"I believe this deal proves to be beneficial for the both of us. However I regret to inform you that the shipment of materials will be delayed."
Inside a room was Kal'tsit and Doberman from Rhodes Island and the company representative from Ursus.
"Can you elaborate on why the shipment was delayed." Kal'tsit's stare hardened.
A small bead of sweat was forming on the representative's neck. The glare of Kal'tsit's eyes was imposing to say the least, to the representative it felt as if Kal'tsit was interrogating him the whole time instead of making a mutually beneficial deal.
"As you might have heard the infected have been raising countless trouble in Ursus, especially the terrorist group calling themselves 'Reunion.'" The representative succeeded in keeping his voice firm even against Kal'tsit. "I can confirm fortunately that the materials we discussed will be here tomorrow at the crack of dawn."
"Then I will be back tomorrow then. I hope nothing else happens, I understand both of us are busy." Kal'tsit said in her famous blank voice and expression as she and Dobermann got up to leave the room.
"It's unfortunate that the materials we need were delayed. It will put the training I have to do with the apprentice operators on hold." Doberman's displeasure with the situation was clear to Kal'tsit but Doberman has never been one to complain beyond a sentence or two. "As you said I hope the materials will be here in the morning." Doberman pushed out that last sentence before the only sound heard were the busybodies of the people inside the building.
'I truly didn't expect to be in a hotel today. I wonder if Marth is lonely without me at Rhodes Island because I'm very lonely right now.' Apollo heart said this while looking at the small room he was assigned to.
Kal'tsit already informed the rest of the team in regards to the situation and how they are staying here for an extra day. Apollo was rather happy about this since he was planning to sneak out and explore the city.
"I may be nearly broke, I may not know where in the name of god I'm going, but I'm going to hopefully have a good time." Apollo said as he looked at the two moons and countless stars. He opened the window and looked down. He was easily about ten to fourteen stories high. Even in the world of Terra with arts and the above average physical capabilities of the inhabitants most wouldn't consider jumping at this height unless push came to shove.
Apollo made sure the coast was clear before jumping into the alley. The wind was blasting at his face causing his hair to flap around. As he fell the heat in his chest and arm increased as magically energy flowed into his hand. Once he was about a dozen or so feet from the ground he casted a wave of wind to lighten the landing, Apollo looked down at his feet to see small cracks. "Good thing I didn't do too much damage. Apollo slipped off any dust that fell on his white t-shirt and walked towards the city.
The city was both familiar yet unusual to him. It felt as if he was walking in a light fantasy/ sci-fi movie. The bright neon lights, loud foreign music and animalistic features coming in and out of his vision made him question if he was drunk. Apollo didn't fail to notice that he was getting glances from the other residences because he stuck out like a sore thumb. Ursus is known for being a cold country with one of it's most well known aspects being the northern tundra,
This aspect has caused Ursus's main source of fashion and showing off of wealth to be in the coats, hoodies and other thick clothing they wear. So for Apollo to be walking around in just jeans and a shirt had many turning their heads.
Feeling his throat getting dry Apollo decided that now was a good time to enjoy the local comedies of Ursus, within his vision he saw a food truck being operated by two people. The food resembled hotdogs and while Apollo wasn't the biggest fan of hotdogs back home, he wasn't opposed to trying new things especially in a new world. He checked his pockets to pull out some LMD he got from his paycheck at Rhodes Island. "I should enjoy having money now before my pay gets cut from me doing something stupid later on." He mumbled under his breath as he walked towards the truck window. On the wall next to the window was a small poster, while it was written in the Ursan language, under it there was a translation.
'We don't service the infected'
The aroma of the food whipping into Apollo's nose was dulled at the poster. "I guess the hate for the infected doesn't just stop in Lungmen. I just hope it's something that's only in these northern countries." Apollo said in his heart as he approached the window.
"What can I do for you young one?" One of the workers approached the window, the worker was an older woman, likely in her mid 30's.
"I'm new to Ursus so I was wondering what you recommend if you don't mind?" Apollo responded nicely as he stared not at the women but at the food grilling behind her.
The worker cupped her chin in thought. "Many people come for the hotdogs, I would recommend that."
"In that case I'll take five."
"Hungry eater I see. No problem for me." The woman turned around and shouted something to the cook.
I checked if there was anyone behind me and gladly there wasn't. "Hey Miss. Can I ask you something?" Apollo asked.
The woman's eyebrow cocked up. "Sure, you need directions somewhere? The nearest clothing store is just 3 blocks away." She said,
"Why would I go to a clothing store?" Apollo replied as if a question mark appeared above his head.
"Look at you. It's always cold in Ursus and yet you are wearing jeans and a t- shirt. At least wear a black one to keep your body warm." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You see I would wear something heavier if I wasn't warm already, but that wasn't the question." Apollo said with a smug expression.
