History Tropers / PsychoFreaX

A fourteen year old

http://postimg.org/image/n2dsvuugn/

A fourteen year old boy with purple wavy hair named Prisha Winter slowly opened

----

As I said, I’d like to share some things on antagonists/villains. I find it interesting; after all, the antagonist creates the plot and obstacles for the protagonist, also sparking conflict between the two sides. But you want the conflict to be interesting and it really helps with an interesting villain. People don’t want to read about for the billionth time, the generic doomsday villain who wants to destroy the world just because that’s what they do.

Villains should be driven by a believable motive and possibly with a flaw that steers them in the wrong direction. Some villains are more sympathetic however and others are despicable even with depths to their personality. I’ve been going over motives and what I know of villains and here are some good types of them:

Hate- Also including revenge. These kinds of villains are driven to antagonize a certain individual, group or even society as a whole. Reasons can vary, such as racism or being wronged by the target of their hate in the past.

The Greater Good- These antagonists are the ones who sacrifice a minority group believing what they do are right to benefit the majority.

Greed- These villains are driven for more tangible desires such as money or power. A crime lord should give you a good idea.

Loyalty-

Longing Love

Loved One

Sadist

Misguided

Fear

Mercenary

Nature

Hunger

Psycho(MWAH!)

Alien

Tyrant

Survivor

The Cleanser

Hero Antagonist

Hero Antagonist

...

Prisha’s mind went out of control. Images flashed across it, of Soal, in the ice prison, breaking out, with his electric fist, heading straight for Prisha, then-

Prisha opened his eyes to find himself curled on the floor surrounded by misty shadows. Was that all a dream? No, they’re memories that will cease to leave him. How could he be so reckless? Underestimating Soal, thinking he can’t break out of being frozen. He was arrogant and stupid. But if he can no longer trust his judgment, then would anything he does have meaning anymore?

“You do remember the rules,” the floating sentence popped up next to Prisha, somehow glowing in the darkness and spoke. “You will now descend to the Loser’s Bracket and I will only give you one more chance.”

“...” Prisha just let the Organizer continue to yap away.

“Your next opponent you may be familiar with as many are, but see her differently to your world,” The Organizer continued speaking. “You heard of the religion Christianity from LRI haven’t you? The root of all evil? Satan, otherwise named Lucfi.”

“You will find out much more about her soon, you see the Loser’s Bracket has a twist in rules and the style of the fights,” The Organizer said as a question had momentarily brought Prisha back to his usual line of thinking. So his last few opponents seemed to be from different worlds but now there’s one part of LRI, the very world of the library books, but why? “For your next match, both you and your opponent get the luxury of knowing everything about each other.”

“Let’s begin and face the vision in front of you,” The Organizer turned to an area in front of Prisha where a bright light grew. There wasn’t much else to do, so Prisha decided to look. Within it is much like a video of some pervert who just happened to be the devil. Seriously? From her punishment by God, through her attempts to ruin his creation, with this being all the knowledge on her and her life story, it’s definitely more elaborate than the LRI books or even anything from that library.

"A tournament of what? You mean like a fighting tournament?" After a long while of witnessing her actions and capabilities, it’s finally probable the vision will wrap up with how Lucfi entered the tournament and soon Prisha witnesses her defeat from the fierce unusual fighter Nemesis. The light faded with her descent to the Loser’s Bracket.

“The match is set to begin, walk forward from this point to meet her,” The Organizer said, but seeing Prisha’s lack of response he added. “Or would you rather face disqualification?”

Prisha slowly got up and walked, he still had eyes on the mission. By now he should make an assessment of what he found out and how to win this next round. But what’s the point if he will just screw everything up again?

“Hmph... such a sore loser,” The Organizer chuckled as he watched Prisha walk to the battlefield. “Soal was truly a formidable opponent yet he still beat himself up over it...”

VVWVW

Once Prisha reached a certain distance, the darkness surrounding him was separating like clouds for a moon above to illuminate the area. It appeared to be an endless cemetery with different kinds of tombstones and monuments spread out as far as he could see with grassy ground otherwise. It looked like there were words on them that worn out beyond recognition long ago. Here, standing thirty feet away from himself was Lucfi, Satan herself.

“My my, hello Prisha, nice to meet and learn about you,” Lucfi giggled. “Your life made a pretty fun story I must say.”

“...” Prisha was still locked inside his mind. He should really start preparing by evaluating what he found out about Lucfi’s abilities already.

“Oh don’t worry about my inevitable victory, I am the sexy Princess of Darkness after all,” Lucfi said, noticing Prisha’s lack of response. “Now it’s all about how you can entertain me. Sorry you won’t be having your way however.”

Prisha still stayed quiet, it was like he wasn’t even there even if he was physically at the cemetery. Lucfi was getting fed up with the one way conversation, “I know, I know, you’re supposed to be the brooding type I’ve seen it all. But I thought you’d at least make a remark.”

So formulate a strategy against Lucfi, but where to start so he doesn’t screw up? Prisha thought.

“Thought someone known as the ice blooded demon would be more fun, oh well,” Lucfi placed her hand on the ground which responded by glowing a red circle around her. “Dog of Hell I summon you... Growley, Boxy, Brasly, Poodly!”

A black mist had risen and parted to reveal the four Magnificent Hounds of Hell on the sides of the circle around Lucfi. Prisha had learned of them but only from Lucfi’s history, they weren’t always in her presence and that could be a problem.

“You called us all, my lady?” Growley asked.

Prisha will now have to fight soon, time to quit playing unresponsive and be ready. But what if-

“Yes, Prisha here wants it rough don’t you my dear?” Lucfi spread her wings and took off from the ground. “Careful though, he’s a tricky magical boy with ice powers.”

Its simple manoeuvring techniques! You’ve done it countless times, Prisha tried telling himself. But that’s what she’ll expect...

“This is going to be fun!” Boxy cheerfully rushed forward along with Brasy.

Even with the hell hounds speeding to him, Prisha still struggled in his own mind. You can’t afford to stand still any longer!

But I don’t know-

You move or you die!

We may have overlooked-

Doesn’t matter damn it! Just move!

Prisha leaped and rolled out of the way before Boxy’s fist made contact. Brasy in the mean time ran to the opposite side to lock Prisha in a pincer attack as both him and Boxy charged again. Prisha can’t be certain about anything anymore, so he dodged in a random direction where Brasy was able to kick him away with his other foot.

Think this time will you? The voice in Prisha’s head echoed. Then what? Make a plan? Get overconfident? And screw up again? Is there anything he can trust anymore? Without his mind, he truly felt helpless.

The hounds ran up for another attack and Prisha was evading sloppily. He could at least analyse them for anything he hasn’t found out already can’t he? Boxy’s fist eventually made contact with him, knocking him into a tombstone but he was too locked in his head to feel it.

Lucfi didn’t think even Prisha could be this indecisive as she watched the scene set on repeat while cross legged in midair. Is he planning some kind of trick? Like anything would work, she thought giggling, “Quite the submissive type aren’t you Prisha?”

“Let’s get this over with slackers!” Poodly entered the fray as she clawed a wound into her hand before pulling out a stream of blood that solidified into a whip. She then waved it to wrap around Prisha’s neck and pulled him in. “You’ve just been a waste of time!”

Prisha’s head felt like it was going to burst as Poodly pulled the whip with a paw and pressed his neck with the over, trying to break it, “Die!..”

Prisha didn’t know if he was losing consciousness or if there was some hallucination due to various mental damages, but he now felt himself drifting from the physical world, within a void of light.

“Come on Prisha, you can’t give up so easily,” A voice sounded next to Prisha and he turned to see Corey standing there. “Beating yourself up too much, you didn’t even do very badly against Mister Butterfly you know?”

“I underestimated him... I made a careless judgment,” Prisha’s voice trembled as he turned away. “The one thing I had pride in and...”

“Sorry but I just can’t do this anymore. You should all just leave me...”

“Oh we’ll never do that,” Corey smiled before pouting to preach Prisha. “I will be pestering you a lot about doubting yourself though, with your brains no less.”

“Now that you know everything about Devil Girl, why aren’t you feeding her to lobsters already?” Corey went on. “We’re all counting on you but now you’re even letting yourself down! You can’t let her kick you around like this!”

“Idiot! You don’t understand!” Prisha said loudly. “I’m an agent of the occult and that’s all the reason I can’t allow myself to screw this up! But I can no longer trust my own judgment!”

“Sure I can formulate a plan from known factors, but if I make another miscalculation, it can turn out for the worse!” Prisha finished ranting.

“For the worse?..” Corey questioned and prompted Prisha to roll his eyes.

“Oh Prisha you arrogant brat, forgetting what everyone does when they make a mistake,” Corey playfully pulled Prisha’s hair. “Even someone like me knows.”

“There’s a time and place for your randomness Corey!” Prisha shoved him off.

“Really? So I’m the only one who learns when I make a mistake?” Corey questioned curiously but that’s what got Prisha to turn back to him as an inspiration ignited.

“Move forward not just to win the fight at hand but to grow stronger...” Prisha thought aloud.

“Yep! No matter what happens, you’ll learn right?” Corey cheered him on. “There will always be tougher fights later!”

“Ganbatte!” Rina appeared next to Corey and called out. “Show her who’s boss Prisha!”

“Wimp, quit giving up so easily,” Ian appeared along with Rina and Corey, cross armed.

“Yep and don’t forget to bring back some hound cakes!” Corey said.

“Sure,” Prisha muttered and almost smiled. “Something that simple and I even forgot. I really do have a lot to work on then... thanks-“

But now he noticed himself back at the cemetery with his neck wrapped in Poodly’s whip. All of that was a single second hallucination? But it felt more real than any. Poodly was still trying to strangle him but noticed a change in expression, “What’s your problem?”

Prisha knows it’s now time to act. So he focused his PSI into the whip to reduce its temperature then cause ice to travel along it to freeze Poodly herself. After breaking off the whip, Prisha only needed to shove her into a tombstone for her to shatter before her remains dissipated into red mists.

“You will pay for this!” Growley roared as destructive beams flashed out of his mouth and Prisha ran in order to dodge. Brasly and Boxy also approached for another round.

Now to analyse! From the knowledge on the hounds, Growley is the most dangerous due to his range. However, he would also be the most useful. Then the next on the list to be eliminated should be... Prisha looked around at the others, their positioning and where they would move then ran in front of a large tombstone to lure Growley to fire at.

After dodging, the tomb broke up with pieces flying, some rebounding. Prisha then ran toward Boxy who welcomed the challenge, “Bring it on! I love mano-o-mano!”

Boxy got ready to punch Prisha but was caught off guard by a falling piece of the tomb, creating enough opening for Prisha to drive his hand into the hellhound’s face, freezing and shattering him much like Poodly.

Now for Lucfi, she won’t simply die from wounds like a human, but from the rules, Prisha can still win by incapacitating his opponent, if he could freeze her well enough. She may still break or thaw her way out, but freezing her is still the best bet. He just had to do it really well.

“Not sure what happened but it looks like you’ll be more fun now,” Lucfi smiled seeing Prisha fighting more spiritedly before turning to run. Lucfi and the hounds went after him. “And next up, some kicking and screaming right? Teehee!”

Prisha ran in the opposite direction of the moonlight and Lucfi, it was unusually bright enough to see her shadow, and also around some tombs for defence. In this cemetery, the tombs weren’t spread evenly so some areas are more compressed, but to make sure his plan works, Prisha needed a more spacious area.

He can’t have his back turned to his enemies for too long however, once he made up his mind, he raised his hand up at Lucfi to project a bright beam. As Lucfi noticed this, there was no time to raise a hand or even snap her fingers. She could only exhale any air she had in her lungs as a concentrated stream of fire in front of her as the attacks clashed. Prisha persisted, the flames were slightly shrinking but still provided excellent defence for Lucfi up until Prisha’s attack faded.

“Forgetting someone?” Brasly had caught up with Prisha and started rallying kicks to back him toward a tomb. For now Prisha had the disadvantage in close combat so he formed the ice sword in his hand to run it through Brasly’s neck, one hellhound to go.

Growley was now in firing range, blasting energy beams. As Prisha ran he noticed the last hellhound thinks he no longer needed to be cautious of his attacks without his comrades around. Prisha would now favour close range, so he looked around for anything he can use.

Seeing a stone monument with a large cross behind it, Prisha ran there and jumped, not only evading Growley’s attack, but the direction it hit levered the cross to boost Prisha right at Growley, stabbing him in the neck with the ice sword and slashing out of it, causing Growley to dissipate like the others, only Lucfi remained.

Looking down at Prisha, Lucfi had an idea and giggled, “Say Prisha, you know my powers will return eventually don’t you? And after I deal with the organizer, it won’t be too hard for us to make a deal.”

“I understand you felt alone for a long time and you can’t trust those companions of yours,” Lucfi continued while Prisha just glared at her. “How about you do as I say and I can grant your greatest desire and find true kindness?”

“What stupid joke is this?” Prisha answered monotonously but still devising a strategy to bypass Lucfi’s defences. By the heat of Lucfi’s flames and the strength of the ice sword, maybe...

“You had doubted them haven’t you? Your longing may blind you but the truth is they only wish to use you for your abilities,” Lucfi continued. “But through my powers there’s no need to doubt.”

“Ooh that’s a nice trick,” Prisha replied.

“As if I need a trick to beat you, we both know everything about each other don’t you remember?” Lucfi said. “Comparing our abilities, my victory is inevitable even with your gift.”

“Hysterical isn’t it? The conclusions people reach about what they don’t understand?” Prisha spoke calmly. “Sometimes I confuse myself why I allied with the Occult Society, why I trust them. But seeking kindness in return is not the reason!”

“It’s true we know everything about one another,” Prisha lectured. “We possess all the information, all the knowledge. However, understanding it takes much more.”

“But then again Satan...” Prisha’s face twisted into a sneer. “You should be thankful you don’t understand me.”

“Even if I’m still the same as I was before, I won’t lose to the likes of you,” Prisha returned to his usual glare. “I admit I haven’t entirely understood you but from what I’m certain of...”


----

As noon draws closer, Corey watched the television in a hotel apartment on a channel showing nothing but static. A little further away, Prisha and Rina looked over some documents including the disc they took from the lab on their laptop. Ian then exited the bathroom and walked to the television. Seeing Corey wasn’t watching much, he took the remote.

“Hey! I was watching that!” Corey complained as Ian changed the channel, igniting a bewildered look.

“Ian, give Corey back the remote,” Prisha said without turning away from the laptop screen.

“What?” Ian retorted. “He was just watching static! I’d like at least something on worth watching!”

“What does matter is that you have been hogging the television for almost the entire week,” Prisha replied monotonously as Corey took back the remote and poked a tongue at Ian. “Wait at least twice as long for another turn.”

“So how’s it on your end Prish?” Rina asked as she was done reading the reports.

“It seems this was where they kept files of the biological findings of other areas of Lorieth,” Prisha explained before the lot heard a knock on the door.

“Hey how has the Junior Occulties been doing?” It was Yosuke who entered.

“Hopefully better on your end,” Rina sighed. “So, what of the story of those researchers?”

“We went over it with Gavriel and it checks up,” Yosuke said cheerfully before taking out a parchment. “Using our investigation thus far as control questions, we were also able to get further information of their group. This is a more detailed map of the lab we visited last night.”

Prisha took the parchment and looked over; the map was quite accurate to what he had seen from the area. But now with extensions of unexplored areas such as labs testing on reactive chemicals and complex machines, the room they kept the hostages captive, the security room and even the bedroom of those residing there including Lin Cherin. However, what was most unusual were some of the walls between rooms seem larger than needed, there may be few reasons for this, Prisha is suspicious of.

“We’ll be heading off to negotiate with the other adoptees soon,” Yosuke continued. “But before that, if you’re hungry, don’t forget to stop by at Basil’s apartment; we’re all meeting there for lunch.”

<><><><>

A large man with claws and fangs, covered in fur, particularly a lion’s mane, yawned as he walked into the kitchen, “Aaaarrrhhh! Felt like I’ve been sleeping forever!”

“Twenty five hours actually,” Phelen said as he, Katrina and Brody finished eating lunch.

“What? Did I miss out on much?” The recently awake man name Mane asked with his beady eyes as wide as can be.

“Other than an underground organization deducing our whereabouts after taking out Gavirel, taking files of our conspiracy, Basil and Robert being sent after them and not returning?..” Katrina listed. “Just another regular day.”

“Wha???” Mane asked repetitively.

“You can also stand there mouth gaped miss out on planning how to deal with those intruders while you’re at it,” Phelen said then turned to the others. “By the way, how long ago was it since we treated Seza’s wounds? Someone should go back to check on him.”

As noon draws closer, Corey watched the television in a hotel apartment on a channel showing nothing but static. A little further away, Prisha and Rina looked over some documents including the disc they took from the lab on their laptop. Ian then exited the bathroom and walked to the television. Seeing Corey wasn’t watching much, he took the remote.

“Hey! I was watching that!” Corey complained as Ian changed the channel, igniting a bewildered look.

“Ian, give Corey back the remote,” Prisha said without turning away from the laptop screen.

“What?” Ian retorted. “He was just watching static! I’d like at least something on worth watching!”

“What does matter is that you have been hogging the television for almost the entire week,” Prisha replied monotonously as Corey took back the remote and poked a tongue at Ian. “Wait at least twice as long for another turn.”

“So how’s it on your end Prish?” Rina asked as she was done reading the reports.

“It seems this was where they kept files of the biological findings of other areas of Lorieth,” Prisha explained before the lot heard a knock on the door.

“Hey how has the Junior Occulties been doing?” It was Yosuke who entered.

“Hopefully better on your end,” Rina sighed. “So, what of the story of those researchers?”

“We went over it with Gavriel and it checks up,” Yosuke said cheerfully before taking out a parchment. “Using our investigation thus far as control questions, we were also able to get further information of their group. This is a more detailed map of the lab we visited last night.”

Prisha took the parchment and looked over; the map was quite accurate to what he had seen from the area. But now with extensions of unexplored areas such as labs testing on reactive chemicals and complex machines, the room they kept the hostages captive, the security room and even the bedroom of those residing there including Lin Cherin. However, what was most unusual were some of the walls between rooms seem larger than needed, there may be few reasons for this, Prisha is suspicious of.

“We’ll be heading off to negotiate with the other adoptees soon,” Yosuke continued. “But before that, if you’re hungry, don’t forget to stop by at Basil’s apartment; we’re all meeting there for lunch.”

It had been decided that the second base for the Occult Society will be an abandoned hotel in Brystol. Here, Yosuke’s group had finally arrived after exiting the forest. They also met Rina and Lucir here as of the announcement of Code M.

“Wha?” Rina looked shocked as she sees Alice here. They are currently meeting at the reception. “So we rescued the governor’s daughter but she said she shouldn’t return yet and help out on the case?”

“Yes, I’ll tell you all I learned,” Alice said exhaustedly and looked around. The place seemed to be quite cleaned up to be suitable as a base. “However I’m sorry, getting out of that place was really tiring. Is there anywhere I could rest up first?”

“Well this is a hotel after all,” Rina smiled. “Ian, may you take her up to her room?”

“Gladly,” Ian gave a charming smile before he and Alice were off.

“So would it be time we also have our rest?” Rina winked cheekily.

“No,” Lucir spoke up from the sides. They are expected to talk about more after all. “I believe Yosuke would have made some discoveries he would like to share.”

Once the two who waited at the hotel were informed of the recent events, Rina exclaimed, “Biological experiments?”

“Shuffle,” Mitsu remarked.

“Yes, I also witnessed their result of advanced performance enhancement research from Mullet’s fight with Octoswords,” Yosuke explained. “Assuming he was normal to begin with, Octosword’s strength and speed must have been enhanced at least eighty eight times.”

“Yes, Professor Cherin had made some rather remarkable discoveries according to our files,” Lucir added. “It was said to have caught the interest of the Lorieth military to the point they even pleaded for his research despite how dangerous he said they were.”

“In any case, if that science was applied to his whole crew, you kids won’t stand half a chance against them,” Yosuke referred to Rina, Corey and Prisha. He then got out what the group took from the lab. “Here’s the hard drive we took and research reports we found. Be sure to look at them.”

Alice had done well. Thanks to her, Basil and Robert now know where the Occult Society are hiding out and only have to drive there to the abandoned hotel. They have already prepared themselves with Robert’s black armor looking much like a knight and Basil’s spear with a dangerous function. But these are only for precaution. Now that they are near the hotel, it would be too alarming to storm in this way.

From what they heard from Alice, most of their enemies should be resting up on the second floor while a couple kept watch at the reception. It’s a good thing Phelen let Basil borrow some capsule bots for this task. Basil found a dark alley that allows for sneaking around to all surrounding doors and windows to the hotel. Basil had sent out the capsule bots and controlled them from a remote to enter different directions of the hotel to catch the occultists off guard.

The capsule bots when released appeared to be floating robots with guns on the arms and no legs. But after entering the hotel, Basil was surprised to see from the cameras, there were none of the occultists on the first floor. He tried turning on the thermograph but could only find three people on the second floor. Have they changed their mind with their plans? A member of their group was able to turn invisible so what if they could fool thermographs as well?

He decided to leave eight of the bots stationed on the current floor to be safe while four of them proceed to the next. While looking around, it seems someone had noticed them and stepped out of their room, a tall boy with a mullet followed by a smaller one with red hair. Basil was about to order an attack but was interrupted by a shocking news by Robert, “Basil, I think our car may have a problem.”

Basil looked out his window to find the whole car carrying him is levitating forty feet in the air. But there was also something levitating beside the car. It was a man, holding his hand in front of him, directed at the car, “Now I wonder what would happen if I let go...”

<><><><>

Ian now faced what appears to be battle robots with guns pointed at him, “Okay any idea how they got here?”

Alice soon also stepped out to see what was going on before shrieking, “Eyaaagghh! What’s going on?”

“Don’t you know? It’ Code M,” Corey said.

“Whatever that means, please don’t let any of those near me you too,” Alice pleaded behind Ian for protection but noticed the robots not doing anything and was actually confused. “But why are they just staying there?”

“It tends to happen when the ones controlling them are currently preoccupied,” Prisha’s voice sounded from the staircase door before he opened it and stepped in along with Akira and strangely a lion. “We figured you would lead our adversaries here and set this base as a precaution that happened to not be a waste of time. So now we thought of ambushing our ambushers.”

“Wait! You’re accusing me of leading them here?” Alice argued.

“I’ll start by getting rid of these weapons,” Akira commanded the lion to take down the idle robots then disappeared. “Don’t worry, we took care of the others downstairs.”

“The means for ambushing in the forest was done with tranquilizers, naturally we would think the enemies need the victims alive and I thought it would be probable your colleagues would have figured that as well and take advantage of it,” Prisha summarized coldly. “I was also wondering what trap the residents of that hideout were leading us to.”

“Me and Scali had made sure nobody tailed Yosuke’s group, making sure there was no other way they could find us,” Akira continued. “Yosuke had also told me on how you knew too much to be legit so there was a high probability to begin with. But now we know for sure.”

“Also the messages she sent to her friends through the phone,” Corey’s voice sounded and surprised Alice. He then showed the messages giving away the location of the hotel, dating half an hour ago.

“You don’t understand...” Alice stuttered but wasn’t able to say much more after that. “Please...”

“The interrogation would have to wait!” Akira noted. “We should keep an eye on Alice for now, David and Rina might need our help.”

<><><><>

David was still levitating along with car beside the hotel, “This is your last chance to surrender.”

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Basil smirked as he opened a door and exited with Robert falling first and Basil stood on top of him. As they crashed, the two were still fine, not even the armour was damaged.

“Why do I even bother?” David was back on ground with the car being negative.

“We don’t have time for that David,” Rina appeared next him and they both stood to face off against their adversaries. But having read the research reports, Rina thinks there may be a better way to resolve this. “Listen, I was thinking. We might not have to fight, in fact, we may be able to help each other if we just talk it out.”

“Negotiation is it?” Robert said. It was to be expected after seeing him and Basil survive the fall. He wasn’t going to trust these people so easily. “The easy way out.”

“Okay, if that’s way you want to play it,” Rina smirked before summoning a sword in her hand and glanced at David. “Hey you don’t mind if I take on that cosplayer over there do you?”

“Okay, just be careful,” David said and the match ups have split up. As the fight began, Rina charged to strike Robert but the sword couldn’t even put a dent on the armour. The sword itself doesn’t seem to be able to last much longer either.

“It’s hopeless,” Robert said before swinging his arm to hit Rina who was fast enough to dodge and make distance. Akira’s group also made it out of the hotel to watch the fight. “My armour is made of a compound far stronger than steel.”

If the sword can’t even make a difference, could any other weapon have any effect? Rina thought. Well, there is one, she smirked raising her hands and focused her energy, “Looks like I’ll also need to be getting serious then.”

“Axe Summon!” The energy concentrated to form a giant axe the size of a car with Rina holding the handle. She was looking cool at first but then, “Uhhh... uh, WHA!”

The weight of the axe forced it straight down and sinks deep into the concrete ground. Rina tried with all her strength to get the axe out and miraculously even got it a feet off the ground but it just feel another direction. Robert and all the spectators just sweat dropped with Alice commenting, “Why am I questioning your team’s competence?”

Akira sighed and face palmed, “Sorry, it’s more of arrogance than anything.”

“You see, during a weapon summoner’s training, they must choose and object to take some time imprint into their memories and conjure a replica at any time,” Akira explained. “There were many choices of what she could start with and the first she went straight to was the unbelievably damaging giant axe.”

“Even people with decades of training may have trouble wielding it, but Rina persisted to practice with it and even though she imprinted it well enough to summon it, she doesn’t have much control over it,” Akira continued watching Rina’s struggles. “I must say however, the fact that she could now get it even an inch off the ground means she has improved a lot.”

“Enough with the joke!” Robert dashed forward to punch. The attack landed but Rina moved just enough to avoid broken bones. She had to give on the axe though and find another means to win.

<><><><>

David was thankfully doing much better with his fight dodging the attacks of Basil’s spear. When the spear finally hits however, a shock of almost a million volts had surged through David’s body. That would have been devastating to anyone who wasn’t a sage but David was still able to counter with a palm strike to push Basil away before backing off himself, “I see that spear was built with the ability to store and discharge high levels of electricity.”

“I didn’t expect you to even survive to speak of it,” Basil stayed focus. This fight was going to be far more difficult than he imagined. But the worst part came when he noticed his body is now many times heavier and even had to drop to his knee with the spear. “What the-,”

“Oh that?” David explained. “You see, my power allows me to control gravity. One of my abilities allows me to enchant anything I touch and change its weight.”

Now David was on the defensive as he charged up to attack. This time it was easy to avoid the spear as he landed some blows on Basil. As they faced off again, Basil decided all he can do is to use his trump card and stab the spear onto the ground but David simply jumped up. Basil warned, “You will have to land eventually! My spear can discharge electricity for a lot longer than you think- WHAT?”

Basil then looked again to see David was still in the air, levitating. Now it was David who taunted, “Perhaps I forgot to mention my power applies to me a well. Once I decrease my weight enough, I can practically levitate.”

David then levitated to where Basil is and knocked him down away from the spear. Yosuke, Lucir and Mitsu had arrived just in time to witness David’s victory with Yosuke cheering, “Way to go David! That was done in like what? Two minutes?”

“Yes but Lucir probably would have been done in less than one minute,” David sulked again. They decided to go watch Rina’s heated fight now. Most of the weapons were ineffective, so she tried using the spear now, which also provides good defence.

“I see its clear why you’d rather negotiate,” Robert threw a punch which hit the spear, knocking Rina back. Now with the spear already breaking up, what should Rina do next in order to survive against Robert? Seeing a sign post nearby had enlightened her as she went to jump on top of it and boosting herself high above Robert raising her hands.

“Axe Summon!” As Rina dropped down on Robert, she conjured the axe and swinged it down at the helmet of Robert’s armour. The axe had shattered as Rina dropped in front of Robert but after a moment, Robert’s helmet had also shattered and Rina went for her chance of punching him away.

“I get it!” Akira said proudly commentating the fight. “She jumped high into the air to have gravity do the rest of the work, driving the axe down on Robert.”

“Damn... you...” Robert cursed with all his energy.

“Robert stop,” Rina however just lent out a hand smiling. “I know you don’t have any bad intentions so just please, if there’s anything I could do to help-,”

“What? Why should you?” Robert said. He wasn’t going to trust Rina so easily.

“I read the research reports we collected,” Rina said sincerely. “They were biological experiments, it required you to look into many different areas, but most importantly, it was centred to finding a cure for an illness.”

“Also from our fight, I could tell you really rather not hurt me but believe it to be a necessary means,” Rina added. “Please answer, is there someone close to you who’s in need?”

Robert was still hesitant and Alice struggled on if she should speak up. But Basil then entered the scene and said, “There’s no point in us hiding it anymore. After all, even if we defeat our current adversaries, the Occult Agency may still send more after us and exhaust our resources won’t they?”

“They had a good track record in this region at least and from what we witnessed,” Basil then turned to most of Team Enigma and said. “We gladly accept your offer.”

“Right thanks Zeus,” Yosuke smiled. “We might need to negotiate it inside though. I think your fights were starting to attract some attention.”

<><><><>

Back at the hotel, the members of the Occult Society were in a discussion with the Alice, Basil and Robert that soon led to the details on the mission. But what surprised Basil was the discovery of Balgo’s state, “I see, it’s unfortunate that Balgo had lost his mind during his project with Avari.”

“I did wonder why he had to be confined in that lab but the research on adaptation can indeed help with our cause,” Basil explained.

“You know Zeus man,” Yosuke was getting a little fed up with waiting. “I’d still like to know what exactly this cause is.”

“Patience Yosuke,” Lucir said in his more business like tone. “We will need someone to keep watch as we stay here first.”

“You can leave that to me Scali and Ian,” Akira volunteered as the three headed off while the rest of the two teams listened intently.

“I’m sorry for any trouble,” Basil started explaining and seeing the look from the others telling him to go on, he continued. “However, Professor Huang Cherin took us all in as family, saving us from poverty and teaching us all he knew.”

“Except for me of course,” Alice added. “But as a friend of Lin, I want to do all I can to help her too.”

“Lin?” Corey asked with curiosity.

“Huang’s younger sister,” Rina reminded him. “She was in the files as the only one of the family not adopted by him.”

“Recently, Lin fell ill of a very deadly disease,” Robert continued sincerely even if it pains him to speak of it. “Our professor tried to do all he could to help, but not even all his research or any that’s known in the Lorieth region was enough to find a cure. Even giving life could only find a way to delay her pain and suffering.”

“Now Professor Cherin is no longer around and if we gave our lives too, no one would be around anymore to save Lin,” Basil delved deeper into the story.

“And that’s why you decided to kidnap and experiment on random people,” Rina guessed.

“We must do all we can to repay the Cherins ,” Basil answered. “Also, Lin is all that’s left of Huang and we are of course in his debt.”

“After a while, when my father was deciding not to send anymore men to investigate the valley, Brody called me for help,” Alice said anxiously. “Please, I know what I did was wrong but Lin doesn’t deserve this...”

“It’s up to you whether or not to believe or help us,” Basil said. “But I promise we will do all we can to repay you in addition to what punishment you may have in store for us.”

After staying quiet to think for a while, Yosuke turns to Lucir to ask quietly, “So what do you think?”

“The story is plausible thus far and indeed could be bluffed,” Lucir answered calmly. “But remember that with time we can certainly validate it”

“Oh that’s right! With Gavriel right?” Rina exclaimed remembering the sniper in custody before she began to yawn.

“Indeed, however as evident, at least some of us are exhausted from yesterday’s events,” Lucir laughed. “Perhaps we may work more efficiently after a little rest.”

“Let’s find a hotel first... a proper one,” Yosuke added, remembering where he was. “I think I know a few in Brystol.”

“Yes and for now our plan is for you to stay there,” Lucir told the former adversaries. “We apologize but we will require someone to watch over you in shifts at least until we all recuperate.”

<><><><>

Many hours had now passed as the Occult Society members took shifts to watch over the three in their custody. Nearing dawn it’s now the shift of Lucir, Prisha, Yosuke and Corey keeping in the hotel room, seeing Basil, Robert and Alice definitely asleep for now. Seeing them, Prisha was reminded of what he learned not just about them but maybe something to do with him himself as he sat down next to Corey along a wall near the window.

“Loyalty to the one person who was there for you huh,” Corey seemed to have echoed Prisha’s thoughts as he spoke pensively. “Say... would we be like them for each other?”

Prisha glanced at Corey for a moment but had to comment, “Stupid question.”

“Not just you!” A voice laughed, nearer to the window where Yosuke and Lucir stood. Yosuke spoke up, “It doesn’t take your level of apathy grumpy.”

“It’s indeed a reasonable motive actually,” Lucir added pensively. “It can be a really difficult choice between those we care about and our sense of justice. One which may trouble even me...”

“Not to mention all the people in the Occult Society who owes Brains for giving them a purpose,” Yosuke added cheerfully as the outside window begins to shine brighter on them.

Prisha turned to Lucir and paused in surprise, thinking, at least he himself had no incentive to be kind to others, “for someone of your position with such responsibilities, that can’t be commendable...”

“Yes, Huang Cherin had made some rather remarkable discoveries according to our files,” Lucir added. “It was said to have caught the interest of the Lorieth military to the point they even pleaded for his research despite how dangerous he said they were.”

Corey and Mitsu now faced a whole lot of chimeras with Cicero in charge. He smirked, “heh heh, you know, depending on what you can tell us, we can be quite forgiving.”

“Phantom Crowd,” Mitsu spoke in monotone and with only a flex of PSI, he conjured a crowd of holographic illusions of Corey and himself running around and confuse Cicero. Of course, Mitsu and Corey also need to run around to blend in.

“Urrgghh,” Cicero was annoyed. But rather than shooting right away, maybe he can catch one of the images acting suspicious. However, as he was being distracted, two of them were sneaking away to the right doorway. Good thing he noticed it just in time and pointed in the direction saying, “Hey! Chimeras, after them!”

“You won’t get away so easily!” Cicero started shooting the two with his hand gun while chasing them with the chimeras. Unbeknownst to him however, it was an illusion to distract them while the real Corey and Mitsu went off to the doorway on the opposite side.

Now that they entered the room however, what should they do? The exit’s not too far away, but they’ll also need to find a way to get back to Prisha. After a moment, Corey had remembered, “Right, I was supposed to give the signal!”

Corey then called forth his power and looked at the ceiling before directing his fist at it, “Force Blast!”

After it hit the ceiling to make a loud crashing sound, Corey and Mitsu waited, not just for Yosuke and Ian but also the other chimeras that will be drawn it. But before that danger, Corey noticed someone had clobbered him over the head, “OW!”

“A little early for the signal don’t you think?” It turned out to be Ian. Him and Yosuke had already got there.

“Yeah, we had to travel back in time after the tragedy of our future,” Yosuke joked then laughed. “Don’t worry Nose Boy. Scali heard the loud sound of the fight earlier.”

“By the way,” Yosuke decided to get to business. “Where’d Grumpy go?”

“Property damage,” Mitsu said as flatly as always.

“Oh right, while escaping, the guys here blew down a ceiling to separate you with rubbles right?” Yosuke thinks he worked it out. Then turned to the direction where Mitsu and Corey had come from. “Right, let’s go back and look for him.”

“Wait, how does that equal that?” Ian tried asking but it doesn’t look like there’s time to answer as the chimeras returned charged at them lured by the Force Blast.

“Hmphh, Nose Boy, you should have learned this trick by now right?” Yosuke smirked at the chimeras and channelled his PSI to project out of his palm. But when the ball out light reached in between all the chimeras, Yosuke closed his hand into a fist to say, “Grenade Blast.”

The explosion from where the energy was had easily blown apart all the chimeras surrounding it. The attack was clearly miles ahead of Corey’s own as expected from someone of Yosuke’s level. After some time of being awed by the technique, the group needed to move forward.

VVVVVVV

Prisha’s mind raced intensely, focusing on Balgo. The guy can no longer be defeated by ordinary means, so Prisha will just have to think quickly and hope he doesn’t get killed before then.”

“At the EDGE OF YOUR LIFE, you just feel like BEGGING now won’t you?” Balgo’s distorted laugh echoed through the hall. Prisha looked over at the frozen arm that’s beginning to defrost, even if it’s been weakened by ice, it would still be the best bet in damaging any part of Balgo. “WHY RESIST? GIVE into your FEAR!”

Though, it would be difficult to attack with Balgo constantly on a move like this, if there was just a way to freeze him. Balgo still continued to growl, “I WANT to HEAR the SATISFYING CRY of my PREY!”

Balgo then ran up and jumped high in the air to try to stomp Prisha, “Don’t resist the inevitable AND BEG!”

Prisha could dodge the stomp and seeing Balgo up close he could see the kind of fur he grew and had an idea, this guy’s not so invincible after all but an attack now can’t assure victory. Next, Balgo went to swing his arm and Prisha could only deflect it before being knocked back at least ten meters by a devastating punch.

Prisha tried his best to deal with the pain. As he got up, he may as well be coughing out every last drop of blood in his body. It’s certain he won’t be able to live through even one more attack. So he needed to set his plans motion his hand directed at Balgo and his energy at the ready, “Frozen Wind!”

“THIS TRICK AGAIN?” Balgo laughed as the freezing ray is barely able to wrap him in ice, shrugging it off with barely a flex of his muscles. He then ran forward along the ray close enough to punch Prisha. But the boy dodged it after being done with the attack.

“Never thought you could be THAT STUPID!” Balgo mocked with much longer brown fur now to resist any ice attack, as he saw Prisha picking up the defrosting arm. “Your ICE trick didn’t work from the beginning and NOW you only made me STRONGER TO IT!”

“A lesson in biology,” Prisha looked pensively at the arm and back at Balgo. “Evolution doesn’t exactly make a species stronger but rather more suited for the environment.”

“What are YOU BLABBERING on ABOUT?” Balgo roared then charged up to attack again. “Just BEG like YOU’RE MEANT TO!”

Prisha was luckily able to dodge and took advantage of the arm’s weight, shifting it to a side, with the force of gravity to evade another attack and make distance. He only needed to buy a bit more time with his lecture to Balgo, “Sometimes, adapting to certain niches will make you more vulnerable to others.”

“Vulnerable? YOU calling ME VULNERABLE?” Balgo roared spreading his arms. “Did ANY of YOUR ATTACKS do anything BEFORE IT MADE me STRONGER?”

“...,” Prisha merely glared. From the fur, he could tell, Balgo’s ability adapted in the simplest manner.

“YOU’RE DEAD!” Balgo charged up again with his fist directed at Prisha.

“Fool,” Prisha evaded Balgo’s attack to swing the arm and release the blood from its end to soak Balgo in it. In this case, the fur now actually made it a whole lot more effective and Prisha only needed to freeze Balgo with the blood conducting the attack better to surround him. “Frozen Touch!”

Prisha breathed heavily exhausted seeing the towering figure of the beast now in ice. But even in this state, he still shouldn’t be easy to break. Prisha then placed the arm down in front of Balgo and shifted to the opposite and used all his remaining energy to knock the beast down on the strong arm to smash him to bits.

After the exhausting fight, looking around at the pieces of Balgo, Prisha felt glued to the ground. Constantly telling himself to get up, Prisha knows the enemy must now try another means to rid him. But now how could he fight back? As he heard the sound of the rubble on the side of the room breaking, he got ready for his demise. But as the ones behind it revealed himself, he could now stop worrying about his own life but theirs.

“Hey Grumpy! Glad to see you’re still in one piece,” It was Yosuke who revealed himself along with Corey, Ian and Mitsu. Shouldn’t they have gotten out of here themselves already? “Looks like you’ve been in quite a fight huh.”

Corey got over to support Prisha over his shoulder then looked around at Balgo’s defrosting remains and asked, “Say, Prisha? What are these things?”

“They don’t really look human,” Ian found one of the pieces that seemed to have come from his head. “Or any creature in the monster encyclopaedia for that matter.”

“Maybe they’re humans after an exorcist reveals their true self!” Corey theorized with enthusiasm.

“I’ll explain later,” Prisha said taking much energy. He then turned to see the hidden passage Balgo had risen from and the scream.

“Judging from the broken pieces of the wall, that passage wasn’t originally meant to be seen right?” Yosuke observed. “So what exactly is down there?”

“Not entirely certain...” Prisha answered.

VVVVVVV

“It seems we may have had an extraneous variable,” Avari had seen the fight conclude on the screen. It didn’t go as he had planned, but he was more impressed with the teen genius’ ability than being worried.

“That boy,” Phelen had recently arrived to finish watching the fight. “We underestimated him. If not for us dealing with him eventually, he has potential to be a brilliant scientist.”

“He won’t be any more of a threat in his current for now,” Phelen continued seriously. “But we will now have even more need to bring forth our next plan.”

VVVVVVV

After quickly examining what they can with the hall and passage, Yosuke led the group to escape the lab as quick as they could. First they took care of some chimeras at the corridor but there were others heading to them at the end, so they decided to run pass another doorway on the side, hoping to get around.

There, even though more chimeras surrounded them, the doorway they needed on the right was free so they headed through it quickly, Prisha also got back enough energy to run on his own. Within the next room, along with some computers, chimeras were approaching them from left and right with a free path to the doorway to the opposite side. However, most of the team is not so easily fooled and turned to face the chimeras. Prisha commented, “Too obvious.”

“These lizard cats were set at all but one pathway they’re clearly leading us,” Yosuke agreed as he got into a fighting stance. “I don’t know what trap they had ahead but chances are they won’t be as easy these animals.”

“Hey you guys got tired already?” Ian called out from the next room and everyone else except Mitsu face faulted.

“You really should listen just once! Why aren’t I getting used to this...” Prisha got up and scolded Ian. But now he and the others had to clear out some chimeras first.

Once they’re done, Yosuke peered back at Ian. “Well... on the bright side...”

“It doesn’t seem like anything’s happened to him yet...” Yosuke finished but still saw Prisha frowning and replied with a shrug. “I mean, we don’t actually want him dead right?”

“Psst!” Ian heard a whisper coming from a closet on the side of the room. He peered over to see it slightly opened and a female voice spoke. “Sorry but if you guys are escaping this lab, can I come along?”

“Hey, I recognize you!” Ian exclaimed seeing the girl exit the closet, the same girl from the photo. The rest of his team also approached curious but also cautiously. “You’re that chick Alice! The governor’s daughter!”

“Yes, I managed to break free during the chaos and I swear I won’t be a burden,” Alice bowed. “In fact, I think I can help.”

“No worries, it’s our job to save you and bring you back to Emilia after all,” Ian smiled charmingly.

“Actually, I know it’s counter-intuitive but I don’t think that’s such a great idea,” Alice said nervously. “You see, I learned a few things about these people while being captive here. There’s more to the plot than what you discovered and a reason why telling my parents will be dangerous.”

“I can’t explain now but just bring me along to see the others and I could tell you what I know,” Alice finished earnestly. Yosuke and Prisha looked quizzical but turned to each other and nodded.

“Awesome, shall we get going?” Yosuke turned back to smile at Alice.

“We wasted enough time,” Prisha walked back into the previous room with all but Alice and Ian starting to follow.

“Wait where are you going?” Alice asked and the group stopped abruptly.

“Yeah, isn’t the exit the other way?” Ian added.

“Uh... actually,” Yosuke started with a smile and sweat drop. “We thought of investigating this place a little more now that we have the chance.”

“And the chance to play with more chimeras,” Corey pointed at the other doorway seeing that more enemies were sent after them. The group decided to head through the door to the right where they’re currently at. Ian also needed to protect Alice while doing so. Some of the chimeras now also seem to stand straight like a human. They don’t have as much foot speed, but quicker in attacks up close.

Through the door, the room seemed to have more computers. The group looked around at what appears to be a workplace. Yosuke said, “Okay, remember, we don’t have much time to look around.”

“How about we just take one of the computer’s hard drives?” Corey suggested as opened up one of the computers.

“Yeah that’ll do, there’s a risk we’re taking more than a hard drive, but we can check once we’re out of here,” Yosuke agreed and they decided to rendezvous. They now had to fight to the exit. It would’ve been quite painful without Mitsu and Yosuke. But once they reach the hall way with the hatch, it wasn’t just chimeras anymore, as Seza was stationed across them armed with two swords and two more on his back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take this guy on,” Ian stepped up confidently unsheathing his Relic Sword. He then charged to cut down on Seza who used one sword to defend and cut Ian across the chest with the other before making distance all seemingly in a flash. The wound was barely deep but Ian had to express his surprise at Seza’s ability. What kind of human is this strong and fast? “I got the impression you guys were scientists.”

“Hmph, you heard of performance enhancement drugs haven’t you?” Seza smirked and charged to attack Ian again and managed to land a cut on his arm as quick as before, his speed was incredible. However, Ian was able to block the other strike. “Their function is as far as the comparison goes but our science allows us something far more advanced.”

“Unlike the others, I had also recreationally practiced with a sword which does have a say,” Seza made some distance again. “Give up. You have no idea who you’re dealing with- huh?”

Seza looked back down at his sword and found it’s been cracked. Ian then taunted, “Who doesn’t know who they’re dealing with? Trying to match your ordinary swords with this!”

As Ian charged again, Seza knew the sword in his left hand can’t sustain another hit from the Relic Sword so he threw it instead. Ian blocked and the sword broke in two. But Seza had thrown it in a way so that when the bladed end broke off, it went straight for Ian’s face and when he moved, it made a cut on his cheek. Even as an adversary, Yosuke had to acknowledge Seza’s cleverness, “This guy isn’t bad.”

Replacing the sword in his left hand, Seza ran up for one final attack on Ian, but stopping abruptly avoiding Ian’s anticipated slash then ran through and slashed Ian in both the arm and the chest. Now the pain really is overwhelming Ian as he dropped to the floor trying to support himself with the sword, “Damn… you!..”

“Guess it’s my turn now,” Yosuke smirked as he walked up cracking his knuckles.

“Hey… I’m not done…” Ian barely managed to say.

“You did your best Mullet,” Yosuke said as he stood next to Ian. “But we’d much rather you alive.”

