This Tale contains spoilers from the entire saga. Do not read unless the entire three part saga has been read first. This is what we consider a 'Part 4/3' Tale, taking place where the Part 3/3 Epilogue left off.
Additionally, it is highly recommended that you first read the Tale titled 'Clover', otherwise, the reader may become lost.
Warning, this Tale contains the following: Sexual themes (mostly implied/mentioned), mentioning and/or consumption of alcohol, pagan (but fictional) beliefs, witchcraft, minor LGBT themes, and minor cussing.
== Return of The Skull =
"Hey, hey, hey!" Chiya lectured while rushing toward some boxes. "Those are my things, your things are in the boxes to the left!"
A now elder Lieutenant 'Lemming' Seppuku stood back up and sent her an intimidating gaze, "My base, my crap. I'll look through whatever box I want."
The Lower Federation chief shrugged helplessly, "This base is now property of the Lower Federation-"
"Yeah, yeah... now, where are those boxes?"
"There," she said pointing left.
The Man of Darkness squinted his eyes and grumbled, "...huh? Where?"
Chiya grabbed his head and forced it left, "Down there, old man."
This joke was taken in with brief rage, as the man swatted her arm away and moved forward, "Old man? Where? I'm not old."
The Mysterian leaned against a box of Christmas ornaments and took a look inside. She took into her hand a Korean ornament and smiled. The ornament was of an angel with Korean text wrapping around the cloth.
"Earl's parents gifted me these ornaments. Aren't they beautiful, Seppuku?"
The man didn't turn his head, he was too preoccupied with opening a box containing items Chiya had stored away from his office almost a decade ago.
"Why the Hell are you looking at ornaments? It's the middle of summer."
Chiya ignored the hostility and continued gazing at the ornament, she was bound by a smile. It was while staring at the object that she chuckled.
"It's funny, Earl," Seppuku bobbed his head for a moment, but chose not to speak this time. He wouldn't dare toss insulting words around when it came to Chiya and Earl. "It has been years since I met your parents, and I still find it amazing that you chose to stay away from such friendly folks."
While Chiya spoke to her inner realm, Seppuku proceeded on with his excavation of nostalgic pieces. He started off by pulling out a facial hair removing device that he would use more than twenty years ago. The next object he pulled was a bronze F-Zero trophy. He raised his eyebrows in surprise; the trophy was much more important to him than it ever was, given that he is no longer a licensed F-Zero pilot.
Chiya set the ornament back in the box and smacked her lips at Seppuku, "Find anything interesting?" She spotted the trophy and grinned, "Mhm, how could I ever forget that trophy. We both won a trophy that very eventful year..."
Seppuku beamed and held up a Red Star rocket launcher, "Hey, look what I found. Cool!"
The Mysterian froze and jumped onto one foot, "Je- Je- Je-..! Rocket propelled weaponry is not permitted in the base!" she panicked. She stole the launcher from his hands and backed away, "I'll dispose of this. I don't think Mom would approve of you bringing a launcher home, anyway."
The man smirked, "The only launcher Fiona would approve of me bringing home is-" He stopped himself and sighed, "Eh, who am I kidding. We're too old for that."
Meanwhile, in the lobby, Clover sat alongside Sarah and two fellow officers—male and female. The sun was going down, and thus, most badges were being put down for the night. While Clover may have been done working, she had a lot of energy left in her blood. The same couldn't be said for Sarah, however, her interest in hanging out with Clover kept her up.
Clover winked at the other female officer and placed a thumb over three playing cards, "I'm betting that you have at least three Magican Royals in your deck."
The officer returned a serious face, then a desperate one. With seconds gone by, the officer surrendered the three cards and picked three new cards off of the pile. Clover tossed her three Magican Royals over the surrendered cards; for guessing correctly, she did not have to draw three cards, thus bringing her down to only two cards remaining—a near victory.
"Damn," the officer replied. "How did you know I had three Royals?"
Clover snickered, "My first name says it all."
The moment was interrupted by Sarah's silent yawn, this grabbed Clover's interest as she looked over at her partner's deck of cards. The Mysterian quirked her mouth back in surprise, then tapped Sarah on the shoulder.
"...uh, Sarah, you literally have four Mysterian Monarchs in your deck..." she whispered.
The now-flowered officer opened her tired eyes some more, "That's bad, right?"
"You watch me play this all the time," Clover lectured.
"Ugh..." Sarah shook her head and raised the cards up, "Sorry, guys. I'm just so dang tired."
The male officer nodded in agreement, there was obvious exhaustion on him as well. He went ahead and asked, "How come?"
Clover offered a half glare to the man, fearing that they were deviating from the ongoing game. Regardless, Sarah answered, "I don't mean to say that we have the hardest job around here, but I'd be lying if I said that the role of Squad B is easy. We get called all over the Lower City for just about any job."
To Clover's displeasure, the female officer chimed in, "They're giving you two a load to do?"
Sarah chuckled, "That's an understatement. It's very exhausting; but that's why I'm so glad to have Clover by my side, she keeps me sane during hard days."
The flower officer was then shocked as Clover rested her cheek over her shoulder and wrapped an arm around her neck "Yep, we're amazing. Now, back to cards."
But before they could resume playing, everyone but Clover jumped up in shock as the sound of a gunshot went off upstairs. Sarah gritted her teeth and reached for her handgun, but Clover stopped her.
"Relax, it's only Seppuku."
Chiya had Seppuku down on the floor and was wrestling him for a gun, smoke came off of it after having fired.
"Damn liberal, why did you even store away these guns if you're just going to take them away from me?"
"I'd let you keep them if you could refrain from firing outside of the shooting range!"
Seppuku pushed the woman off of him and nodded, "Deal."
Soon after, the former lieutenant continued to search boxes for things to take with him. He planned on leaving things he didn't want behind for Chiya to dispose of. Chiya leaned against a wall and entered a deep thought; Seppuku pulled out about twenty switchblades, a few more guns, and old decorations that used to sit on his desk. It was only on the very bottom that he discovered something of great interest to him; like a child receiving a wrapped present on Christmas, Seppuku enlisted extreme interest upon pulling up a mysterious metal box. This object caught Chiya's eye, and so she approached him.
