"...Ohhh..." Akira awoke a while later as an unknown amount of time having passed him, slowly coming back around to find himself at the back of a moving vehicle with Manic next to him and finding his hands restrained in plastic ties when he went to go touch his head. "Ugh, my head..."
"Fuck, man..." Manic groaned, coming around before Akira did. "My head is fucking killing me... Tell me we're not in jail..."
"Do jails move in Cyber City, looking like the back of a cabbie and make the sounds of a crude hot rod kit-bash?" Akira shook his head. The interior of the back looked like something found in the back of a taxi but have a wire-mesh wielded onto the plexiglass window that normally would let them see the driver, armour-platings covering over the windows that blocked the outside view and generally looking like it belonged to a salvaged car with the worn state of the carseats.
It's like the back of a squad car but if it's jurisdiction was Mutants of the Dead...
Akira looks at his surroundings. "What exactly is—"
"Keep it down in the back you punks!" A voice from the front cuts him off, metallic and echoey-sounding. "Otherwise I'll enact the Riot Act on both of you!"
"Ugh, I don't know why the Boss wants them brought alive..." Said another voice at the front with the same afflictions to the vocals but much more disgruntled and gruff in demeanour. "Surely he'd rather not have any disruptions to his business conducts."
"He had an A.P.B issued for both Manic Hedgehog and Red Four-Eyed Dickhead Mutt here." The first voice told his colleague. "He's willing to give a raise to whoever captures them alive. No disintegrations."
"Hey, don't be talkin' to us like that!" Manic shouted, glaring at the mesh.
"Shut it, you parentless little shit!" The gruffer voiced being replied with the accompanying smack of a club against the mesh.
"Save your energies for when we bring them to see the Boss."
"I suppose I can..."
"Where are you taking us to?" Akira asks.
"To see the Bossman. Not many street peasants get the privilege of meeting the Don of Society himself." The less gruff voice in the front told him. "Let alone be taken to his Elysium of Wealth."
"Elysium of Wealth?" Akira turned to Manic with a confused expression. The hedgehog was no more knowledgable than he is in this situation. Eventually, their ride stops and they'd hear boots outside stepping over to their sides as the doors next to them then opened before both were roughly dragged out of their seats. The two landing on the tarmac below them with Akira's glasses falling off on impact.
The two would be pulled off from the ground by inmobian/inhuman gloved hands and turned to face what greeted their vision; A big bright, flashy golden building bordering on gaudy with LED lights up along the the windows, a parking lot that's as big as a local city park, the entrance way as large as a plaza and a large logo sign that reads 'AntonCo Industries. No.1 Business on Mobius' in colourful writing.
Nearby it is a ginormous golden statue so large that Perfect Chaos would only comes up to the statue's crotch and Akira wonders how they didn't spot it earlier.
He also notice the golden building is the only one in the whole city that's standing tall above all else except the golden statue whom they couldn't quite see the face of from their angle as the two were being dragged into the building by these leather-clad spike-studded punks with freaky bodily proportions. The interior of the entrance looked like something a billionaire would design with excessive amount of gold trims, black walls, ruby carpets, marble stone floors and so forth that made them think it was the interior of a hotel or casino for a moment.
"...AntonCo Industries has provided Mobius with essential services since the end of the Great War. It's great and glorious founder helping rebuild the world a brick at a time as the king of kings..." Akira and Manic could hear the intercom going on about the egocentric dross that could be disproven with basic research while they're being taken through the corporate-like halls that brought them to a flight of stairs leading downwards into what looks like the containment area. The containment area unlike the upper floors that were clean, glamorous and dripping with gold, neither of the above are to be found here. Dirty, dingy, chilly and some bloodstains could even be seen of the cells.
"This is like some messed up version dystopian flick..." Manic said said nervously to Akira. "Except I feel like I'm about to be tied to a chair and tortured with a power dri—"
"Shut it!" A guard growls as he backhands Manic across the face. "When the Boss graces you with his presence, you worthless peasants are both to address him as either sir, lord or don. No exceptions!"
"…" Manic was silent, visibly angry but holding back. The plastic ties limiting what he could possibly do right now. The two would be brought to a cell and both were thrown into it before the guards stood watch over them.
"W-What's even going on... Am I s-starting to lose my mind now?" Akira mutters to himself, feeling fearful over the increasingly horrific situation they're both in with the sight of the bloodstains some surfaces doing little to relieve his worries. "Y-Yeah, I have to be... I have to be because this bullshit can't be for real!"
