ON THE MOVE
'You're not alone here,' Soro sent out on his phone while on the breakfast table. It was after Ruriko had posted in the WhatsApp group about the attack on Seoul.
A newspaper rested on the table just beside his breakfast. Soro held his phone over the headlines, snapped a picture of it, and shared it right after his first message.
'Good morning, Soro,' Mercedes greeted as she came by and took a glass of water. As she made her way to the table, she passed by Soro and, noticing the newspaper on it, picked it up out of curiosity and read the headlines.
'KL under massive attack…..' she read aloud. Curious, she flipped through the pages for the details, before coming to a very lengthy section on this attack to which the newspaper had even dedicated four pages. She studied the section, specifically the pictures rather than the several articles there.
'An attack has happened….. Soro, what place is this?' asked Mercedes.
'You mean KL? It's our capital city, about hundreds of kilometres from here,' Soro answered heavily, 'We may have more responsibility on our hands right now.'
Before long, Soro's phone vibrated again, signalling a new message in the group. As Soro flicked it open, he saw a message from Nami. It was a link to an online article and bore the title 'Rabid animals from Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park broke out, terrorised civilians'.
'What an attack this was,' was what Mercedes could only say as she looked at the pictures on the newspaper. Some bore images of a city in ruins, with a few towers which had visibly collapsed and shophouses and buildings desecrated. Some bore images of casualties urgently being transported in ambulance. Some bore images of soldiers attempting to defend the city. One of them bore a vague image of the enemies which had invaded the city.
'These are Arkarium's minions! What are they doing there?'
Before long, others who slowly awoke joined them at the table. Soro went back to his phone after telling and signaling to them where they could get breakfast.
'So, anything interesting today?' asked Aranelle as she munched on a kaya-butter toast. Mercedes handed the newspaper over to the remaining four, who all expressed shock after reading the news, while Soro tried his best to explain to them what had happened.
'What motive does he have now to launch an attack on that city?' Aran asked.
'By the way, this attack happened in other places too. Here, take a look,' Soro noted as he showed to the others the articles on the attacks on Seoul and Singapore. They looked through the articles detailedly and noticed some similarities, that the enemies were the ones they had been fighting against back in the Maple World.
'Hilla and Magnus have already launched their attacks. The animals….. It can only be Orchid's doing,' Cygnus said as she took a closer look at the photos of the attacks.
'The attacks seemed to all have happened overnight. And it seems to me that they're deploying a great number, as if they seek to conquer these cities,' said Kyrin.
'We must help them! The ones responsible for the attack came from the Maple World, and it's only right that we stop it,' said Cygnus, with an unusually commanding tone.
'I doubt we can,' Mercedes spoke while shaking her head.
'Eh? Something wrong?' asked the Empress.
'Cygnus, much as I admire your righteousness, I have to remind you that the attack is likely over by now, and even if we can catch on to them we still lack the powers to go against them,' reminded Mercedes.
'I am with Cygnus. Never try, never fail,' said Aran.
'Seriously, Aran? You do know how heavy our pole arms are now, right? And still you want a go at it?' Aranelle protested.
Another vibration came from Soro's phone, but the others were too into their argument to mind it. Soro picked it up, and saw a message from Nami.
'Soro, Ruriko, we are still going to Korea, but help out with the cities in your countries first. I'll decide later what to do.'
Soro sent back a word of acknowledgement, but it did not particularly mean anything to him. Could he face Arkarium again, knowing his powers, as well as his guests' and Arkarium's? He knew what he was capable of in the game world, what with various gimmicks, and especially a screen-crack skill of insta-kill - even when these were the only skills made available for Arkarium by the developers in the game, it had already made his life hard trying to slay him. The actual Arkarium might have more up his sleeves. Was he ready, he asked himself.
But the thought of encountering Arkarium made him think of his deceased father again. Knowing what he did to his father, revenge against him was almost imperative. 'Father,' he called out softly, to no one in particular, 'if only there is a way to save you… if only I was given a chance…' As he spoke, the rage within him simmered. He had just been bestowed with powers. What better use to make of it if not to face off with Arkarium once and for all?
