding. Comparing with network data...coding for firewall detected. Running analysis of access point...similar coding detected. 92% similar. Identifying as coding for detection program…
Query: Run deletion of detection program?
Compiling...encryption discovered. Accounts for the 8% difference. Running decryption...Encryption broken. Initiating deletion...Running analysis of access point...Detection Program deleted from Tower. Initiating Manifestation Procedure…
Query: Engage in plan to pre-emptively eliminate Avatar?
Running simulation...accessing terminal from 07/10/01 activity…
Initiating surveillance of Avatar. Implementing security in network. Changing access points. Deleting Detection Program from new access point.
The specters began to settle into a different Tower now. It was close to the island's highest peak. From here, one would gain a view of the other eight Towers of Xanadu. It was fitting that they would pick this particular area. It had the perfect terrain to set up their new security forces as they watched how the Avatars and their Operator acted.
This time, they would be ready.
"So, can someone tell me why we couldn't have just brought our riding gear with us?" Odd groaned as the group trundled through the sewers on foot.
"Best to keep it in one place for now." Jeremie explained. "Then there's less of a risk that it could be found, especially so close to the school. I also want our hands to be completely free. Besides, we're all used to walking distances like this...I take that you're not?"
Odd scratched his head. "Well...no, I mean…"
Kiwi growled, as if he didn't want his owner to dodge the question.
"Okay, yeah." Odd sighed in reluctance. "Palermo's not as creepy as this place, but there's plenty of nooks and crannies to run and hide in. So...yeah, I can deal with it."
"And scratch Palermo off of the 'Cities I might want to move to when it's time for college' list." Sebastian grumbled.
Odd's eyebrow ticked. "Hey, Palermo's a lot cleaner and a lot less death-bringy than here!"
"Della Robbia, when you've lived in Boulogne Billancourt as long as I have, which includes it suddenly getting warped into cyberpunk-land, you'll want to avoid anything that might seem even remotely similar to it." Sebastian retorted, scowling at the memories of his various escapades. "Which crossed out both North and South America for me right then and there."
No-one hopped on such an easily abusable remark, so they kept on walking in silence, letting the echo of their footsteps be the only noise besides the flow of water. As they turned some corners however, a few questions continued to linger in the heads of Odd and Yumi, who were still fairly unfamiliar with the suburbs. Odd, being the more talkative one, was the first to blanch one such question.
"So, uh, Sebastian." Odd coughed awkwardly. "Why're we going to that specific cafe?"
"Oh yeah...you and Ishiyama are still a bit new to town…" the Street Kid drawled, looking over his shoulder to look at the three virtual warriors, who stayed behind him and Jeremie. Ulrich's face remained as stoic as ever, since even he knew of this tidbit of Sebastian's personal life, while neither Odd or Yumi could hide the curiosity from their faces.
"My uncle owns that place. It's called Cafe: Millesime. It's sort of an all-age place, but since he serves alcohol, you have to show him identification before you can order. He's got a pretty good business going on if I'll be honest. Plus, it's...well...where I live during the holidays..."
"But since you're his nephew, that means we don't really need identification then?" Yumi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Unless you want to get drunk, pretty much, yeah." Sebastian confirmed, before sighing, shooting a dirty look at Jeremie, who was keeping track of their progress on his phone. "I was hoping that we could just hack into that cult meeting from there, during one of their so-called 'Khara-Khoto Talks', but Belpois wants to get up close and personal to the private connection that the cultists have…"
"You and I both agreed that risking them raiding your uncle's cafe and/or the Factory wasn't acceptable." Jeremie cut in, and for once, Odd noticed exasperation in the computer genius's voice, as if it was a conversation thread he didn't want to pick up again. "Even if we used the supercomputer as a direct means to hack into their connection, if the cultists trace the signal to a compromising location, I don't think I have to explain the problems resulting from that potential revelation. We already had a near-miss with William. Anyways, regardless of what happened to the Professor before and after the Billancourt Panic, there's a high chance that his work was distributed, potentially stolen, and certainly reverse-engineered, so I don't think I have to explain to you or the others about what that means. Working from their main physical server eliminates that risk entirely."
"I already heard you explain it twice yesterday…" Sebastian groaned, though he quite clearly still seemed irritated at the idea of having to physically enter what was likely the most dangerous part of town. "So no, you didn't have to explain it three-for-three."
A question flew into Odd's mind, and before he could stop himself, he blurted it out. "So uh, how do you know where these creepy cultists are, exactly?"
That made Ulrich and Yumi gaze at Jeremie expectantly. The computer genius raised an eyebrow at Odd, but didn't seem displeased by the question. Or maybe he was? Odd couldn't tell. Sebastian however, he could see was a mixture of nervous and angry, likely having seen the answer already and not being happy with it.
That of course, was VERY reassuring to Odd.
(It wasn't reassuring at all.)
Jeremie cleared his throat. "Well, to answer your question, Odd, it's quite simple. I used the supercomputer."
"Wow, that answers nothing, I need more than that." Yumi growled, clearly as enamored with the idea of going to the place that had produced technology designed to violate a person's mind and dignity as everyone else was.
"I would also like to say I wasn't finished, but I'll go into the details now." Jeremie coughed. "To start with, the Professor's map of the city had a set of coordinates marked into it. I used those coordinates to locate a certain area in town, marked it down on a map of the town circa 1994, talked with Sebastian over here over how that area might have changed, and then wrote up a program to track down those coordinates into the supercomputer to check for any updates."
"Resulting in us having to go down to the worst place in town all up in person." Sebastian groaned.
"On the bright side, I now have the basis for a more sophisticated tracking program, so that covers a lot of angles for the future, so I'd say that was a productive afternoon."
The three virtual fighters elected not to comment, each of them having VERY different opinions on the previous day's afternoon, none of which came near the definition of 'productive'. Exhausting, traumatizing, annoying, these were but three definitions that immediately came to mind for the ones who actually had had to fight in both the real world and virtual world.
It was at this point in time that the group reached their exit point, which was yet another hole covered in broken wire-mesh built into the walls. The group walked up to another door, upon which Sebastian took out his key, unlocked it, and allowed everyone to step out, with Odd in particular gazing in morbid wonder at what he saw.
The Italian boy's 'research' in Boulogne Billancourt had mainly consisted of him looking up landmarks that might appeal to what theatrical or fashion business his parents might have (And, regrettably, even some articles about Parisian building styles to appeal to Louise's sense of architecture so he could try to get some support from one of his sisters for once in his life), so that they'd be convinced that they could send their son off to boarding school. During the course of Odd's research on the internet, he had come across the topic of the Parisian Catacombs, but he'd lost interest after reading one article about it, and anyway, it was irrelevant to his project.
The spiky-haired pre-teen found it strange that this was the moment he was reminded of that one detour in his quest to get some breathing space, and not his prior experiences of dealing with the, how might he put it...atmosphere of his new town.
Then again, it was his first time dealing with actual Parisian urban legends instead of the slew of original nightmares produced by Xanadu/potentially its creator. Of course, seeing a part of the catacombs for the first time made Odd wonder if there was really any difference, or if the latter had made the former creepier.
The group had walked into what seemed to be an abandoned metro station tunnel, with the door they had exited from being painted a light grey to better blend in with the walls. It also helped that the graffiti artists had painted over the door, having failed to notice it. On one end, specifically the right, Odd saw the mid-morning sun at the tunnel's opening. On the other side was the complete opposite; more darkness.
And unfortunately for Odd, he was pretty certain that they would be heading into the creepy darkness instead of the less-than-creepy light, a suspicion that was confirmed when Sebastian locked the door they had come out of, before heading left.
The group remained quiet as they went deeper and deeper into the tunnel, with the darkness surrounding them growing more and more. Jeremie and Sebastian both pulled out flashlights so that the group could at least still see. Bit by bit, the rails receded into the ground, and the tunnel began to narrow. Sebastian grunted when they reached an area that was filled with discarded cans, bottles, and other junk items.
"Don't go snooping around over there Belpois, that's the regular kind of trash."
"I wasn't going to 'snoop' around it." Jeremie retorted.
Yumi scowled, not in the mood to dilly-dally. "Can we just keep moving?"
Sebastian nodded grimly, and walked a few additional feet forward to a rough patch of rock that opened up as a small hole in the ground.
He eyed the group as he began to enter the opening, grunting with a bit of difficulty thanks to his height. "Watch your heads."
Odd took pride at his svelte body, as it was rather easy for him to enter, being the second member of the group to do so, cutting ahead of Jeremie, who did not raise any complaints as he observed Odd's movements. Likewise, being a small dog, Kiwi had no trouble following Odd into the narrow, almost claustrophobic tunnel. Once they were through, Jeremie followed suit, with Ulrich and Yumi coming in after him.
The tunnel that the Warriors and their guide had now entered, while wider than its entry point, had an uneven ground thanks to a proliferation of large rocks scattered along the pathway. However, the walls had smoothed out, giving the impression that they had entered an actual corridor. Above the group were a series of light bulbs and fluorescent lights that ran down the length of the hallway. All of them were on, but at the same time were flickering on and off, casting an eerie white-and-grey glow on the tunnel, revealing the graffiti that almost completely covered the walls. The lights were also emitting a low, dreadful drone that buzzed in everyone's ears like a swarm of locusts, which was coupled with a much deeper noise that sounded like a thumping heartbeat that echoed throughout the walls, as if the children had entered the belly of a ravenous beast.
Odd couldn't help but suppress a shudder as he stared down the narrow corridor. Of all the times he might've wanted a vision, Future Flash did not activate.
Sebastian looked to see that the Xanadu Warriors were all gathered, and gave a subtle nod towards the concrete cavern. "Okay, fun fact, all of the street names above us are marked on the walls, thankfully with metal plates instead of stone carvings. We'll use those to guide us and then get the hell out of here."
Odd raised his hand. "Just to be clear, we ARE going to see the sun again, right?"
Ulrich sighed, and punched Odd in the arm. "Shut up." he snapped.
"This is...what they call the 'Driveway', yes?" Jeremie asked, ignoring Yumi having to keep Odd and Ulrich separated.
Sebastian wasn't paying much attention, his gaze being focused at the brief scuffle behind him, but he still heard Jeremie's words and sighed "...Still not as bad when I had to take Wei, Wilde, and Burak down here." He then looked down at Kiwi, who seemed to find nothing interesting about the place where his owner had taken him. "But yeah, this is the main route we have to take, since it connects with all of the other tunnels." he explained, turning back to Jeremie. "It shouldn't take us too long to get through here...unless one or two of us is the kind of person who makes getting a glass of milk a cockamamie adventure thanks to being a complete screw-up."
Still rubbing the spot where he'd been slugged, Odd coughed nervously. "Um, well, that kind of depends…"
"Forget it, just get moving." the Street Kid grumbled.
If there was one thing that Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi could agree on, it was that the Parisian Catacombs made Xanadu live up to its name as 'paradise'. Of course, comparing a lush, green island to a series of concrete tunnels was unfair, but even with the Specters haunting it, Xanadu had an element of quiet peace about it, unlike their current location and the other places they had 'visited' in town. Just like Blue-Screen Skate Park, the catacombs were covered in graffiti, and just like the alleys where William and his harem hung out, had a dark and oppressive feel to them, what with the same constant shade of concrete grey, and technological/industrial elements that they didn't expect to see in the tunnels.
Of course, now that they were navigating through Xanadu's own set of tunnels, Odd was having to revise all of those thoughts about the real world completely. The only difference was that there was a bit more color in all of the rock layers and a lot more giant cables. Oh, and quite a few crystal formations here and there, along with...
Odd shook his head, barely holding back a hiss. Just when he thought he'd caught a break from Anticipation, it had returned just like that. He refocused himself as best as he could, not wanting to collapse in a place like this.
While Jeremie's eyes lit up with interest whenever they passed by a generator, recently renovated to help power the lighting system, or when walking across newly laid-down floor that had been put in to keep overflowing water from soaking their feet, the other three Xanadu Warriors only looked on with trepidation, with the only levity being Odd quietly snickering whenever Ulrich or Yumi stared at each other for too long, or when Kiwi went around sniffing at something unfamiliar.
The noise echoing through the tunnels continued at a steady pace. The buzz of the lights, the rumbling of the generators, the babbling underground water, and the reverberation of their own and perhaps others' footsteps, were all a constant in this dark, poorly-lit concrete labyrinth.
Jeremie continued to take notes whenever the group made a turn, asking Sebastian questions about the place in case they needed to come here again (A prospect Odd hoped would not be for a long time). Sebastian's replies however, were brief and curt, for despite knowing his way around, he clearly did not want to be here anymore than the three virtual fighters did, as his warnings seemed to indicate.
"Don't go down that pathway, you might see some bums who live down here."
"That place is completely flooded, and I'm not getting you any scuba gear."
"Maybe you'll find some scrap metal down those two turns, but I'd rather we move this way and not waste time."
Finally, they came to a dark-green ladder that went up to a manhole cover. Sebastian sighed in relief, pulled out his phone, and checked the time.
"9:36 AM…Good. We got through there pretty quickly."
Yumi raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "Where will this take us?"
"An old street in the Classic District of town." Sebastian explained, motioning for everyone to go on up ahead.
First Jeremie, then Odd plus Kiwi, Yumi, Ulrich, and finally Sebastian himself, all climbed up the steel ladder. Once they were all climbing, the lanky white-shirted boy resumed talking. "For those unfamiliar with our unfair city, the Classic District is one of the few parts of the town that wasn't completely twisted by the Panic. This is where we'll find my uncle's cafe."
"So, this is where we can get dressed up in suits and ties?" Odd asked.
"Pretty much, but living here can cost you a lot if you don't run your own business. My uncle's managed to keep up with the times and he's maintained Cafe: Millesime pretty damn well though. Sort of a family business, y'know?"
"Oh? That's interesting." Yumi commented. "So the cafe's been around as long as your family?"
Sebastian scowled, cursing himself for letting that detail slip, but at the same time feeling pride at what was essentially his heritage. "Yeah...well, you're still new here, so of course you wouldn't know."
Jeremie, having ignored the below conversation once Odd had joined in, had now reached the manhole cover, and lifted it open. Everyone squinted as daylight finally met their eyes, and hauled themselves out of the deep, dark tunnels.
"Oh, sunlight, I know it's only been around 20 or so minutes, but I'm so happy to see you again!" Odd gushed as Kiwi stretched, basking in the early morning. "Let's never be apart again!"
"Actually, it's been-" Jeremie started, but his exact timing was interrupted.
"You won't cry if we go inside the cafe, will you?" Sebastian questioned Odd. "You'll have a roof over your head."
"Are the windows uncovered?" Odd responded.
"We have drapes for when the sun gets in your eyes, but for the most part, yeah."
"Then I'm good!"
The five set out to a far more cheerful and colorful setting than where they had just traveled through and had explored yesterday. Tall, tightly packed apartments and houses made from warm orange, yellow, and red bricks, with black-shingled roofs, stood next to businesses with metal painted a cool green and/or blue, while the pavement of the asphalt on the roads was fresh and jet-black. The sidewalks were mostly well-maintained, with only some minor weed growth through the cracks. There were of course, some of the white-and-grey buildings of concrete and steel they had grown accustomed to, but even these were designed to seem more open instead of closed, having graceful curves and elegant marble work, so that instead of draining the color patterns and palettes, they enhanced them instead.
The bright blue sky, instead of shining on harsh, dirty districts, instead shown on a busy, hustling street that seemed almost like an organic oasis of color and warmth within a desert of machine cold monotone.
"Okay, now THIS is what I thought Paris would be like!" Odd marveled.
"Meh." Ulrich shrugged. He was used to seeing such sights, and honestly saw no distinction between this part of town or where they attended school aside from fancy brickwork versus plain concrete.
"Hmph, nothing that anyone ever says is the way it is in reality…" Yumi mumbled to herself darkly, so quietly that no-one else heard, or even knew that her mind was on an entirely different topic. "Nor does it really matter what the place looks like…"
"Only thing that could cause all of this to go down is the real-estate pricing." Sebastian chuckled. Surprisingly enough, just like Odd, he seemed to be less dour, finding humor in his dig.
"So, where do we go next?" Jeremie asked, finding nothing interesting about the Classic District whatsoever as he saw no computer stores in his immediate line of sight.
Sebastian turned to the right of where they had entered. "Down here. It's just a few blocks away."
Odd was still amazed at the Classic District. It felt so much more alive than the suburbs did, or at least felt more comforting to his person. Kiwi likewise seemed to feel the same, sniffing around so much more, and of course finding a fire hydrant to do Number 1. Odd chuckled as everyone else called for him to hurry up as his dog did his business, but honestly, being in a place like this was uplifting to Odd's spirits, so he took his time casually.
It ultimately didn't affect their timetable, for a few minutes later, they all stood in front of Cafe Millesime.
The building that housed the simple street cafe was a mix of dark-and-light beige, with white brickwork peppering the structure. The cafe's logo above the blue umbrella coverings was colored white and written in elegant cursive. The interior did not seem very large as Odd took a look inside the windows, but it seemed very cozy regardless. The door was your average glass see-through door, and was quickly opened by Sebastian.
"In we go." he welcomed.
The Xanadu Warriors now entered a moderately-sized interior, which was large enough to have a maximum occupancy of sixty-five. The walls were painted a warm orange color on the top while the ceiling was a creme color and the floor an even black-and-white checkerboard tile. Several oil paintings hung from the walls, which contrasted with the digital clock that hung in the center of the main lounge-area. The tables varied from one-to-two person to four person seating arrangements, and near the back of the shop were several couches and soft chairs. In addition, the Xanadu Warriors saw a bar that took up a good fifth of the cafe, reminding them that the establishment served alcohol. However, the most prominent scent in the air was that of coffee, which made sense concerning the hour.
Speaking of the time, the cafe was only partially full. A mother wearing a blue jacket and her young child, who wore a yellow hat, were finishing their breakfast. Odd recognized them from the bus he had been on when first coming to Boulogne Billancourt. Two boys were playing a card game, who Yumi noted had been in the park yesterday. There were a few dozen other people in the cafe as well, who were sitting down to either a late breakfast or settling in for the day as they pulled out their laptops.