"Keep it down!" One of the guards barked at Akira. Banging his baton against a cell bar.
"No, fuck you and everything else that's in here!" The wolf barked back with gnashing teeth. "This is not one bit funny you self-important assholes!"
"You really that eager for the Captain Krouch Special, ey?" The guard took a menacing step forward into their cell with a malicious chuckle. "Oh, I'll give it to you alright... I'm gonna have this stick buried deep in your ass when I'm finished with you!"
"Try it, you fucker..." Manic responded, trying to act brave. "I'll break your legs, bite your face off, claw my way down your throat and tear out your fucking soul!"
The guard responded by striking Manic with the baton. Manic winced from the attack, spitting out a bit of blood to the side.
"...That all you got porkpie?" He taunted, giving a weak grin.
"That's just the warmup..." The guard replied and before he could do anything, a new voice called out.
"Did I tell you to rough up the suspects? No." The owner of the voice said as Akira and Manic hears footsteps approaching towards their cell. "Get back in line."
"Y-Yes boss!" The guard quickly retreated back to his post. "U-Understood!"
"Good. I won't have to send the widow ham to the wife then..." The other voice said with a sinister undertone. "I'll be ducking your pay today for this."
"...Hang on, that's..." Akira whispered to Manic right as they saw who the boss actually is... Anton Veruca.
To be more exact, a different-looking Anton Veruca with crimson scales. Unlike the letterman jacket street attire they saw him in earlier, he was wearing an expensive purple suit with a black tie, a purple hat with a grey feather on it, a red undershirt, expensive jewellery that's on all of his fingers, the gold jacket cufflinks shaped after the graffiti gang symbol, a carot gold jewelled cane in one hand, dark crocodile shoes, a gold neck-chain and the blonde mohawk hair from before turned into slicked back jet-black hair.
He looked like the world's richest man compared to his other look. The most striking element of Anton's new look are the glowing golden irises that resembles headlights and they were looking down upon the pair like they were insignificant bugs to him.
"So... The thieving green rat and the red dog that thinks he's witty in dissing my sister." The new look Anton said to the two, speaking in the same echoey manner as the guards minus the metallic infliction and pointing his nostrils down on the confused pair. "You thought you could escape my Enforcers but look where we are now, inside my Elysium of Wealth..."
"Th' fuck is this, Anton?!" Manic was trying to make sense of what's going on. "Chasin' after us is one thing but going to all these theatrics and shit is where I draw the line! Sure, I may have been all about theatrics myself when I was a Freedom Fighter but come on! This is too much even for me!"
"You were no Freedom Fighter nor were you part of any Freedom Fighter group you stupid rodent. The only freedom fighting you were doing is stealing, cheating and lying against the police all because of your grievances with one of their people. Not even the Robotnik Empire wanted Geno City like the worthless drug-ridden shithole it truly is along with the tramps that inhabits it and everyone knows it."
"You shut your damn mouth!" Manic growled, his canines showing. "There's good people in this city! And it's my job to help them live to see the next day in any way I can!"
"You're nothing more than a brat with kleptomania that likes to take what isn't nailed down and that includes taking from the average joe too." The golden-eyed Anton chortled scornfully. "Even got arrested by the police on filed theft charges and even one count of drug possession that got you sent to juvie detention. Yet you always like to maintain that those thefts charges you were slapped with are bogus and the narcotic you were caught with was planted on you by Captain Krouch in revenge for something you did to him or so you keep saying..."
The suited lizard then added; "I imagine it'll be hard trying to get legitimate employment with a criminal record like yours should you decide to start living honestly."
Manic snarled. "Bastard. You can't keep us here... We'll bust our way out if we have to!"
"Who says I was going to leave you both here? You've been a pain in the ass for me long enough and no-one's going to be missing your red friend here when he goes."
"W-What are you getting at Anton?" Akira doesn't like the sound of that and terrified out of his wits.
"I'm having both of you sentenced to execution by firing squad. I have already signed off on the executive order for it." The lizard replied with a haughty sneer. "The squad should be on their way over as we speak."
"You fucker!" Manic yelled at their suited captor. "You can't do this to us! I'll get you for this you bastard!"