"What's in the box?" she asked.
"Not sure, it eludes me... yet, this box seems familiar."
Chiya came even closer to him, "Hey, I have an idea..."
"Hm?"
"Let's open it."
Seppuku put his nails under the box's lid and responded, "Oh, wow, what an ingenious idea..."
The lid was opened, and both adults widened their eyes for a moment. Within the box were the remains of a human skull; the front of the skull had been broken off like a mask, the other pieces were laying around it.
Chiya sighed, "Ah, just another skull..."
The Man of Darkness' gaze remained strong, "No, wait..." He rubbed his chin with increasing awe. "Flower- err... Bendek, do you know what this is?"
"A skull."
"Not just a skull..." he confronted her with a very serious face, "The Skull."
"The Skull?" The Mysterian lowered her eyelids in puzzlement, trying to grasp what he was talking about. It took a few moments for the woman to snap her fingers. "Oh my! You mean the F-Zero pilot slash Dark Million magician?"
Seppuku tossed the skull's face up and proceeded to examine it. As one might suspect, the bone material was cracked in many spots; making a simple enough mistake such as dropping the face would in all likeliness destroy it.
The two adults stood beside each other and looked upon the long-deceased magician's face. After an exchange of glances, the two made their simultaneous responses.
"Cool."
"Ew!"
Seppuku held the face up with both hands and laughed, "Aw man, I'm definitely taking this home!"
"Blimey, Seppuku. Mom isn't going to want some dead guy's skeleton face in her house." Chiya threw a disapproving head shake his way. "Just toss that thing in the garbage."
The man continued to laugh, "You want me to throw this gem away, Chiya?"
"On second thought, no. What you should really do is offer it to F-Zero committee, they'll probably put it in their museum in exchange for credits. At any rate, a museum is probably where it belongs."
Of course, Seppuku didn't take her advice with any seriousness, "As I recall, this is my trophy. Kids can go search up an image of The Skull's face if they're so interested—this beauty is mine."
Again, Chiya shook in disapproval, "That is disgusting." Yet again, she shook; this time as she prepared to conclude the subject, "Do whatever you want with it, Seppuku. Just get it our of here. Police chiefs probably shouldn't have skulls in their base."
"Nice," he stuck the skull face down his pocket, then resumed digging around in the box. "Now, where's that lingerie photo of Jody I had in my desk... it must be in here somewhere."
Chiya opened her eyes with a quirked mouth, "Oh, that? I disposed of that two or three years ago."
Seppuku's first reaction was to jolt up and ask, "What?"
"I shredded it."
The Man of Darkness blinked once, then narrowed his eyes into slits, "...what..?"
Chiya shrugged with a cute smile, "I mean... Jody is my boss... and my good friend." Seppuku's anger intensified. "It was only appropriate that I disposed of the lingerie photo."
A moment of silence broke the two apart. Seppuku remained motionless, gathering in his head what Chiya had done. After coming to the conclusion that it was gone, the man tossed his arms up into the air and began walking away.
"That's it, I'm done. Thank you for ruining my life, Chiya."
The Mysterian grunted, then chased after him, "Wait, Seppuku, I'm sorry!"
"Game," Clover boasted after slapping her final card down.
In a friendly, yet scornful manner, the fellow female officer answered, "You know a thing or two about cards, Clover. Sarah had a hard understanding of what to do, but you managed to carry her."
Sarah giggled for a moment and kicked her feet down, "I'd prefer if Clover always carried me when it comes to-"
"Know a thing or two?" Clover interrupted. "I am the offspring of the legend himself. My father practically invented this game!" she argued.
"Clover..." Sarah muttered.
"Girls," the male officer said intervening. "Let's not get into an argument."
The Mysterian crossed her arms with a somewhat offended smirk, "I'm not mad, I'd just like some respect for being a clean and professional gambler. I don't cheat, I don't hustle; I just play to win."
Both Clover and Sarah then looked past their opponents' shoulders, Sarah did so with startled eyes. The tall and old, but still intimidating, Man of Darkness approached the group with a mischievous grin. He, of course, chimed into the conversation.
"Earl was a great gambler, but he would rarely ever face me. He knew that I always had a card up my sleeve, literally; but the times I did face him were very eluding to the mind." All four officers looked at the towering man. "Your father was unpredictable; his face conveyed optimism and trickery—it couldn't be read. He, on the other hand, could read the roughest of emotions and dominate with it. I don't even think one as dull and faceless as Jody 'the Bat' could have slipped by his facial espionage."
Clover grinned, "My dad sounds pretty cool."
"He was alright."
Sarah was the most nervous of the four, as she had only heard stories of the now-legendary Lieutenant Seppuku. He was considered the father and eternal leader of the Lower Federation, but was thought to have been deceased the past two decades. Thus, there was uncertainty within the Federation of how to treat Seppuku—with authority or respect.
After about ten seconds of silence, Seppuku startled the group again by pulling out The Skull's face in a very sporadic movement.
"Hey, Clover, check this out!" he said with excitement.
The skeleton's face spun around on the table; the reactions of the four were lopsided.
"Ew!"
"What the-"
"Cool," Clover answered.
"Damn right it's cool. It's The Skull's face."
Sarah tilted her head, "A skull's face?"
Clover chuckled, "The Skull." She opened her eyes and held up the artifact, "I know a ton about the magician racer."
"Did you know that it was I who killed the bastard?" asked Seppuku.
"Mom may have spoken about it, once or twice." Clover continued to examine the skull fragment, "The many conspiracy theories surrounding The Skull fascinates me, specifically, those centering around the origin of his black magic."
The other female officer chuckled and stood up, "Okay, alright, that's enough for me. I'm not getting into a discussion about magic..."