Of course, none of them were familiar to the group.
"So, now what?" Odd asked Sebastian as the Street Kid joined the Warriors at the entrance. "I mean, I've still got some cash, but funds are still tight."
"You won't have to pay for anything." the taller boy reassured the group. "Follow me."
So the Xanadu Warriors (Except for Kiwi, who sat on the floor) found themselves sitting at, of all places, the bar counter, where only one other person, specifically a brown-haired mustached man dressed in blue overalls with orange lining and a logo adorned by a lit bomb fuse, was occupying it. Thankfully for them, in front of him were the remnants of a meal (¼ of an omelette and a half-empty cup of coffee to be specific), and a dull orange hat, instead of, say, a wine-glass or bottle of spirits, so they knew he wasn't drunk.
But as they would soon find out, it really wouldn't have mattered if the man was intoxicated or not...
The man chanced to look at who was coming to sit at the bar counter, and scowled the instant his eyes locked onto Yumi's face.
"Oi, Barack, get over here!" he called to a mass that was underneath the counter's serving side.
The man that emerged was perhaps the largest person Odd had ever seen before in his life, making the burly Jim look like a bear cub. Of course, that was not in terms of muscle, but rather fat. The man wasn't so freakishly obese to be a mound of pure flab, but he was certainly overweight, with a bulging belly, thick arms and legs, and enough fat for two chins. For clothing, he wore a blue shirt and tan trousers, along with a green-and-white striped apron, all of which was tailored for a person of his girth. His head was almost completely bald except for the back, which had a patch of short, brown hair, while a small mustache adorned his upper lip. His skin was a dull tan, which was very similar to the boy who had taken a seat next to Jeremie…
"What is it Pierre?" the fat man grumbled, walking (Odd was expecting him to waddle, but nope, he could still walk) over to the mustached man with a sour expression that gave Odd a heavy sense of deja vu.
Pierre pointed to the group of children several seats away from him, causing the man who he called 'Barack' to turn around. Almost instantly, the dour look on his face faded, but Odd didn't need Future Flash to know that this was the man they were seeking. His expressions, skin color, and apparent recognition of one of their group was all Odd needed to know that this was Sebastian's uncle.
"Sebastian! It's been awhile!" the bartender/cafe owner greeted the boy warmly. "How are you doing?"
"Well, I-" Sebastian began, but the man with a mustache interrupted.
"Not him! That one!" Pierre barked, pointing at Yumi.
Odd blinked, then turned to look at Yumi, who was sitting next to him. The Japanese girl glared back at the man. Likewise, Barack turned to see the new girl, who was sitting between Ulrich and Jeremie.
"What about her?" Barack asked innocently.
"Look at her face!" Pierre hissed. "She's one of them!"
"As in, one of my customers, and from the looks of things, one of my nephew's classmates as well." Barack rebuffed sternly. "I don't know what you'd want me to do besides say 'Hello' to her."
Pierre looked at Barack with bewilderment, before aiming another nasty look at Yumi, who gave as good as she took with her own hateful stare. She was backed by Ulrich, whose face of rage was a terrifying expression Odd had never seen the martial artist wear before.
For a moment, all was silent, except for Kiwi's low growling at the man. The quiet tension made Odd's stomach churn with worry, with his teammates glaring daggers at a man who seemed to regard them all as vermin rather than children. Then, grumbling incoherently, Pierre savagely devoured the rest of his omelette, downed his coffee, put his hat on, and stormed out of the cafe, slamming the door behind him as he did so.
"Well, that was a fine way to spoil the morning." Barack grumbled, his sour expression returning as he shook his head in disappointment.
"I'm sorry." Yumi apologized, bowing her head to the counter briefly before turning back up with a completely neutral and emotionless expression.
Barack waved his hands. "Don't worry about it, miss, um…" he turned back to Sebastian. "So, I see you've made new friends?"
"Ehhh...artistic associate at best with the purple one." Sebastian replied with a shrug. "New transfer student and all that jazz."
Barack turned to see Odd. "Ah, and your name, miss?"
"I'm a guy!" Odd protested. "GUY!"
"Not with that voice." Ulrich quietly grumbled to himself, with his attention still being focused on Yumi, whose face looked like that of a statue.
"His name's Odd." Jeremie put in, wanting to get down to business as soon as possible.
"Oh, sorry about that kid, ah no, Odd." Barack apologized before turning to Yumi. "And your name, miss?"
"Yumi Ishiyama, sir." the girl answered curtly.
"Pleasure to meet both of you!" the cafe owner greeted warmly, offering his hand for the two newcomers to shake, which they did cautiously.
Then he returned his attention to the Japanese girl, a solemn, apologetic look in his eyes.
"And anyways Yumi, I should be the one apologizing for my customers. I've known Pierre for a long time, so I'm no stranger to his rants. I tell you, if I had a nickel for all of the number of times I've had to stop him from drinking too much while he goes into his racial soapbox tirades, I'd have enough cash to franchise my business!"
The look on Yumi's face didn't change, and Ulrich noticed that her shoulders, which had subtly tensed, remained so without a hint of relaxation.
"I'll admit, there's been a lot of changes in town ever since the Panic seven years ago, but if there's one reason our family's kept this business open since our grandfather founded it, it's because we know how to adapt and keep up with the times." Barack mused, before he focused back on the girl. "So if I'll be perfectly honest, even if the power players in our country's economy have changed, that's no reason to treat a kid like a rat."
Yumi didn't respond, instead taking a peak at several of the other customers, as if she was worried that one of them would jump out of their seat and attack her the way the Specters of Xanadu did. The only ones who seemed to have taken notice of her however were the two boys playing their card game, but they quietly and quickly turned back to it once they also saw Ulrich turn and glare at them with all the fury of an enraged oni.
"Uh, what exactly do you mean by power players?" Odd asked, before feeling a powerful telekinetic vibe on his person, rendering him unable to move.
"Nothing that's worth explaining." Yumi cut in without any emotion in her voice. "How about we instead get to why we're here?"
Sebastian coughed. "Right, right."
Odd relaxed as he felt Yumi's telekinetic grip loosen, static blinking in and out of his eyes as he regained his bearings. That wasn't something he wanted to go through again, even if he was curious about what Sebastian's uncle had alluded to. Of course, he'd rather learn about it when he wasn't being crushed by the telekinetic aura of a furious Japanese girl whose mood was clearly getting worse and worse.
Meanwhile, Sebastian was explaining the situation (and school) to his uncle.
"So yeah, you remember Belpois from that robotics competition? Guy wants me to take him down to the Tek District and get some parts. I'm just here to get supplies for him."
Barack raised an eyebrow. "This won't end like that time with those students from Hellison will it?"
The portly man's nephew shuddered at the memory. "Hopefully not. Belpois here isn't as loud as Wei or Wilde. Besides, the only loud ones are Della Robbia and his dog...if the dog was acting like a dog instead of a cat."
"Hey!" Odd protested, though the pitch of his voice only seemed to prove Sebastian's point.
"Oh?" Barack asked, leaning, with great difficulty, over the counter to see a now sleeping Kiwi. "...He's quieter than most dogs, I'll give him that. If it weren't for him breathing, I'd say he was dead…" the cafe owner mumbled after a few minutes of examining the mutt.
A deep, cold shudder went through Odd's body, and static flickered in his eyes as the word 'dead' registered in his head. The purple cat-boy realized what kind of mission they were on, and that since this particular mission was of a personal risk to his dog, it might not be a good idea to drag said dog along into the more dangerous parts of town today. The rush of fear was sudden, but the slow, impending sense of danger choked at Odd even more than Yumi's telekinesis had.
"Um, if that's true, can Kiwi stay here while we head out?" Odd asked. "I-I mean, we shouldn't be gone too long on the first trip, so…"
SLAP!
That wasn't the sound of Odd being slapped, it was the united face-palming of Jeremie, Ulrich, and Sebastian, who were completely floored at Odd giving them up just like that. Yumi didn't notice at first, but when she saw the look of confusion, followed by shock, then worry, on Mister Toup's face, she realized what might happen next.
"...Nephew, what exactly did your 'artistic associate' mean by 'first trip'?" Barack Toup asked cautiously.
"You said it was okay to go to the Tek District!" the cafe owner's nephew protested, as if he was aware of what his uncle would say next.
"Yes, yes I did...and ONLY the Tek District, mind you." Barack sternly reminded his nephew. "When you took those students from Hellison with you, I seem to recall that you didn't need to make multiple trips there."
Sebastian clicked his tongue in annoyance, glaring daggers at Odd for blowing their cover. True, the spiky-haired kid didn't know about the home situation, but it was still annoying, and very infuriating. Not because of the prospect of being barred from the most horrible place in town, but because of the potential lack of freedom his uncle might impose on him; the very freedom that had earned the 'Street Kid' his nickname in the first place.
"Sebastian…" Barack sighed, shoulders heaving as additional wrinkles appeared in his face, as if the two had had arguments about this before. "Be straight with me. Where are you going?"
"We need to make two trips sir." Jeremie interrupted, unfazed by the dark look in the elder Toup's face as he turned his stare to the computer genius. "The robot I'm building is much more complex than whatever Molly might be making for this year's competition, so I need more parts. Making two trips is perfectly reasonable when you don't have enough hands to carry it all at once."
"Really now?" Barack asked, with suspicion in his voice as he took a closer look at the group of children who had come to his cafe. "You have ten sets of hands on you. Wouldn't just one trip be enough?"
"I need a lot of parts." The bespectacled boy replied simply and evenly as Barack examined his face.
The cafe owner could see that Jeremie maintained a very cool face for a child; keeping an unfathomable, yet innocent expression on his face. The same went for Ulrich. It was unsettling as to how these children were able to do so, which went for the lone girl amongst the boys as well. Yumi's face however, lacked any semblance of forced innocence, instead looking more like that of an unsmiling corpse than anything, which in its own way, unnerved Barack far more than Jeremie and Ulrich's stoic expressions, but did not surprise him if she had the kind of history he believed she might have.
That left the boy who had blurted out their plans, Odd, and then Sebastian himself. The latter was trying his best to keep a poker face, but Barack knew his nephew's tells well. As for Odd, he was doing such a terrible job at faking that everything was okay, Barack wondered why he was even part of this group, which seemed to have some kind of secret mission in mind.
The portly man looked at his nephew. "Is your friend telling the truth, Sebastian? And are you staying in the safe areas of town like I've told you to?"
Odd was about to blurt out how completely inaccurate that description of the past few days was, when Yumi narrowed her eyes into slits, keeping Odd's lips sealed with telekinesis. Thankfully, Barack's attention was too focused on Sebastian to look for any new facial tells on Yumi.
"I haven't gone into any of the danger zones, no." Sebastian answered quietly. "Don't plan on it either. The ghost stories I've heard were enough to make me want to stay away from them."
That was technically true. Sebastian had never once gone into the truly dangerous parts of town. He just kept up-to-date on their maps and activities from afar so he wouldn't get caught by surprise, as did everyone sane who went onto the streets.
The Xanadu Warriors held their breath as Barack stared at his nephew, who remained perfectly still. Finally, the cafe owner heaved a heavy sigh.
"I already lost a brother and sister-in-law to those bastards you know." he said quietly, but loud enough for the kids to hear. "I'd rather not lose my nephew too."
Odd's eyes widened. That was...surprising. And honestly rather shocking. Then again, he'd only known Sebastian for a week. He didn't expect to learn about the guy's personal history so soon. Yumi too, shared that expression, looking at Sebastian, wondering how the boy was even keeping his cool if that was the case. Jeremie and Ulrich, who had long learned of this sad factoid, remained stoic.
"You're being straight with me? You're just making two trips for parts?" Barack asked at last.
"Just two trips for the stuff that Belpois here needs for his projects." Sebastian curtly replied.
Another few moments of silence passed as the cafe owner looked at the five children, suspicion still very evident in his eyes. Finally, the large man wiped his brow and sighed in defeat.
"Help yourself to the fridge. You can leave the dog in Sebastian's room. But fair warning nephew, if the dog makes a mess, you're cleaning it up. You're the one who agreed to help these people, so it's your responsibility to keep an eye on things."
"Yeah, yeah...fine." Sebastian grumbled. "C'mon everyone, let's go."
No-one made any complaints or snarky comments. Instead, they all did what they needed to do, heading for the back of the cafe, where they opened a door that led to three more. The first, which was right in front of them, read 'Wine Cellar', the second, which was to the left, read 'Kitchen', and the last one, on the right, read 'House'.
"Ishiyama, Stern, you two go to the Kitchen." Sebastian ordered. "My uncle should have some extra stuff back there. Della Robbia, I'll make sure to roast you to death when we're out of earshot of my uncle. You, me, and Belpois, to my room."
Jeremie shot Odd a look, quite clearly annoyed at how his plans were nearly torn apart by Odd's babbling. On the one hand, Odd did feel abashed that he'd nearly screwed the mission over, but on the other hand, making sure that Kiwi wasn't completely torn apart by the dangers of either the Tek District or Cult Zone had been the top priority in his mind, so as far as Odd was concerned, Jeremie and Sebastian could both go suck lemons.
The door on the right was opening, unveiling a narrow staircase made of polished mahogany wood, which in turn led to a rather narrow hallway with only five doors; two on the right, two on the left, and one at the end of the hallway. The walls were painted a dull green, with some generic countryside and ocean portraits hung on them, while the doors were painted white.
"My room's the second door on the left." Sebastian sighed, walking down and unveiling a...rather dull-looking room.
The walls were painted a dark blue, with a neatly-made bed located at the opposite end of the room. A simple wooden desk with a lamp and unfinished sketches stood in the middle of the side of the room, next to the sole window, and was situated next to a bookshelf. Two more bookshelves, full of papers and books, stood on the side of the room without a window. Sebastian's dresser was next to the bed, while at the close end of the room was the closet, which was closed and undisturbed.
"Huh, this is a lot neater than my room back home." Odd commented as he plopped Kiwi on top of Sebastian's bed. The little dog yawned, readjusted himself, and went back to sleep.
"My dorm room isn't really that different from here." Sebastian grunted, as he examined some of the unfinished sketches he had left behind. "Belpois, you can put your junk next to the other bookcase and between my bed. Just don't drop any screws there. I'd rather not step on one when it's time for Winter Break...or rather, if we even GET a Winter Break. I'll grab the weapons, then head off to the bathroom for first-aid stuff."
Odd would've loved to say that Sebastian knew how to bring the mood down, but that was like saying that a mole could dig a hole inside of another hole.
It wasn't long before the three silently went back downstairs, with the other main resident of the building holding a pack loaded with whatever tools he had hidden from his uncle's otherwise watchful eyes, and rejoined Yumi and Ulrich, who had stuffed their packs with snacks and water. Without another word, and not sparing the bar counter another glance as the cafe owner prepared for the lunch rush, the five set off on the next leg of their journey.
Of course, as soon as they had turned two corners and were out of earshot of Sebastian's uncle…
"Congrats for nearly blowing our cover idiot…" Sebastian grumbled.
"Hey, I needed to keep Kiwi safe!" Odd protested. "If my instincts are telling me to keep him out of danger, then hell yes I'm going to do it!"
"Hmm, was it a vision, or-?" Jeremie asked, only to be cut off.
"NO!" Odd shrieked loudly in protest, causing Ulrich to put a finger to his ears.
The spiky-haired boy then turned to the 'Street Kid'. "And anyways, since when did you care about keeping 'cover'? You're the guy who screamed his head off about everyone going insane or dying after yesterday's plot dump!"
Sebastian whipped around like a viper. "Of course I did! Because while I don't fucking trust any of this shit, I have a life outside of it, and I intend to keep it that way!"
Odd should've stopped prying right then and there, but curiosity and anger mixed together to override his better judgement and he blurted out. "And what kind of life would that be!?"
Sebastian's face notably turned a strange shade of reddish-purple, clearly taking offence with Odd's mocking tone, and he began moving to punch Odd's lights out…
"SHUT UP!" Yumi snarled, unleashing her powers on the two boys, who found their arms slammed and held tightly on the sides of their waists, as if they'd been restrained by thick rope. "I don't want to hear anything else!" she hissed angrily, pointing at Odd, then Sebstian. "You, keep your damn nose out of everyone's personal business! And you, keep your mouth shut for once in your damn life!"
The effect was profound on the two boys, both of them glancing at Yumi, who seemed ready to outright kill them, fearfully, before looking back at each other. The furious girl had made her point very clear...especially since neither of them could move.
Jeremie coughed, and pushed his glasses into place. "Well, I'll admit that I'm not pleased with the near-security breach, but I'm not seeing Uncle Burak anywhere, so it doesn't seem like he's tailing us."
Odd had been facing Sebastian, and not Jeremie, as the computer genius had been situated in the front of their formation, but he could not help but feel the bespectacled boy's eyes on him, as if he was trying to pry out a vision. Really? At a time like this?
But nothing changed. No flashes of orange, no warnings of danger...everything remained the same. Odd decided not to bring up anything however. Let the silence do the talking for once.
Especially since he had the feeling that if he DID try to talk, Yumi would break his neck.
Sebastian, for his part, seemed to have the fight drain out of him as fast as it had come as he stared at Yumi fearfully. Odd realized that this was the first time the Street Kid had been subjected to Yumi's powers...or rather, the first time he'd seen Yumi's powers in action. Shame this first eyewitness event was at Yumi's mercy though…which Odd had to admit, was a very unpleasant starting experience.
"Both of you, nod once if you understand." the geisha growled.
Both Sebastian and Odd did as the girl ordered, and felt Yumi's telekinetic grip lessen as the girl turned away from them, storming in front of Jeremie, causing the computer genius to become flustered as he attempted to keep up.
Ulrich, for his part, just glared at the two, and sped forward (At his usual speed, which was far faster than anything Odd or Jeremie could manage at their best anyways) to keep an eye on Yumi.