"So what is it?"
"How do you feel about the ones with oripathy?"
The woman's eyebrows narrowed as if I asked a dumb question. "My opinion about the infected is the same as most people in the world. They should die off, or at least die somewhere we don't see them."
Her answer, while it wasn't unexpected, was still disappointing if not a little infuriating. "Why do you feel that way?" Apollo continued.
"I mean all they really do is spread the infection. We already have enough to deal with because of the catastrophes, the infection only makes things worse. Especially if one dies, their body makes the people around them likely to be infected."
"I see."
After Apollo paid for his food he left the truck walking towards some of the less popular areas of the city. As he walked he noticed the buildings getting less and less modern and more run down.
"Guess I'm getting close to the slums of this place." Apollo said as he took quick glances at the ones around him, mainly the twenty looking person not too far ahead of him. It was clear from his spotted legs that he was infected. He didn't have much to him, he wore a thin coat and pants that exposed his mid leg. "The man is likely hungry."
As Apollo decided to give the man some of his food, the screeching sound of wheels could be heard not too far from away. The next moment a dark blue van drifted around the corner at speed which would violate some road laws back on earth. It stopped in front of the infected man, and in an instant three people rushed out attacking the man and binding him with a weird substance, likely one of their arts.
"Ah, it's a kidnapping."
The people quickly threw the infected man into the van, and drove off.
"I guess I found something to do for tonight. Apollo stuffs some food into his mouth while enforcing his legs with mana. He leaped a great distance on top of one of the low rise buildings, giving him an overhead view of the road.
For a van that is holding another person whose life could end tonight, they were driving as if nothing was out of the ordinary once they reached the main roads, obeying the street lights, letting other people cross the road when needed. Apollo jumped from building to building, always keeping the van in sight. In time the van stopped in front of a couple of buildings somewhat close to the popular sections of the city.
They men pulled into a dimly lit alley, half eaten food and empty cups scattered around. The men pulled the infected out whose body had gone limp.
"Hurry up! The client is waiting and I heard this one is paying a lot of money for all these infected we kidnapped."
"How much are we talking about?"
"Enough to last a year with no worries."
"Geez, how are you able to find these clients?"
"Don't worry about it, all that matters is the money."
The man conversed as they dragged the man into a building. Once the coast was clear Apollo dropped down and walked towards the door.
"Now that I think about it, I probably should have a disguise. I rather not have anyone know it's me, it would cause trouble for the others." Looking around to see if there was anything that could be used, to his surprise he found the perfect thing. It was a bear costume, the condition wasn't perfect but it looks fairly new; nothing too dirty.
Disguise ready, Apollo walked back towards the door placing his hand on it. A small magic circle formed on the door. Sizzling and smoke came from under his hand. In mere moments a decent sized hole big enough for Apollo to slip through was created. The hallway wasn't anything crazy, wooden floors, dull colored hallways with doors along the walls. However along the wooden floor were small droplets of liquid crimson.
'They went that way. I hate wooden floors with a passion' Apollo thought as he followed the trail making sure that not a single sound was produced. Deeper in the building he went, the stronger a metallic smell became until the trail stopped in front of sewer drain, one much larger than normal.
"So what do we have here?" Apollo pulled the drain lid off and as if he opened an old milk cartridge, the foul stench rushed into his noise accompanying it was the metallic smell of blood. "Things could get dicey here." Apollo reached into his chest and instead of the spheres that many people saw him use over the last few weeks, a sword came out. The curved blade crafted from the demonic swordsmith Muramasa shined brightly under the artificial light of the hall.
Apollo started to climb down the latter. The more his heart raced, his hand became more twitchy. "Relax, relax." Apollo took deep breaths and slowed his heart as light could be seen below him.
Once Apollo reached the bottom he found himself in the sewers not much to his surprise, however the bleeding stopped leaving only the scent of blood in the air. Apollo did what he did best and followed it, this time running traversing meters at a time before reaching his destination.
"Hurry up and get him in there!"
"On it!"
Cages, blood and misery encompassed the room like a dark storm, a lot of men in dark clothes moving about the cages that were shaking violently. Apollo walked towards one of the cages. He saw a being slowly and weakly breathing. The being turned and looked at Apollo.
"P-please. N-no more."
The person was bloody and beaten, barely clinging to life. Apollo looked into his eyes which conveyed a sight he would never forget, a deep endless despair. Apollo's body pulsed once.
Then again,
Then again.
He walked away from the cage and towards another one. It was no different than the first, despair, blood and a broken person inside likely wishing for salvation of some form whether that be a savior or death. The grip on the sword tightened.
"Hey! Who the hell are you!"
Apollo turned to see a group of men about a dozen or so, wearing all black. All of them had various objects on their back and hands that resembled crossbows and swords. One approached.
