The next day had been surprisingly peaceful, no new monster attacks or anything out of the ordinary. All to Oceans utmost delight, she enjoyed the peace and quiet the day brought with it. The new office inside the new MRG building might have helped as well. The first time since she had actually felt at home since she had arrived here. A realm of her own and not one that was just borrowed. And the best part, she had a great view of the city, from inside her office.
She was sitting at her desk, tipping away at he laptop as she heard a knock coming from the door. “Come in.” She didn’t even look up from her work to see who entered as the door slowly opened and closed again.
“Ahm, agent Skies, there is someone that wants to see you.” Shining Armor spoke up, his voice sounding rather unsure. As Ocen looked up from her workplace she could see that the officer was sweating and even more pale than usual.
“Who exactly wants to speak with me? As far as I know, there were no appointments scheduled for today,” she replied, her curiosity growing with every second.
“Well, yes, there were no appointments scheduled for today and our guest has arrived without any form of actual announcement. But, well, I think she can do that.” Now Ocean just raised an eyebrow, looking directly at the officer, who in return just avoided her gaze.
“So, who is it? Tell me, I’m not a fan of the pronoun game.”
“The director of the MRG. Mrs. Monochrome.” That was the moment Oceans hearth nearly stopped, her skin turned unnaturally pale and sweet started to drip down her skin.
“Why didn’t you say that sooner? Oh goodness, what am I going to say? I have let her wait for too long. Fast, get her and say I’m terribly sorry for letting her wait,” she spoke with extreme speed and fragile voice. While she spoke she gestured Shining to hurry and leave. The officer quickly obliged and left the room as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Ocean was frantically rearranging what she had put on her desk.
It didn’t even take a minute until the door was opened again, this time a woman with grey skin and black hair, dressed in a dark grey suit stood before her. Her expression was impossible to read as if she wore a stone mask. “So, I see you made yourself at home here already. I hope it was quick and to the point. Still, your desk does look messy already. You know how important it is to keep order, do you?” her voice was cold and quite firm, demanding authority.
“I’m truly sorry, I didn’t know you would visit us, mother, if I had I would have…” But she was interrupted by Monochrom with a swift motion of her hand.
“I told you time and time again, don’t call me mother when we are at work. I’m the director, remember that. And there is no excuse for any of your shortcomings. You need to keep your underlings always in top form, otherwise, you fail as an agent. But for the most part, you seem to have everything under control,” she continued, completely ignoring Oceans attempts of explaining the situation to her. She just noodling without any further attempted to explain herself.
“Yes, director,” she replied in a mellow voice, avoiding eye contact with Monochrome. “So, what is it, that you took the long way from Manehatten all the way over here? It has to be something important. Coffe?” She gestured towards a brand new coffee machine on one of the shelves near the window front.
“No, thank you,” Ocean slowly nodded. “But back to your question. I’m here because the situation here has escalated enough that my presence is warranted.” Her cold stern look seemed to pierce through Ocean, letting out a pained sigh.
“You really didn’t have to, I have everything under control.”
“Sure you have and the fact that a murderer with superpowers is still on the run, a crime syndicate is using magical artifacts and that you still couldn’t stop the Corrupted epidemic shows this phenomenally. I have to step in or we will have a major crisis on our hands. And I would like to avoid this.”
“Yes, director,” she bowed her head in shame, her posture deflating visible.
“Good, then tell me where Alchemy is, I wanted to talk with him. See if what you told me about him actually is representative of reality,” Monochrome continued, while she spoke turning around and staring out of the window.
What followed was an awkward silence that stretches on for several moments. “Ehm, well, I might have given him a day off so he can have a day to unwind. He has been somewhat absentminded the last few days. So, I thought a bit of free-time would be good for him,” she slowly shifted from one foot to the other.
Monochrome just shook her head and continued: “Oh, well, then bring him here. As if the Corrupted would care if he has a day off. And if he truly needs a day off he might not be the right one for the job. You need nerves of steel if you want to protect the innocent. If he lacks them, we need to take away his Driver.”
“Mother… I mean, director. Please, you can trust me with this, Phoenix is cut out for this, he just needs to grow into our line of work. We all did and I would like to avoid a repeat of some other situations we had in our past.”