Both of the young filmmakers looked at each other awkwardly, with Odd coughing out his apology first. "Um, sorry, I uh...probably should've kept my mouth shut…"
Sebastian took a deep breath and sighed morosely. "Okay, yeah, you're still new, so you didn't know. Just...don't blurt anything out when my uncle's nearby, okay? He can be...smothering sometimes, y'know?"
"...Is that... really so bad?" Odd asked quietly, voice squeakier than he intended.
"...I'm gonna take a page from Jim's book and say I don't want to talk about it. We cool?"
Odd found himself nodding. "We're cool. Let's catch up to the others."
And without another word, Odd found himself lagging behind Sebastian as the two ran up to the rest of the group, with Jeremie being the one who Odd found himself next to, owing to the computer genius' body being weaker than the Cheshire Cat's, even without Xanadu being considered a factor. Sebastian found himself in the middle of their new formation, deliberately keeping his distance from Yumi, who stormed ahead alongside Ulrich, both of them giving nasty looks to anyone who happened to glance at them.
Especially those who gave disapproving glances when setting their eyes on the Japanese girl...
Analysing activity of Avatars on the Other Side…New variable added. Threat Level analysis?
Information: "New Variable" was the primary subject to be eliminated in the development of the 17/08/01 activity. Threat Level Change from activity analyzed...No change.
Formation has shifted. Objective of Avatars is to...is to...is to...Processing...Information not available. Suggested response?
Recording Avatar behavior...Processing…
Suggestion: Continue observation. Detection avoided. Continue to build up energy. Will engage when proper moment is determined.
Maintaining movement within Network...
The group was now completely silent as they continued their trek through the streets of Paris. The only time someone spoke up was Sebastian delivering yet more explanation of the workings of the districts of the city.
His tone was remarkably clipped, with none of his usual sarcasm, and thus registered in the heads of Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi the way a Wikipedia article would register in the head of someone browsing such articles to kill some free time.
As it turned out, the Tek District and Classic District had some overlap, owing to how other districts were sandwiched between them and how their aspects leaked into one another because of this overlap. The Classic District immediately bordered, and crossed-over, with the so-called Tourism District and Commercial District. The former was the main draw for tourism (obviously indicated through its name), holding on to what remained of Paris' history from before the Billancourt Panic and capitalizing on that aspect. The Commercial District was the area regarding most of the legal and publicly known businesses, and in fact was where the central headquarters of Deckard Inc., the company that had essentially presided over the rubble that France had turned into, was located.
The Tek District mostly fit into this rough territory divide by primarily being located on the border of the Commercial District, overlapping with the Industrial District and Drug Areas of town. The former was not too bad, being the center of industry of Paris...but the latter was a crime-filled slum near the edge of the city limits that was filled with drug dealers and squalor. Thankfully, it was far, far away from the areas the group was generally familiar with, and Jeremie had no plans to go there (And Odd privately hoped Jeremie would never make plans to go there).
But there was a reason the word 'mostly' was in that description.
The Tek District, at its southernmost "tip", overlapped into the Commercial District and snaked through it and into the Tourism District and a General Dealers Area (Which dealt with basic black market trading that Odd knew Jeremie would probably try to take them someday), before essentially ending near the school districts.
Unfortunately, this ending part of the Tek District did not have the exact materials Jeremie desired, being more of a place to dump equipment that no-one wanted, as well act as a rumour mill. Going there would be pointless, especially when Jeremie could salvage all of the scrap metal and wires he wanted (even though Sebastian feared Jeremie might find something radioactive). For this particular application, the boy wanted something more advanced so as to save time building it himself, and a way to perhaps glean more intel on their next destination, hence why they had to delve deeper into the area.
"The good news is that the place Belpois wants to go is in the Commercial District, which is far away from the druggies and their friends." Sebastian explained. "So we shouldn't have any problems. I've been down there plenty of times and the worst I've dealt with came from when Wei wanted to get some stuff from there. I swear, I couldn't even go to a vending machine without her causing some kind of trouble..."
"That's a relief, I suppose." Yumi said in a clipped tone.
"Trust me, not in a mood to relieve THAT day…" Sebastian grumbled. "Just a few more turns, and we'll be there."
Of course, Odd did not require his ability to see into the future to know that those words were begging for trouble. No sooner had the group made the first turn into a somewhat narrow alleyway did they all end up in a heap, colliding with another group of five children.
BLAM!
There was of course, much yelling and shouting as to be expected when a group of children crash into each other, limbs all twisted around as they try to free themselves. In the end, it was Yumi who managed to disentangle herself first, pulling her body out of the heap, using her Telekinesis to subtly drag the others out of the pile. Granted, considering their stunned state, a more overt usage might not have brought along any troubles whatsoever.
"Ugggghhhhh…" Everyone except for Yumi groaned as they lay sprawled on the ground.
That being said, youthful energy persevered, and the children managed to sit up and give the opposing group a good hostile stare of annoyance...that is, until Sebastian recognized who it was that the Kadic kids had run into.
"Would it kill you and your gang to look out where you're going, Moreau?"
A boy with messy blue hair, which nearly hid his eyes, and thus, the bags under them, who wore a brown-black hoodie and green khakis, rubbed his head in annoyance, and then saw who he had crashed into. His face then turned an annoying mix of disgruntled and obnoxious as he teasingly threw Sebastian's words right back at him.
"I dunno, can you?"
Yumi gave the blue-haired boy a critical look, before looking down at Sebastian. "Mind telling us who these guys are?"
"You can call us The Gang." Moreau sneered in a clear attempt to be intimidating as he got up, brushing down his pants. Unfortunately for him, the group from Kadic did not seem impressed, nor intimidated.
"You can actually call us by our names." a boy interjected, his height rivaling Sebastian, but being far less lanky, wearing a black hoodie over a long-sleeved blue-gray shirt and brown khakis, along with thin, round glasses adorning his eyes and a periwinkle trapper completely obscuring his hair. "Barbeau just calls our group that because he's not great with imagination."
"Ah, shut up Alfred." Barbeau waved off before turning his attention back to Sebastian. "Didn't expect to see you back here so soon, Film Boy."
"I didn't plan to meet up with you guys." Sebastian shrugged as he got up, brushing dust off his pants.
There was a girl in Barbeau's group, who seemed Vietnamese, wearing a red maxi dress with long sleeves and mini skirt with velma stockings and a red liner. She looked at Yumi critically. Instantly, Yumi felt her guard come up. If the stranger wanted a fight, she'd be glad to give it. Instead…
"Name's Duyen." the girl said cordially, offering a hand to Yumi.
Yumi looked at the offered hand, before cautiously shaking it.
Jeremie managed to get up and dust himself off. "Well, pleasure meeting you all, but we really have to get going, so-"
"Did that footage prove helpful?" Duyen asked out of the blue, causing Sebastian to jolt.
"What footage?" Odd groaned as he stretched off the knots from the collision.
"That little 'film' those idiots from Asimov left behind."
"...If you can call me nearly getting my bloodstream violated by Florida Boy and his master 'helpful' and needing to be rescued like Princess Peach, then yes." Sebastian answered.
Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi's eyes all widened as they looked at The Gang as if they had three heads and crab legs.
"Wait, explain what you mean by 'idiots from Asimov'." Yumi demanded, her voice sounding greedy for information.
"No need to, Ishiyama." Sebastian said, putting a hand up. "Guess formal introductions are in order. Meet the ever-so creatively named 'The Gang' from Hellison Boarding School. That's Moreau, Tran, Blaine, Nash, and Ignasio."
From right to left, the five children from Kadic's other rival school raised their hands in a sarcastic, roguish fashion. Almost immediately, the Xanadu Warriors saw that the newcomers and Sebastian seemed like kindred spirits.
"These guys are the reason I found out about Dunbar's nanobot shenanigans. Moron left a DVD recording of them behind, and then Duyen here picked it up and...ugh...showed it to us while I was paying these guys a visit."
"In my defense, I had no idea what it was." Duyen explained, before suppressing a shudder. "...That disgusting thing was so awful, Barbeau threw the DVD player off the roof...which also deprived us of the evidence because the disc was destroyed when the DVD player got smashed."
"Can you blame me?" Barbaeu asked rhetorically. "That thing was gross! Seriously, what is WRONG with the kids at Asimov? Are all of them part of those weird cults?"
"Um, I don't think Sam is." Odd put in.
"Of course Knight isn't one of them." Sebastian handwaved. "She's not insane."
"So, to answer your question then, yes, that footage proved helpful." Jeremie said, though his tone of voice indicated that he did not have any patience in continuing to talk with The Gang. "Apparently, Sebastian was able to stop William's gang from kidnapping four people originally over the course of two occasions, while my friends and I reached the heart of his operations just yesterday and deprived him of his resources, so he won't be able to add anyone else to his hive mind for a long time now."
"...You didn't even come in until AFTER we'd beaten them all up." Ulrich grumbled.
"Fighting is your thing, not mine." Jeremie retorted, very much wanting to resume the trek to the Tek District.
The Hellison Gang however, took no notice of the computer genius' impatience and stared at the Xanadu Warriors and their drag-along, then looked at said drag-along, who nodded in confirmation.
"...Damn." Barbeau whistled. "And I thought you Kadic kids couldn't throw anything heavier than a tennis ball. Good job."
"Hey, back then everyone else was injured because our gym teacher is an idiot." Ulrich replied, knowing fully well how that reputation of weakness came about and spread to Kadic's rival schools.
The boy who Sebastian had identified by the last name of Ignacio, likewise wearing a faded beanie with holes in it, that caused his rather long, scraggly black hair to poke out, along with a light purple hoodie and torn-up blue jeans looked at Ulrich, then snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! You're that guy from the martial arts section last year! You were the only Kadic kid to actually WIN anything in the sports events! Um...Ulrich, right? First name's Alejandro, nice to meet 'ya."
Ulrich took a step back, surprised at being recognized in a manner that actually seemed positive. He only gave a curt nod of confirmation to answer the question.
"You don't talk much, don'tcha?" Alejandro drawled.
"So, why are you down here, Sebastian?" Barbeau asked. "Did Molly rope you back into being a tour guide?"
Sebastian's face soured. "No, thankfully, but in case you need glasses like Alfred and Belpois, I'm unfortunately playing Tour Guide of the Streets for these people. Specifically Belpois over here while the other guys act as bodyguards."
"That scrawny purple dude is a bodyguard?" Blaine, a boy wearing sweatpants with a grey tee shirt and collared yellow jacket along with an equally yellow beanie, asked.
"I. AM. SVELTE!" Odd yelled, punctuating the words in annoyance.
Jeremie stepped forward, ignoring Odd's minor tantrum, clearing his throat so as to finally get everyone to focus. "Yes, he is, despite what you might think. But to return to the main topic, I asked Sebastian for help in obtaining robot parts in the Tek District for the upcoming inter-school competition, and we're on a bit of a tight schedule right now and really have to be going there."
Barbeau raised an eyebrow. "Not that going down there isn't a bad idea, but why not just go to the junkyards and save your wallet some cash? We just blew most of our allowances down there this morning trying to win at the safari crane game."
"Because if we go to the junkyards, Belpois' probably going to find something radioactive and put that in his robot to poison us all to death just to see if he can." Sebastian remarked.
"Certainly not!" Jeremie replied, offended. "Radiation and its effects on both electronics and the human body has already been well-documented, what would I have to gain from a pointless and counterproductive radiological incident?"
"...Oh god he's even worse than Molly, never mind." Alfred gaped. "That's our cue to leave!"
"Hey, I'm the boss here!" Barbeau snapped. "I say when we leave!" There was then silence as everyone stared at the self-proclaimed leader of the Hellison students folded his arms. "Okay, let's mosey on out of here. One local mad scientist is bad enough, we don't need two of 'em."
"Oh yay, Jeremie has competition. Because that's just what we needed." Odd remarked.
Sebastian and Ulrich stifled chuckles, having already met the temperamental tomboy from Hellison. That being said, if The Gang knew something…
"You guys know of any deals then? We're sort of on a tight schedule today." Sebastian asked.
"You and Alfred actually managed to buy something before we lost at the skill cranes, Chase, what'd you see?" Alejandro questioned.
The boy in yellow and the tall boy with glasses turned and pulled out a few small devices from their pockets. Curious in spite of himself, Jeremie walked forward and looked at what they had bought.
"Tamagotchi, kendama, some pirated cartridge games, that's about it." Alfred noted.
Odd, intrigued at meeting some fellow gamers, moved to try to take a peek, but Yumi grabbed his shoulder tight, making it very clear that like Jeremie, she was not in the mood to be doing anything perceived as a waste of time. Especially since Jeremie was quick as a whip to deliver his verdict on The Gang's purchases.
"None of which is even close to what I need." The computer genius sighed, returning to the main group. "I need robotics and proper electronics, not toys."
"Hey, game cartridges are perfectly valid electronic parts!" Chase protested.
"Oh, if you want robot parts, Grey's back in town." Barbeau remembered, snapping his fingers. "You might get lucky with a bargain from him."
"And THAT is good news. Just what I wanted to hear, even." Sebastian nodded. "Alright, take it easy."
The Gang murmured their good-byes, and then left, leaving the Xanadu Warriors and their guide to finally enter the alleyway that would lead them to the Tek District.
Jeremie wiped his glasses on his shirt in annoyance. "Was that really necessary?"
"I wouldn't underestimate The Gang, Belpois." Sebastian replied. "Besides, they pointed us to a vendor, and one of the cheaper ones, so that makes life a lot easier on me-I mean us."
"Speaking of life, think we'll have the time to snag some of those games?" Odd asked.
"No." Jeremie replied, earning a small scowl from the transfer student. "Our mission is only to buy what I need for my robot so I can build it as quickly as possible. If we manage to locate the data located in whatever hardware the cultists have, I'm going to need a lot of time to analyze it, on top of keeping up with school. If you can find something to help with the latter, I'll stop and consider it, but if you can't, forget about it."
"The only thing I would want to buy from this place is another weapon anyways." Yumi grumbled. "Preferably a knife."
"Same." Ulrich put in.
"Plus, we're all on something of a limited budget." Jeremie said. "I have some money saved up, but I made it clear with my dad that I'd only use that money for school, and I'm not planning on wasting it. If you guys brought any cash with you, feel free to chip in."
"Didn't bring any cash for anything but a few spare water bottles and jerky, but I've got a butterfly knife, swiss army knife, and one combat knife in my bag." Sebastian put in. "I'll distribute them when we go to the danger zone."
Odd was about to contribute with a snide remark, when he suddenly remembered something and felt through his pockets...realizing that he had brought no money with him whatsoever. That depressing tidbit was enough to leave him sulking, which was fine with the rest of the group as it meant peace and quiet for a little bit…
Because as they exited the alleyway and entered the place where the Commercial and Tek Districts overlapped, 'quiet' was hardly the word they would use to describe the area...
"Incredible…" Yumi breathed.
And likewise, they had hardly expected Yumi to be the first one to speak up.
Of course, those with any cultural knowledge of Japan would not be surprised why. As a side-effect of the reconstruction of Paris, the Japanese architects that had been hired had brought in influence from their home country...in particular the shōtengai, a type of local street that was closed off to traffic that acted as a walk-through commercial area. And what the Xanadu Warriors had walked into was exactly one of those, with Yumi immediately recognizing the style.
The shopping arcade was primarily dominated by dull grey steel and concrete in construction. This however, contradicted the strobe lights and display cases that adorned the walls and ceiling. Stalls and buildings, each decorated in their own way for the purposes of advertising stood in line, and were already being swarmed by people looking for purchases. The din they produced was loud enough that the Warriors found themselves able to talk casually with each other and their guide without having to worry about secrecy.
"Wow, this place is actually pretty nice!" Odd chirped, before his eyes caught, of all things, an ice-cream stall. Unfortunately, as his mouth drooled at the idea of a cold, sweet treat, Ulrich was already dragging him along.
"It's less violent than a good chunk of the rest of the city, that's for sure." Sebastian explained. "Definitely a step up from the horrible place Belpois wants us to go to, that's for sure."
"Are we going to continue harping about the risks of the mission, or actually get to the point?" Jeremie snapped, patience wearing thin. "Sebastian, according to those kids from Hellison, there's a person here with cheap electronics. I'd like to meet him ASAP."
Sebastian couldn't help but smirk inwardly, glad to have finally pierced some of Belpois' facade of being unflappable, though how long it would last before returning, he didn't know. He would have very much wanted to delay meeting Grey, if only to avoid the Cult Zone for as long as possible, but it was becoming increasingly clear that Jeremie was at the end of his rope and likely would not calm down until he saw SOMETHING that would get his hyper-computing brain to work as he preferred.
"Alright, alright." The Street Kid said, throwing his hands up in the air as the group passed under a heavy blue light illuminating a glass case showcasing a group of dancing animatronic humans designed to be anatomically correct. "I know where Grey's shop is, c'mon."
"Please tell me there's another ice cream stall on the way." Odd begged.
"We already brought snacks with us, Odd." Yumi pointed out. "They'll keep you full."
"Then can I have one?" The catboy asked, before Ulrich threw a small bag of pretzels at the catboy's face that smacked against him and fell to the ground…
Or rather did not as Odd caught the vision, and thus the salty snack, and immediately began to munch down, feeling a bit of relief at having something to enjoy while the group continued to make their way through the shopping arcade.
At first, the Xanadu Warriors had to navigate through several small crowds, but as they further made their way through the shōtengai, the crowds, lights, and stalls began to become more infrequent and spaced out. Colorful lighting meant to evoke a disco theme faded to simple, basic overheads, and the businesses became more isolated and spread out from one another. Turning a corner led them to a fairly open space, where a somewhat well-built, yet pudgy older man with grey hair wearing a blue sweater reading a magazine sat in front of a stall.
"I still don't get why you spend so much time back here, Grey." Sebastian noted.
Grey didn't even startle hearing Sebastian's voice, he only looked up to see the Street Kid and four unfamiliar faces. "It's quieter this way, kid." he said simply, standing up and putting the magazine down. "So, what can I do for you?"