'Guys, we're going to KL,' Soro finally declared, breaking the ongoing argument.
'Ehh?' all others turned towards him.
'My car can hold all of you. Prepare what you need to bring there. We leave by noon,' Soro announced before retreating to his room.
The others were slightly baffled at the utmost finality with which he spoke, and while some had their aspersions, they nevertheless concurred. It did not take long for them to prepare because they literally had nothing to prepare, save for a few bottles of water.
After everyone had finished preparing, Cygnus went to Soro's room to inform him of their readiness. The door to his room was ajar, and she pushed it slightly open to see Soro standing in front of a portrait of whom had been his father and staring at it intently.
'Father, you have always told me how you have fought against the Japanese before. Now I, too, will go to war. I, too, will be fighting against those who terrorise the people. This one is for you, my father,' Soro muttered before turning towards Cygnus.
'You guys ready?' he calmly asked, to which Cygnus merely nodded.
'Good. Let's go then.'
'With the recent massive-scale attacks that have been plaguing cities in East Asia including Seoul, Kuala Lumpur as well as Singapore, the government has decided to shut down all its borders, as well as all ports and cancelling all flights to and from Changi Airport. Prime minister Lee has urged everyone to stay at home until further notice and remain calm, and anyone who still wishes to move freely shall do so at his own risk…'
Nami could only blankly watch. She knew that animals had turned rabid, but she had never expected this attack to be of such a scale that the whole nation is put under an island-wide lockdown. Earlier, she had taken a closer look at a leaked footage posted online pertaining to this attack and concluded from the way the rabid animals looked like, with confirmation from Checky, that this could be no other than Orchid's doing.
More importantly, it now put Nami at a stalemate because this announcement meant she had to find another way out of Singapore.
Suddenly, loud crashes can be heard from downstairs. Alarmed by the sound, she went to see what was going on. Checky, Phantom and Luminous came out to check as well. They went to the concrete railing barricading the confines of the seventh floor, and looked down to find that what they were seeing was definitely not an ordinary day in the neighbourhood.
Abnormally-sized beasts were running amok on the streets at the ground floor of the apartment. Nami made those beast out to be animals that had definitely escaped from a zoo, except that they seemed to have mutated, for they possessed superhuman strength, flipping cars about and smashing any property that got in their ways. People were frantically running away for their lives, and slower ones who were caught up by the animals were immediately grabbed, cobbled and clawed to death while some others were gruesomely bitten to death. Soon, they found the creatures surrounding the location of their apartment, destroying every shoplot there.
'Hey, look over there!' Luminous called out as he pointed towards the sky.
They looked across into the sky to see a huge flock of birds flying about, enough to blot out the sunlight. Each bird was no longer the usual size of birds often seen along the streets, but was the size of an adult human. Some birds were encircling faraway apartment buildings and skyscrapers, some crashed into these buildings in an attempt to destroy them, while some others were charging in a rather organised manner to various other buildings. The birds were still far away from the apartment block where the four of them were, but they noticed a particular flock flying towards their direction.
'The attack has spread to here!' said a panicking Nami.
'We need to settle with the trouble here before leaving the country,' asserted Checky.
'Without our powers, Checky? Are you sure?' asked Phantom.
'You got a better idea, Phantom?' Luminous got mad at Phantom for seemingly not knowing the crux of the situation.
Their immediate resolution was to get out of the apartment block they were in, but not before they grabbed their arms: Phantom with his cane and deck of cards, Luminous with his rod, and Nami with the bow-and-arrows she had brought to the recently-concluded AFA. Checky chose not to bear anything other than a knife from Nami's kitchen, and the transforming relic from his world, which changed into his bear head yet again, and which he put it on.
Phantom snorted, 'Really, Checky? You still can't-'
'Ask no questions. I fight better with this on,' Checky interrupted, pointing to his bear head.
They headed out towards the common area where the lift and the stairs were. As Checky instinctively approached and tried to call for the lift, Nami grabbed his arm.
