Catch-22: The Backstory
By: M14Mouse
Summary: Futaba and Morgana explain what happens and Theo comes bearing bad news.
Disclaimer: Don't own them.
Many thanks to AKatsinTcups for betaing this chapter.
To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.–Barbara Bush
Futaba furiously typed at her keyboard. Her eyes glued to the screen as she processed the numerous amounts of code that flashed across her screen.
"Futaba? Everyone is here," Morgana said softly.
She wasn't going to turned around. No, sir. She wasn't. She wasn't going to cry again either.
"Futaba-chan?" Ann called softly.
"The perimeter of this area is smaller than a palace but takes up several levels of Mementos. Morgana believes that this area is newly form. All of the shadows are freaking out about it," She said to the others, but her fingers continued typing away at the keyboard.
"Futaba…" Makoto said.
"I may have detected three to four areas at most. No safe rooms. Although, I do detect something strange in the middle. It could be a safe room forming or something else. I need more data."
"Futaba…we need to tell them what happened," Morgana said.
"They know what happened. It's my fault. Now, I'm trying to get him out. You know as well as I that he can't stay down there. The longer that he's down there, the worse it will affect his health."
Morgana huffed for a moment then suddenly jumped onto her keyboard.
"Hey!"
"What did Sensei say about the truth? Are you running from it again?"
"NO! I'm trying to fix this!"
"You don't have to fix this alone, Futaba-chan. We are here," Ann said.
Her hands moved away from the keyboard as she slumped in her chair. She felt someone touch her shoulder.
"Please, tell us what happened," Ren said softly.
She took a deep breath…
"Rise, breathe, tell me what happened." Yu said over the phone.
Yu glanced over at Futaba as she stopped typing. She reached over and hit a button on her keyboard. She heard this Rise's voice through her headphone.
"Damn, asshole Shiro Asakura, tried to hit on me. Urgh, I need to take a bath. That isn't the worse of it. There are rumors, you see, on how he treats girls under his "employment." Although, I don't think that they are rumors. It is the truth. I'm glad that my manager didn't allow me to work with him. God, I don't want to think what would have happened if I did." Rise said.
"You are stronger than that, Rise."
"Now, I am. But in the beginning of my career, no way! He would have crashed me but now, hell, I would cut off his balls off. Wait, do you think Yukiko will let me borrow her fans? Wait…you have a sword, right?"
Damn….This guy must be a real creep.
"Would you like me to do something?"
"I would do something about him, but you know that I'm on tour and doing a promo. Could you? I'm not sure what….oh….oh!"
"You can put in a request with the Phantom Thieves of Heart. I have it on good authority that they will read it. Won't they, Futaba-chan?" Support Buddy said mildly.
Busted.
"Ooo…you are the new one! HEY! I'm Rise! It is nice to meet you! When I'm back in the town, we are totally doing lunch! We have to talk about navigator stuff!" Rise said excitedly.
"Wait…you are a navigator too!" She said excitedly.
"YUP!"
"Ooo…I have so many questions."
"I do my best to answer them. I know your world is different than the tv world but I'm sure that there is some crossover between them. Besides, it will fun to talk girl stuff and how much trouble Yu gets into."
"Strange enough. He is kind of boring," Futaba said as she stuck out her tongue at Yu. He grinned.
Rise snorted.
"Boring and Yu in the same sentence doesn't compute. Anyway, I have to go. You can get my number from Ann or Yu. I can totally text you between shows or whatever."
"That…would be kind of awesome," Futaba said in awe.
It was kind of crazy to her that her world had exploded with so many people. At one time, it was just her mom…then him…then dad. Now, she has all of these people. It is kind of overwhelming. Her chest started tightening up then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Support Buddy.
"Talk to you later, Rise," He said.
"You too, Yu!
She heard a click over her headphones. He didn't say anything to her for the longest.
Slowly, she felt the pressure in her chest disappear.
She wanted to say thank you but instead she said…
"You know, you are boring. You have no phone sex or porn. Your biggest offense is you have way too many cute cat videos and memes."
"Who said that I didn't have a second phone for that?"
"You don't ask those type of questions!" Makoto said horrified.
"Support Buddy didn't seem to mind. Although, I'm wondering about that second phone," She said as she tapped her finger against her chin.
"FUTABA-CHAN!" Ann said with growl.
Key Item just sighed as he covered his face with his hand.
Morgana sighed as well.
"To the point, we decided to go to Mementos to check things out. We were planning to work on Futaba's range and abilities but…" Morgana said.
"We didn't find his shadow. I found plenty of dirty information about him on the web. God, Rise-san was right. He makes dirt look clean. Totally scumbag with a capital S."
"So…."
"So…isn't it strange that he isn't here? I mean if he is rotten to the core, which he is, he should be here," Futaba pointed out.
"It is quite possible that he has a palace," Morgana pointed out.
"I don't know. If he had a palace, wouldn't we know about it already?"
"I don't think so."
"Some of the most dangerous people in the world are the ones you don't expect or those who lurk in the shadows," Yu said as he and Toothless scratched Nom Nom's belly.
"Sensei is right. The guy has been hiding this for so long. It wouldn't be a surprise if his crimes are now coming to light."
"Black Frost and Nom Nom, did you sense anything?" Yu asked.
"NOPE! Only Snap, Crackle, and Pop!" Nom Nom said.
"Like the cereal?" She said.
Nom Nom nodded his head like an overeager dog.
Toothless stopped scratch Nom Nom's belly and started with a lot of hee-hoos and arm waving.
She still couldn't make out what he was saying, but Yu was listening to him like he was saying the most important thing in the room.
He might be.
Or what he had for lunch.