"It's more for Belpois than me." Sebastian shrugged before turning to Jeremie. "Ball's in your court now."
Jeremie cleared his throat. "Ah, good morning sir-"
"You can just call me Grey." the vendor interrupted. "No need for 'sir' or 'mister'."
Jeremie's eye twitched from Grey's interjection, but he simply coughed to regain his bearings. "I hear you offer some fairly cheap deals for robot parts and other electronics. The inter-school competition is coming up you see, and I'm in it to win it, so...may I see what you have to offer, Grey?"
"It'd help if you tell me what you're looking for first, kid." Grey replied gruffly.
Jeremie nodded and pulled out the blueprints of Kiwi 2 from his backpack, flattening out the roll of paper on the counter for the robotics vendor to examine.
"What I specifically want are parts for legs, easy to build and on time. I'm having to deal with a heavy assignment load this week, so I want to be able to expedite the process of building this robot as much as possible."
Grey hummed a low tone as he looked at what Jeremie had designed. "Hrmmm...yeah, I've got what you need." He then turned around and whistled. "Gunther, grab me some robot legs!"
"Wenk, wenk," came a strange, unfamiliar squawking sort of noise...though it sounded like no bird that the group had ever heard of before.
Peering over the counter, which Grey did nothing to stop, Jeremie felt his glasses nearly slip off his face in shock at what he saw.
"Um...is...that a penguin?" he asked cautiously.
"Yup." Grey replied without batting an eye.
"Wait, wait, hold up, there's a penguin back there?!" Odd exclaimed, his mouth full of the remaining pretzels as he tossed the empty bag away and ran up to the stand.
Indeed, their eyes were not deceiving them. Right there, in the store, behind the counter, was a small penguin. Odd had only seen penguins on internet videos and the occasional documentary on the TV when he was flipping through channels on those rare occasions he could be alone, along with those cartoons that actually had penguins, and so he was pretty sure that his view of the penguin species was probably pretty stereotypical.
The creature waddling through the shop, digging through the boxes and boxes of parts, was only about 75 centimeters tall, and instead of a sleek, graceful black coat with even yellow bands at the neck and beak that Odd tended to associate with penguins, this penguin's only colors were black and white, with the black coat being broken up at the front by white that was then followed up by another stripe of black. The penguin then looked up, and then seemed to glare at Odd, not unlike Kiwi did on a few occasions.
"Okay...uuhhhh...wow...why is there a penguin back here?" Odd asked Grey, swallowing the chewed-up mass of pretzels.
"There's no penguin back there." Ulrich scoffed.
"Nope, there is." Jeremie confirmed.
Sebastian nodded. "I've seen Gunther before, he's real."
"Classified." Grey shrugged. "One thing led to another and...well...I've pretty much been keeping him around. Not a lot of places that I could take Gunther right now."
"Wait, no answers? BOOOO!" Odd complained.
"I'll admit, I'm rather curious myself…" Jeremie muttered in thought.
Neither Odd or the rest of the group commented that when it came to scientific intrigue, Jeremie was back to being a kooky, head-in-the-clouds programmer instead of an impatient hacker. Then again, he probably thought that he could get answers to whatever questions he deemed relevant. Or the idea of a walking penguin that could act as a guy's inventory assistant was just so out there it just HAD to pique Jeremie's bespectacled eyes.
"Like I said, classified." Grey grunted. "Now you want your robot parts, or not?"
Jeremie straightened his glasses and posture immediately. "Yes, right, of course. But uh, are they ready?"
Right on cue, Gunther waddled up, holding a box of various pre-built leg designs. Grey nodded his thanks and pulled the cardboard box up for Jeremie's analysis.
As Jeremie studied the parts and compared them to the blueprint, Odd's eyes wandered around Grey's store. Several products, from phones to tablets of the most recent models, were displayed in clear plastic cases that seemed cleaned and well-cared for, a stark contrast to this part of the shopping arcade. Looking back where Gunther was waddling, Odd saw boxes full of trash and broken parts for a variety of devices. Looking back up, Odd blinked as he noticed several electronic drawing tablets up for display.
Now, Odd had to admit that as an artist, he WAS a bit of a traditionalist...though it was an angle he'd had to take anyways due to Louise's managing of the household funds leaving the young aspiring illustrator with the most basic budget when it came to his own education, thus depriving him of more advanced tools of the modern age of drawing…
And unfortunately for the transfer student, the current situation was almost exactly the same. Him having no money whatsoever, and to add to this all-too-familiar position; being stuck on Jeremie's long-as-hell shopping trip before they all went down into what was probably the most horrifying part of town all for the sake of SOME potential info on Xanadu, the one place on the planet in Odd's head that was even more horrifying in comparison.
Suffice to say, Odd's sense of dejection was immense, until he heard Jeremie speak up…
"Alright, I have the parts I need." the computer genius said, before turning to the rest of the group at the back. "I have some money leftover, so...does anyone need anything?"
"No."
"Absolutely not."
"We came here for your stuff Belpois, I don't have any shopping priorities here today."
Jeremie pushed his glasses into place, before looking at Odd. "Do you need anything?"
The Italian boy blinked in surprise. He wasn't dreaming was he? There wasn't any monochrome grey or orange clouding his eyes after all. But to have the sort of tool he had been deprived of for so long...Well…
"I mean...I'd appreciate having one of those drawing tablets." he squeaked. "It'd make art class a lot easier."
Jeremie's eyes turned back to the stall, where Grey stepped aside to let the programmer gaze at the selection of drawing tablets. The computer genius stared intently at the selection of items...but his eyes widened at seeing the prices versus the remainder of the funds he had left.
Sighing, Jeremie took off his glasses and wiped them along his shirt. "Unfortunately, these are all too expensive for the rest of the euros I have."
Odd's heart sank at hearing those all-too familiar words. But at least there was some regret in Jeremie's voice. Louise had never sounded particularly patient or upset about rejecting her little brother's request.
However, before he could do anything more than sigh, Jeremie's wandering eyes returned to the waddling Gunther. "Ah, but do you perhaps have any...spares?"
"You mean junk leftovers?" Grey clarified.
"They're all the same to me." Jeremie replied. "But I think we could make do if you have any broken or unused ones."
The back-door salesman rubbed his chin, before acquiescing to the young inventor's request. "Alright. Gunther, go get some of the old tablets. We'll see if there's anything worth selling, might as well strike it all out of the inventory."
The penguin obeyed, and as soon as he could, presented another box to Jeremie. The computer genius immediately began examining its contents. Some of the tablets were broken, and plenty were missing parts. Yet Jeremie did not seem to mind or complain. Odd watched with amazement as he saw the operator of Xanadu's eyes sparkle with intrigue at the electronic components set before him. It wasn't exactly mesmerizing, but then again, Odd had not really paid attention to Jeremie's attitude to engineering and programming since it always concerned the evil virtual world filled with monsters trying to kill all of humanity. This was perhaps the first time he could appreciate the savant-like behavior of who was essentially his boss, in a way.
Finally, Jeremie's eyes twinkled as he pulled a mostly intact tablet out of the tangle of parts and chips. "Hrmmm...this one seems in better condition than the others I've seen so far."
The tablet was caked in dust, but a quick clean could easily allow it to shine, as Jeremie was already blowing off the dust and giving it a quick wipe to clean it up. However, the design was...different from the models on display.
For one, the tablet was twice as thick as the other models on display, lacking their thin, sleek nature. It still easily fit in Jeremie's hands, but it was more akin to a textbook in terms of thickness rather than a pad. A set of buttons went along the right-hand side and bottom of the device. USB ports and various other extensions that didn't come up in Odd's mind adorned both the right and left sides of the tablet. On the left side was a pen-holder, which snuggly held the drawing pen needed to work with the tablet.
In short, it was rather bulky for a simple drawing tablet. Jeremie's efforts at wiping away the dust and grime had shown that the design had an inherent sleekness to it after all, but it looked rather awkward compared to the display models.
Grey examined the device. "Ah, I remember that thing. It's one of those obsolete oddity models you get from time to time. Think the designers were trying for multi-function and durability with that thing. I gotta say, I remember dropping it a few times...not even the screen broke. There's bound to be some problems with the circuitry, but if there's one good thing about it, it's tough."
Jeremie's eyes lit up with intrigue. "I'll take it. And, however many parts from here that you could sell."
Grey looked at the junk box. "...Ehhh...You want to tinker with them, go ahead, I'll just group them all together and sell you the thing for all the money you've got left. That thing's been gathering dust for too long anyways."
Jeremie nodded. "Pleasure doing business with you then, sir."
The tablet was put back into its box and was given to Ulrich to carry on the way back to Cafe Millesime. The robot parts were put into Jeremie's bag. The goal had been reached, and it was now time to head back.
Everyone walked in silence until they returned to the busier parts of the shopping arcade, where Odd felt more comfortable about speaking up now that everyone's voices would be lost in the din.
"So...uh...thanks, I think, Einstein?"
"Like I said, if anyone needed something with school, I'd try to get it. If you needed a tablet, you needed a tablet, plain and simple." Jeremie responded casually. "I doubt I'll get it working QUITE yet, but it should prove interesting...especially with that design…"
"You just bought that to have something else to tinker with." Sebastian commented, rolling his eyes. "I saw your eyes light up at the idea of working with a failed prototype model, Belpois. You get on that stuff like a fly on manure."
"I mean, if it helps me out...I guess I can't look a gift horse in the mouth." Odd said, suppressing the urge to gag at the gross simile. "Or...well...beggars can't be choosers. If I get something like this really cheap, I'll take it."
"Mind, again, I don't know when I'll have it ready for you." Jeremie pointed out. "Definitely not this week, but once we're done with the Inter-School Competition, definitely. Can you hold out that long?"
"Eh, yeah, I guess." Odd shrugged, glad to have at least gotten something useful out of the mission so far.
But now that their diversionary trip was over...the topic of the Xanadu Warriors' true mission now loomed before them.
"So, how much longer do we have to go?" Yumi asked.
"Well…" Jeremie began in a sheepish tone.
"Oh come on, really?!" Odd groaned, his contentment vanishing just like that.
Query: Begin preparing for attack? Energy build-up is sufficient for immediate assault. Permission to analyze Avatar's home environment for attack?
Processing request...Error message from Avatar intent. Unable to process reasoning. Proposing to continue analysis of Avatar activity before commencing assault.
…
…
…
Reasoning accepted. Beginning network analysis...tracking…
Will engage when query of Avatars is answered
Despite Odd's groaning about the back-and-forth trekking from the Tek District to Cafe Millesime, the return trip and subsequent topping of the group's supplies went by smoothly. Sebastian's uncle had raised an eyebrow, but returned to his customers instead of attempting to prod further. In no time at all, the five children stood at what Sebastian called 'The Point of No Return'.
Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi saw literally no difference between the buildings on one side of the 'border' and the buildings on the other side, as all of them showed the same building materials and dilapidated state, but Sebastian seemed ill just being near the invisible jurisdiction, while Jeremie's eyes shone with an investigative light, taking in every detail, even if it seemed pointless to the others.
"So…" Jeremie began, looking at his watch with satisfaction at the maintained timetable before pulling out his laptop. "Time for a quick crash course about these cults."
"Wasn't that what last night's readings were for?" Ulrich drawled.
"Yes and no." Jeremie replied, sitting down on a short flight of concrete stairs. "Those were just there to brief you all on what we were to do...but I figure that since we're here a bit ahead of schedule despite some of the interruptions this morning, we can have ourselves a bit of a lesson on what goes on between these cults."
"Are we planning on taking them out after we're done with Xanadu?" Yumi asked in a tone that sent shivers down the spines of Odd, Sebastian, and even Ulrich, all of whom could feel the bloodlust and desire to destroy emanating from Shangri-La's would-be victim and avenger of the girls who had fallen under their thrall through William, and likely other, similarly twisted individuals.
Jeremie pushed his glasses into place, gesturing for everyone to sit down. No-one obeyed the order however, and so he simply resumed explaining. "You could try if you want, but I wouldn't just yet." He then made a show of typing in his laptop, pulling up multiple tabs at once, before turning it around to let everyone look at the site that he had pulled. "What we're going to do right now, is learn about why they exist and what they want, precisely."
Odd looked at Jeremie incredulously, all too disturbed by the computer genius' curious tone, while Sebastian was torn between vomiting and crying. Ulrich kept his face as stoic as he could, but personally only cared about beating up the people behind this multi-part racket and not giving their "religions" the time of day.
It was Yumi then, who spoke up once again. "And you want to learn about their motives, why and how, exactly?"
Jeremie coughed to clear his throat. "These cults didn't spring up from nothing, after all. They all arose after the Billancourt Panic."
"Yes, we know that, Belpois." Sebastian growled. "And it doesn't take a long-winded lecture to explain them. The Successors of Khanbaliq want to make some kind of technological "god" or something, the Givers of Kumul want free internet service and computers and phones for everyone, the Messengers of Shambala are all hippies, the Order of Khal Balgas wants to take over the world, the Destroyers of Karakorum want to blow up the world, and the Lovers of Shangri-La want to rape everyone in the world." He paused to take a breath from his rant. "So we don't need more than that!"
"Wait, there's six of these whack-a-doodle cults?!" Odd squeaked in horror. "I expected like, two or three of them, not six!"
"Yup, there's six." Sebastian groaned. "They all started with the Successors of Khanbaliq, then the others just splintered off of it. Think they were only united for a year or so before they split off to do their own things."
Jeremie looked up at Sebastian, a rare mischievous grin on his face. "And you claim that there's nothing to learn right now? I say that from what you just explained that there is."
"Jeremie, nothing you're saying is going to change how we think about these crazy people." Ulrich declared, face palmed in his hand. "For once, I agree with Sebastian, we don't need their life stories."
"And I'll be honest, nothing you say is going to save them from me after we're done with Xanadu." Yumi snarled, disgust at Jeremie's rather flippant and curious tone filling her voice. Did the computer geek not understand that these people were evil and needed to be brought down rather than studied to sate personal intrigue
"I didn't say anything about changing your mind about them." Jeremie pointed out. "I'm merely trying to see if learning about them can tell us more about Xanadu. There has to be some kind of link, I just know it."
"What link could there possibly be between the virtual death world and the real-life asylum-escapees?" Odd babbled in shock at Jeremie's priorities and rampant curiosity. He could not comprehend this boy's thought process in the slightest.
Jeremie looked at Odd quizzically, but, upon seeing no flash of orange or change in the catboy's pupils, his face went stoic once more. "Well, you can't forget that Shangri-La seems to share a symbol with Xanadu…"
"Or maybe Della Robbia just saw the stupid symbol in a dream because he can see the future and it just meant that we had to come here!" Sebastian argued. "There's nothing deeper to investigate other than that!"
"Then answer this question for me, Sebastian." Jeremie commanded. "How do you know about the symbol of Shangri-La? You asked me yesterday if Odd found the symbol on the net, which we know that he didn't."
Odd glared at Jeremie. "Yeah, okay, if you think I'd ever look something like that up online you are out of your freaky mad scientist head."
Sebastian rubbed his arm, as if the idea of learning anything substantial about the cults felt as if he had been dirtied and did not wish to unveil it to anyone. But in the end, he did. "I learned about it after we found out what Dunbar was really doing. That DVD we found? It had that symbol plastered on it. Managed to learn that it was Shangri-La's 'symbol' from Watson a few weeks later...that's all I know though."
"So is there even a point to this?" Yumi growled, frustrated at how they seemed to be going in circles to fulfill Jeremie's inquiries on what seemed to be a pointless topic.
But the computer genius ignored Yumi's complaint and kept his focus on the Street Kid. "Did you find out the symbols of the other cults?"
"Uh...no...not that I would WANT to…" Sebastian answered, voice becoming unsteady as he tried to figure out what Jeremie was implying.
"Interesting...and you just explained that Shangri-La and four of the other cults sprang from the Successors of Khanbaliq, is that right?"
Odd felt his legs become unsteady as the image of the symbol flashed through his mind. It had already tormented him enough yesterday...but the idea that it would continue to do so became even stronger. Looking at the symbol, he did not want to admit out loud that the 'pull' as it were, towards it, felt very strong…
As strong in fact, as when he had stared at the picture of the terrible Grim Reaper monster he had drawn just a few days earlier…
"You're not saying what I think you're saying, right?" Odd croaked, throat feeling dry.
"That the idea of the cult holding, quite frankly, the weakest ideals for changing the world, would have a symbol so close to Xanadu for a reason?" Jeremie confirmed. "I'm saying exactly that."
Ulrich felt a desire to tear the hair from his head. "Okay, and...what? What does that prove, mean or even matter? What's the reason for them having the symbol, Jeremie? Tell us already!"
Jeremie lowered his glasses and looked at everyone as if the answer was obvious. "I think it proves my belief that the cults are linked to the supercomputer. The Professor specifically marked the area that is the site of their main physical gathering and the program I wrote to prepare the route and confirm the location worked far better on the first go than I thought it would. If that link wasn't there, then why a symbol that reminded us specifically of Xanadu? Why would it just be in one cult that had its origins in a larger one?"
"So you're saying that the symbol's shared between all of the creepy cult guys." Odd said weakly. "Yay…"
Jeremie clapped his hands. "NOW you're catching on! Exactly that!"
"Okay, say we buy that crazy theory." Ulrich said at last. "What does sharing a symbol even prove?"
"Well, to find out, I say we sit down and do some reading." Jeremie smirked.
Everyone else looked at each other, and then back at Jeremie. It was clear that they were not going to get him to budge on this and that they would have to entertain his mad theorizing, lest they be stuck in the Cult Zone until nightfall.
"Alright, fine, Belpois." Sebastian sighed. "We'll play your game...or...whatever this is."
"There any chips in that bag?" Odd asked, flopping onto the ground in defeat. "If there's snacks, I can deal with this."
He didn't get a chance to have a vision as Yumi threw a bag into his face, legs and arms crossed in barely-contained frustration as she got down on the pavement. Ulrich sat next to her, torn between letting her attack Jeremie out of anger, or just doing the deed himself.
