As annoyed as Lex was by the two senior Morrisons, he noticed that neither the family heads nor the other three responded to them. It was as if years of experience had taught them the best way to handle them was to ignore them. The strong blush running down Miranda's neck was completely not a giveaway about how she felt about Brandon's flirting, not at all.
"Do you really expect this to work?" Richard asked. "You cannot trap us here. We can leave, and even if you do bomb two cities, or even more, as long as we return to Earth, all of you will die."
"Do not try to bluff, old man," Lee said, yawning. He was not at all intimidated by these few who had controlled Earth for so long.
"You bend over backwards to stop any cultivator conflict, and step in even if a mortal conflict is getting too big. You think you are being secretive, but the truth is old timer, other than your cultivation, you are not superior in anything else. The same goes for the rest of you as well."
Lee gave a derisive look to all in the room.
"You are not good leaders. You are not good businessmen. You are not good politicians. You make yourselves feel good by saying you're protecting people's lives, but all you're doing is suppressing your own people. Your shoddy rules and improper management are literally destroying Earth, but the mortals are protected from the truth, so who cares?"
At the end of his little triad, Lee got a little heated, no doubt from holding in years of resentment, but decided to stop so Miranda would not pester him. But just as she was about to speak again, he discovered that he really could not stop himself..
"You're uneducated and stuck in bygone traditions! You trained your descendants to be the best, but then forced them to hide and suppress themselves. You taught them to have ambition and then buried it with your own hands. It is not betrayal when you betrayed us first! You…"
"Lee, stop," interrupted Kevin. "Go take a breather. We'll handle this."
Lee realized that he had, indeed, lost his temper. It really was better to go cool off – they still had many things to take care of after this. He gave Richard a dirty look and said one last thing before leaving.
"As much as you all look down on him, at least Brandon gave his descendants a place to thrive. Of all the families, his has the least members on the Council of the New Order."
At this, Brandon and Audrey both raised an eyebrow. Council of the New Order is probably what they called themselves, but what truly attracted him was the part about the least members. Least did not mean none. So even the Morrison family had traitors.
With Lee leaving the room, Miranda took a deep breath and turned back to the Queen.
"We have much to do, so I'm not going to waste any more time. We did not come here to negotiate, we only came here to tell what's going to happen from now on. You can choose how to react to this information, but the consequences will be your own. You can believe us about the nuclear bombs or you can test it out, it'll be up to you.
"The mortals have ruled and the cultivators have hid long enough. It's time to restore proper order – for both their sakes and ours. Soon, the borders of many countries will change. Sects will once again openly recruit and cultivators will take over positions of power. All efforts will be put towards the growth and expansion of the cultivation civilization.
"As for you… you will remain at the Inn until a time that the council decides you may return. Don't worry, treat it like retirement. Play bingo, watch some tv, whatever it is retired people do. Because, even if you do come back, you'll find that your influence is gone. No one will listen to you. Any authority you thought you had… was only because none of the council members wanted to fight you up front. Anyone who was still loyal to you… well, let's not get into the specifics."
"Is it so easy for you to massacre so many people?" the Queen asked in an even voice. If she was feeling anger or frustration, it was not evident.
Miranda looked at the Queen placidly, as if she had asked the stupidest question in the world.
"About as easy as it was for you to let my father die."
"I think I've heard about enough," Brandon said, standing up, a dagger still sticking out of his leg. "Little girl, I wish you the best in your endeavors. I never cared much for ruling Earth anyway, too much responsibility – I would rather chill at the beach with my wife. I will only give you one piece of advice: don't kill too many people during your little revolution. If you piss off the boss lady, you might really learn just about how much power you really have. Oh and uh, I'll stay at the Inn, but someone uses that as an excuse to harm my kids or grandkids…"
He didn't finish his sentence as he left the room, but his message was clear. Miranda let out a little sigh, even as she swooned a little internally. Their biggest concern really was the Morrison family. Although mostly focused on Mars, their army was sizable. Naturally, against all the cultivators of Earth it was still inferior in strength, but the damage the council would take fighting them would be considerable.
"Are you sure about this?" Audrey asked as the old, but somehow very young looking, couple walked away.
