NEO World of Advent Chapter 12
The long hallways that spanned the Resistance Base were filled with their usual energy; reploids walking to and forth from whatever task they had been assigned, each an integral part of the system that Ciel had put in place to ensure the continued peace of their world. Though there was no real need for a real 'resistance' of sorts, the name had stuck. Ciel worried that it would be too aggressive, bring up old wounds, but no one seemed to mind the 'Resistance' Base's proximity to Neo Arcadia. They had at last found that quiet place away from the harsh rule of the city.
Clover walked beside Cero, humming a tune that she liked. She had recently discovered the radio, and the countless number of songs that came with it. It wasn't uncommon for a top 40 hit to be blasting in Cero's room while he had gone out for an errand. It was a humbling experience to be a part of a new being's journey as she experienced the world. Clover felt things differently than he did; though she retained the maturity of one much older, new discoveries were constantly being made. A simple trip downstairs could hold new revelations for her. Cero smiled as she switched to one of the catchier tunes broadcasted, singing a few of the lyrics just under her breath.
Clover had grown older, physically. A good number of inches had been added to her height and some of her babyish features had been hardened. She took in the new changes gracefully as her other abilities fostered with her body's maturation. A week ago she had learned how to float after a series of trial and error. Cero recalled her face glued to a monitor as she tried to glean the secrets of cyber elf flight from a video documentary detailing the different kinds of elves. She would rewind and slow down the parts where elves levitated as if by seeing them do it she could copy their rejection of gravity.
Again, Cero was struck by how full of life his elf was. Never before had he met someone so fiercely unafraid to experience life to the fullest. She took each day as a challenge to enjoy some previously unknown aspect of their planet. Cero only hoped that she wouldn't have to face the harsher truths of reality so soon. At the rate in which she charged through life, he feared she would encounter some of life's unpleasantness. War, death, betrayal: as many things as people got right they also got wrong. Cero could only be there for her when she did come to grips with the full extent of her situation, good and bad.
Sorra and Grey accompanied them; on each side of the other, one of the twins regaled Cero and Clover about their latest mission. Apparently, some defects from Neo Arcadia had escaped to start a coup. Neo Arcadia had enlisted the Resistance's help both to find them and to let the world know that it was not a case of just defiance as the Resistance's had been.
"A lot of our work is diplomatic rather than just blowing stuff up," Grey explained. "Even though we've been at peace for years, Neo Arcadia and the Resistance have a troubled history."
"That doesn't mean we can't be on good terms though," Sorra added. "Things have been really looking up lately. That tournament of theirs has the people talking about it with each other. Even some of the older Arcadians can stop to argue about a match's outcome, even if it's with one of us."
"The Grand Serena's pretty cool," Cero agreed. "I wish we could have seen more of the matches, but you can't be in two places at once." They four of them agreed that the tournament made it difficult to laser in on a specific fighter they liked in the earlier rounds. While they couldn't see another match that was going on at the same time, the matches they were directed to had been very entertaining, even for the lowest skill qualifiers. The difference between some of the trained combatants and those going along for the ride was always telling.
"Maybe they recorded them," Clover suggested. "It seems like the kind of thing they would have records of."
"That's a good idea, little elf." Grey gave her an affectionate pat on the head while Clover shrunk back almost imperceptibly for her part upon being addressed as "elf." Cero felt bad about it, but what could he do? It's not like he could tell his older companions that his elf didn't like being called an elf.
"Yeah," Sorra said excitedly. "I bet we can find some of them floating around on MeTube, if nothing else. Hopefully they haven't been taken down by now."
"We can watch them in our room," Grey said. "Hibou got me one of those ultra-high definition screens for my birthday."
"Let's watch some of the Gran Line fights," Clover suggested. "I want to see Flare fight."
"On it," Grey said as he unlocked the door to his room. Inside, it was a dichotomy of chaos and order, wrappers and soda cans strewn across one side of the room and neatly packed shelves on the other.
"You sure like your soda," Clover told Grey amusedly. "I didn't even think they sold that brand anymore," she added, pointing to an outdated and crumpled can of energy drink. The sale of it had been made illegal since it was discovered to have given heart attacks for the elderly.
"That's mine," Sorra said with a blush. "Sorry. I'll get this cleaned up real quick. I wasn't expecting visitors. Totally forgot about it."
"Yeah," Grey said, "Most people don't believe it when I say she's the messy one. I have to bribe her to throw away the trash."
"Not true," Sorra protested. "I did it last week, remember?"