"I am the Chairman of Mobius and my word is absolute above all. Only blasphemous retards like you would dare say otherwise..." Anton said with a sour face. "Therefore, you must go along with your buddy here and he knows what the charges are."
"What!?" Akira exclaims before yelling at Anton. "All that for telling off your sister? She's lying to you Anton!"
"I know my sister well enough to tell when she's telling tales of other people, I know of her lies against you and frankly; I don't care..." The suited lizard laughs with a twisted grin. "You being associated with this street trash is enough reason for me to have you killed. Shame Fatso ain't here with you to complete the set."
Eventually, the firing squad arrived to their cells and loaded with AK-47s in their hands. All five stood in a formation just outside their cell.
"If this is your justice, then this is an absolute mockery of it!" Akira yelled to the purple suited Anton. "You're nothing but a dirtbag who thinks he's above others including us!"
"Such talk for a waste of space that has no place in this world or anywhere. I don't know about your family status but..." Anton says to Akira with a dark glint in his golden irises as he points to Manic. "If it's anything like that glorified house burglar there with you, then I'll see to it you join mommy and daddy in Hell."
"House burglar..." Akira mutters the words to himself with wide eyes, remembering the night from three years ago that changed his world forever.
"As for you Manic, you'll get to see your father soon..." Anton continues as he addresses Manic, then gaining a punchable smirk. "And you could ask him about that terrible headache in his frontal temple he's got."
The golden-eyed Anton, the firing squad and the guards all laughed at the insensitive joke in Manic's eyes.
"Mom... Dad..." Akira's eyes started to water for the first time in a long time as the memories he tried so hard to put behind him flooded his thoughts like the raging stormy sea with light tears running down his cheeks. Causing him to clench his restrained fists tightly, trying to keep his raw bottled up emotions from spilling out with the strong emotions he's been keeping down for three years.
It was easier said than done when he remembers Anton's earlier jabs directed to Manic about him being parentless and trying to ignore them as much as he could but they only serve to stir another emotion besides sorrow...
Rage.
The fact this piece of shit could even make fun of others for having no parents with no remorse or tact about it angered the tearful wolf deep inside. What would this bastard know what it's like to be in those people's shoes including Manic's unless he experiences that loss himself?
Manic. He could only imagine how grief-stricken he was when his father died because he's been there once and he can identify a lot with the green hedgehog's plight in life despite not having the same background as him, knowing that loss is a universal feeling. No matter what walks of life they're from.
Then when adding the fact that there exists people like Anton and Migu who never experienced any losses sees folks like him, Manic and Fiona even as those they can step on, bully and make cruel jokes about either out of sheer ignorance or casual indifference to their feelings... Akira wishes Lady Karma and Mister Humility could just pay these insufferable assholes long overdue visits to put them in their place.
"Good people die soon while bad people like him lives forever and do whatever as they please..." Akira said quietly to himself, tears running from his eyes and gritting his teeth. "I want to change that now!"
"So... Your apathetic tolerance for evil at long last has hit it's limit..." A voice calls to Akira, a voice that's benign and well-learned with a playful wit behind it while the wolf's experiencing a headache. "You've put up with it all in spite of your true feelings over it. You always wanted to express how you really felt inside but chose to wear a facade on the outside instead, using it to hide the real you from all others..."
"...Hey Manic, how do you celebrate Father's Day and Mother's Day?" Anton says to the green hedgehog, too busy making cruel jokes at Manic to take notice of what's going on with Akira. "I'll tell ya... You don't!"
"Fuck you!" Manic screamed, tears in his eyes, "Fuck you asshole! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll... I'll..."
He seethed with both rage and sorrow, Anton's words having an impact on his emotions and bringing up bad memories.
The night he returned to his home to find his foster father hauled off in a bodybag by the C.C.P.D with Krouch overseeing the removal of the body without much care has been burned into his mind. The bastard in the uniform looking real pleased to see another what he views as another criminal scum off the streets and ruling the matter as a death by burglary, treating it like his foster father died to some random act of violence from a street junkie.
"You hate it when people like him are allowed to do whatever they want without facing consequence or repercussions for their wicked deeds towards innocent people... You turned a blind eye to it all in order to stop yourself from stressing out over them but deep down, you would rather teach them some manners while helping those in need..." The mysterious but familiar voice spoke to Akira. "Correct?"
"Yes..." Akira quietly winced his words before the headache suddenly subsided. Every time he ignored distressing matters around him, a piece of him always yearns to take action against them. Stand up against injustice.