"You know I never cared much for the responsibility. If Rorick or the others want to do something about it, they can, but I say good riddance. Keeping that woman happy was too annoying. Now we can just focus on what we want to do. Hey berry, want to have another kid?"
Audrey smacked the man on the back of his head, effectively communicating her feelings about that notion, as they continued to stroll around. They had many hours before the next match. Alexander was sleeping, recovering from the mental exhaustion, and Rorick was cultivating in his room, completely unaware of what was happening in the outside world.
While the Morrisons strode off, Lex was still focused on the meeting. The family heads learnt of how deeply the betrayal ran, and they all had mixed feelings. Basically, anyone not from their immediate family was very dissatisfied with them, to put it mildly. They were born at the peak of the world, raised to be the best, then suppressed and forced to hide their brilliance so that the mortal world would not be destabilized.
Lex honestly didn't care about any of that, and currently he had no thoughts on what the family heads could have done better. He was slowly getting agitated by not being able to learn any specific details about Earth.
A part of him wanted to simply return to New York and see if he could call his family. But of course, he knew that all communication had been shut down so he would learn nothing.
Eventually, he decided to wait one more day to see if someone would answer his commission, or else he would start to take more… drastic… measures.
*****
Somewhere in the universe, far away, Serene Williams was looking at her husband as he practiced. On her face she wore expressions of both disappointment and annoyance, but the man did not notice as he was focused on his sword. He was practicing shirtless, his taut muscles rippling with each move, his rolling sweat giving his body a nice sheen.
His each swing was slow and deliberate, but despite that each time he finished a swing the very room would tremble. The man frowned, he still could not prevent energy from leaking. When he was able to perform each move without any sound or wind, without any energy leaking at all, he would finally reach a satisfactory level of mastery.
Finally, unable to wait for him to notice her, Serene said, "There's news from Earth."
"Oh, did the kid finally do something interesting?"
Serene gave her husband an exasperated look.
"He's only just started cultivating, what can he even do? No, this is more serious. Cultivators have revolted against the proctors we assigned to keep the peace, war has erupted."
This attracted the man's attention, and he finally stopped practicing and turned towards his wife, wearing a look of 'I told you so'.
"Even that isn't the serious part. When I heard about the war, I had the local sentries call back all the 'guests' we've sent on Earth for their own protection. They're all there, except…"
Serene paused, and despite her usual composure, wore a look of exasperation.
"No one can get in touch with Bastet. She has left the planet."
The man was startled, but the look of horror quickly changed to that of great amusement. He burst out laughing, his energy causing an earthquake on the continent where they were
"Stop laughing," Serene said, but the chiseled man only roared out harder. The room was shaking and paintings had started falling off the walls, but he could not care less.
"Stop laughing," she said again, feeling slightly embarrassed, but to no avail.
Finally, her expression turned serious, and she said in a bitingly cold voice, "stop laughing!"
As if he had been faking it all this time, the man went from almost falling over to a modest smirk.
Seeing that he had listened, her expression softened and continued, "What are we going to do about this?"
"How did she escape? Do you have any clues?".
"I strongly suspect the newly discovered entity known as 'Midnight Inn' may have played a role. Although Earth is in a deadzone, lacking higher forms of spiritual energy and making it the perfect place for high leveled political prisoners, if they can travel to the Midnight Inn and recuperate their energy, escaping becomes an option."
"Oh please, how many of those prisoners can travel directly in space or teleport? We don't need to do anything. Earth can continue to serve as a prison, just no longer for anyone approaching the Daolord realm. Send a report back to the family, there's no need to hide the matter. If they want to pick an issue, they can go find the Midnight Inn, I don't care."
With that, the matter was resolved, and the man returned to his practice. Serene sighed as she opened a tablet to write up her report. She completely ignored a small notification in the corner with the title 'your daughter has run away from school again'. She could only handle one disaster at a time.
*****
Slowly the hours passed and many things happened at the Inn. The meeting between the family heads and the representatives of the council did not go over well and, as Lex predicted, his guards had to get involved. Still, none of the family heads returned to Earth. They only sent back their assistants and followers and tried to control the situation through them. Unfortunately, it seemed that they truly had lost all authority.