"Only because Hibou told you to," Grey shot back. "How she can be completely organized on a mission and her side of the room looks like this, I'll never know."
"Can it bro." Sorra paid for their silence each with a can of illegal energy drink as they scrolled through the list of videos concerning the Grand Serena. "Let's argue about cooler stuff; like who beat each other up more." She pounded her fist for emphasis.
"Here we go," Grey said as he found a video of Flare's fight. "It's an amateur video, so don't expect anything great. This is the only one that hasn't been copyrighted yet though, so we're just gonna have to make due."
They watched as Fefnir's son faced off against his challenger, someone from Harpuia's enlisted forces. Flare's charcoal skin matched well with the dark red of his oversol. "He really doesn't hold back does he," Clover commented as Flare caused an explosion behind him to propel himself forward, blasting away the defending reploid's defenses before placing a palm on the surprised reploid's chest. A small explosion could be seen and Flare's opponent was knocked out of the ring.
"That was only seven seconds long," Sorra said. "That was cool and all, but I wanted to see more of what he was capable of. I guess it's too early for him to have an even match."
"Scary," Clover agreed. "Do you think they're all like that?"
Sorra shrugged. "I know Mist is strong, but Venti and Specter were always wild cards. They left the city before any of us could really see what they could do. But my guess is," she said, pointing at the medic crew assisting the fallen reploid to his feet, armor still smoking, "They're pretty strong too."
The four of them skipped forward to Flare's second fight, where it was a little less one-sided. His opponent was another fire expert who leapt around the stage with a bo staff channeling bursts of fire whenever he thought Flare let his guard down. It seemed as though the opposing reploid's plan was to tire Flare out. It didn't work though, as Flare's continuous attacks refused to falter even as his opponent grew sluggish and tired. When Flare thought that his enemy had sufficiently slowed down enough, he slammed a fist to the ground, creating a shockwave that he directed forward. His opponent had no chance to recover before it hit, taking him out.
"Another victory for Flare," Cero said. "Maybe Hibou was right and these are rigged."
Sorra made a face. "Don't tell him that. I love the guy, but I had to listen to enough of his conspiracy theories when we were growing up."
"Did he tell you that he thinks that Neo Arcadia is secretly under the control of a secret society bent on world domination?" Grey passed around a tub of popcorn he had made in secret. "That was a real fun one to argue." Unlike his sister, Grey found his godfather's insistence that not all was as it seemed more humorous than anything. "Apparently Umera's pulling the strings or something."
"They never did find him, did they?" Sorra shrugged. "Whatever. The guy's probably in a ditch somewhere; Neo Arcadia doesn't always tell the people when they find a target."
"Can we get back to the tournament?" Cero felt uncomfortable with this talk about elaborate secret societies and assassination.
"Oh yeah sure. Sorry about that Cero." Grey flipped through a few more results. "How about… let's see. How about this one?" He clicked on a video advertised as being between Aztec Falcon and the twice resurrected Fenri Lunaedge. Soon, the four of them were engrossed in a more dynamic fight, where Falcon almost lost to a deep incision caused by Fenri, but Aztec Falcon managed to score a hit on the lupine reploid, polarizing him. As Aztec Falcon raised his other limb, Fenri Lunaedge was dragged across the arena into out-of-bounds.
"That was a close one," Cero commented. Before any of them could agree, there was a choking sound beside him as Clover's face turned purple. "Clover?!"
"Don't worry," Grey assured him. "She just got into the popcorn is all." He gave Sorra a quick jerk of the head, and she gave the smaller girl the heimlich maneuver. Soon, a half-chewn kernel was on the floor as Clover's face glowed bright red.
"I forgot I couldn't eat human food," she squeaked. "Sorry."
"No biggie," Grey told her. "It was my bad for forgetting you don't eat this stuff. Here, I'll get you some E-crystals. Hibou always leaves some lying around when he visits."
Soon Clover's popcorn intolerance was forgotten as they browsed more matches. "This could make a cool fighting game," Clover said with interest. "I imagine some of these guys would be fun to play as."
"Who would you play as?" Cero asked. "Flare seems to Fight in your kind of style."
"I'd want a new midrange fighter," Clover told him. "Harpuia's a good fighter and all, I know you like him Cero, but they nerfed his abilities too hard. The developers made his swords do less damage than a regular close combat fighter because he can use electricity, but he doesn't have any of the combo moves that other avatars from Hero Simulator have. I think Aztec Falcon would be a good way to get it right and focus on the status effect more."
"You sure know your stuff little elf," Grey said through a mouth of popcorn. Cero noticed the slight change in her expression and sighed.