"I understand your sentiments. I too do not tolerate such unwanted cruelty and cowardice by those who think themselves as lords or as gods. Innocent lives have a right to exist as much as the monsters who terrorises them..." The mysterious voice in his head replies. "Perhaps I could you lend you my help as your physician and companion?"
"Alright, that's enough barrel of laughs for today. Let's get to business." Anton gestures to the firing squad. "It's time for you both to be put down..."
"Please..." Akira said to the voice. "I don't want to do nothing no more..."
"Then in that case, let's get to it..." The voice says to the red wolf no longer content with his current lot in life. "I am thou, thou art I... Thou who shatters the chains of limitations cast upon on thyself, prescribe justice to those who desires so and punish those who withhold it... The moment has been prepared for; take this offer and unleash the power you've never shown them before henceforth!"
"Yes..." Akira said as a blue owl mask appears onto his face in a puff of blue flames, seemingly forged out of thin air to Manic's surprise and looking up to Anton with new-found determined eyes. "Inaction no more. Seal the contract."
As the firing squad were cocking their rifles, they along with the guards and Anton felt a breeze of wind pass over them down in the containment area. Confusion washing over some of them before Anton snaps his fingers to get them to focus on their current task.
Then Manic and everyone else in the cell saw the most astonishing sight with Akira Amamiya as time seems to slow down. The wolf gripped one side of his mask and began pulling hard on it, greeted by strong waves of pain while pulling on the mask that seemed to be bounded to his flesh.
Then, blood started coming out in droplets dripping onto the floor and then graduating to large crimson clumps falling to the floor like vomit with more of the mask coming off his face.
"PERSONA!"
Akira screamed loudly to the heavens when the mask came off, tons of blood running down his face and shiny gold eyes that greeted Anton with a toothy grin while blue flames appears around him like he's being set alight. Then suddenly large gusts of wind blew back Anton, the guards and the firing squad along with the cell doors right into the walls behind them at such force.
Akira's loud and mighty screams drowned out their cries as he's engulfed by the blue flames that exploded into a bright, near-blinding flash that envelopes the entire cell...
The light dies down where Manic and Anton all see a red wolf regenerated and transformed from a nobody wearing blue street cardigans to someone dressed in a black cloak cape with red trimmings, black velvet pants, a red shirt under a black velvet jacket, a pair of brown swashbuckling high boots, a pair of blue gloves of the same shade as the mask, a black wide-brimmed hat and a long red scarf. An attire that evokes a striking sense of style and mystery to those around him while the scarf billows to the winds.
He stood in a glowing blue circle of flames and behind him is a transparent figure hovering over the wolf they all took notice of in their amazement.
The figure is of a man dressed in an Edwardian/Victorian-style getup with a dark flocked coat, creamy tweed waistcoat, a white wild Einstein-style haircut, a purple ascot, orange tartan trousers for legwear and a pair of brown shoes. His physical appearance like a photorealistic painting with an injection of caricature-styling while his stern facial features have sharp, angular lines to them.
In his left hand is an item that resembles a silver wand or tool with a red ring on top. Lastly, there's a small silver projectile-shaped spaceship that's he riding on top of like a skateboard and having the name 'Cosmos' written on the side of it.
"Whoa..." Manic said in awe by the new sight. "That... That's cool... That's awesome dude..."
"What the..." Anton said in amazement before shaking his head and barking to his men as he starts retreating from the containment area. "Don't just lay there, get up and deal with these dickheads!"
Akira took a step forward in the cell with a determined face as he pulls out a rapier sword with his now unrestricted hands and points it in the firing squad's direction. "Doctor Omega. Let's educated these savages in what you're all about."
"Will do." The ghostly being called Doctor Omega chuckled as all members of the firing squad along with the two guards melts down into black ooze and reconstructing themselves into a row of floating pumpkin-headed latern-holders that Akira just telepathically learned from the blueish being are called Pyro Jacks. Akira slashed at one of them which stunned the creature and making it screech in pain, allowing the wolf to follow up with a flurry of slashes that caused the being to dissolve into black ash.
Omega held his wand like a sword before making three swipes across at the other Pyro Jacks that wiped out the rest of the group barring one and Manic watched the fight in awe; though felt bad that he couldn't help at the moment. Akira would deal with the last of the hostile guards and the blue glowing visage of the Doctor soon disappears by going into the wolf as though he's apart of his being.