She just sighed, replying slowly: “Fine, we will continue our partnership with him, but if he shows that he is indeed not up for the task I’m confiscating his Driver. Did I make myself clear?” Ocean just silently nodded, her eyes staring towards the floor.
“Good, then we should move on to the next point. I would like to have an extensive tour through the building. I still need to take a few calls before that. So, you get me Alchemy here and in five minutes you are going to show me our new building.” Without even waiting for an answer she had already left the room, leaving her just standing there, staring at the door.
“That could have gone better,” were the words with which she finally broke the unnerving silence that had permeated the room until now. She slowly pulled out her cell phone and after a short while of searching dialed in Phoenix’s number.
>-------<A>-------<
Meanwhile, Summer and Thunder were working in the kitchen of the ‘Magnum Opus’ trying their hardest to actually get the orders out in time. Ever since the restaurant had temporarily closed and replaced with a delivery service, they hadn't gotten a quiet moment at work. Too many people were calling them and ordering pizza. Apparently caused by the fact that since the restaurant didn’t relly on reservations anymore and now was just a call away, more people had started ordering. That, in turn, leads to an increased workload, somewhat of a double-edged sword.
“Summer, can you get me the pineapple?” he was currently putting the topping on three different pizzas simultaneously. “I’m somewhat busy right now,” he finished with a slight chuckle, all while not averting his gaze from his work.
“Yeah, yeah, give me a moment.” All while she was currently pulling a few of the delicious treats out of the oven. “Or do you want that our food gets burned?” Thunder just shook his head frantically. “Good, then patience, you get your pineapple soon enough.” After she had put the different pizzas on the workplace she quickly grabbed one from a fruit basket “Catch!” and threw it towards the unexpecting Thunder.
As he heard her warning he quickly looked up, saw the pineapple that was heading straight for his face and with a surprisingly quick reaction grabbed it, placing it down next to him. “Thanks! But next time, just walk over, I would like to avoid getting something in my face if I can avoid it.” She just shrugged. “What was I expecting?”
“Hey, you caught it, didn’t you? And a bit of exercise didn’t hurt anyone, now did it.” After a quick look of Thunder, she added. “Ok, maybe it did, but come on, nothing happened.”
“Forget it, we have work to do anyway. I think we should get the next batch of orders out. Pack them up and of you go.” After he wiped off some sweat with a handkerchief he continued, his voice sounded somewhat spend. “You know, having a set number of customers was a lot less stressful.”
Summer just chuckled: “Oh really, who could have guessed?” after a deadpanned look from her boss she continued: “Yeah, you are right. Can’t wait till we got the restaurant back. Somewhat miss the guests, even if they sometimes drive me nuts. Kinda gets lonely here. Don’t you agree?”
“Yeah, kinda does. Miss the happy faces when they get their food, always put a smile on my face.” Thunder’s gaze shifted towards the clock and he let out a heavy sigh. “Anyway, you should get going. I don’t want to hear any complaints coming from the customers that we are not fast enough. That means no chatting with the customers, did I make myself clear?”
Summer just chuckled a bit while rubbing the back of her head. She was about to reply as something caught both of their attention, something was making a strange noise. Something like a loud ringing that came from upstairs. Both of them looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. “What is that?” Summer finally broke the silence.
“I don’t know, but it sounds familiar…” At this moment something seemed to click in his head and his expression shifted like ha had a major revelation. “Oh, it’s Phoenix cell phone. Wait, what does this do here?” Summer just shrugged, all while the rining continued. “Ah, Summer, could you take the call? I’m a bit busy right now and what if it is something important.”
Summer let down the pizza carton she currently was holding and sprinted up the stairs. As she arrived on the upper floor she quickly spotted the phone laying on the living room table, shaking from the rining. With a quick dash she reached the little device and after at least a minute of rining answered the call. “Hello?”
“Hey, Phoenix, thank goodness you finally picked up. I need to talk to… Wait, you are not Phoenix.” On the other end of the line was Ocean, speaking extremely fast into her phone.
“Nope, it’s me, Summer. The idiot apparently forgot his phone here as he went to the festival. Why are you calling him anyway? I thought he had a day off. Did you want to ask him out or something,” she slyly added.