“I’ll have to cripple each of you as you take over then,” Seza charged at Yosuke. This guy was unarmed so it shouldn’t be as difficult to run swords through him. But Yosuke just looked relaxed as Seza leaped past him swinging his sword. As Seza landed behind Yosuke, surprisingly, he was the one breathing hard, “What… are you?..”

Blood then gushed out of Seza’s many opened wounds as he fell unconscious as Yosuke smirked, still relaxed, “Force Cut.”

“Wow! Did he even move?” Corey celebrated from the finale. “Go Yosuke!”

Yosuke then got to Ian and supported him turning to everyone saying, “I guess now we exit.”

VVVVVVV

A while later, the group walked in the forest for quite a strangely long time, causing Alice to complain, “Haven’t we bee to this section before?”

“Uh… sorry I’m a little lost,” Yosuke sweat dropped and still supported Ian. “Don’t worry, I usually find my way eventually.”

“Well we haven’t looted anything that sends a signal,” Corey packed his bag as he walked toward the back of the group with Prisha. They looked forward to see Yosuke and Alice occupied with their chat. Then spoke in a whisper, “Except for one we’re not sure about right?”

“Yes, but for a few reasons, I think it’s best we don’t check for now,” Prisha replied quietly. Yosuke also took out his phone and send the message he already prepared to Lucir.

As anticipated we have a code M…

“A lesson in biology,” Prisha looked pensively at the arm and back at Balgo. “Evolution doesn’t exactly make a species stronger but rather more suited for environment.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take this guy on,” Ian stepped up confidently unsheathing his Relic Sword. He then charged to cut down on Seza who used one sword to defend and cut Ian across the chest with the other before making distance all seemingly in a flash. The wound was barely deep but Ian had to express his surprise at Seza’s ability. “I got the impression you guys were scientists.”

As Ian charged again, Seza knew the sword in his left hand can’t sustain another hit from the Relic Sword so he threw it instead. Ian blocked and the sword broke in two. But Seza had thrown it in a way so that when the bladed end broke off, it went straight for Ian’s face and when he moved, it made a cut on his cheek. Even as an adversary, Yosuke had to acknowledge Seza’s cleverness, “This guy isn’t not bad.”

There, even though more chimeras surrounded them, the doorway they needed on the right was free so they headed through it quickly, Prisha also got back enough energy to run on his own. Within the next room, chimeras were approaching them from left and right with a free path to the doorway to the opposite side. However, most of the team is not so easily fooled and turned to face the chimeras. Prisha commented, “Too obvious.”

“You can assure she is in place by now?”

They entered what looked to be like a room with a few computers around. But now what should they do? The exit’s not too far away, but they’ll also need to find a way to get back to Prisha. After a moment, Corey had remembered, “Right, I was supposed to give the signal!”

“Hmphh, Corey, you should have learned this trick by now right?” Yosuke smirked at the chimeras and channelled his PSI to project out of his palm. But when the ball out light reached in between all the chimeras, Yosuke closed his hand into a fist to say, “Grenade Blast.”

* shrugs*

Title: Psychronicles
Category: Fiction » Manga
Author: Psykofreac
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Adventure/Supernatural
Published: 12-16-12, Updated: 05-06-13
Chapters: 21, Words: 72,385


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Chapter 1: Chapter I: Not So Spontanious Combustion
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Wow somebody actually clicked the link to read my story? Thanks, you made the right decision because now you won't have to miss out on my amazing series XD. Anyways, I still had trouble piecing together a whole story idea I have. But I wanted to write something so I decided to see how I have a go at the arcs I can already work out and here they are. There will be some unanswered questions though, which I will probably answer after I reboot along with giving the story a proper introduction, this one is a bit more of an experimental that I'm planning to be at least a hundred chapters. Anyways, this version of the story will be in the form of various story arcs with quite a loose continuity. So here's the first chapter of my first arc and it's a pretty simple arc. I'm also still iffy if there are some holes in it. Just think of it as a slow start. So yeah I'd appreciate suggestions on what I can improve on. Anyways, on with the story!

It doesn't make any sense.

Doctor Joseph Nol continued to contemplate at the crisp of a corpse lying on the table in front of him. But it was only one of the corpses and tables in the lab he's in. All of them were victims of the crisis of Gonle city, a mysterious phenomenon that causes random people to spontaneously (or seemingly) combust. There doesn't seem to be any connection aside from the fact that they live in this city and they're above the age of fifteen.

"Doctor Nol?" A soft voice called from the door to his left. It was his assistant Doctor Helena Morris, a woman in her mid twenties with knotted red hair. "It's getting late and I did all we can with our research for now. I'm going to need to rest up at home and see what we can do tomorrow."

Doctor Nol only nodded to allow her to leave. Speaking of which, he might also need a little shut eye himself. Maybe he could research more thoroughly with the energy, but where to start? Is there even a scientific cause? Spontaneous human combustion was said to be a supernatural phenomenon after all. But there must be a trigger. Is there a serial killer who can induce it? Is there a disease going around? Should he quarantine each and every person in the city to analyse?

Doctor Nol grabbed the drink bottle on a bench next to him and tried seeing how his thoughts can improve after quenching his thirst. However, he was surprised to find the bottle empty, remembering how he even had to refill before contemplating on the corpse. He must really have been here for too long. It's time to leave for now.

Walking along the corridor he decided on how to continue the research the next day. It appears analysing each and every person of late teens and adult age. He can find a way to make it work. The public would like a solution to the crisis after all. But that can no longer happen. In fact, Doctor Nol will no longer even be able to make it out of the exit let alone drive his car home as he felt a burning sensation spread from the centre of his body and soon enough engulfed him as another victim of the Gonle crisis.

VWVVW

The very next stormy morning, a group of researchers had gathered around the burnt remains of Doctor Nol, including a devastated Doctor Morris. The group is led by a man at about age forty with bobbed hair cut. The man made the introduction speech, "Now you should all know you're here. We wish to solve the Gonle crisis once and for all."

"I'm sorry it wasn't soon enough to save Doctor Nol," The man bowed sincerely to Morris, who tried to keep up a strong appearance even after the tragedy. The man then turned to the rest of the research team once again. "The crisis has stolen enough from us which is why we will now do everything it takes and I mean everything. My name is Stan Lott and I'll be the manager of the research team."

"On my right we have biology professors Spencer and Martin," Stan gestured to the two, and then turned to the group next to them. "Military weapons manufacturers led by David Fry, top class detective Solis, exorcists in case the combustions were induced by supernatural entities, alien conspiracists if it's aliens instead, skeptics in case they're wrong, tailors if it's the clothes that went evil and gained magical powers, photographers, fiction writers because we might come across a twist, casino card dealers in case you get bored, the weatherman because why the hell not, tennis players, crypto zoologists-"

"Tennis players?" The weapons manufacturer David Fry queried bewilderingly.

"I told you we're doing everything we can," Stan answered quickly. "If you feel like arguing, I also bought a lawyer."

"So... is everyone set to begin?" Morris asked nervously, finding difficulty seeing the man she worked with for so long and even learned from in such a state.

"Actually there is one more team I have assigned to this research," Stan answered Morris, while a loud burst of thunder erupted from the sky, then asked everyone else in a darker tone. "Has anyone of you heard of... the Occult Agency?"

"Them? I heard they take all kinds of requests such as investigation," Detective Solis spoke up. "But the gist of it is they are experts in the supernatural."

"It's all bogus though," David Fry scoffed about the Occult Agency. "They just spread rumours about their successes to get attention and con whoever decides to rely on them."

"Actually I heard they're quite shady," Professor Spencer joined in on the discussion, almost forgetting the subject they're meant to be focusing on is researching the victims of combustion. "There are many mysteries about the agency themselves. It's said they have ulterior plans with their work."

"In any case they're a waste of time," David Fry crossed his arms before a bright flash of lightning and another crash of thunder.

"Shall we apologize for wasting your time then?" Four cloaked hooded figures eerily appeared behind the research team shocking them all. The eerie figures stepped forward igniting a strange ominous sensation in everyone else there. "What we can apologize for is keeping you waiting. Now I believe we have busine- AAAAHHH!"

The four collapsed, tripping over their own cloaks falling on top of each other. The creepy feeling the research group got was cut by the silly scene they are now witnessing.

"You see this is why I at least wanted to get cloaks our proper size," spoke one of them as he got up. He was about five foot eleven at age sixteen. He had quite messy brown hair with a mullet over his droopy eyes.

"But longer cloaks just look so much cooler," another one said, their face also revealed. It was a girl at about thirteen and five foot one. She is more cheery looking, with purple eyes and jet black hair in low pig tails style.

"I know! Next time we get cloaks a whole lot longer," Exclaimed the youngest kid there. He was a boy of eleven at four foot five with spiky red hair, purple eyes on a constantly enthusiastic face and somehow no visible nose. "Then we can fly inste- OW!"

The boy was just clobbered over the head by the tall boy with a mullet, "Corey! Quit being so effing weird!"

The last boy's hood also fell off in the fiasco revealing an androgynous thirteen year old at four foot eleven. He had neck length wavy blue hair over his grim looking face with deep red eyes. He stayed quiet, a little too ashamed of being with such idiots. How he always tried warning them how these ideas would go up in smoke. They just had to insist.

"Kids?" Professor Spencer looked bewilderingly at the scene. Then decided to step up and say, "Look kiddos, this is no place to play. We adults have very important business to-"

"Hmmphhh!" The girl pouted at the biology professor and stood up. "For your information we're no ordinary kids! I believe a punny man named Stan requested our service."

"Yes I'm here," Stan raised his hand and walked over.

"You know it makes me wonder too. What this world is coming to," One of the tennis players commented. "The kind of jobs they give kids now."

"Hey if fifteen year olds get to pilot mechas, I don't see why not," the girl shrugged. Speaking of the absurdity was another reason for the cloaks. They'll less likely be shocked to see a bunch of kids. At least Ian was tall enough to look like a full grown adult. Actually, younger members of the Occult Society are meant to specialize more in undercover work.

"That was from an anime!" The tennis player yelled back.

"I'm just kidding," the girl smiled. "Actually our bosses are quite responsible adults. They just allow us to work in this field because we're so gifted."

"Gifted enough to trip over our own cloaks apparently," The grim looking boy finally spoke up sarcastically.

"Damn it Prisha!" The girl yelled at him.

"Rina? You're an idiot," Prisha glared at her.

"So Rina, Corey, Prisha and..." Detective Solis counted each of the so called gifted kids up to the tall one.

"Ian," The tallest boy introduced himself. "Don't worry, we won't let you down."

"I told it was a waste of time," David Fry scoffed once again.

"Excuse me! But does anyone remember why any of us are here?" Morris cried out. "Can we please just focus on solving the Gonle Crisis?"

"Sorry once again Doctor Morris," Stan apologized then told the others, "Save your complaining for after we progress on our research. Then we can see how useless these kids really are right?"

"Right..." Rina smiled nervously and then decided to get to business. "I guess first we need the reports that we requested on these incidents so far."

"Just hang on a minute," Morris left down the corridor deeper into the lab to check before going back out of one of the offices saying, "I don't get it. I was sure Doctor Nol left it in there somewhere."

"Is this what you're looking for?" Corey cheerfully held up some documents.

"Wha?" Morris was surprised to see the reports in Corey's hand. "Do you always go over and steal people's things like that?"

"Yeah! Haven't you learned it just pisses everyone off?" Ian yelled at Corey snatching the reports then apologized to Morris. "I'm sorry my lady. We've been trying to fix him for a long time now."

"Is it more difficult than solving these spontaneous human combustions?" Morris asked as Ian started reading the reports, though it wasn't like he understood anything on it. "It's not likely there's a killer who can induce the combustions due to a lot of these occur in either people's homes, which the killer can't have access to all of or somehow frequently in the middle of parties, where there are too many witnesses. There doesn't seem to be much of a connection between the victims either. Other than the fact they're mostly adults all above the ages of fifteen.

"The times of occurrences aren't very indicative either, since they can still happen when the victims are asleep," Morris continued then decided to be more precise. "More precisely the times listed are actually the time the victims were found like that. Most people now know to catch signs of the unusual spark to where the victim is so it should be quite precise. But the incidents after waking hours are often found later in the morning and it's difficult to tell how long we were late by."

"Well let's see," Prisha snatched the reports from Ian to read it himself. After a minute he presented. "I can already doubt any supernatural entities are behind these combustions. Rather you should look into causes such as food poisoning or possibly water."

"Sorry kid, we already check the water supply and all the food on the market," biologist professor Martin said. "There were no signs of bio hazards."

"The period after waking hours but before when the bodies are found should be approximately between midnight and ten AM, am I correct? This time on average had a low combustion rate," Prisha began explaining. "There is then a steady incline before spiking to a high rate between eleven AM to one PM, afterward the incidents died down again until another period of high combustion rate, between four and five PM. We then have another decline until six PM when the incidents seemingly stop altogether before nine PM."

"The following period until ten PM is another low rate until a spike to the highest frequency of these incidents until midnight to complete the cycle," Prisha finished his current presentation to see the research team still confused. Rina went over to curiously take a look at the report, having read enough of it for now, Prisha hand it to her.

"Look kid, in such random occurrences it's only natural certain times will seem to have a higher rate than others," Detective Solis shrugged. "In fact, what would be suspicious is if there is an equal distribution throughout the whole day cycle. Like as if it was organized."

"He's just another freak who keeps rambling on about things that don't make sense," Ian said. "See what I have to deal with every day?"

"Ignore for a moment the actual time and focus on the pacing between them," Prisha sighed. That detective wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know. But seeing as the whole research team is still confused, Prisha glared. "Do you fools need a hint? The report displays the time of the effect, but what about the cause?"

"You know, you can at least be nicer when you're so called helping!" David Fry was losing his temper.

"It happened before by about..." Rina did her mental math, finally seeing what Prisha meant. "Four hours!"

"So do any of you make sense?" The exorcist questioned.

"Try subtracting four hours from the time on the report and the time with the highest frequency are breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively," Rina answered and handed the report out for the others to read. "It fits too well to be a coincidence."

"The hazard probably took about four hours upon consumption to act, providing the time we see in the report," Prisha explained still glaring as usual.

"Wait! But you said none of the food and water is hazardous in any way," Detective Solis referred to the biologists. "Unless the food becomes contaminated somewhere along the way. You don't think it's the shopping bags that have the germs or the taps?"

"I doubt it," Prisha answered. "The report displays quite a high rate of occurences in gatherings such as parties. But there are only individual victims in each when your theory would suggest that more people eating or drinking there would be affected. Unless of course the hazard only affects select individuals with most people immune."

"Me and Doctor Nol had checked all the victim's medical records," Morris shook her head. "They don't have any abnormal connections different from the rest of society."

"Maybe they were actually werewolves so they were really good at hiding it," Corey suggested enthusiastically.

"Tchh, there he goes again," Ian crossed his arms not wanting to make it look like he's in the same group as Corey.

"Actually I believe the connections may not even have to be physiological," Prisha suggested then turned to the manager Stan Lott. "I believe we also requested reports on the crime rate in Gonle of the past couple of months. Particularly murder related."

"Yes detective Solis should have them," Stan turned to him. "If he heard well enough to bring them."

"What's that supposed to mean I got them right here," Solis handed out the report.

Prisha started reading. But after a while, the statistics gave him the idea that it might not be such a great choice to present it here after all. "We figured out everything we can for now."

"Rina, Corey, Ian," Prisha addressed the rest of his team before walking toward the exit of the corridor. "We're leaving."

"What?" Rina called out after Prisha, surprised but disappointed to stop investigating so soon. "Can you at least not be so vague about it?"

"What's so vague?" Ian shrugged, adding. "He's chickening out on the case, there's no surprise."

"Wait!" Morris called out. "We have made some progress and it may have been exhausting work. So how about I make lunch to energize everyone again to continue afterward?"

"Do I look interested?" Prisha turned to glare at Morris before continuing out the exit of the corridor.

"Oh that idiot doesn't know what he's missing out on," Ian said before turning to Morris and flirted. "I bet a beautiful lady like you must also cook just as beautifully eh?"

"No, we're leaving," Rina pulled Ian by the ear and went after Prisha, also followed by Corey. She however remembered to stop for a moment to request the research team. "But can we have a copy of the reports before then?"

VWVVW

Back outside, it seems the storm has cleared out as the four juvenile bunch walked down the streets under a mostly blue sky. But what's bothering Rina now was Prisha's sudden exit from the lab. She knew Prisha always acted distant but she just had to ask, "Hey Prisha, so what was your problem before?"

"He is a problem," Ian scoffed.

"It's the reports," Prisha finally decided to inform his team. "The crime rate of Gonle has always been much higher than your average city. They have only persisted up to today. However, the murder rate has decreased considerably."

"But don't less people mean less people to murder?" Rina suggested.

"Do you know how much of the population the human combustion issue had wiped out?" Prisha explained. "Not even ten percent just yet. But the murder rate had decreased to less than half."

"Using your reasoning alone, the decrease in murder rate should be roughly correlated with how much less people there are to murder or to commit murder," Prisha continued his exposition thoughtfully. "And also get this; the overall crime rate in Gonle has not dropped."

"It's like the combustion incidents took out the people who would have been targeted," Corey tried following along with Prisha's theory. Speaking of which, they were getting close to their hotel. "But how could someone reach all those victims in their houses?"

"I'm not sure how, but there is a fair possibility of a rather large crime syndicate in Gonle," Prisha stopped to tell the others. "Now that I informed you, fulfilling our purpose of leaving, someone can go back to keep an eye on how the research group is doing."

"Nah I'm hungry," Rina said looking up at their hotel before energetically punching the air. "First let's find something for lunch!"

VWVVW

"Wow!" Rina gazed at the sweet buns Corey served on the kitchen table back at their apartment. Surprised to see how well made they look. "Who could have thought you of all people could make such a great cook."

"Itadakimasu!" Rina couldn't wait any longer so she grabbed one of the buns and sank her teeth in. They were just as delicious as they looked for an instant until her mouth reached a surprising ingredient within the bun.

"Ow!" Rina had spat out the thorn ball that pricked her mouth. "Oh em gee! What was a thorn ball doing in the bun?"

"Hey there's a thorn ball in mine too," Ian yelled after suffering the same fate, then pointed at Corey. "You were up to this weren't you?"

"Yep!" Corey still smiled enthusiastically. They also changed from their Occult Society robes to their casual outfits. Corey wore a bright blue T-shirt, black shorts and a pair of mismatched socks(one blue, one red) with runners. "I thought I'd try what we never done before."

"You're a freak that's what!" Ian yelled wearing a white long sleeved buttoned shirt and black pants.

"It's not like any of us are better cooks," Prisha rolled his eyes. Everything he wore looked dark, from his purple scarf to his navy coat and black pants.

"Hey I'm a way better cook than all-," Ian tried arguing, but the others seem a bit distracted by their own arguments.

"You can talk Miss Everything I Make Is As Cold As Me!" Rina argued back at Prisha. She was wearing a yellow sweater with a black skirt down to her knees.

"And somehow it's still healthier than your charcoal menu," Prisha sighed. It's always been so loud with these three. "Besides, shouldn't we be getting used to all this by now? How long have we been Team Freakshow for?"

"Come to think of it, it's almost been a year huh," Rina searched her memories. "At that time I was the only one already in the Occult Society."

"Yeah Ian was a brainwashed self righteous soldier wasn't he?" Corey smiled reminiscing back at the time. Since then they've been on many adventures as team Freakshow, doing all kinds of missions for the Occult Society. It all started due to circumstances though. They all had issues in their life with the Occult Society being the answer to. But it hasn't been easy since then.

"What? Well whatever you call me, it's at least better than being a certain homicidal criminal," Ian referred to Prisha. Apart from the dangerous missions, the teams must move around a lot to avoid suspicion and contrary to what it may seem, members of the Occult Society must actually study more than any others at their age.

"Right," Rina laughed. "And to think we'd at least be less rowdy by now."

"So why do we have to eat around these thorn balls now?" Ian complained feeling as though eating is more of a chore now. "Hadn't it always turned out better to buy lunch at some food court or something? Or that hot scientist said she was gonna-"

BOOM! A loud explosion sounded from the distance to their apartment window.

"That sound..." Rina looked over to the city out of the window. "It's coming from the lab!"

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Ian rushed out of the apartment and down to the exit of the hotel.

"Ian wait up!" Rina ran after him along with Prisha and Corey. Once at the entrance, Rina was able to stop Ian.

"Geez, is there a reason we're being so slow?" Ian argued.

"From the look of the smoke I'd say most of the lab would have been caught in the explosion," Rina observed the destruction from afar.

"We'll surely need to be careful investigating it," Prisha said thinking of a plan. He'd rather play it safe but there may be too many clues they would miss. "But not all of us have to go."

"What if I scout the area for ninjas who they sent to keep a look out for us?" Corey suggested.

"Yes, the ones responsible for the destruction may have predicted the possibility of us being drawn to examining the lab's remains," Prisha nodded. "Look carefully to see if anyone is suspicious, they'll be restricted to where they can keep an eye on the entrance of the lab, probably among the crowd trying to get a peek of the explosion."

And with that, they were off and so Rina, Prisha and Ian soon made it to the explosion site along with the crowd surrounding it. Trying not to get too close, they can't see much more than just burning rubbles.

"Damn what bastard woul-" Ian rush toward the rubbles in rage before Rina stopped him again.

"No Ian! They say the first explosion is usually used to draw people in for the second," Rina advised then questioned. "But, would there be any survivors?"

"Not likely, other than the one responsible for the explosion itself," Prisha commented. "Considering the timing of it with the research plan, it's probable that the terrorist's job is to eliminate the researchers. Meaning any survivors themselves would be rather suspicious in this case."

"Right," Rina nodded and looked back at the rubble. This mystery is proving to be quite puzzling now. "So who do you think was behind it?"

Any concepts in this story such as characters and settings belongs to Psykofreac unless referenced from elsewhere. If you wish to use them, please ask for my permission or if you only want to give a shout out, please reference me.

References in this chapter are as follows: Gun dam franchise.


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Chapter 2: Chapter II: Hunting The Hunter
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Vermillo, a tall man with slicked back green hair was sent to keep watch on the outside of the lab's remains. He thought he blended in with the crowd pretty well with his weapon, the relic bow and arrows concealed in the bag behind him.

He remembered to keep a look out for four kids who just happen to be joining the crowd right now or at least three of them. A tall boy with the mullet, girl with black pigtails and androgynous kid with blue wavy hair. He wondered why the last one couldn't make it. But nevertheless, he can just stalk them back to their base before killing one. Then take care of the rest after reporting back to Incendis.

The kids seemed to be talking quietly about something. Then what caught him off guard is their decision to split up and explore different areas outside the lab. Vermillo must think quickly which one to follow. In the heat of the moment, he picked the girl.

Though now he needed a change of plans. Since each of these kids went off on their own, he needed to assassinate one once he gets the chance. Seeing the girl's route, he can figure out exactly where she is heading. They want to check the top of the surrounding buildings where a possible assassin can keep an eye on the lab. Too bad for her, she doesn't know these streets as well as he does.

Vermillo decided to take a short cut through an alley to get closer to her and just made it to the end when she passed him. It's also at a more deserted corner of the streets, so it should make it easier. Now, he'll only have take out his bow and arrows to shoot. But damn she's fast. As Vermillo pulled the arrow back on his relic bow, he needed to take careful aim.

"Pre-emptive strike!" Corey appeared out of the alley to kick Vermillo's back, stopping him from shooting Rina. Vermillo managed to get up to go eye to eye with his attacker.

"I was careless. Should have known the last kid was out to scout for me," Vermillo said as he readied his weapon and shot an arrow at Corey.

"You're one funny looking ninja," Corey managed to evade the shot and ran around Vermillo to dodge more. He can't keep it up for too long though, there were too many near hits. Corey must escape Vermillo's field of vision as quick as he can.

"Huh?" Vermillo then noticed that he can no longer see Corey. Left? Right? Behind? He's not even making a sound. "You can't hide forever!"

Where Corey is, was actually above Vermillo. Fist in the air concentrating a radiant energy know as PSI within it. Vermillo noticed just in time before Corey strikes his fist down at him yelling, "Force Blast!"

The impact of the blast was enough to make a crater larger than Vermillo himself on the cement floor. He was grateful to have dodged it. Both combatants soon stand face to face once again on the streets of Gonle.

"Heheheh, I'm up against a psychic now am I? Well you're just in luck," Vermillo laughed as he pulled out a set of purple arrows and readied them on his bow. "You see, these aren't ordinary arrows."

"Null Wave!" Vermillo shot an array of eight arrows which Corey tried to dodge, but it was inevitable that one had grazed his arm. Vermillo then ran at Corey in the alley laughing, "Now I bet you got nothing!"

"Force Blast!" Corey tried project the power once again, seeing how close Vermillo was getting. But somehow his PSI can't completely summon the attack. This allowed Vermillo to get close enough and punch Corey to the ground. "AAH!"

"What did I tell you? These are Relic Bow and Arrows," Vermillo laughed as Corey tried to get up. "Their points can temporarily seal anyone's PSI to keep their powers from working."

"You should just give up now!" Vermillo punched Corey again, but Corey stood his ground and took hold of Vermillo's fist before throwing his own.

"I still got a fist you know!" Corey yelled as he made impact with Vermillo's chest. But Vermillo was able to retaliate as he kicked Corey over several meters back.

"Hahahaha! You think you can match me in hand to hand combat?" Vermillo scoffed as Corey struggled to get up once more. But keep falling back to the ground. That kick and all those blows even made it painful to sit up. "Not only am I older and more experienced but I focus all my training on physical prowess. Now with your powers locked, what is your advantage?"

Corey remembered learning from the Occult Society that the effectiveness of enchantments such as seals are dependent on if they outweigh their target's power. With enough PSI, Corey may be able to undo it. But the seal is way too strong. It's from a Relic after all. Now what other option is there? He can't win in hand to hand combat and Vermillo still has those arrows. Maybe if he buys time, the seal can wear off, "You want information don't you?"

"Yes, you read my mind," Vermillo laughed then readied his relic bow again. "However, you are quite strong for a kid and I imagine you'd be hard to keep under control."

"Perhaps a few more arrows would make you more suited for questioning!" Vermillo released the arrows, now headed for Corey. He braced for the dreaded impact before a friend jumped in front and summoned a wall of ice the size of a really thick door.

"Frozen Shield!" It was Prisha who managed to stop the attack. The arrows only made it halfway through the dense ice wall. Rina and Ian also arrived. They must have found him from the sound of the force blast.

"Corey, are you okay?" Rina went over to treat him.

"I just had my PSI sealed by that ninja's arrows before he beat me up. I think I think I could be better," Corey warned his friends.

"Okay..." Rina turned to see their adversary then decide to ask her allies. "So we got a plan Prish?"

"Just... give me a minute," Prisha tried calculating in his head what the best option to take from here is.

"Who needs plans?" Ian walks toward Vermillo, flexing his muscles before taking out what looks like a dagger with a long hilt and fat blade. "We just have to kick his ass right?"

"Ha! A single one of my arrows can top your so called weapon," Vermillo laughed, readying his bow and arrows once again. "Joke's over!"

"If you wish," Ian smirked as he unsheathed what looked like a fat dagger. But the sheath seemed to somehow contain a much larger well crafted blade underneath to about four foot long.

"Ian's Relic Sword is a kind of empathic weapon that has the ability to change form," Rina narrated as she watched the fight begin. "Thus it usually remains compact, seeming like a fat dagger when it doesn't need to be used."

"Thanks for the narration on pre-informed knowledge," Prisha sarcastically remarked.

"Well you know, if we were an anime with an audience, it can be quite useful," Rina smiled, scratching the back of her head. They then looked back to watch the fight between Ian and Vermillo. "But it appears we will have a fight between Relic weapons here."

"Too much talk! Not enough action!" Ian rushed forward dodging the arrows Vermillo shot. Eventually one hit him below his right knee.

"No the knee! Ian's going to become a guard!" Rina gasped while Prisha just rolled his eyes.

"Heh, I'm tougher than!" It didn't stop Ian for long as he continued running at Vermillo. Once he got close enough, Ian raised his sword and plunge the sword down to where Vermillo was standing.

Vermillo jumped back to imperfectly evade the attack. The sword managed to open a cut in his left cheek. Once he could stand up straight once again he saw the blade of Ian's Relic sword sunk deep into cement floor. But even then, Ian was able to pull the sword out to ready himself again for combat with ease. It truly is a powerful sword, but how can a teenager wield it with such prowess?

"Hehehe... I see, you must be a team of psychic kids who practice it together huh," Vermillo laughed, pulling out again another set of purple arrows. "I already know that shrimp I defeated can emit kinetic energy and the blue squid hair can control ice."

"Now I'm guessing you can increase your strength with PSI?" Vermillo readied his attack. Ian braced himself. "Too bad it won't be any use for you for long!"

"Null Wave!" Vermillo executed the same attack that trumped Corey and the arrows managed to make a cut on the side of Ian's shoulder. "Two more to go."

"Heheheh... you think I need PSI to be as tough as I am now?" Ian charged forward again, dodging a more of Vermillo's arrows and attacked him once more. This time Ian managed to cut wound through Vermillo's chest.

"Aaaaarrggghh!" Vermillo cried out in pain as he fell to his knees. "But how..?"

"That isn't important now!" Ian towered over Vermillo pointing his Relic Sword at the now smaller his now smaller form. "Are you the monster behind that bombing? Do you have accomplices? Tell me!"

"Hehehe... You think I'll just answer truthfully? You think I'll hand all the information on a plate to you?" Vermillo's eyes were losing sanity, looking up at Ian.

"Maybe after you find out what happens if you don't!" Ian threatened, nearing the Relic Sword at Vermillo's throat.

"In all honesty the archer is right," Prisha still as grumpy as ever, approached the two combatants of the now concluded fight, along with Rina and Corey who seems to be able to walk again. "We currently have no available interrogation techniques to acquire a reliable answer from him."

"Watch me then!" Ian argued before Rina started to tie Vermillo up.

"We can at least restrain him for now," Rina said after she finished doing so and smiled at Ian. "Listen Ian, you beaten him and I know you want to achieve more by getting answers. But you did well enough for now."

"What did you expect from a man like me?" Ian triumphantly sheathed the Relic Sword.

"So do we find some place undercover to bring him now?" Corey suggested, referring to Vermillo. "His blood might attract some vampires."

The comment resulted in all his friends falling over feet up. It took them a while to coordinate themselves right again.

"True Corey, but not about the vampires so much," Rina answered. "If I know action flicks as well as I think. This would be the part where the head villain silences his lackey to keep him from talking."

VWVVW

And so the group found an abandoned warehouse along the alley where they hold Vermillo captive. Ian also took out the arrow in his knee and bandaged the wound. After done searching Vermillo, Rina decided to inform her team, "Okay so I searched this guy and didn't find many things useful."

"Apart from this," She held up what appears to be a cell phone. "It turns out that whoever he's working with traded messages we can find still noted here. They probably kept the messages to keep them from forgetting their orders and are confident no one else can read them."

The messages appeared to be groupings of letters to look like a set of nonsensical words, much like a cryptogram. But unlike a usual one, the words appear to be very drawn out. There's still a possibility it is a cryptogram with a strange message though.

"I also searched that archer and he's clear of any bugs or tracking devices," Rina continued explaining. "So that's cool."

"There is one more tracking device they use though right?" Corey asked. "The phone! In fact, if this syndicate is so large and existed for so long, do you think they might have an inside man in the police or possibly phone company?"

"It's likely and can also be another reason for the encrypted message," Rina answered. "They might count on us to take too long trying to decode it, then calls us at the time they get suspicious, which can be another dilemma. Should we try to decode the messages? Or throw away the phone so we can't be tracked?"

"You fool! We won't need the phone to decode these messages," Prisha glared. "Just simply make a copy."

"Oh right! Can't believe I forgot that," Rina smiled nervously and pressed some keys on the phone. "I'll be mailing it to my phone."

"So once we finish copying the messages we throw away the phone?" Ian asked Rina, as she continued mailing each message.

"What if we try the same trick they tried except we bait them with a phone instead of an explosion?" Corey suggested.

"I doubt that would work, they thought of the strategy themselves after all and probably know enough to think ahead of it," Rina shrugged. "Besides, they could probably escape by car and even if we drive to chase them, they'll be suspicious of a certain car tailing them."

"There's also no guarantee they truly can trace the phone or if our pursuers would return to the base afterward," Prisha added but then decided to speak for the opposition. "But it's worth a try. It only requires proper planning."

VWVVW

"Times up!" The Incendis minion announced. "By our boss' order we should call Vermillo's number at this time and trace his phone's whereabouts. So get the cop on the line."

So they dialled the number and after a couple of rings the phone on the other end seems to break and shut off. "Damn they really had beaten Vermillo."

"They aren't too smart though," The cop from the other side of the phone spoke. "It seems they still carried the phone and were inside a cafe before they finally realized what a stupid idea it was and smashed it. They can't have put any traps without being suspicious with so many people around and we can question witnesses even if they escaped."

"Come just in case I need extra people to search though. I'll send you the location, so drive to meet me there right away," The cop hung up and off they went.

They were breezing through until they neared the Cafe when the traffic somehow got heavier. About eight minions made it there including two cops. Most of them were assigned the job of investigating the surrounding area and if their enemies are still watching them.

The cops questioned the people inside the building where the Cafe is but no one seems to know about anyone smashing phones. So he checked the surveillance tape and found something not right. None of what he was looking for happened. Then it occurred to him, what if it took place on this spot but not on ground. The roof of the building!

Some of the minions were then tasked to check the roof and found the phone. They also managed to find another clue. "Hey check this out!"

It was a rather strange looking silver coin. "That's the symbol of the rumoured Occult Society!"

"I believe they dropped it trying to jump down that alley behind the building," The cop pointed at where he found the coin. "Don't worry it's just an ordinary coin in strange shape. Someone might know more about it and tell us more about our enemies. You better take it with you back to the hideout and present it to our boss. I'll need to take my car back to the station."

And so when the minions investigated enough to make sure no one's watching, they drove off. There doesn't seem to be any car constantly tailing them so that's good. However, on this return trip the traffic became much more of a pain to drive through. In fact, by the time they made it to the parking lot at a huge park, they thought how much faster they could have been if they just walked.

And so the minions walked through the park to find the hideout in the estate at the centre of it to show the boss this potential clue, not knowing that Team Freakshow has followed them here and found the hideout.

VWVVW

About three hours ago Prisha discussed with his team the strategy of leaving the phone as bait. "Understanding what our adversaries will be on the lookout for, we must make use of more subtle traps."

"If our pursuers plan to drive as a means of transport then we can use traffic to our advantage," Prisha pulled out a map of Gonle for everyone to see. "Now I estimated that the organization would get impatient in only another forty minutes, which should be half past three. If driving to the premises, investigate it and its surrounding takes one hour and a half, the time they drive back should be about five."

"So considering the times when certain businesses finish for the day and their distance from the residential zone," Prisha explained as he pointed to different areas of the map. "If we take use of one of these areas as bait, we can maximize the traffic jam at the time our pursuers drive off. We will choose this cafe."

"But isn't that only the second best option?" Rina took a closer look at the map. "Besides, anyone can enter a cafe. At least if we choose an abandoned warehouse we'll know who's strange when they enter it."

"We'll know the person who investigates the roof to be strange," Prisha replied. "Tracing maps are only two dimensional, if we leave it on the roof of the cafe, it would still appear to be inside it."

"Okay what the eff's going on anymore?" Ian yelled trying to keep up with the discussion.

"So if I keep watch from this building, I should just be able to keep an eye on the roof where we left the phone and keep away from those crooks," Rina pointed on the map finally seeing what Prisha meant. Maximizing traffic jam takes priority but they must also think about hiding spots and escape routes.

"What if we leave a false clue behind near the phone so those guys would take it back to base and lead us there?" Corey suggested enthusiastically and his two smarter teammates seem to agree until he suggested what it will be. "An elephant's skull!"

All the other three fell over feet up. Once Prisha got up he said, "No a peculiar coin would suffice."

"Can anyone here just speak English?" Ian argued, no longer knowing what's going on.

"Once you have seen who's on the rooftop, you'll escape to this building here," Prisha pointed at another building closer to the cafe.

"Our pursuers will least likely check that area especially after finding the phone was on the roof," Prisha's words sounded from Rina's memories as she looked through the binoculars to see those agents investigating the rooftop. So she rushed to her next destination where she can see the car they drove off in. But the traffic made it easier to keep up with them.

Seeing the car take separate roads she remembered to only follow the police car if she had to. So she tailed the other one. Even now, Rina needed to do her best to be stealthy, sometimes using the crowd or other cars in the traffic to her advantage.

It took the whole sunset for those minions to return to the hideout. Rina was barely able to see the estate but tried not to get too close. It would suck to blow her cover now and have all that work go down the drain. So she walked away from the estate and did what she always wanted to, now being the best time.

She pulled out a black notebook, put on a headphone and an evil smirk saying quietly, "Just according to keikaku."

...

Author's note: I had trouble with the last part. I'm even still iffy if I remembered to cover everything. I might be concentrating too much on one thing for now though.

References: Elder Scrolls Skyrim and Death Note.



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Chapter 3: Chapter III: The Incendis Hideout
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Author's Note: Well I have to be honest I decided to rush the rest of this arc. There really wasn't much more to it after they found the hideout and I wanted to get to the next arc. This is also pretty much the shortest arc I think until I decide to make some self contained chapters later and since it's only the first arc, I tried not making it too dramatic. I estimated the next arc to be about seven chapters though.

"Ha! You fools are dumb enough to take me back to your hideout?" Vermillo laughed as Ian, Corey and Prisha dragged him out of the warehouse. "I'll tell! I'll escape when I can and tell everyone!"

"Urrgghhh!" Ian was getting fed up with him. "I'm getting second thoughts. He's just too loud and annoying."

Corey clobbered Vermillo over the head too knock him out, "Well we certainly don't need him conscious right?"

"About time you did something right," Ian muttered as they tried to find a way out into the woods without people getting suspicious of seeing Vermillo tied up. Somehow they did.

They soon reached a strange looking plant, which is the entrance of Gonle's Occult Society hideout. Making sure no one else is around but his team and the unconscious Vermillo, Prisha pulled out the Key Seed and held it out towards the plant. The seed glows a bright white light, causing the plant to bloom into a flower, the Flower Gate.

The group stepped up on the flower before it closes again. No matter how often Prisha has been through this it always in some way creeped him out. When the Flower Gate opened once again, they were in a corridor lit with bright purple torches along the walls. They walked deeper in toward a steel door. But still tired from the events up to now, Corey tripped over for a moment.

When he got up, he realized he was missing something, something important. So he looked around and finally found the silver puzzle piece on the floor. He picked it up gazing at it, reminding him of the day when everything changed.

"So is that your way of saying you want to be left behind?" Ian turned back to tell Corey.

"Sorry," Corey pocketed the puzzle piece and continued walking with his friends. They then entered through the steel door.

On one of the sides of the chamber is a man sitting by a desk with lots of books and documents. The man had curly blue hair with glasses, the Gonle Occult Manager Jordan. Jordan looked over to see Ian, Corey and Prisha enter with another man tied up and commented, "I see the case is making progress."

"Yeah thanks," Ian responded then referred to Vermillo. "Now is there any place where we can leave this?"

"I have a spare room further down," Jordan answered.

VWVVW

After taking a bath and putting on another set of clothes, which are the same style scarf and coats, Prisha met Ian and Corey at one of the tables in the chamber to break the code Rina sent them. There Prisha and Corey managed to figure out the encryption. It turns out to be a variant of the cryptogram with the space also mixed in with the letters. Soon Rina also entered through the chamber door returned from her task informing each other on the situation.

"Wow so their hideout is in that park?" Ian said energetically. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's teach those terrorists!"

"Sure, one of their lackeys has a relic bow, let's all hope they have nothing more dangerous like a pit of cobras," Prisha remarked.

"Oh I forgot to say something!" Jordan spoke up from his desk. "The explosion at the lab! It turns out your client Stan Lott reported to us and is alive!"

"Wow that's great!..." Rina exclaimed but then remembered what Prisha said before. "But then again, that would make him suspicious of the bombing wouldn't he?"

"Difficult," Prisha answered. "I remember saying there's not likely to be any survivor. But if it's Stan, he was the one who requested our service. He must have been looking down on the Occult Society much to be responsible for it."

"Well I arranged a meeting for you with him at one of the rooms in the agency."

VWVVW

And so Rina, Corey and Ian went with Prisha deciding to stay behind and decode the message. When they entered the room, Corey exclaimed, "Wow Stan! I never knew you were a time traveler!"

"Uhh wha?" Stan asked while the other two fell back with their feet on top.

"A time traveler! That's how you went from before to after the lab blew up and survive the explosion!" Corey continued with enthusiasm!

"Don't worry he's just like that," Rina excused him after getting up herself, seeing how confused Stan still is. "So Stan, quite a lot has happened at the la- ex-lab lately huh."

"Yes, I even know who was behind that bombing now and I suspect a crime syndicate," Stan spoke up and took a deep breath. "It was Morris."

"Wha?" Ian said. "Hey how do we know you're the guilty one and just trying to blame her?"

"Duh it's the part where we hear him out," Rina nudged Ian and asked Stan to continue. "Okay?"

"Yes it all started after the four of you left the lab and Morris offered to make lunch," Stan recalled aloud for them to hear. "From taking a look at the crime reports I can suspect where your friend was coming from. There is a large crime syndicate somehow in Gonle."

"At first I only didn't feel like eating. But soon it seemed each of the researchers dropped unconscious after consuming the food Morris made," Stan continued. "I believe that after you kids had lead the research too close to the answer, Morris believed anyone with the knowledge was dangerous and poisoned them. I hid some food in my brief case and pretended to be poisoned too. I soon caught a glimpse of Morris scorching the room before leaving."

"Now knowing what I was up against, I quickly tried to shake the others awake but I was too late. The poison had already taken their lives. All I could do was escape through the window. I know I have no evidence so you don't have to believe me. But I swear Morris is with the criminals and I warn you to beware of her!"

"You're right, we don't have to believe your made up story," Ian commented, still quite biased.

"What a surprise for you to side with the girl Ian," Rina rolled her eyes sarcastically then turned back to Stan. "Sorry we don't know yet if what you say is true," then smiled, "But don't worry! What we can tell you is that by tomorrow's investigation, we'll know for sure! We'll solve the case and take down that organization. No client would need to worry."

After that they returned to the hideout where Prisha finished decoding the messages. But it was getting late and all four of them decided to go to bed and discuss it the next day.

VWVVW

The next morning, after eating breakfast, Team Freakshow decided to meet in one of the rooms in the hideout with a whiteboard. There they went through what they discovered from the message.

"Wait so Gonle was actually mostly controlled by criminals in the shadows all along?" Rina said in surprise.

"Yes, the organization is known as Incendis and recently, they developed a new kind of poison known as Pyrosomine," Prisha explained. "It reacts to a certain chemical in the body after being digested to ignite the victim. The organization created it as a new weapon for the members to kill those they dislike to camouflage murders that will benefit them with the same weapon. "

The poison burns away and evaporates it's content after effect, leaving it untraceable on autopsy reports. As a bonus, the first few incidents can be seen as only a supernatural phenomenon most people are already familiar with. It turns out that lady Morris from the lab turns out to be part of this organization."

"Yeah Stan told us about that last night," Corey said. "So what next? I remember Rina said they're at that house in the park right?"

"We take them down like a boss that's what!" Ian raised his fist.

"Just calm down for now," Rina said.

"It's true that we now know where their hideout is, but not much more," Prisha continued the strategic discussion. "So our next step should be to investigate it. The problem is they now know our faces from Morris."

"We wear disguises?" Corey raised his hand, saying it like it's obvious.

"And that's supposed to make us look less suspicious," Rina criticized the idea.

"As a matter of fact yes. With the proper justification," Prisha contributed to the idea. "We will use big hooded raincoats, but of course they would usually catch attention, unless it's actually raining."

"Now, according to the weather predictions we should be able to apply the strategy in a couple of hours," Prisha pointed at his weather predictions, that he had made to more precise hours from the Occult Society forecast, on the whiteboard. "We may not be able to enter the estate, but two of us can walk in the park around it to analyse it up close. Any way to sneak in, The positioning of the windows or any other significant features."

"Any questions?" Prisha asked but raised his hand before anyone could answer. "Oh I have one. Where the hell is Ian?"

VWVVW

Meanwhile, Ian had already mounted an attack on the estate, which is now already mostly destroyed by Ian's Relic Sword which he used to easily cut through the minions no matter the firearms they used.

"What is this guy?" One of the minions coughed before losing consciousness. "He's too strong to be human..."

Once Ian defeated all the small fries, he finally came face to face with the one ordering them, the female professor with red knotted hair, Morris.

"So it really was you behind these Incendis freaks," Ian yelled in combat position. "Why did you have to blow up the lab with so many innocent researchers inside huh? Couldn't you just leave them alone?"

"You obviously never ran a crime syndicate before," Morris sneered, her true colours now surfaced. "That bratty friend of yours babbled on too much of what he shouldn't have. Was I just going to let them all leaving with enough knowledge to find out the Incendis was behind it all?"

"Rightfully the law should know and bring you crooks to JUSTICE!" Ian rushed forward and slashed his sword down at Morris, who barely avoided it. The Relic Sword destroyed the remaining part of the wall behind her.

Seeing how dangerous this weapon is, Morris quickly pulled out a red vial and threw it in front of Ian. As the vial breaks, it created an explosion that not only damages her enemy but allows her to escape.

"Hahahaha!" Morris laughed, readying another explosive vial. "I'm also the master chemist of the Incendis and it was I who developed the Pyrosomine. I can easily also create explosive vials as weapons."

"You think that's enough to beat someone as tough as me?" Ian charged forward again.

Morris thought quickly, Ian's weapon is far too dangerous so she'll need to disarm him first. So she threw the vial to explode at the Relic Sword this time before making distance.

As the two continued facing off, a familiar voice sounded from outside the mostly broken walls, "Leeroy Ian!"

It was Rina, followed by Corey and Prisha as they examined the ruins of the hideout.