The male made a very similar exit, though did not speak in such a rude manner. Sarah had a striving interest in departing as well, but did not want to risk offending either of the two. Clover accepted the departure of her gambling opponents, as her interest now sat with Seppuku.
Clover's examination of the skull fragment continued, meanwhile, more anxiety arrived for Sarah as Chiya made the scene. The simple officer had become suddenly trapped in a room of celebrities—she was a peasant in a king's court.
The elder Mysterian bloated her cheeks up in a hostile manner and grabbed Seppuku by the ear. The man hissed at her in response.
"Seppuku, please don't pester my baby with human remains... ...again..."
"I'm not; I'm showing her my trophy."
Clover nodded and set the fragment down, "Yeah, Mom; he's just showing me his trophy."
Chiya widened her eyes, "Wha- Bu- Bu- ..!" She groaned and shook with discontent. "Come with me, Seppuku; I will show you to your room."
The two turned and took leave for the hallway, where they'd enter an elevator.
"Excellent, I'll take the penthouse..."
"We don't have a penthouse."
Seppuku grunted, "Several Grand Prix victories and you never considered building a penthouse floor..."
"Be quiet," Chiya ordered.
The lobby door closed, thus leaving Clover and Sarah alone in the lobby late in the evening. The two girls exchanged glances before picking up the cards left on the table. The skull fragment remained on the table, where Clover placed the stacked cards beside.
Few minutes later, Chiya opened the door to a very casual bedroom situated on the third floor. The room was fashioned in the exact same way as all the other rooms in the base; since it was a vacant room, only a bed, table, and phone were present.
"Here you are!" Chiya said with an extended hand.
The Mysterian wasn't surprised in the slightest to find a look of discontent on Seppuku's face. He stood there with a disapproving look, tapping his foot down with frustration.
"Not even a television..." he muttered.
"You wanted a place to stay," she argued.
He chuckled in a scornful way, "I was looking for a place to relax, how am I supposed to do so?" With hesitation, Seppuku walked into the room and scratched his head. "The bed looks fine, but that's about all there is going for the room."
The chief turned away and went back out the door, "I didn't exactly plan for your return. These rooms are built for recruits, they may customize it as they please." She snapped her fingers with a half glare. "Mind you, this is a police headquarter—not a hotel."
Seppuku tossed himself over the bed and asked, "I'm allowed to access the ground floor services?" He then laughed, "Of course I am, it's my damn base..."
"Officers are restricted to only one beer a day." The Mysterian sighed with closed eyes. "I'll... make an exception, in your case."
With this being said, the situation wasn't nearly as bad for Seppuku. He faced her again and nodded, "Very good, but at any rate, I think I'll just crash on the bed soon. Thank you for the... ahem... 'room'."
Chiya bowed, "Don't mention it."
"Alright, let me pat you on the head and then get the Hell out of my room."
A gleeful woman approached Seppuku and dipped her head down, he grasped the top of her head and gently tapped it. After the slightly heartwarming exchange, Seppuku snapped his fingers and pointed at the door.
"Now, get to bed; Earl's waiting for you."
As suggested, Chiya would retire down to her bedroom after an extended period of being awake. Working with Seppuku had always presented the Mysterian with stress and frustration two decades ago; the elderly Seppuku was no exception. Nevertheless, she was happy to have the man back in her life; if it were her decision, though, she would have him living a less energetic life back on Mysteria. While he did leave on Mysteria alongside Fiona, the man remained a high-powered battery with no clear sign of dying down.
Chiya made her bed, put on her nightgown, and placed two cats beside her pillow. Of the four cats she now owned, only one was the direct offspring of Mauser and Siberia—a very old cat. The other three were artificially created felines using the blood of each other offspring; with the help of science, Mauser and Siberia had a continuing dynasty going.
"Off to bed," Chiya announced.
She leapt onto bed and reached over for the lamp, but a strange occurrence came as of that moment; the lights turned off on their own accord. Now in the dark, Chiya blinked without a clue of what had happened. Her initial presumption that a power outage had occurred at that moment, a somewhat common issue in the Lower City in this new age.
With this presumption in mind, Chiya brought herself down upon the bed in preparation for slumber.
"Blow me, electric company!" Clover complained aloud.
The young Mysterian paced around her dark bedroom in somewhat of a tantrum. She was still distanced from the idea of sleeping and desired to watch television; this sudden occurrence was almost forcing her to sleep.
With a tempered face, the girl sat on her bed and sighed. She gazed into the void darkness of her room while contemplating what to do. To go along with the darkness was silence; despite living amongst so many officers, not a sound could be heard.
I wonder if Sarah's still up… she wondered.
After thinking this, one sound did come to be—a mysterious stretched whistle. Both her eyebrows lowered with curiosity as the whistling continued to amplify. Soon, the sound became more chilling than mysterious.
"What the-" Clover sat up straight and gritted her teeth. She shouted, "Mom, is that you?"
The whistling remained consistent, but soon became unnaturally loud. All of a sudden, the whistle intensified along with a powerful gust of wind. Clover felt blown back by the gust, and with very wide eyes, stepped away and gasped. She was unable to explain to herself what was happening, but somehow, an inconsistent breeze had formed within her room.
Clover continued to back away toward a wall, her heart beating in absolute surprise. She grabbed her mobile device off her bed before pressing herself against the wall. Shivering from the breeze and trembling in fear, Clover dialed up Sarah. It was as the phone rang that another anonymous event occurred. Glowing blue ripples of fog began to consume the bedroom. The Mysterian pressed her rear against the wall and dropped her jaw in absolute fright.
Wind and a ghastly hue of blue—this contradicted with logic, considering her bedroom had no window.
"Clover."
"Sarah!"
From the other end, Sarah expressed confused silence before asking, "…ar—re you… seeing-"
"Get the Hell down here, Sarah. I'm scared!" Before Sarah could respond, Clover had been smacked across the face by a gust. "Never mind, I'm coming to you!"