“What? No, no, no! How do come to such a conclusion? That is not why I… I don’t have to justify myself in front of you!” Ocean usual confident tone had disappeared the instant she had started to speak again. Summer just silently chuckled at her reaction. “Anyway, forget about that. Where is Phoenix? I need him at the MRG right now.”
“Oh, you need him?” A devious smile appeared on her lips as she spoke to the distressed agent on the other end.
“Would you cut this crap out! Get me Phoenix! Now!” Heavy breathing could be heard from the other side.
“Ok, got it. But there is just one teeny tiny problem. He is at a festival quite a few blocks away. And since he left his phone here we can’t reach him, sorry.” She quietly replied.
“Dammit, of course. What else. The day I need to call him he forgets his damned phone. Everything is working out just fine.” A loud thump could be heard from the other side of the line. After a few moments of silence from both sides, she continued. “Sorry. I know it’s not your fault, but today just everything seems to go wrong.”
“No problem. Hey, I can just give you the address and you can pick him up. How does that sound?”
“Thanks, while I can’t personally come, I think I can send officer Armor to pick him up. I hope Phoenix is ready to listen to his tirade the entire way here. Seriously, how can you forget your phone when human lives might be on the line,” what followed was an exhausted sigh.
“Wait, human lives? Did something happen?” The speed of her voice picked up significantly.
“What? No. Nothing besides my mother coming by for a surprise visit and wanting to see him. So just slightly less bad.”
“Wait, your mother?” She sounded quite confused.
Ocean quickly interrupted her and continued. “Doesn’t matter, just give me the address. I don’t have much time here.”
“Ok, ok. Got it. He is at the Spring Festival at the shopping mall. The one with the huge glass roof. You know?”
“Yes, yes. Thanks, I’ll send Shining over there as soon as possible.” And without even saying goodbye she had hung up, leaving Summer just standing there dumbfounded.
After a few moments, he heard the voice of her boss shouting up to her. “Who was it?”
That was what had snapped her back to reality and she quickly responded. “Ocean called. She wanted to talk with Phoenix. Told her he forgot his phone. Now she is sending someone to pick him up. That’s all.” While she shouted back towards him she made her way down the stairs until she was again standing in the kitchen.
“Of course he forgot his phone. Not that surprising, especially since he had been rather distracted the last few days. He nearly even fell down the stairs this morning. Still, I’m going to have to give a speech about keeping something like your phone on yourself at all times.” Summer just chuckled at his reply. “Oh, not that we forget. You still have to deliver a few pizzas. So, get going!” He pointed at a box with a few pizzas in it.
“Yeah, sure. Be right back. Don’t try to burn down the shop while I’m gone.” With that, she grabbed the box and made her way towards the back door. A silent chuckle was all Thunder gave in return.
>-------<A>-------<
While this little exchange took place Phoenix the already walking around the previously mentioned Spring Festival. A good portion of the parking lot around the mall had been covered in food and game stands. From the usual affair like hotdog, burger, and other stands there were a few that caught the eyes of everyone that looked for something a bit more out of the ordinary. Food from other regions of the world and games from there too. All this was in a strange way comforting for him.
He had just gotten a burger and was about to bite into the delicious little treat as something startled him, so much so that he nearly dropped his food. A shrill, energetic voice shouted directly into his ear: “Hey! Nice to see you here Feenie!” In an instant he jumped back several feet, turning around and staring at a pink girl with extremely fluffy hair grinning at him.
While breathing heavily he spoke to the girl that was still staring at him with big eyes and wide smile: “Never! Do! This! Again!”
The girl just looked at him with a puzzled look on her face and replied: “Aw, but I wanted to surprise you. Didn’t that work?”
Now Phoenix was the one that looked at the girl with a puzzled expression. “I… I mean sure you did, but…”
“Yay!” She just jumped up in the air, to the ever-growing confusion of Phoenix.
“What do you mean yay? I nearly got a heart attack. Do I look like I enjoyed that? How do you know my name anyway?” Slowly his breath started to go back to normal and he began to calm down again.
“Oh, Feenie, I never forget a name. That would mean I would forget a friend and I make sure that something like that never happens.”
After a few moments of silence, he continued: “Ok, that is nice to know, but how do you know me?”