"Great, I still got three more brats to take care of today," Morris muttered as she threw a few more explosive vials at Ian's Relic Sword. After the smoke cleared, it revealed there was a crack on the blade for Morris to think, Perfect.

Meanwhile, Prisha looked around the ruins and found one of the rooms to have tablets labelled Pyrosomine, "Thankfully he didn't destroy any evidence."

Back at the fight, Ian rushed toward Morris again but this time the explosive vial Morris threw had finally broke the Relic Sword in two. She laughed triumphantly.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet," Rina smirked, spectating the fight while the Relic Sword grew pieces of steel to replace the broken area. "The Relic Sword's power to change form includes being able to repair itself."

And with that, Ian was at it again, running at Morris who threw another explosive vial to explode in front of Ian. It wasn't enough to stop him though, as Ian reached and attacked Morris again, but she evaded it just like before with only a slight cut on her shoulder.

"This is really getting annoying," Ian breathed heavily. The fight was getting tiresome now. But he still charged again.

Morris now needed to get desperate, so she pulled out and threw two vials. The explosion stopped Ian for a second but she needed to injure him more to defeat him. But as she reached in her coat to try and grab a handful, Morris found she was out of vials and must brace for Ian's next attack unarmed.

"Take this!" Ian hit the flat side of the blade at the back of Morris' head, knocking her out. He turned around to sheath the sword triumphantly. "You know I might not like fighting girls but a job's a job."

"Imbecile!" Prisha had snuck up behind Ian and clobbered him over the head.

"Oh so now I'm an imbecile for getting done what the rest of you are too scared to do?" Ian argued. The two of them were bickering as usual.

"Do you mind looking up the word reckless?" Prisha continued glaring at him. "We needed a plan to attack. You were fortunate this Incendis group are by the small chance as dumb as you and not prepare any traps."

"Oh Prisha the important thing is that everything turned out for the best right?" Rina tried calming down the two.

"Yeah see? Two against one!" Ian said.

"Sure and it won't be a problem the next time we storm another enemy base recklessly," Prisha frowned.

"So now that we defeated the Incendis we can report to Mister Time Traveler and get our reward right?" Corey said enthusiastically.

And so they did. Stan and Jordan checked out the scene and found all the evidence including the Pyrosomine. They then rewarded Team Freakshow and thanked them for making Gonle peaceful at last.

"Well nothing is impossible for Team Freakshow!" Rina cheered triumphantly. "Just another case we solved."

"Like a fool," Prisha muttered with Ian arguing again.

"Are you still on about that?" Ian frowned. "Even Rina agreed it was ok."

"You know what? You're right," Prisha said still in monotone. "You are the hero who saved the day."

"And you deserve a reward," Prisha handed Ian a sandwich.

"Finally you might be good for something," Ian snatched the sandwich. He was hungry after all and wanted to satisfy it.

"Umm... Ian?.." Rina warned uncertainly, seeing what Prisha may have put inside that sandwich.


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Chapter 4: Chapter IV: The Leaf Symbolled Pendant
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Deep in the woods, four strange teenagers had set up camp now reading a book labelled The Occultpaedia, an encyclopaedia by the Occult Society. The one with the book in hand was Prisha who was quizzing the others to help them study, "Next question! People who have been known to be normal can at rare occasions have precognitive dreams. How is this possible?"

All of the other three seemed to be struggling in thought with Rina constantly muttering, "Damn I know I learned this one before!"

"Jelly beans are actually alive even after they are eaten and play with people's brains when they're asleep?" Corey suggested bewilderedly.

"Close enough," Prisha frowned sarcastically then answered. "It had been discovered that there are people who can subconsciously activate their PSI for precognitive visions. But at their current level they don't notice it unless they are locked within their own mind free from external stimulus. But even at thi- Hey!"

Ian had snatched the Occultpaedia from Prisha, flipping through the pages to quiz him in retaliation. "You think you're so high and mighty. Let's see how smart you are with this question!"

"What is the power of a Relic Belt?" Ian smirked.

"To decrease the effect of gravity on the wearer and allow them to levitate," Prisha answered like it was common sense.

Corey took a peek in the Occultpaedia in Ian's hands to see, "he's right!"

Next, Prisha snatched the Occultpedia back to ask the next quiz, "Name at least five different Anthro Tribe."

"Damn haven't we done enough trivia's already?" Rina complained throwing her arms into the air.

"With you being in the Occult Society longest you'd think it was your specialty," Prisha sighed then got out another book that shocked both Ian and Rina. "But if you insist we'll go back to mathematics."

"Forget it! I'm out!" Ian turned away.

"Just try and bear through it Ian," Rina tried convincing him. "It's a necessity for those of The Occult Society to know these things. Even if we're lucky enough not to encounter such problems in our missions, they'll test us back at base."

"Fine, maybe another minute," Ian turned around to try tolerating Prisha a little longer.

"Right then solve the following," Prisha held up the text book. But just glancing at the equation was enough to freak Rina and Ian out.

2 2

f(x)=((-2x^2)/nπ)cos(nπx/2)I+S(4x/2π)cos(nπx/2)dx

0 0

"How the eff do you expect us to solve that?" Ian yelled after regaining color in his eyes.

"Can we at least start a bit simpler?" Rina smiled nervously.

"Isn't that what I picked an easy equation for?" Prisha frowned.

"Easy for normal people?" Rina muttered before hearing some rustling in the woods.

She, Corey and Prisha immediately got on their guard, with Ian challenging this lurking creature, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"If loud voices attracted thieves to us, we know who to blame," Prisha muttered.

The creature soon limped out of the woods and it turned out to be an injured lady with long blue hair and brown robes. She reached out to the four kids, "Thank... goodness... please... hel...p..."

"Stay back!" Prisha warned but Ian shoved him back and rushed to the ladies' aid.

"Freak!" Ian referred to Prisha. "Don't you know a man must always help a lady in need?"

He turned back to the lady, "Don't worry my lady, as long as I'm here you'll be fine."

Rina also rushed to the woman's aid. "Actually a good person should help any people in need. But yeah ladies included."

"So what happed? How did you get like this?" Rina tried to ask the woman who almost formed another word before losing consciousness.

"Whoa so you think the possums in these woods practice voodoo and she's one of their victims?" Corey asked with as much enthusiasm as ever.

"I have no idea," Rina answered seriously. "But we need to get her to a hospital!"

VWVVW

The woman soon woke up in the hospital bed, taking some time to recall what happened before she passed out. A doctor soon entered the room and greeted her, "Good morning, I see you're doing excellent recovery already."

"Recovery? Wait, how did I end up here?" The woman asked bewilderedly.

"A nice group of kids brought you in after finding you injured in the wilderness. They must have been raise by some really great parents huh," The doctor smiled before suggesting, "I can call them over. Would you like to meet them?"

The woman decided to answer the rhetorical question with a nod and so the doctor went off and the next people who entered were the four kids the woman finally remembered from last night.

"Oh come on Prish, she at least might have a good story," Rina said before noticing they're too near the woman now and greeted her. "Good morning, so are you feeling a lot better now?"

"Well... I am recovering," The woman slightly stuttered in saying. "And it was all thanks to you, but who are you?"

"None other than Ian the dashing hero who saved you," Ian said with a charming smile.

"I might not know much on socializing but isn't it common courtesy for one to introduce themselves before asking another to do so?" Prisha the grumpy one frowned.

"Dammit Prisha!" Ian yelled at him. "It's a wonder you make so many enemies."

"Oh don't mind him," Rina tried excusing Prisha. As much of a genius he is, he could use some work on his attitude. "He's grumpy and paranoid yes, but a really good person once you get to know him."

"Oh sorry he is right in this case though," The woman apologized then introduced herself. "My name is Samantha and I'm a priestess of Diviin."

"Priestess huh?" Ian asked back like a parrot. Does this mean his chance with her is blown? With her being part of a celibate order?

"No she said botanist," Prisha remarked at Ian.

"Excuse me but... other than me; did you save anyone else in the woods yesterday?" Samantha asked with anxiety.

"Sorry, not many victims can escape the Voodoo Possums," Corey answered with his usually bizarre thoughts before being clobbered by Ian again. "Ow!"

"When will you ever learn," Ian scolded him and relaxed as he talked to Samantha. "Sorry he's always weird. It's an ongoing problem."

"So can you elaborate on what happened in those woods?" Rina asked.

"It started as a peaceful religious camp where we just studied the teachings of Diviin," Samantha recalled as the other four listened carefully. "But that was until we were attacked by a mysterious group. Four of their leaders also seem to hold supernatural powers. But what would they do such a thing for?"

"Sorry, we found you after you stumbled to our campfire and took you to the hospital right away," Rina apologized sincerely. "Almost half a day has passed since but there may still be survivors. They'll just theoretically have gotten far from the camp now."

"So I've introduced myself haven't I?" Samantha said.

"Oh right," Rina laughed nervously as she decided to introduce herself.

"My name's Rina," She said then changed to a more arrogant smirk. "But my victims call me sniper."

"And I'm sure we yelled at grumpy pretty boy Prisha enough for you to know his name," Rina gestured to Prisha.

"And I'm subject number three seventy four of the mushroommorph project," Corey smiled more enthusiastically as ever before the routine of everyone falling over, followed by Ian scolding him.

"Hehehe..." Rina chuckled a little seeing the two. "Don't worry, you'll get used to them... or not."

"Well it's nice to meet you," Samantha said nervously. "But I wish there was something I could do to help the other members of Diviin."

"Hmm..." Rina thought of an idea but was uncertain of it. Not many religions are too fond of The Occult Society but she shouldn't discriminate. So she decided to ask, "say Samantha, what do you think of the Occult Agency?"

"The strange experts in the supernatural said to do all kinds of job requests?" Samantha question before inferring, "You don't suggest that they were the ones behind the attack?"

"I know what I might be implying but really I only want to ask of your opinion on them," Rina smiled nervously. Maybe this is for the better, if she has more reason to be biased against the Occult Society, her open-mindedness would be more convincing. Prisha however did not like the direction Rina is going with this.

"Oh... well I guess there's no reason to accuse them of anything bad," Samantha answered.

"Your God approves of this abomination they indulge in?" Corey questioned curiously.

"Abomination?" Samantha asked. Corey also noticed that Prisha turned away for a moment at the subject of God. "Oh that's right! Most religions are against delving into the Occult, believing that all outside their God's teachings are evil. But the teachings of Diviin states that God left mysteries in this world because there are benefits in humans discovering them. Discoveries had become science, such as the law of gravity. The Occult are basically just other currently unexplained phenomenon waiting to be discovered."

"Our God is one who is there for everyone to bring them hope and to teach us of finding the good in us all," Samantha finished explaining.

"Thanks we'll give Diviin some thought," Rina smiled then proceeded to the next step. "So do you have any other clues of the group that attacked your camp?"

"Oh yes there was a pendant they all wore," Samantha answered taking out a pendant from her pocket to show them. "However, I was able to find one when one of them dropped theirs. "Do you know anything about it?"

Team Freakshow looked curiously at it. The golden pendant had a golden leaf attached to it within the ring. Of all the watch necklaces in the world though, this one doesn't work. Rina started to say, "Can't say for sure yet."

"But I know of some awesome people you can ask," Rina announced confidently with Prisha applying palm to forehead in the background.

VWVVW

"Requesting the religious camp attack investigation case!" Rina smiled lending a hand out to a nine year old boy with a purple bobbed haircut. She and her friends all arrived to the current town, Deciel's Occult Society hideout.

The purple haired boy was Alex the manager of the Destiel Occult Agency. He frowned up at Rina awkwardly for a moment before saying, "Do you even know how the system works? Yes I do remember the lady making such a request earlier today but these have to be passed by an Occult Society council member as appropriate."

"The process takes at least a day," Alex finished explaining and shrugged. "I wouldn't count on that job if I were you."

"This brat!" Ian scoffed. "I'm even starting to prefer the boring yet well mannered Jordan from Gonle more."

VWVVW

Afterward, the juvenile grouped had checked up on a room at the Deciel hotel. Rina and Prisha decided to take out their laptop along with some documents they got from Alex to research. Soon, Ian and Corey returned from the trip into the apartment bringing stuff to eat.

"Finally someone remotely normal to talk to," Ian took a deep breath as he placed the food on the table. "So you found anything yet Rina?"

"I don't see much point in researching these so soon," Prisha frowned as he looked through the documents. "It's not even a mission yet."

"Think of it as planning ahead," Rina smiled as she took a box of fried rice and continue looking up on the laptop while eating. "Once the mission is available we'll blitz through it. But no I haven't found anything yet."

"And you're entirely certain we're going to accept the mission?" Prisha said with doubt. "We don't even have any idea of the reward offer yet. We're better off accepting another mission for now."

"Gee you and that Alex kid should start a snotty brat club huh," Ian scoffed while eating some noodles.

"So you found anything now? What's the pendant?" Corey asked curiously. "Does it have the power to make dead people to attack the living?"

"I'm not sure," Rina answered, still surfing the net for information. "I don't see any Relics resembling it or any kind of artefact for that matter. I'm searching to see if it's some symbolic object of a certain group."

"It must be a relatively new or low profile group to not be known by the Deciel Occult Society Records," Prisha also continued to research.

"Yes this stage of the investigation is a pain," Rina sighed, getting tired of researching already. "Tomorrow we'll try seeing if we can find anything in town. But we might have to end up accepting another mission. This case may be interesting but it might not be as practical."

VWVVW

It was around midnight now, when the members of Team Freakshow went to bad, or at least they should. Rina was sleeping soundly and Ian was snoring with much sound keeping Corey awake. But Corey looked over to see he's not the only person still awake as he saw Prisha out at the balcony of the apartment with the night sky seen above him.

So Corey decided to get up and open the balcony door to speak to Prisha of what he thought of before, smiling broadly, "Hey Prisha! So you don't believe in God do you?"

Prisha was surprised to see Corey for a moment before answering in a matter of fact way, "There being no proof means no. Why should I?"

"Right I need to be more precise," Corey smiled before looking up at the starry sky. "So how about if I ask do you believe God can exist?"

Prisha gave it some thought. There certainly wasn't any proof of his absence. Making up his mind, he slowly answered, "I'd rather not."

"Right, he would be the same God who let us suffer the hardship we had all those years ago," Corey said with a sense of melancholy. Prisha looked over to him. Corey's excessive playfulness and out of the box thoughts had differed him from normal people. But he seemed to have deep insight in certain areas too. Some aspects of him are rather puzzling but he's certainly strange. "I mean, we were fortunate to find the Occult Society and made a lot of friends who saved us from all that misery right?"

"But you still wonder... if there are still others out there still suffering the same darkness and never saved," Corey wasn't smiling as broadly anymore. But he cheered up a little when he suggested, "You know though, some religions say that one should find God to find hope. But what does he expect from those raised with no idea of the concept?"

"Foolish optimism," Prisha muttered with his learned cynicism.

VWVVW

The next morning, Team Freakshow decide to investigate the city at the same time as shop for what they may need and kill two words with one stone. It turns out they do find something about the leaf symbolled pendants though. In fact, quite a few people wear it.

"The guy on that seat also has one of those leaf pendants," Rina gestured to him. "You think we should ask him more about it?"

"Sure because it's not creepy at all," Prisha sarcastically remarked.

"Only as creepy as when Cloud Strife does it!" Rina argued back.

"Just like how he does it in real life," Prisha continued to remark.

"Fine, so what do you think we should look at next?" Rina asked as the group exited the main shopping mall.

"How about the insect store where we can get some explosive flies we could use," Corey suggested as playfully as ever.

"Maybe if insects weren't so difficult to manage," Prisha replied

"How about the electronic store?" Ian suggested. "We might be able to find some useful gadgets there right?"

"Or at least components of them," Rina agreed and they decided to head to one. "Wow you're actually thinking."

"Shut up," Ian replied to the not so subtle insult.

VWVVW

At the store, Rina and the others looked through the items such as cameras or microphones. Perhaps something would make a good tracking device or bug?

But all that was abruptly adjourned when robbers had burst into the store with firearms, shocking everyone.

"You all only need to cooperate and you might not get a bullet through your skull!" The robber who seemed to be the leader had announced as he pointed the gun at the store owner. "And don't call the cops!"

"Please just take the money and leave this store and my customers alone!" The store owner begged he seemed to be an older teen with messy blonde hair. There seemed to be about eight robbers here.

"You think we want any of your stinking money?" The leader of the robbers yelled and announced, "All customers and shop owners, hand over all your FISH CAKES!"

The last two words had sent everyone else in the store including Team Freakshow falling over feet up. After they regained some senses, one of the customers got back up to yell at the robbers, "You can at least the right store then!"

"Why do you keep talking instead of handing over some fish cakes?" One of the robbers yelled.

"And I thought I knew dumb robbers," Rina muttered looking over at the robbers condescendingly.

"Wasn't there a restaurant across the street that sells fishcakes?" Ian agreed.

"God help them if that wasn't enough for them," Rina said. Just how often do people just happen to carry fish cakes around anyway?

"But with money you can buy fish cakes right?" The store owner tried convincing the robbers.

"I said fish cakes no exception!" The robber remained stubborn as ever. "When I leave, I better a bag full of fish cakes!"

The robber then turned to Corey, gun pointing at him hunching over, "Hey you little squirt! You gotta have some fish cakes in that back pack of yours right?"

"I know where a fish cake is!" Corey answered enthusiastically.

"Then what are you waiting for?" The robber threatened.

"It's right there!" Corey pointed straight at the robber in front of him.

"Nice one Corey," Prisha said in monotone, though it looks like they'll need to get ready to defend themselves now.

"Why you rodent!" The robber was about to fire but Corey kicked him upwards on the face.

Rina predicted this, so she used an area hidden from view to form her PSI into a steel spear and right before a robber could shoot the innocent customers, Rina jumped in front of them and spin the spear in front of her to deflect the bullets.

Meanwhile, Corey and Ian had beaten up most of the robbers while Prisha was still just disinterested until one of the robbers had snuck up behind Prisha to try to blow his brains out. But that was until the robber felt Prisha's ice cold hand grip the wrist of his own pistol hand.

Prisha only turned just enough to glare at the robber, "your entire force couldn't kill one of us what makes you so special?"

And with that, the remaining robber got scared off but got knocked unconscious as he tried to escape through a wall.

"Wow you kids are amazing! Thank you so much for saving my store!" The store owner cheered as he approached the four teenagers.

"No problem," Rina smiled before seeing that this store owner also has a leaf symbolled pendant. They may have hit the jackpot. "Say that's a pretty cool necklace you got there."

"Oh yes, you have heard of The Disciples of Aevincere haven't you?" The blonde young man asked what seemed to be a rhetorical question. But seeing as how Rina was still confused, he answered, "I guess you haven't been outside much. We are led by those who were truly chosen by God and received his blessing to ascend to a higher plane."

"A couple of days ago, this has been decided to be the new symbol of Aevincere," He referred to the pendant. Come to think of it though, Diviin was also a religion. Was it religion versus religion now? "By the way, weren't you carrying a sort of spear before? Where'd you put it away to?"

"Oh that?" Rina took a look at her hand and noticed her power has already disengaged. She laughed nervously for a moment, "Oh yeah that spear that someone dropped and left in the store. I guess I must have dropped it somewhere and someone found it ran off hahahaha..."

"Idiot," Prisha frowned at her.

"Oh that's right, I haven't asked how I can repay you yet," The store owner said.

"Umm... well..." Rina thought hard for a moment. It would be good to get some information on this Aevincere group so she bursted with an idea, "I know! You don't mind inviting us over for dinner right? We could become like best buddies and all."

"Umm... right..." The store owner smiled nervously.

VWVVW

"Yay that was easy!" Rina cheered back at base. "A case solved before we even accepted it! Who could have know the Aevincere necklace would become more general knowledge in only a day!"

"Umm, we only suggested Samantha to ask the Occult Society," Prisha said, still critical of the situation.

"I mean, look! Even Alex made the latest report on the Aevincere necklace before we got here!" Rina held out the documents. "We might have that store owner tell us a few things for us to be certain but then all we have to do is to do is take the mission and tell Sam it's the Aevincere necklace! I mean, we may still help her with problems after that but still... FREE REWARD!"

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet," Alex had said.

"Oh Alex just quickly hand over the mission list," Rina requested. But when she looked at it, finding Sam's request her spirit dropped.

VWVVW

"I'm sorry if it was unexpected but a little discovery made me change my mind about the request on the last minute," Samantha told the four members of Team Freakshow during their mission at the agency, still surprised that they were the same kids at the hospital. "So will you be able to find out more about this Aevincere group? The reward is two thousand Jouls."

"Yeah I guess," Rina was able to answer with some sense again after finding out how massive the reward is.

VWVVW

"She would probably have made a separate request on investigating Aevincere anyway," Prisha said as they walked back to the hotel. "And after paying us for the information on the necklace she might not be as willing to pay as much for the latter request."

"Yeah so I guess it all worked out for the best," Rina smiled.

"I think I know where this case is headed though," Corey said then jumped in the air in joy. "Undercover mission!"

References made: Yu Yu Hakusho, Final Fantasy VII


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Chapter 5: Chapter V: Clash Of Beliefs
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I think I may be dragging of the investigating phase of this arc a little. Sorry about that, I tried to make it snappy but it turned out not to be so much. For that reason I might have ended up hastening certain scenes like I did on chapter three. So sorry if that was wrong, I'll try not to do it much again.

Rina, Corey, Ian and Prisha walked along the streets of Deciel as the sun is setting. Heading to Dan's house, the shop keeper they agreed to come to dinner to.

"Say, the necklace the Disciples of Aevincere wears," Rina said pulling out a silver puzzle piece to show the others. "'It's not like none of us carries around anything similar right?"

"I'm guessing they did make the necklaces themselves though," Prisha replied. "So what they could mean is up for discussion," Prisha took a glance at another puzzle piece in his own hand. "These chosen ones of Aevincere selected the leaf symbol for these necklaces and issue them out to the members, but why?"

"Of course we're nothing like them right?" Ian asked. "I mean, they killed a whole other religious camp just the other day."

"Yes... to think, the person we're visiting is part of such a religion," Rina shared her thoughts as she pocketed the puzzle piece.

"So why do you think the Disciples of Aevincere attacked the Diviin members?" Corey asked curiously.

"It wouldn't be the first time violent conflicts occur between religions but we should stay open to possibilities before we find answers," Prisha said then asked Rina, "So how long exactly are we staying at Dan's residence?"

"Well we'll be there for long enough to get some information but..." Rina was reminded to take out her phone, set a few things on it and showed them. "I set the timer to fifteen minutes. After it rings we'll tell them we're busy and need to head off elsewhere."

VWVVW

So the four of them arrived and entered Dan's house. There they were also introduced to his twin brother Don who is similar in appearance but has messy black hair instead. After some gossip, Corey managed to lead the conversation to and ask Dan, "So how long have you been a Disciple of Aevincere for?"

"Oh don't tell me Dan also went on about it with you kids?" Don rolled his eyes stating his view. "They're just phonies, scams! Just like all those other religions."

"Hey you have to be a fool to still doubt them after seeing the miracles the High Disciples are capable of," Dan argued back.

"Wait! High Disciples?" Corey questioned curiously.

"Miracles?" Rina also did.

"Wow you should at least have a news update from under a rock," Dan said with disbelief. "Or are you from out of tow-"

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" A scream sounded from outside the house and Dan among other people went out to see what happened, the rest followed. It turned out there was an accident in the streets with a man down injured on the road, his right leg run over by a car.

"Oh I'm so terribly sorry it was an accident!" It seems the driver had stopped to go the man and apologized. "Someone call an ambulance!"

It was taking the ambulance a while to get there. Already certain people are going out of their house to take a look at the injured man. But before the ambulance even got there another person had arrived at the scene to treat the injured man. A portion of the crowd cheered, "It's Dominic! Thank Aevincere!"

The man they called Dominic was a little taller than six feet and well built. Half of his blonde hair was pulled back, with the fringes hanging down to be on either side of his face. He wore a long white robe with purple wispy markings on it. He also seemed to have a group of white robed people, all wearing the leaf symbolled necklace.

"That's Dominic one of the four High Disciples... no, you can even say he's the highest disciple being the closest to Aevincere," Dan whispered with the teenage guests listening intently and watching the scene. Also Rina decided to turn the timer on her phone off seeing what they could find out here.

Dominic's hand emitted a bright light as he placed it above the car crash victim's injured leg. After a few seconds the light faded and the formerly injured man looked a lot healthier once again and can stand to thank Dominic, "Thank you so much! Aevincere must really be our true God!"

"So are you still sceptical?" Dan asked Don. Meanwhile, though Dominic's powers were impressive, Rina was surprised for a moment to see the way people reacted, but needed to remind herself that they aren't familiar with PSI. So Psi or not, Dominic's power would be out of this world for them.

"Special effects and actors," Don shrugged with disinterest. Prisha also took a closer look at the scene and found Dominic is also wearing a leaf pendant. However his pendant has no ring and the chains are attached to the back of the leaf. That can pose more questions on its symbolism.

"What about how it's proven fact that none of the High Disciples had aged in the past twenty years?" Dan argued.

"Wait! Are you for real?" Rina exclaimed. This unlike the healing was what surprised her along with Prisha and Corey. "He looks around twenty. You mean he's actually twice that age now?"

"After learning the true divine ways, all the High Disciples were rewarded by the God Aevincere to be blessed and now exist on a higher plane," Dan explained. "Even though they are now higher than mortals, they are here to teach the rest of us to follow that same path to divinity."

"Whoa you mean Dominic ate so much chalk and got eternal youth?" Corey smiled ever so enthusiastically

"Umm... when did I say that?" Dan asked bewilderingly.

"You didn't," Rina smiled nervously. "We all agreed he has something missing in his brain."

Corey then playfully ran over to Dominic to ask him, "So how much chalk did you eat to become immortal?"

"Silly child, but imaginative," Dominic smiled down at Corey. "Health issues aside, though I don't think eating chalk sounds like a comfortable way to achieve eternal youth. To find your divine self, you only need to learn the ways of Aevincere."

"That's the giant fish that chalks are made from right?" Corey exclaimed shocking every person there pale especially those of the Disciples of Aevincere.

"Blasphemy..." All the disciples had gasped before they started raging. "No one speaks so ill of our lord! Smite him!"

Rina rushed to Corey's side trying to excuse him, "Sorry, he's young and still needs to learn how to watch his mouth. We're trying to teach him."

"Yes you should," Dominic replied frowning at Corey then walked over to the other disciples. "But that does make him far from the path to divinity."

"The miracle was amazing though!" Rina called out before Dominic left with his followers. All the other people seemed to be returning to their houses now that there's no longer an attraction, leaving only Team Freakshow, Dan and Don.

"Wait, so you don't actually believe all this do you?" Don asked Rina.

"Actually I think we might need to learn more before we're sure," Rina smiled.

"Well you can!" Dan exclaimed. "There's a religious camp starting tomorrow for the Disciples of Aevincere. I'm going there, do you wanna come along?"

"Religious camp, that reminds-" Ian was about to finish but Rina stomped on his foot. "OW!"

"Sure we'll think about it," Rina answered them then excuse herself and her friends. "It is getting a little late, so see ya."

As the four walked back to their hotel, Ian scolded Corey, "So can you ever not get in trouble?"

"Maybe," Corey answered then remembered something back at the scene. "So what do you think about the necklace that chalk eater was wearing?"

"Don't you mean what the whole religious group was wearing?" Ian tried correcting him.

"Why couldn't you be mute instead of blind and stupid?" Prisha frowned. "The necklace the High Disciple was wearing was different to the rest."

"His necklace didn't have a ring," Rina said. "You don't think the ring could symbolize mortal boundaries or something?"

"Maybe we should actually do some research this time? Like we should have before we went to Dan's residence and prevented ourselves from looking like idiots" Prisha was as grumpy as ever.

"Oh come on Prish, we only had about half an hour after our meeting with Sam," Rina smiled. "Just how much could have we found out?"

VWVVW

The whole team was back at the hotel researching like Prisha suggested.

"Well it looks like my theory was one of the more popular ones," Rina said after looking up some information on her laptop. "The High Disciples may have chosen these necklaces for the disciples of Aevincere but it's not even clear within the group."

"I also looked up some information on the four High Disciples," Rina continued typing on the laptop with the others watching. "There's Darren, Mera, Kageta and even Dominic. Each of them has mystical powers and none had aged during the past twenty years. Hell half of them even look like teenagers."

"The powers can easily be explained with PSI," Prisha discussed. "The aging is the tricky part however. It's true that PSI also allows people to slow down their aging, but even the best biokinetics in the world will look like they aged a year after five years. Dominic alone may be barely believable, but all four of them, especially the younger ones, all achieving that level seem almost impossible."

"What about the religious camp?" Corey asked signalling Rina to continue typing.

"It's going to be at the Disciples of Aevincere's church just South of Deciel," Rina found the page and the whole team looked at the picture of it on the screen of the laptop. From all information she found, "We'll be issued the necklace and uniform some time during the teachings. The place may be outside of town, but there are still lights, refrigerators and cameras. There hasn't been much on the reports of anything dangerous there or its surroundings. But the food they serve may be questionable."

"That sucks! So we would have to starve while going undercover?" Ian said disappointingly.

"Sure, which means if something goes wrong, we'll have all the energy to deal with it," Prisha remarked monotonously.

"How about something goes wrong with your face?" Ian inevitably bickered.

"Honestly I should get a nickel every time you two argue but Prisha's right," Rina turned to Ian. "We'll bring our own food. There's just the issue of us being suspicious of not eating what they serve."

"We simply forgot they provide us with food there," Prisha suggested thoughtfully. "If we bring something that's almost but not out of date, we can also say we don't want them to go to waste."

"That's our Prish!" Rina smiled and that was all for the research that night and they need to get ready to go undercover with the Disciples of Aevincere the next day.

VWVVW

And so they were off with the other disciples or at least Rina, Prisha and Ian. They walked near Dan as two of the High Disciples had led them through the forest. Darren was one of them, he looked no older than seventeen with spiky black hair. He also didn't appear to be wearing the usual robes, being short sleeve, having a cape and more gold in it.

Kageta also seemed to dress quite differently; his mostly purple clothes were thinner rather than baggy. He was also tall, around Ian's height, about the same age as Dominic and has flat green hair, covering one of his dark eyes.

When they got to the camp, Dominic was there and made his introduction to the new disciples. He then also informed them where their dormitory is to unpack and only need to ask the other High Disciples for queries for now. Afterward, he also noticed Rina, Prisha and Prisha and decided to talk to them, "I see that wild mouthed kid isn't with you today."

"Oh yeah, we took your advice and we know a psychiatrist who can babysit and work on his problem," Rina smiled.

"Hey Dommy!" Called the voice of a girl running up to Dominic. She had long red hair tied into pigtails over her big alluring yellow eyes. She also wore a long sleeved, low collar shirt, giving a peek at her cleavage above her really short skirt and long leggings reaching above her knees. All white some blue markings. "So these are the new disciples?"

"Yes," Dominic then introduced her before walking off. "Kids this is Mera, one of the High Disciples."

"Wha?" Rina exclaimed. Mera seemed to be the youngest of the four, in fact she's just as short as Prisha. "Isn't there some dress code for religious representatives, unless you're some RPG priestess?"

"Oh that?" Mera flicked her hair. "I know other religions believe that forcing chastity will make you modest but they're misguided. The truth is you should be open to yourself."

"Oh... em... gee," Rina along with Prisha was left in a deadpan expression. "A religion that caters to the lowest common denominator now?"

"And I thought my faith in humanity can't deteriorate any further," Prisha said monotonously.

"Oh don't worry about it you'll understand it soon enough," Mera said.

"I love it!" Ian finally spoke out from ogling at Mera, blood gushing from his nose. "This may just be the one true religion after all!"

"That perv," Rina and Prisha uttered.

From the excitement of Mera's delicious figure, Ian called out, "All praise Aevincere!"

VWVVW

"This is so unfair!" Corey in the meant time was out in the woods, around the church complaining. "Everyone went on an undercover mission and I'm the only one who doesn't get to!"

"I wanna see what's in there, if that chalk eater also eats chairs or if he has a pirate ship made of chalk," Corey just couldn't sit still with all that curiosity building inside him. His job now was supposed to be to keep watch outside and inform his friends of what happens such as who leaves.

That reminded him to take out his phone and take a look at the chat program they set up. The whole team had decided that while undercover, it was best to use this program to really communicate. He can already see one message transmitted:

Prisha: So have we all decided on which areas each of us should scout?

Rina: I'll take the 2nd floor so u and Ian can do the rest in general.

Rina finished typing and walked out of the dormitory to do her job. On the way, she passed Kageta in a corridor and on the second floor it seems that strangely enough, that not even the High Disciples' dormitories are locked and it's pretty much their most private room. Rina heard two people in their and recognized the voices to be Dominic and Darren. She took a look at the phone to find Corey's message that Mera had left.

Soon with Dominic and Darren leaving to go downstairs, it leaves no one in the dormitory. So Rina decided it's the best time to inspect it after typing the message to inform the others. Though within the dormitory, there was nothing important Rina could find, even the books they keep don't say much. It was only after she exited and checked her phone again when there was a discovery.

Prisha: You're certain? Dominic is downstairs but Darren is nowhere to be seen.

VWVVW

Rina, Prisha and Ian are now eating dinner with the other disciples in the dining room but they used the plan to bring their own food. They also take a peek and type on their phone now and again to discuss where Darren could have disappeared to. Seeing as how Corey had assured them he had not left the premises, Prisha made the conclusion, "The most likely theory is that there is a secret passage hidden somewhere in this church."

"It would explain a lot, where else they would keep their private information and where the security tapes link up," Rina typed in. But seeing as they can get suspicious not talking to each other much, Rina needed to start a subject and she knew the exact one where they could discuss naturally, "So Ian, you really think Mera's outfit is appropriate for someone of her class?"

"Well duh, better sexy than boring," Ian answered and turned to Prisha. "In fact, anyone who says otherwise is clearly gay."

"Right I don't even have to be interested in men to be gay," Prisha rolled his eyes.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Dominic announced from the High Disciple's table. "I know we haven't been through much of the teachings for the new disciples yet but the more faithful ones must now fulfill a duty for Aevincere!"

"We have just uncovered another religious camp west of here against the ways of Aevincere! They are but misguided so after the attack, you must bring them to me alive!"

"What?" Ian stood up in fury. "How could you think you have the ri-"

"Ian calm down," Rina interrupted him. It wasn't the first time the Aevincere was known to pull this after all.

"The newcomers now are you?" Dominic scowled at Ian. "I also recall you being associated with that wild mouthed kid. You're not doing well to build your reputation here. The way of Aevincere is absolute! Do not question it! Besides, I said the other religion is misguided which is why they should only be defeated not killed."

"I'm sorry my friend here has a drinking problem," Rina excused Ian and soon the Disciples of Aevincere left to go after the other religious camp while the newcomers such as Rina, Prisha and Ian go back to their dormitory.

There, Ian continued to argue before Prisha and Rina decided to type into the chat to inform Corey of the situation with the chance he can help from the outside. Now that everyone is more quiet, they need to rest up for the needed energy to investigate the following day.

VWVVW

The next morning, Rina, Prisha and Ian joined the Disciples of Aevincere in the main hall for the teachings. Some of the walls had abstract paintings and up ahead, behind Dominic is a statue of a man with a long cloak that trails away ghostly on the lower body. But first they heard confirmation of the other religious camp getting away due to already being chased by winged serpents. Darren had announced, "It matters not because the will of Aevincere will prevail in the end. It may also be his will to send the winged snakes after them for their wrong ways."

"You see the reason humans are mortal is for us to follow the teachings of Aevincere first before we can ascend to a higher plane. This is why all other humans are doomed blah blah blah..."

Seated with the other disciples, Rina, Prisha and Ian secretly traded messages about the secret passage. Prisha typed, "If it's a trap door it can only b on the 1st floor."

Rina: True, but there doesn't seem 2 b much options 4 a trap door either. Most of the floor of the rooms and corridor r made of materials such as carpet that makes it difficult 2 keep trapdoors from standing out, unless the trapdoor is under furniture or in a corner.

Prisha: What about the storage room or any other without much floor needed 2 displace? Those can b another possibility.

Ian: So y aren't we checking already?

Prisha: I'm certain the High Disciples will think we're just looking 4 gummy socks.

Rina: It's true Ian, we should 1st narrow down the most likely areas and minimize the number we examine 2 avoid suspicion.

"Whatever, I think it's probably behind 1 of those paintings," Ian messaged into the chat looking over at some of the abstract paintings on the walls of the hall. Also, the teachings are now over and the other disciples are leaving to do their own thing.

Prisha: Dead clichés aside, that's impossible.

Rina: u no a lot of people surprisingly still use that cliché.

Prisha: What I mean is that we have already been in the room behind that wall and if u looked carefully, geometrically the wall is no where thick enough 2 house a secret passage.

Rina: Wait, a lot of the walls here r made of bricks that should b easy 2 hide a hidden door. If we measure the rooms enough and find which has the thickest walls we should b able 2 narrow down the most likely areas 4 a passage right?

Prisha: It's a start.

"Well, the chalk eater is leaving off somewhere now," Corey finished typing on his phone seeing Dominic go off, still upset about not being able to go undercover. Sure he had some fun with the other religious camp last night but still. They even had him sleep out in the woods all by himself. He now could no longer keep quiet, "I'm sick of following orders! I got to do something fun now!"

"Let's see, I already had winged snakes on the other religious group last night, so this time it should be..." Corey thought hard then had the long awaited spark. "That's it!"

VWVVW

After evaluating some calculations, Rina and Prisha headed to a corridor hearing Darren and Kageta in the High Disciple's dormitory and Mera heading up stairs soon after. At the destination, the walls are mostly fine; the door must be hidden really well. Rina asked, "So are you sure this is where the passage would be?"

"We narrowed the practical locations down to only three areas, one being a storage room," Prisha explained. "Considering that this church isn't connected to nearby cities yet still able to use electricity, there should be a generator. Then judging from the layout of the building and where all the appliances are, the other area would be the best place to leave one, making it significantly less probable."

Analyzing the wall, they only found one brick slightly loose and when they pulled it out, their theory was correct, the larger segment of the wall began to turn with two dark openings on the side. The passage was found.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6: Chapter VI: Secret of Aevincere
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Well I could only manage half a chapter for now. I also realized I currently have a certain problem with my current writing and I wouldn't be able to come back until I solve it. I especially noticed after reading some of my earlier unpublished works. I'm afraid I'm going to have to do a rewrite soon, I'm not sure how much but I'll just wish I can get back with the spirit that I had with some of my unpublished works before writing became serious business. Oh and I have to congratulate whoever endured that last chapter that dragged on the investigation a little too long. EDITED: At first anyway, now I'm back and finished the chapter.


Ian was beginning to get bored wondering where his two other team mates went. They were supposed to analyse the area for a secret passage and told him not to do anything suspicious until then. But how long exactly did they expect him to wait? He pulled out his phone again to ask them.

Ian: Aren't u done measuring the stupid place yet?

Rina: Sorry Ian, we already found the passage and decided someone has 2 stay on the outside 2 keep us up 2 date. Please inform us if anything changes.

"Darn it," Ian complained, falling on the bed of his dormitory. "Those two just love to hog all the excitement to themselves huh, if only I could find where that passage is."

"Now I'm supposed to keep watch? What strange thing is going to happen in this boring church anyway?" And right on cue, Ian had spotted a burning flock of something outside his dormitory window. They are the winged serpents, much like the one described to have chased the other religious camp off last night. But the most prominent difference is each of these winged serpents seem to have an extended burning tail trailing behind them. The flock of them are getting closer to the church by the second. "What the fu-"

VWVVW

Rina and Prisha had already cautiously enter the passage leaving Ian to keep tabs on the outside for them. Rina led the way past the security footage and down into the dark depths of the tunnel. The passage seems much like a cave, with all the stone walls and rocks, there were also lamps deeper in along the walls. Rina was quite excited about the discovery, "Say, any bets on what those disciples hide in here? Maybe there's a killer snake made to hunt all non magical people."

"If you were any bit worth betting with, you can at least draw from the hint that the High Disciple said he'd like the opposing religion members alive, but what would he do with them?" Prisha replied as they entered a chamber with a door with seemingly no security at the other side.

"Right, how about if we find a lab where they secretly practice forbidden alchemy and use the prisoners as test subjects for human chimeras?" Rina changed her theory.

"Let's just hope they don't watch as many anime as you do," Prisha gave her an annoyed look and stopped for a moment. Rina, however just walked forward toward the door, intending on opening it before Prisha stopped her. "Stay back Rina, I think it's a trap."

"Yeah, you can talk," Rina turned back frowning.

"You must always question the design of a facility, especially a dungeon that has great reason for security," Prisha frowned back, ignoring Rina's remark. "So do they just enjoy leaving doors wherever they can?"

"Furthermore, the layout of this so called cave is too suspicious, the floor, the walls and ceiling are just too organized and you should be able to tell where the corners are," Prisha examined the surrounding. "It's like the chamber started as a room you would find in a house, but they added the layer of rough stone walls to make it look like a cave. The placing of the rocks too, they're far too evenly distributed along the walls. Ironically they believed it would help them avoid suspicion."

"And all that means..." Rina waited for the answer.

"They got us think we're in a cave to get us in a certain state of mind," Prisha examined and shifted some rocks in the corner to reveal a trapdoor underneath. "So they planned to hide a trapdoor somewhere here and with the preconception that it's a genuine cave, most people would overlook the rocks they covered it in."

"Neat," Rina went over to observe the trapdoor. "So we're absolutely certain this is the right path right?"

"Well it's the only trapdoor and path besides the door you were about to enter," Prisha answered. "And you are smarter than most people-"

"Really?" Rina's eyes started sparkling from the compliment.

"But like most people, you were dumb enough to blindly open the conspicuous door," Prisha grumpily replied with Rina pouting at him again. "I don't know what's behind the vertical door. It could be a bomb or poison gas but it would be the trap the ones who built the passage can count intruders will walk into."

"Right, but to be on the safe side," Rina focused her PSI to form a long chain with a sickle at the end. "I'll go in first and if something goes wrong, I'll signal for you to pull me out."

VWVVW

The winged serpents have now arrived at the church of Aevincere, scaring some lesser disciples. Ian however, decided to pull out his Relic Sword to cut some down but the trail of flames behind each of them fell to some of the grass around the church setting it in flames. "Damn, I forgot about the fire!"

"It's awesome isn't it?" Corey appeared behind Ian, smiling as widely as ever.

"This was your doing was it?" Ian yelled at him furiously. "The winged snakes that scared off the other religious camp were your idea after all!"

"Yep! It wasn't easy to tie vines on the tails of these ones before setting them on fire though," Corey replied playfully. "So what do you think?"

"I think you should quit making trouble that's what!" Ian scolded him and pinched his ear to one of the corridors of the church. "Your order was to keep watch on the outside of the church and not do anything to be noticed!"

"But it's so boring!" Corey's complained, dropping his spirit.

"Hey isn't that the boy of blasphemy from the other night who insulted Aevincere?" Some whisperings sounded from one of the ends of the corridor and Ian turned to see some disciples entered. "He brought these monsters to us; he's an enemy of Aevincere! What should we do?"

"More like what should I do?" Ian got out his phone to tell Rina about the situation.

Ian: Hello? Turns out Corey sucks at following orders and sent sum winged snake here much like 2 the other religious camp but worse. He's also here in the church with me now, caught peoples attention and got in trouble. So I get 2 beat him up?

Rina: Okay that sucks, I guess u should just find somewhere safe 4 now and focus ur energy on defending yourselves.

"Damn, now I have to babysit you?" Ian complained as he shut off the phone.

VWVVW

By now, Rina and Prisha are already deep within the tunnel where it does look like a genuine cave now, but still with torches on the walls. They soon came across a fork in the road and out smell, steepness and such, there wasn't much hint of which was a better path, so they chose to take the path on the right. After walking for a while, Ian sent another message and Rina had answered to it.

"Looks like they're having fun up there," Rina turned to Prisha who also finished taking a look at his phone.

"Surprised it took him so long," Prisha said as they kept walking.

"Wait, you didn't think Corey could follow the order from the beginning?" Rina asked.

"Did you really know him for this past year? Corey isn't the kind of person who could just stay still," Prisha answered seeing the exit of the tunnel to a larger chamber up ahead. "So choosing him to be the scout might not have been a good idea but as opposed to having him call the High Disciple a chalk eater while undercover, it was the best idea. It's just unfortunate we had to be down here when it occurred."

It's in this large chamber where they made their discovery. At the center, between all the torch lit walls is a twenty five foot tree with golden leaves. The trunk and branches seem normal until it split a couple of times when it starts coiling outward with fruits and leaves hanging off it. The fruits seem to look like white oval apples. Along the trunk there also appears to be a horizontal opening, but for what? The two teenagers examined the tree curiously.

"Hang on, I think I seen this tree somewhere before," Rina started as she got the Occultpaedia from her backpack and flip through the pages on the ground. Prisha also got down to take a closer look. When Rina got to the page, she stopped and pointed, "Aha! The Tree of Youth!"

"It says here that the tree grows fruits that allow the consumer to stop aging completely for an entire year each fruit," Rina read aloud the description next to the matching image of the tree. "However, necessary nutrients are required for the tree to grow these fruits and that's human flesh. I heard rumors about it but never thought the Disciples of Aevincere would get their hands on it."

"Is that all it elaborates on? How about origin or evidence of its existence?" Prisha asked curiously but without a change in his grumpy expression. "The workings of its famous process, the ratio of human consumption with the output of the fruits. So is one human equivalent to a fruit of a year's youth?"

"It looks like it," Rina closed the book and stood up in a trance, looking at the tree and the number of fruits hanging off it. The opening in the trunk must be the mouth then. How many poor souls have been thrown in there to be sacrificed for these fruits? "The Disciples of Aevincere... don't tell me their true plan is to-"

Rina stopped as soon as she and Prisha heard a sound coming from back down the tunnel, they found some rocks to behind in a corner of the room. So the disciples are going for their regular trip down the passage? Or are Ian and Corey following along without informing them? They'll find out soon. The mysterious being seemed to be taking their time, tempting Rina to walk toward the exit of the chamber to peek. But after the thought the sound of footsteps are growing loud enough to indicate the newcomer was near. No, from the footsteps, there are now three of them.