Meanwhile, a grumpy Seppuku remained sitting on his bed. Constant gusts of wind slammed against his face along with the haunting streaks of blue floating around the room. The man moved his eyes left, then right; he gazed upon the unusual sight and had only such to say.
"Dammit, Chiya. Turn off the AC…" He stood up, and it was upon doing so that a more powerful breeze forced his hair to whip across his face. His entire face had been covered with hair, which he soon moved aside. "Or at the very least turn it down a damn hair…"
The Man of Darkness kicked open the door and marched straight into the third floor hallway, where he proceeded to move toward the stairway. He continued to grumble disapproving words aloud while moving.
A very concerned Chiya entered her office and tried turning on the lights, to no avail. The ghastly blue substance was offering some light to each room she entered. This was beyond unusual to her, but unlike Clover, her initial thought pertained to a logical occurrence—a gas leak.
The woman got on her knees and crawled over by a ventilation system installed near the floor; this did not appear to be the source of the ghastly substance. She hummed with curiosity and scratched her chin.
"But…" She narrowed her eyes and grunted, "But where's that bloody breeze coming from..?"
Soon after, a displease Seppuku kicked open the office door and pointed at Chiya. "You!" Chiya gasped and jumped up on her feet. "Turn off the damn AC! It's cold as Hell in here!"
The window once more forced Seppuku's hair to slap against his face, in which Chiya crossed her arms and asked, "Um, you think this is the AC's doing?"
"Unless this is a draft, in which case, close the damn window!"
Chiya puckered her lips with displeasure, "Seppuku, this is not some common occurrence." She glared, "Have you not seen the spooky blue gas stuff floating around the room?"
Seppuku looked down at the floor, the bottom layer of every room was filled with this ghastly blue glowing substance—almost like fog. The Man of Darkness scratched his chin and hummed.
"I suppose that is a bit concerning…" He turned his attention back onto her and asked, "This doesn't usually happen?"
"No!"
Not much later, a knocking came to Sarah's bedroom door. She opened it and was attacked by a trembling Clover, who wrapped around her like some frightened child.
"Oh thank God!" Clover panicked.
Sarah puckered her lips with a somewhat timid face, then placed a hand over Clover's back. "Did Mistress Chiya have any orders to give on this matter?"
"I didn't go and see Mom."
The officer's eyes widened, "You came to me before your own mother?"
"Yes."
Sarah remained silent for a moment with a very brief smug expression. "We should probably contact Mistress Chiya."
Clover nodded with a frantic face, then held up her mobile device.
From within the garage, Chiya paced back and forth near the Purring Kitten with scattered officers around her.
"Officers of the Lower Federation, it is to my understanding that we are under attack from an unknown threat. Perhaps it is the Goroh Clan, maybe it's the Dixies of the East. If I am understanding the situation correctly, there are no working mobile devices in this garage?"
The man officers looked amongst one another in search of objection, no soul had a working mobile device on them at this point. The female officer Clover and Sarah had been playing with earlier raised her hand.
"Mistress Chiya, my phone was working five or so minutes ago. The battery was almost full, too."
The Mysterian placed a thumb over her chin in puzzlement, "How peculiar..."
Meanwhile, Seppuku revealed himself from the corner of the garage and reported, "The backup power supply I had installed here isn't working."
Chiya widened her eyes a bit and hummed. It was very rare that the backup power supply would be turned on, but regardless, she knew that it was a working generator. There was not a spark of power to be found anywhere in the base, including mobile devices and other electrical gadgets. This led her to one conclusion.
"We are being struck by a super electromagnetic pulse; I am almost certain that Antonio Guster is behind this, given that he possesses such weaponry." The next fear she had pertained to the ghastly substance filling every room. "I want everyone to evacuate the building and get checked for poison at the Federation HQ."
After saying this, Chiya moved toward the lobby alongside her fellow officers. Seppuku, however, remained standing by the F-Zero machines and hummed in suspicion.
"This all seems... familiar..."
Clover put down her mobile device and groaned, "I don't get it! I never let my phone die..."
"Don't hit yourself too hard," Sarah said in fear. "My phone's dead too!"
Both girls closed their eyes for a moment to think; Sarah put away her phone and explained, "Something bad's going on. We need to protect Mistress Chiya!"
A frightened Clover leaned against the wall and crossed her arms to tremble, "...agreed, but I'm a little more concerned about my own hide right now..."
Clover continued to tremble in fear; she was ill-prepared for such a frightening experience; had it not been for Sarah's presence, she would be paralyzed in fear. Very fortunately, Sarah was prepared to act the leader of the two, for once; she returned to Clover with a handgun ready. The flowered officer was surprised to find that all of the electrical gadgets of the gun were off. This led her to the very same conclusion that Chiya had—an electromagnetic pulse.
"Clover," the Mysterian looked up with gritted teeth. "What we need to do is secure your mother. You must escort her away from here; I'll remain here and fight off any unwanted guests."
"Are you crazy!?" Clover grabbed Sarah by the shoulders and shook her, "I don't want you to stay here if there's an invasion!" she panicked.
These words brought strength into Sarah's mind, in which she then said, "I must."
"Yeah, well... I'm all up for finding Mom, but let's postpone that crazy 'go on without me' idea..."
"Deal."
The two left the room and went back into the hallway, where they were treated with some degree of light from an end window. This did not dispel Clover's fears, only enhanced them on the account that she was expecting a silhouette to appear at the end of the hallway.
"Blimey, I don't know which I'm more afraid of; utter darkness or some darkness..."
Unfitting for such an instance, Sarah smirked and asked, "Wait, you're afraid of the dark, Clover? That's so cute."
"...say that again and I'll kill you..." she muttered back.
And so they continued down the hallway with great caution. Sarah kept her eyes peeled for anything that may pose a threat—such as a bomb. Clover's eyes were searching everywhere for superstitious happenings. Of the two, Sarah was the much calmer person; perhaps because of her obsession with keeping Chiya Bendek protected—an almost robotic protocol most Lower Federation officers had.
As they came about a third of the way down the hallway, Clover stepped on a specific panel of the floor—this caused a creak.
