Episode 11 (Part 2): The Misadventures of Alistair and Nelio
Earlier, in Zaflior…
Theresa raises an eyebrow as the confused face of Aberrant Hydra's Guild Master fills the clear space in Nadine's Communications Lacrima Crystal.
"What the - you're not Nadine." Glinda frowns.
"Clearly." Theresa says, narrowing her eyes at Glinda as she twirls a lock of her gray hair around her finger. "What do you want?"
"I want to speak to Nadine, who are you? Why are you in her office?"
"Why are you calling her?"
"It's business between Guild Masters. I shouldn't be telling someone I don't know-"
"Well obviously I'm in her office for a reason, Miss Goldkuhl." Theresa yawns. "Nadine is away on business in Era. And before you ask, no I don't know when she'll be back." she says. "I'm in charge of Phoenix Fire in her absence so I ask you again - what do you want?"
"Er…"
"If it helps, the brat is my daughter. If you don't want it to leave this room, it won't leave this room and I'll only tell her." Theresa says. "Does this have anything to do with the Phoenix Fire Mages that were headed to Arkcester? Have they gone and destroyed your city or something?" she asks with a sigh.
"No, it's just..." Glinda grits her teeth, remembering how that baby-faced brat had the audacity to threaten her, a Guild Master. She complains about everything the two men did (Nelio more so than Alistair) and how she had to forcibly portal them out of her office to get them to leave her alone.
Theresa sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry about them. I'm not all too familiar with Nelio's behaviors but it's pretty on brand for Alistair to do nothing about it." she apologizes. "I'll speak to them and Nadine about it when everyone returns. But, speaking of the kids they were looking for, have you seen them around? Do you know if they made it to Arkcester? It shouldn't be hard to miss them, all of them bar one have our symbol on their hand."
"..."
Theresa narrows her eyes. "Glinda, have you seen my Phoenix Fire Mages?"
"...No?" Glinda lies. She pales when sparks start crackling around Theresa.
"Now, now, Glinda, you wouldn't want Nadine to return to a report that Phoenix Fire can no longer be allies with Aberrant Hydra, do you?" Theresa smiles darkly. "I don't appreciate being lied to." she says dangerously. "I'll ask you one - more - time. Have you seen the Phoenix Fire kids that should have arrived in Arkcester earlier this morning?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Glin-"
"I asked them to do me a favor."
Theresa glares at Glinda, the nervous expression on the Guild Master's face making her increasingly suspicious. "What kind of favor?"
"Don't look at me like that," Glinda says. "it's nothing illegal!" she insists.
"Then what did you ask five relatively inexperienced Mages and a small animal to do?"
Theresa spends all of two hours trying to get Glinda to fess up to what she asked Team No Name + Calypso to do before Glinda confesses and reluctantly opens a portal connecting the offices so Theresa can scream at her in person.
On their way out of Arkcester ~ Day 1 of setting out to Soncha Kapa on foot
"How long do you think he's going to follow us?"
"Don't know."
After giving Nelio enough time (three minutes) to recover from reuniting with someone from his apparently haunted past (Alistair isn't exactly sure), the two men resume their walk out of the city. Not even ten minutes into their walk did they come upon another problem.
Well, not necessarily a problem per se, but another traveling companion that they did not ask for or invite.
Seinaru Fujisaki, as he'd introduced himself. He's a lean and muscular man who towers over baby-faced Nelio. He has white skin and messy neck-length black hair. Seinaru wears a large white button up shirt with plain black pants.
"Seinaru Fujisaki. I'm coming with you." the man introduced himself and shook Alistair's hand after shaking Nelio's.
Alistair blinked, staring at the man in confusion. "Come again?" he asked. He glanced down at Seinaru's hand, something catching his eye. A white Aberrant Hydra mark covers the back of his right hand - he also has on a ring with a sun design on it.
"And where do you think we're going?" Nelio asked and raised an eyebrow.
Seinaru stared at them with dull gray eyes. "I heard you talking to Glinda. You're going to Soncha Kapa to find your guildmates who are looking for my guildmate. I'm coming with you." he answered.
"What-"
"We need to hurry before Eira comes looking for me. Let's go."
"Nice of him to take the rear though." Nelio says.
Alistair just grumbles under his breath. "I already have a bad feeling about what we're gonna find when we get to Soncha Kapa...he better not screw it up even more." he says pessimistically.
Meanwhile…
Yuki watches Eira pace around their guildhall like she's looking for something, a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face. "What the hell's up with her?" he asks, turning in his seat to look at Luna.
"I could ask you the same thing." Luna says, looking up from the book she's reading. "Why are you being so weird about that Phoenix Fire kid?" she asks.