"Hurry it up! You want a quick death don't you?" It was Kageta who dragged in two other boys, both having hands bound. One was dark skinned with hair parting in the middle and the other had combed hair.

"I swear if there is any justice you will pay,"The dark skinned boy said before being shoved to the ground by Kageta.

"I'm flattered you're so worried about me considering your own fate!" Kageta got out what Rina and Prisha recognized as a key seed and shone it to the tree. It was as they expected, the unusual area opened up into a mouth riddled with fangs.

"Shall I demonstrate it?" Kageta threw the combed haired boy in front of the tree and in the instant, he was pulled in by a long engrossed tongue from the tree's mouth. What followed was the sound of the flesh and bones crunching along with the boy's screams. Rina and the dark skinned boy watched in horror. A loud crunch signaled the end of the screams before it sounds like tree gulped the corpse and a new fruit began to grow.

"We only kept you alive until now for one reason," Kageta pulled the dark skinned boy by the collar and prepared to feed him to the tree as well. "Now fulfill your purpose!"

"No!" At an instant from the burst of energy, Rina had materialized a bow and arrows at Kageta and his only option was to let go of the dark skinned boy and evade the attack.

"So I was right to be suspicious about you kids," Kageta turned to see Rina and Prisha who was quite disapproving of her actions. "I knew I should have told master Dominic of it sooner."

"No matter. It should only take a little longer to exterminate the rats," Kageta got out his phone while the dark skinned boy ran behind his saviors. "Hello Dominic? The newcomers really were out to get us. Two of them are in the underground chamber and I'll deal with them. The last should still be on the surface in the church."

"So this is the purpose of the Disciples of Aevincere? A means to attack other religions and sacrifice their members for your own gain," Rina asked after Kageta put his phone away.

"Just them? You have no idea," Kageta said "Once we gathered enough disciples we will feed them all to the tree and live for hundreds of years. By that time we will become powerful enough to practically gain immortality!"

"You've been taking the lives of innocent people and even deceiving them, playing on their faith, all for this?" Rina glared at him.

"You make it sound like some unspeakable sin," Kageta replied with a lack of interest. "I recall many crime lords do the same but for money no less."

"And I suppose that's your moral standard?" Rina replied bitterly.

"Heh! Naive girl, that is everyone's standard deep down. I'm just more true to my nature," Kageta said as he took out his daggers. "We are all out for ourselves after all. Helping others is always a means towards an end and somewhere along the line, people have even created delusions such as friendship and kindness. But under the right circumstance, anyone will betray anyone. How well this religion worked is a testament to that."

"With the power me and my colleagues developed, caring no longer benefits us and we can be more true to what humanity really is," Kageta formed his arms in a cross in front of him then swung the daggers around, projecting what appears to be a black sphere growing from where he stood, covering the chamber, taking the place of all other light. "Night Sphere!"

Both Rina and Prisha stayed vigilant of their surrounding, focusing their senses more on sight smell and touch. They also tried analyzing how this power works. Not knowing when Kageta will attack, Rina decided it's best to hold an arrow in the safe way she would with a knife for when he gets close, which happened at that instant. Kageta however did not attack but snatched the bow and the arrows on Rina's back, her retaliation with the remaining arrow in her hand could only graze his left cheek.

Rina decided it was best to disengage her powers for now, which surprised Kageta seeing the bow and arrows in his hand disappear. Rina then tried taking out a flash light to make her own light in the dark but it didn't seem to work. This had got Kageta laughing. "What did you think I just turned off the torches? My Night Sphere constantly negates all light in the surrounding until I decide to disengage it."

Sound! Rina wondered if she can just attack Kageta now. No, it wouldn't be the first time someone tried such a trick to bait their opponent. Rina stayed on her guard up to and through Kageta's next attack. Taking damage to the arms and legs were inevitable but she at least avoided damage to her vital organs.

Prisha thought about the torches. If this Night Sphere covers the chamber in a sort of energy only Kageta can see through, or dim the lights to a barely noticeable level, blowing out all the torches should also take away the available light to Kageta and they'll all fight blind. But no, it would be too risky considering the energy and time it takes and how much more easy it would be for Kageta to attack them during the execution phase.

Rina decided to take a different turn in tactic and created a whole lot of shurikens from her PSI, surprising Kageta. "I see, you're a psychic like we are. Doesn't that mean you have less reason to help those foolish humans? They'll inevitably judge you."

"And it's due to scum like you that they judge us with such appall!" Rina threw a few of the shurikens at her right view where she heard Kageta's voice then another fraction at the other side, trying to cover as much range as she can. When she heard the blades cut the flesh of her enemy, she threw the rest of the shurikens in the same direction. "Razor Barrage!"

After they heard the sound of the thud from the direction of the attack, the chamber seemed to brighten the chamber again. Seeing Kageta laying on the floor unconscious, Rina smiled nervously, "I'm sorry, was it better to have him conscious?"

"There wasn't much of a choice," Prisha rushed over to Kageta to restrain him in case he wakes up and check for bugs. "We had to disengage his powers somehow."

"Umm, thanks for helping me back there," A voice sounded from the corner of the chamber. Rina and Prisha turned to see the dark skinned boy they almost forgot about. "But how did you manage to find this place?"

"Oh we were actually sent undercover by someone who survived an attack of the Disciples of Aevincere a few days back," Rina answered.

"Wait! Samantha was the only one missing when they captured us!" The boy beamed. "So she's alive? Oh thank you! Excuse me, I better introduce myself, you can call me Jimmy. Umm... wait a second!"

Jimmy looked at Kageta then the rest of the chamber. "Shouldn't we get out of here right away?"

"I don't think that's such a great idea," Rina smiled but seeing as how Jimmy still looked confused she continued. "It's been ten minutes since Kageta called the other High Disciples and that should be all the time in the world to take care of ordinary rats. And it should take at least ten minutes to reach the ladder and that should be enough time for his friends to get suspicious that Kageta has failed. There's a good possibility they want to get rid of the whole lot of us in that case and if it is the case, they may just cave in the passage."

"There's already a good chance they blocked the exit at the ladder to not let anyone other than Kageta through," Prisha contributed.

"But it's still a better bet than staying in this chamber right?" Jimmy suggested. "We'll be closer to the exit at least."

"Look around you," Prisha said expressionlessly. "The height of the ceiling in this chamber is at least four times the height in the tunnel. There should also be a more thin layer of stone between the ceiling and the surface. If the entire facility caves in while we're in this chamber, there is still a possibility we will survive. We can even utilize the structure of the tree for protection. But if we were in the tunnel when it caves in, game over."

"This isn't the first brain buster you worked on is it?" Jimmy commented, losing the strength to keep up.

"Of course it would be better if they don't consider caving the place in at all," Prisha said thoughtfully and looked at Kageta. "We may even lure the other Disciples down here away from Corey."

"Rina, can we get out the medical kit to treat Kageta?" Prisha turned to tell Rina, surprising both her and Jimmy. There was also an ulterior motive to make the enemy underestimate them.

VWVVW

"No problem Dominic!" Darren turned off his phone to run off with Mera and deal with the winged snakes.

"I can't believe we didn't deal with them sooner!" Mera had reached outside the church and directed her hand at the winged snakes in the air. She was then able to project a scorching heat wave from her hand yelling, "Flame Blast!"

She needed to burn the snakes to the point so that they are reduced to non flammable ashes before they hit the ground. She did the same for the other snakes in the surrounding while Darren materialized a huge sword with his energy, made of exactly the substance he stated after. "Diamond Sword!"

He then swing the blade to use the wind and earth to put out the fire. After He and Mera were done, they noticed it's been a while since Kageta had called Dominic and tried seeing if he reached the surface yet. Not seeing where he is, Mera decided to give him a call.

"I'm a little busy! This would be so much easier if it was one on one!" Kageta's voice sounded from the phone before Prisha hung up the phone.

"Congrats you get to keep your liver," He said before turning to Rina. "I guess we could sedate him again. Is there anything we could use?"

Back at the surface, Mera thought about what Kageta said on the phone and commanded Darren, "Darren you take care of the rats in the church! I'll see what's up with Kageta!"

VWVVW

Back in the chamber, Rina and Prisha observed the tree while waiting for Mera. He even read through the Occultpaedia for more information. Soon he decided he analyzed it enough for now and spoke up, "Rina? I know it's nothing new but..."

"That was stupid what you did back there," He finished his sentence. "I know saving Jimmy means we could gain his assistance but considering how little we knew about about Kageta's power, the risk wasn't worth it."

"I didn't just save him for his assistance," Rina argued. "You're starting to remind me of Kageta with that everyone for themselves outlook!"

"He may be a fool but he does have a point," Prisha replied bitterly. "Anyone who believes they help others because they care are delusional..."

Rina looked at him. She knew Prisha didn't want to believe such a cynical view either even if he does. Rina almost forgot about the torment Prisha went through as a child. He didn't exactly grow up in a model society. Even his parents abandoned him. Maybe believing it was natural also made their betrayal less painful. A lot has happened since then though. Rina wanted say something to make Prisha feel better, saying that he has people who truly cares for him now in the Occult Society. But she knew he wasn't the kind of person to believe words alone.

References Made: Harry Potter, Fullmetal Alchemist.



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Chapter 7: Chapter VII: Annoying Disciples
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Well I'm back and with quite a bit of editing especially with the previous chapter, which is actually complete now.

"They are enemies of Aevincere!" Darren commanded the other disciples. "It is your duty to help us catch them!"

While the disciples are searching, Ian and Corey are actually hiding in one of the cubicles of the girl's bathroom. Ian laughed quietly and proudly, "Heheheh, and Rina thought Prisha was smart."

"So why are we hiding in this smelly place?" Corey asked curiously. "Is it supposed to be some kind of ritual to turn us into rats?"

"Idiot, don't you get it?" Ian answered taking a peek beneath the cubicle walls, necessary to see who entered. "With Rina and Prisha downstairs, the disciples will only be looking for guys who look like guys... remotely. They'll never look for us in the girl's bathroom where we aren't allowed."

"Who do you think is in that cubicle," Voices sounded outside startling both Ian and Corey. "They've been in there for quite a while."

"Do you think we should just ask?"

"Hey!" Some girls knocked on the door of the cubicle. "What must have you eaten last night to go for a half hour round in there?"

"No, that's an understatement. You've been in there for way too long!" The girl forced the door open and was shocked at seeing the two boys in there. "AAAAHHH! BOYS?"

"Not just any! Those are the sinners opposing Aevincere!" Her friend said as she went out to call the others. "Everyone! I found where the sinners are!"

"The girls bathroom? Those perverted scum!" One of the male disciples raged and rushed into the bathroom. "I'll go in there and teach them a lesso- OW!"

The girl kicked him out, "No boys allowed!"

VWVVW

Meanwhile, Rina, Prisha and Jimmy were still in the chamber with the Tree of Youth. Prisha decided to continue examining it while Rina decided to ask Jimmy, "So the other road in the tunnel leads to the prison they kept you? So is there still more we should go back to save?"

"No, I'm sadly the last," Jimmy answered in a gloomy tone. He'd rather not go deep into it and think of how all his friends have been fed to that monstrous tree.

"It's a shame the cutest boy had to be the sinner," Mera's voice sounded from the entrance of the chamber referring to Prisha. He, Rina and Jimmy turned to see her with a few more disciples. They weren't sure how Mera convinced them to come down here with her but that's not important at the moment. Mera also seen the unconscious and tied up Kageta to see he failed. "The sooner you surrender, the less painful your death."

"It's at least as painful as being fed to a man eating tree right?" Rina remarked. "Besides, aren't you the one who should consider surrendering now?"

"It's true, there's no point in asking you to surrender," Mera sighed then smirked arrogantly, confident she could take them both on. She did bring about ten disciples down here to help even if they are just normal people no match for someone who defeated Kageta, they can at least slow these intruders down a little. "You sure you still have the energy to defeat me after your fight with Kageta?"

Prisha could tell from Mera's behaviour that she fell for his trap. The phone call had convinced her that the fight against Kageta lasted longer than it really did and caused her to underestimate them. They can now use her overconfidence to their advantage. Prisha looked over to Rina wondering how she'll handle this.

"Well if that is your course of action," Rina summoned a sword in the hand in front of her then directed it at the Tree of Youth. "Then your precious fountain of youth gets it!"

VWVVW

Ian and Corey somehow got out of the in the bathroom with as little fatalities as possible only to come across more disciples. "There! The Sinners! Get them!"

"You know who you're dealing with? Bring it on!" Ian fought his way through them, trying to only knock them out. He soon ran into who he recognized to be Darren. "It's you! One of the High Disciples."

"Stay back! I'll handle this," Darren told the other disciples then used his power to summon his weapon of choice in front of him. "Diamond Sword!"

"Aevincere smite you!" Darren rushed forward to swing his sword at Ian. Ian tried defending but could avoid a cut in his right chest. He was however able to counter and punched Darren back.

"I see this is where I fight seriously!" Ian pulled out his own Relic Sword and unsheathed it. This time it was him who rushed forward at Darren, trying to get past his defences. But Corey noticed Darren wasn't trying to get past Ian's defence at all, even with the openings he left. As if the only thing he's trying to hit was the Relic Sword itself.

"Very fast for a snail!" Ian scoffed seeing how Darren never managed an offensive. But when he realized his own Relic Sword is broken, it was too late. Darren had used this opportunity to strike the unarmed Ian's left shoulder. "AAARRRGGHH!"

"Whatever your magical sword is, it's no harder than steel," Darren looked down at the broken blade of the Relic Sword, then to Ian. "In a battle of endurance, my Diamond Sword will always prevail."

"Shut up!" Ian stood, with the Relic Sword reforming and charged again.

"This is going to take a while," Darren said as he clashed swords with Ian once again.

On the side lines, it's getting a bit difficult for Corey to watch Ian's fight as he needs to beat up the other disciples trying to attack him at the same time.

VWVVW

From the display Rina's power and her threat, one of the disciples questioned Mera, "Who is she and what does she mean?"

"You heard me!" Rina smirked confidently. "These who you call High Disciples secretly grew a man eating tree that grows fruits to keep themselves young. They fed those innocent people you captured and they plan to feed you too when the time comes."

"I told you," Mera reminded the disciples. "Anyone who aquired such powers without being blessed by Aevincere are given demonic powers. They secretly built this underground passage and planted that tree to decieve you."

"Tell us who are you and how did you gain your demonic powers?" Mera yelled at Rina and Prisha and stirring their temper.

"I'm glad you asked," Rina said then introduced herself and her team mate. "Rina and Prisha of Team Freakshow! We were sent to investigate this not so discreet group of yours! So what ever happened to fighting us at the cost of this tree?"

"Hm hm hehehahaha!" Mera laughed. Does this foolish girl really think killing that tree would put an end to the Disciples of Aevincere's plans? Mera decided to play along though, "Nice try, that's a very creative story. However there is one flaw to it all. If that really is our magical tree as you say then killing it would also destroy any evidence for you to testify against us isn't that right?"

Of course it wasn't the only evidence, but she wasn't going to let anyone know that.

"You know for a tree that matters so little, you sure are hesitating a lot for it," Rina smirked before realizing that Mera had fired a flame blast toward her. She managed to evade it though, the tree now burning up beside her. After one of the larger burning branches fell, Rina pushed it in front of Mera, swinging her sword like a golf club. The smoke clouded Mera's view for a moment and Rina used this opportunity to make a break for it. "Come on Prisha!"

"Jimmy!" She grabbed their hands to pull them around Mera. While running through the tunnel, Prisha also snapped his hand away like saying he could run on his own.

Mera and the other disciples also chased them until they reached the ladder where Mera decided to stop to let Dominic do the work. Once Rina, Prisha and Jimmy had reached the chamber with the conspicuous door, they found Dominic along the tunnel, having tied a rope to said door to pull it open revealing the trap behind it all this time, killer bees.

"Frozen Wind!" Prisha quickly projected a ray of sub zero temperatue from his hand to not only freeze some of the bees but block the doorway in ice. He, Rina and Jimmy only had to fight off a few more bees before turning to see that Dominic had already exited the passage.

Exiting the passage themselves, the encountered some disciples ready to fulfill their duty to Aevincere. They're only normal humans though and can only slightly slow them down. Once Rina and Prisha are done with them, they need to be off to find Ian and Corey.

VWVVW

Speaking of which, Ian is still locked in battle with Darren. While clashing swords, Darren spoke up, "That boy," He referred to Corey, "He's the one who set the winged snakes loose on more than one occasion isn't he?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ian kept fighting.

"Does he even realize the damage he could have done? Do you really insist on siding with such a brat?" Darren broke Iand's sword again, but Ian evaded his next attack. "Haven't you ever at least found him annoying?"

"That may be so but he's not the one going out of his way attacking other religious groups," Ian answered as his Relic Sword reformed once again. He was reminded of a time back then when he actually was reluctant to join the Occult Society. He still has some reluctance hanging around a bunch of weirdos. But considering the corrupted defence force he was part of before, it really was the lesser of two evils after Rina had showed him how misguided he was. "Compared to you he's a saint."

"Hey Darren, how are things going here?" Mera had arrived at the scene, now watching the fight.

"He doesn't stand a chance," Darren replied to Mera before turning back to talk to Ian. "It's not a matter of who's good or evil and you'll understand that eventually."

"No, we're offering for you to join us and hand that brat over to us because of how beneficial it would be. For one we're clearly the stronger side," Darren lended out his swordless hand. "You'll be rid of that brat for another thing and our reason for attacking those religious groups aren't as bad as you think."

"Heheh, you don't me much do you," Ian charged forward again to attack. "You'll learn I'm too stubborn to accept that offer!"

"It's no use, I only need to stay on the defensive for your sword to break," Darren stayed calm. "even if you were to hit my sword a thousand times-"

"What?" Darren then noticed that this time it's his sword that broke and Ian had cut a wound in his chest. "AAARRRGGGHHH!"

"Impossible... you shouldn't have been able to break my sword no matter how many times you hit it!" Darren stood up again before taking another look at Ian's sword. It had also changed structure. Not only was it larger and had wave like blades at it's other side, the material was also different. The blade looks similar to gold, but it's definitely not. It's much brighter than gold for one thing. "That sword, it couldn't be made of... Garmonite?"

"Garmonite? The legendary mineral made of Tusklion bones that is said to be harder than diamond?" Mera gasped. "It was always said that a sword made out of such a substance was impractical. Not only is it actually one of the heavier minerals, it's melting point is far too high to forge anything out of it."

"That..." Mera pointed at Ian's Garmonite sword. "That can't be the relic sword can it. It's said that the sword has a mind of it's own and changes form to suit the situation. It must have turned to Garmonite now that your strength is great enough to handle it and you need a weapon to defeat diamond."

"Too bad you didn't realize it soon enough," Ian ran forward and slashed many more wounds on Darren, who passes out from the pain and blood loss and dropped on the battlefield near where Corey is.

"Not bad, I guess you could provide quite a challenge with that power," Mera stepped in to take over for Darren.

"Bring it on!" Ian readied his sword once again. "I can take a hundred more of those rounds!"

"Maybe so if you fought another Darren each time," Mera replied arrogantly. "But you see, I'm on another level entirely!"

"Uh, Ian? Can I tag in actually?" Corey tried calling out but the other two were just so loud and energetic and he found he still needed to beat up the other disciples and their poor attempt at amubshing him. At least he will still be getting some action even if it's against dull normal people. Besides, it's the chalk eater he really wants to fight, he looks cool.

Ian started the fight by charging up and swinging his sword at Mera, who dodged it. She then shot a flame blast at him. It was almost powerful enough to knock someone as strong as Ian off his feet. Mera jumped back to make some distance. "So that sword isn't all you got going."

She fired another blast, but Ian has proved to be able of slicing it in half with the flames now burning in the carpet behind him.

While fighting off the disciples, Corey found that Rina and Prisha also made it up to him along with a stranger who seems to be part of the group. Corey greeted, "Hi so who's the wrestler?"

Prisha and Rina face faulted before Jimmy queried, "Wrestler?"

"Oh em gee," Rina got up thinking that was random even for Corey, then said. "Well, I can explain later... both questions. Corey, Jimmy, Jimmy Corey."

"Hey, wasn't he one of the four leaders of the Aevincere group?" Jimmy looked down at the unconscious wounded Darren.

"Yes and he's still alive it seems..." Rina checked his pulse.

"Ian just won his fight with him," Corey explained.

"So should we finish the job?" Prisha discussed.

"That's not the way we do things," Rina replied.

"I'd certainly like to," Jimmy said, thinking about the number of his friends who had died by Darren's hands. "But killing him won't bring them back."

"What I mean is that the leader of the disciples had been shown to be capable of healing abilities," Prisha glared. "Taking him along with us will only slow us down or would you rather risk fight him all over again?"

"I have a better idea," Rina smiled, making sure Mera was still distracted in her fight before holding up what looked like a tracking device and showing the watch Darren is still wearing.

Back at the fight, Mera sent another Flame Blast at Ian, who jumped over it and managed to land a cut on Mera's shoulder. The fight continued with Mera mostly dodging Ian's swings until a certain point where Mera threw another blast of fire for Ian to cut. Spectating the fight, Prisha commented, "That fool! Getting caught in such a simple trap."

"Huh?" Jimmy turned to question him.

"Hahahaha!" Mera now only had to burn the carpet for the trap to be complete. Ian tried to turn back but found another wall of fire behind him. Not just behind, all around. "It's too late, the fire around you has built up enough to make the perfect trap!"

"We'll see about that!" Ian knows he'll have to run through fire anyway, so he went for the direction he believes will damage him the least. But even then, as the flames gathered and the burning pain overcame him, not even he could stay quiet, "AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!"

"Pyrokinetic Technique!" Smirking more widely than ever, Mera fired one last blast through the flames yelling, "Living Hell!"

Prisha, Corey, Rina and Jimmy watched in shock, barely seeing Ian through the flames.

Despite the huge pillar of flames, Ian had miraculously emerged alive, one thing only someone of his fortitude can manage. But he wasn't able to manage much more before he falling to the carpet floor and losing consciousness.

"Ian!" Rina rushed to his aid. At least he wasn't dead but it will take a lot for him to recover.

"So... any volunteers on who's next?" Mera smirked seeing their expressions. They might not be saying anything, but it's clear what they're one thing, she had taken down Ian and they none of them knows if they stand a chance. Not only that, someone will need to quickly treat Ian's injury rather than fight. There's also the fact that they will need to protect Jimmy who Mera can use to gain the upper hand. It's not just Jimmy, The other disciples here may be against them, but they are only misguided. They will also try to avoid their deaths. Prisha may not, but he knows Rina would make a fuss, which wouldn't be helpful right now.

Sure, Mera may have lost some energy in that last fight, but it isn't just her, Dominic is still here in the church. From the way Kageta spoke about him, he's likely to be even more powerful than Mera. Once he arrives, he can even heal Mera and the disciples will surely win. Mera also knows if she's in trouble, she can buy time until he arrives with some help from the above details. She laughed, "I know I won't want to fight me either but in this case it's pretty much inevitable isn't it?"

"Challenge accepted!" Corey turned to see the corridor wall and felt out his PSI and heighten the sensation to prepare for the attack. He threw his hand forward to project a a ball of kinetic energy. "Force Blast!"

"Detonate!" Right before the blast had hit the wall, Corey closed his hand into a fist causing it to self destruct and blast away everything around it, even the shockwave pushed back Rina and Prisha a bit who was luckily enough, already at a safe distance from the wall.

"Give a little warning next time!" Rina yelled. Then took a look at the window sized hole Corey made in the wall. "Wait Corey! Even if we run we would be too slow carrying Ian."

"That's right!" Mera smiled thinking they might just run off without him. But then again, leaving Ian behind means they can torture him for information, it may even be a little game of bondage.

"Ready Prish?" Corey smiled at him and looked up at the ceiling between them and Mera. Rina also found Ian's Relic Sword that reverted to it's dagger like form and sheathed it.

Prisha nodded then did the same with radiating the sensation within him and projected a frozen wind at the ceiling to make it brittle for Corey to fire another force blast right at it. The ceiling came down as rubble, in front of Mera, who needed to step back, hitting the smoky floor.

This was the time to escape for Jimmy, Prisha and Rina, carrying Ian on her back and Corey supporting. But right after Prisha jumped through the hole, he decided there's still a job to do back here. Rina looked back to yell at him, "Prisha! We can't slow down for even a second!"

"Then don't! Just run!" Prisha yelled back before summoning even more PSI this time and used a Frozen Wind to fill the hole with ice, save for most of the top area where only the left side is connected to the top of the hole. He then ran off thinking how stupid he was just then. He didn't know the precise time it would take for Mera to get around those rubbles and after all these years he taught himself not to leave his fate to chance. So why did he decide to stay behind like that?

He soon found that he almost caught up to his team. But caught a glimpse of an encrypted handbook they left behind. So that's their plan now huh?

VWVVW

Once Mera had gotten through the rubble, she found Prisha had set another obstacle to slow them down, but she only needed to fire a flame blast at the ice wall. However, she was surprised the wall didn't phase instantly and needed to increase the power before melting and blasting the ice wall aside.

Psychic reinforcement huh, Mera thought. It's the ability that involves manipulating the element you manifest and strengthen their molecular bonds to not breakdown so easily. Prisha only worked with ice but preventing it from melting at the mere presence of Mera's flames must make him a really powerful psychic.

Mera got ready to also exit through the hole and continue chasing them. But to her surprise the wall above the hole also collapse onto her and slow her down for another minute. She wondered how it happened before remembering Prisha's choice in the structure of the wall of ice.

"Now I see... by leaving most of the top open, my flame blast will concentrate most of the force on the brick wall's weak point..." Mera gasped while making her way back up on her feet. "This had caused the wall above the hole to become inbalanced and come crashing down."

"He sure is cute but I didn't know he was clever," Mera smirked before chasing after the rats. She may have lost sight of them, but they can't run far carrying the dumby swordsman. She will have to guess one direction first and check the other areas if she has to.

But along the way, she found a handbook. Those rats must have dropped them in the rush. It's also encrypted, meaning it can contain much important information about them that will be useful for her and Dominic.

Fact: Annoying Disciples was a title made up on the last minute due to the realization that the formerly planned title held too much unfortunate implications.


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Chapter 8: Chapter VIII: Smoke and Ice
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Well first off I'd need to say that I edited my previous chapter so it's kind of extended and you might like to re read it. Long story short, excuse the pun, this chapter was turning out quite long nearing 5k words and I remembered my last chapter was a little short so I transferred a portion of it. Then I continued and got nearly 5k words anyway -_-. Anyways, yay I'm always happy to get more favs. I'm glad you enjoy it but I don't think it really gets good until this chapter. I really enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoy reading it too. Sorry if it's a bit too long though.

"Hey, has anyone noticed that the disciples quite chasing us for real?" Jimmy queried, looking back now that they have slowed down.

"I guess that means they took the handbook to investigate," Rina said proudly. "I always knew one of those would come in handy."

"So how long would you say it will stall them for?" Prisha asked curiously as Rina took out another copy of the handbook from her bag.

"I'll let you decide," Rina handed the handbook over to Prisha before they continued hiking.

"I see, rather than setting out random letters to make it look like a code, there is actually a legitimate message encrypted of the introduction of the Occult Society handbook up to the point where it says you have been punked," Prisha thoughtfully analyzed the contents of the handbook. "Clever."

"It might actually stall them for at least an hour won't you say?" Rina smiled proudly before the group came across a cave up ahead along a valley wall.

"Thank goodness a cave!" Jimmy cheered before he realized the others aren't in the same mood. "We will need a place to rest up and heal Ian right?"

"Yeah he looks in really bad shape. It would take all night to fix him up even with the first aid kit," Corey commented then looked up at the sky. "We will need some light to treat him carefully but the sun will be setting in about an hour. If we start a campfire though, it will be easier for the enemy to find us."

"Unless we light a fire in the cave right?" Jimmy suggested. "Then it won't be so explicit."

"Actually Jimmy, the cave is featured on the map of the outskirts of Deciel," Rina explained. "With the disciples having built the church in this forest, I'd say they must be quite familiar with it. The cave will definitely be a hotspot for them to search for us. The fact that it's the only cave in the map doesn't help."

"By the way, what else would you say those chalk eaters would be up to now?" Corey questioned. "Other than investigating the handbook I mean."

"They will treat Darren and have someone stationed at the Deciel entrance," Prisha answered.

"You... sound so sure," Jimmy turned to him. "What if they try not to be so predictable?"

"No matter how predictable the move is, how much it would draw them back or the size of their brain, they must move away from check," Prisha answered. "It doesn't take all of us to take care of Ian and Jimmy and Disciples of Aevincere can't take the risk of even one member of our team to return to Deciel and report to our clients."

"Now let's get back to us," Rina said while getting out her phone to check the tracer. Darren seems to be traveling through the hiking path from the church to where the camp's bus is. Prisha seems to be unsurprisingly right once again. "Where will we camp?"

Prisha's thoughts raced for a plan regarding the previous discussion on the situation at hand. After some inspiration he finally said, "I have an idea!"

VWVVW

"Come on Darry!" Mera pulled the now recovered Darren down the hiking path. He blushed a little, it's true the High Disciples were a strong side that was beneficial to join but being with a cute girl like her was definitely a bonus. She was the one who persuaded him to join after all.

"Uhh... sorry for screwing up back there," Darren said.

"Oh don't worry," Mera smiled as they reached Dominic's bus and got on board. "I easily beat up that sword idiot, which slowed the rats down in the forest. We'll get back at them."

"So Mera, I found that you have torched the Tree of Youth downstairs," Dominic said while he started the bus. He also brought a spear for the fight later on.

"Yes... or our current one at least," Mera replied then remembered. "Oh that's right! Poor Kaggy was still down there wasn't he?"

"Correct and for your information I can only heal the living," Dominic is not amused.

"Right... poor Kaggy..." Mera smiled nervously. "So how's decoding the book going?"

"It was a false clue they left behind to stall us," Dominic answered. "But that isn't the main attraction at this stage."

"You know what I'm more interested in? It has been running through my head for a while but-" Dominic turned his head around menacingly. "Why do you think those occult brats let Darren live?"

"Uhh... what do you mean?" Darren stuttered for a moment.

"You heard me!" Dominic's voice boomed. "They all witnessed my power and know I should be able to heal you. You were also near dead in front of them. They only need to increase your blood loss for your cause of death. I'd say it's more likely they counted on you living for a reason."

"You mean like a bug or a tracking device?" Mera questioned.

"No way, I took a bath to wash away the blood and it would have short out any stuck on me," Darren shrugged.

"And I got him a new change of clothes, I even checked the other change and can't find any on them," Mera contributed before it seems Dominic had stopped the car.

"Darren, can you come out here for a moment?" Dominic opened the door of the bus and walked outside, also grabbing his spear. Darren froze in his seat for a moment, but Mera managed to pull him out.

During the confrontation, Dominic pulled Darren's wrist to himself analyzing the watch, "This watch... it's the same one you had before right?"

He then pulled the watch out and smashed it on the ground. Seeing the tracking device installed within, he said, "What do you know?"

"Please forgive me sir! I'll be more careful," Darren kneeled before Dominic.

"Darren... you had always been the most naive of us haven't you?" Dominic looked down on him. "You should know not to take our job lightly."

"But if you continue to be so foolish," Dominic raised his spear above Darren's neck. "We would have been better off leaving you to bleed to death!"

Dominic plunged the spear down through Darren's throat while Mera froze from the horrible event taking place. Dominic soon pulled the spear out for Darren to fall to the ground in unspeakable agony before the now wished for death. He had chosen his side based on how strong they are and this is his consequence.

Dominic then turned back to the bus and walked past Mera to tell her coldly, "So now you know the price of failing me?"

Mera was still frozen from the shock and it took a while for her to barely manage the word, "... yes..."

"Bring him in the bus with a bag," Dominic commanded, getting back to the driver seat. "We will decide what to do with the body once we get to Deciel."

VWVVW

"Awww, dang it," Rina frowned at her phone. They finally settled down for a while with Ian laying down next to a tree.. "The tracer quit working. I guess that means they figured it out."

"Corey, can I miraculously count on you to get some fire wood?" Prisha asked, handing over a really large plastic bag. "Enough to fill this up."

"Rodney!" Corey grabbed the bag and ran off. He decided to gather some where he can keep an eye on the cave in case the disciples decide to check already.

"I think he meant Roger," Rina commented on the last thing Corey said. She then turned to speak to Prisha, who seems to have gotten out a map of the forest outskirts of Deciel, a pencil and a notepad to draw something. "But that's beside the point. You really think it's a good idea to start a campfire where the trees are no where near tall enough to hide it?"

"No!" Prisha stopped drawing for a second to direct the pencil at Rina. "That is why we will be commencing many campfires."

"Nice, like decoys," Jimmy joined the discussion as Rina started to treat Ian with Jimmy assisting. "Excuse me for asking though, but are you sure those Aevincere guys will be hunting us down? What if they decide toplay completely defensive and station themselves all at the Deciel entrance?"

"It's a shame we don't have that high disciple on our team," Prisha answered while he drew the map of where he calculated would be the best places to set the campfires. "Ian will actually take time to recover and the disciples only need to finish him off and permanently reduce our power by a quarter. The passage of time would serve us best."

"Speaking of which, how's he doing?" Jimmy asked Rina.

"He'll survive as long as we do our job," She answered. "But he won't be awake until tomorrow."

"Back!" Everyone heard Corey's voice from the woods and saw he filled the large plastic bag and also carried until smaller plastic bag with already burnt fire wood.

"Umm Corey?" Rina asked. She and the others wondered what he could be doing with the smaller bags. "Don't tell me you think the already burnt fire wood could become chocolate so the disciples will be too busy eating to look for us."

"Really? They can?" Corey asked enthusiastically with everyone falling over again. "Actually I was thinking, we were going to make decoy campfires right? With this many firewood."

"Umm yeah, we discussed that," Rina answered.

"Well, we would need to start the campfires one by one right?" Corey explained. "But the enemy could tell how long ago each ones have been running by the decrease in the burn rate and the amount of fire wood."

"And make an inference on the order each campfire started and where we were probably at," Prisha figured it out and was actually quite impressed. Over the past few missions, these two seem to be improving at strategies rather quickly. He wouldn't actually tell them that though but he will need to work harder to make sure they can't catch up. "If the camp fires we commence later already has some burnt fire wood, it would begin to seem like it had already been burning for some time and the enemy won't know which was started first."

"We can even instead make a fake pattern to fool them if you like," Corey suggested further.

"That would be nice if we had more time but the sun is already starting to set," Prisha packed away the map and pencil, he already decided where to set the campfires. "We need to get started right away."

"Actually that was my plan," Corey smiled then turned to Rina. "But the chocolate idea seems so much cooler!"

"It was a joke you clever idiot!" Rina yelled at him.

VWVVW

Dominic stood on top of a building where he could see the Deciel forest and look down closely with his monocular while the sun began to set.

"It's fortunate we got rid of that fool and the tracker before we arrived at this place," He told Mera who has been behind him, still frightened by his presence. But then it only taught her that Dominic won't tolerate anything but an immaculate success. They may have lost Darren but Mera is now motivated more than ever to not fail just as Dominic intended. "Most of the Deciel forest is surrounded by steep hills. From this building we should be able to see all the paths they could take into the city."

"I'll be able to see in advance where I can stop them," Dominic then turned back to look at his remaining colleague. "But we wish to finish them before that don't we my dear Mera?"

Dominic then remembered he noticed something strange in the forest as it was getting dark. He turned again to see the unusual burning lights in the distance with rising smoke. They were campfires, nine of them.

"So... what do you think they're planning?" Dominic smirked menacingly. "Those campfires are decoys or traps?"

"Sir... they can also make you think they are traps and avoid them completely," Mera finally found the courage to speak. "After all, they will be needing some light to thoroughly treat Ian."

"They would have light if they stay in the cave," Dominic replied. "The campfire might also be a way for them to steer our attention from the cave in the Deciel forest."

"We wasted enough time! Use your own judgment to hunt them!" Dominic commanded coldly. "Just remember how tolerant I am for failure."

Mera agreed and entered the forest trying to be as quick and stealthy as a ninja. The cave will be the safest bet to start searching. So she went there and looked around first. Next she decided will be the campfires. She can already see one from the cave. As long as she's really careful she'll be okay at least. Not only is this a forest where she'll have the field advantage but they had to use fire, her own element. She even recovered quite a bit of energy since the previous fight.

Once she reached it and found no one there, she looked around the bushes for traps. It was clear and from that campfire, she saw another one available to investigate across the woods and done so as cautiously as she did with the last one and just like the last, there was another campfire layed out for her. She started to get suspicious after another round but the following campfire provided two others in view so she can relax a little more. Little did she know, Team Freakshow was already watching her going off.

"Brilliant... by residing in the woods here, we may not be using a campfire but we're using light from all three of the surrounding campfires," Rina said quietly as she continued to treat Ian's injuries. "Not only that, but from this area we can see Mera a whole lot better than she can see us and will be notified if she does something suspicious."

"But how did you know she will move around us?" Jimmy asked.

"I inferred that the cave will be her starting point," Prisha took the usual arms folded stance he takes when explaining something. "From there I pre-established a path for her by leaving campfires that are easy to travel between. The later ones were more difficult. I couldn't leave a clear path but it should generally lead to the same exit."

"After leaving the cave, those foolish disciples will decide whether or not the campfires are a trap, if they do, they will avoid them like the plague," Prisha continued his exposition. "And if they decide to investigate the campfires I had already established a path for them. The proximity they will check around the campfire for traps are a fixed variable. I only need the light of the flames to extend further than that. In any case, the areas in proximity of the campfires, but not on the pre-established line will be the most overlooked."

"Man..." Jimmy thinks his brain just cracked. "I will get used to this won't I?"

"Well Ian is preventing it by being unconscious," Corey suggested.

"It's true, I don't think I would have understood half of this a year ago," Rina smiled. "Being with Prisha had taught me lots among lots."

"Umm... sorry for changing the subject but you did agree a couple of days ago to let me in on your discoveries in the church right?" Corey asked Prisha and Rina.

VWVVW

Mera had returned to the roof of the building where Dominic resides saying, "Sir, those rats aren't in the cave or the campfire I checked all nine of them. It wasn't likely they would stay in the dark tonight with their allies condition but it is possible right?"

"Yes, but you have no more need to search tonight and rest up," Dominic said. "In a time of vigilance such as this, each side will always need someone to take shifts at night. With three capable members of their force remaining, I suspect they will only need a total of six hours while we need eight."

"If we begin resting earlier though, you can continue your search at dawn when it should be easier to see where they are camping."

VWVVW

Corey had finished interestingly listened to the story and asked, "So why do you think the other disciples are so obedient at attacking the other religious groups without question?"

"Yes its' been running through my head for a while," Rina answered thoughtfully. "The teachings we heard during the second morning didn't sound so convincing."

"They don't have to be," Prisha spoke up. "Just remember what Kageta said."

"The whole rubbish that we are all bad inside?" Jimmy defied. "That's not true! Many people really do care for one another without being delusional."

"I would never have made it past the age of nine with your naivety," Prisha spoke with as much bitterness as he did on the subject earlier in the day. "Do you know what is it that brings out a person's true character?"

"Fear! And understanding of what you have to lose," Prisha turned to the others grimly. "I also recall Kageta saying the fact that this religion works so well is testament to how selfish everyone truly is deep down."

"Prisha..." Rina looked at him. Even now she would still like to have something to say to ease him. There is one thing she can honestly say. "Well for one thing, you're not like that."

"Those fools were already convinced that the High Disciples otained their powers from God from the display," Prisha ignored her to turn back and contemplate on the puzzle piece in his hand. His uncle Belenus had taught him the same thing long ago and it was formerly one of the few things he learned from him that Prisha refused to believe. "They must only learn the price of disobedience and Kageta's words were true in that they betrayed their own moral beliefs."

"It may not even be fear of death, but loss of reputation and other forms of pain," Prisha said. It wasn't until the people of Zalel were convinced he was cursed when he finally understood. "But there is no such thing as a truly selfless act."

"...," Rina contemplated at him for a moment before smiling broadly and lending out a hand. "Want a bet?"

Prisha looked at her for a moment before turning away saying, "Don't be absurd, we should hurry up and decide on how each of us are going to take shifts or rest up for the night."

VWVVW

It was decided for Rina to take the first shift. She also did all she can to help Ian. Now they only have to wait for him to wake up later in the day. She also looked over at the currently sleeping Prisha and it was surprising. He always acted so cold, calculating and even ruthless. But you can see none of that now in his gentle, obliviously innocent, curled up form.

Well, the experience was cut short. Rina found it was almost two hours and she needed to wake Prisha up and have her own rest and done so. As Prisha sat there he was reminded of how difficult it was to sleep before Rina began her shift. He still disliked being reminded of his past no matter how important he knew it was.

His father's betrayal wasn't really as damaging, he was too busy working for the government to care about his own son, but Prisha thought his mother was the only person who sided with him. It was when she handed him over to the Zalel troops that changed everything he knew and turn all the joy he's known into pain. For a long time he wondered how a mother could betray their own son like that.

It's simple, even what they call maternal love is limited. He remembered Belenus teaching him the delusion of love and kindness. He was convinced on that outlook but in recent times, things have been strange. Namely Corey saved him, a complete stranger and criminal when he would have got so much more money and credit handing his over to the Zalel troops.

There was also the fact that he decided to join up with and help the Occult Society for some reason and the others, except maybe Ian are okay with it and trust him. He even foolishly risked his life many times for them, such as before when he stayed back to slow Mera down with the ice wall. Why? Is he still as delusional as those fools he looked down upon?

After a while he realized it's almost time to wake Corey for him to be the last to take the shift, which might not be such a great idea as when Corey woke them later, they found themselves tangled in some trees. One of his many pranks.

VWVVW

After taking some time to get themselves down, they were surprised Ian could sleep through all that. The sun is currently rising and they decided to pack their belongings and were about to discuss strategy in their return before they heard some sound in the woods.

"Jimmy, stay here and give us a shout if something happens," Rina told him as she, Prisha and Corey headed off to investigate. Within the forest in the distance they caught a glimpse of Mera who went back to searching for the intruders.

"From her travel pattern she should encounter our camp eventually without an additional stimulus," Prisha analyzed quietly.

"Stimulus as in a surprise attack?" Rina asked.

"No we had to be in a forest and we can't risk her hearing us and calling Dominic," Corey discussed.

"One of us needs to confront her," Prisha said and volunteered. "At least then I can gather her attention and the rest of you can stay behind some bushes and you can ambush her if need be."

"However, unless I give the signal, do nothing," Prisha finished.

"I won't blame you for doing so. She may be a girl but no one who defeated Ian is to be taken lightly," Rina warned him. "Don't forget about being far older than she looks and definitely more experienced. Please be careful."

"Kick her ass Prish," Corey smiled, encouraging Prisha in this fight.

VVVVVVV

Mera made her way through the forest and started to wonder if it was worth it hunting them down anymore. It may be better for her to be stationed at the Deciel entrance with Dominic. No! He won't tolerate that, she will have to search every inch of the forest here and now to take those rats by surprise. Soon, she was glad to see Prisha on his own up ahead, now face to face with her.

"Ooh ice boy," Mera smiled mockingly. "I heard you and your friends work for something called The Occult Society."

"Funny story, but does it go anywhere?" Prisha replied in monotone.

"There are many rumors of your organization. I also heard your group even made some treaties with societies of normal human such as the Lorieth region," Mera went on. "Say, have you ever been a victim of their ignorant judgment? Maybe it would be better for you to join us."

"And just how many brain cells must I lose before I accept that offer?" Prisha glared at her.

"My dear Prishy, to those ignorant normals, we psychics are either demon or a deceitful angel," Mera warned him. "They will back stab you eventually, unless you back stab them first."

"And you just automatically assume that I fight for those fools?" Prisha replied. "If you have a problem with the organization's choices, you can take it up with the authority."

"Flame blast!" Mera abruptly started the fight by throwing fire balls and Prisha needed to move quickly to dodge them. But it wasn't long before he realized another effect the attack is having on the forest as the woods blazed in the battlefield. "Hahahaha! It's a shame an ice user such as yourself must fight a flame user like me in a forest of all places! Anywhere else you might have stood a chance, but here the environment will continue to burn giving my power the advantage and yours? Not so much."

As much as Prisha hated to admit it, Mera is right. Fighting cautiously won't be as efficient in this case. Mera soon fired a much more powerful blast and Prisha decided to do his best to defend by creating his Frozen Shield. It took a while, but the flames finally melt through the shield directly at its target.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Prisha cried out at the top of his voice before falling to the floor. It felt as if every inch of his body was being torn off by the blaze. Unseen in the bushes, Rina created her bow and arrow and was about to aim it before she was stopped.

"He hasn't given the signal," Corey whispered to remind her.

"Perhaps you're not fighting for those humans but for your friends in the Occult Society," Mera smiled, watching as Prisha struggled to get up. He only made it to his knees for now. He was in no condition to sit let alone stand and fight. "And you're sure they're trustworthy?"

"Cut the crap will you?" Prisha glared at her again. "Don't think I forgot what you said a day ago."

"Anyone who acquired such powers without being blessed by Aevincere were given demonic powers," Prisha decided to enlighten her. "You knew there are other psychics around and you thought nothing of them when you said that!"

"We get enough crap from people without you facilitating the prejudice!" Prisha's eyes were filled with such loathe. If looks could kill, Mera would have already been done for. "Rina... Corey... and Ian? Whether they will betray me is yet to be seen."

"But you!" Prisha's glare pierced into Mera's soul. "You have already back stabbed our entire kind!"

Mera refused to listen. She just shot another ball of fire before Prisha dodged it by jumping back into the woods away from Mera's view. She just laughed, "Oh Prishums, back to your usual cautious strategy? I will find you and the longer you hide the more intense the forest will burn to fuel my power."

Prisha's thoughts raced. He can't risk Mera melting herself out if he plan to freeze her. There was only one other trick he can think of even if it was no guaranteed success, he can't postpone the fight any longer. The heat from the burning woods is enough to bear. One more of Mera's Flame Blast and he's finished.