"I asked who you were!" The man dashed at Apollo at speed much faster than that of a normal human, the man swung down his weapon.
From the outside Apollo seemed either foolish or overconfident as he didn't move as the attack came down on his head.
"Disappointing."
The moment would spell the incoming calamity that would befall those here. In less than a moment, faster than most people can perceive, the man's body was found on the floor; or rather the two halves of him.
"W-what happened. How dare you kill Mason you bastard!"
The men after being woken up from their daze looked back at their enemy. The unsettling sight of seeing a person in a bear outfit now coated with blood slaying a fellow member of the operation would send anyone running in fear.
Apollo looked back on the group and could see not only hesitation but greed in their eyes, it was so apparent that he could see the symbol of the Lungmen dollar in their eyes. "I took the sword out for no reason if this is all I have to deal with."
Apollo pushed the sword into his chest but instead of blood coming flowing from the area, the sword was sucked into his chest as if the sword was falling into a pool of water. A stun expression was shared between the men as they watched a borderline magic trick happen in front of them.
"He got rid of his weapon, everyone rushed him. One stay back and sound the ala-"
What the men didn't expect was Apollo who was once a few feet away to be right in front of them at a speed quicker than the man Apollo killed. Apollo reached out and grabbed one of the men's heads by their horns.
"Yo-
The man didn't have the ability to fight or even finish his sentence before his ability to feel his beating heart vanished. He looked down to see Apollo's hand through his chest.
"Huh?" That was the last he said before the shine in his eyes went dark.
The captured infected were used to the sounds of chains, torture and the sound of their fellow infected begging and pleading for it to all stopped. Tonight sung a different tune however as the cries of the human traffickers, the cheering and praise of the infected was all that can be heard as the massacre continued.
"Hey, can you come here?"
Apollo turned to the voice to see an infected woman in her cage, chained to the floor in a cross position. Apollo dropped the dead body of the last guy of the trafficking's ring since no more was rushing towards him, he walked towards the cage, destroying the entrance and removing the restraints of the women.
"Did the others send you to save us?"
"Others?" Apollo inquired.
Apollo scanned the women as she walked out the cage which provided better lighting to see an orange armband with a symbol similar to an 'X' on it.
"I see. You aren't the resume team from Reunion, would you consider joining us. A fellow infected like you would be a great help for us and others." The woman stated as if she was a performer in a play and moved her arms towards the other cages.
"I'm not infected, I can because I was bored and followed some of the human traffickers to find this place. As for the rest, you can make your own guess." Apollo explained as he kicked one of the dead bodies.
"Then why did you come and help us? Many people wouldn't care about us infected, rather they would be joyous about us dying out of their sight." The reunion women asked.
"The loss of life no matter who or what it is pitiful." Apollo responded simply.
"Even the death of the scum you killed?" The woman asked with anger clear in her eyes as she stomped on the head of one of the dead bodies.
"Even them. No matter who or what they are, god, devil, human or anyone in between. Life is an important thing and it always saddens me to lose it. I try not to take pleasure in the act of killing people. Besides I can safely say I'm as bad if not worse than these guys." Apollo responded as he looked at his blood covered bear hands.
The woman could only sigh "I don't know what you've done to make you believe that but I won't question my savior."
As she finished speaking as if it was planned, a large number of footsteps could be heard, Apollo instantly got into a fighting position thinking more enemies were coming. Various people in thick white clothing came out, the main outlier in their uniform was the orange armband, the same the reunion women were wearing.
"Phoenix! Glad to see you are safe. One of the members walked forward. "Frostnova would be happy to see you. Thought you were injured when we saw all the dead bodies laying around." One of the members walked forward.
"Ah, there's my rescue team. You are a bit late, our new friend beat you to it." The woman said as she pointed to Apollo with her thumb.
The reunion members snapped their heads to Apollo, it was clear many of them were in disbelief seeing how a person in a bloody bear costume single handedly cleared all this out.
"I will ask you what happened later Phoenix." The reunion squad leader turned around. "Get all these people out of their cages! Give them medical treatment and food; check the traffickers' camps too."
The other reunion members scattered about breaking the various cages and freeing the infected. The squad leader walked closer to Apollo and the reunion women named Phoenix.
"I must thank you for saving Phoenix and the others here." The reunion squad leader expressed.
"No problem. It wasn't much." Apollo said as he made a thumbs up.
"I haven't thanked you yet. Thanks for saving me. You heard my name from him, but the name is Phoenix." Phoenix reached her hand out.
Apollo looked at her hand as he tried to think of a name to give out. He rather not give out his real name for obvious reasons, it took a moment before a name came to mind.
"No problem. You can call me Lostbelt."
Author Notes: Did I make a schedule? Yes. Did I try to keep it? Yes. Did I keep it? No. Sorry but not updating on time, finals has been a pain something a lot of us can relate.