Now the bright smile on her lips suddenly deflated, leaving her with a heart-wrenching frown. Well at least for a few seconds since she suddenly shifted back to her bright grin. “Aww, you don’t remember me Feenie? Come on, it wasn’t so long ago. You served us at your brother's pizzeria. I’m sure you remember me.”
Then it hit him, it was one of the seven girls with the magical geodes. The ones that had eaten at the ‘Magnum Opus’ a while back. “You were the one that wanted candy corn on your pizza, didn’t you. Your name was, let me think for a moment, Pinkie Pie, wasn’t it?”
Pinkie just bounced up and down again. “Ding, ding, you win!”
“What? What do you mean I win? What did I win?” His confusion just grew and grew with every passing second.
“You won the ‘Guess-my-name-game’ silly. What else would you have won?” She quickly pushed her hand inside her hair and seemed to look for something, then before Phoenix could ask her what she was doing she pulled something out of it, against all laws of physics. “Here, you win!” With that, she handed him a bottle of mayonnaise with a rather strange label: ‘For the winner of the Guess-my-name-game’.”
That was the moment Phoenix brain just refused to understand what was at this moment transpiring right before his eyes. He just nodded and put the bottle inside of his pocket, all the while weekly noodling at Pinkie. All he could reply was a weak: “Thank you.”
“Aww, there is no need to thank me. You won, that is your prize. You might actually become the champion. Come to think of it, you are the only one that played this game, so you are the champion already.” And as quick as she had pulled out the first bottle she had produced a second one, this one reading: ‘For the Champion of the Guess-my-name-game’. Seconds later he held this new bottle in his hands, staring at it, not knowing how exactly he should respond.
Should he just leave, or just to be sure, run as fast as he could? No, that would be rude. Just ignore her? Not quite as rude, but still. Aske her what she wants? Nah, that would be too easy. Before he could continue to think about it any further he heard her bubbly voice right next to him. As he quickly spun around she was again smiling at him. “Oh, you are back.”
“What do you mean back?”
“Oh, you just stared at me with this exact expression for two minutes,” while she spoke her expression quickly changed to one of complete and utter bewilderment. He in return just stared back at her in bewilderment. “Yes, exactly that one,” she pointed at me.
Phoenix struggled to reply anything to the girl, it felled like his brain was slowly beginning to melt. Then he finally managed to get a few words out. “Wait, minutes? I was thinking for like twenty seconds, tops. How can I star at you for two minutes straight?”
“I don’t know, but I stopped the time. Her, look,” with that Pinkie shoved her smartphone in his face. And low and behold, it indeed showed a timer with exactly two minutes on it.
He nodded in return and added: “Of course you did. What else was I even expecting?” After a heavy sigh, he continued. “So, where are your friends anyway? I’m sure they would love to spend time with you,” he quickly added under his breath. “And I can have a bit of a break from this insanity.”
“Oh, the others will be here in about half an hour. I just came earlier because I couldn’t wait any longer. And seemed to be a good decision, otherwise, I would have never meat the champion of the ‘Guess-my-name-game’, now would I?” There was something in her voice and just cheerful attitude that was infectious. While he still was completely confused by the insanity that was happening right before his eyes he let escape a little chuckle.
“Ah, so your friends will be here in an hour?” She just nodded, just as energetic as usual. “So, what are you going to do till then?” He raised one of his eyebrows as he looked at her.
She quickly pointed to a stand a fifty meters away. “Probably try to win some plushies. You can never have enough plushies!” He followed the path that her finger was pointing with his eyes. As he noticed where exactly she was pointing he tried to concentrate to see what kind of stand she was talking about. But the harder he tried to focus on the stand the blurrier his vision got, until he everything appeared as an unrecognizable blob.
He quickly shook his head and as he looked again everything seemed normal. He even could make out what kind of stand it was, one where you throw a ball and knock over some milk bottles. He chuckled again. “Hey, you know what, I wanted to see your friends again anyway. The last time I saw a few of them it didn’t end so well.”
“Sure, why not. But first things first. Plushy here I come!” With that, she sprinted towards the stand leaving a perplexed Phoenix behind her. Strangely enough, it didn’t feel as strange as a few minutes ago, maybe he had simply started to roll with her tiredness. Whatever it was, he probably didn’t have much time to dwell on it. Just shrugging with his shoulders he started to slowly follow Pinkie, who had already reached the stand and was energetically talking with the owner.