"Hmmm, I just thought of something," Mera said, looking around. "The reason you were so direct with your confrontation before is to steer my attention from your friends hiding somewhere here right? So now it won't matter if you hide I'll just go and hunt them out."

"Frozen Shield!" Prisha's voice sounded behind Mera and she turned to see him through his trusty wall of ice.

"Showing yourself at the mention of your friends? How noble," Mera sneered charging her hand with flaming PSI once again for the finishing blow. "Too bad no one will remember your sacrifice once I'm done with them."

"Flame Blast!" Mera threw forward one last incandescent attack to instantly melt through the shield and seemingly swallow Prisha. That worked much better than Mera had thought. Maybe he was running low on energy on top of the disadvantage in the flames or Mera was just really good at the technique that time.

"Wow, there's nothing left of him," Mera watched as the smoke cleared to reveal that there were no recognizable remains of Prisha seen. She smiled, "I'm sorry Prishy I guess I overdid it... and he used to be so cute."

"PRISHA!" Rina cried out no longer caring what the plan was anymore.


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Chapter 9: Chapter IX: Immortality
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Sorry, I know it took me a while to update but I am glad there are people excited to read my story. It was Asian New Year so I've been a little busy. But yeah, here it is. I know this chapter is a little short. I'm even thinking of transferring a bit of the previous chapter to it but I liked the cliffhanger. The next chapter might take a while to release as well because in addition to writing it there's something I still need to decide in it that will be involved in the next arc.


...


"So I was right," Mera turned to see Rina giving her position away. "The cutie's friends really were hiding somewhere."

Rina just froze at the scene she witnessed. She didn't even know what to think, seeing Mera incinerating Prisha.

"Rina! He didn't give the signal!" Corey was still in the mood to remind Rina.

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Rina yelled at Corey furiously, grabbing him by the collar. "I knew having him go in alone was a bad idea from the beginning and now Prisha is dead because of you! Because we didn't act sooner!"

"Oh don't worry, you'll be with him soon enough," Mera was ready to kill her other two enemies as well before she heard something in the bushes. The next thing she knew, blood had gushed out of the many wounds opening all over her.

"Frozen Sword!" It turns out Prisha had emerged and ran across Mera with a blade made of ice. She fell to the floor in disbelief.

"How?.. The flames had swallowed you past the shield..." Mera tried to speak despite the pain. "You couldn't have dodged it..."

"That is if I was even right behind the shield to begin with," Prisha barely managed to explain. He is still trying to bear the burns from the first attack. "I structured my last Frozen Shield in a way so that it magnifies and refracts light at an angle. The flames barely missed me further in the woods from the right of the shield. By doing so I had you believe you had won and lowered your guard."

"You mentioned this forest giving you the field advantage. Ironically enough, I can only use this strategy in areas such as these where I could camouflage one division with another," Prisha finished his exposition before the pain finally overcame Mera and she was out. Prisha couldn't take much more either and was about to hit the ground before Rina got to him.

"Prisha!" She called to him relieved to see he's still alive.

"Rina you moron..." were the only words Prisha could managed before he's passed out.

"Well I guess he's reached his limit," Rina smiled. "his injuries are no where near as bad as Ian's was, so we'll be okay again in an hour. But we'll have to take care of both him and Ian."

"So until then, you better stay conscious Corey," Rina looked at Corey, but noticed he also collapsed. "Oh em gee!"

"Sorry Rina," Corey got up smiling. "When you say that it gets a little hard to resist."

VWVVW

That morning, Dominic went back to watch from the top of the building to look into the forest according to plan. He watched as part of it burned where Mera had discovered the rats. But now the flames seem to have stopped spreading. Has Mera finished them all already? Or is it the other way around? In case of the latter, Dominic had analyzed the area the fight was in the forest. It doesn't leave many options for them to return to town.

He decided to get back on ground to proceed into the forest. There he can wait to ambush the rats and if Mera survived he can also meet with her on her way back. Sure some disciples may have went loose back at Deciel. But they wouldn't know or have enough evidence to tell anyone about their secret.

VWVVW

Prisha woke up in the woods, seeing Jimmy, Corey and Rina sitting around. hE also found he was healed. But from what? He recollected the events before he passed out and his fight with Mera. Once he was fully aware again, he decided to tell Rina, "You know, if there is ever a day when I don't have to call you an idiot, you get a cookie."

Seeing the others still confuse, Prisha continued, "You had to act without my signal and giving your position away at maximum volume doesn't help you know."

"And making it look like you just died is any better?" Rina yelled back at him.

"Why does it matter?" Prisha turned away.

Corey then decided to add to the discussion, "Well anyway Prish, what would you expect us to do if you really did die and can't give the signal?"

"As if that would happen," Prisha replied.

"You expected Mera to think you're dead," Rina pouted with arms crossed. "Oh and excuse me if I might have been slightly worried."

"This will take a while," Jimmy watched the argument nervously from the outside.

"Oh get real Rina, are you sure you know Prisha as well as you think?" Corey smiled at Rina. "He wouldn't die that easily. Though Mera wouldn't know, she also didn't know we were his lifelines remember?"

"..." Ian had finally woke up with no idea what's going on. He slowly raised himself to a seating position to ask, "What's with all that racket?"

"Oh hey Ian," Corey greeted him back. "Our fight with the Disciples of Aevincere were cut short when zombies invaded and now we're hiding in the planet of the dinosaurs."

"Oh right he's bullshitting again," Ian was left with an annoyed expression.

"Wait, bullshitting?" Rina put up a bewildered expression.

"He's obviously been out for way too long," Prisha added.

"You agree as well Rina?" Ian said shockingly. "Are you trying to tell me all that shit actually happened?"

Corey, Prisha and Rina just continued the joke while Jimmy smiled nervously from the side, "They sure are a strange group."

VWVVW

It took a while, but Dan finally made it back to Deciel. However, questions had been running through his head about how all hell broke loose back at the church. He asked himself, "What in the world is going on?"

VWVVW

The Occult Society kids and Jimmy finally decided to cautiously make their way back to Deciel as they hiked through the forest. Jimmy however found this section of the forest to be strangely familiar. But he hadn't seen it recently so they weren't going around in circles. But reflecting on recent events, something crossed his mind, so he asked Rina, "Excuse me but can I borrow the map of the forest outskirts of Deciel for a while?"

"I don't see why not," Rina unpacked the map and handed it to him. Jimmy looked at it for a while, he could make out the cave and the areas, Prisha had set the decoy campfires. Also where they were resting last night and work out where the fight between Prisha and Mera happened. He also knew where Dominic would be watching and knows what that means.

Preparing in advance, Jimmy had picked up a pebble and looked around the forest waiting for them to cross a certain point. The point was a large tree he can see up ahead and now Jimmy only had to throw a pebble up above one of the branches. In addition to some of the rustling of the leaves, there was some inconsistent movement beside it, which alarmed the kids of team Freakshow.

"Give it up High Disciple!" Prisha called at the location of the abnormal movement. "There was a sound inconsistent with only the force of the pebble but if you kept moving, we could have mistaken you for some animal. But moving only enough to avoid the pebble means you're someone determined to stay and keep an eye on us."

"I'm impressed you were able to find me and that you could defeat Mera without a single casualty," Dominic's voice sounded from the tree before he revealed himslef by jumping down to meet them face to face. He is also wielding his steel spear. "But aren't you a little overconfident to give your enemy a tip?"

"Wow how did Jimmy know the chalk eater would be hiding in that tree?" Corey asked in amazement.

"You dare to still call me that?" Dominic yelled furiously.

"As a child, I often played in these parts of the forest and that tree gives the best field of vision while keeping you hidden behind the leaves," Jimmy explained. "I figured the enemy would have seen the fire from the fight with Mera to give away our location and from the map, we'll most likely be crossing this point if we travel from said location. So I thought of if the enemy also figured that out."

"Nice one Jimmy," Rina complimented him. "And to think it was only last night when you asked if you'll get used to all this."

"Well I did have the help of knowing this part of the forest," Jimmy said modestly.

"Well it was clever," Rina smiled. "You're not Prisha yet but clever regardless."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about your own life right now?" Dominic was insulted they weren't giving him as much attention as they should.

"Oh get real it's five on one," Ian scoffed. "You're the one who should be worried."

"Careful Ian," Rina whispered cautiously. "We can only see Dominic for now but Darren could still be hiding somewhere around or even Kageta if he survived downstairs."

"Darren? That idiot I killed for failing me?" Dominic laughed. "No, I could take you all on if it was ten on one!"

"He could be talking about when my tracker quit working but we can't be sure," Rina told her team.

"I'll be taking this chalk eater," Corey stepped up to face Dominic.

"I only just said I could take you ten on one," Dominic intimidated. "What makes you so confident you can fight me alone?"

"Yeah he's got a point Corey," Rina called out.

"You each had your own share of the fights in this mission right?" Corey smiled. "Well it's time for me to have some of the fun."

"So you equate fun with a futile fight leading to an agonizing death huh?" Dominic sneered.

"Close enough," Corey smirked back and provided enough distraction time for his other team members to get up on a tree and Rina fire an arrow to another tree further down. The tree had a rope attached behind it for Ian to swing across like it was a flying fox.

"Dammit!" Dominic looked up to see Jimmy and Prisha already crossed as well. "You think I will let you all pass that easily?"

Dominic jumped up to attack Rina. But she cut the rope behind her to quickly swing across. This was also enough of a distraction for Corey to get around Dominic as well. After Rina disengaged he bow and arrow, "Dominic turned to say, "I guess what Mera said was true."

"But if you kids really are psychics,why help those normal humans?" Dominic smirked. "They'll inevitably judge you."

"That might have had some effect if you weren't the third person to tell us that," Rina said mockingly.

"Your disciple friends could provide you the answer after Corey is done with you," Prisha remarked as the four of the went off into the woods. But before they get to Deciel they needed to secretly look around and make sure neither Darren or Kageta are hiding anywhere.

Corey got into a fighting stance ready to face Dominic, "So you ready chalk eater?"

"Even in the face of death you can joke?" Dominic smirked then charged to strike Corey. "But yes I'm ready to kill you!"

Corey was able to dodge the first few attacks, every move was vital. Even without the spear, Dominic was much larger and stronger than Corey was. But the real trouble comes when Dominic went for a stab as even when Corey dodged to a side, Dominic had swung his spear in that direction to force his pole to hit Corey's stomach, pushing him back ten feet. The pain had convinced him that a rib must have fractured from the attack.

"So you're better at fighting close range huh," Corey felt out his PSI and strengthened the sensation. He'll need a lot of power for this next attack. Having it prepared, he threw his fist forward, "Hyaaahh!"

The kinetic energy blasted out of Corey's fist, but Dominic was quick enough to dodge it. But all was not well as Dominic found that after Corey opened his fist into a palm and waved it, the blast had curved around the woods back at him. This time there was no time to dodge before it crashed into him. Corey finished the attack by yelling, "Snake Blast!"

"Uwaarrrgghhh!" Dominic fell from the attack. He was able to continue fighting though, as he slowly rises to his feet saying, "I see, stage two of the telekinesis line. Rather than a simple Force blast, you can manipulate it, which in this case caused it to snake around and be directed back at me."

"However, it was nowhere near enough to kill me and that fact will seal your fate," Dominic said before he placed his hand over the side of him that had been injured by the blast. A bright light radiated from it before it became completely healed. "You see I got a trick of my own."

"I see that last attack drained a large portion of your energy," Dominic sneered before charging up again. He was tough enough without his power, now Corey has to find another way to beat Dominic. "You will find me to have a much larger PSI stamina!"

"I could regenerate from your attacks over a dozen times assuming you're even able to hit me that much!" Dominic kept attacking but as Corey dodged and the spear crashed into a giant oak tree behind it, he thought it was quite sturdy, with almost six feet in width. Soon an attack finally made a cut on Corey's arm as he stepped back.

On his knees Corey thought desperately on how he could defeat Dominic, he himself can't even survive much longer in the fight as Dominic will continue to cut him up with the spear.

"Not only don't I age but I'll instantly recover from any attack! Don't you see?" Dominic boasted. "I am immortal!"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 10: Chapter X: True Faith
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Corey had risen to his feet to cautiously continue his fight with Dominic.

"You still willing to fight one who cannot die?" Dominic rushed forward with his spear again and considering how little he could harm Dominic, Corey decided it's best to stay on the defensive. As he dodged the last attack, an idea had sprung to him and got into position for it.

"Hey kid I'm sure you don't want to die do you?" Dominic started adjourning the fight. "Well if we continue like this, that's where it's headed but I have a better idea."

"I'll let you live if you promise to work with me and betray your friends," Dominic proposed. "It's best for us both isn't it? Even if they complete the mission, you won't be alive to celebrate it after all."

What is with these guys and making such stupid offers, Corey thought. He wasn't going to agree anyway and gave a less cliche answer, "And bail out on such a fun fight? No way."

"Heheh, there is a fine line between a challenge and the impossible kid!" Dominic roared before charging up again. "Allow me to enlighten you!"

Corey dodged the spear, for it to crash into the unusually large oak tree again. He also then kicked it to boost himself behind Dominic and called forth his signature attack, "Force Blast!"

The projectile had missed Dominic to crash into the oak tree. Just a little more, Corey thought before Dominic rallied another round of attack and dodge until Corey made some distance. There Corey fired one more blast of kinetic energy, hoping it's the last as he's getting really exhausted now. But Dominic had even dodged this one.

"You know, for someone who specializes in a projectile attack you can at least work on your aim," Dominic but was then shocked by the crashing sound on the oak tree near him. The next thing he knew, the tree had fallen on top of him, it must have been a Snake Blast that had curved to hit it. He tried escaping, but could only set his head, upper torso and left arm free. He also found that the spear had been knocked out of his arm and out of reach in front of him. "Damn you."

Corey was shocked to see that, after healing himself, Dominic could still slowly lift the tree with only the strength of his left arm. He won't get out too soon, but if this drags on any longer, all of Corey's efforts will go to waste. So he found another tree nearby to also make it tumble over, with the help of one last Force Blast, so the tree will land on top of the oak tree, pinning it down and pin Dominic down as a result.

Dominic couldn't even say anything in disbelief. Who are these Occult Society brats? Not only could they play both him and Mera for fools, despite their meticulous plans but this noseless kid could triumph over him in a fight?

"Not much use being in perfect condition if you can't move right?" This time it was Corey walking up, confidently smiling. He then jumped to sit on the fallen oak tree to continue telling Dominic. "Now if you could regenerate a hundred times, I can just beat you up a hundred and one times."

Corey then pointed his finger at Dominic in a gesture like it was a gun, winking, "Checkmate!"

VWVVW

Ian, Rina and Jimmy are now at the forest near enough to see the border of town, most of them waiting patiently. Ian however was getting fed up, "Let's just head into town already!"

"We all just agreed to wait for Prisha as he checks out at the Occult Society hideout remember?" Rina reminded him. "Besides, we best play it safe in case any of the other two of the High Disciples are still alive and stick together. We even need to protect Jimmy remember?"

As they were speaking, Prisha had emerged from the woods to inform his team, "The assistant told me that Alex wasn't there yet. We could leave a message but he's currently at a meeting with our client in a room in the tavern and fortunately we are welcome."

"Well the timing could have been better but I think we stayed in one place for long enough," Rina stood up ready to enter town but first turned back to look deeper in the woods. "Though I am worried about how Corey is doing. How about someone go back first to see if he needs help?"

"Ooh me! Corey's evil clone!" Corey popped out behind everyone and made them face fault from the shock.

VWVVW

The whole group had decided to enter Deciel to head to the meeting at the tavern. There Jimmy was reunited with Samantha, but the others were bewildered by the fact that, along with Alex, the brothers Dan and Don were also there.

"You were sent by those disciple freaks to infiltrate us weren't you?" Ian pointed his finger at them accusingly.

"Sure I let every random strangers in on our meetings to let them in on every vital information of our work for no apparent reason," Alex remarked.

"To elaborate, we're currently negotiating," Samantha cut in. "It seems there are now other people who came to the Occult Agency to seek information on the Disciples of Aevincere and these two boys are able to bargain with information straight from the church itself."

"Thus far they have provided us with the Book of Aevincere," Alex had held it up. "It's said that it contains the teachings for the more loyal disciples."

"Yes I remember them saying that at the church," Rina replied.

"It's nice to have some confirmation that the evidence is legit," Alex said. "That case was part of the negotiation along with the information we decide to give them. Now enough with that I heard of your award of discretion back at the church that even got the disciples wild."

"Never mind, we should get to business," Alex quickly said, seeing the looks on their faces. "If you have vital information we could talk in private while our clients wait."

"No those Aevincere guys won't learn anything new by knowing what we know," Rina smiled. "Besides, they won't be able to do much now that we're reporting them in."

"Yeah, now everyone will come to realize the frauds they really are," Don said.

"Actually, it turns out that those High Disciples were growing a man eating tree downstairs that they feed people to and grow fruits of eternal youth!" Corey said, evoking bewildered expressions from the four not familiar with the situation.

"Oh right he's just like that huh," Don finally said.

"Umm... as a matter of fact all that really did happen," Jimmy told them.

"What? Are you serious?" Dan, Don and Samantha yelled in shock. Alex however stayed clam to say, "Well I have heard about the Tree of Youth that should be in the Occultpaedia too. So I guess this is when you present evidence?"

"Well yeah... the tree is supposed to be under the church of Aevincere..." Rina said thoughtfully then smiled nervously, sweat dropping. "But then the ones behind this plot burned it down when we found out their secret."

"Congratulations," Alex remarked.

"However, that doesn't necessarily conclude that all evidence had been erased," Prisha got out what looks like a fruit from the Tree of Youth and offered it to Alex. "If you read the Occultpaedia thoroughly, you will find that much like some other trees, the fruit from the Tree of Youth contains a seed that would suffice to sprout a new one."

"Someone in the team with competence, that's a relief," Alex took the fruit and announced to everyone there. "We'll have to adjourn our meeting here and I'll have this analyzed. Tomorrow we'll hope to get this matter settled."

"Well that's a relief, I'm pretty much done with this mission," Ian got up stretching. "Now we can go out to get something to eat. Haven't had any for a while."

"No! You haven't showered for a while either," Prisha pinched him by the ear as he started leaving, and then started walking out of the room himself. "So for the sake of hygiene, I'll go first and the rest of you should be ready after me."

"Wow and I thought I had issues," Alex commented as Rina smiled before leaving with the others.

VWVVW

And so the day has come for the next meeting and Alex's analysis had confirmed Team Freakshow's report to be legitimate and their job was well done. Samantha and Jimmy had shown their gratitude, "Thank you for all you've done for us."

Dan however wasn't as happy though, with his brother Don trying to cheer him up. "Hey man, what's the matter?"

"So it's true what the High Disciples were up to and the rest of the followers were ordered to attack the other religious group," Dan had managed to say. "I'm one of those followers... it's my fault..."

"Really? Those High Disciples had special powers," Ian shrugged. "They would have captured those people anyway. They just sent you there to make it easier."

"Still I followed their orders and attacked without question," Dan replied. "What must I have become to be so careless? Do I even have any virtues?"

"I know! Maybe you just haven't found it yet," Jimmy suggested. "But the teachings of Diviin also help people find their inner goodness."

"Now now Jimmy," Samantha said. "That kind of attitude is what gives us all such a bad stereotype.

"No, you know what the last religion had done to me," Dan continued being pessimistic.

"I know it's true we can't convince you to be loyal but there's no harm in taking our teachings of wisdom," Samantha replied.

"Besides, just because one religion screwed you over doesn't mean they're all bad," Rina decided to contribute. "In fact, your experience helps you make a better judgment and the next time you find faith, it will be stronger and truer than ever."

"The former mentality is a bit like discrimination if you ask me," Rina shrugged before turning to smile teasingly at Prisha. "It's the same with human kindness."

"Hmph," Prisha just frowned and looked away.

VWVVW

And so the four kids of the Occult Society had left to the streets of Deciel.

"Well I guess our job is done here," Rina stretched as she walked with her friends. "We can settle down in Deciel for a while though. Any idea what to do?"

"The arcade! Does this place have VR?" Corey suggested.

"No let's go see a movie with Megara Wolf in it," Ian interrupted.

"I know you only want to watch her for one thing you pervert!" Rina gave him an annoyed look.

"Correction, I'm a man!" Ian smirked confidently. "Now let's go!"

"No!" Prisha frowned as usual.

"What? Not the shower again," Ian returned the frown.

"Actually, I was thinking we should conclude our task at hand before this whole case commenced," Prisha took out the math text from what seemed like ages ago before realizing the rest of his team had already made a break for it. Prisha quickly chased after them. "I dare you to keep running!"

But unbeknownst to all four of them, another mysterious yet familiar group is looking down at them from a hotel apartment.

"It turned out that a group called the Disciples of Aevincere had been behind the mysterious disappearances," One of the figures had spoken up. He was rather tall, with long hair down his back. "However, Alex had contacted me saying that it is no longer necessary to investigate. Team Freakshow had already brought them down and solved the case."

"I see they beat us to it," Another figure had spoken. He looked to be in his late teens with dark green hair, not only spiked up, but all pointed up, save for the fringes and a blind fold over his eyes. "Thank you for the report Fuuma."

"I'm still surprised they were able to graduate from the Occult Society Academy only a short while after we did," This time it was a figure of a rather athletic looking brunette girl with her hair tied into a ponytail, she also had quite a serious tone. She watched the recently triumphant Occult Society team chasing each other outside her window.

"I see they have grown much stronger than that even," The blind folded figure has chuckled. "They may also be able to provide us with some fun in the near future..."

...

Well that's it for the second arc. What I lack so far I'll try to get better at later on but some advice would be nice. The next arc I'm planning to be about ten chapters and I'm trying to improve after each one.



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Chapter 11: Chapter XI: Miscalculation
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Now this chapter was hella fun I have to say.

...


"In other news, researchers were sent to take a look at some strange meteorites that crash landed in the Graman fields recently," the news reporter on the hotel television had announced. "Suspiciously enough, they have not returned. It is said that special agents will be sent to investigate the area airborne."

"Wow! What do you think those meteorites were?" Corey watched the news curiously. "Maybe they're time travelling devices by chocolates from the future made for them to back and wipe out humanity as revenge for eating them up."

"Corey, can you not leave me to check the apartment for bugs all on my own?" Rina sighed as she finished scouring the area.

"Umm guys? Lunch is ready," Ian placed the plates of fried rice on the table. "It's the perfect plan. Now the squid haired shortie will return too late and his lunch will get cold and it's his entire fault."

"Am I that fascinating of a subject?" The door to the apartment is opened to reveal that Prisha is back with some Occult Society documents. He then handed them to the others saying, "So I can explain what's on these sheets of paper right?"

"I read the options for our next mission on the way back," He continued after seeing them nod. Then handed over the documents. "Take a look for yourselves."

"Yay let's see if there's any mission that involves swimming through an acid pool," Corey took them to read it first and they passed it around while also eating.

"Hey you know, this rice isn't really too bad," Prisha said vaguely to either Rina or Corey, but still in a disinterested tone. "You might just be getting better at this."

"Umm actually..." Rina smiled and sweat dropped. "It was kind of Ian's cooking."

"What?" Prisha said in shock. "Are you trying to tell me he's more than just a complete brute?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ian put up an annoyed expression.

"You know what's good cooking?" Corey cut in, smiling broadly. "Remember that time Rina made those chips that look normal but deep inside they're actually really burned for picnic? Then when that thief stole them and ate one while running away it it almost killed him."

"That was so cool!" Corey exclaimed asking Rina earnestly. "You have got to teach me how to do that some time!"

"Umm yeah thanks Corey," Rina sweat dropped.

"But, seeing as we all took a look at the documents and just about done eating," Rina decided to change the subject. "We can run through it together and decide which job to do next right?"

So they set it down in the center of the table and looked through. During the discussion, Rina read out Ian suggestion, "Rescue missing people from the Undead Swamp?"

"No a chance," Prisha commented grumpily. "We still haven't finished washing all our changes of clothes from the preceding mission that involved swamps."

"So what do you suggest princess," Ian frowned.

"Hmm..." Prisha looked through and pointed at another case. "How about this?"

"Investigating some secret government information?" Corey read it aloud.

"It's for an unknown client..." Ian continued on it then furiously turned to grab Prisha by the collar yelling. "You do know it's probably some criminal organization after it for no good right? It's just like you to side with them!"

"Don't touch me," Prisha shoved Ian off. "As agents of the Occult Society, we also have a job of intelligence gathering remember? If our client is part of a crime syndicate, it may also help with our research if they let something slip and we can kill two birds with one stone. Besides, The job requests must first be passed by the Occult Society council remember?"

"Yes, they are quite critical and fair when passing judgment on what can be accepted as missions," Rina said but then continued to look strangely at the mission description. "Though I'm still iffy about the actual mission."

"How about this one?" Corey pointed out another description.

"Volunteer as test subjects for an experiment on what happens if we eat someone who's possessed alive..." Ian read out evoking a blank expression in him, Prisha and Rina.

"You know, how about we just have time to think about it and discuss it again later," Rina said. "For now we can just head off to the arcade or something."

VWVVW

This time the four of them walked along the streets of Florey town. It's not as large as most others they had been to, with most buildings being only one or two stories high. But the streets still had less people than they would expect.

"Maybe we'll find one around the market district," Rina suggested before hearing a strange cry from civilians up ahead.

"Run! Monsters!" The civilians cried out and they were right. Chasing the civilians are what looked like strange golems of varying body structures. Some looked to have their head and torso as one and others seem to be like a four legged animal. Their surface seems to be dark rocks with some red light from their limb's joints. They were also make some peculiar sounds.

"Monsters? Like I'm scared of them," Ian charged up with his Relic Sword to fight them.

"Ian wait!" Rina called out to him until she realized the bunch of monsters up ahead weren't the only group. Some had made their way around the building to approach her, Prisha and Corey until they are surrounded.

When they lunged with their teeth and claws that strangely looked like steel, the three had no choice but to defend themselves. Rina had summoned a sword with her power. But even with the sword, Rina needed two hits to pierce their rock shell. Ian however can take each down with a single swing albeit slower. It seems the rocky shells were armor for the creature's internal organs.

Corey was also holding his own against a group of them as he gathered a whole lot in one area before shooting a bolt of PSI out of his hand, "Force Blast!"

The blast had missed them, slipping in between the strange creatures, before Corey closed his hand into a fist, saying, "Detonate!"

An explosion then occurred at where the bolt was to blast away all the surrounding strange creatures. More of them had charged up to a disinterested Prisha who just stood still. But as the creatures got close, they froze up and the momentum sent them past Prisha before crashing to the ground, shattering.

The citizens awed at the power of strange teenagers until the monsters were defeated. They then praised, "Our saviors, we finally have heroes who can save us from those fiends."

"Oh it was nothing," Ian charmingly sheathed his Relic Sword.

"Nothing?" One of the citizens stepped up. "Might I tell you that we had cops and military troops who were here to defend us from these fiends until they were slowly wiped out? We thought we had no one left to defend us until you four arrived."

"Wait so these weren't the first ones that attacked you?" Rina asked followed by a head shake by the citizen.

"What are they exactly?" Prisha looked curiously at the remains of the strange creatures. They are unlike any creature in that was said to exist, not even in the Occult Society files.

"We don't know entirely, all we can say is that they're monsters who came out of nowhere to attack this town," the citizen shrugged. "They took away many of our loved ones already."

"Well... we can find out more about them," Rina walked to look at the towns gates. "They left footprints on the trail outside of town."

"Yeah and if we follow it to where they came from we can launch a counter attack!" Ian confidently contributed.

"No, if we want to start researching these creatures, we can begin with a more minimal risk method," Prisha argued with his grumpy tone. "There are remains of these creatures around us and we can analyze them in a lab."

"Yeah Florey town should be pretty close to the Lorieth region right?" Corey said. The Lorieth region are a nation that has the closest alliance with the Occult Society. From the treaty, they agreed to benefit each other and the people of Lorieth had agreed to provide the Occult Society with proper resources such as facilities that can help them. Laboratories are included.

"What? There's no time! Those monsters could return any day or minute now," Rina argued. "We need to find where they're hiding to stop them!"

"It is none of our concern," Prisha said coldly. "I don't recall any Occult Society missions documented that's relevant to these creatures."

"Well we don't just help people because it's our mission," Rina continued arguing. "But it is strange that they haven't passed any like that."

"I told you, they screwed up and didn't pass the right missions," Ian shrugged. He was reminded how he doubted the Occult Society when he joined. He still does but what better option does he have. He then grabbed Prisha by the collar to yell, "But the decision stands!"

"We will go and fight back with these fiends and you're not staying out of it!" Ian commanded.

"No, if it's not related to the Occult Society, it won't benefit us," Prisha glared up at him. "We will leave to where we can take some samples of these peculiar organisms to analyze."

"Us? Benefit us? Is that all you care about?" Ian shoved Prisha away and pointed at him furiously. "You're no better than all those monsters we've been fighting! The very reason I started fighting and join the defense force was to get rid of heartless insensitive sociopaths like you!"

"Ian calm down," Rina approached him. Ian was about to argue back until Rina whispered in his ear, "I have an idea..."

Prisha just watched and rolled his eyes.

VWVVW

They are now back at the apartment at the hotel with Ian in the kitchen, "Hey guys, I've decided that I'll be making dinner tonight okay?"

"Ooh can I help out?" Rina ran over as well. "Just tell me what you need help with."

While Ian and Rina were at it, Prisha also walked across the kitchen to see what they were making, sighed and walked off. An hour later, Prisha had finished taking a bath to walk out and see that dinner has been served. They were bowls of beef noodles. He decided to take a seat like the other three.

"Well... itadekimasu," Rina said. "And dig in."

While they are eating, Rina tried to hold back a cheeky smile. Then when she heard Prisha yawn, she knew it was all going according to plan. The others were also looking quite tired. Once done eating, she also decided to yawn then say, "Well it's been quite a day wasn't it? It's no wonder we're all tired. Tomorrow we can talk about what we should do."

"Damn it Rina... this was your doing..." Prisha lost the energy to continue and fell to the floor unconscious.

"Teehee, I'm sorry Prish," Rina walked over to smile at him then said to the others. "Well let's get him tucked in and off to bed ourselves."

The other two had agreed easier and were soon all asleep with the exception of Rina, who's bowl was the only one not spiked with sleeping drugs. After brushing her teeth, she waited about four hours for it be about midnight and she decided it's time to wake up Ian.

"Huh... what's going on?" Ian slowly got up. "It's still dark..."

"Oh don't you remember the plan?" Rina smiled cheekily while Ian had gotten out of bed. "Everyone's dinner but mine was spiked with sleeping drugs so that we could get up early and run off to find those monsters without Prisha getting in the way."

"Well I see that worked perfectly," Ian smirked and took a look at Prisha's bed.

"Teehee, isn't he so adorably clueless?" Rina smiled at Prisha's sleeping form, then turned back to Ian. "Now it's about midnight so even I'm tired. But with Prisha drugged, he should be out for at least ten hours if no one wakes him. So I'll just sleep for about three hours before you wake me and we can go right?"

And they had followed up with that plan. Before they left, they got their backpack for things they might need along the way. They had then followed the trail for a while before Ian said, "You know, I don't care what the Occult Society rankings say. You're the genius of the group, not that emo kid."

"Actually Prisha from the result of the tests, is ranked at super genius," Rina smiled. "But thanks for the compliment."

"Then that makes you better than super genius. I mean, you beat him, not the other way around right?" Ian continued complimenting her. "We make the perfect team, with your brains and my toughness!"

"Oh you're just flattering," Rina said before realizing something. "Oh yeah I haven't ate breakfast yet. Let's see if there's anything in the backpack for us to eat."

So they decided to get out their backpack to look inside. But something really wasn't right.

"OH-EM-GEE!" Rina screamed in shock flipping through her belongings. "The stuff in the outer areas like the torch and mouthwash are there but most of everything else like books-"

"Were replaced with fakes! Even the food to make it feel like the right weight!" Ian found the same problem with his own backpack.

"Wait, what's this?" Rina found a note left with the other fake objects and decided to read it.

I predicted you would try drugging me to sneak out and fight those creatures on your own, so while you were distracted with cooking, I had taken most of our supplies, packaged them and delivered it to another town. I had done so a short while before the delivery trucks leave, which I recall is at six o clock. So by the time you read this message, it should already be on it's way. I won't tell you which town unless you obey. Be sure to remember that. I guess we don't have time to go chasing monsters and don't even think about wasting more money to make up for our loss of supplies.

The end appeared to be an emoticon of an evil grin.

"Well... we could starve for maybe a day or two..." Rina looked back inside her backpack. "But he also took my laptop and..."

"MY MANGA!" Rina cried out in horror to see they're gone.

"AND MY PORNOGRAPHY!" Ian also yelled out.

"That jerk!" Rina said furiously tearing the note in two. "That jerkass ingenious jerk!"

"I'll kill him!" Ian ran back to Florey town along with Rina.

VWVVW

Prisha just finished brushing his teeth and exited the bathroom. Not seeing any of his team in the apartment, he got worried that they had went out to fight those monsters head first anyway, despite his plans. That would suck, considering how embarrassing it was to act like he fell for Rina's trap when he took the sleeping drug.

To his relief though, he found Rina and Ian rushing through the apartment door. Ian had proceeded to grab Prisha by the collar and yell, "Tell us where you sent our stuff right this instant!"

"Well?.. Obey," Prisha replied calmly. Rina was surprised to see him awake, but remembered she and Ian must have walked for at least an hour before realizing their stuff were missing.

"He's right Ian just settle down," Rina held Ian back. "You know Prish, you might be apathetic but some of us might have wanted to do a good deed. They might even reward us as a bonus, but you could have at least let us while staying back if you didn't want to get involved."

"Umm... yeah sorry, but the damage is done," Prisha replied without looking apologetic. "My only surprise though was how long it took you morons to take a look in your belongings. Don't you get bored waiting to wake the other one up? Not even the dishes were washed."

"Well... about that..." Rina and Ian thought back.

"Heheh, you know, you don't have to be that shy around me when I'm awake," Ian looked at Rina charmingly but she still looked confused. "Oh come on, you know what I mean. Of course I don't blame you."

"I'm still drawing a blank uh..." Rina continued thinking before figuring it out. "You don't mean- but how would you... unless you had the same idea pervert!"

"I don't think it's a good idea to delve too much into this subject," Prisha gave them an annoyed look. "Oh right, there's one more thing I'm still confused about. Where's Corey?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it," Rina looked over to see Corey's bed empty. "He's probably out causing trouble again. Should we go out to look for him?"

"I'll wash the dishes first so they don't stink up," Prisha said.

"Right, well me and Ian will take a look around for ten minutes first to tell you what's up okay?" Rina said and they got work.

VWVVW

Rina and Ian walked around for a while before finding Corey in front of the Florey Delivery Post Office. He looked a little down, so Rina approached him, "Hey Corey, so Prisha took your stuff too?"

"He did?" Corey questioned bewilderingly. "And what do you mean by too?"

"Yeah, I can never get how anyone could stand that brat," Ian crossed his arms.

"Wait, you didn't have that problem Corey?" Rina asked. "So what are you doing in front of the delivery post office?"

"Well, these package delivery business always gets the deliveries there really quick with both day and night shift deliveries right?" Corey began then smiled broadly again at the thought of his own idea. "So I wondered what if I mess up the engines in all the delivery trucks so they can't do that? I got to it this afternoon."

"Like would they get giant walking trees to grab the packages and run over to deliver for them?" Corey's comment caused both Ian and Rina to face fault. Then he pointed sadly at the sign in front of the office saying, "But they just put up a sign saying sorry all deliveries will be postponed. Isn't that boring?"

But the idea did not meet well with the other two as Ian yelled, "You do know other people need to make deliveries right?"

"You screwed them up just to see some walking trees that don't exist?" Rina also yelled but then looked at the good side to all this. Hang on, so our supplies should still be within the office right?"

"So now we can go back to following those monsters trail and not obey that short emo freak!" Ian cheered.

"And all we have to do is loot the post office!" Rina raised her fist above her.

"And we'll yell it all out at the top of our lungs right?" Corey also played along.

"Oh sorry," Rina quieted down.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 12: Chapter XII: Killers From The Sky
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Author's Notes: Okay, I ended up having to go on hiatus for a while, I'm really sorry about that. I know I should have said it in my previous chapter though, I'll try to do that next time. Oh and I also decided to edit a few things earlier on. Just some descriptions of the characters at the end of chapter ten and my characters being a year younger for now.

Rina, Corey and Ian had finally made it into the delivery truck and examined each of the packages within. They soon found the one with their belongings but Rina noticed that there's something else there, a new manga, the twenty third volume of Vegetable Box! There was also a note to go with it:

Back at the Anomaly Fortress I noticed in your collection of manga that this book would be the only volume you would be missing from the series. Just think of it as a reward for not disobeying until now.

"Yay!" Rina cheered cherishing the book. "I'm glad Prisha's with us, he's the best!"

"Gee, make up your mind, wasn't he a jerk?" Ian commented and found the box with his own belongings. But as he looked inside, he found the burnt remains of what he recognized were, "My pornography!"

There was also another note here saying: And your reward is the slightest chance you'll have a cleaner mind.

"All that pornography costed me eight hundred Jouls! Damn that brat!" Ian cursed.

"You know Ian, I always try not to comment on your intellect but seriously?" Rina said and started to get ready to head off. "Anyways, now I believe we got a job to do!"

VWVVW

"Somehow I don't remember ten minutes being this long," Prisha complained grumpily back at the apartment. He must have waited for at least half an hour already. He thought about where Corey could be that the others neither found him nor decide to take a break and return. Maybe it's because they no longer have a reason to… "Oh no they didn't!"

Prisha stormed out of the apartment and straight to the post office, tearing his mind furiously at how he could have made such a careless miscalculation. In hindsight, he only needed to note the he was sending the supplies off in the delivery truck. When he got to the post office, two important things he noticed was the sign saying that deliveries will be postponed and that it already has been broken into. He was too late.

Along the streets, a jogger had decided to have a little exercise early in the morning. He was rather unfortunate as he crossed Prisha, who could no longer hold back his rage and punch him to the wall.

"OOOWWwww!" The jogger yelled in pain then once he found the strength to get up, he yelled, "What in hell was that for?"

"How?.." Prisha's voiced trembled then he furiously pulled the jogger by the shirt yelling, "HOW COULD I HAVE MADE SUCH A CARELESS MISCALCULATION?"

"How should I know?" The jogger looked bewilderingly at him. After a moment, he decided to improvise an answer. "Umm… everyone makes mistakes?"

"Urrrggghhhh!" Prisha furiously shoved him aside and stormed off to chase his team and Corey that spanner in the works. Why is it that he can't calculate everything?

VWVVW

Rina, Corey and Ian had already been following the footsteps for about an hour, with the sun beginning to rise over the distance. After reaching over the hills, the sound of screaming had caught their attention and they can see another town being attacked in the distance.

"Guess that's our cue," Naturally Ian was the first to rush in and fight monsters similar to yesterday with even more varying shapes.

"He's got a sword let's hide behind him!" One of the citizens had noticed Ian and when Rina and Corey arrived to where Ian is, they noticed that everyone gathering around him also lured the monsters to surround them. This time it might even be too many for Ian to take on.

One of the monsters had made some strange sounds before they all lunged at the same time. But Corey had prepared for this with his palm in front of him and performing another stage two ability of the telekinesis line, "Force Wall!"

A bright white but transparent spherical wall had emerged around Corey, his friends and the civilians that caused all the lunging monsters to bounce back. Some still attempt to bash through the wall of kinetic energy. But the harder they fight the more force they are blown back with.

"Nice one Corey. Bow and Arrow Summon!" Rina had activated her materialization powers again to form a bow and arrows in the hands. She then decided to aim a few of them, saying, "Okay Corey, on the count of three I want you to disengage the-"

"Three!" Corey smiled broadly, dropping his palm and the Force Wall had disappeared, now allowing the monsters a clear way in.

"Whoa wait what who?" Rina now needed to fire her arrows quickly and Ian was back to swinging his sword to take down the rest of the monsters. Once there were only humans around, Rina turned to Corey and yelled at him. "Don't you ever to that again!"

"Do what?" Corey questioned and Rina face faulted.

"You know what I mean!" She continued yelling once she got up. But unbeknownst to her, one of the monsters weren't really dead yet. It had managed to sneak up behind her with what looks like an axe for a hand. It lifted its hand, ready to strike, but an ambush had cut it right off.

"Frozen Sword!" A familiar voice had sounded and they Rina turned to see it was Prisha. But before any greetings, she needed to deal with the problem at hand and shoot the last surviving monster with the remaining arrows.

"Hey Prish, thanks for that," Rina smiled at him now that the area is safe again. But she then looked freaked when she noticed that human blood was also stained on Prisha's ice sword and not just that, his free hand was also dripping with blood. "Gee, have you been cutting yourself?"

"Why…" Prisha continued muttering in one of those times his mood was even worse than usual. "Why can't I calculate everything?"

"Can anyone?" Rina tilted her head with the white circled eyes. Then cheered up again, "Oh come on, you did well enough to outplay me and Ian. Besides, no one actually figured out your plan, screwing with the post office just happened to be part of Corey's game."

"That's not the point," Prisha's voice continued to tremble. "I failed to notice something so vital and that is unforgivable!"

"Hey wait! What are you doing following us anyway?" Ian joined in the conversation. "Didn't you say you didn't care about chasing these monsters? I thought you would stay apathetic and stay back."

"The team had already made its decision and I can't change that," Prisha then shot them a murderous glare. "But be warned! I will not repeat the same mistake."

"Right… well that's nice," Rina sweat dropped and decided on the group's next course of action. "Hey I just thought of something. Maybe the reason there wasn't a mission in Florey Town was because there were too many already elsewhere. We'll check the hideout in this place whatever it's called first and if need be we can search other towns."

VWVVW

Rina was right, there was a mission here relevant to the creatures, which led them to meet up with a the Liden Occult Agency. There they met with a strange red headed man with a hat that somehow looked like a mug. His name is Byst and he just happened to be the Occult Manager of Liden.

"So in other words your objective is to protect the people-," Byst decided to stop explaining for a moment. "So the rest of you are listening right?"

"Yes I'd like a drink too," Rina and the others are too fixated by the mug on Byst's head.

"Is it a caramel drink?" Corey asked.

"Sure if that's going to get your mind back to the business at hand," Byst said blankly. "Now in this mission, you are to protect the people from the alien attacks."

"WAIT ALIENS?" All four teenagers questioned in shock.

"Yes, you know the meteor shower on the news?" Byst explained. "For about a week these creatures have been swarming outward from its location."

"So they're planning to kill us all and turn Mystier into their own personal racing track?" Corey theorized but Byst doesn't know much more about this than they did.

"Well it at least explains a few drinks- I mean things," Prisha tried not to be too distracted by the mug. Why does he wear it anyway? Maybe it could be some strange taste in fashion, but it would be nosy to ask. "So when do we meet up with our client to negotiate with them? Or do you play that role too?"

"You're client is the mayor of Liden unfortunately from the attacks however, he's not doing as well at the moment," Byst explained. "Luckily I'm a close friend of his and can negotiate in his place."

"I this mission, your earnings will correlate with the amount of people you can keep from getting killed by these aliens," Byst instructed. "Any questions?"

"Oh I have one," Ian finally snapped. "For eff sakes! Can you just please get a better hat?"

VWVVW

Rina walked with Ian further along the hills, remembering the plan they discussed with the other half of the team earlier. Prisha and Corey will stay in Liden to protect the citizens there. Meanwhile, there may be other towns that need help. According to the map of Mystier, Lolo town should be the closest that is part of the Lorieth region, they themselves can get the most reliable help there.

Just as they approached the town, Rina and Ian heard a sound they can both recognized by now. Ian just shrugged and ran to the town to fight off the aliens, "Here we go again."

Upon entering Lolo, Ian found the closest street with the most aliens to take down. While doing so, it there was many people running around for their lives anymore. Might they have been too late? That was answered with a shriek Ian heard across the street coming from what looks like a female scientist with glasses and blonde hair a little short and curly.

She was on the ground before one of the aliens that is about to finish her off. Naturally Ian rushed over and finished it off instead. He then sheathed his sword and lends out a hand to the scientist, "Are you alright my lady?"

"I guess I'm better now," She got up with Ian's help. "I wondered when the Occult Society would send us help, but I guess a lot more towns are also having the alien issue huh. So who are you?"

"I'm Ian, now forgive for rushing but a brave hero like me needs to save a whole lot more people," Ian smiled charmingly. "So do you know where I may find other troubled citizens to save from these aliens?"

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say it's the hotel," the lady said as she started walking. "It's somewhere in the centre of town, I'll show you the way."

"No I still think it's best if I lead," Ian got in front of her fearlessly. "This is still a dangerous place for a beautiful girl like you. Just point me in the right direction."

"Um okay," the scientist replied as Ian started walking ahead. The scientist then noticed what looked like a silver puzzle piece on the ground. Picking it up, she called after Ian, "Excuse me! But did you happen to drop something?"

Ian turned and to see the piece in her hand and quickly snatched it, "Gimme that!"

"Sorry," Ian said quickly and continued walking with the scientist looking confused.

VWVVW

"Oh puh-lease! I wonder why any of us were scared of fighting you before if this is the best you can do," Rina boasted at the aliens, after taking most of them down, even if they don't actually respond. However, there was one further ahead that's bigger and louder than the others.

Its shell seemed smoother than the usual rocky armour but just as strong. The top half seems humanoid and the bottom is supported by a heap of tentacles like a squid. On its chest, there looks like a symbol of a glowing red star with nine points, each of varying length. This one definitely looks to be much more dangerous than the others.

The squid alien seems to have stabbed each of its tentacles underground. Rina wondered why it did that. Though the answer wasn't as pleasing as one of the tentacles emerged from the ground in front of her. She avoided most of the impact but a cut on her leg.

"Spear Summon!" Rina needed to act quickly to form a weapon in her hand then try to get closer to the squid. She managed to react quickly enough to block another tentacle that emerged around her. But upon countering, not even an attack from the steel spear could significantly damage the tentacle.

