Chapter 36
Over at Vale City, Sometime Later...
In the City of Vale, some of the Evolutionaries in disguise as utility workers try to find any trace of Acai's computer lab or anything where he is hooked up. They went deep underground in order to find anything. A signal or some sort of coded encryption wavelength. So far, nothing.
"I got nothing." says one of the male rabbit-eared members. "And the smell from the sewers isn't exactly helping."
A female human says, "Nothing on my end either. So far, no sign of the traitor anywhere."
A human male member speaks, "We have to find him soon before Vytal Festival Day. Otherwise, all of our work would've been for not."
Atlas/Mantle Ruins...
Over at the ruins of what is left of Mantle and Atlas, people have already started rebuilding. Some of the people are sadden by the lost of many family members and loved ones when Atlas collapsed onto Mantle. Others continue to stride forward as the rebuilding of Mantle continues with a few that remain chose to rebuild their kingdom from the ground up. Free from any oversight from the Schnee Dust Company, the Atlesian Military, and Atlas itself. People that remain in Mantle have developed a spirit of independence as they enjoy their new found freedom while others have fled towards the other kingdoms. As for the Evolutionaries, many disguise themselves as people that want to have a fresh new start with people wanting to join in on this new adventure. They search in some of their old bases and outposts before checking many other areas such as the Amity Colosseum, the abandoned SDC mines, former military positions that are now left out in the cold. Practically everywhere. Every square inch of the northern continent.
At the heart of the destruction, one woman radios in, "We checked every last place in this freezing icebox. No sign of Acai's lab anywhere on Atlas."
Argus, Mistral...
One cat-eared faunus radio in while disguised as a technician. "Found nothing in Argus." he says, "But we'll do a second sweep just to be sure."
Somewhere in a desert in Vacuo...
A man wearing a desperado outfit overlooks a desert high above the sands on the desert on an outcrop on the edge radios in.
"There's a sandstorm coming in. It'll be hard to pinpoint in it so we'll keep you guys informed. Although the sandstorms are strange. Whenever we get close to this part of the desert, the sandstorm kicks in. So it could be possible he made a weather machine, but I don't have high hopes."
Council Room, Enlighten Valley...
"Understood." Coco says over the radio. "We'll see if we can find anything through our satellites if possible. Keep in touch." Coco then sits down with the rest of the council.
Eric has healed-up decently as only his feet are in a cast while everyone else have recovered a lot faster than him.
Coco says to the council, "So far, no luck. But a sandstorm in Vacuo is reported suspicious. No report from Mistral just yet."
Dale sighs, "To think we let something like this slip by us."
Maya slams her fists on the table to demonstrate her frustration.
"I know." Rune places her hand on Maya's shoulder, "I'm just as upset as you are."
Indigo groans, "That fucking asshole, Acai." Indigo is upset, "We should've done the whole 'spying on him and his electronics' shit and we wouldn't have to put up with this tiny, one-man insurrection."
Yuki says, "But if we do that, the people wouldn't trust us and we would have a major problem on our hands."
Sylvester nods, "True, true. Even though security does take priority, freedom is equally important in the long run. Otherwise, Enlighten Valley would've been destroyed long ago."
Gris growls before tossing his chair into the wall. "TO HELL WITH THIS!" he shouts, "I'M FINDING THAT FUCKER AND TAKE HIM DOWN MYSELF!" Gris opens a portal and goes in, "I'm outta here!"
"Hold on!" Crispin tries to stop Gris.
"Let him go!" Eric says. "Let him blow-off some steam."
And Gris disappears with the portal.
"All of us are frustrated." Poppy says, "But Gris is more than capable of handling himself even though we still have no idea where Acai is."
Crispin sits back down.
"Although," Nyx worries, "Gris has always been too much of a wild card. Who knows what he'll do. I know we've known each other since childhood, but Gris has always been the unstable guy."
"Should we keep an eye on him just in case?" Indigo asks.
"Don't bother." Howard is unamuse. "He'll come back when he has cooled down." He then look at some papers, "And we also have some difficulty with some Australium, or Menagerium as it is called on Remnant. The problem is that some of the supplies have gone missing. We lost eight percent of them and unable to find a trace. Not sure if it is related to our Acai situation, but they can be use to make cloaking devices. The information never got to us until the day after we killed Salem."
Coco sighs, "Wish I knew that on the web, but with Acai now messing things about."
Crispin tries to cheer his sister up, "Don't worry, sis. Once we find him, you can go back and do your thing."
"Thanks, bro."
"Anytime."
Eric then looks at a folder, "We also have a bit of a situation with some of our Cybertronians. Some of them have gone missing as well. Many of the witnesses, including some of the Cybertronians, have seen some unexplained behavior among some of our flyer guys just fly off in the distance."
Yuki looks at the open folder, "Are they all connected? I mean everything that have been overlooked. Like the missing supplies, some of our Cybertronians gone off the grid, and a few other things."
Eric rubs his eyes a little as he does a tired sigh. "Okay, okay. We're gonna have to check every single thing that have gone missing and double check every manifest there is."
"All of them?" Nyx asks, "Without Coco's semblance?"
"I'm afraid so."
Everyone in the room groan because of the bureaucracy that they hate.
"I know, I know." Eric speaks and understands the frustration. "But this is what we signed up for and we have to pick up the tempo because..." He looks at some of the empty seats. "Because there isn't much of us left."
Crispin and Coco put their hands on Eric as they are just as sad as he is.
"We know, Eric. We know."
Vacuo...