The wolf turns to Manic, the black attire vanishing with the blue cardigans back on him again after cutting the plastic cable on his hands.
"Come on, let's get the hell out of here!" Akira told him as the pair proceeds to flee the containment area and set off to go find a way out of the building before they'd be captured again.
"No arguments there, my dude!" Manic said as he quickly followed. "Fuck man, what was that back there?!"
"I don't know but I'm not going to let my inaction hold me back anymore!" Akira replied, the two running through the halls and evading the building's security forces whenever they can. "This way!"
"Yeah, that's cool and all..." Manic said as he followed. "But that still doesn't get us out of this place... At this point, I'm pretty sure we're not even in the same Zone as Geno City anymore."
"Doctor says you're right in us not being on our world." Akira told him while they continued hurrying through the building and searching for the exit. "Haven't been since we lost Anton's gang earlier in that alleyway—"
"Halt!" When they got to a hall with pictures of Anton hung at the sides, the pair would end up being surrounded on both ends by the security guards wielding batons. "You'll go no further th—"
Suddenly, two figures burst in the ceiling vent as they landed near the pair and one of them pulled out a silencer pistol that silently got the guards ahead of them while the owner of the weapon goes to deal with the security guards at the rear that were trying to rush them from behind. The guards up front as melting to become a set of feline women Akira learns through the Doctor as Nekomatas.
"Throw a bunch of Stun Guns at them." An electronic voice was heard from one of the two newcomers. "These ones are weak to electricity."
"Right." One of the newcomers spoke with a british-accent just like the Doctor did and seems to be a rabbit from Akira's observation, the rabbit pulling out something out of his pocket before tossing whatever it was at the enemies ahead of them.
Stunning the Nekomatas with electricity that dealt some damage to them and the rabbit pulls out a small submachine weapon to blast them from a distance, quickly taking out the trio of Nekomatas blocking the way.
"No time to explain, come on!" The rabbit told the pair while the other person rejoins them as Akira and Manic reluctantly followed their rescuers' lead over to one of the building's fire door exits, taking the four outside. They weren't quite out of the homestretch yet when a patrol guard intercepted them.
"Surrender now!" The patrol guard told them.
"Over our dead bodies!" Said the rescuer that was wielding the silencer gun earlier, looking to be a badger based on the physical traits Akira could identify on the guy and pulling out what looks like a broadsword. "We'll have you cut down before we'd surrender!"
"Stay near us, I'll protect you both." The rabbit says to Akira and Manic, getting out his bow-staff weapon right when the guard morphs into a demonic creature.
"Be on the offensive and end it sooner than later." Came the electronic voice from before. One which seems to be coming from the rabbit.
"Got it. Ready?" The badger asks the rabbit.
"Ready..." The rabbit nodded. "John Dillinger!"
Suddenly, a blueish glowing figure emerges from the rabbit when he tore off his mask. A cartoonish-looking figure that could be described as an old-school Great Depression Era mobster in a navy blue tailored suit, a single-breasted jacket, a bow tie, a stylised pencil moustache, a cool smile with an intense gaze, an Italian boater straw hat with a bullethole on it and a tommy-gun with a barrel the size of a lampshade.
"Guardian!" The badger summons a blueish glowing buff gold-armoured man with an Egyptian Sphinx-Nemes helmet on him and having a near-robotic appearance to him, arms crossed across his chest through the power of his mask. Wielding a Crook and a Flail in both hands just like what would be found on a pharaoh's sarcophagus.
"Best you'd help them out." Doctor Omega says to Akira through his thoughts. "They'll might need it just in case."
The red wolf nodded as he took off his mask. "Doctor!"
The visage of Omega returns once more as did Akira's black attire much to the surprise of their rescuers.
"He's got one too!" The rabbit said as he looks to Akira. "With you capable, we could take down this Shadow quickly!"
"What the hell is going on anymore?!" Manic exclaimed at the sight of three Personas.
"We'll explain all this later when we're out of here!"
"You'd better, my dude!"
The rabbit rescuer nodded as he, the badger and Akira charges off to go fight the demonic creature that's referred to as a Shadow. Engaging a battle with it as the Shadow fought the three.