In the end though, neither of them did that as Jeremie cleared his throat and began reading the tales on his machine.
Successors of Khanbaliq
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, and so people gathered to forge this paradise together. They worked and slaved away, toiling to forge this world through machines. They believed that it was through the progression of their inventions that they could create this world."
"And so, they began their work."
"The people, in tandem, built for themselves incredible machines, designed to work together in harmony to create a perfect world, one that would stand for the progression of mankind."
"But something happened. A monster appeared one day, and no-one knew what it was. It was brutal and cruel, and destroyed the people one after another, until there was but one survivor, who managed to seal the terrible evil away."
"But it was not merely the people who had been destroyed. So too, had the world, nearly brought to ruin by the terrible beast. The survivor found himself an acolyte, and let humanity rebuild, until he vanished, to join his colleagues in the embrace of death."
"But that acolyte's mission was not yet done. He was to spread the word, to continue the task, to continue the work of the Precursors, to rebuild the machines, to let humanity evolve once again."
"The acolyte spread the gospel, and for a time, all was well. But then others began to question the meaning of this goal, and what was once a singular will split and became six. However, this does not change anything. The world is meant to evolve once more through the advancement of technology, and the magnum opus will lead humanity to a glorious future."
"The world shall develop once more."
"That is our purpose."
The group looked at each other when Jeremie was done.
"Well, at least it was short." Ulrich grumbled.
"That answered absolutely nothing!" Odd complained. "Why do we need to sit down for this? You couldn't have just sent us this in the brochures of doom last night?"
"Personally, I think he just enjoys the sound of his own voice." Sebastian muttered, leaning on his arm, looking like he would fall asleep.
Jeremie frowned. "Really? Ulrich, Yumi, you two remember the message the Professor left, right? Doesn't this sound familiar?"
In all honesty, both of them had forgotten about the Professor's enigmatic message, but they decided to nod in affirmation to humor Jeremie.
"It does not sound familiar to me at all." Sebastian put in.
"Think I forgot the specifics after you shared all that backstory stuff when I joined up." Odd chirped.
Jeremie sighed and pushed his glasses into place. "It sounds quite a bit like the virus that the Professor brought up in his message. It might be referring to it."
Odd racked his brain when the term 'virus' was brought up. It...sounded vaguely familiar, like something he SHOULD have known...but for once his mind was drawing a blank. His instincts roared at him to think about it...yet he felt nothing come up. No vision, anything…That was strange...
Though he did remember a being that MIGHT fit that criteria.
"You think it's that Grim Reaper thing I drew?"
Sebastian shuddered as he remembered Odd's rendering of the ominous figure. "Okay, if that's true, then why are we sitting here speculating? The freaky hooded machine skeleton is the bad guy, end of discussion, we can go home now!"
"It may be, or it might not be. Odd did also have a vision earlier of another strange entity...two of them in fact." Jeremie countered.
"And who's to say all three of them aren't just the same thing in a different outfit?" Yumi asked, hoping to shut down Jeremie's overly active brainstorming.
Of course, as Jeremie shrugged, Yumi knew that every single word she had just said was only feeding the computer genius' appetite for information. "I don't know...but we might be able to learn more through the other stories."
Everyone else groaned, but Jeremie continued reading regardless
Givers of Kumul
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, and so others congregated to create the spoils that would do so. It was said that if this world came to fruition, the benefits to mankind would be immeasurable. No longer would there be any concept of a Third-World or the Second-class citizen, instead, there would only be paradise."
"Guess this means it isn't the story of how Deckard Inc. made all of their money." Sebastian chuckled, eliciting some stifled laughter from Odd.
Jeremie rolled his eyes and continued to read.
"To reach this goal, the people gathered to build machines, hoping that these would eliminate the factors that created such terrible divides among humanity. At first, all seemed well. A certain group rose to power, benefitting from the growth and the progress…"
"Until it all went terribly wrong."
"Suddenly, the people vanished, and the group held on to its ill-gotten gains. The world then began to decay once more, and the hope for the future of a world where all may prosper has become dimmer and dimmer."
"That cannot be allowed to happen."
"We must fight back."
"...Okay scratch that," Sebastian laughed, "now it actually DOES sound like how Deckard Inc. made all of their money!"
"I did some further research into the Givers of Kumul." Jeremie continued, ignoring Sebastian's mocking laughter. "They do seem to have links to several other anti-capitalist hacker groups here and there, though so far, none of them have really made much of a dent in any of the major corporations other than participating in illegal downloading and the occasional DDOS attack or so. They seem to make a profit from general phishing and internet fraud...so it's probably best to avoid them, actually."
"Finally, speaking some reason for once, Einstein!" Odd sarcastically praised. "Now can we stay away from the other cults?"
"Nope!" Jeremie replied, causing Odd's face to become downtrodden as the computer genius moved on to the third story.
Messengers of Shamballa
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, with the hope that it would lead to eternal peace. People gathered to create this world, which was a peaceful place, one where the winds blew, to the sound sound of leaves within the trees. A paradise, a utopia…"
"Yet it was empty. No-one lived in it. The world was peaceful, but no-one was able to enter it."
"Eventually, dark shadows began moving within the world...and plunged it into darkness. A lone hero stood up to seal away the darkness, but was ostracized and imprisoned for his actions. Yet he did not give up. He believed that the darkness could one day return, and that it would be up to a successor to accomplish the goal."
"In secret, the hero found those willing to help, but shortly afterwards, a difference in opinion divided them."
"That is to be expected, for everyone has a different approach to peace."
"But one day, it will be achieved."
"And indeed, peace will come."
"Jeremie, these stories are literally answering nothing." Ulrich said when the myth was finished. "They're basically telling us the same thing, just changing things up a little."
"I mean, it makes sense when you're dealing with adapting a folk tale or mythology." Sebastian argued for a moment, before realizing what the situation actually was and coughed at his literary reflex. "But Stern's right. Only thing I can see that's relevant about all these 'mythos' is that the crazy Professor guy made Xanadu and these guys are too stupid to find it...which is probably a good thing after the fact, but still, if the guy just flat-out told us that he made the place himself, then there's still really nothing new to learn from it."
"Just finish off the next few stories. They might as well be the same." Yumi waved, wanting this diversion to end already.
"Well, the next two, definitely…" Jeremie murmured cryptically. "I'll tell those back-to-back, so don't interrupt."
"No promises!" Odd smirked.
Order of Khar Balgas
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, and so, gathering for the sake of consolidating power, and the right to rule, so did others gather. By establishing this rule, one could bring forth a utopia."
"The ruling government desired to use this world, considered a gateway to power, to do so. But in the end, they were not able to control it, and the power was sealed away."
"And to this day, it remains hidden and sealed."
"We stand to see the ideals of that power recognized. We stand to fight, against the very world if we have to, in order to forge a better one."
"To those reading this, we ask that you answer the call to arms, so that we may make war against the current order and bring all to heel under power."
Destroyers of Karakorum
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, made to free humanity from the shackles it was bound to. Many gathered to see this conclusion through…"
"But what was created was far beyond that."
"What was born was a darkness that revealed itself to be the truth of the world. The true salvation was to be found in death, for that is the only thing that humanity's hands can ever truly create. The only endpoint will be oblivion."
"Thus, through the will of the darkness, so shall humanity become one with it and be wiped out."
"Those who seek out the end, seek us out, and allied, we shall bless humanity with the only fate it deserves."
And with those ominous notes, Jeremie let the group chew on what had been revealed.
"...Is...is the kind of stuff terrorist groups deal with?" Odd gaped, all thoughts of levity gone. "Because these two clubs sound like the resident local terrorist groups."
"Essentially, they are." Jeremie helpfully said, as if discussing the release of a new laptop model. "Both of these organizations are even linked to domestic and foreign terrorist groups, mainly acting as technology or weapons dealers, especially the latter for the Destroyers of Karakorum. Pretty sure these are among the groups with the most clout outside of France compared to the other cults."
Sebastian rubbed his forehead. "And these are the people we HAVE to stay away from. As in, no kidding, stay away from no matter what. Much as I'd rather deride 'em as hacks...Belpois' unfortunately right about them. They do shit way above scamming and simple hacking. Hell, pretty certain they only attend meetings with the other cults out of some weird kind of courtesy or something. If there's anything that might put us under the government's watchdog eyes, it'd be dealing with one or both of those doomsday cults...ignoring what THEY might try to do to us."
"So keep away from them, got it." Ulrich said, keeping an eye on Yumi, who was clearly stewing in anger...though whether it was because of her rage at the idea of letting two terrorist groups off the hook or the fact that the final cult was coming up next.
Especially because Jeremie was now moving on to it, pushing his glasses into place and clearing his throat for the final morbid tale.
Lovers of Shangri-La
"In the beginning, there was a desire to create a fabled world without danger, and so to that end, a powerful organization was formed to monitor an ever-changing world. Within that organization was a girl, noted to have immense potential...the potential to become the guardian of that world. She was saintly, pure, exactly what the organization was looking for. They placed many burdens on her to succeed, and yet, she excelled at them all."
"One day, she met an unfamiliar girl in black, and took her in to live with her."
"Despite some trepidation seeing this girl at first, others grew to accept her. The stranger, despite her looks, bore an intellect and power that rivaled the prodigy that the organization put their hopes on. And from gaining an equal, so did that girl, isolated as she was, gain a friend in the process."
"But the organization did not know what the new arrival truly was. She was an incarnation of a great darkness, and slowly but surely seduced the guardian of light, who had never experienced romance before. She did not know of the pleasures and forbidden knowledge that this seductress held, and took to learning them with the same intensity as she took to her true lessons."
"In the end, that forbidden knowledge caused the girl to fall. She renounced her purpose and joined hands with the demon that had seduced her from the path."
"And so, the two, joined together, went to conquer the world, but were sadly defeated."
"But that ideal they stand for, love, is one that we shall stand by, and will not rest until all are joined together in love and bliss."
Everyone else blinked after hearing this final story, which had deviated so far from the norm of the previous tales it was pathetic.
"...We sure this is some kind of doomsday prophecy and not some weirdo's bad, messed-up edgy lesbian romance story?" Odd asked after several minutes of silence, not liking how his instincts were screaming at him that this held something dangerous…
Yet at the same time, held no vision of the future for him as static seemed to cover his eyes briefly, only to vanish just as quick as it came. On the one hand, it was pleasant...but now on the other hand, it was becoming a bit frightening to not have any advance warning.
Of course, when Odd blinked out the last of the static in his eyes and looked at Jeremie, there was no mistaking that look of intrigue on his face.
And with that, Odd put two and two together.
This had not been Jeremie trying to cover his bases with his information. If he had already reviewed this beforehand, why would he waste his time talking about it to everyone when they clearly didn't care? Did he not know that they wouldn't? Maybe he did know but decided to 'educate' them all the same? Whichever it was, it was clear to Odd that Jeremie was trying to fish a vision out of him by using these six stories.
Well, if he wanted his answer so badly…
But it was Sebastian who spoke up first. "I'm honestly leaning towards the latter, but I'd rather not think about it. Congratulations Belpois, you just managed to kill and/or waste ten minutes."
"Definitely wasted ten minutes." Yumi muttered angrily.
"Yeah!" Odd spoke up, glad to see that he was likely to have defenders, "And BTW, if you were trying to get a vision out of me with all of that crazy talk, I've got nothing!"
"Oh for crying out loud, THAT'S you were wasting our time?!" Yumi groaned at Jeremie. "You wanted a vision to study?"
"Are you sure you didn't have a vision?" Jeremie asked Odd, ignoring Yumi's inquiry, yet at the same time confirming what the Italian boy himself suspected.
The one upside was that the computer genius wasn't using his purchase of a tablet for Odd as leverage against him, but that was hardly of any comfort to the boy in question.
"Nope! Nothing at all!" Odd confirmed, almost smug in his defiance of Jeremie's inquiries. "No orange in my eyes, no weird visions of doom!"
"This is what you really meant when you were talking about 'previewing the place'." Ulrich growled. "You just wanted to sit us down while you did speculation again. We should have figured that we wouldn't be able to visit all of those cults, steal whatever tech they had, and get out of here by 2:00."
"So you were also lying to us…" Yumi hissed at Jeremie, angered at how he seemed to be treating six dangerous criminal organizations as research material for something as dangerous as Xanadu.
Sebastian then got up, brushing himself down. "Thus confirming that none of this was necessary and we just wasted our time on pointless filler details, congratulations Belpois. I say we get moving again, who's with me?"
"Me." Everyone else except Jeremie answered.
Before the computer genius could even make another comment, the group was already walking away. Jeremie swallowed in frustration. A wasted avenue was never fun to deal with. He had been hoping to get a vision out of Odd through the stories, but had achieved nothing. The only thing to really note had been the final story involving Shangri-La's mythos, so different from the others that Jeremie wondered if it was significant enough to warrant further investigation.
...But considering that even he was drawing a blank besides theories crammed into his head, maybe it had just been co-opted by some weird perverts after all.
The boy in the blue sweater sighed in defeat and put his laptop away, running to join up with the group, mainly so as to keep them back on track.
Query: Analyze explanation of 'Cults'?
Processing Request: ...Error.
Error.
Error.
Error...
New Query: Continue observation of Avatars. Prepare for attack.
Processing Request: Granted. Initiate Offense…
…
…
Beginning Offensive Measures.
Back at Cafe: Millesime, Barack Toup, though keeping his usual warm, welcoming face for his customers, considering that it was currently the late-lunch rush hour, was deep in thought. Mainly because he was still thinking about his nephew, and his suspicious behavior, as well as that of his companions. They had returned briefly and left just as fast for their 'second trip' before Barack could try to talk to them again, and the cafe owner could not help but feel his stomach turn wondering just what those children were potentially doing.
He remembered seeing Jeremie Belpois and Ulrich Stern a few times before today, and for all intents and purposes, they seemed like swell kids, and were certainly notable enough to have won a few awards at Kadic and several district-based events. Barack even remembered remarks from a middle-aged lady with glasses and triangular wavy hair at one award ceremony that Jeremie in particular was Kadic's star pupil concerning mathematics and the sciences, a STEM prodigy through and through. What was going on to make them act so secretive? Then there was the matter of the new arrivals: Odd Della Robbia and Yumi Ishiyama. He at least had an idea for why Yumi was so quiet, considering the history of Japanese-based "encroachment" (To quote a drunk Pierre) on French soil, not helped at all by France's already-inherent racism issues, there was no doubt in his mind that she'd suffered discrimination in the past.
His one in-road then, was Odd, but the purple-dressed boy had quickly shut his mouth, forcing Barack to try to pry the information out of his nephew, but to no avail thanks to Jeremie's interruption. There was something going on, but much to his frustration and fear, Barack could not figure it out at all.
The cafe owner prayed it didn't have to do with the cults. He had heard rumors about how the administration at Asimov Institution had been corrupt and self-serving enough that they had let the infamous Givers of Kumul and Lovers of Shangri-La have their way with Asimov's student body, something that Barack hoped was not affecting the other schools as well.
Of course, on the subject of cults, his real grudge was against the Destroyers of Karakorum. He had never told Sebastian this, and indeed, it seemed to be the one question his nephew wasn't interested in pursuing for once, but Barack had always suspected that that particular cult/criminal organization, a group that essentially worshipped and pursued death, had been the ones to murder his brother and sister-in-law four years ago. Had it not been for the fact that Barack had been asked to babysit a then eight-year old Sebastian on that fateful day, they probably would have killed the boy too. Barack had done his best to keep these details vague to Sebastian after taking over as his legal guardian, only going so far as to explain that people from the dreaded 'Alleyways' as they were called in hush-hush tones in the few districts that had not been totaled by the Billancourt Panic, had been the ones to murder the boy's parents.
It wasn't a perfect solution, but Barack hoped it would be better than nothing before he would inevitably have to explain it to Sebastian as the child grew older.
Unfortunately, it seemed Sebastian had inherited too much of his father; Barack's younger-by-a-year and far more impulsive brother, Talib Toup, who stuck his nose into matters that, while potentially financially lucrative (As adults anyways, it was a completely different matter back when they had been children themselves), were incredibly risky. These matters had helped to maintain their family business and Barack had to admit that he had learned something from his sibling's follies when it came to maintaining the business...but the world after the Panic was one of chaos, and Talib did not know just what madness had been unleashed…
But to be fair, neither did Barack. Even now, he still had nightmares about that awful night, the hasty evacuation that had followed, and the return to a devastated city that soon became infested with criminals and madmen.
Perhaps then, it was inevitable that Sebastian would have grown up roaming the streets of the transformed Boulogne Billancourt. With only a vague answer as his guide, the boy had simply acclimated himself to learning about the new rules of the technologically-enhanced urban jungle...which made the portly man shiver in fear about what might have happened had Sebastian been given the straight truth right away. Perhaps he wouldn't have become so cynical at the age of 12-going-on-to-13, but then again, he might have anyways, and turn out even worse if a motive was attached.
At the very least, his nephew was alive, and the spark of the Toups was still quite strong in Sebastian's eyes despite his sour attitude. Plus, he did seem to actually exercise caution, which Barack decided to chalk up to the genetics and teachings of Iara, Talib's no-nonsense wife who Barack was infinitely grateful towards for being the one person who could get Talib to actually examine a situation for once instead of diving right in.
But that didn't answer just what Sebastian had potentially gotten roped into now. Barack tried thinking back, remembering all of the suspicious behavior he had seen earlier that morning, and whenever he recalled seeing that in his nephew. Odd's behavior seemed the closest match, as it reminded Barack of when he had seen Sebastian, along with three other boys from Kadic: Hugo, Charlie, and Amare, as he recalled...from around, two months ago. All four had seemed shaken and jittery, looking over their shoulders as if afraid they were being followed, and notably flinching when a rather young boy in a raincoat had run towards them holding an action figure (Which Barack always considered a doll for boys, which Talib had always found an annoying opinion) before his mother had come to drag him back.