"Wa—ah!" Clover panicked. All of a sudden, Sarah found herself struggling with Clover over control of the handgun. "Monster! Ghost!" Clover panicked.
Sarah half glared and tugged on the gun, "Have you lost your mind, Clover!?" Clover released her grasp of Sarah's gun; the officer backed up afterwards. "There are no monsters or ghouls."
Clover faced her and nodded before exhaling, but before able to fully calm down, her eyes widened again in utter shock. The girl proceeded to drop her jaw and tremble in fear; Sarah took this the wrong way and frowned.
"Um! Please don't be mad at me, Clover. I'm sorry for shouting!" The officer pushed her fingers together and added, "I would never dream of shouting at you, it's just that this is a serious situation-"
Clover pointed past Sarah's shoulder and interrupted, "No ghouls or monsters, you say..?"
With a blank face, Sarah turned her head toward the wall. Her face froze in a panic as incomprehensible words slipped out from her mouth. Behind her was the sentence, 'Return the prestige and reputation that has been taken from me', being sketched and into the wall by an unseen force. Sarah could feel her hair stick up in fright, meanwhile, Clover collapsed onto the ground.
"Clover!" Sarah panicked. She dropped onto the floor and grabbed Clover by the head, the shock factor of the sketched sentence knocked her out on the spot. "Wake up!"
The officer looked back at the now-completed wall writing with much fear, but she was quick in returning temporary focus to Clover. She continued to look back and forth between Clover and the wall before deciding to continue onward with the plan of finding Chiya.
Sarah picked Clover up and rushed down the misty blue hall, her target being the stairway.
"It's stuck!" an officer shouted to Chiya.
The lobby door couldn't be opened, it wouldn't even shake when pushed or pulled. This was to the extreme dismay of all officers in the room, many of which, including Chiya, feared that they may be suffering from a poison of some type.
Three officers worked together in pulling the door open, desperate to escape, but to no avail. As Chiya bit her thumb, Seppuku soon made his presence at the door.
"Damn amateurs..." He pushed the officers aside and tapped his foot down twice. "I've kicked one or two doors down in my day..."
Everyone in the room watched as Seppuku performed a foot exercise—almost a ritual—then nodded to himself. With intense force, he swung his side and fired his foot toward the entrance door; his sole made collision with the door but fell flat. The door had not moved in the slightest. As a reaction, even the Man of Darkness gasped.
"Huh... wow..."
Chiya approached him whilst scratching her head in puzzlement, "I don't understand, you used to kick holes through layers of metal. What's different?"
"Mind you, I no longer possess such power—I gave it to you in order to finish off Black Shadow." Chiya closed her eyes and sighed, Seppuku then hummed with rising curiosity. "But, still..." He looked down at the door and punched it, nothing happened. "Very strange that this door won't even shake. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this is a stage prop..."
"I assure you, it is a real door. It's the very same door you installed decades ago."
"Interesting..."
A moment of silence ensued, which was kept brief as the overall morale of the officers had a sporadic fall. Many trembled and panicked amongst each other. Chiya turned to face her men and women, she whistled and clapped her hands.
"Hey! Everybody calm down and help find a way out of here." After taking a heavy breath, Chiya pointed at the door and ordered, "Clover, try and get-" It was just after beginning this sentence that Chiya gasped, "O- Oh God, where's Clover!?"
The officers spread out and looked around, an immediate understanding was reached that Clover was not in the room. For a lone mother with an only child, this changed Chiya's objective from wanting to escape, to finding her daughter.
"Bloody Hell! I want search parties dispersed immediately!" Chiya shouted.
Seppuku put a gentle hand over her shoulder and argued, "Relax, Bendek. Clover's probably in her room."
The Mysterian retaliated by swatting his hand away, "Go on, get! Find my daughter-"
A shock wave of fear had suddenly been installed into every person in the room, as the once gentle breeze had become very violent for a moment. A very high-pitched but mellow voice soon filled every room of the ground floor.
"Love, prestige, and respect once encompassed my known soul..." the voice echoed. Everyone but Seppuku gasped and looked around the lobby in a frantic nature. "Bring it back so that I may be tame."
Chiya took a handgun into her hand seconds after this had been said, "Guster? Is that you!?"
Seppuku cracked his knuckles, "Did that sound anything like Guster to you? That voice was loud, high-pitched, and annoying..." He then stomped his foot down. "Zoda, is that you?"
After reviewing the mental state of her officers, Chiya cupped a hand over her mouth and contemplated aloud, "Love, prestige, and respect... bring it back... so I may be tame..?"
"Sounds like fighting words to me..."
Chiya gulped and rubbed her forehead, "Something's not right about this... Guster's too stupid to pull something like this off..."
Seppuku nodded, "I think we're dealing with something supernatural."
Again, Chiya cupped a fist over her mouth; then she raised both brows and asked, "Where's Clover..?"
Clover was being dragged by her right hand down a hallway, thus, her reaction to waking up was that of extreme fright.
"Whoa, whoa..!"
Sarah puckered her lips and dropped Clover, who flopped around like a fish for a moment. The Mysterian got on her knees and looked up with wide eyes.
"Sarah..!"
"Clover, thank God you're alright."
The officer helped Clover onto her feet, both girls appeared startled by what they were seeing at the end of this hallway—nothing. They were heading for a stairway, but only found a wall.
"Sarah! Where's the stairway!?" Clover's eyes bounced around in fright, "You chose the right hallway, right?"
"I- I don't understand. I dragged you both here and to the other hall, neither side has a stairway..."
Clover ran up to the wall and touched it, then shook her head in great awe, "What!? Who's pussyfooting with us?"
Meanwhile, Sarah forced open an elevator and turned to face Clover, who appeared beyond confused. Once the elevator had been opened, Sarah pointed inside with a gun still in the other hand.
"Sarah, there's no power..."
"There's no stairway, either."
Clover's eyes widened again as she looked back at the wall, where the stairway was supposed to be, "Th- That's a lie! We must be missing something..."