The few who were still willing to follow the command of the family heads were locked in battle with the council's forces. Most countries worldwide were already under their control. Strangely enough, only South Korea and Japan were able to resist the influence of the council. As for why that was, the family heads were receiving only bits and pieces of information, so it could not yet be determined.
In the meantime, the armies were preparing for their next match. The recovery afforded to them in their bases was remarkable and almost all were fully healed. Only a few who had extremely serious injuries had to preemptively forfeit.
About 900 of Alexander's soldiers were still capable of fighting. While most of them were resting, a few of them were submitting a report for new supplies and gear to be brought from Mars. While this was happening, they received a dossier from the Jotun army. Considering Earth's stellar performance, Anthony decided to give them more support so long as they continued to deliver at the same level. In the dossier was information about the terrain for the remaining 9 nodes. Since the nodes' location had been identified back on the planet, they quickly drew up maps based on previous satellite images and marked down the terrain and notable landmarks.
They could not predict where the next game would be, but at least they would not be surprised no matter what they faced. This was extremely important because two of the nodes were underwater! Without proper gear, the soldiers would literally drown and die within the first hour!
In the dossier was also a report on Pramod! The empire could not confirm it just from watching him fight Alexander, but they had strong suspicions about his species. They suspected he was a Nightmare demon. This was a very rare, very dangerous breed of demons that was named not because of how they originated, but because they were a nightmare for anyone to face!
The document gave a lot of details on how to properly fight a nightmare demon, but to spare everyone the issue of figuring out how to apply this information, they also provided a spiritual technique that could actually damage them. It was not very strong, but at least it did more harm than Alexander's attacks did, and at a fraction of the energy cost.
Like this, the calm was kept right up until a few hours before the next match. So far, most of the guests at the Inn from Earth didn't actually know what was happening. But as if planned, several panicked guests entered the Inn at the same time. They tripped and tumbled as they ran towards those they knew. Unable to be discreet in their mental condition, they shouted 'war' when they finally saw their compatriots.
In but a few minutes, news spread. The guests that arrived didn't know the global situation, but when enough of them got together and told similar stories, it became apparent that the issue was widespread. Fortunately, it seemed that so far cities were being occupied and put under martial law, and there were no reports of widespread massacres. But the lack of information and abundance of over-imagination caused panic.
At this point, despite his own agitated state, Lex had to intervene. Honestly, he was feeling a little annoyed at the family heads for not addressing the people from Earth who were at the Inn, but it didn't matter. They were caught up in their own world.
"Please, be calm," a warm yet firm voice washed over the citizens of Earth. Somehow, Lex had figured out how to give targeted announcements, so only Earthlings were hearing his voice right now.
From Ragnar, who was cultivating, to those who were asleep, to Sophia, who had not left her son's side, they all heard the voice.
"It appears that your planet has come under conflict. Such a time of difficulty is dreaded by all, but as citizens of your planet, it is also your responsibility to shape the destiny of your planet. But at the same time, how can you fearlessly face the future if you are concerned for your loved ones? For the people of Earth, the Midnight Inn will offer great discounts to provide you and your loved one's safety and security, so long as the conflict remains. Please, if you think you or yours are in danger, do not hesitate to bring them to the Inn."
The announcement was short and direct, and delivered the message well enough. Immediately, most of them realized the security and safety the Inn could provide and started returning to Earth to fetch their families. The 100 students from Troy academy felt scared, but surprisingly handled the information better than most adults. It made sense, their regular lives weren't exactly normal either. Actually, it suddenly occurred to Lex that some of them might be kids of the people leading this worldwide revolution, which is exactly why they were sent here – for the security, or to be spies.
As much as Lex hated the feeling that he was simply doing this to fulfill the refugee quest, the truth was that he genuinely wasn't. Previously, he was so concerned about his own family that he forgot about the quest. But the fact that he remembered now was good enough.
One thing he might need to address later was housing for the refugees if the conflict lasted longer than the Midnight Games. For now, there was temporary housing due to the event panel, but once the event ended, that would go away. It seemed like he needed to save more MP, just in case.