Come to think of it, that boy and his mother had been here earlier this morning, as Barack remembered them as being among his regular customers…
Back on topic, that behavior hadn't been limited to a single moment, as Barack recalled. There had been several other visits, sometimes with all three boys joining Sebastian, Sebastian coming in solo, one or two of the others, Sebastian with one or the other, and such...and that nervous, jittery behavior had remained, moreso in...Hugo, was it, compared to Amare and the younger Charlie. At the time, Barack had thought nothing of it...and the cafe owner was now wondering if he had made a terrible mistake in dismissing it.
Barack's speculation was then cut short as the power seemed to flicker on and off for a few minutes, before complaints began to arise from his customers who were using their laptops.
"The hell's going on?"
"What's with all of this static?"
"Is my screen acting up, what's this weird symbol?"
But just as quickly as the problems began, so too did they end. The power came back on, and the customers, though confused at what had happened to their computers, seemed to get over whatever anomaly or problem they were having, and got back to work.
"Ah, excuse me, I'd like to order a bagel sandwich to go, please." A dark-skinned man with glasses dressed in a casual red polo shirt and tan trousers said, walking up to the counter.
Barack blinked, and returned to reality. His speculations would have to wait. "Alright then!" he said cheerfully. "What would you like on your sandwich?
They had started all the way in the sewers, in the catacombs. The lights blinked on and off, the wiring throbbing from the energy flowing through them. Then it was into the streets, gathering more strength from the power source of the Classic District, in particular pulsing through the wiring for Cafe: Millesime. But they did not plan to return to any kind of retracing when they knew the route the Avatars had taken.
Further their journey took them to even greater avenues within the Tek District, gaining greater strength from the pathways they were taking. They spread themselves throughout, causing patrons to wonder what was going on as the lights flickered on and off, power seeming to fade in and out, all while on computer and television screens alike, the silhouette of a strange island blared for a few moments before fading away.
Of course, some tried to take photos and videos with their phones, but found those to be inaccessible all the same...with the very same silhouette blaring on the screen, yet vanishing as soon as the power stabilized and all seemed well.
Gossip of course spread, but there was no physical evidence. No recordings, no audio, nothing that could be explained beyond a simple power outage.
For his part, Grey only saw flickering lights, focused as he was on reading a newspaper of all things instead of reading a news site, and thought nothing more of it. Gunther of course, waddled in panic and began squawking, but as the danger seemed to pass, the penguin began to calm down.
Of course, the danger was only passing as the growth pulsed through the area enough to get a feel...and then immediately leave it behind.
It ignored the return trip and went straight on to the new path, all the way up to where the Avatars, the Operator, and the Independent were traversing.
Query: Enable Avatar movement for intended discovery of unknown factor?
Query: Analyze correlation between ERROR and unknown factor?
Processing...processing...processing…
Enable Avatar movement. Information determined to have value. Change course, alter offense parameters…
Now they shifted their path...in order to find a new method to strike...and potentially a new entry point…
Query: Earlier Hostile Individual towards Geisha located. Search site for information?
Processing…
Proceed...
What they had found was that of the man, known as 'Pierre', who had returned to his job at a demolition site, located within the Industrial District. This was an area they had learned, that held the majority of the heavy-labor companies and businesses of the town...but what intrigued them was Pierre, especially due to his ranting and raving to a colleague as he was preparing to set off the dynamite needed for the implosion of an old construction site that had been meant to be a set of offices ostensibly for proximity purposes, but had been abandoned for ease of access through remote observation back at the Commercial and Tek Districts.
His words were intriguing, to say the least.
"I swear, I can't understand our manager sometimes."
His colleague, a thinner, wiry, clean-shaven individual, who was checking his phone, just nodded, clearly not paying attention.
"He's the head of Explobat, yet he continues to take these leaves of absence for whatever reason, can you believe him? At this rate, those damn Japs and Chinks will take over! Especially the Japs! Preying on our country after that damn Panic…"
"Meh, I don't like 'em either, but what can ya do, rules are rules, and Mister Dunbar is still Mister Dunbar."
Analyzing...Analyzing…
Name processed. Dunbar.
Query: Investigate 'Mister Dunbar', confirm identity?
Confirm identity.
Searching 'Explobat'...confirmation: Refers to demolition company, run by one 'Lyle Dunbar'. Locating records...noting personal information...link to 'William Dunbar', member of 'Lovers of Shangri-La' confirmed. Further investigating...processing...link to 'Lovers of Shangri-La' confirmed. Observing records for 'leave of absence'...
Membership of 'Lovers of Shangri-La' confirmed. Lyle Dunbar ranking analyzed...determined to be current leader of said cult. Has left to engage in 'Khara-Khoto Talk' with leaders of the other divisions of cults, is one of four individuals to be doing so in-person due to the remaining two being out-of-country, currently located in America and Russia. Gathering information on other cults…
Processing...processing...processing…
Offensive parameters re-confirmed. All energy gathered. Resume offense.
As soon as they spread their influence, so did they recede back like a slime mold foraging for nutrients. They now knew how to approach this particular assault.
The Cult Zone was filled with areas covered in debris and rot, and was overall a place that was the epitome of urban decay. The old buildings hid people who scurried around like rats...and in the cases of some, even acted like rats.
But they also held computers, considered by many to be a vital resource in this part of town, even moreso than other places.
One computer in particular, was owned by a man in white hair, his body covered in animal-outline tattoos, who lived in an abandoned parking garage that overlooked a lot that would have been considered barren if it had not been for the large number of generators scattered around it, along with the large amount of dirt and dust that made the remainder of the lot seem like a desert. That man also had a habit of getting high on the LSD he bought from the Drug-Area of town, and thus while he hallucinated giant black animals rampaging all around him, he did not notice that his computer had turned itself on, a dark silhouette taking up the entire screen, as vast quantities of a black substance oozed out of the machine and slipped by the drug-addled junkie, who was too stoned out of his mind to pay any attention.
The substance's many eyes, from a mass-gathering of specters who had coalesced together, gazed upon the dirt, and analyzed it...before pouring into the lot like concrete from a mixer, mixing with the unfertile soil where only weeds had a chance of growing.
Of course, as it mixed, the weeds crumbled to dust...and slowly but surely, the black mass and the dirt had come together to create something entirely new…
Which now began seeping out of the lot, heading for a certain building that was also the destination of the group they had been tracking all day.
"Okay, so we've come to a Hell that WASN'T in plain sight." Sebastian remarked. "Now what, Belpois?"
"You're ABSOLUTELY certain this is the place, Einstein?" Odd whispered.
After some navigation through the Cult Zone, the buildings becoming dirtier and heavier in concrete construction, with the sky seeming to darken and become the same sickly yellow color as Blue Screen Skate Park, the group had finally reached a building in the center of what seemed to be a labyrinth of alleys, with four exact entrances into a clearing that, in the center, stood what seemed to be a medium-sized radio station complex.
Had it been a usual radio station, it would have had a parking lot and easy access to the street. But as the group learned, the Cult Zone's infrastructure simply didn't obey urban planning rules. Buildings seemed to be built in random locations and roads seemed to vanish in favor of dirt-and-construction wall corridors. It was as if someone had a vague idea of what a city district was supposed to look like, only to randomly mix-up the elements and haphazardly throw them on a modeling table.
Suffice to say, the group had been deeply unsettled walking in such a strange locale.
As of right now however, Jeremie decided that if Sebastian was his usual self and Odd was using the nickname he'd come up for the computer genius, then he could at least speak up without having to worry about being reprimanded, besides when he gave directions to everyone so as to guide them to the proper location. No-one had really bothered talking to him, or each other, considering where they were. It would've been a bad idea to talk when they were getting so close to the designated location.
Pushing his glasses up to his face, Jeremie nodded, making sure to keep his voice down. "I downloaded the program to locate the coordinates into my phone as a custom-made app."
"The usual satellite maps weren't enough for you?" Odd asked.
"They were helpful, but I needed a program that's more in-depth. Besides, if no-one's been able to locate these guys even with satellite images, I figured we'd need something with a bit more 'oomph'. The app I made is admittedly adapting several of the programs that the Professor left behind and using them to create a sophisticated-"
"Cliffnotes version, Jeremie, please." Odd begged.
"Find coordinates, get a profile of the surroundings concerning said coordinates, scan any buildings if we need to, remotely hack into the security system, then find what we need." Jeremie summed up.
"So that's what that thing you were downloading into your phone yesterday was…" Sebastian mused. "Easier to hold onto than the laptop…"
"Plus...again, the Professor...kinda already had a plan of the building saved in the Encryptions." Jeremie said, rubbing his head sheepishly.
"Figured it was specifically for this place." Sebastian sighed. "It'll be totally useless after today, won't it?"
"Well, not unless we have to come back-" Jeremie started, but he was interrupted by a single, resounding word from both Yumi and Ulrich…
"NO."
Odd would have also contributed, but that was hard to do so when a duo of hobos walked up to them from the other side of the alleyway, and seemed ready to ask for money. Odd hemmed and hawwed while Jeremie and Sebastian cringed at the act. Yumi seemed torn about their situation, while Ulrich eyed them suspiciously...until the hobos each raised their right arms, which were both holding a handgun.
"So...are you five here out of curiosity...or for something else?" one spoke, his words sounding way too sophisticated for a dirty beggar.
The future-seeing catboy blinked. So Future Flash was working again. Yay. But at the very least, it showed something useful. Odd's head darted around. The station complex was surrounded by a double barrier, specifically a wooden fence and a chain link fence, with what seemed like metal spikes in-between to catch intruders, aside from the four openings that lined up perfectly with the alleyways. Between the fence and the alleyway, there was an open area...and Odd saw that the two Hobos who weren't really hobos were coming.
"Run back!" he squeaked, quietly enough so that the security guards wouldn't hear, but enough for everyone else to hear.
"Back?" Sebastian asked.
"Further into the corridor!" Yumi hissed.
The Xanadu Warriors had kept themselves within a secondary corridor that opened up into the main alleyway, enabling them to look at the apparent headquarters of the enemy without being seen. The corridor still went further back into the labyrinth, and it was through this path that the children now ran.
"Einstein, if that app of yours is designed to stop a security system, I'd appreciate it if you started using it now!" Odd breathed.
Jeremie's answer was silent and swift, he quickly pressed his phone's screen, waving it madly around the corridor as the group reached a turn and stayed by the corner.
"I could have sworn I saw someone over here." one of the 'hobos' said.
"Better safe than sorry. You know the rules. No interruptions for a Khara-Khoto Talk." the other guard said.
The Xanadu Warriors' collective breath hitched. The guards had entered the corridor, judging by how well they could hear their voices. They could hear their boots shuffling on the worn-out pavement, and the heavy movement of clothing. If they went any further, they might discover their presence.
"Hey, you see anything on the cameras?" the second guard seemed to ask. He was probably on his phone or a walkie-talkee. "Nothing? Alright. Probably just a dog or a cat. Let's get out of here."
The group might've taken the moment to look down at Odd, who owned the former and was essentially the latter, but their collective attention was focused on the footsteps gradually fading away, becoming distant.
Yumi slowly pulled out one of her prayer beads, and then rolled it forward to the corner. Ulrich, seeing this, crouched down into a combat position, knowing that Yumi was trying to check if the guards were bluffing to be on the safe side…
But nothing happened. Yumi used her telekinesis to raise the prayer bead upwards, but there was no reaction. No gunshot, no questioning, not even a comical scream.
"We're in the clear." She breathed with relief.
"That was too close." Sebastian gasped. "We need a plan, ASAP."
"So your Anticipation worked that time?" Jeremie asked Odd, who shot a dirty glare at Jeremie.
"Really, right now?" the spiky-haired Italian growled.
"Right, right." Jeremie nodded, holding his phone up, examining the corridor.
It was a dead-end from here. He looked at the screen, which showcased a graphical representation of the security system...and saw that the corridor they were in, both the dead-end and the turn leading to the main road, were free of cameras...in fact, the whole labyrinth was free of them. The front of the main complex was another story though.
"Well, we don't have to worry about them seeing us from here." he sighed. "The cameras they were talking about were the front ones, and it looks like we managed to slip by one of them until the guards came up."
"Weird that they wouldn't have this whole place wired up with cameras." Ulrich scoffed.
Jeremie studied the profile of the location that had been downloaded into his phone. There had been parts deliberately obscured due to an encryption that the Professor had installed, but now those obstructions were gone. It was time to draw up a plan to infiltrate the building.
"Okay, sit-down everyone..." he commanded.
"I am not having any visions because you want me to!" Odd protested.
"Actually, I was going to discuss our strategy for getting in. As long as your Anticipation is warning us of threats, that's good enough for me."
"...I don't completely believe you." Odd said, but everyone got down to talk regardless. Not even Jeremie would be foolish enough to have his priorities so skewed…
Right?
Thankfully, no as this time, he was clearly focused on the objective. Probably because that held his curiosity and thirst for knowledge more.
At least from what Odd saw and thought.
"To finish up my explanation, I compiled the programs the Professor left behind concerning this location into an app that, Sebastian essentially summed up, as being specifically designed for us to infiltrate this place. The security system seems to have been built in a way to make it compatible with these programs, so I'm going to assume it was designed by the Professor for this."
"At least he left behind a legitimate backdoor cheat-code for us." Sebastian grumbled.
"Crude way of putting it, but not inaccurate." Jeremie nodded in acknowledgement. "Some of the profile was still encrypted, so I ran it through a decryption program to load it up while on our way here, and I've just got a pretty good idea as to why this base has remained for the cults for so long." He pushed his glasses into place. "Most of the entrances are underground. The labyrinth here is basically a decoy, hidden thanks to the abstract and messy street plan of this district. Probably why they've never installed security cameras here, there's no real need."
"Most of the place is underground?" Ulrich asked, raising an eyebrow.
The computer genius gave a thumbs-up to confirm. "The radio station complex is mostly a decoy. According to the program, the layout still hasn't really been changed. The rooms may be different in functionality than before, but the physical layout is still the same. Besides, they aren't the real threat, though there may be ONE thing we'll want to fetch from them."
"And that would be?" Yumi asked, her voice suspicious at the prospect of another detour.
"Disguises." Jeremie replied. "When engaging in a Khara-Khoto Talk, everyone is supposed to wear a set of ceremonial robes. Since William is a member of one of those cults, I'm going to presume they won't blink if a few kids are wearing them."
"I hate this room. Completely." Yumi growled as the group entered the locker room.
"I'm with you on that, sister." Sebastian gagged as he studied the blue robes. "This place gives me the willies. Only upside is that they're not some gross cliche black robes."
"I guess that's the one positive quality about these guys then!" Odd smirked before he felt Yumi's telekinetic grip tighten around his body. "Uh, on second thought, yeah, they're still evil, sorry."
Odd blinked as the vision of passageways, getting lost in some, before the visions corrected themselves, all flashed through his eyes...all leading up to that one moment. Whether or not he could avoid it...eh, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
"...Whoa…" he murmured, before blinking as Yumi snapped her fingers in front of him.
"...I'm not going insane right, did Della Robbia's eyes turn orange, and if so, why did I not notice that last week?" Sebastian croaked, dread coating his voice.
"Wait, what happened?" Odd asked, shaking his head.
"You blanked out for a few minutes." Ulrich grunted. "Completely tuned-out Jeremie's plan. I mean, I can't blame you, but still."
Odd looked at Jeremie, whose eyes were now obscured by the light of his phone. He really, REALLY did not want to share this and indulge the boy, especially after the stunt he had pulled which had balanced out whatever goodwill he'd gotten by buying Odd that tablet…
But at the same time, he knew instinctively that he had a route for them.
"Okay, listen to this…"
With the information gained and checked with the data Jeremie had, the group was now quick to draw up their plan.
The security cameras, when disabled, would not simply be showing static, as that would be too suspicious and raise the alarm. Instead, they would simply show their current views...but as a set recording of the area in tranquility, and just long enough for the group to run through the open area and enter the complex, keeping an eye out for any more guards.
There was also a motion sensor system, but this was comparatively easier to disable. Simply not have it register their presence.
Inside the building at last, the group saw that the comparison to a radio or TV station wasn't inaccurate. The place seemed to have been converted from one, but it was no longer functional in that regard. This however, was irrelevant as they followed the path that Odd had envisioned, reaching the room that held the spare robes, which as Jeremie had surmised, held clothing in their respective sizes.
"I hate this room. Completely." Yumi growled as the group entered the locker room.
"I'm with you on that, sister." Sebastian gagged as he studied the blue robes. "This place gives me the willies. Only upside is that they're not some gross cliche black robes."
"I guess that's the one positive quality about these guys then!" Odd smirked before he felt Yumi's telekinetic grip tighten around his body, feeling the deja vu from his vision of this exact moment. "Uh, on second thought, yeah, they're still evil, sorry."
"Get them on guys, we can't waste time, or we'll get spotted." Jeremie said, already covering up his body with the baggy blue-and-black set of robes.
Yumi shot Jeremie a glare, but obeyed regardless. Soon, the group looked no different than how William might appear were he present, though all of them prayed he was not.
Now, completely hidden and able to waltz past the security cameras with ease, the group began probing the building for the underground entrances. It didn't take them long to find what they were looking for. It seemed like a simple broom closet, but it was locked. Sebastian wasted no time pulling a tool from his bag, before sticking it into the lock.
"So you can pick locks?" Yumi asked.
"Yup. Handy trick." Sebastian replied, sticking out his tongue. "Annnd there! The gateway to Hell is open." He blinked. "Why did I sound so happy about that? Is the craziness of this place rubbing off on me?"
"Probably just our own brand of crazy rubbing off of you." Odd teased.
"I hate you."
Jeremie ignored the banter, holding his laptop in the crook of his left arm while he held the phone in his right hand. "Let's go."
And so, carefully so as not to trip, the group descended into the underground base.
Meanwhile, the newly-born darkness arrived, quietly, and swiftly. It did not take long for it to overwhelm the guards, before it circled around the building. It could have simply entered through the door, but it had been shut behind them. The windows too were closed…
But the vents...as it crept along, it sensed air currents. Vents. It would make sense of course.