"Clover, you were right about there being something wrong in this base. Regardless, we need to stay focused and get down by Mistress Chiya!"
The young Mysterian joined Sarah in the elevator and groaned, "Okay, but you're still missing the biggest issue—an elevator without power will not get us anywhere."
Upon making this argument, Sarah opened up a panel in the elevator, which revealed a wheel. The look on Clover's face suggested unfamiliarity with this piece of the elevator.
"We can use this to manually lower ourselves, but..." Sarah lowered her eyelids in shame, "I'm not a very strong person, so could you help-"
Clover jumped by her side and grabbed onto the wheel, "Next stop, anywhere but here!"
Seppuku kicked open the door to Chiya's office, in which she crossed her arms and lectured, "You could, not, do that..."
"Sorry."
Alone, the two ventured into the almost pitch black office in search of clues, specifically on the whereabouts of the voice they had heard. Chiya moved toward her desk and grabbed a scented candle, she pressed a button on it which brought about a flame on top. This candle offered little visibility, but enough.
Both adults searched the office for anything suspicious, not a soul was visible in the room—only the same ghastly blue substance floating around the floor. Chiya's eyes veered toward the more logical spots, such as the furnace vent, bookshelves, and other places one might hide. Seppuku, on the other hand, sought out the less conspicuous spots of the room—such as corners, lamps, plants, and other small things.
"Blimey, this gas is going to kill us if we don't get out soon..."
Seppuku argued, "I don't think this is gas, just some kind of... fog..."
The man came to a stop and lowered his bottom lip in awe. Chiya continued to search around for anything suspicious, soon she ceased and turned to face Seppuku. A bolt of shock went through her system upon looking forward with him. Likewise with what Sarah and Clover had encountered, the wall in front of them was being vandalized with the sentence, 'Return the prestige and reputation that has been taken from me'. These two, however, caught the vandalism as it was being made. Each word was being written in a very sharp way—as though the tip of a nail being used to make the words.
Speechless, Chiya stepped back, but was caught by the lieutenant. Without fear, the Man of Darkness approached the writing in progress and placed a finger below one of the letters as it was being drawn. The carved line of the letter continued to droop down and soon reached the tip of his finger; he felt nothing as the line continued through his finger. He took his finger away, which revealed an unhindered line. If it were a nail that was creating the words, it had ripped through Seppuku's finger as though nothing was there.
"Seppuku?"
The man nodded at the cryptic sentence, "The presence of my finger did not slow down the formation of the letter. This suggests that the culprit may be working from... an unreachable segment of this reality..?"
Chiya scratched her eyebrow, "Well, what does time travel have to do with this?"
"Idiot..."
"Well, okay! What are you implying? Spit it out or shut up."
Seppuku looked back at the wall and nodded, "You either have pissy termites, or a ghost..."
The Mysterian closed her eyes and smirked, "...a ghost..?"
"Or, a phantom, if you will."
Chiya continued to offer a doubtful look, but at the same time, couldn't find an alternative explanation for the wall writing. She was still distanced from the answer, but Seppuku was putting the pieces together.
"Follow," he ordered. "Let's return to the lobby, I have a thought."
Clover and Sarah were working together in bringing the elevator down through manual means. Despite being isolated with Sarah in a 5 foot wide elevator, Clover remained beyond frightened that something would be coming for them. Her fears acted as fuel, which helped bring the elevator down at a much faster pace.
Sarah looked up and down at Clover as they spun the elevator wheel. "Clover, you need to calm down a bit. I wouldn't want you fainting again."
The Mysterian shook her head, "Fainting isn't something I normally do when I'm scared..." She then jolted her head up and forced a chuckle. "E- Except I'm not scared, is the thing. I'm 'frightened', there's a huge difference."
"There is?"
Clover looked away from her companion, "Sure there is..! I'm frightened, not scared; my body is made from toughness—impenetrable to scary things." She looked back at Sarah and continued to explain, "See, I wouldn't use the term 'fainted', I would say, 'reacted' to the wall writing."
Moments after saying this, the elevator hit the ground floor, which made Clover jump in surprise. Since the elevator door had never closed, the two were faced with a lobby full of officers, including Chiya and Seppuku. Sarah's eyes widened for a moment, then closed as shyness took over.
"...okay, stop looking at me, people..." Sarah muttered to herself.
A relieved Clover walked out of the elevator, now much calmer. She stretched her arms and boasted, "A—and here we are, Sarah! You needn't panic any longer!"
Before Sarah could respond, Chiya rushed to Clover and shook her around in joy.
"Oh, little Clover is alright! It's alright, Clover! You're safe with your friends and family, now! I was so worried about you!"
Clover looked away from the crowd of officers while being shook, "M- Mo—om..!"
As the crowd of officers chuckled, snickered, and laughed, Sarah slipped away from the elevator and blended in with the crowd. If able, she'd prefer to never be part of the center of attention. Seppuku was the only one not laughing, rather, he looked toward the lobby entrance—which they could still not get open.
"If you're quite done choking your child with hugs, I'd like to get this door open."
Chiya released Clover and nodded, "Yes, of course." She snapped her fingers and pointed forward, "Clover, please have that door removed, on the double."
The humiliated Mysterian stood up and looked over at the door, she raised an immediate eyebrow, "Huh? How did the door shift over like that?"
Many heads turned in confusion, some officers expressed acknowledgment in the matter, thinking alike with Clover. Chiya and Seppuku were amongst those confused, not understanding Clover.
"What do you mean, dear?" asked Chiya.
"The door, it was installed symmetrically with the room. Now it's more to the left of the room."
Chiya hummed, then turned to the original architect of the building, "Is this true, Seppuku?"
The Man of Darkness studied the door, then gave Clover a thumbs-up, "She speaks truth." Chiya grunted with wide eyes. "I designed all of my structures with perfect symmetry. Every hallway has doors that are symmetrical to one another, all lights were installed in the very center of each room, and so on."