Yuki smiles mysteriously. "Oh I bet you'd love to know, wouldn't you?" he asks teasingly.
Luna's eye twitches. "Yes, that's why I'm asking-"
"Well, dearest moonlight-"
"What did you just call me-?"
"Because your name is Luna and luster is like a glow now shut up-" Yuki says, waving her off. "As I was saying, dearest moonlight, I know a little something about that kid that he doesn't seem to know himself." he says confidently.
Luna frowns. "And why is that? How would you know something about someone you only just met for the second time?" she asks.
Yuki's eyes gleam mischievously but before he can give Luna some smart ass answer, Eira runs over to their table and slams her hands down on it, a panicked look on her face. "Have either of you seen Seinaru in the past hour? Dear Goddess, Master is gonna send me through so many portals…"
Yuki yawns. "We were sent out to look for Cole, not your rival. Come on, my animal princess-"
"Excuse me?"
"-take a little breather with your doppelgänger and I." Yuki says, ignoring Eira's comment.
Unfortunately for him, neither woman lets it go.
"Are you on something, Yuki?" Luna asks, disappointed. "I know you actively try to annoy us and be all...you, but are illegal substances really the way?"
Eira nods in agreement, shaking her head at Yuki in disappointment. "Really, Yuki. I thought better of you." she says. "I'll-" she pauses, her eyes widening. "You haven't found Cole yet!?"
Luna and Yuki look anywhere but Eira's panicked face.
"Oh dear Goddess oh dear Goddess-" Eira whispers and starts pacing again, this time more panicked and freaked than before.
"You know we don't have any supplies with us, right? If we have to stop to make camp, it's gonna be a pretty barren camp." Alistair calls behind him, glancing at Seinaru.
Seinaru shrugs. "Okay."
Alistair scowls.
"Why are you so against him tagging along? It's not like he's some Dark Mage." Nelio says, nudging Alistair with his arm.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Night 1 of setting out to Soncha Kapa on foot
"Got any eights?"
"Go fish."
…
"Got any fours?"
"Go fish."
…
"Got any fives?"
"Yeah." Alistair hands over his five. "Got any kings?"
Nelio shakes his head. "Go fish." he says and glances at Seinaru. For someone who's allegedly on his way to bring back his guildmate, there's not any sense of urgency about him. He only actually showed them some emotion when he was urging them to pick up the pace, not wanting some 'Eira' to find them.
"There's no point in rushing it." Seinaru says, staring at their campfire. "Your guildmates won't be able to reign him in and Cole will fight his hardest against the Vice President's group if they find him." he says. "We can head out at dawn. There's no point in running for him at night when we're already exhausted from the day."
"I guess…" Alistair sighs.
Nelio frowns. "No more cards?"
Alistair shakes his head. "Seinaru has a point. We should get to sleep now so we're not exhausted when we actually get to them."
"Fine." Nelio yawns and throws himself back-first onto the grass (they hadn't prepared for sleeping outside). "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
"There's no point in saying-"
"Goodnight, Seinaru."
"...Goodnight."
The next day…
"Why are you even going after him anyways?" Nelio asks as they run along the road leading to Soncha Kapa. "It seems like you don't care about him - or anything - at all."
Seinaru gives a lackluster response, "My guildmate, Neil, was bugging me about it." he says with a shrug. "I just wanted him to shut up."
Alistair stares at Seinaru with a frown. "You're lying."
But before any of the men have a chance to continue that argument, an explosion coming from beyond the forest north of Soncha Kapa draws their attention and earns a chorus of screams from the capital city. The three men need only exchange a look before they change course for the forest.
"My money's on Akane." Nelio comments.
Alistair scoffs. "Are you an idiot? When have you seen Akane use her Fire Magic?"
"It's obviously Cole." Seinaru says. "Kid's got hellfire."
"You don't need to have Fire Magic to cause explosions-"
"Then explain the smoke coming from the direction of the explosion."
"Other kinds of Magic can cause things to explode and catch other things on fire!"
"Sure, Alistair."
"Whatever."
Alistair has half a mind to show them what he can do with his Magic right then and there but, y'know, priorities.
PF x AH x SS
A/N a little filler chapter to get the wc to 69k lololololol
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I promise an adult
BUT some things were revealed :poggies: Glinda and Nadine know each other and PF and AH are allies
and a one Seinaru Fujisaki, nihilist extraordinaire, is coming after a one Cole Match
Also, Mr. Jameson Jason Jax John Jay Joe, ik this was my first time writing Alistair's personality in a hot minute so let me know if it's alright or anything needs to change :pensiveflexleft:
And to you lurkers, slide into my PMs with some OCs, the form is on my profile and ik y'all are reading :omg: I'm friendly I promise
look i can meme
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.