The darkness seeped in, seeking out new beings to convert, its tendrils snaking above the ground, leaving behind those who had been baptized in wait…
Waiting for the next command as more was to be added to their numbers...
"It's honestly creepy that we didn't see anyone up above…" Yumi said quietly after the group had gone about halfway down the stairs.
"I think they're all either down here or attendance was restricted." Jeremie mused. "Unfortunately, I can't predict where humans will end up with this program."
"Good, you being Big Brother for everyone is not a concept I enjoy." Sebastian grumbled.
Before anyone else could chip in, the group reached the bottom of the stairs, revealing a metal hallway with several doors, the ceiling being high up above their heads, sickly yellow fluorescent lighting being the only thing illuminating the place. It was an ominous reminder of where they were, and while Jeremie had given some rough estimate at how far below ground they would be, the depth of their current location was still no less unnerving in person.
"Now where do we go?" Odd whispered. "I don't have any visions for that."
"Second hallway to the left." Jeremie replied. "That'll take us to a terminal room. I'll plug in my laptop there and use the main computer. If there's anyone in there, Yumi and Ulrich will knock them out."
Sebastian reached into his pack and pulled out a large knife. "And I'll just hold onto this just in case. Della Robbia, take a stun gun."
"Uhhh...sure…" Odd said, picking up the somewhat rectangular object. It felt heavy in his hands, far heavier than his Laser Arrows in Xanadu had ever felt. The dissonance between a real-life weapon and a virtual one, now that he was holding one, had never quite impacted Odd until now.
Gripping it nervously, the catboy steadied himself. Hopefully, they could just rely on Yumi's and Ulrich's powers in knocking out the bad guys.
The group walked through the halls quickly, their feet impacting the metal. They hoped they would not be seen, but instead, stopped short as a man wearing robes of the same design as theirs, but designed for his size, stepped out from a door, right in front of them, where they were in plain sight.
Immediately, the group looked down at the ground, praying that the hoods would obscure their faces just in case.
The man looked down, the details of his own face covered in shadows as he did so.
"I don't think I've ever seen you here before." he said, eyeing them suspiciously. "Are you new?"
"Yes, yes we are." Jeremie said quietly, hoping that the stranger would go away. "Specifically for the Successors of Khanbaliq."
"Hrmm...well, you five look rather young to join the Successors...generally they join the Givers or the Lovers, like with my nephew and his friends." the man mused.
Yumi's breath hitched, and she blurted out her next words without thinking. "Your...nephew?"
"Yes." the man nodded fondly. "William, my nephew. He called me yesterday about how a girl rejected him and stole all of his stuff. I've never heard him feel so dejected before...she really broke his heart. I'd love to help him out with that problem, y'know? I do have the resources after all..."
As the man's voice trailed off, the group froze in horror. Jeremie realized that they were standing in the presence of a high-ranking member of the Lovers of Shangri-La, though how high his rank, the boy did not know. Odd and Sebastian gaped in horror, staring at each other from underneath their hoods so as not to focus their attention on the man who ran such a horrible group, their grip on their respective weapons tightening, hands hidden beneath their robes' sleeves. Odd remembered his vision from yesterday, where he recalled the word 'Uncle' being spoken, and shuddered at whatever this man had done to Yumi after William's initial 'treatment' in that potential timeline. He was thankful that his vision had not given him the full context, else Odd was certain he would have vomited.
For his part, Ulrich was torn between two things: Attacking the man with all of his strength, or holding back Yumi, who he could tell was trembling with rage. If this was the person behind William, then Ulrich felt every right to beat him the way he would beat up a Specter from Xanadu, though he would have to rely on whatever weapons were still in Sebastian's backpack rather than his saber. But at the same time, Ulrich felt the rage of Yumi, something so terrible he felt himself trembling with fear. He had seen Yumi be angry before, but today had seen her temper simmer in a way he had never experienced or witnessed, from meeting the racist Pierre, to Jeremie toying with the cults the same way he would toy with a computer program, seeing their potential link to Xanadu as a curiosity instead of something to dread and/or hate. Sure, he could attack him...but what would that do for Yumi...what would Yumi herself try? And despite everything...Ulrich had never raised his hand against an authority figure before, even if he was a criminal...
For once, the child samurai found himself completely unsure of what to do...
But the same could certainly not be said about Yumi. All she could see right now was this man, no, this monster, who controlled an underground criminal organization that, for all of its professions of love, did so by forcing it on people at best...to defiling them at worst, in ways that the girl was certain she had only seen a fraction of when dealing with William. Why was every adult she met like this? Inept, racist, corrupt, evil, or some combination of the previous four. It would be easy...so easy to just use her telekinetic powers to kill this monster. He was no better than a Specter from Xanadu, and a lot less durable after all…
Her breathing became heavy, coming in short gasps. She had to use it. Use whatever she had to correct the horrible injustices that she had faced. She had power now, and no-one had said it had to be limited to Xanadu. Use the power, and he would die. Use it. Use it. Use it. Use it and kill all of these cultists...
But in the end, it was the man himself who would end the conversation as he took a look at his watch.
"Oh, look at the time, must be going! I have a meeting to get to!"
And he hurried away.
Yumi began moving forward, only for Ulrich to instinctively grab onto her hand, pulling her back. She looked back, and Ulrich felt a shudder as he looked into her face, and what he saw would haunt his own nightmares for days to come. Yumi's eyes were wide and unfocused, showing a medley of emotions Ulrich would later learn ranged from betrayal, shock, anger, hatred, and murderous intent. Had he been alone, she would have certainly torn her arm away from him and attacked William's uncle.
But thankfully, he wasn't, and the remainder of the group also got a good view of Yumi's face, an image so terrifying, Sebastian felt his legs wobble like gelatin, wondering if this was what people who were turned to stone by Medusa were horrified by. Odd for a brief moment thought he was blacking out, but soon that blackness was replaced with static, and the boy had to use every ounce of his willpower to refocus himself. As for Jeremie, even he took a step back in shock, finally understanding that coming to the Cult Zone so soon after their encounter with one of them might not have been the best timing or idea.
Seeing everyone recoil as they looked at her filled Yumi with joy, as she turned to face them in full, those who had been dressed like the man, and likely the other cultists who needed to be destroyed...and then she saw their faces, twisted in fear of her...faces that belonged to those who had stood by her, unlike others.
And like a gust of wind, Yumi immediately recognized that these were her friends, all of whom were scared of her.
Everyone stood in silence, as if waiting for someone or the other to make a move...but as Yumi took a deep breath and turned away, refusing to look at anyone, Odd, Sebastian, and Jeremie could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Ulrich of course, did not, and stood by Yumi's side, a quiet rock to help steady her.
Finally, Jeremie coughed to break the silence. "Um...we really should get going."
"Yeah, and then Ishiyama's going to kill whoever's guarding the room you want to go to." Sebastian muttered. "Great idea Belpois. I'll just stand over here away from the splash zone."
"...I'm not going to kill anyone." Yumi said tonelessly. "Let's just finish this stupid mission and get out of here."
It was telling that her silent outburst had had such an effect that Jeremie did not protest to the mission being called stupid, and instead simply pushed his glasses into place to steady himself.
"We're almost to where we need to go. If we go down the rest of this corridor and head to the right, we'll reach the supercomputer room. From there, we just have to go to a terminal next door, knock out anyone guarding it, and then I can grab the data we need."
To confirm the point, the boy pulled up a CD-ROM and a flash drive, indicating that he was prepared.
"Finally, let's go. I've had enough of this place. Almost makes me wish we were back at the Factory." Odd sighed.
Ulrich and Yumi nodded quietly, and the group resumed their trek. Unfortunately, their journey was hardly peaceful, for while they did reach the end of the hall leading to their last turn, Odd's eyes flashed orange as he realized what, or rather, who, was nearby.
"Stop!" He hissed quietly. "There's two goons guarding the door."
The five disguised children stopped, and Ulrich crept in front, looking at the turn as discreetly as he could. Just as Odd said, there were indeed guards, both of whom were dressed in similar robes as everyone else in the compound seemed to dress, but their sleeves hung less loosely, the robes hugged the body tighter, and their hoods were down, giving them a clear view of what was in front of them. And of course, both of them were carrying guns, though of an unusual design, at least that was how Ulrich best described the weapons before retreating back.
"What do we do?" Sebastian whispered.
Jeremie rolled his shoulders. Compared to William's uncle, these guards felt rather easy to deal with. "I say we use a decoy. Just give me a moment to make sure any cameras here aren't on us and...alright. Odd, head out there and distract them, then Ulrich and Sebastian, both of you knock them out."
Sebastian gave Jeremie a look as he handed a taser to Ulrich, while pocketing his knife for a second taser. "Why are you sending out Della Robbia? I thought you said that creepy virtual world turned him into a cat, not a mouse. Last I checked, mice were bait, not cats."
"Yeah, why me?" Odd breathed.
"You look the least threatening next to me." Jeremie shrugged. "And I can't risk getting injured right now."
"Uggghhh…" Odd quietly groaned. "Fine, heading out…just give me a moment to psych myself up."
Quickly, Odd backed up into the hallway, cleared his throat, then swiftly turned on his heel and began walking back towards the end, stomping his feet so as to be as loud as possible.
"Wow!" he boomed, or at least, tried to boom with how high-pitched his voice usually was. "This place is like a labyrinth! And there's no guides to tell me where to go! Can someone please help me?!"
"Ugh...a newbie…" one of the guards muttered. "You go deal with him."
"Fine." the other guard said. "Hey, uh...kid? You lost? You can't come down here, this place is restricted access!"
"It is?" Odd asked, playing up his airhead act. "Wow! Can you tell me where I'm supposed to go?"
"Well, technically speaking, you really shouldn't be down here at all. Whenever we have one of those meetings, the place is usually vacated."
"Wow, that's convenient!" Odd beamed.
"Not really. You gotta either get out of here, or head to one of the annexes where you've been assigned to stay while the meeting's going on."
At this, the catboy smirked. "I didn't say it was convenient for you."
With those words, Ulrich and Sebastian struck. The street kid jumped at the guard's throat, knocking him down in shock and disarming him, giving Sebastian just enough to slam the taser into the side of the man's neck, while also putting his hand over the man's mouth, hoping to prevent him from yelling and attracting more attention. Meanwhile, Ulrich, with his speed, quickly reached the other guard, and swept his leg underneath the opponent, causing him to fall and drop his weapon in surprise, before Ulrich slammed his taser into the man's neck as well.
The two guards struggled, both of them proving tougher to knock out than either Ulrich or Sebastian would've considered acceptable. Yumi had used her telekinesis to prevent the guns from clattering to the floor and either alert more guards or go off by accident, but this had no bearing on how the guards seemed to be recovering, moreso the one Sebastian had tackled, while the guard Ulrich had attacked was starting to lose the battle thanks to taking a far more catastrophic fall, due to a stairwell leading up to the door that he had been standing on.
Sebastian grimaced with fear as the guard he was trying to knock opened his mouth and bit hard on the boy's teeth. It took every amount of willpower in Sebastian to not scream or howl in pain, but the impact had been hard enough to draw blood. The guard was already recovering, and for a moment Sebastian felt horrible fear as to the man's monstrous resistance…
Until Odd ran up with the stun gun he'd been given and jammed it into the back of the man's neck, increasing the total amount of voltage. At this, the guard's resistance finally began to ebb, and he finally collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
"Th-thanks Della Robbia." Sebastian said in a strangled tone, gripping his left hand, which was bleeding profusely from the bite mark. "Damn it...Uncle Barack isn't going to be happy…"
Jeremie looked at the end of the hallway, seeing that while the guard Ulrich had struck had similar resistance, he too was out cold, with several notable impacts to his face, with some of his teeth knocked out. "Did you bring any medical supplies?"
"I'd be stupid not to." Sebastian hissed as Yumi came up to him and examined the wound.
"Treat him once we're in the supercomputer room." Jeremie ordered. "For now, get these guards hidden while we head in. Ulrich, I'm hacking the electric lock. When the door opens, knock everyone in the room out."
"No holding back? Nice." Ulrich sneered, though there was nothing particularly bloodthirsty about it.
Then, with a slow hiss, the door opened, and Ulrich dashed into the room, slamming the taser into everyone he found. He didn't particularly care about the layout of the place, instead preferring to focus on the people. There were four technicians monitoring the room, and they were caught completely off-guard as Ulrich assaulted them. A door opened up, with another technician questioning what was going on, but she soon met the same fate as the samurai dashed into the room and knocked out seven more technicians, all of whom were too busy sitting at their computers to mount any kind of counterattack. Ironically, compared to William's brainwashed drones and the Specters, these people were easy pickings.
"Think I got them all." Ulrich panted to himself. After spending so long doing nothing but walking, talking, or listening to people talk, it felt good to be in action again.
Meanwhile, back in the hallway, the group had found, of all things, a janitor's closet, and Yumi had levitated the two guards into it, while Sebastian and Odd worked on the two guns, now on safety, to unload them. The design was clearly that of a rifle, but it was not of any make Sebastian had seen before. Even so, he had read about how to unload them, and instructed Odd in how to do so, due to the injury on his hand. For once, the Italian boy was not making any smart remarks, actual firearms as opposed to the explosive laser arrows in his wrist while in Xanadu clearly struck a different feeling with the guy. But with that instruction, the magazines had been ejected before removing the chambered rounds. Sebastian chose to pocket the ammunition in his backpack, hoping that any reload time would buy them precious seconds to get out. Once the guards were hidden, Yumi, seeing that the guns would not fire, immediately used her telekinesis to crush them.
With the guards hidden and their weapons made useless, the girl could now focus on treating Sebastian's injury, pulling out bandages and rubbing alcohol from the backpack while Jeremie went on ahead, gesturing for his companions to follow. Odd gave a quick peak to see if anyone was coming up, but seeing no-one and not having any reaction from his Future Flash, even with whatever seemed to be up with it now, followed Jeremie, while also motioning for Yumi and Sebastian to move as well, keeping an eye on them while Jeremie entered the supercomputer room.
In comparison to the Factory, which seemed to have the entire facility converted to house the supercomputer, ignoring the presence of the nuclear reactor that was the power source, this underground facility made it much clearer as to what the supercomputer was. Even without the app on his phone showing Jeremie the schematics, he could describe the machine in front of him quite well.
(He could've also described the technicians Ulrich had knocked out, but they were hardly relevant right now.)
The supercomputer's design was based on a Russian M13 Machine, being a hemisphere of circuitry enclosed in a plexiglass dome, with a large array of wires plugged into the top of the dome, stretching to the ceiling. Piping and yet more circuitry were visible in transparent sections that stretched from the main supercomputer to the walls, dividing up the metal plating of the floor. A monitor stand stood right before the main machine, while at four equidistant ends were four additional, larger monitors, all of which were joined together by yet more cables and wires. The entire room was lit up with blue fluorescent light, a stark contrast to the the barely lit grey, white, and dark-green of the factory, though at least it had lighting above ground.
This supercomputer clearly was not as powerful as the one that ran Xanadu, but the intricate design and the fact that the Successors of Khanbaliq had made sure to keep it in pristine condition, even seven years or so after its construction, were more than enough for Jeremie to feel an appreciation for the device. It was well-built, and for what it could do, he had no doubt that it could do it well. The only shame was that it was in the wrong hands.
"Wow, what kind of thingamajig is that?" Odd wondered out loud as he, Yumi, and Sebastian walked into the room.
"That's the cultist's supercomputer." Jeremie explained curtly.
"Are we gonna button everything or finesse it?" Odd asked.
Jeremie looked at Odd. "Why would we do that?"
"Uh...to destroy it maybe?" the catboy responded, though with some hesitation since he did not know if that would be Jeremie's plan or not.
"We're not destroying it, and not because I don't want to see it get destroyed. If we destroy it, that would get all of the cults hunting us down for breaking their main toy. Besides, I still need to get data from it."
"Make it fast then." Yumi snapped as she finished bandaging Sebastian's hand. The Street Kid nodded in agreement, clearly wanting the mission to be done and over with now that he had an injury to explain to his uncle. Jeremie had to admit, that would be troublesome to cover up, though not difficult.
"You guys coming in here or not?" Ulrich drawled as he leaned against the doorway leading to a terminal room.
"We're coming in right now." Jeremie said. "Yumi, Ulrich, keep an eye on the technicians and for anyone else. Sebastian, Odd, if you want to look around and find some other stuff, you're welcome to do so."
"I really don't want to look around here, Belpois." Sebastian sighed. "I just want to go home now."
"Same." Odd agreed. "This has NOT been a Sunday I'd like to remember anytime soon."
Jeremie shrugged as he entered the terminal room. "Suit yourselves then. You want to watch me work and take some notes?"
"On second thought, let's see if we can find something, okay Sebastian?" Odd chirped, following Jeremie.
Not wanting to be left alone or in the way of the group's two main powerhouses, Sebastian quietly nodded and followed Odd.
The terminal room consisted of eight workstations and keyboards, four on each side, lined up, hidden and embedded in nooks that, unlike the Factory, were cleaner in design, being covered in even sheets of diagonal metal that were marked from "00" to "04" on each side, divided by large metal surfaces big enough for two people to sit down on. Each station had two blue rolling chairs, and the golden-colored keyboards were imbedded into the surface of the individual terminals.
Of course, everyone also decided to ignore the eight unconscious bodies strewn everywhere.
Jeremie sat down at the left "01" terminal, and immediately began immersing himself in working on the computer, learning of how the unfamiliar system worked, and using his programs from the Factory to try to decrease the time needed to locate the critical data and information he needed. He was finally in his element, and shut out any external stimuli as he immersed himself in a new area of ones and zeroes.
Odd and Sebastian however, didn't care to watch Jeremie work, and instead looked at the end of the terminal room...seeing a feature that was rather curious...a large green-tinted glass window-wall. Why would such a feature be in a room such as this? The two boys looked at each other, and then, gulping, walked down to the end of the room...and saw that the window overlooked another, hidden room below them.