The badger attacked the creature with his broadsword and silencer while the entity Guardian dished out some attacks as well through his weapons, even using a Bless skill to strike additional damage on the creature. Akira and the Doctor fought it together, the latter using the silver device in his hand to lower the defences which allowed the red wolf to deliver a few slashes at the big Shadow before their defences went back up.
"Holy shit, man..." Manic said in astonishment of the unreal battle.
The rabbit fighter went in and struck it with his bow-staff club weapon, then getting out a submachine gun to blast some bullets into it. John would follow up on the attack by blasting the Shadow also through his larger-than-real-world-counterpart submachine gun along with using a Force skill which caused the Shadow to fall to a critical hit that left it dazed.
"Take it out now." Said the electronic voice that's coming from the rabbit.
"We got it where we wanted it!" The rabbit says to Akira and the badger. "You both ready?"
"Ready!" The badger swordsman replied with an eager grin.
"Let's do this!" Akira yelled with adrenaline coursing through him and all Manic could see afterwards is three streaks bouncing around the demonic Shadow while hearing the heavy physical blows dealt to it in an All-Out Attack. Then the three streaks landed in front of Manic in the form of a wolf, a rabbit and a badger.
A few seconds later, what looks like black blood would burst out of the big Shadow before exploding into ashes after that with the rabbit standing very suave looking and arms crossed commenting on it; "Don't pick fights you can't win!"
"It's time we leave the area before reinforcements come." Said the electronic voice from one of the rabbit's pockets.
"Got it." The rabbit nodded as he turns to Manic and Akira. "Come on, we need to get away from here. You and your friend follow our leads."
"If it gets us back home, then we'll just to trust your word for it." Akira said with the four making it like a blue hedgehog from the scene and away from the gaudy building that stood tall in the city along with the statue. The quarterlet would continue running and evading the patrols til they got to safe spot near the alleyway that seemingly brought them into this unknown world.
"Any Shadows nearby?" The rabbit asked, bringing out a white handheld device resembling a Sega Nomad but much smaller, sleeker and more advance-looking.
"My scans reports no Shadow patrols lurking in the area." The device said. "We should be fine over here at the origin point of the blip we detected earlier."
"You guys mind tellin' me what the hell's going on yet?" Manic asked, taking in what just occurred. "Because this's too weird even for me!"
"Right, I did promise to explain a lot of this." The rabbit nodded as he turns to Manic and Akira. "You two aren't in Geno City or rather the Geno City as you'd know it."
"We pretty much figured that to be the case." Akira said, getting his breath back from the rush. "Where are we exactly?"
"You both are in the Metaverse, an alternate reality that exists parallel to the real world and one from the unconscious mind made manifest." The badger told them. "To put it in a way you can both grasp it is that this is made from our suppressed thoughts and emotions through our cognitions. The world viewed through the subconscious of other people and how they perceive themselves within it versus reality or seeing the world as the individuals sees it."
Manic stared blankly, seeming to have trouble processing the explanation. "…What?"
"Picture the world as you'd interpret it but others are able to see the physical manifestation of it and it's objects. The Mayor sees Cyber City as a metropolitan city while you see Geno City as a place of poverty and crime, people like Migu Veruca seeing you as some street kleptomaniac hustler while you see yourself as Robin Hood-like figure." Akira thought up an example that could make the badger's explanation easier to understand for the green hedgehog.
"...Okay..." Manic replied, seeming to understand that slightly better.
"Your friend is right." The rabbit said to Manic. "Right in that this Metaverse is the collection of the people's cognition and the fact we're inside someone's head right now."
"I see. I mean, I still don't get it but it makes slightly more sense now."
"You said we're inside of someone's head. Does that gold building have anything to do with it?" Akira asks, pointing his thumb in the direction they came from. "Also what are those Shadows we fought back there and these spirits we were using to fight them?"
"That there is a Palace. Something that normally wouldn't exist in the Metaverse except whenever a person's distorted desires are strong enough to make one manifest like that building you both saw." The rabbit explains. "Those Shadows are in simple terms residents of the Metaverse and takes on many forms according to the collective consciousness from mythological monsters to even historical figures. Another thing about the Shadows is that they can be us as well, reflections of ourselves we don't want others to see. In essence, they embody our personal demons."
"So, like..." Manic interjects. "Okay, so like... This is like a different Zone altogether but one that exists in the mind of another person?"