As he had managed to walk half of the way there he heard a loud scream coming from behind him. As he turned around he could see a stampede of people running towards him. Seconds after Phoenix had jumped to the side the people were already rushing past him, pushing each other, it was utter chaos. As he looked over to where the people were coming from he spotted the origin of the commotion. A Corrupted, of course, it was a Corrupted.
The monster seemed rather slender but was still quite muscles. Its skin was a dull grey color and it was equipped with a set of shining metal armor that covered his chest, upper arms, and legs. His face resembled that of a skull, just that its teeth were made out of sharp metal blades and the fact that on top of its head it had a collection of sharp, pointy metal thorns. The eyes of the Corrupted were empty except for a malicious red glow that emitted from them. But the worst part about it was its arms and hands. Every finger was equipped with a long sharp blade that grows out of the back of its hand, bending when the beast moved its fingers. And to make matters worse the blades on the monster's fingers reached down to its knees.
It was slowly walking throw the rows of the festival, methodical looking at each stand and row as if it was searching for something. Whenever someone came to close to it, the beast would snap around and stare at them, but after a few seconds just ignore them and move on. It was strange. A quick look towards Pinkie confirmed that she had not budged an inch since the Corrupted had appeared, she now had a small red rabbit in her arms that she quickly pushed inside her fluffy hair and stared at the Corrupted.
After a few moments of quickly shifting his gaze between the Corrupted and Pinkie, he rushed out of sight, between the rows of tents. After he had made sure that no one was able to see him he pulled out his Driver and one of the Magic Discs.
\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /
“Henshin!”
\ WIND DISC ACTIVATED! /
The emerald whirlwind of magical energy that surrounded him was so strong that it nearly blew away the stands next to him. Some of the less secure objects around him sadly did not fare so well and were now landing all over the festival plaza. But all this didn’t matter right now. He could listen to Oceans complains later, right now he had to stop a rampaging monster and he intended to do just that. He quickly removed the Wind Disc from his Driver again and turned it into its weapon form.
\ Wind Disc Attack Mode! /
\ Hurrican Bow! /
Just as his weapon had taken form his opponent stepped into his line of sight, apparently still looking for something. The falling debris didn’t seem to bother the Corrupted that much, even as a small teddy landed straight on his head, it just looked up once, shook his head and moved on. Before it could look in his direction he had drawn his bowstring and fired one of his arrows at the monsters face. To his utter dismay, he actually missed and the shot just sailed right past his head and demolished one of the innocent stands next to him.
Unsurprisingly the Corrupted had noticed his little sneak attack after his botched attempt and now was staring directly at him with his seemingly soulless glowing eyes. They were somewhat hypnotic in a certain way, it was like they could see directly into his soul. As much as he wanted to look away from them his eyes refused to break the contact. So he completely missed the fact that the blades of the monster started to glow a fierce red.
As the Corrupted slashed at him from a distance he was quite surprised by the sudden wave of crimson energy coming his way. Still, he managed to react just in time to avoid being hit by it. Alchemy simply flew over the attack. While the Corrupted looked at him in disbelievement he again drew the string of his bow and unleashed an arrow directly at his opponent. This time it was headed straight for his head and would definitely connect, would it not be for the fact that the monster managed to block the attack with one of its claw blades.
Mere moments before the attack actually connected with its face a quick slash with its sharp limps was enough to redirect the attack into another one of the stands. The Corrupted just chuckled and retaliated with another one of his energy wave attacks. Alchemy again avoiding the attack narrowly, this time it passed him by mere inches away from his helmet.
He was starting to lose his patience and started to circle his opponent in the air, dodging everything it threw at him, even if it was a rather close call at times. While he was evading everything his opponent could throw at him Alchemy let arrows rain down upon the Corrupted. Most were simply deflected by the monster, some didn’t even hit their mark, it only got worse as the fight continued, but there were about three that actually penetrated the seemingly unbreakable defenses of the Corrupted, sadly beside letting it stagger back a bit they didn’t seem to do much, the Corrupted simply continued his attack.