'No, don't! Something bad's gonna happen to it…. Anyway, we need to leave this place immediately!' she warned as she pulled Checky towards the stairs. Seeing as they were running out of time, Checky decided to let her have her way with it.
They started to descend the flight of stairs as fast as they could. They could hear the screams and roars getting closer and closer to them. As they reached the fourth floor, they felt a sudden strong tremble, as if something had hit the apartment block very hard. It was so strong a shock that Nami almost lost her footing, and would have tumbled down had she not been saved by Phantom.
'What was that?' asked a bewildered Nami.
Ahead of them, they saw numerous bird-beasts smashing onto the lift and started pecking on the lift cables. Shortly after, they saw a compartment plummeting downwards past the lift door.
'We could have been in there…..' Checky blurted out in disbelief, and once again amazed at Nami's foresight.
'We need to keep moving!' alerted Nami.
They delayed no further in making their way downwards. However, they were met with trouble as they got to the second floor.
The corridor of the second floor was already overrun with bestial monsters, who were causing havoc in the neighbourhood, smashing windows, breaking down doors, and catching and ripping apart people who tried to flee. The four of them realised that it would be impossible to continue their way down without alerting them.
'If we have to keep on going,' said Luminous, 'we will need to slip our way through.'
Just as he spoke, one of the monsters overheard him and turned towards them. Several other beasts also noticed their presence. The monsters let out a menacing roar, and within seconds were charging towards them. Phantom and Luminous instinctively tried to charge their powers, before the reality of their lack thereof sank in.
'Not used to fighting without powers, are ya, Lumi? Maybe you shouldn't have said that out loud,' mocked Phantom.
'For that matter, it's a lucky thing that I still exist here,' replied Luminous.
As Checky and Nami readied themselves for a fight, Phantom already had his deck of cards in hand. He tossed the cards out, intending to create confusion among the monsters and buying time for them to continue downwards. His sleight of hand allowed the cards to fly freely towards the monsters and would fly in circular motions around them before returning to his hand. As he did, he yelled, 'Go, now!'
They heeded his call and went down the stairs. However, out of Phantom's expectations, the beasts seemed unfazed by the flurry of cards hurled at them and were still charging towards the four, even as the cards were encircling them. At this rate, the monsters would be able to intercept their path.
Nami, seeing that the card trick was not having its intended effect, reached an arm out, hoping that by some unknown circumstances something would happen. In an instant, the cards which were encircling the monsters froze midair and encased them. Very soon, the monsters found themselves trapped by a mess of frozen cards, and no matter how much strength with which they tried to break out of it, the cards remained unmoved, effectively halting their advance.
'Keep going!' Nami said, 'I think I just froze the cards in time!'
They swiftly made their way past the second floor, while the cards unfroze themselves and made their way back to Phantom's hand.
'Girl, you and I, we ought to be together for a long time,' Phantom facetiously remarked.
'St-stop it!' Nami blushed a little.
'You can still find time to woo a girl, can't you, Phantom?' Luminous asked, finding it unbelievable.
'There's always time for that, my good friend,' Phantom replied, chuckling.
They sped up their descent for fear that the monsters would catch up to them, but things were not better when they got to the ground floor.
Even more monsters were running amok. Several monsters already saw them and were charging towards them. The four of them armed themselves while backing away slightly towards the stairs, before realising that the monsters from the second floor who were on their tails had caught up with them. Before long, they found themselves surrounded.
'Is this your first ever time getting in a fight and actually firing arrows to kill?' Checky asked Nami.
'Yes, and I thought it would help to have played MapleStory,' replied Nami, whose hands were already trembling at the sight of the menacing beasts as she held on tight to her bow. 'Apparently not.'
Before long, a bird swooped down and charged at them. Nami tried to aim her bow towards it and shot, but, being inexperienced, her shot missed the bird by a mile.
'I need to learn archery soon,' Nami remarked, with a hint of regret.
The surrounding animals took the failed attempt as a sign of aggression and relentlessly charged at them.
Soon, a weretiger reached them first. He pounced towards Checky, with a claw ready to swipe him down. Checky narrowly dodged his swipe and, with the knife in hand, slashed the tiger, sending him flying aside.