Said tentacle then wrapped around the spear and Rina tried to counter by twisting it. But the tentacle was strong enough to pull and lift her into the air. Now she can only let go of the spear and count on another weapon, "Arrow summon!"

Rina summoned a bow and shot a few arrows at the alien, but a few tentacles emerged to block it. Once she was back down on ground, a few more tentacles emerged to make more cuts on Rina. Now she must make some distance to think of another plan to beat it. But first she must brace herself for another tentacle is heading her way.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a fiery tennis ball had sped like a bullet, right at the tentacle and blasted it away. It may have been a relief, but where did the ball come from. Beside Rina, she hears a deep voice, "Are you okay?"

Rina looked up at the direction of the voice to tall handsome mature boy in his late teens, over six feet tall with cold eyes and beautiful long flowing white hair. He also has an arm length shuriken on his back. The shuriken has a symbol of a glowing blue R on it. The same symbol appeared on Ian's Relic Sword. The Shuriken as Rina knows it is also a Relic weapon. She did after all know this boy from back at the Occult Society. His name is Fuuma.

However, he wasn't the one who sent the tennis ball. As Rina looked back, she could see someone else. An athletic serious looking brunette girl with her hair tied in a pony and her fringes split in the centre. She held a racket that also had the glowing R symbol. Rina recognized her as Rachel.

Then the last boy beside Rachel had a clean shaved head. But what was really strange about him were his fish like fins and scales. He also had claws and is named Fidi. These were three from a team Rina knew from back at the Occult Society Academy.

References made: Fruits Basket.



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Chapter 13: Chapter XIII: Team Supreme
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Well you know, during my time off, I was able to spot more things I've been doing wrong earlier in the story. One of which is not explaining clearly enough to the audience of different aspects of my world. I think it's because I actually planned my story to start a while before the first chapter of this experimental version. So in my mind, I'm writing a little midway in when the main characters were already introduced to all these concepts. It's not so much for the audience of course, so I'll try bringing in the necessary exposition at some point.

Back at Liden, Corey led a group of its civilians across town through most of its alleyways. The people followed albeit with uncertainty, "So can we just make it clear where he's leading us?"

"He said something about a chamber of giant ants, but the doll face before said to follow him to safety," One of the people shrugged. "Something about an emergency shelter from those aliens."

Corey remembered the plan to lead them quietly and make sure they can all keep up. He looked up to see a bell tower where Prisha is at the moment. There he could see when the aliens are near and signal for these people to hide quickly and that time is now. He himself must soon fight off more of these aliens.

VWVVW

Prisha had just finished sounding the bell after seeing some of the creatures appearing over the horizon. The next step was for him to move to a position in town where he could ambush them. He had managed to do so and take down some of them with the Frozen Sword. He just hoped Corey is also doing well on his own.

Although most of these aliens don't pose much of a challenge, Prisha sensed a dangerous aura coming from one around him. When his eyes finally caught it, he could see a rather humanoid shape, but hulking alien at about ten foot tall. There was also a glowing red star on its chest with nine points of varying length.

It's also making some strange noise, which is likely the language of the species as the underlings now went to block different sides of the streets to prevent Prisha from escaping.

Prisha watched carefully as the hulking figure had picked out what looked like a pebble from the back of its neck and as it lifted it over its head, the pebble grew into a massive boulder over half its own size and threw it at a surprisingly high speed straight at Prisha. He managed to barely dodge one, but there was more to come.

While dodging the next few boulders with all his concentration, Prisha eventually tripped and can see no way he could move quickly enough to evade the alien's next attack. So he quickly threw his arm forward with a burst of PSI yelling, "Frozen Shield!"

But the shield can only slow down the boulder as it broke the wall apart and Prisha needed to block it, which is damaging enough to fracture his arm. It seems to be made of a rather strong mineral.

Prisha decided to analyse the boulders around him for their properties. Along with the unusual substance, he found a joint that looks like it was meant to connect to something, the neck. It seems like the mechanism involves the pebble growing a set time after being disconnected from the neck.

It seems like the hulking creature's greatest moment of weakness is when the boulder is expanding above its head. Prisha used this time to prepare an attack and wait for that moment to arrive, hopefully it won't be fast enough to defend. At the right time, Prisha blasted a ray of energy right at it, "Frozen Wind!"

Unfortunately the latter case happened with the help of the alien stepping back and drop the boulder in front of it with the help of gravity to freeze it in place of the alien itself. Now Prisha had to think of another way to fight back but as little as he'd like to be distracted at this time, he couldn't help but hear some loud roaring behind him, "Any of you pussies think you're any match FOR THE MARKSTER?"

It was Mark who bashed his way through the weaker aliens. He's dark skinned and rather bulky, about six foot and a half and has bubbly looking blonde hair. He soon walked up behind Prisha to pat him on the shoulder, "Hey long time no see huh Prish?"

"Oww!" Prisha's arm was still injured and Mark wasn't making it much better. Prisha just frowned at him.

"Sorry about that, guess THE MARKSTER needs to watch his own strength huh," Mark scratched the back of his head. But then he got knocked back by a giant boulder from the side. Mark was durable enough to get up from it however and after looking around, his eyes met the hulking alien and smirked, "So this is the guy you were having trouble with eh Prish?"

"HAAAARRRR!.." Mark had demonstrated his PSI ability, which is to cover his entire body in a layer of steel. The next time the alien though a boulder, Mark just ran forward to punch it and smash the boulder to bits. "MARKSTER FIST!"

The alien however, still persisted and threw another boulder, this time, Mark was able to grab it with his arms, was pushed back a little but stopped it in his chest. "You're pretty good..."

"But not even the strongest is any match FOR THE MARKSTER!" Mark lifted the boulder over his head and threw it right back at the alien. "MARKSTER STRENGTH!"

The boulder sped with enough force to smash the alien to pieces. After seeing that he had won the fight, Mark turned to Prisha, "So you doing well there Prisha? How are Rina, Corey and Ian?"

"...," Prisha just continued giving him the frown.

"Guess your attitude hadn't improved," Mark scratched the back of his head. "You can at least be thankful for my help."

"I suppose you were certainly acting out of your own selfless generosity huh," Prisha remarked bitterly. But what would be the catch? It seems like the next person driving into the scene with a large van could explain more.

"I see the town has now been cleared of aliens," A boy in his late teens walked out. He was kind of tanned, five foot seven with spiky hair all pointing up save for his fringes and a peculiar blindfold. He called out in no particular direction, "Yes you heard, it's safe now! We're a rescue team called to bring you to safety! Don't worry, there's no more need to hide!"

Prisha remembered this boy from the Occult Society Academy along with Mark, he's Isaac. Seeing that the town still seemed lifeless apart from him, Mark and Prisha, Isaac decided to walk to the rubble of one of the buildings, "I see these ruins aren't as lifeless as they seem."

He shifted a large piece of a wall out of the way to reveal a child hiding behind it. Isaac decided to reach out a hand saying, "It's okay, we'll take you to an emergency shelter where no one can harm you. Just follow us into the van."

After leading the child to the van more people soon emerged and followed. Eventually Isaac walked up to Prisha to ask, "Sorry to cut our reunion short Prisha, but may you also follow us into the van?"

"Would it depend on if I feel like it?" Prisha remarked, still trying to recover from the fight.

"Good old cynical Prisha," Isaac smirked. "From what I see, we had saved you, or a member of Team Supreme to be precise. So it should only be right for you to cooperate in order to repay your debt."

"Save me? Mark interrupted my fight," Prisha argued. "I don't remember it being decided."

"Sorry, we don't want to keep those civilians waiting," Isaac said then turned to instruct Mark. "Mark could you please bring him into the van with the others?"

"No problem for THE MARKSTER!" Mark cheered as he dragged Prisha away.

"Hey how dare you?" Prisha tried to resist but still lacked the energy from the fight against the boulder throwing alien.

Soon Corey also showed up to see where everyone is heading. Seeing the scene with Isaac, he asked with enthusiasm, "Whoa! Is everyone going into the van to check out a rainbow or something?"

"Uhh... sure," Isaac smiled at him. "Wanna come along?"

VWVVW

Meanwhile, back at Lolo, Rina, Fuuma, Rachel and Fidi are still facing down the squid like alien. Rachel spoke in the mature, serious tone many girls from the Occult Society had looked up to, "The alien has the advantage with ground based combat."

"Pisces! Your ability should be best suited against it," She instructed Fidi or rather Fidi Pisces Zodiac to be precise. "Can you handle this?"

"With confidence radiating like stars in a clear night sky," Pisces said poetically as he ran forward into battle with the squid alien. When some tentacles had emerged to attack him, Pisces easily jumped high and instead falling, he stayed in the air, seemingly swimming through it by dolphin kicking forward. "A worm envies a bird with wings to soar!"

"But a bird that never touches ground is like a dolphin that never rises for air," Pisces dropped to cut up the squid like creature with his claws. Now with the fight over, he walked over to Rina and still make poetries, "Are you hurt? Fragile young pigeon, venturing the vast stormy wilderness that is the world."

"Don't call me fragile," Rina pouted. "Let me see you try fighting that squid without being able to swim through air."

"Umm, sorry," Rina turned to looking a little more sincere and bowing to Pisces, Rachel and Fuuma, "But thanks for helping me out back there."

"Naturally," Fuuma said without much emotion then turned to discuss with Rachel. "Searching for survivors would be the most appropriate choice of action for now."

"By the, what are you doing here anyway?" Rina asked while Fuuma went off to do his job.

"Our current mission is to protect as many people as we can from these aliens," Rachel answered pointing to a large van nearby. "We're sent to look for survivors to drive to an emergency shelter with that van over there."

"Hey I thought that was our mission!" Rina exclaimed.

"Apparently the council had passed a few of them for some reason," Rachel replied, flicking her hair. "I think it's only about half a dozen times when they decided they were sick of it."

"Well you heard me," Rachel decided to get to business. "In accordance with the mission, we'll also require you to enter the van with the civilians."

"What? We're on the same mission, so shouldn't it be better to help each other out?" Rina argued.

"Sorry, but we're not interested in a partnership and we need to stick to the plan," Rachel answered strictly.

"Excuse me Rachel, but a plan in which-," Pisces tried to finish but was caught in a poof of white smoke. When it cleared, Fidi's scales turned back to skin and had two ram horns on his bald head. He also became rougher as he snatched Rina's hand and sped to the van, dragging her along. "Quit wasting time and get to the van will you moron?"

Soon Ian had also showed up, leading the scientist to the scene and caught a glimpse of the hot busty figure he knew from back at the Occult Society. He smiled charmingly, "Hey Rach you've been thinking about me?"

"I might if you just help me out with something in that van there," Rachel remarked, pointing at the van behind her.

"Gladly," Ian ran over to the van without a thought, leaving the scientist to sweat drop.

"Miss," Fuuma returned leading back a few survivors and speaking to the scientist. "We'll also require you to follow us into the van. There we'll lead you to an emergency shelter."

VWVVW

It was rather squishy within the van between all the civilians. Prisha was however close enough to speak to Corey, "I thought you at least looked healthy enough to run."

It was rather dark in here as well. There weren't any windows. A few hours must have passed but neither of the two boys could keep track of how far they must have travelled.

"They said we were going to see rainbows," Corey sweat dropped. "By the way, where do you think we are?"

"Well from the rustling of the leaves below the tyres, I'd say we're in the woods of some sort," Prisha listened to the sound of the woods outside the van along with the sound of rain. But the rustling and rain seemed to have died out as the van went on a downward slope.

Mark had soon opened the back door and as Prisha and Corey walked out they found themselves in a clear hall. The slope the van went down could be seen on one end of the hall. The exit seems to have just been closed between the ceiling and the slope.

It's likely they're now underground or rather proved definite when the ceiling above the slope had opened to make way for another van to enter from the woods. The ones in the front seats of the van seems to be Rachel, Fuuma and Fidi in his Aries form.

They could remember from the academy that Fidi was from the Anthro Tribe known as the Zodiacs, a race known to very prominently take different traits in accordance to the time of the year they are born. Somehow though, Fidi seems to be a special case with every trait separated for all twelve of his multiple personalities.

"The can has stopped! That means you can get out now you morons!" He seems just as hot tempered as he was back then as he went to open the back door of the van and the survivors walked out along with Ian and Rina. "Hurry it up! Didn't we tell you-"

"I'm sorry, please take your time," Aries was switched with a more calm and human Fidi who had two golden shields on his arms. Rina, Corey, Ian and Prisha couldn't help but sweat drop. They'll have to get used to him all over again.

At the end of the hall opposite to the entrance, another tall,almost six foot, older teen ran up. He had a cheerful look to him and a blue Mohawk, "Jam jam jam jam jam!"

"What is it Jam?" Rachel asked. "Did anything happen while we were away that you should have called us about?"

"Jam jam jam jam jam jam jam jam jam," Jam seems to be explaining something with just the word jam and various body languages. "Jam jam jam!"

"Sorry Jam, I haven't seen Eden back here," Isaac replied. "So of course I'd know his not back ye-OW!"

"I'm not blind and I can't see this whole shelter," Rachel scolded Isaac after clobbering him over the head. "How can you keep forgetting you're blind?"

"I don't see that sis," Isaac replied getting up.

"Work on seeing your blind fold first," Rachel pulled Isaac and shook him by his Gakuran like suit.

"Wait a second!" Rina exclaimed in shock. "So if Isaac and Mark were in one squad. Rachel, Fidi and Fuuma are in another and I'm guessing Jam stays back to guard the base."

"Then Clara and Eden aren't paired up on their own are they?" Rina yelled furiously.

"You don't need to worry about that," Mark answered. "We had him investigate the aliens on his own. THE MARKSTER couldn't stand Rachel and Clara fighting over him."

"Quit dressing up the facts," Rachel crossed her arms then turned back to Jam. "Speaking of which, both you and Clara were meant to guard this place right?"

"Jam!" Jam exclaimed then did some sign language. "Jam jam jam jam jam jam jam jam jam!"

"What? She turned into an alien?" Libra shouted.

"Jam..." Jam face palmed, it seems not everyone is too used to Jamspeak just yet. "Jam jam jam jam jam jam..."

"Right some aliens found this place?" Rachel said.

"Jam!" Jam applauded Rachel's answer. "Jam jam jam jam jam."

"That means the aliens had ate Clara up along with most people here and disguising themselves right?" Corey excliamed leading to the much needed face faults from everyone.

"THE MARKSTER forgot you were like that," Mark got up laughing.

"No, from what I hear, he said Clara had just finished a fight with an elite alien," Fuuma spoke up and deciphered Jamspeak a lot better than anyone else here.

"Yes, I also see she needs to rest up in-OW!" Isaac got clobbered over the head by Rachel again.

"Okay enough with this small talk!" Ian started. "Shouldn't we get back to fighting those aliens?"

"Correction, we of Team Supreme will go back to our job," Fuuma said then instructed Mark. "Mark, may you switch places with Jam and to look after these survivors and make sure they stay in this shelter?"

"Wait! But you can save a whole lot more people with our help right?" Rina suggested.

"THE MARKSTER DON'T NEED HELP!" Mark boasted.

"What he meant was that our mission is to save as many people as we can from those aliens. However, we technically didn't save anyone you did and we'd rather not split the reward," Isaac explained. "Don't worry, we can do a fine job on our own. After all, I see we did take the exam and graduate from the academy over a month before you four and overall had more experience on and off the field."

"I don't believe this," Ian persisted.

"Please, there's no need to antagonize each other," Libra mediated. "Maybe we could settle a solution in a peaceful-"

"Anything we say goes," Libra lost his shields and is now replaced with Scorpio who as the name implies has a long scorpion tail. "After all, do you even know where you are? Furthermore, we hold the keys to the vans, the only practical means of finding your way out of these woods and you must be foolishly arrogant to believe you can defeat us to take them."

"You're the arrogant one," Ian started to take out his Relic Sword before he was held back by Rina.

"Ian, he's right in that we don't have many options. Besides..." Rina looked over to see Prisha's injuries and still needed to bear her own. "Not all of us are in such a great condition after the fight just now. In truth, this should be the time for us to recover."

"Well as you said we wasted enough time right?" Rachel said then instructed Mark. "Show them their way into the shelter and call us if anything goes wrong."

And so, as the other members of Team Supreme left with the vans, Mark led Team Freakshow and the other survivors they saved deeper into the shelter. There they were shown to the bathroom, cafe, library, even a games room and finally their dormitories. At least they were doing well with making sure the people they saved don't die from boredom instead.

Rina, Corey, Ian and Prisha were eventually assigned to a room with Ian saying, "See? I told you we should have been saving people from aliens from the beginning."

"That's only if you can admit your plan was to shelter the civilians in advance and I'm pretty sure it wasn't until we were first informed of our mission," Prisha said. It seems they could still slightly hear the rain even in this shelter though.

"So what did you think Fuuma meant by elite alien earlier?" Corey asked. "Maybe they're more like blob monsters instead of the rocky ones we saw?"

"More likely related to the ten foot bulky one I fought with the glowing red star on its chest," Prisha suggested.

"Hey I fought one like that too, not ten foot, but the red star," Rina fell on one of the beds. "Guess that might just be a sign for the stronger aliens like boss fights huh."

"See, I had a perfectly good excuse for messing up," Rina sat up stretching. "So should we just go to bed now?"

"No way, it's only seven PM," Ian said checking his watch.

"I'm not tired either," Corey said.

"Well that's convenient," Rina smiled and got up. "Well I'll just go and brush my teeth now. Anyone else tired can follow. If not, just stay up for a few hours before waking up okay?"

As Rina went and Prisha waited, he could hear the rain dying down above the shelter and so an idea had come to him. One that might actually help them escape and return to their mission.


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Chapter 14: Chapter XIV: The Map of Nature
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Corey wasn't sure where he was. He found himself sitting beside a crowd of people, mostly older kids, walking and chatting around him. Was he even there? All these people seem to get along so well yet haven't seemed to notice him as usual. The place seemed sort of familiar

What surprised him though, was the acknowledgement of the white haired boy, now standing in front of him. Corey looked up to see the boy smiling and lending out a hand to him. The crowd didn't seem to matter anymore.

"Let's go together!" The boy said as a dark wind had risen around him as his eyes glowed a bloody red. "To where you belong..."

"Reece!" Corey now found himself sitting up from his bed with the boy nowhere to be found. Instead, he found himself in a peculiar looking dormitory that strangely had no windows.

"Oh good morning Corey," Rina was sitting on one of the beds greeting him. "You feeling well?"

"Sure," Corey lied but now he needed to recollect the events that led him here. He looked around thoroughly to see Ian still asleep on one of the beds and checked the time to see it's about six AM. He also heard the sound of rain had returned above the shelter... shelter. Yes, the emergency shelter Team Supreme were keeping them.

"Prisha's looking around the place to find any way we could return to our task at hand," Rina explained. "I don't know though. Our old classmates seem to have barricaded this place pretty well."

"Even if we do get out of here, it might be too late with everyone either killed by aliens or saved by Team Supreme leaving nothing left for us to do right?" Corey asked. "But what other choice do we have?"

"You got a point there," Rina sighed before her eyes switched to anger mode. "But you know what really makes me tick?"

"Isaac, Clara and the others really are getting other soldiers to guard the base after all!" Rina cracked her knuckles. "And they get mad at us for getting divided credit."

"What if it's because they're soldiers from hell so they have no choice but to get them to help because of a deal with the devil," Corey guessed. "Anyway, you want to wake Ian up and go down to eat?"

VWVVW

"Well, they only have cameras for the public rooms," Prisha explained to his friends at a table in the cafe while writing his obtained data on his notepad. There were a lot he needed to remember. "I think they rather not have these survivors getting too paranoid from finding listening devices in their dormitories and making a ruckus."

"Saying yourself that they got cameras on us while discussing strategy," Ian scoffed slowly getting annoyed from the sound that Corey's phone keeps repeating. "Very smart."

"Say if we stayed quiet, would it make us any less suspicious?" Prisha replied. "From our resistance last night, Team Supreme would have no doubt we will search for a means of escape. These are all of course really obvious moves."

"Whatever could you cut that out?" Ian finally snapped at Corey and his phone and why does the sound from it seem so familiar.

"Wait, why did you voice record our fights with those aliens?" Rina asked remembering the sound from yesterday.

"So that's what it was! Nice thinking Rina!" Ian congratulated her.

" I was just thinking, what if I could blackmail those aliens that they were smuggling from their sister's rooms?" Corey suggested.

"Wait! Their language!" Prisha had thought of something. "What are the contexts in which you recorded those?"

Corey had explained about the time they saved the people of Liden and the attack after Prisha sounded the bell. Prisha had to ask, "May I borrow that phone for a moment?"

After Corey had handed the phone over, the group had noticed a female scientist with blonde curly hair had walked over to their table, "Excuse me, so you're also a team from The Occult Society aren't you?"

"Uh..." They looked at her curiously. Then Rina decided to ask, "So you want an autograph or..."

"No it's just that I did hear the argument you had with Team Supreme last night and thought I didn't agree with their ways either," The scientist had said. "If you're planning to escape in order to go back to saving other people from those aliens, I'll also like to help."

"And... you are?.." Corey asked before being clobbered by Ian.

"Quit being so rude! She's a nice beautiful lady I saved from Lolo yesterday," Ian yelled at Corey before turning back to the scientist. "Pardon my comrades manners miss."

"No, what we mean is, who is she for us to recruit her as opposed to any other random simpleton in this shelter?" Prisha glared at Ian.

"Right sorry for not introducing myself properly. I am Serri Joan a Lorieth government expert," Serri introduced herself. "Of course you know that the Lorieth government does provide many resources for the Occult Society as part of their side of the treaty. We also helped design and provided your colleagues with this emergency shelter."

"Wait! You're not saying..." Rina said excitedly. "That you're familiar with the design of this shelter and its weaknesses that we can utilize to escape."

"Nope! That's for the building design department! I have no idea," Serri said as everyone fell from the absurdity. "I'm from the science department so if there's any help you need in that field then I'd be happy to."

"Hey Prish, so how's it going with that phone?" Corey asked.

"I still require more context and dialogue to figure anything out," Prisha sighed and handed the phone back. The group including Serri decided to take a walk around the shelter for a while. The sound of the rain also stopped again. Rina frowned seeing the soldiers around and even guarding near the entrance.

She decided to get her mind off it for a while instead of snapping. So she asked Prisha, "Wait, so you were trying to decipher an alien language because you think we'll have the upper hand by understanding what they say?"

"Correct, maybe if we are able to capture a few of them though," Prisha replied and went back looking over his notes from before. "We can figure out more by watching them speak while inducing different contexts."

"We might have a lab where that could be done," Serri suggested but expressed her doubts. "But trying to decipher an entire alien language? I don't think that's actually possible. I don't even know how you lost enough sanity to think you could work something out with just a few voice records."

"Yeah, you're not the only one who thinks that," Ian agreed with her.

Something Prisha heard around him made him stop for a moment. There he looked around for a bit, held up an index finger to check air resistance and went into a thinking pose. He then tapped the end of this foot on the floor to freeze a part of it and walked a little diagonally forward.

"PRI-CHAN!" A high pitched voice sounded somewhere behind Prisha who just stayed looking indifferent. The footsteps grew more and more loud until the person slipped on the icy floor, did a back flip and crashed down face first. "WHOA! OWWW!"

"You're all set for the circus," Prisha turned around just enough to see who turned out to be Clara on the floor frowning up at him. She was about five foot two and had sort of short but wild blonde hair.

"You did that on purpose!" Clara got up to yell at him. "Oh it doesn't matter you're just so kawaii anyway desu."

"I wanna eat you-" Clara tried to lunge at him but was pulled back by her collar.

"Clara what the hell do you think you're doing?" It was Rina who pulled and threw her back behind her.

"Wow Rina, you're as defensive as ever?" Clara got up. "Hey Pri-chan! Why don't you come over to our side already? I know you'd rather."

"What?" Rina questioned in disbelief while Prisha still yet looked indifferent. "Quit deluding yourself Clara!"

"Oh come one, just look at the morons my poor Pri-chan is surrounded by all day," Clara shrugged. "You got a loudmouth idiot who constantly confuses anime with reality, an annoying brat spewer of the most ridiculous nonsense and a reckless fool who rushes in and ruins any plan you could have."

"Yeah and I suppose having someone like you around would be an improvement," Rina remarked

"So you'd rather an angsty brat with no people skills and ends up getting on everyone's bad side?" Ian said.

"See? There's solid proof right there!" Clara referred to Ian's statement and smiled. "I understand Prish, anyone would be in a bad mood hanging around these guys. Come on, you're not obligated to stay with them, join us."

"What? That won't happen in a million years!" Rina argued. "Right Prish?"

"For something that isn't true, you sure are getting quite worked up over it," Clara smiled confidently.

"No, it's just that..." Rina said. "It's not like I'm not already mad at your whole team for keeping us locked up in here!"

"I mean, you also hired soldiers to fight some of the aliens for you," she went on ranting. "I suppose that's not splitting any credit is it you hypocrite?"

"Stupid Stupid Rina, you have realized we acquired our mission from our client too don't you?" Clara scoffed. "These soldiers also worked for said client, who had insisted on us working together. Too bad for you, your team's not the same case."

"It's still wrong though," Serri had joined the argument. "Even as a mission it should be about helping people, not the profit."

"And... do I remember you from the Occult Society?" Clara turned to see Serri. But they were then interrupted by explosive sounds coming from the entrance and some screaming from what sounded like the soldier's voices.

"Sounds like the aliens have found this place again," Ian leads the way into the entrance hall of the shelter to find the fight between the soldiers and some of the aliens. The soldiers seem to be fighting evenly with the small fries but only until what looked like another elite alien had entered when they were all slaughtered. Many of the rescued citizens watched in panic, seeing what is to come.

This alien seemed to be a little less bulky than the one Prisha fought yesterday. But with much longer claws and teeth and seems much more agile. Clara quickly got out her phone to call her team, "The base is under attack again, hurry back and do what you can to eliminate any alien around it!"

"Everyone make way! Because now the prince is here!" A random girl had shouted for everyone's attention to turn to the opposite of the monster's.

"Commoners be marveled for the one who now enters the scene," a soft captivating voice said further into the shelter as the crowd had made way for an elegant looking boy with long flowing green hair,with two streaks of red fringes on either side and alluring violet eyes. "Anyone dares ask why? Because I am..."

"The Talented! The Amazing! the Beautiful! the Magnificent!" The boy had announced through what appeared to be a montage of him in snowy fields then beach sunsets and even cherry blossoms. "The Dazzling! The Fabulous!"

"The one and only!" A rose had appeared in his hand for him to flick it to the very tip of his arm outstretched to his side. "Eden Seraph!"

"KYAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" A crowd of people with love heart eyes appeared at the sides, mostly girls, to cheer him on as he walked forward. "YOU'RE SUPER CUTE TOO EDEN SAMA! WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

"What's with all those fangirls?" Ian looked over in annoyance.

"Actually, there are fanboys there as well," Prisha added.

"So you must be the fool who dares to challenge me?" Eden smirked condescendingly at the elite alien who instantly threw the first attack. Despite the speed however, it missed due to Eden simply stepping to the side.

"It was rather graceful seeing him fight. Dodging each attack with ease, staying calm and collected, never losing that proud smirk. When he felt ready, he used his PSI to summon rose modified with his ability to be far more deadly than usual and threw it at the alien, "Deadly Thorns!"

The alien elite managed to dodge it but unknowingly landed into a trap as vines sprung out and tangled it. Eden smiled seeing that his plan worked, he had secretly planted that trap in one of the floor cracks he was standing around before and gave it time to grow. He knew the alien would dodge in that direction.

Now he had summoned many more of the roses from before and threw them right at the alien. Most of them even had enough power to pierce through the alien as a whole and destroyed it overall. The fans now cheered even louder, "SO COOL! YOU'RE AMAZING EDEN SAMA!"

"No need to state the obvious," Eden had flicked his beautiful green hair victoriously. "I am Eden after all..."

"Sure we didn't hear him loud enough the first time. It doesn't mean he can't back up some of his boasts however. Eden's power allows him to summon and manipulate plants, the ability can vary along with the wide range of species," Prisha finished his exposition then turned to see Ian already stormed forward. "Hmm?"

"That show off!" Ian cracked his knuckles walking up to Eden. "I bet you were the one who thought of the plan to lock us here isn't it? It's just like a snob like you!"

"I know I shouldn't be talking to someone as low as you, but to answer your question..." Eden said reluctantly. "No, I would have come up with something much more ingenious."

"Well you're still a brat for being in with this plan," Ian looked down angrily on Eden. "It's just as Serri said before, helping people shouldn't be about the profit!"

"You simpleton... don't you see? By this point, you won't actually contribute to how many people will be saved," Eden sneered. "Anyone you can, we would have eventually. The only difference is our pay and we'd rather not cut our reward short."

"How arrogant," Prisha frowned. "By that logic, you must be certain you will save everyone from this point who hasn't yet been killed until now."

"Of course, but I wouldn't say arrogant is the right word. You see Team Supreme or most particularly I..." Eden flicked his hair proudly again. "...am a perfectionist!"

"You can save everyone we can? Get ready to eat up your words once we break out of here!" Ian boasted.

"Then I'll gladly challenge you, however..." Eden turned to notice Rina and walked toward her. Everyone finally realized she was also staring at him with heart shaped eyes now. Rina just couldn't help but be charmed by Eden who now elegantly neared his hand dangerously close to her face. "But are you truly willing to leave this shelter and be apart from me?"

Rina grew red to the point where a poof of white smoke had escaped her and she fell, "NAWH..."

"Figures..." Prisha and Ian gave her an annoyed look while Eden walked away. Ian turned to yell at him some more, "You're just afraid to compete with us fair and square in this mission!"

"And how is securing you here dishonorable in a game of the mind?" They have found that Isaac had returned along with his team and the vans. "From what I see, keeping you here takes effort and you're all free to escape if you have what it takes. It's merely a technique to let us do our job more effectively."

"We have eliminated every alien that was around the shelter," Fuuma had said. "Eden, have you completed your research on them as you were tasked?"

"Yes I have all the notes right here," Eden pulled a notepad from his blazer pocket. Then he turned to smile at the crowd, "Well I guess I'll be heading off."

"NO PLEASE DON'T LEAVE EDEN SAMA!" The fans shouted, who are now joined by Rina along with Serri and Clara. "I'LL COME WITH YOU! MARRY ME OR I'LL DIE!"

"Sorry, but needless to say I'm a very important person and have places to be," Eden said before plucking one of his eyelash and flicked it back. "But I guess my fans do deserve a little something."

"EDEN SAMA's EYELASH!" One of the fangirls managed to snatch it. "I'll cherish it with all my heart and-"

"Oh no you don't!" Clara pulled her by the hair. "EDEN'S MINE!"

"They're fighting over an eyelash?" Ian watched the scene with a freaked look.

"Yeah it looks brutal," Corey seems to be enjoying it.

"Well we can't stay here any longer," Rachel said then instructed Fidi, who is now in his Aries form. "We'll leave you here to guard the base."

"Whatever!" Aries walked back into the shelter bitterly while ranting. "I just did guard this place two days ago. Why don't those morons just trying staying here themselves and see how they feel!"

Then he saw something strange in front of him and grabbed it. He found it to be Eden's eyelash, which didn't bode well as he turned to see the many sinister grins directed at him, "FIIIIIIIDIIIIIIIIIIIIII..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!.."

VWVVW

"THE MARKSTER IS DONE WITH WAITING!" Mark complained now that they are in the woods outside the base and the rock above the entrance had closed. They also had their trucks here. "Besides is it okay to wait here so some of those aliens could find us?"

"Don't worry, with my power, I can seen any that made itself near and prepare in advance," Isaac had finished reading through Eden's notes and told him, "You did well to figure out their possible attack pattern. Those creatures may be organized but they aren't free of habits."

"Sure," Eden smirked proudly with folded arms then glanced at Isaac. "Though I was being modest when I told those fools that I could come up with a plan much more ingenious."

"Yes it also feels a little jerkish too," Rachel agreed about the plan to secure Team Freakshow.

"Whether or not you're right, we have already commenced with the plan and we stick to it," Isaac smirked. "Besides, if our former classmates do succeed in escaping is the interesting part, to see how they manage to."

"Jam jam jam jam jam jam jam," Jam suggested.

"Yeah... and that too," Isaac said. But then the entrance to the base had opened once again to reveal that Clara had managed to get out.

"Wait up..." She puffed. She was enough now after not noticing that Eden had finished his research and returned to the shelter before. "I'm done with staying here to guard and you better group me up with Eden Sama!"

"Sorry Clara," Isaac replied. "But we don't want Rachel to be making a fuss."

"Hey! Don't lump me in with those morons just because I'm a girl!" Rachel shot Isaac a glare.

"You'll be grouped with Jam and Mark," Isaac said. "Don't worry, Rachel will be taking your place to guard this base."

VWVVW

Corey, Prisha and Rina are now in one of the spare dormitories that was the best bet of where they won't be heard as they speak of their plan.

"So why are we ditching Ian and Serri again?" Corey asked.

"Isn't it obvious? There's a good chance she could be a spy from our adversaries who are for reason also our colleagues," Prisha answered. "I have thought of means to check if she is, but there doesn't seem to be any way to ascertain that she isn't."

Rina listened to the voice recording of the alien attack just now and sighed, "There's not much point in deciphering their language if we can't even get out of here right?"

"Yeah and if we do exit then which way do we run?" Corey wondered. "We know we're in some woods, but where exactly?"

"If I had to guess," Prisha pulled out a map of the Lorieth region and pointed at it. "It would be the Wellden Woods at coordinates, five hundred and three point four to seven hundred and seventy point three."

"Now that is quite an approximation," Rina remarked with surprise.

"You remember the weather forecast don't you?" Prisha explained. "I recall The Occult Society's one is in even more precise details.

"And that helps us how?" Corey asked trying to figure it out himself.

"Isn't it obvious?" Prisha sighed then was off with the exposition. "What I was doing before was taking notes of how well we can hear the rain at one point of this base to another. In the process, I was able to ascertain the structure of it, how deep it is below the surface and even the layouts of our former classmate's private rooms."

"When did I ask you to complicate things even more?" Rina sarcastically remarked.

"Well, I'm sure it would be raining heavily where the weather forecast said it would be sunny right?" Prisha frowned. "No, we can use it to narrow down our location by checking the current time. By listening to when the rain commenced, when it is strongest and when it dies down, we can be even more precise."

"Sweet," Rina and Corey said simultaneously.

"That is..." Prisha's confidence seemed to had died from recent memories. "If I don't make another careless miscalculation..."

Rina and Corey both had an uncertain look for a moment, but Corey then smiled and took a closer look at the Lorieth map. "Let's see, We still need a way to get out of here quickly."

"Now we should be close enough to Esterdale right?" Corey pointed at the map. "Let's just hope it didn't get attacked by aliens yet."

"Hope?" Prisha asked looking at the map with curiosity then figured. "Wait your plan... we're not actually sure my coordinates are precise!"

"Don't worry, it's the work of the brilliant Prisha Tyran after all," Corey smiled broadly at him. "I have faith it is."

"Make that we!" Rina added.

Prisha's expression froze for a second, then looked away frowning.

VWVVW

"So have you found them yet?" Serri asked Ian as they looked around for their friends.

"Have I succeeded in hunting them down?" Ian answered. "Unfortunately not. I bet this is just another stupid game of their's that Corey had thought up."

"Oh there you are!" Serri had opened up a dormitory door to find Prisha, Corey and Rina there. "You had been assigned your own dormitory haven't you?"

"It turns out this place is actually safer for our discussion," Rina answered.

"Well, it's just that, Ian wouldn't shut up about how you ditched him," Serri said. "How did you expect him to know where you'd be?"

"Oops guess we forgot, sorry," Rina made an empty apology. "But what do you get to say? Weren't you one of those fangirls squealing over Eden sama from before?"

"I don't recall you being able to resist his charm!" Serri argued.

"So Rina! You really are willing to escape this place and not see Eden anymore?" Corey smiled.

"Eeec!" Rina seems to have froze and fell to the side while Ian clobbered Corey over the head.

"Hey aren't you supposed to be on our side?" Ian yelled.

"But if you stay with Eden, Prisha will leave you," Corey went on.

"Knock it off!" Prisha glared while Rina must bear the pain of making her decision.

"If it helps you decide, Prisha is a little too short!" Corey smiled.

"Now how exactly is this helping?" Prisha snapped at Corey.

"Hmm..." Serri thought for a second then suggested, "Who ever said that Eden will stay in Team Supreme?"

"Yeah that's right!" Rina said.

"We'll save so many people that Eden and Fuuma will see just how much cooler it would be to join our team," Rina spreaded her arms gleefully at the thought. "And I will complete my reverse harem collection!"

"At least don't think such vile fantasies aloud," Prisha frowned then decided to refer to the map once again. "Now I guess we can all return to an actually important issue. Knowing that we are at this point in the Wellden woods, once our opportunity to break out arises, our best bet is to head east."

"Whoa, you already figured out the location of this base?" Serri asked.

"Oh we figured out much more than that," Rina smirked. "Let's bust out of here."


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Chapter 15: Chapter XV: The Eye of the Tornado
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It's official! Corey is the hardest character for me to write. Am I not insane enough yet?


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It was almost noon in Esterdale, the time for Josh to be at work at the pizza shop, which is what he's doing now. Soon he had to answer a phone call, "Hello, Esterdale Pizzas."

"Hi I would like to order about eight boxes to be delivered to the Wellden Woods at uh..." A childish voice spoke from the other end. "Coordinates, five hundred and three point four to seven hundred and seventy point three."

"You're kidding right? That has to be more than an hour drive without any other deliveries along the way," Josh replied deadpanned.

"Would it make a difference if we payed you quadruple the amount?" another voice, this time female asked finally catching Josh's interest.

"QUADRUPLE?" Josh answered doing his mental math. Each box of pizza is 30 Jouls and with all the multiplication, it will add up to... "1079 JOULS! Okay! Just wai-"

"HOLD IT!" The voice shouted and Josh could swear he heard them slam their hands down on a table at the other end. "When you get there, it will be hard to find our place, so just shout out pizza delivery okay?"

And with that, Josh was off, ready to rake in the cash.

VWVVW

Rina, Corey, Ian, Prisha and Serri just sat in their cafe, drinking tea. Serri asked, "So what exactly are we waiting for?"

But they all knew it was time when a voice had called out, "PIZZA DELIVERY!"

"There you have it!" Rina got to her feet and ran for the exit followed by her friends. Along the corridor, they came across Rachel.

"Oh hey, sorry, I'll try talking to-," Rachel tried to say ironically but found her former classmates to just have sped past her. She went back to being serious ready to chase them. But first she needed to call out, "Those morons think they could escape! Fidi! We're chasing them!"

When Fidi joined the pursuit, he had shown himself to be in his Sagittarius form, which had the lower half of a horse and holding bow and arrows. He yelled gleefully, "And there's not a better time! This is going to be fun!"

But before he could reach the entrance hall, another transformation had occurred and Fidi turned into his Capricorn form, with the lower half of a fish and a pair of long sharp horns. Unlike Pisces however, Capricorn was not very mobile on land as he just flopped in place, "Actually no, this is dumb..."

"Urrrrggghhhh!" Rachel could only quickly face palm before she continued chasing the escapees.

"Ian! Could your Relic Sword destroy that ceiling door thing?" Rina asked as they now headed to the exit.

"No problem!" Ian pulled out the sword and slash at it. The first could only partly damage it but they had to hurry up, Rachel is now close enough to assault them. She herself had pulled out he own Relic Racket and threw a ball into the air.

"Flame Shot!" The ball seemed to have ignited with fire from Rachel's Racket and sped like a bullet to Team Freakshow.

"Force Wall!" Corey had conjured the wall of kinetic energy to block Rachel's attack, but it was too powerful. The shield had only spared him from serious injuries as the flaming ball broke through and blasted him back.

"Rachel's Relic Racket..." Prisha observed and narrated. "It has the power to imbue any object it hits with an element of choice, which in this case would be fire."

"DONE!" Ian had destroyed enough of the door to create a hole for him and his friends to escape. But Rina isn't going yet.

"What now Rach?" Rina teased Rachel. "You're going to kill all the dinosaurs?"

"Let's leave!" Prisha pulled Rina by the hair so she would escape along with everyone. Rachel also seemed to be quite angered by the comment as she smacked a few more flaming balls at them causing smoke to fill the targeted area.

When the group was out in the woods, they looked around to find the pizza truck with a tall man near it. He had black hair under a white cap, it's safe to say he was the pizza man. Once he saw them he said, "Hey here's your delivery, but what's going on?"

"I'll explain later!" Rina hurried past him. "Just get back in the truck and quickly drive!"

So now the six of them had squished into the driver and passenger seats of the truck. Josh still had no idea what's going on but these kids seem to be running away from something. Not knowing where else to go, he decided to drive back to Esterdale.

Once Rachel had exited the shelter, she could no longer see those Rina or the others and had call one of her team members to intercept them. She thought of Eden's group, but she didn't want him to know she failed. So Rachel dialled Mark's number instead even if he is a little loud, "Mark! Our classmates have escaped! Where are you?"

"WHAT? MAYBE IF THE MARKSTER WAS ON THE JOB-" Mark yelled before having the phone snatched by Clara.

"Rina and the others! They're escaping through the woods!" Rachel said on the phone. "Where are you? Maybe you could intercept them!"

"Got it desu!" Clara said and hung up. She can see the forest outside her window and drove back into it, instructing her team, "Listen, when I say so, you need to exit the truck and split up to find where Rina san and the others have headed!"

"Jam!" Jam agreed.

"I'll search with the van and call Eden Sama to inform him of the situation and he won't be impressed," Clara smiled, holding the phone in front of her. When she decided she has gotten deep enough in the woods she said, "Now!"

"LEAVE IT TO THE MARKSTER!" Mark exited the van with Jam and they both searched the forest.

VWVVW

While being squished in the truck the juvenile occultists and Serri had learned the pizza man's name is Josh. Afterward he asked, "Now will you just tell me what's-"

But he was interrupted by strong wind erupting out of nowhere and flipping the truck over. The group had now found themselves in an even more uncomfortable position before they decided to exit the truck. But during the even- SLAP SLAP SLAP!

"Oh sure, both your hands land on my butt it must be an accident," Serri crossed her arms after her retaliation on Ian who still had a cheeky smile despite the injuries on his face. Once outside, the group looked around to find the one who found them.

"Jam!" Jam had said, facing his opponents as his increasing PSI had caused a strong wind to rise around him.

"HAH?" Josh was freaked at the phenomena. "What the hell is HAPPENING?"

"Now I remember! Jam has the power to control wind!" Rina told her team and seeing the wind around Jam grow stronger to a ridiculous level. "So that's his plan. Not only will a Tornado Wall serve as a weapon and defensive technique, it could be used as a signal for his more distant team mates to see!"

"So we'll need to take him out as quick as we can right?" Ian stated the obvious.

"JAAAAAAAMMMMMM!" Jam's technique is complete with the tornado blew furiously, even blowing many surrounding trees out of their roots.

"I'll be taking this fight," Corey smiled walking up to face the raging tornado in which Jam now resides within.

"Hey kid! Are you crazy going up against a tornado on your own?" Josh tried to call him back.

"There's no way around it!" Rina said. "The rest of us must stay back to cover you and Serri. Just be careful Corey..."

Once the fight began, the tornado had sped toward Corey. He knew there was no way to dodge so decided it was best to lure it away from his team before getting hit. But upon impact, he learned he should have worried more.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Corey screamed in pain. The effect on the environment was no way of an indicator of the tornado's true power. It was focused mostly near Jam, concentrated to the extend to make many cuts on Corey's skin before blowing him away.

"Corey!" Rina cried out for her friend and was tempted to run in to help. The attack was far too much more than Corey had thought. As he got up, he had more reason than ever to finish the fight right away.

He thought his injuries from Rachel was bad enough. But at this rate it's not about defeating Jam before his team finds him anymore, he won't survive that long.

"Force Blast!" Corey had fired the attack right to the tornado where Jam would be. But upon impact, the blast had been deflected to another direction.

"No, Jam's Tornado Wall is strong enough to deflect shot from even the most advanced rifles," Prisha commentated unable to completely hold back the trembling of his voice. "Everyone in that team is beyond our league!"

"WHA?" Josh shouted in disbelief from what he just witnessed. "At least I know what a tornado is!"

"That's a blast of kinetic energy made from the power of the mind," Rina told him. "But it's no time to talk about that..."

Back at the fight, Jam's tornado sped toward Corey again and he cried out in pain as it blasted him away in another bloody manner as his team watched in horror. Where am I? Corey took some time to think straight again, but even then, he could only be surprise that he's still conscious. Not that it matters, one final move would overkill him. He doubted even the Force Wall would be able to help much.

If only there was a way to finish Jam off before then, past his perfect defence. No, it wasn't a perfect defence. Corey thought of what his last bet should be and felt the power radiate brightly within him as he shot another blast of kinetic energy out of his fist, "ONE MORE TIME!"

But as the blast just bounced off the tornado like it did before, Jam luahged loudly within, "JAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAM!"

"Corey! I always knew you were stupid!" Ian yelled. "But what was that?"

"Yeah! The attack didn't work before! Try something else!" Rina added.

"What? You mean haven't noticed it either?" Prisha asked in a confused tone. Though only quiet enough for his team to hear.

"Notice what?" Serri had answered with another question. Rina and Josh also awaited for the answer and Ian looked uninterested while Corey opened his fist into a palm and raised it above him.

"Well it seems, staying quiet about it no longer makes difference," Prisha explained while Corey waved his palm downward to the ground like he's commanding his attack. "You see, Corey had... bypassed Jam's defences!"

Just as Prisha finished, there was a loud explosive sound from within the tornado as Jam has been hit from above. The wall of strong wind had only contained the energy and made the blast all the more powerful. Afterward, the tornado was gone and Jam was down on the floor.

"Now I get it!" Rina exclaimed impressed with Corey. "That last attack was a Snake Blast and even after being deflected, Corey was able to guide it high up to dive through the eye being the tornado's weak point!"

"The fight doesn't appear over yet however," Serri said.