Chiya was left with trembling lips of confusement, nonetheless, she repeated her order, "Crack open the door, Clover."
The young Mysterian hurried through the crowd, anxious to get the door open and take leave, but she had been brought to an immediate halt out of fear. Once again, the message 'Return the prestige and reputation that has been taken from me' began to emerge in the spot where Clover and Seppuku claimed the door was supposed to be.
An almost white Clover backed straight into Sarah and held onto her.
"Uh, d- don't worry, Sarah! I'll protect you..!" she hid behind the officer and finished, "...behind you..."
Chiya walked forth and approached the writing, "We-"
Finally, the mysterious voice echoed once more, "Love, prestige, and respect once encompassed my known soul..." Clover and Sarah both dropped their jaws, for they had not yet heard this. "Bring it back so that I may be tame."
Chiya gritted her teeth and answered, "Zoda, we cannot bring back what one never had in the first place!"
Clover gasped and snapped her fingers, "Ah, Zoda! Of course! It all makes sense now."
At that moment, Seppuku jumped onto the lobby table, "That, is not Zoda... at least I don't think..." Seppuku reached down, then held The Skull's face up high. "This is the work of The Skull, here to disrupt everyone's beauty sleep!"
Chiya closed her eyes and bit her lip, "Of course, what was I thinking..."
Seppuku nodded, "And he would have gotten away with it, too; if it weren't for my meddling brain and gleeful attitude."
Everyone gazed upon the skull fragment—the remnant of Black Shadow's one and only dark illusionist. Clover covered her mouth in surprise before pointing up at the artifact.
"You mean, The Skull is still alive?"
"It would appear so," Seppuku answered. "And now the spirit that rests within his ugly face has returned in a pathetic attempt to scare you guys."
Clover puckered her lips, "...not me..."
"Nor I," Seppuku acknowledged.
Chiya stomped her foot down, "Hey! What are we going to do about this, Seppuku? If what you say is true, Skull is demanding something from us."
Looks were exchanged around the room, much confusion was conveyed as to who the leader was in this situation, Mistress Chiya or Seppuku 'Father of the Lower Federation'. Seppuku rubbed his chin and poked his fingers through the eyes of The Skull's face.
"I say, we destroy The Skull once and for all." He waved the face around with one hand and added, "We stomp on this thing until all that remains is bone stuff..."
An officer raised his hand, "You mean, 'collagen'?"
"We're going with 'bone stuff', but thank you, dickbag."
Chiya nodded, but also displayed doubt, "You mentioned that this could be a matter of soul, right?"
"Yeah."
"What if smashing his face doesn't do the trick? Would we not greatly offend Skull, and thus negate any chance of him releasing us?"
"Nope," Seppuku swiped at her.
Chiya glared, "Nope? What do you mean, 'nope'?"
"I doubt that's a possibility. Let's smash."
In response, Chiya leapt onto the table and grabbed the artifact; both held onto it.
"Hold on, Seppuku! We need to reach a consensus on this matter!"
Seppuku denied the statement, "Chiya, I respect you, I really do. But this has to be done so that no one ever falls victim to this guy again."
Chiya offered mutual respect with a nod, but remained firm with her theory, "One thing I've learned as leader of the Lower Federation is that, at times, you must earn the respect of your enemy in order to acquire total victory."
He smirked, "So, what are you suggesting, then? That we give him what he wants?"
"Uh, well..." She shook her head negatively, "I am up for a compromise with The Skull that benefits both parties."
"Are you serious?" Seppuku complained.
Clover and Sarah exchanged glances, feeling that this argument could last a good deal of time. It was at that moment both girls, and every other officer, took note of a strange happening near the door. A blue blur emerged midair in the form of a human figure, everyone but Chiya and Seppuku gasped or screamed at this.
Chiya took her eyes off of Seppuku and caught the emergence with her own eyes, both her eyes widened intensely. "Blimey, what is this, now..?"
The blue blur faded away as ghastly figure in a black cloak appeared before the group, the skeletal face of the figure came into sight as he looked up. Clover's eyes trembled in absolute horror before, once again, falling over. Sarah caught her in an almost automatic way. The figure floated toward Chiya and Seppuku, who were both holding onto The Skull's facial remains, but no longer fighting.
Seppuku raised an eyebrow at the approaching skeleton, "My God, Jody; put some makeup on."
This figure was, of course, a cursed projection of The Skull, who appeared most interested in Chiya.
"You have mentioned... a compromise?" The Skull asked.
Chiya and Seppuku both exchanged glances, Seppuku being the one to say, "That depends entirely on what you want and, most importantly, what I get..."
The elder Mysterian took this moment to snatch the face from Seppuku's grasp, then brought it to her chest. "Skull, why have you returned to haunt my organization? Black Shadow is dead..."
"...I have been awoken on this day with the discovery of what remains..."
Chiya held up the face, "You mean... your face?"
Seppuku stole the face back from Chiya, "My face..."
The Skull brought his hands together, "Two decades have passed since my passing, and two decades have passed since I was made a free man from the grasp of Black Shadow—the evil one."
"Black Shadow's dead," Seppuku explained.
"Indeed, and I have been freed from the dark contract I made with him centuries ago."
Chiya and Seppuku exchanged glances, many officers had their weapons trained on The Skull, despite the ineffectiveness bullets would likely have on his ghost.
"Contract?" asked Chiya.
The skeleton further approached the table, "My everlasting fascination with F-Max came to be my downfall. I, Sterling LaVaughan, could not bear the thought of letting a future achiever break my records and experience a genre of racing I would never live to so much as see. My relationship with Black Shadow was made with an internal ambition to experience more, but I was in turn given more than I agreed to..."
Seppuku affirmed this with a nod, "Eternal life," he guessed.
"Black Shadow turned me into a monster, a slave, a villain... someone to fear, and no longer respect..."
Chiya took the face away from Seppuku again, "But just what is it that you want? If you promise to refrain from wrongdoing, the Federation is here to help."