"She's a smart elf," Sorra told Cipher. "You should be proud."
Clover opened her mouth as if to say something, but seemed to lose the nerve. Cero bumped his shoulder with hers, and she looked up at him, grateful for his unspoken support. "Have you ever owned an elf?" she asked Sorra.
"Nope," she said. "They're usually reserved for the royalty or for high stakes missions. Why?"
"Nothing," Clover said sullenly. "Forget it."
"Are you okay?" Cero asked her quietly. "Do you want to talk?"
"I said it's nothing," Clover said. "It doesn't matter, anyway."
"Do you two need some time by yourselves?" Grey asked shrewdly. "It's okay. Sorra and I need to file a few papers anyway; we'll be back in about fifteen minutes, alright? We can watch some more then."
Once the twins were outside the room, Clover bowed her head, turning away. "What's wrong," Cero asked.
"It's just," Clover said miserably, "Did you hear the way she talked about elves? Like they were some sort of fancy toy or tool to be used. I'm not a tool."
"Of course not, Clover." Cero squeezed her hand awkwardly. "Nobody ever said that."
"No?" Clover wiped her face on her sleeve. "You can buy an elf. There are forums where people talk about what kind of elf they want, how much easier their life would be if they had one. It's illegal to buy a human or a reploid or even an Advent, so why can you buy an elf?"
Cero felt a chill run through his heart as he realized in horror that they had been treating her like a slave all this time without realizing it. "I'm so sorry Clover," he said desperately. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sure they didn't either - oh man, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Clover said as she hugged him. "I know you didn't mean it. Just don't do it again, okay? I don't actually mind being an elf, it's who I am. I just want other people to see me as a person too."
"Are you going to be okay with telling Sorra and Grey?" Cero asked. "I can do it if you're not comfortable with it."
"Would you?" Clover gave him a wide, trusting stare. "I don't know if I can do it myself."
'Of course," Cero said. "Tell me if you see me do anything like that again, okay? I don't want to see you get hurt. You're kind of my best friend," he added.
"You're my only friend," Clover told him. "And it's okay. I'll let you know." Clover squeezed his chest with a warm embrace before looking at the door, uncertain. "Promise me you'll still be my friend if they get mad, okay? I don't know what they'll say."
"I promise. You'll always be my best friend, no matter what." Clover gave him another quick hug before retreating to the safety of their bedroom. Cero braced himself for a conversation when Sorra and Grey returned, flinching when the door flew open.
"Sorry about that," Grey said. "The machine was broken." He looked around. "Hey, where's Clover?"
"She wasn't feeling well," Cero lied. "I think she ate too many energy crystals. Hey um," he said slowly, "Do you guys mind if you don't call her an elf anymore?"
"Why's that?" Sorra asked.
"It's the way we talk about her - about elves. Like they're not people or something."
"Cipher," Grey said gently, "I know Clover's your friend and all, but elves are different. It's not the same."
"How so," Cero demanded. "She has a personality, she has things she likes and dislikes. She's not different than any of us."
"You're too young to understand," Sorra said. "Cyber Elves have been used for about as long as anyone can remember. Even your mom used one to revive your dad."
"She didn't want to die though!" Cero glared at them. "How can you say that?"
"Relax," Sorra said. "We can see it's important to you. We'll stop calling her an elf."
"It's important to Clover," Cero said. He opened the door to leave, too frustrated to continue. Back inside the room, Clover was playing the sequel to Spellblade. She appeared too focused on the screen to have sensed him, but Cero knew she was just too nervous to say anything.
"How's the game?" Cero dropped down next to her. "I hear the third one's coming out soon."
"Yeah," Clover said. "But it's a different team that made it. I hear they're going for graphics over substance this time around."
"That sucks." Cero picked up a controller. "Mind if I play?"
"It has a two player option," Clover said with a smile. "You can be the Forest Spirit." Cero made an entry as the series' other protagonist, checking to see if they had any mana potions. It was several hours before they acknowledged the darkness outside and that they should probably be asleep.
"Hey Clover," Cero said. "You're getting pretty big now." He paused. "Mom got you a bed just for you. It'd have more room than mine."
"That's okay," she said. "I like yours. It's comfy."
Cero knew the matter would have to be brought up again later as she continued her growth spurt, but let it drop in light of the day's events. "Alright. Good night Clover."
"'Night!" she stopped at a quick-save point before settling in on the opposite end of the bed. "And um, thanks. For everything."
Cero felt a deep affection for his friend swell up in his heart as he settled in as well. "You too," he said. "For everything."