It was at this time he also thought of his friends in New York. The fact that he couldn't reach his family was one matter, but those in New York were still within reach.
Lex was not indecisive at all this time around. Deep down, he felt like maybe he was just looking for an excuse to not be logical and just return to Earth. But if an excuse was what he needed, his friend's safety gave him just that. He had to at least check on them. After all, as odd as it may be, despite their short time knowing each other, Lex thought of Larry as a good friend.
He returned to his room and donned the damaged armor he'd bought before going to Nibiru last time, and wore a hoodie on top of it. He ensured the safety was on before hiding the Heavy harley in the back of his pants like in the movies. As uncomfortable as it was, he dealt with it. Making sure he had all the items he needed one last time, he was ready. The next game would start in a few hours, he should be back by then, but if he weren't he told Mary to start without him.
With that, he disappeared from his room and returned to Earth.
.Lex did not know exactly what to expect when he returned. A part of him expected to land in the middle of a war-torn battleground, with buildings half destroyed and bullets flying in the air. Maybe he expected the city to be under lockdown. Maybe he was thinking he would see soldiers pushing innocent civilians around, and a band of resistance fighters made up from civilians fighting back.
The fanciful stories he had filled his head with were many, but the one thing he was not expecting at all was for everything to be normal. Though it was early in the day, people could be seen walking around the streets casually. Some were walking their dogs, others were sitting on benches and reading books. The wind raised a few skirts, a few men slammed cabs and yelled 'I'm walking here' and a few other, completely standard and not at all stereotypical everyday things happened.
At first, Lex was amazed. Then he frowned. War was definitely happening – the system had confirmed it and so many guests had confirmed it, so how was everything so normal? Completely underwhelmed, Lex walked into a cafe and tried to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. If anything significant had happened, the people would be talking about it.
Significant news there was, just not what Lex was expecting. The people were talking about the unusual internet outage that was apparently affecting everyone. News channels were not reporting on it and no official statement was being released. Just a single hour of blocked internet access could send various companies into massive loss in this city, yet somehow everyone was okay with it.
Lex took out his phone and turned it on to see if he was getting any signals. He didn't know how else he would contact Larry, or anyone else, for that matter. Contrary to what Lex expected, his phone was working just fine. He was about to try an international call to his family when he started receiving messages.
The first was from Bluebird:
Until further notice, the Bluebird portal will not be available. Please contact your nearby Bluebird office if you need any help.
The second, again, was from Bluebird:.
A curfew is now in effect. All cultivators must remain home unless provided a pass. Any cultivator discovered breaking curfew, or without their Bluebird token, will be detained pending a treason trial.
The third was from Larry:
Your phone is powered off, but you should get this if you turn your phone back on. Things are not as they seem. Be safe. Contact me if you need help.
Subtly, Lex nodded. The suspicious behavior was more inline with what he expected. Based on what he had heard so far, the ICPAs were locking down their regions of control and were a part of the war. Since all of New York was so thoroughly under Bluebirds control, they probably didn't need to use soldiers to snatch control. They just needed to maintain as much normalcy as they could manage until the global situation stabilizes.
Lex tried calling his family, but the call would not connect. He tried calling Larry, and the phone was off. He tried calling Larry again, but this time on a second number he had given Lex to use in case of emergencies.
The call went through, but after it was picked up, there was complete silence. No one on the other side said anything.
"Is anyone there?" Lex asked hesitantly.
"Lex? Is that you?" Larry asked, his voice easily identifiable. But before Lex could answer, he said, "Don't say anything. I'm sending you a location. Come alone. Don't bring your token."
After receiving the text, Lex followed the directions only to find himself standing before a dollar store in uptown. He explored the store and could not find Larry, so he tried calling again, but the phone was powered off.
At this point, Lex frowned. It was dangerous to randomly roam around the city, especially since he did not have his token. He could still recall how his previous boss had immediately identified him as a cultivator. They had to get extremely close for her to notice, but then again, she wasn't actively searching for anyone, either.
Just as he was wondering what to do, a man in a hoodie with the hood down approached him.
