Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

I teleport the group to the hallway outside the game room, heading toward the door.

"Alice, though not in the way you'd think. She told me about some suspicious reports the agency had planned, jailing families over small things. I went to see the head detective and asked him about it, and said how unacceptable it was and he acted like he had no clue. I then showed him the proof and the reports, and he completely changed demeanor. When I said I was going to fire him for what he'd done, that's when his head split, and he called for all the other detectives to show themselves too. They almost killed me, honestly. I was so overwhelmed." I say.

Artemis stays a little closer to me, holding my hand a little tighter.

"They managed to keep cover for so long because they prevented anyone ever looking into them. They were the detectives, they'd never report anything suspicious concerning them, and cover it up instead!" Katie says.

"Exactly." I say.

"There was an extremely large mother mimic under the palace. I think the unused hosts were being fed to her so she could produce children. I captured as much footage as I could when I found and fought her." Eve says.

 

"Isn't the suspicious reports the whole reason Alice quit? So... what, you going to make Alice the new head of a new agency?"

 

"It is. But it should be until the fight ends, so don't feel to bothered."

 

"Yeah, she'd be an excellent head detective since she wouldn't split." I say, heading into the game room. Shadow Stephanie seems to be slouched on one of the sofas, holding a canned drink with a straw in it. I head over to a free sofa and sit down with Artemis, Claire sitting down next to her. Katie sits next to Shadow Stephanie, while Eve sits on an armchair, leaving Ihra the choice of sitting with Katie or Claire.

 

"You mean the storm? I think the beast inside is getting to your head."

Ihra hugs you before sitting down off to the side.
"Maybe you should send someone to tell Alice that everything really is okay now?"

 

"I will, once everything is back in order." I say.

"You can sit next to me, Ihra." Katie says with a friendly smile, Shadow Stephanie calmly sipping her drink next to her.

 

Ihra nods, heading over to Katie.
"Well, I'm glad things didn't go as bad as they could have."
Pause to sit down.
"What about you, Shadow Stephanie?"

 

"Hm?" Shadow Stephanie asks, looking up.

"She lost control when fighting the mimics and went a little crazy. She almost killed a normal guardian out of her bloodlust after consuming the heart of a dead one. Thirteen was able to settle her down after she was devouring her second corpse, in place of the mimic that just killed it." Eve says.

"Uh..." Shadow Stephanie says, looking embarrassed.

"I kept track of her after she used a secret exit, probably after finding the palace on lockdown." Eve says.

 

"Well, better a bit crazy than hurt." Ihra says, smiling a bit.

 

"Yeah...I was just sort of scared, I didn't know what had happened to everyone." Shadow Stephanie admits.

"Aw, Stephanie." Artemis says empathetically.

"Shall we see how Eve dealt with the mother mimic?" I say, glancing at Eve.

"I have the footage loaded." Eve says, extending her hand toward the main screen of the game room. A paused image appears of presumably Eve's perspective in a rocky tunnel, skeletons and weird eggs scattered about.

 

Ihra watches the screen intently/curiously.

 

"Yeah."
At this point, I can say he isn't hostile.

 

"Wait... so you aren't just some crazy lost spirit, you actually fell down here?"

 

The footage starts playing, and it shows Eve blasting the eggs with bolts of energy from a handcannon, the eggs exploding into green goo. She heads over to a skeleton with a bit of flesh left on it, checking it over before continuing down the tunnel. The eggs seem to increase in frequency the further she goes, before she reaches a huge cave with a massive black and green creature, green tentacles flailing all around it with clawed ends as a huge stalked eye protrudes from it's center. Eggs are scattered around it, a few of them hatching into smaller versions of the creature. Eve's handcannon disappears as she takes cover, cloaking herself as she observes the creature. Some of the tentacles aren't clawed, but seeming to be more tube like, dangling over empty spaces as lumps move through them to emerge as sticky, fresh green eggs. A pair guardians with their heads split open, infected with the creatures, seem to drag a struggling uninfected one toward the huge creature, the guardian screaming and kicking as they see it. Eve immediately uncloaks and charges toward the guardians, unleashing curving, piercing round shots toward the infected guardians, only to turn to see a tentacle smack her and knock her back, her vision cracking. As she tries to get up, she sees the guardian being picked up by another tentacle and thrown into the creatures giant mouth, eaten whole. Eve boosts herself to get back up, charging up a more powerful shot at the tentacle that hit her and managing to blast it off before boosting up with her jetpack. The creature's huge eye stares her down as it's tentacles rise to snag her, the eggs quickly hatching at a cry of the huge creature. Eve's vision zooms in on the eye as she fires a precise, deadly shot through it. The cracks in Eve's vision seem to slowly fade, repairing at each end of a crack. The creature screams and snaps as it slams the ground, blood spewing from it's empty eyestalk. The creature's flailing causes the cave to rumble and shake, a few loose stalactites falling and crushing eggs or young. Eve carefully flies above the creatures mouth to try and see and hopefully save guardian it consumed, only to see their last few flails as they dissolve into what looks like a huge pit of acid below the creature's mouth. Eve puts her hands together, ice blurring her vision as she charges a freezing shot of magic, firing it into the creatures acidic stomach. It manages to freeze some of stomach, though proves far less effective as the ice is quickly dissolved by the powerful acid. Eve wipes the ice from her eyes as her hand cannon and left hand change into what looks like smaller yet more barreled guns, her vision zooming in slightly as hundreds of red dots appear on the creature's tentacles, eggs, young and around it's insides as she looks around them. Eve's vision is then slightly obscured by flashes of light as she unleashes her firepower, a powerful energy bullet to every red dot as she spins around. The creature's stomach acid flares up as it's own flesh falls into it, odd coloured steam rising from it as it reacts. After a short while of shooting, the creature is quite clearly dead, an acidic pool all that remains as it's evidence. The footage then stops.

"Excellent work, Eve." I comment, happy.

 

"It's sort of like a less bad version of the god sealed under Xlentia's palace. I thought only the dungeon was below the Shadow Palace, though."

 

"What, you thought I was some ghost?"

 

"Depending on how you define a ghost, we both are. I meant, you're not one of those foll who just comes by and is gone the next day. Only three people come here; those wanderers, us workers, and people who fall into the lake."

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

"There's no fight, there's a storm. Something's very wrong... the Leviathan showed up while you were out. He and the ziz weren't fighting each other."

 

"They weren't. I thought they were fighting."

"So what's this storm about then?"