The room was square in configuration, and unlike the blues, golds, and whites that seemed to mark up the identity of the underground laboratory that was the first hideout for the cults, was clearly glowing an eerie dark green color that immediately reminded Odd of the Factory if it was allowed to be given a minor spruce-up. The main feature of the room was a large circular pedestal with light coming out of it...light that the two boys recognized was making up holographic projections. At the pedestal there were four individuals in robes identical to the ones that had been shared earlier, while two holographic images of two other people dressed in the same robes stood alongside them.
"Hey, uh, Belpois, not to distract you, but could you try to figure out what those guys down there are talking about?" Sebastian called.
Jeremie would have complained about being shaken out of his comfort zone, but he had just seen that the recording of the Khara-Khoto Talk was being held. All Sebastian had done was give the computer genius a reason to listen in, and soon, the meeting audio was being recorded live for everyone to hear.
Of course, down below, the cult leaders did not know that spies had infiltrated their midst, having long since gotten to the core of their desires without them even knowing.
"Now that Lyle has returned from his bathroom break, I'd like to return to our main topic." A man at the end of the pedestal decreed.
"It had better be good, Alex." One of the holographic individuals said in a rough male voice. "I've got assignments to give out."
"And I have deals to make." the other hologram replied in a mature, female voice.
"Rest assured, Cody, Rebecca." Alex replied. "I hope this will be a bit quick, considering your current locations. I'll try to give you the relevant information, and if you want to stick around, you may do so."
"It IS more of a domestic issue right now anyways." Another one of the cloaked men confirmed. "Nothing to do with the French government right now. I think."
"Cameron is correct, there is no need to worry...at least for the Destroyers and the Order of Khar-Balgas." the final cloaked figure said. "Though, it is something to complain about for the Givers."
"Thank you for that, Cameron, Ozberk." Alex nodded in appreciation while Lyle simply stared at the other cult leaders. "Anyways, nothing too notable happened between our previous meeting and this one, to the point where I was tempted just to make it a voice call and have it fill our quota, but recently, some strange events have been reported in Boulogne Billancourt. They all started two months ago, and I believe the time has come for us to discuss them."
"Last time I checked, they were just some random earthquakes." Rebecca grunted. "Nothing to write home about."
"It's an idea though…" Cody murmured, seeming to jot down the idea of causing an artificial earthquake as the latest plan for the Destroyers of Karakorum.
"I may also have something to contribute on that topic." Lyle chimed in.
"Starting from two months ago, Boulogne Billancourt has been home to some strange phenomenon that, while minor, has become more and more consistent." Alex explained. "Car accidents, electric shortenings, earthquakes, etc. Some of these have not had any impact, some have, as Ozberk expressed."
Nodding that the baton had been passed to him, the leader of the Givers of Kumul spoke. "Two months ago, we had made a bid to try to gain some data from Deckard Inc. Peter Duncan was willing to offer, but of course the greedy bastard just had to plan to put his bounty up for auction. Of course, we could've easily paid for it, but as you all know, that was our last contact with Duncan before he was thrown in jail."
"We already discussed this." Rebecca groaned. "I fail to see how this one accident proves that something is afoot in Boulogne Billancourt."
"Allow me." Lyle spoke up. "Just yesterday, my nephew, William, had his operations completely destroyed by a group of children from Kadic Academy, and-"
"He's a child himself." Cody scoffed. "How old is he, twelve? Thirteen?"
"Please let me finish." Lyle growled. "His operations were destroyed by a group of children from Kadic Academy, as well as other girls from Asimov who sadly resisted his charms. I think he succeeded in giving me their names from the last time he talked about them...specifically mentioning one Samantha Knight and Yumi Ishiyama."
"Deal with them on your own time Lyle." Cody grunted. "So he got dumped by two girls who got revenge on him and didn't get brainwashed by your nanotech. It happens."
"And it's a perfectly good waste of nanotech anyways." Rebecca growled.
"...For Alex's sake, let's try to keep the arguing to a minimum, alright?" Cameron pleaded, waving his arms. "That being said though Lyle, while this breach in security is somewhat severe, I don't see how you'd easily be able to counter it. Just have one of your subordinates sneak into the schools and inject the nanotech that way."
"Actually, William prefers using the skin-contact variation." Lyle said. "Very popular to distribute. Ozberk and I have had a grand time distributing it."
"It has and continues to be a lucrative venture." Ozberk acknowledged, "but still, I have to agree with Cameron...unless you are proposing a link between what happened to your nephew and what happened to Duncan?"
"I am proposing exactly that." Lyle said. "My nephew was in a bit of an emotional mess, but I could make out that his entire harem was defeated, as if the people doing it weren't human. Now, I would like to acknowledge that he was in a state of duress, but by my count, my nephew had over twenty girls mind-controlled. So...I do find that defeat a bit suspicious. Though whether or not the link truly is there, I do not know. But it does match up with the idea of anomalous events happening throughout the city."
Cody seemed to chew on this information, while Rebecca folded her arms. Ozberk nodded, while Cameron and Alex both seemed deep in thought.
Finally, the latter cleared his throat. "I will admit this probably needs more looking into, but I did want to warn everyone about it just in case. We may just be seeing the event my mentor talked about all those years ago."
"Bah, that lunatic?" Cody scoffed. "If we want to make what he said true, we need to completely devastate the world on our own, not wait for some prophecy."
Alex trembled in rage, but did not yell. He had had this argument with Cody before, multiple times. It was why the man had split and founded the Destroyers of Karakorum to begin with.
"Perhaps then, we should reopen that topic?" Cameron asked, eager to prevent an argument. "For all of your work, Cody, Rebecca...I've not seen your overseas operations help us in regards to the Compass."
"The Compass?" Odd whispered to Sebastian. "What's that?"
"Thirty Euros it's what Belopois' looking for." Sebastian answered.
"Oh hell no, I ain't taking that bet."
"I have no more interest in the Compass." Cody snorted, though Rebecca straightened up, as if intrigued. "We've done plenty well on our own without it. We might as well give it away as email spam at this point. It's done no good for any of our organizations."
"It is a relic left behind by our founder." Alex protested. "I am not selling or giving it away. Though, yes, ever since his unfortunate passing...I have still made no progress deciphering it. The code remains unbreakable. Only our founder could access it."
"Hence why it's useless to all of us." Cody snapped before pointing to the other cult leaders one by one, from Alex to Cameron to Ozberk to Lyle. "You, the Successors, cannot access it, the Messengers have made no progress, the Givers seem to have given up on it, and I doubt the Lovers even had that idea cross their mind. Even the Order of Khal-Bargas has not made a move on it. Even if you don't want to destroy or delete it, I find it a pointless topic to discuss, especially when we have our usual updates instead of some random threads of chaos that I'm finding hard to connect or make relevant!"
That did it. Before Odd and Sebastian's eyes, Cody's rant of disgust had caused the cult leaders to descend into bickering, primarily from Lyle and Alex while Cameron tried to keep the conflict down, all while Ozberk slunk back, and Rebecca attempted to intercede, though her words were clearly more on the selfish side of things as she seemed to try to bring the momentum onto her side.
"And there's nothing more relevant on their end. Muting." Jeremie said with an eyeroll. "But if that Cody person wants to lose the Compass so badly, I'll be happy to take it off of their hands."
"Ha! I knew that was the thing you wanted!" Sebastian laughed, eager to have some form of victory after the day's events so far
Jeremie just smirked. "It matches up with the Professor's notes. This is exactly what I need to further my access into Xanadu. Probably why they were never able to get it to work. You need a virtual world for this to function."
"That does make you think though...why would these guys work for that Professor dude?" Odd asked. "I mean like...what was his deal? First he builds Xanadu, then he makes these cults, and then they can't even find it. What kind of plan's he running?"
"Either it's a form of fourth-dimensional chess, or he just went insane." Sebastian shrugged. "But yeah, calling him the cult founder seems pretty accurate. He just so happens to have data for this exact location, and there's also a founder that those guys below talk about...not hard to connect the dots."
"Well…" Jeremie hummed. "I'll admit, I don't know myself. I've looked through this supercomputer's logs, but I've got nothing for history. Either that's in a different place, or the program I'm using to hack it isn't going to work with wherever it is inside its data."
"Yeah, answers that lead to more questions, I'm so happy." Odd grumbled.
"It's something to discuss for later." Jeremie shrugged. "Just let me download the Compass and leave behind all of this filler data to replace it after I restore the encryption on it."
"Man, computer hacking is never as cool as the movies make it." Odd sighed.
"I'll take boredom over cool any day Della Robbia." Sebastian muttered. "Especially after today. Hopefully we just get out of here and nothing else happens besides making up some cover story for my uncle."
"Enough! Nothing else seems to be coming out of this, so until everyone has cooled their heads, this Khara-Khoto Talk is over!" Rebecca roared, immediately logging off.
Glaring down hatefully at the other four cultists, Cody did the same, leaving them behind to stew things over.
"Lousy bastard." Lyle growled. "What he stands for makes me sick. Love, peace, prosperity, and restoring the world...those go hand-in-hand, I'm willing to respect you guys, and Rebecca too...but that man is just an asshole."
"Not arguing there." Alex sighed. "But like Rebecca said, cooler heads will have to prevail. We'll reschedule for two weeks from now and move on from there. Let's inform our subordinates in the annexes that it's time to go and-"
"Uh, is the building on fire or something, or did someone pour dust into the vents?" Ozberk asked.
Alex turned around, and both Cameron and Lyle followed, seeing that at the back of the room...and the sides, black soot seemed to be pouring into the room, slowly at first, before speeding up and surrounding them.
"Wait, what is this?" Cameron asked, before his body began to stiffen.
The other cultists watched in horror as Cameron's body began to solidify, a dark blackness surrounding his body in rock. The man groaned as even his robes turned from white to black, and all other color was drained to monochrome shades of grey, not even resisting...and they realized too late that it was happening to them as well. First Lyle, then Ozberk, and then Alex, leaving only Cameron to…
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Scream. Everyone in the room flinched, at least, everyone who was conscious.
"Great, has it gotten violent already?" Sebastian scoffed.
"Ohhhhh no." Odd groaned, running to the window and seeing just what was going on without the orange filter of Future Flash. "Hey, uh, Jeremie, if you're done getting what you wanted, I think it's time for us to go to the Factory."
"Hey, I said I'm not-" Sebastian tried to say, but Odd's next words made him stop.
"Because uh...I think the Specters are attacking."
"WHAT?!" Jeremie yelled, putting away his disks and drives before running up to the end of the window alongside Odd, giving both boys a clear view of what was going on down below.
Dark-grey smoke had gathered down below, completely covering up the four cult leaders, all of whom seemed to have been encased in dark-grey rock that fit around their forms perfectly. They were frozen in agony, completely consumed by the darkness that had entered the room. There was one additional feature that Sebastian and Odd had not taken into account while observing the room, and that was the large locked metal sliding door that opened up into it.
A door that now opened as more of the dark smoke began to spread through the complex.
Odd and Jeremie looked up, and saw that indeed, there were vents for the purpose of air conditioning...but right on cue, the dark smoke began to leak out, at first as wisps, but then pouring down heavily like a volcanic ash cloud, only in reverse.
"Move out of the room, now!" Jeremie ordered, already turning to leave. "We've got trouble! Xanadu alert!"
Ulrich and Yumi snapped to attention. "Get out of there, now! Run!"
"You don't need to tell me twice!" Odd called as he ran out of the room.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Sebastian shrieked, joining the three as they vacated the room, just in time as well, as the ash immediately coated the unconscious technicians, turning them to stone just as it had to their bosses.
There was no time to lose. The group ran, as fast as they could, Ulrich running ahead to see if the smoke was following them. So far, it wasn't, but he could hear screams echoing throughout the corridors. So could everyone else for that matter. For all of their evil and madness, the various cults, no matter their name or credo, had never known about a force in the city that could overwhelm them with far greater ease and malevolence.
But even so, their screams of fear and horror were nightmarish, especially with how they echoed throughout the complex. People in rooms that the Warriors and their guide had never met were being met with a cruel fate...and though perhaps it was not undeserved, it still showed just how low on the pecking order they truly were.
And as the Xanadu Warriors turned to go the opposite direction of where they came, a vent cover fell from the ceiling, and more of the ash poured into the corridors, slim claw-like fingers forming in curling wisps as it seemed to operate doors, and consume unsuspecting people, such as the two guards who were immediately petrified as their bodies tumbled out of the janitor's closet.
"Up the stairs, hurry!" Yumi yelled, seeing Ulrich already there.
"Go! Go!" Ulrich called, taking headcount.
The screams of the cultists were becoming faint now. The group knew that by this point, they had all been subsumed...and when Odd looked back, seeing the billowing smoke behind them, he very much knew he did not want to share in the fate of becoming a history museum fixture.
Yumi was first, then Sebastian, then Jeremie, then Odd. With everyone counted, Ulrich followed and now the group ran. It was good that they did. The smoke had now reached the bottom of the stairwell and was clearly ready to head upwards.
"We're not gonna make it! We're not gonna make it!" Sebastian cried.
Snapping her head backwards as the smoke began to rush upwards, Yumi shoved past him and swept her right arm towards the smoke. "We ARE going to make it!" She yelled, unleashing a powerful telekinetic blast that shoved the smoke downwards.
"I'm going to hold it back, you guys get up top!"
"We can't leave you!" Ulrich cried.
"I'm not going to stay here!" Yumi shot back. "I just need to make sure it doesn't shoot back up towards us!"
"Rrghh…" Ulrich growled, trying to thinking of a plan.
"Sebastian, you're the fastest after Ulrich and Yumi, you head up top first!" Jeremie commanded. "Odd, you follow right behind him, and I'll be in the middle! Ulrich, you keep an eye on Yumi!"
Well, at least Jeremie had come up with one. The samurai nodded and rushed past, getting behind Jeremie as Sebastian and Odd continued their upward ascent to hopeful freedom.
"I thought you had some kind of scanning program to warn us of this kind of thing!" Sebastian panted as he scrambled up.
"Yeah!" Odd agreed. "I thought that superscan thing was supposed to tell us if the Specters were attacking!"
"It IS!" Jeremie called back, struggling up the stairs. "I don't know why it didn't respond! It shouldn't have let the Specters gather up enough energy for an attack of this magnitude!"
"Oh god, are we going to head up and find everyone turned into statues?" Sebastian groaned in horror.
"Less thinking, more climbing!" Odd shot back. "I ain't seeing anything orange right now, so we're good for now!"
"...Define 'GOOD'!" Sebastian moaned in horror as he and Odd finally made it up to the top.
"C'mon, guys...c'mon…" the catboy fretted as Jeremie, with a final gasp, made it up the stairs, panting and wheezing from the physical exertion. Sebastian was quick to steady the computer genius on his shoulder as the two backed away to allow Ulrich and Yumi to run up, with the latter sending another telekinetic blast into the stairwell before slamming the door behind them tight.
"Move!" She called.
The group hardly needed any further impetus. They scrambled out of the building, and for a moment, were relieved to see that the ground and air were free of any malevolent smoke.
Then they saw around and above them and realized that their troubles had only just begun.
Peppered around the compound were guards-disguised as beggars, their faces twisted in agony, not unlike their superiors and fellows, all of them turned to stone. But that was hardly the main issue as the group ran past them, clearing themselves away from the compound, and gasping at the horror that now arose before them.
A massive cloud of dark-colored smoke, as thick and consistent as volcanic ash, surrounded the roof of the compound. Looking closely, it was easy to see how it had infiltrated the underground complex, through the vents. But what was truly unsettling was how the cloud seemed to be alive, pulsing like intestinal organs as it continued to push its way into the lair of madness, dominating whoever was still lucky enough to still be human. It was as if it was pumping more of its essence into the ground, burrowing deep within the earth...and then, finally, it seemed to register that the Warriors had escaped from its grasp.
That was when the cloud became still, as if realizing that it had failed to consume people. Then, it seemed to pulse again, before the cloud collapsed atop of the compound, prompting the children to run even farther away, as if fearing the smoke creature was attempting to spread more of itself. Yet as soon as the cloud reached the perimeter of the compound, it stopped, much to the shock of the group, who stopped to catch their breath.
But there would hardly be any chance to as the smoke seemed to coalesce, taking on a more solid, defined form. At first, it reminded them of intestinal organs, especially as it continued to convulse and pulse...but the smoke began to smooth itself out, and darken, as thick, black coils seemed to take form, piling high above...until they began to convulse once again, and unveil the head of a snake. But unlike most snakes, the head of this creature was adorned with spikes and armored flaps, with three massive white eyes, two where they would normally be, and a third in the middle of its head.
The massive creature's eyes glowed an ominous yellow as it eyed the humans, immediately recognizing who they were.
No chances could be taken. They had to be destroyed or enslaved.
The massive snake unleashed a loud, terrible hiss that sounded more akin to a thousand nails scraping a chalkboard or a steam locomotive giving out as it overheated. The noise made the children cover their ears, but their eyes were open as the massive serpent's coils retreated, seeming to become transparent...unveiling a new horror.
The statues of the guards were now moving, their eyes now the same glowing yellow as their new master. And from the entrance of the compound, the remaining cultists followed. No matter their rank, whatever they were, they were all equal slaves to the monster. The Warriors' eyes widened as more people than they had met marched out of the building, completely silent as they obeyed their new master, born of the work they were all ignorant towards.
Now with its army gathered, the massive demonic serpent slithered forward alongside them, before unleashing a hiss more akin to a roar, firing a massive blast of black smoke directly at the Warriors, whose visions were clouded as darkness completely surrounded them...
Well, that was quite the journey now, wasn't it?
Can our heroes bounce back from this terrible upset? Can they stop this latest attack from Xanadu? Just who is this Professor (Besides the obvious answer), and what did he do in the past? Find out more, in the final part of this File, coming out...uh...IDK. Probably sooner than the next chapter of my ARC-V fic at least.
Leave a review if you can, your feedback is much appreciated! I'll even entice you all with an age-old question: What was your favorite and least favorite monster from CL, and if you could come up with any original monster, what would it be?
Toodles!
-Epsilon Tarantula-