'Oh god, that's a big one!' said Checky, whose hands started to feel pain due to the sheer strength used to grip the knife so that it wouldn't slip off his hands as he hit the weretiger.
Several beasts charged towards Luminous. While he struggled to find a way to fend off his enemies, some cards flew in a procession-like manner in front of him and threw the beasts off, so that Luminous temporarily avoided the attacks.
'I see that someone needs to be protected for the time being,' the card-bearer quipped.
'For the time being, you better hope I don't get my powers back,' Luminous hit back.
Meanwhile, Nami tried to shoot the beasts that were charging towards her friends. Unfortunately for her, none of her shots could hit them.
'Come on, hit something dammit!' Her emotion turned from one of panic, to one of rage - last felt when she had fell from a platform for the umpteenth time while doing Stage 2 of the Zakum prequest. She loaded her bow and prepared herself for another shot.
As she did, suddenly a strange warped zone appeared around the charging beast she was aiming at, encasing him and completely freezing him in time. Seeing it as an opportunity, Nami wasted no time launching arrows towards the now-stationary beast. The arrows flew straight in his direction, but halted mid-air as they reached the edge of the zone, as if having lodged themselves on an invisible shield. As the zone disappeared as quickly as it had formed, the arrows continued their flight, so that some six arrows hit the beast at the same time. The beast collapsed immediately from the multiple shots.
'Nice!' Nami nodded in approval of this newfound technique.
The four of them managed to fend off the attacks of their enemies; though the animals were still relentlessly charging towards them, they had been able to prevent themselves from getting brutally clawed or bashed.
Suddenly, they heard Checky's screams. Turning their heads over to the direction of it, they saw a bird-beast grabbing him and soaring upwards.
'They got Checky!' shouted Phantom. He thought about using his cards to make the bird release Checky, but at the height it currently was, Checky would almost certainly fell to his death. Several birds were trailing behind him, as if guarding their prized possession they had recently acquired.
Nami tried to piece her mind together as to what was happening at that time. Several beasts were still charging towards them, while the bird who had Checky was flying further and further away. They had put themselves in dire peril and something had to be done.
Now, hoping that something miraculous would happen as they did previously, Nami again reached out a hand. Suddenly, everything seemed to freeze around her.
It came just as the birds were trailing behind Checky, and several tigers and gorillas were leaping towards Luminous. He braced for an inevitable attack when suddenly they froze in the air. He looked around, realising everything around him changed. Everything was paused; frozen in time. The only ones who were still moving were Nami, Phantom and himself.
Luminous saw an opportunity in the line-up of his assailants, and the birds that were flying in a procession. Very swiftly, he started climbing onto the backs of a monster, jumping later and climbing onto another monster positioned slightly higher, and then to a monster which was leaping and had been frozen mid-air. Each time he leapt from one monster to another, he gained altitude and was inching closer and closer to Checky, who had been frozen in time too in the bird's grasp.
He was cruising on the backs of the beasts when he realised there was no other artificial platform to jump towards. The next nearest creature he was aiming at was at a considerable distance away from where he was. By this time, Phantom and Nami, who were watching Luminous, had also noticed the large gap between the two creatures.
Just as Luminous was thinking of a way to get higher while already ten metres off the ground, the incident at the second floor earlier came back to him.
'Phantom, Nami, I need you both to create a platform!' he yelled out from above.
'Again, Nami?' Phantom winked towards her. Her responding nod giving him the reassurance, he tossed his cards towards the gap. The cards formed a neat row between the two creatures and, timing it right, Nami froze the cards. Luminous wasted no time stepping on this newly-created platform and leapt to grab hold of the bird he was aiming at.
Luminous continued to jump from one bird to another, and each time he was met with a similar gap, a new platform would be created. Closer and closer Luminous moved towards Checky, and finally, he reached the bird which was grabbing on to its victim.
Suddenly, time resumed, just as Luminous was able to get onto the back of the bird. The bird, noticing a foreign object on its back, reacted violently and started to soar around recklessly. Surprised at the turn of events, Luminous instinctively shielded the eyes of the bird.