"Jam..." Jam had slowly got up but in his current state, only one more attack could finish him. However, the same thing applies to Corey. "Jam... Jam!"

"Where's a poke ball when you need one?" Rina sighed before the two charged at each other once more to deal the finishing blow.

Jam had punched Corey in the face, but was dealt an uppercut in the process. The others watched in shock, seeing the two combatants fall, losing all the vitality needed to stay conscious. The group then approached to see how Corey is.

"Well he did the best one can do against a member of Team Supreme, he'll just need some time to rest," Rina sighed in relief and turned to Ian. "Could you carry him? We need to head to Esterdale before we can treat his injuries."

"It may take some time though," Josh said as he took a look at his delivery truck and what Jam's tornado had done to it. "Could anyone lend a hand in fixing my truck?"

"No, the other team will be getting here any time now," Serri replied. "We'll need to travel ahead on foot.

"You know you're going to owe me a new truck right?" Josh gave them an annoyed expression. Of course they could go back for the truck after the whole issue and if Team Supreme does anything to it, they'll be paying.

VWVVW

Later in the evening, Team Supreme are now back at the shelter's entrance for a meeting or at least all but Jam and Mark. Fed up with waiting, Rachel asked, "shouldn't we also be heading to the fight?"

"There isn't much point," Eden still smirked proudly. "We sent Mark to head to Jam's tornado only shortly before it disappeared. One of either side would have already won and he would only arrive to witness the aftermath. All Mark can do now is report to us the situation whether or not Jam succeeded."

"Eden Sama is so sugoi!" Clara gazed at him with watery eyes.

Finally Mark had returned through the damaged door of the shelter carrying Jam on his shoulder. Seeing him, Isaac asked, "I see I won't need to ask if Jam defeated the escapees. So did you find anything else?"

"Uhh..." Mark thought for a moment and brought out a box of what seemed to be... "THE MARKSTER brought back pizza..."

After everyone else face faults Fuuma said coldly, "Well what are we still doing standing here?"

"True, the sooner we chase them, the less time they have to get far," Fidi said diabolically in his Scorpio form

"You should know by this point that securing the competition is not an effective strategy," Eden flicked his hair. "The resources required to assure they can't escape would actually set us back more than if someone gets in the way of our mission."

"You have already made the mistake of underestimating our former classmates," Eden glanced condescendingly over at Isaac. "Of course I can't blame you, since you're not me, how can you be perfect?"

"The game has been fun at least. But it looks like we'll need to return to our original plan," Isaac smirked. "But for now let's just have some pizza."

"Yeah, cool with me."

VWVVW

Corey woke up to find himself in an apartment. It doesn't seem to be anything new with his team, but it appears two additional people also seem to be here this time. They were Serri and Josh. They seem to be getting ready for dinner. Serri had commented looking at the noodles in her bowl, "Hey, you know, you're a pretty good cook Ian."

"Well know why Serri might still be here," Corey got up to ask everyone else. "But what's Josh still hanging around for?"

"Oh hey, you're up just in time for dinner Corey!" Rina said as she welcomed him to the table.

"Thanks for answering my question Rina," Corey smiled sarcastically, which cracked Serri up. He made it to the dinner table anyway.

"Well, I would at least like to know we have a good reason to leave my damaged truck in the woods like that," Josh answered.

"I guess after seeing all the tornado summoning and kinetic blasts…" Rina smiled nervously. "The aliens won't be so hard to believe."

"There's just the issue that most people who find out lose all memories of their loved ones," Corey said to freak out Josh and crack up Rina and Serri.

The group also then noticed, Prisha had made his own rice that didn't even seem to be the proper temperature. Serri decided to ask, "Hey Prisha, aren't you going to have some of Ian's noodles? They're not bad."

"Let's just say, the last time I tried Ian's cooking I didn't have such a great day," Prisha replied calmly.

While everyone else laughed away, Ian just crossed his arms and said, "Whatever."

"Well now that we are all back," Prisha spoke again. "May we discuss what would be our plans for tomorrow?"

"Well I did mention about the lab where we can secure some of the aliens to analyse them haven't I?" Serri recalled aloud. "It's actually a little south west of Wellden Woods so let's just hope we don't bump into your rivals again by heading west."

"I didn't think we had to travel far when you said our escape route would be west from the base which reminds me that I haven't asked of why the sudden change of plans?"

"Actually, that was our plan while we were planning to borrow the pizza truck," Corey replied with his enthusiastic smile.

"Wait!" Josh looked over at Corey. "You weren't actually planning to steal the truck from me were you?"

"Let's just say the idea was in progress before I brought up something a little more ethical," Rina sweat dropped. In actuality, she, Corey and Prisha decided to say that as a way of checking is Serri was a spy for Team Supreme. "Sorry, Corey is a bit of a trouble maker."

If Serri was, she probably would have ratted out on their plan to head west and their rivals would concentrate their forces there. Though, from the encounter with Jam, it seemed more like their plan was to split up and search at a wider range of the forest. So Serri was at least probably not a spy, though proving someone is not seemed a lot harder than proving if they are.

"Speaking of which, how did you learn to be such a trouble maker Corey?" Rina asked being reminded of all those other incidents including the one at the post office or the winged serpents. But remembering how Corey just is, Rina sweat dropped and added, "Oh right! You'll just say-,"

"It was probably Reece," Corey said, catching everyone off guard. He knew it was unusual even for him but he had bottled up those emotions from his past for long enough. Besides, after all that time of crying wolf, they might not even believe him. "He was the first friend I had and the only one until I met you three."

"He was about two years older than me, I met him at an orphanage," Corey reminisces. "it was on its final years so I was the youngest kid there and got picked on a lot. Reece however, lent me a hand saying how fun it would be to team up."

"Then when we did we ending up being the ones laughing and even ended up going a little overboard that the adults found us to be troublemakers," Corey smiled. "However one day, I wasn't able to find Reece, it was like he wasn't at the orphanage anymore. I asked the people who run it and they told me that he's been transferred. That we might not be so out of control if we were separated."

"You know how I answered that?" Corey's smile turned to his friends who listened to the story. "I showed them how wrong they were and was never more of a trouble maker. Even if it means..." His smile faded for a while. "None of them would help me any longer if I got into real trouble. Even so I never got to meet Reece again..."

"But now you just might!" Rina smiled. "We can run into him at some point."

"Hey the world's not that small!" Serri was freaked from Rina's farfetched suggestion.

"Well you see, we travel a lot," Rina sweat dropped while Corey got up to take a look outside the window. "Like... really... a lot."

"Besides, how do we know he's not bullshitting us again?" Ian said.

"Well, what he said now doesn't really sound as outlandish..." Rina answered with uncertainty.

"Maybe that's what he wants you to think!" Josh said. Prisha glanced over at Corey and strangely not frowning. He knew Corey wasn't lying, but how much more was there to the story.

Corey wondered up at the starry night sky. Somewhere within him, he knew what those running the orphanage said, was not the real reason they sent Reece away. He can only wonder where his childhood friend is now...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well I guess I'll be taking a break after this chapter. I actually wasn't sure if I should have posted it but decided to because it was my favorite chapter in the arc. Okay, secret's out, I'm actually going to wait to get a beta reader and I'm afraid updating anymore would induce archive panic on them. At least the best part of the arc is over cya!

Oh and references: Ace Attorney, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis


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Chapter 16: Chapter XVI: The Site of the Crash
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Rina, Corey, Ian and Prisha decided to go shopping the next morning in Esterdale to prepare for the current case. Along the way, they chatted about the situation thus far, "So Serri is supposed to show us to a lab where we could safely secure some aliens and research them right?"

"Yes, she said she'll just need her rest first then show us to it later in the morning," Rina replied. "Also, despite the craziness of last night, Josh still insists of seeing proof of these aliens. Let's try not get him into too much danger okay?"

"Even after seeing the lab, I assume we would also need to capture at least two of the aliens," Prisha discussed. "But how do we predict where they'll strike next? Of course, we do have the option of heading to the site of the crash though a rather risky one."

"In short, you're scared," Ian scoffed.

"I am wondering though, how widespread are the aliens going to attack?" Rina asked. "Are they seriously going to progress to the entire planet? Do they plan to take it over?"

"And how many of them are left?" Corey added. "I know there were a lot of meteors, but do you think there are only as many aliens that could fit inside them?"

"Well there's a chance they could reproduce at their territory while sending their more suited warriors out to attack in waves," Rina answered.

"We also have the issue of what's going on back at Liden," Prisha said. "Byst had secured certain people along with the mayor in a shelter that we were meant to protect. When Team Supreme transported us to their shelter, I don't remember seeing Byst, so he must not have been found."

"Yeah, so what do you think is going on with them?" Corey questioned. "It won't do us any good if our client or Byst is already dead."

"So now I'm a dead man talking you say?" A voice had sounded from behind the juvenile bunch to freak them all out. But they were also relieved in more than one way as they decided to slowly turn around to see that it's Byst, but something is different. He no longer has the mug for a hat but it's replaced with a large broken half of an eggshell.

"Oh hey Byst!" Rina sweat dropped then asked, "um... what's with the eggshell?"

"Well you did tell me to get a cooler hat," Byst said pointing at the eggshell.

Corey said, "Well I thought your caramel drink was pretty cool..."

"But this one's even cooler!" Corey smiled cue his three friends face faulting. "Wait, but what are your doing in Esterdale anyway?"

"You know, our supplies back at the shelter are limited," Byst answered. "I was just shopping at Esterdale where I just happened to run into you kids. Though it does seem the alien attacks are much more widespread than just being in Liden."

"The mayor might have liked to word his request better but you will still be paid based on the number of survivors who would have been dead without you," Byst explained. "So now that I have answered your question, may I ask my own?"

"You have been missing for most of the past two days," Byst said. "Can you explain how exactly that helps your mission-"

But Byst had noticed that the teenagers were too busy bickering over themselves over petty issues. Ian for one said, "Guys! It's just a chicken egg!"

"What kind of chicken lays an egg that big?" Prisha criticized while Byst just sweat dropped from the side. "It's more likely an ostrich."

"How about a chocobo?" Rina suggested.

"Or a palm tree egg!" Corey made his own suggestion.

"Palm trees don't lay eggs you moron!" Ian argued.

"Umm kids?" Byst tried speaking with them but they were all interrupted by a familiar sound from the distance, they can all remember from Florey and Liden. Aliens are charging to attack again.

"Here as well?" Ian commented before charging to the direction of the sound. "Well let's go!"

The rest of the group had decided that Prisha and Rina will look after Byst and also go to make sure Serri is safe. While fighting some of them, Corey managed to get one to chase him and lure it into a strong steel cage. After showing it to the others, Serri commented, "good job!"

Josh also commented on the sidelines, "Okay now I'm convinced."

Seeing that the alien is constantly bashing the cage and may eventually break it, Serri said, "Okay we need to get a truck to carry that creature to the lab at the Lorieth base immediately!"

"Some of you need to stay with the cage to make sure it doesn't escape!" Serri told the kids of the Occult Society.

"Okay but make that two trucks!" Rina said. "Now that the citizens here know of the danger, we need to transport them to a place where we can protect them!"

"Ian!" She turned to her tall friend with a mullet. "I'll leave that to you."

VWVVW

It wasn't difficult to convince the people of Esterdale to lend their saviours a couple of trucks. After the attack of the aliens they needed some way to assure they would survive. The group also managed to drive across the Wellden Woods without bumping into their rivals and soon drove through some rocky paths in the mountains to find the Lorieth lab Serri was talking about.

First they contained the alien in a room in the lab, barricaded with strong metal walls and the lights on the ceiling were protected with bullet proof glass. There were other facilities such as laboratories and military equipment, but they soon needed to head to a shelter elsewhere in the mountains where they could hide the saved civilians.

Serri and Team Freakshow were soon back at the lab in the security room to watch the video of the alien in the room it's confined in. Rina commented, "Clever, the camera was placed beside the lights so it could see the alien better than the other way around."

"So are we supposed to be getting anything from watching a single alien confined there?" Serri asked.

"No, I believe the alien must also be quite lonely by now," Prisha observed the screen seeing the alien had gotten tired trying to bash its way out. "Hopefully we should be able to capture one more."

"Hey! How about after that we go and see what we can find at their crash site?" Corey suggested also looking at the alien on the screen. He kind of felt sorry for it to be locked up against its will. So would this count as a necessary evil? "I mean, we aren't too far from the Graman Fields."

Surprised, Prisha turned to the red headed boy, "You do understand, that is a rather precarious mission. You won't have second thoughts will you?"

"Why do you always have to make such lengthy excuses for being scared?" Ian rolled his eyes.

"We have every right to be," Serri said. "I know you kids from the Occult Society are professionals but no one sent to the crash site to investigate had come back alive, not even from the military."

"We may need time to evaluate a strategy," Prisha said, returning to his utter lack of emotion. "For now let's focus on the plan thus far..."

VWVVW

After saving a couple more towns from an attack and capturing another alien, it was decided that Rina and Corey will be the ones to head to the crash site. Rina lead the way along the hills remembering the plan, "Let's see... so we should head to the direction of the crash site while avoiding any trail left by those aliens..."

"I thought we were going to get to their place from underground," Corey said as the two carefully went up a larger looking hill.

"Sorry do I look like a mole to- wait, no, don't answer," Rina replied and once the two were close enough to the peak of the hills they peeked over it to see into the distance of the Graman fields to see the meteors at the field's crater. "Well I can see none of us are anywhere near done with these aliens."

Rina and Corey gaped seeing it was like the town with the asteroids like houses but around them, there are armies of thousands of aliens still marching around. The Imperial March theme playing in the background just adds to the effect. Wait! Imperial March theme? Rina turned to Corey to see his MP3 playing and whispered, "Corey! We're meant to stay quiet!"

"Sorry it was the perfect time," Corey smiled then looked back at the crash site. "So how do you think we could get closer?"

"Hmm..." Rina observed the crash site and thought hard. Afterward she decided to lead whispering, "follow me..."

The duo started sneaking around the hills until they got behind a rock close enough to eavesdrop on a few of the aliens that seemed to be speaking in their own language. There, they also decided to voice record them while taking a closer look at the area for anything else useful while hiding from view of course.

Everything was going well until someone familiar caught them by surprise, "Hey how dare you go off without me!"

Rina and Corey were shocked for a second but still tried not to make a sound before finding the person to be Ian. Rina whispered quite angrily, "Ian! What are you doing here? You were supposed to guard the civilian base in the mountains."

"What? I knew you always like to hog all the fun to yourself and go to the crater without me," Ian started taking out his Relic Sword.

"Ian you don't get it," Rina sighed. "No offense but this mission isn't exactly something you're suited for."

"You serious?" Ian unsheathed the sword and walked up to the alien's base alerting many of them. "Who else is more suited for taking down all these aliens?"

"Ian! Don't you think there are a little too many here?" Rina called out in shock.

Ian also looked in shock now that he finally noticed there were thousands of aliens looking at him and angry, "actually... you're right... there might be just a bit too many..."

And surprisingly, Ian also made a break for it along with Corey and Rina, running across the hills into a forest. There they were able to lose most of the aliens but still needed to defend themselves against some. When they almost made it to the mountains however, the team ran into what looks like another elite alien. This one seemed to be more humanoid except for the strange clawed left hand.

"I'll take this one!" Ian ran forward with his Relic sword but the alien was able to strike Ian at a distance by stretching and expanded it clawed arm to slash down across Ian's chest, who fell to the ground from the pain. "Aaaarrrggghhh..."

Even then, Ian needed to react quickly as the claw went for another strike, Ian had to block with his sword. After that he pushed the claw aside to run at the alien again, but reverting the claw seemed to be easier for it as the claw had sped back and strike Ian from the back. As Ian fell to the ground again, the alien's claw had returned to its original size and made some distance.

VWVVW

Meanwhile, back at the security room, Serri and Prisha had watched the two aliens interact. Prisha was taking notes, but Serri seemed lost and asked, "how exactly do you figure out the unknown from another unknown?"

"Have you ever solved a cryptogram before?" Prisha asked trying to multi task with analysing the audio and video of the alien's confinement room. "I've been solving them from the age of five and this case may be similar but more difficult. A basic technique for both would be a frequency analysis."

"While cryptograms, we look for the frequency of letters to figure out words, deciphering a language means we need to take notes of the frequency of syllables to work out their meaning," Prisha continued to explain while cautiously paying attention to Serri's reaction. "Syllables that are linked often enough are probably words just as words occurring would be their version of conjunctions."

"Even knowing how they work, all the variables are still unknown aren't they?" Serri questioned.

"I was getting to that," Prisha replied coldly. "That is why we will introduce different contexts to them soon in enough to stimulate a natural reaction. In the current context, there is a higher chance they will talk about how they can get out of here, what we're confining them for or even about us spying and researching on them."

"Introducing different contexts such as turning off the lights will change their speech pattern and by comparing the speech pattern during different contexts, we can narrow down what they mean. That's just the tip of the iceberg though, being rather basic deciphering techniques."

"So would you say it's time for a stimulus yet?" Serri asked. "I mean, it's been almost an hour since we had both of them confined."

"And we already had introduced a new stimulus to them," Prisha turned to Serri. "Time... their speech patterns will change as they get fed up from being confined there."

After some time has passed, Prisha finally said as he hits a key below the screen, "I guess it's time to introduce a new stimulus."

As he did so, a samll part of the confinement room's ceiling had opened to drop an object for the aliens to react to. Serri commented with round white eyes, seeing the object in the screen, "okay... a pineapple..."

VWVVW

Back around the mountains, Rina and Corey still watched as Ian fought against the elite alien. At the moment, he can't get close though and can only use the sword to guard himself from the expanded claw of the alien that keeps striking him.

"You know Ian, I would tag in just about now," Rina shrugged. "But you know who got us into this mess."

"I can take this fiend on my own anyway!" Ian swung his sword to make a large cut down and slice the claw off. "This freak is nothing without its claw!"

Ian then ran forward to slice the elite alien up before it fell in pieces. He then turned triumphantly to his other two team mates, "Yeah you see that? where would two be without me?"

"Back at the crash site, still able to investigate the aliens," Corey answered bluntly as he and Rina started walking up the mountains.

"Who's stupid idea was it to leave me out anyway?" Ian followed and argued stubbornly. "It was definitely that brat Prisha right?"

"Ian, listen, your problem is only being able to see what's in front of you," Rina tried telling him rather sincerely. "Not all missions are as simple as just beating up the enemy."

"Why do you always agree with any of that brat's idea?" Ian continued bitterly. "What's so great about him? Prisha's just a jerk who doesn't care about anyone but himself! I mean, don't you remember when he refused to help because it wasn't a mission?"

"Well if you can't shut up about him, why don't you just make out with him already," Rina rolled her eyes as they walked in the path of the civilian base to check up on it.

VWVVW

Prisha and Serri continued to observe the aliens from the security room after introducing a new context.

"Right, so now we brought in a third alien to interact with the other two," Serri summarized the recent events. "So we'll probably be getting their version of greetings and the two we originally contained will naturally inform the newcomer of the situation right?"

"Looks like you're learning, you want a medal?" Prisha sarcastically congratulated while calmly analysing. Though in one of the other screens, he could see his team return. So they had enough with the current task already? Seeing as they are about to enter the room, Prisha turned to the door.

"Hey Prisha!" Corey opened the door and entered along with Rina and Ian. "So how's learning the alien language?"

"Narrowing down the syllables and meanings, I currently can only almost figure out one word. But there are still more contexts I can try and the voice record of the crash site," Prisha explained then frowned at Ian. "Though, I might have had more if someone has at least heard of a stealth mission."

"Whatever," Ian pouted and turned away.

"So now that it's getting late in the evening," Rina decided to speak up to break the awkwardness. "How about we'll be getting ready for dinner now."

"I mean, we already considered the possibility that the aliens are able to track their lost troops. So it may be best to sleep in shifts."

VWVVW

Much later near, midnight, a sad beautiful melody can be hear high up in the mountain, beneath the glowing moon as Prisha played the flute. Rina had reached up there but decided to wait and hear the rest of the mysterious melodic tune before saying, "Nice."

"Ironic for you to have woken an hour before our schedule," Prisha replied coldly keeping watch of the horizon. The team had chosen this area to keep watch as it provides the widest field of vision in case any aliens or anyone approached in the distance.

"Oh yeah, Corey lit my bed on fire so it's hard to go back to sleep after that," Rina sweat dropped awkwardly. "Come to think of it, he done so out of boredom after keeping watch of the aliens for too long and you're up here looking over the mountains. Aren't your jobs supposed to be the other way around?"

"You can guess what he got bored of before the aliens. Besides, the aliens themselves seem to have gotten tired themselves a couple of hours back and stopped saying much," Prisha answered as he looked down at a camera screen beside him. He had placed the actual hidden camera to keep an eye on the security room, but the resolution was good enough to barely see the aliens in the screen within a screen. "Corey was meant to inform me if there is any change in their behaviors. Other than that, I hadn't had much fresh air."

"Speaking of which, it should be your shift soon enough," Prisha continued looking at the screen seeing that even Corey is beginning to get grouchy. "After waking Ian up to keep watch over the mountains, Serri should be waking up herself soon enough. I need you to keep an eye on her."

"Can you be anymore paranoid Prisha? She didn't sell us out the day we escaped Team Supreme's base did she?" Rina sighed. "Wonder how you could live without the Occult Society and distrusting everyone you see."

"My life from age eight to twelve," Prisha quickly said he even kept trying to tell himself not to trust anyone even from the Occult Society. "Besides, recent events doesn't prove Serri's loyalty. They may even have been counting on us to escape the shelter."

"In terms of learning about the aliens, we're ahead of Team Supreme, but this is the ideal moment for Serri to feed them information," Prisha said still looking at the screen. "And the best way to do so would be to send footage of the aliens in their containment room."

Prisha had checked the lab well enough to know how the place worked and the only way to get copies of the footage is in the security room. Fortunately, he made sure no one yet had touched the keys enough to do so.

Special Thanks to phantom130 5 :)

References include: Final Fantasy, Star Wars.


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Chapter 17: CXVII: Alien Languages for Dummies
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Behold! The shortest chapter I will probably ever have XD.

The next day started out rather systematic and repetitive as Rina returned to the lab, saving yet another town from an alien attack, not even tough ones either. She went into the security room complaining, "Saving towns, keeping a look out, what's new from yesterday? Even those aliens on the screen seemed to have stopped doing anything."

"Well they were interacting a little before," Serri replied to Rina. "Though it seems they got tired all over again."

"I only need a bit more information before I could figure out enough to understand what they say," Prisha was writing on his notes without losing the scrutiny of his surroundings. "We may need to bring in another comrade for those aliens but not just any. We would need to catch one of the elite classes. We do have a vague understanding of what they're supposed to be."

"Though neither me, Corey or Ian ran into any the past few towns we saved," Rina shrugged, however she spoke too soon, as Corey had burst through the door.

"Hey guys! Something's actually happening outside!" Corey smiled and lead his team out to see that a horde of aliens found and surrounded the lab. In front of most of them seemed to be one with a large round face with arms and legs on its side and the red star on its head.

"Okay... this many," Rina looked around trying to decide on the first move. "And Ian's assigned to protect the civilian shelter, so he's not with us."

"I'll take this guy," Corey got ready to fight the alien with the red star. "You two handle the small fries."

Once they all got to their assigned task, the elite alien had opened its mouth to release a wide spray of needles. Corey tried to dodge, but it was hopeless. The attack just covered too much range and stabbed each of his limbs. Afterward, he got up as quickly as he can.

"Force Blast!" The attack blasted from Corey's fist and knocked back the alien. This opponent was strong and would've been more trouble, but Corey had gotten much stronger than before from his fight with Jam. After getting back up, the alien itself was also still able to get up and fire another spray of needles. Knowing he can't dodge it, Corey awakened his PSI further for a second stage ability. "Force Wall!"

After the needles were stopped by the barrier, Corey only needed to fire one more force blast to know the alien down. It was still a tiring fight though, Corey breathed out, "phew."

VWVVW

While Rina fought through the horde of weaker aliens, another elite one had caught her by surprise and whacked her into a wall. She had to act quickly and get out of this corner before the alien can take advantage of it. So she countered by running through it with her sword.

Looking back now, she can see the alien looked to be quite related to the kind Eden had fought, save for it having three horns on its head. Rina can also see that it has regenerative powers as the wounds made from Rina's sword is fading and the alien looked healthier again.

Regenerative powers huh, Rina thought. She remembered that in order to beat such an opponent is to not give them time to use those powers. Rina wasn't sure she would be able to exhaust all her energy at once, but she had to try. So with the use of one of the higher hills on the mountains, Rina jumped high into the air, "Arrow Summon!"

Rina fired an array of arrows down at the alien from the bow materialized in her hand until she's empty. Afterward, she materialized a blade to cut down on it instead, "Sword Summon!"

"Dagger Summon!" Rina created daggers to attack the alien more rapidly and when it looks like it's about to fall, she stabbed it with her last weapon. "Spear Summon!"

Now that the alien is finished, Rina wiped her forehead saying, "whew... I think I'm getting used to this."

"Yeah maybe you should next learn to remember that we only just discussed needing an elite class alien alive," Prisha appeared frowning. "You just mentioned how hard they are to come by haven't you?"

"Right..." Rina sweat dropped. "Sorry about that."

"Hey I caught a red star alien!" Corey called out to show off the needle alien from before that he managed to get in a cage. "I did!"

"You might as well carve the words on the back of your hand," Prisha continued scolding Rina. "How about the next time you mistakenly kill another alien with a red star?"

"Hey! I got a red star alien right here!" Corey kept trying to get some attention.

"I think Prisha just likes to scold people," Serri sweat dropped.

VWVVW

Hours later, after analysing more of the alien's behaviour, Prisha decided to try and figure the rest out from his notes. After finishing dinner Serri entered to ask, "So any good?"

"We have all the information we're going to get from them," Prisha answered and decided to take a little break, taking a pensive look at the puzzle piece he taken out in his hand. "They got quiet but this time it's different. They're not just tired, they obviously figured out we're researching them and decided to shut up even with any stimulus."

He was able to translate enough to get a similar result to what you would find on Geegle translate though, so that's progress. Serri then crept up to take a look at the ornament in Prisha's hand, "You know, I remember Ian having a puzzle piece much like that."

"Come to think of it," Serri continued as Prisha pocketed the piece and turned to her frowning. Serri then said rather teasingly, "the two of you are actually a little similar."

"Don't you ever say that again!" Prisha snapped and turned away furiously. "I don't even want to be compared to that fool!" Wondering what he did wrong to seem like Ian. "He's disgusting! He's reckless! He's self righteous! He's-"

"Stubborn?" Serri had uttered the last word at the same time Prisha did who turned to her looking confused. "Well that's at least one area you're similar in!"

"You and Ian, also have a much more caring side for your friends you try to hide," Serri continued rather sincerely. "Yes, you do have many differences on the surface but I believe you actually share many deeper values."

"It's only too bad your mutual stubbornness only allows you to see each other's faults."

"...," After a moment, Prisha frowned, having enough with the sentiment. "We're digressing! We talked enough for the night!"

"By tomorrow, I will have finished the translation for the extraterrestrial language and that will be what you'll work on for the day," Though, that means from tomorrow onward, Prisha would need to scrutinize Serri more than ever.

VWVVW

On the next with Team Supreme, Isaac, Eden and Fuuma were once again grouped up to fight off aliens at a town. Fuuma had waved the handle of the Relic Shuriken to be able to control it spinning rapidly at a distance and circled him to destroy all surrounding aliens at once, "Cyclone Blade!"

Eden was taking more time elegantly dodging the various alien's attacks in order to lure them around him before awakening to the feeling of his PSI to an incredibly high level before calling on the attack, "Deadly Forest!"

Trees with sharp branches risen around Eden to stab through the whole horde of aliens with Eden sitting on top of one of the branches sneering down at the alien remains, "There's no need to feel ashamed of your defeat. I am Eden after all."

After finishing all but one more of the army, Isaac had to face off against a lion like alien of the elite class. It charged at Isaac but the attack was evaded, "Shuriken Summon!"

Almost a dozen shuriken had hit the alien, but after it got back up, it seemed to fade from vision, seeming like Isaac was just standing there on his own. He then dodged an incoming attack which left a cut on his left cheek. "I see, so your power is invisibility is it?"

"Too bad for you," Isaac's PSI aura had taken an unusual shift and if you look carefully, a strange glow can be seen behind his blindfold. After dodging another attack from the invisible alien, he summoned another set of shuriken to finish it off. "That trick is useless against me!"

After the alien's physical form returned to view, Isaac could see that the job here is done, "You did well Eden, for predicting the alien's pattern of attack."

"Of course it's no surprise," Eden jumped down from the tree and flicked his hair.

"However, the our base will soon be full of civilians," Fuuma reported to Isaac. "How do you suppose we deal with this?"

"Through these weeks of our mission, we had grown stronger and learned much about the aliens and how they fight," Isaac smirked. "Maybe it's about time we take the fight to them..."

Well the arc is coming to an end. I think I might be overloading it with short alien fights though.


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Chapter 18: Chapter XVIII: Poor Communication Kills
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The four kids of Team Freakshow now sat on the seats of the large presentation hall watching Serri up front. It's now time for her to show the alien translating device, "Okay so it took all of yesterday going through Prisha's notes and everything, But I finally finished with the alien translators."

She then smiled and pulled an object out of a box next to her, "Tadaa!"

"Aww that's so CUTE!" Rina exclaimed with sparkly eyes seeing the teddy bear mask in Serri's hand. Corey just looked curious while Prisha and Ian had a flat expression.

"Now all we have to do is head to the containment room and test it out," Serri beamed and gestured Prisha to come forward. "Well it's all thanks to a certain blue haired genius, so would he be the first to volunteer and try it out?"

"In what alternate universe?" Prisha said flatly.

"Fine!" Serri pouted and reached back into the box again. "If you don't like this model, I have made other versions of this device."

"And this one is... the Prisha chibi face edition!" Serri pulled out another mask to show everyone, which as the name suggests looks like Prisha's round oversized head, complete with his annoyed frown. The real Prisha as expected is getting even more annoyed at this.

"Cool! I Let me give it a try!" Corey got up enthusiastically to walk down the hall to Serri. He even took a look inside the box to see what other models there were but decided to stick with the chibi Prisha. Corey decided to get into an arms folded position first. "I gotta try this out."

"Isn't it obvious?" Corey said while rolling his eyes and flicked his head to the side. However, he found that after his voice passed a microphone, the sound was mixed into what seemed like another language. Prisha was the only one who understood it and continued being annoyed.

Corey took off the mask to take a look and saw the microphone and ear piece within the mask with what looks like switches. Serri approached and said, "Oh yeah, I forgot there's a switch to turn the translator on and off. There should be one for the ear piece as well."

After figuring how to switch it, Corey tried the impersonation again, "Isn't it obvious?"

Despite this actually being a retry, everyone other Prisha couldn't help laughing. However, they mucked around enough and it's time to head to the containment room. Once they were in front of the door, Prisha shot a glance at Serri, "Even without the device, you do know I have a general idea of the alien's language don't you?"

Once they opened the door, Corey with the mask slowly approached then lent out a hand to the needle alien, "Hey, nice fight the other day."

"What is this trickery?" The alien spoke as it's voice is converted to English in Corey's ear piece. It then opened its mouth to spray needles again. But Corey managed to defend it with a Force Wall.

"Wait wait!" Rina got up and snatched the mask from Corey and wore it herself to speak to the alien. "Listen, maybe if we talk we can reach an agreement."

"Just hear me out..."

VWVVW

Team Supreme save for Fidi, Eden and Fuuma, are now on their way to the Graman fields to where the asteroids crashed but not before bumping into another horde of aliens. It was mainly Clara who took out the small fries by pressing her palm on the ground channeling her PSI into it and cause earth spikes to erupt and strike the aliens, "Rise of Gaia!"

"Clara seems to be doing well on her own," Isaac commented. "But how about Rachel?"

Rachel is in battle with an elite class only slightly less bulky than the one Prisha fought almost a week ago. Rather than a right hand, it seems to have a giant shield able to cover its entire form. Rachel tried to challenge it by serving a flame shot but as it crashed into the shield, the alien wouldn't budge. The shield had even fended the ball back to Rachel's direction.

The other hand of the alien seemed to have a hole in its palm. Rachel found out it was a cannon hole she had to dodge while the alien aimed and fired at her. At the next available opportunity, Rachel went for another attack, "Flame Shot!"

The fiery ball had rocketed off Rachel's racket but after it bounced off the alien's shield, Rachel hit it again. The alien still held up the shield to try defending again but was blasted from the side by a burning tennis ball. "Flame Serpent!"

While the alien fell, Isaac explained like a commentator, "a rather interesting weapon the Relic Racket is. In addition to its elemental abilities, the fact that it's a racket makes it very capable of different techniques you see in tennis, such as adding sidespin to bypass an enemy's defence."

"So shall we get going?" Mark cheered, flexing his muscles. "THE MARKSTER WANTS MORE ACTION!"

"Jam!" Jam and the others agreed and they soon reached the Graman fields and can see the alien's base up ahead. The group decided to hide behind the hills and whispered a bit before approaching.

"I see this is a very precarious mission- OW!" Isaac was clobbered by Rachel before finishing. Once recovered he continued whispering. "What I mean is let's not rush in and once we get closer, be as quiet as you can because from what I see- OW!"

"Just let me finish it," Rachel whispered after clobbering Isaac again. "We'll get into the best position to ambush. Until then, keep quiet."

But unbeknownst to the group an elite class alien was unfortunately happened to have their way from behind. Jam however noticed it first and turned to see that the alien had blasted a flaming red rock at them. He reacted by channelling his PSI to summon a wall of strong wind. "Jam!"

"JAAAAAAMMMM!" The red glowing projectile was reactive enough to explode on impact with the wall of wind, surrounding Jam with searing hot pain.

"Jam chan!" Clara called out worried and running to his side. "Are you okay desu?"

"LET THE MARKSTER HANDLE THIS!" Mark roared seeing the alien to have the red star on its chest. It's mostly humanoid but large at eight feet tall and has a crocodile like head with a long snout.

"Jam!" Jam insisted on continuing the fight as he got up and approached the alien. Before he had to react quickly, but now he can concentrate to summon a much more powerful tornado wall. "JAAAAAAMMM"

Jam ran with the tornado right at the alien, cutting it with razor wind and blasting it back. That wasn't enough to defeat the alien however as it got back up and opened its mouth to blast out another glowing red rock.

"JAAAAMM!" Jam fell again from the pain of the explosion. Not even the tornado at its strongest could protect him. Jam was beginning to lose hope before realising, the those meteor like attacks are strongest because they're reactive. What if he doesn't focus on stopping them? Not just relying on brute force.

The other's must also get prepared to fight the other aliens that surely heard the sound of the explosion. Jam continues fighting the elite alien by channelling his PSI again to harness the power of wind. But this time, the alien fired another meteor like rock. Jam was able to dodge it and used softer but strong wind to blow it around and guide it back at the snout alien and explode.

"NICE ONE JAMSTER!" Mark congratulated, seeing Jam knock down the alien. As the alien got up, Jam prepared to deal the finishing blow with a typhoon.

"Hold it!" Someone jumped in the front of the alien and put their hand in front toward Jam to stop him. It was Rina wearing the teddy bear mask from before.

"Jam?" Jam just stood there looking confused seeing Corey, Ian, Prisha and another elite class also exiting the forest behind the alien.

"Oh look, we pissed them off so bad they turned against humanity," Rachel remarked seeing Rina and the other alien talking with the snout alien.

"Will you quiet it down?" Isaac hushed Rachel. "I'm trying to see what they're saying."

"Doesn't even know his own senses anymore..." Rachel just gave him an annoyed look.

"Actually it turns out his whole incident was one giant misunderstanding," The Occult Manager Byst appeared next to the members of Team Supreme with a bird nest on his head. He was there along with the scientist Serri. "We will elaborate later but your rival team had managed to translate the alien's language."

"In less than a week?" Clara said with doubt. "Masaka!"

"Just find out for yourself," Rina approached them winking and handing over the translation device.

After conversing with the aliens, Mark took off the mask and gave his team thumbs up, "THE MARKSTER APPROVED!"

Everyone just sweat dropped.

VWVVW

Rina and Prisha are now back at the lab in the mountains talking to Byst who told them, "Well this would make paying a little difficult. I suppose we could try quantifying how many people you saved by the number of aliens though, so I better count them."

"It does seem like you and Team Supreme were competing for some time so there's one part I'll be better off not mentioning to them," Byst continued then congratulated. "Your credit for allowing us to learn more about these aliens and possibly gain their alliance will pay off, The Occult Society is very appreciated."

"And we from the Lorieth government helped too right?" Serri called out from the side. "You know what that means!"

"Of course," Byst nodded then turned to Prisha. "I'm impressed by how you were able to work out their language to reason with them."

"I wasn't counting on reasoning with them," Prisha folded his arms grumpily. "It's just more efficient fighting them if we heard more of their battle tactics."

"Well I will speak to yours and Team Supreme's clients," Byst bowed to say goodbye for now. "We'll meet to talk again tomorrow at the cafe in Lolo town."

"Tomorrow... wait tomorrow that's right!" Rina panicked as she ran off to another area of the facility. "I still haven't packed my belongings!"

She made it to the dormitory finding Ian there as well, lying on a bed. Seeing her enter, he asked, "Hey, so it turns out that all these people died because of a misunderstanding huh."

"Looks like your memory's improving," Rina remarked while packing her stuff.

"Reminds me of things I've been doing a few years back," Ian continued. "Sorry Rina and thanks for showing me."

"You said that already hadn't you?" Rina stopped to look at him strangely. Before joining The Occult Society, Ian was recruited as a boy soldier for a corrupted government that needed blind loyalty from its recruits. Obviously that experience had a huge impact on him.

"I killed from misunderstanding even to those I spoke the same language with," Ian muttered bitterly. "You're right about me being too simpleminded."

"Well... you've taken your first step to getting better haven't you?" Rina smiled nervously. This seems to be Ian at his most thoughtful, it was definitely strange.

VWVVW

Back at the forest shelter, Isaac had entered the dormitory Eden resides, "So you've heard? I see our rivals had found a way to catch up to us. We won't know the result though until Byst tells us tomorrow, so what do you think?"

"Well if anyone did set us back," Eden replied confidently. "We know who to blame don't we Isaac?"

"That little Prisha..." Isaac intentionally changed the subject. "It was due to him that they were able to decipher language I can guess."

"From what I remember seeing, you and him were one of the few in history who ever got maximum scores on the intelligence test back at the academy," Isaac recalled. "And that level of ingenuity is one no more than ten living people can possess at one time."

"True," Eden smirked proudly. "I'll also look forward to truly putting our minds to the test one day."

"We would also need to be heading off after this mission," Isaac switched the topic again. "Meaning we will have to somehow ditch the fan club you developed at this shelter."

"True," Eden slightly laughed. "But don't expect the peace and quiet you hoped for would last for long."

VWVVW

The next day, the group from the lab headed to Lolo town where they parted ways with Serri, all waving goodbye until the next time they meet. As the remaining four walked in the direction of the cafe, Rina smiled at Prisha, "looks like someone got paranoid for no reason."

"It's a system, always considering possible threats," Prisha returned the teasing smile with a frown. "How else would I be alive until this day?"

They soon got to the Cafe where they met up with Byst, the needle alien who's name turned out to be Falm and the members of Team Supreme. They also brought another version of the translating device, that is now a speaker and microphone on the table.

"We had to evacuate our planet and landed on Earth," the alien explained. "Your race didn't make such a good first impression when some of them found us and started screaming and shooting."

"Ooh, the humans shot first," Corey remarked while sipping tea. "I like the message here."

"So that's how you thought our whole race was like?" Rina asked.

"I admit the generalization was a fault of my race," Falm answered. "There are evil Kreens just as good Kreens after all, that's the name of our race. From then, we were afraid you'd go kill us again and even who aren't want vengeance."

"Well, we damaged each other enough as it is and it's best not to let this cycle continue," Byst reasoned with the alien. "Let's hope to find a way to reconcile."

"Agreed," Falm replied happily.

"Now from my calculations, I worked out how much both your team's pay are going to be," Byst turned to everyone else at the meeting.

"Ooh the moment of truth desu," Clara waited excitedly along with everyone concentrating enough to hear every heart beat.

"Team Supreme will be payed eight thousand eight hundred Jouls!" Byst announced with the kids from Team Freakshow looking shocked.

"Ooh get ready to tell them in your face," Clara told Isaac gleefully.

"Ahem!" Byst interrupted to finish his announcement. "And Team Freakshow however will be rewarded eight thousand and eight hundred Jouls also."

Everyone in both teams had froze for a moment before exploding in shock, "WHAT? IT'S A TIE?"

"Who does that idiot think he is?" Fidi said in his Aries form bitterly with crossed arms. "Obviously he doesn't want to upset us and biased to make even the reward."

"But bias favouring who?" Rachel rolled her eyes.

"We may be tie in competing in a mission," Ian approached Eden with fist in front. "But let's see how you go in straight up combat!"

"I would enjoy making a fool out of you," Eden flicked his hair as usual. "But I'd rather not get my hands dirty, you see I just took a shower."

From the side, Isaac enjoyed the show and even considered getting popcorn, "I see the irony is how Eden really is afraid of Ian."

"Enough with the mission!" Rina stood up at maximum volume and pointed at the arcade across the cafe. "Let's see how you go at Cryptid Fighter!"

"Bring it on!" Clara accepted the challenge and both her and Rina seemed to have teleported right to the arcade and mash on the buttons and joy pad. Byst and Falm just watched the chaos around them and sweat dropped. At least all this will only last for one more day and they will all go different paths.

VWVVW

Not long after at some place distant, it was dark with only the purple flame at the centre of the room lighting it. Eight mysterious figures sat around it with large hooded black cloaks forming a circle.

"So it seems this Team Freakshow of the Occult Society had brought down crime syndicates such as the Incendis, the Disciples of Aevincere and came out victorious from the alien attack," One of them spoke up with a high and mighty voice.

"They are dangerous that is true," Another said more calmly. "But may also prove useful in our plans..."

.

And so ends another arc, let me know what you think. I have really big plans for the next arc though, I can guarantee it will be amazing even if it does start off slow. Missing it will be a sin. :D


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Chapter 19: Chapter XIX: The Valley of Dying Screams
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New arc begins! :D

I know the type of intro I used might be getting a little repetitive by now but the later parts are just so good it doesn't matter. Trust me, keep reading and you'll love this arc! ^^

Late at night within a valley, the Brystol Forest was dark and sinister, with malicious entities lurking in the shadowy corners. However, a speck of light can be seen much deeper within, where it turns out to be coming from a campfire of a strange couple sitting on opposite sides. One was a tall teenage boy rather generic looking with blonde hair sticking up. The other was a teenage girl with short straight black hair mostly pulled to one side over an ear and doe like eyes.

"So Alice you said you enjoy a romantic night camping in the woods right?" The boy smiled speaking from memory of what the girl named Alice had told her before. "So how are you enjoying yourself?"

"...," Alice thought of what to say. How much longer must she keep up this facade? A part of her is still telling herself to back out but she's not really meaning any harm is she? This boy is just needed to help a friend and he may even get off fine afterward. So Alice decided to look up saying, "Sorry Greg, just let me watch the stars for a moment..."

"Wow, so you're into that," Greg replied. "You know, with these rumours of this forest being dangerous, it's pretty stupid right? The others who disappeared probably just poked a bear they shouldn't have. I mean, we're doing fine here right?"

Alice only continued to contemplate on the sky. What is taking them so long? The voice telling her to back out is growing stronger than ever. Even for a friend is it still wrong? How many people have been sacrificed without results? Her thoughts were interrupted when she turned to hear a sound in the bushes. "What's that?"

"Don't worry baby," Greg got up to walk over confidently to the noise to check. "I'll show you it's nothing to get..."

Alice looked shocked seeing her date had mysteriously fell limply and she no longer stayed quiet, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

VWVVW

At a different time but not so far in space, Team Freakshow resided in Brystol town or rather the hotel to be precise. In the morning. The smell of pancakes had lured Rina from her dream as she slowly woke up and look around the apartment.

She could see that Ian was still asleep, Corey is elsewhere and Prisha was the one making breakfast. Trying to get started for the day, Rina got up and rubbed her eyes, "Hey, so it looks like Corey got up and early to go out on his own again?"

"All bets are off on the number of problems we'll have to fix when we have the energy," Prisha sighed as he placed the plates with the pancakes of the table.

It's been a while since the mission with the aliens and Rina and her friends had been wondering the Lorieth region. After tidying herself in the bathroom, she went out to take a seat and tried the pancake. But could only comment, "too cold..."

Prisha frowned a bit more before the door opened to reveal Coery returning, "Hey morning everyone!"

"Corey!" Rina exclaimed. "I'm surprised you didn't start a riot on your time out."

"Oh yah, that's because I was busy at the hideout for a while," Corey held up a document that seemed to be a mission paper.

"Uh..." Rina stopped to read the title. "Investigate the disappearances in the Valley of Dying Screams..."

"YOU DID NOT JUST ACCEPT IT!" Rina bursted out in shock.

VWVVW

Later in the morning, all four of them are now at the Brystol agency speaking to a lady named Emilia who had straight black hair, mostly knotted. Corey looked enthusiastic while Rina, Ian and Prisha had flat expressions.

"So... you want us to find out what happened to the people who disappeared in the forest in Brystol Valley..." Rina said monotonously. There should be a system for them to quit a mission they chose by mistake. But how many teams have a member like Corey?

"Yes, Brystol Valley, now known as the Valley of Dying Screams earned its reputation after certain people were reported missing passing the valley to cross to other towns," Emilia explained. "Even when they are accompanied by another and brought a communication device with them the signal is lost during the exploration."

"And they are never heard from again?" Ian assumed aloud.

"No, if you are close enough to the forest and listen very carefully, you can sometimes hear a scream some time after the signal is lost, hence the name," Emilia continued. "Even soldiers sent into the valley suffer the same fate."

"But you don't just have to investigate on foot do you?" Rina asked.