"We're inside the mind of one person in a sea of the collective consciousness." The badger mobian said. "The Palaces exists as the pedestal of those with powerful enough distorted desires to stand above the rest of the crowd."
"And the spirits?" Akira asks.
"They're those voice in our heads fully realised and heard." The rabbit explains calmly. "They are our individual spirit and will given form that represent us best. They're purified Shadows that exists deep within our souls. We call them Personas."
He gestures to Akira. "You've broken free of your own chains and it's why you've got one now."
"Doctor Omega is me and I am him." Akira nodded. "He is my spirit."
"Once your Persona awakens, they become your companion, friend and even mentor according to who they're taken after."
"Wait, so..." Manic spoke up. "Do... Do I get one too?"
"It's not something you can just wish for and receive as simple as that." The device in the rabbit's hand told Manic. "Awakening a Persona occurs when the one who wield it is faced with a situation that has them facing their greatest fears and traumas as well as confronting their own self they're hesitant to face. One must face the darkest elements of their own being including personal loss and come to terms with them. Very few are willing to face themselves."
"Your friend here was put into a highly stressful situation where the only way out of it is to walk through his baptising fire." The rabbit added. "His last salvation to avoid what have become of him if he hadn't taken the risk and throw caution to the winds. We don't know what was happening with you two back there but you were both desperate to escape with your lives."
"I see... Alright, I gotta ask because it's gonna bother the shit outta me; what's with the cellphone man?"
Suddenly, the device in the rabbit's hand emitted a hologram of a bald-headed bespectacled man with an orange moustache and a wild Einstein-style haircut that gave Manic a smile to the hedgehog's surprise. "Pardon me, we haven't made introductions yet. I am the Operational Virtual Intelligence."
"We call him O.V.I for short." The rabbit told him. "He's our Metaverse navigator and the reason we were able to locate you guys here through his scans when we were searching for the source of the blip we detected earlier. One you both made."
"Reminds me of a kind old man I know from Cambridge..." Omega says to Akira.
"So that explains how you were able to find us at the Palace." Akira remarks. Eying the hologram through his blue owl mask.
"Wasn't easy narrowing down the blip's location and your whereabouts under a time limit. We were investigating the Palace when we found you two."
"I guess this was our lucky break, huh? Heh..." Manic nodded with hands in his pockets.
"How did you guys get to this world?" Akira asks the rescue trio.
"We got to here through this..." The rabbit pulls out a phone to show Akira and Manic the screen displaying the familiar sight of the weird red-eye app or at least familiar to Akira. "It's what allowed us to come to the Metaverse."
"Wait a minute..." Akira pulls out his phone that has the eye app displayed prominently with red glowing waves on it, not having thought of checking the phone earlier before showing it to the others. "I thought I had deleted this thing from my phone!"
"Apparently not the case. I had done that before, thinking it was some dodgy app and it came back a while later." The rabbit told him. "You must have gotten a hit that brought the two of you here."
"So wait, a phone app brought us here?!" Manic's eyes bugged out. "Jeez louise, this is heavy..."
"But how? We were both running from a gang and the next thing, we're in the Metaverse." Akira questioned.
"You both must have by chance gotten a name, a place and a distortion that you brought you two here." Said O.V.I. "It's how one gets into the Metaverse."
"It's a good thing we were in town when it happened." The badger said with a confident smirk and coming off a little condescending to Manic. "Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. Have we?"
"Nope."
"I am Johnny." The rabbit introduces himself. Dressed in a black striped double-breasted suit with a right-sided breast pocket, a chain on the left pants pocket, a blue shirt, black shoes, a blue bowtie and a golden ball mask that obscures the upper part of his face barring the eyes.
"And I'm Cortez." The swordsman badger added. Clad in a blueish armoured tunic with a left armoured shoulderpad, a grey gauntlet on the left hand, a brown torso strap and belt with a yellow buckle, purple boots and a golden Horus mask that covers the upper part of his face like Johnny's but slightly more covered up. Having black lens covering his eyes.
"Akira." The wolf gave his name to both the rescuers and Manic.
"Manic." Manic introduced himself to his saviours.
Johnny nodded. "Now that we're formally introduced, I wanna as—"
"Hang on, I'm detecting Shadows coming our way." O.V.I interrupted to inform the group. "We need to go now."
"Let's get out of here." Johnny said as he quickly leads the group to the alleyway that Akira and Manic had arrived from earlier.
To Be Continued...