"-for the right price," Seppuku added.
The Skull lowered his hood and gazed upon Chiya with two glowing eye sockets, "I desire for the curtain to fall upon the stage with a sense of tragedy, not justice. I desire a different ending... one where future generations acknowledge the greatness of my past, and the tragedy that befell me in the form of Black Shadow..." The skeleton reached for Chiya's face, almost hypnotizing him with his demon-like gaze, "Your soul trickles with the tragic life of a Chiya Rose, another soul who had suffered a fate as tragic as mine."
Chiya lowered her eyelids and sighed, "I do understand that mistakes can be made in many shapes and forms. I agree that you and Rose are of a similar case..."
Seppuku took the face back from Chiya, "But before we get to what you want from us, what will you give to me?"
The Skull reached up toward Seppuku, "Respect, admiration-"
"Nope."
One last time, Chiya snatched the face away from Seppuku, then jumped down to face The Skull up close. The Mysterian puckered her lips and nodded.
"As one racer to another, I understand the feeling. I would like to race up to my death and then some; you just went down an unpredictable path that led to your enslavement. For what it's worth, you didn't harm too many good folks in your Dark Million days..."
The Skull nodded, "Aid me in fulfilling my wish, and I will be tame; and you nor anyone else will ever see me again..."
All signs of fear in Chiya's soul disappeared, likewise, she grinned and nodded, "I have an idea."
The following day, sunshine met with the streets of the Lower City; Squad B found itself patrolling the border of the Upper City. Even with a night as horrifying as that, Clover, Sarah, and all other officers were to continue working as normal.
Clover sat in the passenger seat of the police cruiser, lazing around as usual. Sarah was now well-rested and back to her attentive duty as a flowered police officer.
"Sure was nice of Mistress Chiya to cut three hours off our work day today, I needed sleep badly."
Clover nodded, "That was pretty scary..."
"Frightening?" Sarah joked.
"Whatever, Sarah, you were scared, too..."
"Sorry." Sarah turned the cruiser around a block before asking, "What was up with the lobby door, anyway?"
Clover grinned, "Interesting trick, but simple. The Skull hid the entrance door decades ago when he haunted my mom and dad. They discovered that the entrance door was there, just couldn't be seen." Sarah raised a curious eyebrow while scanning the streets, then hummed in acknowledgment. "Knowing that they would simply reach for the invisible doorknob again, Skull created a fake door and placed it to the left of the invisible door."
"Hm... and the stairway?"
"They never left, he just hid them."
"The wall writings and blue smoke?"
Clover rolled her eyes, "You get the gist of what I'm saying, Sarah. They were all illusions."
They stopped at a stop sign, where Sarah turned her head and posed a new question, "And where has Mistress Chiya and Lieutenant Seppuku gone?"
Chiya and Seppuku faced the Sonic Phantom, on display behind glass in the Upper City's F-Zero museum. The Skull's facial fragment rested above the cockpit window of the machine. Already, a monitor had been installed over the display with an extended biography of Sterling LaVaughan and the tragic enslavement Black Shadow had placed over him. Chiya wrote up a quick request for the F-Zero committee to make such an addition to the biography.
The Mysterian crossed her arms at the F-Zero machine and explained, "Rose was brought into Black Shadow's realm without a choice, The Skull—or Sterling—was essentially tricked into Dark Million." She eyed Seppuku for a moment, then looked back at the F-Zero machine, "He chose eternal life because he loved racing and wanted to always be spoken about on that topic. He never wanted to hurt anyone, like Rose, Black Shadow forced him to do so."
The Man of Darkness sighed, "I suppose there's some degree of tragedy to be found in his backstory... I'll respect that this is the end that The Skull deserved..." He then enforced his red eyes onto Chiya in anger, "I still can't believe you didn't demand money, though."
"Money? What money? He's a ghost."
"I don't know, Bendek. Ghost money, or something." He pointed his finger up, "It's never too early to start saving up ghost money," he joked.
Chiya chuckled and turned away from the exhibit. The two continued past many other F-Zero pieces on their way out.
"Will you be taking your leave, then?"
Seppuku nodded, "I suppose so; can't have your mother getting too comfortable in my chair..."
The two stepped outside into the Upper City and gazed upon the Upper City—a metropolis Seppuku had yet to become accustomed to seeing after having been gone for so many years. He brought his arm up above his forehead to shade his face.
"Damn, why'd I ever stop wearing a hat..?"
Chiya looked up at Mute City's most popular race track and hummed, "F-Max..." she muttered aloud. "Do you think F-Zero will ever part from our universe?"
Seppuku offered his immediate insight, "F-Zero is a technology-based support. Like all technological activities, a more updated version will one day surface. So, yes, it will."
"Hm..."
The former lieutenant's coat waved behind him as he gazed upon the same race track, "But for your life, F-Zero is the sport to watch. You've engraved your name into the sport of F-Zero and only F-Zero. Chiya Flower, or Bendek, will always been known for F-Zero. Come the next high-speed competitive racing sport, new names will be allowed to make their presence known. This is how life must operate. F-Max is for Sterling LaVaughan, F-Zero for Chiya 'Flower' Bendek, and the future... some other 'Chiya Flower'."
"I see, thank you, Seppuku."
The man smirked and walked off, "Now, if you will excuse me, I must go pester an old bat before I take leave."
Chiya stuck both hands into her pockets and nodded, then proceeded toward the Purring Kitten with a loaded mind. Her mouth moved back and forth as she thought. Sterling and I are not so different; we both do whatever it takes in pursuit of our fondness for racing...
She opened up the cockpit, turned on her machine, and drove past Seppuku.
But unlike Sterling, I'll know when it's time to throw in the towel. I will take my past victories and golden legacy with me into my grave. I am content with this decision...
Chiya then lowered her eyebrows and demanded aloud, "Rose, don't you dare write a book about this experience; I'm writing this one."
Rose chucked a book down by her fireplace, "Bloody Hell!"
Happy Halloween!
~Siontix/Eli Marg