"No, but when we had someone fly a helicopter over, it seems to somehow get damaged and crashed after the signal was lost followed by the scream of those we sent in," Emilia said causing the expression of the teens to be even more lifeless. "Even when we had people dig a tunnel under the forest-"

"They returned and climbed out of the hole as lizard people!" Corey smiled widely.

Then after everyone finished face faulting, Ian got up and yelled, "At least let people finish their non random explanation!"

"..., right yes," Emilia went back to explaining after everyone has calmed down. "As I said even with people digging a tunnel under the forest, the last we heard of them was a scream."

Seeing as that was all Emilia had to say, Rina turned to her team to ask, "Any idea how to start investigating? Possible causes for the disappearances?"

"There is a really high probability it was humanly induced," Prisha said coldly. "Being calculated enough to cover air, ground and under."

"True, but who would be the suspects?" Rina sighed and scolded Corey. Maybe it's better if people just avoided the valley altogether and find another way to where they need to go. "You see, accepting a mission shouldn't always be the first step. There are background checks you could do and some missions are more reserved for people with the necessary abilities."

"Do you still have the mission paper with you?" Emilia asked causing the teens to turn back to her. "Maybe an adjustment would do better for us both."

Rina handed over the document as Emilia written something on it. Once it was handed back for the others to look at, they could see what has been changed and Rina pointed it out excitedly, "Ian! What does the mission paper say about the reward fee?"

"What?.. You mean nine thousand and one?.." Ian read out the fee and raised an eyebrow before Rina hit him over the head. "Ow!"

"That's not how it's supposed to go!" Rina yelled at him.

"The town will reward you better if you could solve the whole issue," Emilia said. She just can't seem to make up her mind. "But I will pay you if you can just save my daughter!"

"Your daughter?" The four occultists asked simultaneously.

"The truth of the matter is that people have gone missing in the valley for months," Emilia explained but the subject was rather touchy. "But about a month ago Alice secretly went out into the forest with a boy and gone missing. My daughter, who is also the daughter of the head governor, who indeed is my husband."

"Our daughter's disappearance had motivated him to use more resources to find the source of the problem, until now that is. Too much money had been invested so it was best to make the area off limits. So as you can see, I turned here for help."

"The last resort agency," Corey smiled and sweat dropped. "I feel so special."

"Please, just do anything you can to bring Alice back to me!" Emilia said emotively. "If it's the fee we can still bargain."

"No the fee is ridiculous high enough as it is," Rina replied then smiled both with both a hint of confidence and sincerity. "Just leave it to us."

VWVVW

A few hours later, the occult kids found themselves on the outskirts of Brystol with the forest ahead of them. Corey jumped around like crazy, "Yay! You guys ready to explore the forest of mystery?"

"I'll just like to make double certain," Prisha said a little further from the forest. "We had done all the background research we can haven't we?"

"I'm afraid so, the only practical course of action left is to enter the forest," Rina sighed. "I mean, I looked up some important people dying a few months back. But it likely a coincidence and I couldn't find any links between them and the problem."

"I did also look up on the people who disappeared and found this," Rina took out a photo for the others to look at seeing a teenage girl with short straight black hair and doe eyes. "That's the governor's daughter, Alice."

Ian whistled enjoying the view saying, "You know, I'm carrying little enough for another photo- OW!"

Rina just punched him away. Ready to enter the forest, Corey asked enthusiastically, "So what do you think is in the valley anyway?"

"Death traps if not people set to ambush us?" Prisha answered bluntly. Also, he wondered what the culprit's motives were. For keeping people away from an area they sure are drawing a lot of attention to it.

"Possible death traps could involve, pit holes, spikes or poison gas," Rina thought about it aloud. "At least land mines would be impossible since people would have heard the explosion."

"You three could there scared all you want," Ian started walking into the forest. "We waited long enough."

Rina and Corey were about to follow, But Prisha had laid out his arm to stop them. Seeing how confused his friends are, Prisha reluctantly explained, "It's a strategic formation to minimize the casualty of death traps by having a safe distance between each of us."

"Wider spread death traps take more resources after all, making them less probably," Prisha made sure Ian was at least twenty feet ahead before entering himself along with Rina and Corey. "If Ian was to foolishly step on something, I would see it to inform you two and the worst case scenario is if the trap swallows both me and Ian and the two of you will survive and be warned."

"Wait, you're going after Ian?" Rina asked. She was sure that would be the second most dangerous position.

"Yes, we don't have much time to decide the order so let's stick with it," Prisha said quickly while staying vigilant. Ian most suited for the front with his durability, being the most likely to survive a trap. So if that's dealt with then what they need to be most on the alert with is an ambush. "After I finish talking, I want you two to wait until I'm twenty feet ahead."

"There you two can decide who falls last on the order," Prisha finished and kept walking ahead of Corey and Rina. He also remembered to take out his phone, seeing when it may lose transmission.

"Okay just be careful," Rina whispered and waited for Prisha to be far enough ahead. She then turned to Corey saying, "Right now we have to decide who goes next."

"Already did!" Corey's voice called out behind Rina who turned to see him waving at her twenty feet back.

"Wha?"

VWVVW

It wasn't easy having to do so much at once while walking in the forest. Keeping an eye on Ian, often looking at his phone and staying alert for anyone who can ambush him. At least it wasn't as difficult as scrutinizing the aliens in his last mission, so he's more used to it. However, he wondered how the other two behind him were putting up with it.

He hadn't checked his phone for a while, so he tried doing so and found it stopped working. It may be due to an electrical jamming device somewhere around but this is the time to be extra vigilant. Ian hasn't stepped on any traps yet but there still may be someone out to ambush them.

Hearing an unusual sound in the forest beside him, Prisha managed to jump in time to dodge what looked like a dart. He managed to take a closer look to see more precisely that it's a tranquilizer dart. In order to warn the others, he cursed, "Damn it! Tranquilizer darts!"

"Prisha!" Rina ran to his side to look around for where the attack came from. Corey had also reached the area.

"Force Wall!" Call had conjured the barrier just in time to fend off more incoming darts. It's at least more clear now where they're coming from. The group looked to see how Ian is doing and he looked confused.

"Hey what are you all doing?" He called out and just barely evaded a dart from his side.

"Ian come one!" Rina called out. "Corey's barrier could shield us!"

But Corey didn't think he needed to anymore. He figured out the precise location the darts had come from. So he brought down the barrier to charge at that direction saying, "Leave it to me!"

"Corey!" Rina called shocked at the loss of the refuge from the tranquilizers. "You know some of us still need a defence!"

But it didn't seem to matter much. The tranquilizer sniper seems to be aiming entirely on Corey now, who need to evade them by moving side to side as randomly as he could. But even that trick won't be of assurance once he got to a dangerous range. So he fired a Force Blast, not at the sniper, but at a small hill between him and Corey to create a smoke screen.

The sniper was caught off guard by this. Now all he can do is keep his eyes on the cloud of smoke and where that brat can escape from, such as the sides. Soon, the boy emerged and it turned out he picked up a tranquilizer dart and threw it at the sniper.

Trying to evade it, the dart hit the sniper on the arm. Then before he could lose his coordination, he aimed the tranquilizer at the red headed boy to shoot him on the arm.

Corey decided he'll need to throw the remaining two tranquilizers he picked up as well at the sniper and eventually knocked him out. The dart was already taking effect on Corey, even with his training to fight off this kind of intoxication. But as drowsy as he may be getting, he needed to look around.

The sniper, now passed out, seemed to be a man in his twenties, with blonde hair, mostly flat, but spiked on the sides. Corey then heard Rina's voice call out behind him, "Corey! Wait up!"

Rina and Prisha managed to make it through the smoke to see how Corey is doing but at the cost of breathing a little hard from rushing.

"Give me a time to breath will you?" Ian also made it through. But a little far as he leaped past Corey. He then bumped into what seemed like an invisible wall and fell back. "Ow!"

"Hey! Watch where you're jumping Mullet!" It seemed like air had just adopted a playful boyish voice. But the four teens knew they heard it before and looked around at the area it's coming from.

"Yosuke you simpleton," Another voice spoke, this one sounded rather calm with a care free kind of tone. "Say if Ian was watching where he was going, would he be able to see you?"

"Yosuke... and Lucir!" Rina recognized the voices, who are in fact very high authority in the Occult Society known as Sages. But still she looked around wondering, "But where are they coming from?"

"Looks like there's no longer any point in hiding huh," Yosuke's voice laughed.

"Indeed, you at least," Lucir replied. "Mitsu! Remove your powers from Yosuke!"

Then came into view a man who was supposedly in his early thirties but looked a lot younger. One can actually mistake him for an older teenage punk with bright playful eyes. He stood about five foot seven wearing a cap that keeps most of his messy black hair down and most of his gear seemed to be sports brands such as his jacket and tracksuit.

"Yosuke!" Rina exclaimed. "So Lucir and Mitsu must still be invisible right?"

"Yes, but I think you'd rather act like I'm the only one here for now," Yosuke smiled while Corey was losing strength to stay up, from his victory over the sniper. Yosuke noticed this asked him, "Hey, you alright there buddy?"

"Not...sure...," Corey managed before he fell to his knees.

"Corey you did well, just have your rest okay?" Yosuke knelt down to tell him. With all his energy, Corey looked up at him. Yosuke was actually his most prominent mentor back at the academy, naturally as they have similar powers and Yosuke being quite childish sometimes. But Corey could think no more as he blacked out and Yosuke caught him. "Let the rest of us handle it from here ."

"Now someone carry the sniper over there and all follow me as quiet as you can," Yosuke lifted Corey to carry him on his back. "I'll explain later, but maybe we can all get something out of this."

It was decided that Ian would do carry the unconscious sniper and they all followed Yosuke.

VWVVW

Elsewhere in a more mysterious depth of the valley within a security room, shadowy entities in lab coats watched the surveillance screens of the occultists and their exit from the scene.

"Interesting, those fools sent another team to investigate the valley," The figure in front had spoken up. "However, these seem to be much more competent in more ways than one."

"I heard of them," Another spoke up. "Someone at Brystol must have hired the Occult Agency."

"Yes, a team of supernatural specialists," The one who seems to be the leader spoke again. "Let's see which of us will rise in a test of power..."

VWVVW

"Wait they had hidden cameras there?" Rina asked as she and her friends walked through the forest.

"Yeah Pigtails, if you looked carefully enough, but they are wired due to the electronic jamming," Yosuke explained while Rina got annoyed by the nickname. "It's not likely they also had microphones, the fact that our talking didn't lure them out also supports it. But it was best to stay safe."

"Brains and Mystery Boy are currently invisible behind us on the lookout for stalkers," Yosuke then noticed Rina is now looking around the corners of the woods for hidden cameras. He just smiled, "Calm down, we're out of their surveillance range, the reason I'm finally telling you all this."

"Speaking of which, I think it's also time we can search Sniper Boy over there," Yosuke turned and referred to the man on Ian's back as they started getting to work.

"I'm impressed you knew we were in the clear," Spoke the calm voice from before as he phased into vision. He stood about five foot ten and wore long black robes and had long bright blue flowing hair pulled back behind him. It was Lucir, even though him and Yosuke are about the same age, he only looked a little older and having contrasting calm pensive eyes.

Another more quiet man also came into vision. He's about the same height as Yosuke but more slender looking. His garments seem to be what you would see from china on earth, with the purple vest longer at the front and back with white long sleeves and pants. He had long blonde flowing wavy hair, half pulled back and the other covering half his face over his mysterious eyes bearing a murky ocean of purple.

"Mitsu!" Rinu exclaimed seeing the third member of Team Enigma then turned back to the one with long blue hair. The one who may very well be the current leader of the organization. "And Lucir, Head Sage of the Occult Society!"


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Chapter 20: Chapter XX: The Point of Origin
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Brystol Mountains lies close to the valley and the town and at a less prominent area, an Occult Society hideout resides. The very hideout the group from the Occult Society is searching for right now. While still carrying Corey, Yosuke looks around at the rocky walls and the greenery growing out of them, "Now, I remember the passage should be somewhere around here."

"Here we go!" He exclaimed as he found the flower that he only needed to take out the Key Seed to activate. The rock wall then shifted to reveal a slight opening and the group only had to enter to find the corridor with a steel door at the end.

Prisha, Rina and Ian looked around. Much like at the other hideouts, this corridor was lit with purple torches on the sides. Looking back at Yosuke and Lucir, they did have a hand in the choice of decoration. More reason why at first you wouldn't think they are suited for sage position. Sure the design is pretty, but it made them seem more suited as a cliché villain group.

But as the group walked closer to the door, they found what makes this hideout different, hearing a strange sound coming from behind the door. Once they enter, they found it to be party music with flashing lights like they just entered a nightclub. Puzzled, Rina asked the sages, "You sure a hideout is supposed to be like this?"

"Well, Occult Managers spend most of the day here working with documents," Lucir smiled. "Sometimes they don't work as efficiently when they're bored. Anders is a strange case who has been performing better when he began this routine. As long as he keeps it down enough so people out in the mountains can't hear and we can always request him to turn it down where and when we need it."

"Hey Team Enigma and some other kids!" A strange man with black star shaped hair and sunglasses approached them quite annoying Rina, Prisha and Ian. The man then saw Corey and someone unfamiliar on Ian's back, "So what kind of adventures have you been through this time?"

"Oh the guy over there was a sniper," Yosuke said. Come to think of it, Rina thought, would more members of Team Enigma be here for her to meet someone again?

"Ooh, sounds exciting," The man then nudged at Lucir. "So I guess any other team in your place would have been dead, eh Lucir?"

"Actually Anders, he used a tranquilizer rifle," Lucir smiled and dropped Anders' spirit but only briefly.

"Well all the most exciting missions usually start slow doesn't it?" Anders smiled.

"Well, this hideout has a quieter dining room where the others are wai- ow! Ow! Ow!" Before he could finish, Yosuke felt a pinching pain on his left ear.

"Yosuke, you only needed to carry Corey until we got to the hideout didn't you?" It turned out to be Lucir who pinched him, smiling insidiously. You can tell he was itching at it for a while.

"Okay okay!" Yosuke then went off to find a bench or something where he could let Corey down while muttering. "Sage of nagging, we only had been here for barely a minute."

"Yes, as you heard him say though, the rest of us should head to the dining room, follow me," Anders said as they walked across the hall and as they entered the dining room, they found two people noticing them.

One was a man who's older than Lucir and Yosuke but looked closer to his age. He had black hair tied into a low ponytail and a pair of glasses, Akira Shiomi. Rina rushed forward to embrace him at their long awaited reunion, "Daddy! So how has your time with Team Enigma been?"

"Let's just say I hope your group wasn't as rowdy," Akira smiled softly at Rina.

"Actually, I think I'm just as weird as they are," Rina smiled back as they both laughed.

"Akira has got such a nice greeting but no one's happy to see me," The other man in the room sulked curled up. He's clearly the oldest of his group, with some greying hair and a goatee, David.

"Oh come on gramps," Yosuke smiled as he found where his friends are meeting up. "Of course we're happy to see you. It's just a father daughter reunion thing you know?"

"Something I would never achieve," David sulked.

"I'm sure you can if you tried," Yosuke scratched the back of his head. "This is going to take a while."

After that everyone decided to take a seat to talk while eating rice Akira made. Soon Ian placed the sniper on the bench and turned back to ask, "So what's the story? You guys got the same mission as we do?"

"That's not very likely," Anders said. "We only assign multiple teams to a mission on emergency really. Besides, sages are usually busier with missions of higher rankings and often classified. The case of the Valley of Dying Screams can potentially reach that status but for now it's equivalent to many missing person's case."

"I must say however," Lucir told Prisha, Rina and Ian. "We have been informed of your endeavour with extraterrestrial visitors, which do come close to a sage ranked mission. I offer you my congratulations."

"But to answer your question, our mission required us to track someone down and the investigation led us here," Akira stated. He seemed to be the more serious of his team.

"Right so that's how we'll benefit each other, two birds with one stone," Rina exclaimed then thought of how they could investigate the case now. She turned to look at the knocked out sniper, "So what? Do we interrogate him first?"

"No, the thing about interrogation is that pre known information could be useful in swaying the subject to telling the truth," Lucir discussed. "There are other areas we can investigate for now. So we can keep him sedated at the necessary amount. A day will be our limit in order to maintain his health."

"So what will we do? Investigate the forest again?" Rina questioned.

"What's so hard about that? I could handle another sniper easily!" Ian said confidently.

"Who said it will be another sniper?" Prisha criticized. "Actually the fact we escaped will more likely cause the culprits to step up a notch."

"Well, we do have Mitsu," David suggested.

VWVVW

Back in the depths of the valley, the mysterious figures in lab coats meet in the security room to discuss the situation. One of them spoke, "So do you believe Gavriel has given us away?"

"It is more likely he would lie to his interrogators for now," The figure that seemed to be the leader spoke up. He had long dark straggly hair. "But we will be ready for them."

"Even if they enter to quickly escape, that is where I could be of use wouldn't I?" A feminine figure spoke up. She seemed to be the only one wearing normal clothes without a lab coat.

"Yes, in that case however, we will not need every one of them alive," The straggly haired figure continued as he watched the screens of both the facility and the forest. They now have an enemy with the power of invisibility it wasn't easy to keep an eye on everything for a shift in the environment. "We must send a necessary force to have them believe they got off with their own abilities."

"Sir, forgive me for speaking up," One of the figures approached the straggly haired one. "But maybe this is a sign we should stop what we're doing. After all, maybe we can get the Occult Agency to help us instead. I know, no cure was found in Lorieth science but their successes were said to be works of miracles."

"We would need to abide by their ways then," Another figure had spoken. "If that's the case, are you suggesting we gamble on these so called miracles?"

"But how many people have we sacrificed until now?" The earlier figure replied. "Master wouldn't want this!"

"And that is why he's dead and unable to help!" The straggly haired figure turned around menacingly. "Master had raised us teaching us everything he knew! However, his fatal flaw was being too soft!"

"That is why we won't only follow in master's footsteps," The leader turned back to the screens with his coat billowing dramatically. "But go further than he ever had, our plans will prevail!"

VWVVW

"Hey!" Yosuke called out to Rina who was leading a group in Brystol Forest later that afternoon. "Don't go too far so we enter their surveillance zone Pigtails!"

"It's Rina!" She called back furiously and went back at looking at the map and the areas where Team Enigma said they found the cameras. Other members of the group included Lucir, Prisha and Mitsu. "By the way, should we really be entering with this large of a group?"

"Collectiveness," Mitsu finally spoke but it only raised Rina's eyebrow.

"Oh that's right," Yosuke laughs. "Even when Mystery Boy does speak, he's not so great at answering questions."

"I think what Mitsu means is that we will work together best if as many of us have the idea of the scene as possible," Lucir explained calmly. "Of course, five of us entering the forest is quite a gamble, we won't be there for as long so it would be the optimal in risk and reward. Though Mitsu would need to expend quite a bit more energy to bless us all with invisibility."

"Yeah just try not to move things around you too much, like step on an area with too much grass," Yosuke added. "Also, it would be harder to keep track of where everyone is."

"No worries Pigtails, just place a hand on my shoulder when we begi- OW!" Yosuke was clobbered by Lucir over the head.

"Oh Yosuke, why would you want that?" Lucir smiled insidiously again. "We'll use a rope. Mitsu, you can make it invisible too right?"

VWVVW

Back at the base, Corey finally got up and looked around to see Ian, David and Akira around. When David saw him, he spoke, "Welcome back, so did you have a nice dream?"

"Of course you did, so much that I'll be jealous," David went into sulking mode again.

Corey smiled and sweat dropped as Akira informed him on the situation. Soon the rest of the gang had also returned and they had another meeting. Rina had placed the map on the table and explained pointing at it, "So tracing our footsteps, we found the camera that must have caught us is right here and the sniper must have rushed to this point right afterward to take us out."

"And why are we chatting about this when we should be storming every bit of the forest to find where those guys are hiding?" Ian asked in a bored manner.

"Because, it would be more efficient if we actually get an idea of where their base would be and focus there," Lucir explained with his usual calmness. "First we can figure out the sniper's point of origin before the time you four were seen and he got into position."

"What? We're gonna ask a genie?" Ian raised a brow.

"No, with common sense you fool!" Prisha criticized. "If the sniper attacked me from your left, it's not likely he travelled from your right."

"Yes Grumpy, also the sniper attacked from distance north from where you were," Yosuke contributed to the discussion. His team also had already checked every area outside the surveillance zone already so if there's a base, it had to be there. "We weren't far north from where he was, so if his point of origin was even further north, we probably would have seen him."

"Blah north blah north blah north blah borth," Ian sweat dropped. It was bad enough with just his own team.

"So we ruled out the area right from Ian and the area north from the sniping point," Rina reviewed what they just went through, but was still left dazed. "That still leaves half the surveillance zone to check."

"Actually no, you witnessed it before haven't you?" Lucir explained. "The forest had twists and turns and the sniper would need to move around some trees and hills. It's also likely he was familiar with them."

"However..." He then pointed to an area on the map a little south west from the sniping point. "If the point of origin was west, the sniper would have come across a much better sniping point that's too ideal to turn down. Also, the concentrated bushes allow them to hide more efficiently and not much is in the way between them and the target. There isn't as much of an issue, east of the sniping point that doesn't intersect with Ian however."

"Wow Lucir," Corey was impressed as was Rina.

"To think I almost forgot how you gained your position as wisest of the sages," Rina said in awe. "However, I remember Mitsu's power can lose connection at a certain distance isn't that right?"

"So we'll have to pick a spot east from the sniping point, to keep a lookout for clues of the culprits," Rina looked back at the map.

"Two spots Rina," Akira softly smiled. "Mitsu isn't the only one who could blend in to the environment. Say hello to Scali..."

"Scali?.." The members of Team Freakshow stood confused. Ian included before he found something appeared out of thin air, sitting on his shoulder. He quickly threw it off, "Raaahh!"

That something appeared to be a blue lizard with flaps on its back much like wings. A little like a tiny dragon.

"Wow so that's Scali?" Rina knelt to take a closer look at the strange creature.

"Wow!" Corey also looked at Scali with fascination before turning to Akira curiously. "So how many more are in this room?"

"There's more?" Ian looked around determined not to let another lizard sit on his shoulder.

"There's no need to worry, Scali is a Scoutscale from the lizard family with the ability to camouflage," Akira explained. "They're also really intelligent and a valuable ally when tamed."

"Hmm..." Prisha had noticed something about recent events and took out one of the tranquilizers belonging to the sniper who attacked them earlier. "Say, what do you suppose the culprits wanted with those people who vanished?"

"You raised a good point," Akira replied. "At first one would assume they are trying to keep people away from something. But the tranquilizers found from the sniper actually suggest the opposite."

"Yes, the tranqs do imply that the culprits need the victims alive and some probably still are," Yosuke was also deep in thought. "But why is the real question here."

"Because the people who vanished were the ones behind it after all and only pretended to be victims?" Corey guessed.

"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard," Ian criticized.

"Actually he might not be far off," Prisha corrected. "However it's not likely everyone sent in there were in the plot. Some of the culprits may have pretended to be victims as an alibi for their disappearance."

"It was part of the research we were doing earlier, but none of the facts provided enough hints on who is behind it," Prisha finished the current subject to return to another idea he had. "Enough digression, knowing what we do, I believe we may also need to prepare in advance."

"Can we set up a second base Brystol?"

VWVVW

As the members of the Occult Society set their plans in motion, Akira and Mitsu were stationed within the surveillance zone where the sniper's point of origin was predicted. At an area that provided him a wide field of vision, Akira looked around and waited patiently for any signs.

It wasn't easy, here with the electronic jamming, he would also need to wait for the current few phases to be done before he could call the others through the phone. At least this phase was over as he heard Scali make a sound where she was stationed, "Eeerrrpppp!"

Akira made his way over and saw a hatched opening up and two people had walked out. One seemed to be a tall lady with punkish pink hair and the other was a man with neat and tidy blue hair. Akira now knows he, Mitsu and Scali will need to tail them.

Analyzing their path, they seem to be heading to Brystol. That made it easier to follow them but at the same time keep out of their range. He soon got around to hide in some of the bushes where his phone would work again as the pair had passed so he could secretly take a snap shot of them. Afterward, he sent it to Lucir, "I'm not sure who they are, but they emerged from a mysterious hatch I found in the valley."

"Well played, may you continue to scrutinize them?" Lucir replied over the phone. "Within the city, Mitsu's ability is no longer necessary, there are enough civilians walking about for you to blend in. Your face never being caught on their camera would help. Unusual behaviour or not, do well to report them."

Lucir then turned back to the others as they typed on the laptop, "So how may the research be progressing?"

"We found the individuals who Akira located to be Devin and Katrina respectively," Prisha said still typing on the laptop and researching with the help of Brystol files from Anders. "They were adopted among many by a scientist named Huang Cherin who had passed away from a disease around a month before the Valley of Dying Screams incidents began."

"I also have reports on the other adoptees which you may look over on your own time, the sniper Gavriel is also among them," Prisha handed over some documents without taking his eye off the laptop screen. "It was said that they had collectively decided to travel to other areas of Lorieth to study. The report will provide insight on their backgrounds but I can currently only find implications of what their intentions may be in this case."

"Yes they were rather careful in concealing their traces without being suspicious," Anders said looking at the reports then handing it to Lucir. "Akira find anything yet?"

"Speak of the devil," Lucir put the phone on loud speaker and handed it to Rina while reading the documents. "May you take over?"

"Hey dad," Rina said to the phone. "So how's your stalking routine?"

"I'd rather you not see it that way," her father replied being annoyed with Yosuke and Lucir slightly chuckling at the other end. "About the subject's behaviour however, it turns out they weren't doing much other than grocery shopping. It also seems they are about to head back to their hideout right now."

"Yes, I wouldn't advising counting on them for suspicious activities in the public," Lucir said as he finished reading the documents. "And it seems we hit a dead end with our background research."

"So would it be time to interrogate the sniper in our custody?" David suggested uncertainly.

"Let's see," Rina reviewed the investigation. "We had figured out the location of their hideout, information on their accomplices and only possibilities of their plans..."

"That is still insufficient to convince Gavriel to give us reliable information," Lucir replied pensively. "Almost all control questions available to us would be on the other adoptees and I'm afraid such repetition may very well alert Gavriel's suspicions."

"Okay it's not like I could ever give an intelligent suggestion," David sulked again.

"It seems our optimal course of action will currently be a gamble," Lucir eyes now reflected the danger of the situation. "We may have to infiltrate their hideout."


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Chapter 21: Chapter XXI: Project Darls
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It was beginning to get dark as Prisha, Corey, Mitsu and Scali hid at the area of the forest where they can see where Akira said the hideout is. They were also invisible of course waiting as Devin and Katrina should be passing soon.

"Say," Corey wondered. "Would you say our phones would work in the hideout thing?"

"I'm not sure, their electronic jamming might not reach down there," Prisha whispered. "However, if that's the case, I still don't suggest relying on them."

"Now remember," Prisha instructed while keeping his vigilance. "Our window of opportunity to enter arises when Devin and Katrina opens the hatch. Skali of course stays here to be able to inform the others. Keep in mind it won't be practical to use a rope there so stay close."

"Then once we're in, where do we find the place they're building the giant robot?" Corey asked quietly.

"Why would we even think they're building one?" Prisha replied.

"That's all those people are captured right?" Corey answered. "The robot's made out of people."

"How do you ever come up with all this?" Prisha asked.

"Anticipation," Mitsu said.

"See? Mitsu agrees with me!" Corey exclaimed but kept it quiet enough.

"Shh, they're here," Prisha hushed as the four began watching Devin and Katrina walk through the woods and shifted a branch on a tree that caused the ground to shift and reveal the hatch to the hideout.

It's time, the team left Scali to follow Devin and Katrina into the hidden facilities. The passage went downstairs for a while until they entered a hall with a huge screen at the end. As they went on they were surprised that through one of the doorways on the side was a living room next to a kitchen. As Devin and Katrina packed away the groceries, Prisha recognized two other adoptees eating while watching television.

He remembered from the reports, the tall man with red hair all spiked up with a strange machinery attached to his left arm where his hand should be was Cicero and the one with medium length black hair and a bunch of fringe covering his left eye is Seza. What they were watching was the news, but it seemed to be a repeat of what was on last night about the phenomenon on the disappearances.

"Focus," Cicero said to Seza. "If those fools at Brystol know anything about we can't let our guard down."

As those of the Occult Society continue following Devin and Katrina down a hallway, they found each room predictably had surveillance cameras. The walls seem to be made of a strong metal. Then up ahead is a suspicious door that Katrina and Devin had now entered leaving their stalkers out. It seems they'll need to investigate other areas now.

Fortunately most of the pathways are open. There were many doors that ignited a dangerous curiosity on the team that they must resist. After some exploration, a less mundane room they found seemed to have unusual devices and vials on the shelves like a science lab. To complete the set, two more figures can be seen up ahead with lab coats, also in the list of adoptees by Huang Cherin.

One was a man with short blonde hair and a bit of a scar on his left cheek, Robert, who seemed to be analysing the vials. The other was a bald man named Basil who seemed to be reading a book.

Prisha also caught a glimpse of some files speaking of amalgamation of different creatures these researchers use as guard dogs for this place, chimeras. The occultist continued to look around the place.

VWVVW

Rina, Lucir, Akira, David and Anders are currently back at the Occult Society base with Lucir multi tasking to look over the currently researched information and speaking to Yosuke on the phone, "So you do remember when I told you and Ian to station yourselves outside their surveillance zone to quickly provide Mitsu's group reinforcement don't you?"

"Dammit, yes Brains!" Yosuke could be heard loudly from the phone. "I done so half an hour ago, what do you take me for?"

"Now now Yosuke my dear," Lucir joked. "The reason a stealth mission is called so is due to the necessary stealth."

"Grrrr!" Yosuke from the other end hung up. As Lucir put the phone down, he found David sulking again.

"Even those rookies are good enough to go on the infiltration mission I'm left out on," David said negatively.

"I'm afraid you misunderstood my tactic's intentions David," Lucir smiled. "The only ones I sent on the mission were Mitsu and those the cameras already picked up on. We need to avoid our adversaries getting the idea of our numbers."

In the mean time, the Shiomis decided it was best to leave the hideout to keep a lookout from a part of the mountains, in the dark of night, in case anything goes wrong. While they done so, Akira asked Rina, "So have you been doing well? These missions, do you find them too dangerous?"

"Umm... well..." Rina wondered for a moment. "I can't say they're not dangerous. But me and my friends, we look out for each other. They could also make anything fun and I wouldn't trade my time with them for anything."

"From what I recall..." Akira continued as Rina turned to him thoughtfully. "A major reason in you going off like this so shortly after graduating was to find your mother wasn't it?"

"I know it may seem nice to think she was only missing in action," Akira continued solemnly. "But you must think, almost a decade was gone since she disappeared and she never reported to the Occult Society..."

VWVVW

While exploring, Mitsu, Corey and Prisha needed to cross the living room again, seeing Cicero and Seza still watching the news. They made their way through a corridor to find another part of the lab. However, there doesn't look like there was much more they could investigate here outside of dangerous doors.

As Prisha took a look at some of the devices, Corey trailed off to get fascinated by a skeleton model on a side of the room. However, something about it seemed off, something about one of it's right rib. As Corey, decided to look even closer, he twitched it slightly, triggering a mechanism that caused a whole part of the wall behind the skeleton, along with the ground beside it moved and cycled around like a hidden door.

"Corey?" Prisha turned to see the wall had finished shifting, with an identical wall in it's place and another skeleton model. He quickly went over to take a closer look, "that idiot! Going around carelessly touching things."

"Wow, Prisha! You better check this out," Corey said enthusiastically from the other side. He himself looked around at the dimly lit room the door shifted him to. There were files sorted neatly along the wall and strange vials sitting on top of some benches. "You won't believe me if I told you, get over and see for yourself!"

That is quite true actually, but even if he was to cross to the other side, he first analyzed the skeleton and whispered to Mitsu, "the rib, I think that's the switch for the secret door."

However, the shifting of the door won't exactly be subtle for the camera. He also struggled with the curiosity of what could be behind the door. Then again the enemy only knows at least one person could be made invisible and there's a chance those keeping a lookout on the surveillence videos had missed the incident with Corey, a chance they now know of it. The optimal strategy for the former would be to do nothing else and rely on Corey to quietly do the investigation on his own.

If the enemy had seen it though, they would be getting ready to attack and it's best to quickly grab what they can and escape. But which is it? Prisha looked back at the corridor. If the enemy is preparing to ambush them, would there be a sign? Maybe there was something he can see, smell hear… or a lack there of…

That's it! There used to be a sound from the television Seza and Cicero were watching for the awareness of the government's actions. The sound stopped around the time Corey uncovered the door. It wasn't likely a coincidence, those in the security room probably informed them to get prepared. That was enough to figure out the strategy with the best chances in this scenario.

"Mitsu, we're going in," Prisha said as he twitched the rib and entered the secret room with Corey.

VWVVW

The figure watching the screens in the security room once again saw the wall behind the skeleton shift. What could this mean? Has the intruder decided he's seen enough and now turned to leave?

"You called?" Cicero has now entered the room along with the rest of the adoptees besides Gavriel and one other. "Something about the invisible punk with the hat?"

"Yes that idiot decided to intrude here," Katrina answered and turned back to the screen. "He just entered and exited our hidden room so I guess we ambush him along the exit."

"No, it is too soon for a conclusion," The straggly haired figure closes to the screen said and kept an eye on the screen showing the hidden room. Suddenly, some of the files and vials mysteriously shifted. "Just as I thought, more than one of them could be made invisible!"

"Release the chimeras and station them near the door!" He turned and commanded the others and most of them had left.

Devin was one of the few who stayed in the security room and when it was quieter, he decided to have a word with the straggly haired figure, "Avari, I want to talk about what Basil said before and I must admit, I can't help but agree."

"And your attempt to state your reason?" The straggly haired figure whose name is revealed to be Avari asked. As the light from the screen shone on his hair, it can be seen that it was dark purple in colour.

"Well, I understand how much master had done for us and I also wish to do all in my power to repay him," Devin said stuttering. "But only what I have that right to. I mean, master taught us more than just his work."

"There is a time and place to speak of this!" Avari turned back to the screens. "We now have intruders to deal with."

VWVVW

"Okay, I can see these are reports of the research those scientists have conducted here," Prisha looked around at the files and the vials. "But we can't stay here for long! Pack away some of the files and get out of this hideout!"

The group now exited back outside the hidden room, but this time there was a sound. Some creatures are approaching. They look like lions with really strong scales, large wings and a long scorpion tail. Prisha then remembered one of the files from the other rooms. These are the chimeras.

As more than a dozen surrounded them, the group saw at the doorway to the right was the man Seza from before. He smirked, "We might not be able to see them but they're stiff from fear in front of the door."

"You two up front!" Seza commanded the chimeras. As Corey tied a string on the rib of the skeleton the other two knew what the plan was. Seza then gestured to give the order to the chimeras, "Attack them!"

Prisha, Corey and Mitsu quickly moved out of the way for the two chimeras to reach the platform and as Corey pulled the string the wall shifted to send the chimeras to the other room. This of course angered Seza, "They can't use that trick again, the rest of you attack!"

Fighting through the other chimeras wasn't easy even with their invisibility. These aren't like the mooks you normally see on television who can't aim. In fact, Mitsu was the only one who is capable of incapacity any in a single hit, their scales were even stronger than steel. However, Seza still isn't satisfied and called on a communicator, "we need some reinforcements!"

The chimeras were soon able to land a cut on both Prisha and Corey as they and Mitsu are cornered at a wall and their invisibility had worn off. So Corey decided it's time to power up and blast his PSI from his hand to when it's at the centre about five chimeras before he detonated it, "Grenade Blast!"

The attack was enough to grievously injure the chimeras, but they still stood. The team had to finish most off by hand, but there was one that wasn't yet injured by the Grenade Blast. So as Corey fought it, he needed to use a more concentrated attack, thus he focused his energy to a pin point at his finger tip to project it like a blade and run it through the chimera, "Force Cut!"

The group had enough trouble with those chimeras and now seeing Seza bringing in even more, they decided the best course of action is to, "run."

So they made a break for it to the corridor opposite to the hidden room and all were about to rush through the doorway to the right before Prisha stopped due to noticing Cicero waiting on the other side and a strange device attached on the ceiling of the doorway, "Wait!"

But it's too late, the device on Cicero's left arm turned out to be a gun arm as he shot a powerful blast at the device on the ceiling that turned out to be an explosive. Corey and Mitsu luckily made it past before the rubbles dropped but they are now separated from Prisha.

VWVVW

After having heard the loud noises, Scali raced to the part of the forest Yosuke and Ian are stationed. As Yosuke noticed, he got down to ask the reptile, "Hey so is it time we come in as well?"

"Errrpp!" Scali squawked.

"Right," Yosuke wasn't sure what Scali was saying. "I do think Akira said you were to get to us when you heard the signal though. So you know..."

VWVVW

While being chased by a whole heap of chimeras, Prisha needed to get past a doorway before turning around and projecting a Frozen Wind to freeze the many at the front and block the others. It was a gamble, now he'll have to continue down the corridor and hope they don't get through too soon.

The scientists at the security room watched as Avari had spoke, "quite an interesting power that child has."

"However, seeing his path and where he'll end up," Avari continued before turning around to face the other scientists. "Would you say it's the perfect opportunity to test a certain subject?"

"What do you mean?" Another scientist there asked. He had black curly hair and is named Brody.

"Devin! Your scientific understanding may match ours but you are the only one of us who has not chosen a means of defence, am I right" Avari said and seeing Devin nod, he continued. "Well then, perhaps there is another way you can be useful in this battle."

"I'll leave it up to you to open lab room forty four," Avari pulled out a key and handed it to Devin. There was also another reason; Devin's potential rebellion and Avari can deal with that now. "And inform our colleagues of that on your way down."

What was in lab room forty four again? Devin tried to remember. He thought of asking, but he had argued enough as it. So he made his way out after saying, "Yes sir."

"Sir, did I hear right?" Brody's voice trembled. "You're planning on releasing it?"

"We tested all we can with it on our own," Avari replied. "Now all that's left is to test its power and wouldn't you say these intruders would be the perfect candidate for the job?"

"But it! It's too dangerous! Already more powerful than most of us in fact," Brody continued. "And potentially indestructible! It can proceed to killing us all!"

"You fool!" Avari turned back to screens. "Don't you think I would have a countermeasure?"

VWVVW

Devin had finally reached the hall before the intruder could and fiddled with a lantern on the room to open another secret door. Within is a dark passage with a really strong locked door labelled lab room forty four. His anxiety had heightened considerably as he unlocked it, behind it was another defensive door and another and there would have been more if they weren't already destroyed. Now Devin fearfully looked in.

From the dark depths, a horrific noise can be heard, too ferocious to be from any creature let alone a human. The next thing Devin knew, he needed to quickly move out of the way and avoid impact of a skeleton. A chimera's skeleton to be exact. In fact, there were more of them rotting around the room.

"For TOO long I only had chimeras to FEED OFF!" The ferocious voice roared as the creature stepped forward to reveal itself. Devin took a moment to realize it was Balgo, it took longer to realize it was human. But rather than delving any deeper, Devin gave into fear and tried to run.

"AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!" After crying out in overwhelming pain, Devin realized that the bones in his left arm were shattered by only the grip of Balgo's monstrous hand. Not only that, the rest of his arm swelled intensely and even spouted blood from the high concentration.

"I must thank THAT FOOL AVARI for blessing me with SUCH POWER!" Balgo's distorted voice roared before he grabbed Devin's skull and completely shattered it with his mere grip. "But it WILL be his UNDOING!"

VWVVW

All within the lab had heard the piercing cry of Devin, but no one was impacted by it as much as Prisha who heard it from only behind the wall right before him. He stood petrified of what it can possibly be. He doesn't yet have enough understanding of this entity so would retreating help?

Prisha turned to the doorway to exit this hall but found there was someone else across there. It was another one of the adoptees with medium length straight blonde hair, Phelen.

"Thinking of leaving?" Phelen sneered before pushing a button on a remote that triggered an explosion causing rubbles to drop and block the doorway. "At least not before the game."

Prisha turned to another exit, but saw Cicero shot an explosive on top of it to barricade it as well. He could shift the rubble, but it will take time. However, he believes he can't be distracted by that as the wall the scream came from, breaks down from the hidden door, releasing a foul and deadly stench.

What stepped out was a creature standing at over nine feet tall with muscles that are not only huge but in a really grotesque way. With the feral claws and skin that's more like a hard layer of gray, you wouldn't have any idea the thing was human if not for the tattered shirt and pants.

Prisha barely recognized that this creature appeared to be an extremely distorted one of the adoptees, Balgo, with his black crew hair cut. Even his face seemed mutated with his bulging jaw having its ends sticking out like tusks or horns. His brow and cheekbones aren't much better either. Balgo let out a monstrous growl, "So YOU must be MY PREY!"

"Nice way to save money on guard dog food," Prisha tried his best to stay calm as he always his. But his voice just trembled on its own.

"GUARD DOG? HA!" Balgo laughed. "YOU TAKE ME FOR A GUARD DOG UNDER THOSE FOOLS? They have caged me for FAR TOO LONG!"

"So I'm not the one you're after," Prisha stuttered anxiously.

"HA! NICE TRY! Knowing AVARI he wouldn't release me UNLESS YOU POSE A CHALLENGE!" Balgo growled and then charged up to attack. "PERFECT for TESTING MY POWER!"

"Avari and his FRIENDS WILL BE NEXT! Then just THINK what I could do with SUCH POWER!" Balgo kept trying to hit Prisha. Being at not even five foot, for Prisha, this was like fighting a giant.

At least Balgo wasn't too smart. His attacks were predictable enough to dodged and now Prisha only needed to create an opening then, "Frozen Sword!"

Prisha then drove the sword right at Balgo's neck. But the greatly reinforced ice sword was like cardboard to the beast's incredibly strong neck as it attempts to sink in. Seeing as the sword was about to break, Prisha went for one last attempt to cut the absurdly armoured neck by sliding the sword before a shattering noise.

As he jumped back to make distance, he was then shocked to realize that all that effort resulted in barely as much of a paper cut on Balgo's neck. Balgo then turned around to gloat, "KEHAHAHA! I am impressed with you, KID! I never imagined EVER being CUT AGAIN!"

"However..." The insignificant injury on Balgo then quickly healed completely, which only sinks the terror even deeper. But there's something else different, the gray on what he has in place of a skin had become even more prominent. "I'm afraid THAT will TRULY BE the last TIME!"

Balgo then picked up the broken piece of the ice sword and directed the sharpest tip straight at his neck, not even at the same area as before but precisely at the neck's weakest point. He then went for a much more dangerous stab. In an instant, much easier than before, the ice sword shattered. "YOU SEE! After a little experiment I acquired the ability to ADAPT from a single experience AS THOUGH it was a THOUSAND YEARS OF EVOLUTION! And to TOP IT OFF I CAN ALWAYS REGENERATE COMPLETELY!"

Prisha thought desperately. It's safe to say Balgo's adaptation is quite diverse. There's also definitely a change to the rest of his body so it's not likely he can be cut again. However, as a result, Balgo seems quite confident that the Frozen Sword can't hurt him again. So in any case, the sword is still Prisha's best weapon and he channelled his energy to summoning it again.

"Wanna try that SWORD AGAIN?" Balgo charged up again to constantly throw attacks at Prisha. "GO AHEAD!"

After dodging a few times, Prisha jumped with all his strength into the air over Balgo and raised the ice sword above himself, ready to strike. Balgo only laughed and spread his arms as if welcoming the attack, "BE MY GUEST!"

But at the last second, Prisha caught Balgo off guard by flipping the sword to a flat side and smashed it straight into his forehead, shattering the sword from the strength of the impact. Prisha landed in front of Balgo and breathed, "There's more than one method of injuring someone with a sword..."

"... heh," the attack barely did a thing to Balgo as he sneered down at Prisha before grabbing him by collar scarf to lift him as Prisha struggled to break free.

Meanwhile, Avari watched the fight through the camera from back at the security room, "the experimental subject Balgo. After inducing his power we tested the most damaging of basic injuries on him. Blades and impacts were doomed fail from the beginning."

"However," Avari contemplated deeper into the duel. "In this child's case, there is one more weapon at his disposal that may offer him a slight final chance. But the test of Balgo's adaptation also involved super evolved strength, which will most definitely have a say in it."

"This is the last test that will decide the final result," Avari continued watching with interest as Balgo had landed a blow on Prisha. He's clearly playing around now.

Once Prisha could think straight again, he decided there's no use in relying on physical strength to break loose. He needed to take advantage of the next time Balgo attacks but that would mean needing to stay coordinated after the devastating blow. As the fist flew at his face again, Prisha shifted his head enough to reduce the damage and maintain concentration to grab the wrist of Balgo's fist with his right hand.

Prisha then used his left hand to grab Balgo's right that's holding his scarf. He then channelled his power to freeze both arms, "Frozen Touch.

Balgo's wrists are now being wrapped in ice which is now travelling up his arm. He needed to act quickly and outstretched his left arm with all his strength and to its full extent, breaking free of the ice. He then swinged it to break off his right arm before the ice could reach his shoulder, "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!"

Prisha dropped to the ground before Balgo kicked him away. Now removing the frozen arm from his scarf, Prisha turned to look at Balgo again as he generated. His transformation had gone even further and now protected by a layer of really thick two inch brown fur.

"KEHEH! Thank you kid! I THINK that was your last hope of beating me," Balgo charged up to attack again. "And it ONLY made me STRONGER!"

This time dodging wasn't as easy, Balgo's adaptation even seems to be developing his speed, soon he was even able to whack Prisha away and crash into a wall. "How does it FEEL KID? When ALL your powers become WORTHLESS and face FUTILITY!"

Prisha struggled to get up, coughing blood. None of his attacks worked even before Balgo adapted to them. What other possible weakness can this beast have? There must be a way...

"Experimental Project Darls," Avari spoke in monologue as he watched Prisha's struggle. "The aim, to test of manufacturing of a reactive adaptation ability."

"The hypothesis... no the inevitable conclusion," Avari struck a malicious smile. "The intruder will be utterly slaughtered!"