"Hey Lex, follow me," Larry said in a hushed voice, and quickly led him to an apartment building nearby. Silently climbing up seven flights of stairs, they reached the room where Larry was hiding. As soon as they entered, Larry activated some formation he had in the room and let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Damn, this thing is so hot," he said as he took off his hoodie.
"What's with all the drama?" Lex asked casually. As per usual, Larry's face was covered in bruises – probably from working in that club where he fought people.
"Yeah, I have some bad news for you, buddy. By the way, turn your phone off while we talk. I'm carrying a signal jammer on me, so no one could have followed us through tracking your phone, but better safe than sorry."
"Is your bad news about the war?"
Larry paused, clearly surprised to hear Lex.
"You already know?"
"A little. What do you know?"
"Not much, but… a lot of people I know got 'picked up' by Bluebird. I haven't heard from them since. Then a contact of mine, an old… associate of my family, told me about the war. I don't even know who is fighting who, but it must be pretty bad. All markets, like the one that I took you to last time, have been shut down. Considering the shutdown in communication and the curfew… I've never seen it this bad. I've tried a hundred things, but I haven't been able to connect to the net."
As Lex followed Larry into the apartment, he realized it was nothing like the beat-up and worn down building it was hiding in. There were computers EVERYWHERE! Wires crisscrossed the apartment, though bolted to the floor or walls so as to not get in the way. There were at least a dozen different monitors, all showing different things.
Lex was not a tech illiterate person, but this… was even beyond him.
"Listen, do you have any way of contacting anyone abroad?"
"Currently, no. The moment I'm able to connect to the net, I'll be able to. But god knows when that'll be."
Lex took a look at things and finally felt a sense of relief. At least his friend was okay. He spent a couple hours chatting with Larry, finding out as much as he could about Bluebirds actions. They had been very discreet, but certain forces had been targeted by them as far as Larry knew. If any fights broke out, they were handled swiftly and efficiently, so that no news had spread so far. They were keeping the peace for the general public right now, but who knew how long this would go on.
"Well, I'm glad you're safe Larry, I just came to check up on you. You're doing a good job staying low-key, but if you get in trouble, use this."
Lex handed him a golden key, preparing to explain to him how to use it, but Larry froze when he laid eyes on it.
"That… that's… that's the golden key!" he exclaimed. "It's the key that's been all over the net! There have been so many conspiracy theories in such a short time… don't tell me they're real?"
"Conspiracy theories?" Lex asked, confused.
"Yes, if the net were working, I'd show you. They say that such keys have been passing around top government officials and high leveled cultivators recently. No one knows for sure what they do, but those conspiracy theorists claim the keys can take you to a secret society that only the rich and powerful are a part of. They claim that our world is ruled by families, hidden in the dark, who have been using these keys to signify members of their secret society. Don't… don't tell me this is real!"
Lex chuckled, and despite all that was happening, suddenly felt amused. He did not realize that one day he would become a source of conspiracy theories. The funny thing was, those theorists were remarkably close to the truth about many things.
"I don't know about all of that, but if you get into trouble with Bluebird or anyone else, break the key.
Despite Larry asking multiple times, Lex didn't say what the key did. At this point, it wasn't for safety or secrecy purposes, he just wanted to see the surprised look on Larrys face when he used the key for the first time. Of course, he would still not tell anyone he was the Innkeeper. But now that the keys were circulating on Earth, it was much safer for him to hand them out to people.
As he walked out of Larry's building, chuckling as he thought about how Larry would react, he did not notice two men staring at him.
"The variable has left. The target is alone in the building. What are your orders?" one of them said into an earpiece. After getting the reply, the man nodded to his partner and the two of them entered Larry's building, each carrying a gun.
Other than Larry, there were a few other people Lex wanted to check up on, but meeting everyone in person would take too much time. He gave everyone a call and left a few voice messages, all the while making his way to a park. Finding a remote area, he hid between some bushes and teleported back to the Inn.
His mood was somewhat better now and only improved when he learnt that someone had completed his commision for information about London. He wasted no time and retrieved the report, expecting a situation similar to New York.