Yu's face broke into a small grin and he patted Toothless on the head.
"Thank you. Black Frost says that there was small shift here. Not as big as some of the others that they felt. They can show us where it came from."
"So, you followed them, and you discovered…?" Yusuke said in frustration.
"A place where it looked like a palace and Metaverse had a really ugly baby," Futaba said.
"That is a really good description. The thing is that we didn't plan on discovering it," Morgana said.
"It was an accident. We just wanted to see the place and get it out. It gave us really bad vibes," She said.
"It was almost felt like we were led there on purpose."
"On purpose?" Ren asked.
Futaba nodded her head.
"Yes, given Sensei's reaction, I think that he realized it too," Morgana said.
"I have only been to Oracle's palace or what my friends have shown me, but has Mementos ever looked like this?" Yu asked as he looked around.
"No, it hasn't and shouldn't," Morgana said tightly.
Support Buddy pulled out his sword when Morgana said that.
"I agree. Wayyyy too easy. Anyone else getting a creepy vibe from this place? I know that mine wasn't this creepy" Futaba said as she scanned the area. She could see smoke coming from the vents of the tunnel. In the distance, she heard screams and laughing. Her body shivered at the noise. She watched as they approached a large open space with…is that a tree in the middle of the room?
"It does feel similar but different. I don't like it."
"Very unsettling. Who would have enough power to do this? We'll do a quick scan of the area and then leave. Something is definitely off about this place," Yu said.
"Agreed. Oracle, stay behind me and Sensei," Morgana said.
"Ye…Yes…" She said with a stutter.
The group made its way closer to the tree thingy. Suddenly, Support Buddy stopped in his tracks.
"Sensei?" Morgana said.
Yu didn't answer right away. He just stared at the tree.
"We need to go now." Yu said as he turned to them.
"Support Buddy?" She asked.
"I will tell you when we get back. We have to leave now!"
When Yu shouted now, the ground turned black and she could feel herself sinking into it.
She let out a scream as she struggled with the darkness.
"Oracle! Mona!" Yu shouted as she felt her body being pushed. She landed face first onto solid ground.
"SENSEI!" Morgana shouted.
She turned around to see Sensei disappear into the ground. In her mind, she got a flash of lighting.
She and Morgana looked at each other and stared.
"I can't sense Sensei," Morgana said in horror.
"Me either…."
"We have gone back every day and we still can't sense his location," Morgana explained.
"Is he dead?" Ann said in horror.
"No. We believe that someone is blocking us. I do sense that he is alive, and his persona is pissed off."
"You saw him?!" Ryuji said surprisedly.
"Not really saw, more like got an impression. Morgana was right. That guy isn't someone you want to meet in a dark alley."
"You believe that someone was trying to lure you there. Did you get an impression of who?" Makoto asked.
"No, I think that "someone" was there for Sensei, not us. Whoever he is, he has some power and he is blocking me." Futaba answered with a pout.
Whoever this asshole is, she was going to kick him because no one hides or takes Support Buddy from her.
"Okay, tomorrow, we check out the place," Ren said.
"And begin to gather information on that place and Sensei," Makoto added.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in, Theo!" She shouted.
Theo opened the door and shut the door behind him. He bowed to them once he was inside.
Poor Theo. He looked like hell. He still looked all prim and proper in his suit but his face….
Clearly, he looked like someone who hadn't slept in days with a pale face and dark circles under his eyes.
"What is he doing here?" Ryuji asked.
"Ryuji, how else can we hide the fact that Sensei is missing? He runs a company and goes to school," Morgana said.
"Man, that is right. Theo came up with a cover story?"
"Yes, my Master has become sick and needs time to recover," Theo said as his fists clenched by his side.
"Good, that should give us enough time," Morgana said.
"That isn't all," Theo said.
"What is it?" Yusuke asked.
"You have a week."
"What?! That barely gives us enough time!" Ann said in a panic.
She watched the slight panic on everyone's faces expect Makoto and Ren's faces.
"Okay, change of plans. We do a brief scout mission today. Just to get a feel of the place," Ren said.
"Good idea," Morgana added.
"Why aren't you guys flipping out?" Ann asked.
"Because I expect that we would be given less time. Sensei runs a company dealing with shadows. Do you think that they would just leave him there?" Makoto said calmly.
"No…."
"There is more," Theo said.
"Man, you just bring the bad news," Ryuji said with a sigh.
"My apologies, Mr. Ryuji. Ms. Mitsuru was very understanding of your plight. Master's friends…understood to a point. Most of them have been trapped in the tv world for extended period of time. They know the effect that it can have on a person. Can you imagine finding out that one of your friends is back in a similar situation?"
"I would come to their aid immediately if possible," Yusuke nodded.
Theo smiled slightly.
"A week. That is all you have before they came down and enter themselves. They don't have your sense of decorum. They don't care about your goals or your desire to change hearts. They just want their friend and my Master back. Please, bring back my Master," Theo said in such a broken voice.
She felt a wave of determination wash over her.
"Don't worry, Theo. We are going to get Support Buddy back," She said.
And she meant it.
End of The Backstory
A/N: Poor Theo. I promise to give him a hug later. I can neither confirm nor deny your answers on GOMP. All shall reveal in about five chapters. (Yes, I am that far ahead and no, I won't tell you anymore. Yes, I am evil but I did bring cookies) Yes, Payrus, Yu does seem to collect strays. I mean, look at IT…they are a funny looking bunch. Good old, Uncle knows what he looking for at this point. Mangareader, the only hint that I am willing to give is this….the thieves might have forgot about our black mask friend but Yu hasn't. Thanks for the wonderful reviews, kudos, etc. Everyone stay safe.