After a few dozen attacks on the monster, Alchemy had to admit that this would not work. So after landing behind some stands to change tactics, he noticed something just as he was about to change his Disc. Pinkie was standing right next to him, looking around the corner, watching the Corrupted. “Hey Pink, what are you still doing here? You should be as far away from here as possible, this can get very dangerous.”
She quickly turned her head around and replied: “Oh, I’m just making sure big bad meanie there doesn't do anything bad.” With that, she returned her gaze to the monster that was currently looking frantically around the now pretty much empty festival area.
“Hey, that is my job. You are just going to endanger yourself here, especially without your geode. So just let me handle this.” He was about to continue with his change of tactics as he heard a growly voice call out something. It was Similiar like someone was rubbing two rusted pieces of metal together, a rather unpleasant sound.
“There you are! Finally found you!”
This could have only come from the Corrupted and indeed seconds later Pinkie exclaimed a simple “Ups,” and rushed past him and away from the stand. Moments later the stand she had hidden behind simply exploded thanks to one of the energy waves of the Corrupted. Alchemy had no time to react and was hit by the attack and landed several meters away. An entire stand had collapsed on him. Everything seemed so blurry, a mixture of different colors and shapes was all he could see.
Then he heard the something: “Are you ok? Did the big bad meanie hurt you?” It was Pinkie, calling out for him. This was when he could recognize what was in front of him again, at least to a certain degree. Without much effort, he managed to stand up again, the rubel that had buried him simply falling to the wayside.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. But you should really get out of here.” With that, he turned his weapon back into its Disc form and replaced it with another Disc which in turn was placed in the Driver.
\ EARTH DISC ACTIVATED! /
Without wasting any more time he removed the Disc again and activated its weapon mode.
\ Earth Disc Attack Mode! /
\ Boulder Shield! /
Pinkie didn’t even have time to answer as the Rider charged towards his opponent shield in hand. Halfway there he threw the shield at the monster. The Corrupted in return managed to block the attack again, but against what it expected the shield didn’t land on the ground but returned to its owner who simply caught it again.
Now that he had managed to actually close the gap between them he started to slam his shield against his opponent, managing to let it stagger back a bit. Retaliation didn’t take long and the claw blades of the Corrupted were slashing down on Alchemy who always managed to put the shield between himself and the enemy. Still, with every slash of the monster, he was pushed back even more.
Just as the Corrupted tried to attack him again he managed to slam his fist right into its stomach or to be more precise there where its stomach would be wouldn’t it be protected by its armor. While the monster again staggered back in pain it was only a short victory for him as his vision started to get worse again. Everything was starting to get unrecognizable again. He didn’t even saw the first attack coming, a clean slash from his shoulder, over his stomach that let him cry out in pain. It stung excruciatingly, like someone had just carved something into his flesh.
The second attack didn’t feel much better, again was he slashed from shoulder to stomach, just this time from the other shoulder. The pain was starting to get unbearable, the inability to actually brace himself from the next attack of his opponent made the thing just so much worse. His vision grew worse and worse with every passing moment, now everything seemed to melt together in a massive black blob.
Then it hit him, the third attack of the Corrupted and this time it was one of the energy waves that had hit him. He was lifted off the ground and sailed straight into something, probably a few meters away. Before he could even think about standing up again everything came crashing down on him, burrowing him alive under a mountain of debris. And the worst part was that after everything had fallen on top of him his armor started to dissolve and within moments he lay under the debris just as Phoenix. The pain was surging all throughout his body, every little bit of movement let it only get worse like he was poked with a one hundred degree hot metal stick. His vision was getting even worse now. Additionally, everything was getting harder to hear as well, like someone had stuffed cotton into his ears.
Then something caught his attention. Something loud, something that sounded like gunshots. He concentrated the rest of his slowly dwindling mind on figuring out what it was when he heard a familiar voice. He could not really place it right now, but he knew the voice from somewhere. Thanks to the fact that his ears seemingly refused to pick up everything that was going on outside he could only hear parts of what was said. “Get awa.. im! If you did any… to him I swea… will regret…” Then a loud explosion filled the air. What followed was silence as he slowly drifted further and further into unconsciousness. Right before he lost the rest of it he could hear one last thing: “…ok?” Then everything went black and silent.