In the sandstorm in a desert in Vacuo, Gris is wearing a special mask that protects him from the storm and all the sand flying about. His heavy breathing can be heard through his mask as he traverse the shifting sands while wearing specially made shows that are meant to traverse in such terrain. He walks alone through the storm until he notices some dim lights in front of him. He looks up and sees some sort of tower in front of him with blue lights and the whole thing made of metal. However, he also notices the strange, disc-shape object far above in the center of the storm.
Up above, the device has desert camo with red lights underneath and it is approximately ten feet in diameter. It didn't take Gris to put two and two together as he realizes that the strange device is causing the sandstorm and protecting some sort of tower with Acai Mitsuhide's symbol on it. His first thought is to tell the others but he has second thoughts. He thought about his friends that have died in the war against Salem. And so, he goes forth alone. He looks at the tower to see if he can find an entry point for him to portal in despite all the sand blowing into his visor.
He notices some vents where air is keeping the sand out that are probably exhaust points. He creates a portal to his point of entry before slashing one of the vents open in order to get in.
Gris made his way inside as he duck-walks in the vents despite feeling some hot air pressing against him. He crawls in further and further until he decides to cut through one section of the vent by making a small hole for him to see. He activates his night-vision function of his mask and see a huge clutter of pipes and vents. He reaches out with his weapon to see how much space he has in order to use his semblance, which Gris uses in order to move about. He scans the vents to see which one leads him to where he needs to be: Acai's server room. The room where Acai hook himself up in cyberspace.
So he search for the vent he is looking for in order to find him. He manage to pinpoint one of the vents and cut a new hole before entering. He uses his semblance to travel faster in order to reach up to the top where he believes Acai is at. To him; people with big heads are always located at the top looking down on people as if they're god or something. He teleports and look through some of the vents and see things that he was not expecting. He saw one room where corpses of people on assembly lines where they are being turned into cyborgs that are completely obedient to Acai and those under his command. He sees some Cybertronians assembling empty shells of their brethren fitted with controlled AI programs. The whole facility is loaded with images of Acai such as propaganda posters, his faces edged on all the walls, some statues of him, and even a fountain of the guy with water coming out of his nipples and ears. Gris finds it weird and just moves on.
He kept on climbing until he found one floor that is just a spa area with android maidens with human-like faces are on standby mode. Even that place has his image all over, especially with the bars of soaps and bags of bath salts. He then portals up towards another floor where he sees cyborg workers making all sorts of stuff with Acai's face on it.
'For fuck sake.' Gris thought to himself when seeing all of this, 'Just how much does this jackass love himself?' Then continues on.
Until he made his way up to a floor where he can catch his breath as he takes the mask off. He looks up and see that he still has only a few floors left before making it to the top.
Enlighten Valley...
As the Council is looking over some of the manifests, disappearance lists and supply lists in order to have a full understanding on what Acai has before creating a plan in order to take down Acai once and for all. Yet they are unaware that Gris is already taking the problem head on as he prefer to take him with or without help. That is until Coco gets a call.
"Hello?"
A female voice over the scroll says, "Madam Coco! We have a bit of a problem!" she sounds like she's in a panic.
"What is going on?!" Coco now panics, "Is Acai taking something over or our valley has been discovered?!"
"No, its Gris! He said to contact you if he doesn't come back from the sandstorm! He found Acai's base!"
"WHAT?!"
"What's the problem?" Nyx asks.
Coco tell the others, "Gris just found Acai's base and he is there alone!"
Back in the tower, Gris sneaks in through the vent and enters into a room that looks like a luxurious office with everything completely coated in gold, even the furniture. Even the computers are gold plated. Gris is reminded of Howard with all the tacky gold everything but continues to find where Acai's body where he hook up his mind into cyberspace. The place has the feeling of the Infinite Palace from the game, Echo, but way smaller and more compact. He keeps an eye out for cameras to make sure he isn't seen so he won't raise any alarms. He continues to explore the floor he is on and keep on finding a lot of luxurious things that match the room. Not to mention the terrible art with Acai all over it.
'This is too tacky!' Gris thought to himself. 'And how the hell did he manage to make all of this? This is more complicated that it couldn't be just done in a week or so. So how did he manage to get all this set up in such a sort amount of time?'
Gris pulls out his scroll and tries hacking into the computers to see where Acai is and how did me made the tower, the sandstorm device, and everything else. The computer ask for a password and he just type, 'Acai'. And yes, that was the password that is suitable for an egomaniac. Gris is unsurprised when he typed the password. He manage to download a bunch of files before alarms started blaring and red lights shining.
"WARNING!" says a female AI voice, " UNAUTHORIZED DOWNLOAD DETECTED! INTRUDER IN MASTER'S QUARTERS!"
"Ah shit!" Gris says, "Things about to get fun!"
Turrets appear from the ceiling with some drones as Gris manage to use his semblance to fire shots at them right at the weakspots. Then Gris uses his semblance to portal where Acai is: right at the very top above the floor he is in. However, he is surrounded by armed cyborg guards and drones with all their weapons pointed at him. And the rest is to be continued.
AN: Hey everyone. Glad to be writing again. Unfortunately, I caught COVID because my mother caught it and none of us didn't notice until later. Don't worry, we had our shots long before getting infected and I'm stuck working at home for a little while...and my grandmother passed away after Thanksgiving. Terrible way to start the year. Hope you guys are doing better than I am but things would be more slower as I try to recover. So stay safe and stay healthy.
But I do have some wonderful news. I am gonna make my own isekai light novel series and hope it will become an anime series. Wish me luck.