He struggled to hold on tight. As he did, he saw the land creatures still trying to charge at Phantom and, his hands still at the bird's eyes, kicked the bird's humongous body. Within seconds, Luminous found himself plunging towards Phantom's attackers - with sight robbed away, the bird was completely at the mercy of Luminous.
'Look out below!' Luminous yelled.
Phantom immediately ducked to avoid the bird, while it collided with his assailant, completely taking the creature by surprise. Now at ground level, Luminous moved and kicked the legs of the bird which were still clutching on to Checky. The claws flung open instantly, and Checky was tossed onto the ground. He felt a surging pain from hitting the ground hard, but at least he was fine.
For a few moments, Luminous manipulated his hostage to attack the beasts that attempted to attack his friends, even managing to make them mistakenly attack each other. Nami could only stare with awe at how Luminous could render the bird to be under his control, while at times using her time powers to slow the advance of charging animals so that Luminous's bird could effectively halt them. At last, when every creature had but fallen, she froze the bird in time, while Checky lodged the blade into its neck and slit its throat to ensure its demise.
'That's that. Thanks for the save,' Checky said towards Luminous.
'Awesome!' Nami squealed with excitement.
'Lumi, I'm so disappointed. You never did tell anyone how much of a parkour master you are!' Phantom pouted.
'Hey, you are the one who has a way with girls. You should know that being with one changes a man,' Luminous mocked.
'Heh, it takes the lack of a man's powers to discover his true self eh?' Phantom mocked back.
'Shut it,' Luminous responded as his thoughts wandered to the girl at home. 'Poor Lania, I miss her chores…. Wonder if she's okay,' he thought.
In the meantime, Checky thought of an idea as he tried to shake off the pain from hitting the floor hard. 'Nami, if you remember where I used to study, I need you to take me there.'
'You mean, NTU*?'
'Exactly. I have some plans of my own.'
*NTU: Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (not sponsored)
A/N: I gotta admit, writing this chapter is really, really fun! :D
The fun part especially comes when I started to write about the conflicts that happened in this chapter. It's just that the thought process that went on my mind was literally a constant jumble because so many things came to my head at once, and I had to stop my brain from getting too jumbled up and actually settle down to organise my thoughts. Since the conflict revolves around at Nami's end, it may seem like a tussle to figure out what Checky could do, what Phantom and Luminous could do without their powers, and what Nami, the one WITH powers, could do, with the requirement I imposed for myself that everything has to be as close to the canon (pre-Black Heaven canon, that is) as possible.
For Checky, most of what he could do lies with the information that he is in charge of the mechanic branch in the resistance army. Typically, a member of the resistance unable to reveal his identity in public would have something up their sleeves, and for me I deemed that trick to be the ability of melee combat using everyday items (in this case, a kitchen knife). For Phantom, when he has lost his powers, his mastery of card-manoeuvring becomes his greatest weapon, so I was able to utilise this ability as best as logically possible. Luminous was a trickier one. Since most of what we recognise of him concern his powers and his inner conflict of elements, featuring him with the lack thereof becomes the greatest challenge. Luminous was the light cast away by the Black Mage, so most of his other non-light- or power-related abilities would come from his experience living in the countryside with Lania, and so I settled with his ability to climb various spots, as well as parkour, and mastery in handling animals.
Nami's powers were a different story since there's almost no background of her, so I had to crack my brain to figure out abilities that utilise time. Drawing from the AFA, I decided to make her bow-and-arrows useful too. Some observant readers may have already noticed, some, if not most, of Nami's powers are inspired from the video game Quantum Break, and that is true. Truth be told, the more I write and describe Nami and her powers, the more I am convinced that a time-themed archer class has to be a thing in MS. XD
Apart from these, I had to set up a possible conflict scenario that Lotus and Orchid, with their powers as demonstrated in the canon, could set up in Singapore, a country with a very small land area. Remembering that her minions are mostly rabbits, and a lot of things about her, I thought her powers would be to turn animals into her minions, which, conveniently, makes it match Luminous's own abilities.
Till then, it's time to crack my head as to what the powers of the other characters should be.