But the situation in the UK was actually quite different. Even though the council had vast influence, basically feeding off of the original connections, they could not influence everyone. As the Queen's place of residence, her palace was full of her closest followers. In many places around the world, armed forces were directly neutralized by turning their own defensive formations against them by spies, yet the Queen's guard was exceptionally well trained.
Even under such strenuous circumstances, they put up a fierce fight and escaped. The palace was destroyed and a few other fights broke out all across the nation as the elite guards made their escape.
The good news, for Lex anyway, was that while many soldiers and cultivators suffered casualties, there were minimal civilian casualties, and those too were only near the palace. The bad news was that the entire nation was in a strict lockdown. The official news being spread to the public was that there was an assassination attempt on the royal family orchestrated by terrorists and rival nations.
A decent number of those experts had escaped and there was no information of where they might be, so it could not be determined when the situation would change. But since his family had nothing to do with any such matters, he felt that they were probably safe.
With that stone off his shoulders, he suddenly realized how effective the Inn could be at collecting information.
"Hey Mary, can I ask you for a favor?"
"What is it?".
"Can you keep an eye on my guests? I'm thinking of building a news collection service, and need someone who would be good at something like that. But I need someone with a real knack for something like this, as I'll want him to collect sensitive information in every world we connect to."
Before Mary could answer, the familiar ting of a quest rang in Lex's mind.
New Quest: Find an employee who can run a news service
Quest time limit: none
Quest Reward: Midnight News building
Remarks: For the first time, the host has taken a decent initiative. Now take the initiative to take a bath!
After a long, long time, Lex lost his self-control, and his lip once again twitched! The twitch! It had returned! Lex could not help it, it was a reflex to the lethal remarks of the system. What embarrassed him the most was… he had been so busy lately that… he forgot, and it had indeed been a few days since he showered.
Taking in a deep breath, he pushed down his agitation and looked back at Mary.
"I'll keep an eye out. For something like there, there are a few races that are better suited than others. It'll be your luck if you run across one, and you'll be luckier to find one suited to work for you. All I can do is pay attention."
"That'll be enough," he remarked.
The new quest reminded Lex that he had quite a few quests racked up, and he had not even checked the reward for the quest to expose the devil's planting trackers on his guests.
He went through the quests list, just as a reminder.
Quests:
1. Prepare an event for your guests to participate in
Status: Ongoing
2. Build a connection to Dunya!
3. Develop a permanent guest district
4. One of your guests wants to use the Inn to host a secret society. Aid your guest.
5. Host refugees
6. Find an employee who can run a news service
Many of these quests could not be completed in the short term. The permanent district was too difficult for him at the moment, and the world Dunya he had encountered while using a Golden Ticket was too dangerous for the current him. The secret society meeting he had decided to complete after the Midnight Games ended, for the refugees, he had already spread the word and as far as finding an employee was concerned, it was up to luck.
Shaking his head, he decided to look at his quest reward. Surprisingly, it was pretty good!
Security room:
As a prominent establishment, the Midnight Inn must ensure the safety of its guests. But as an Inn for the entire universe, even a trillion guests at a time are too few. The security room can be used by the Inns security guards to monitor malicious intent among the guests, to protect them as well as prevent them from making trouble!
This was an incredible, incredible reward, probably one of the best and most practical he'd received yet. It improved his mood tremendously.
Lex made a plan on how to install it and what to do about security now that he had a decent amount of MP, but all that could wait till after the games.
Speaking of which, a quick scan of the Inn let him know that the second game had already begun. Not for all parties though, only for Pramod and 99 of his zombies. They'd entered the map 2 hours early. The secret advantage they had received was invincibility!
For one minute, they would be able to activate the ability to be completely invincible to any and all external influence. This was a tremendous ability that could aid them in attacking as well as defending, but other than themselves, no one knew what the ability was. That made them even more dangerous.
Pramod used the extra time he had gained to alter the terrain. The map this time was the side of a mountain covered by a forest, with a castle carved into the mountain at a certain point. The node was, naturally, inside the castle. Pramod immediately controlled the zombies to start cutting down trees and building various walls and digging various ditches. He could not do anything too insidious, as all the guests outside could see everything on the screens, but still, he manipulated the environment to give himself an advantage.
At first, Lex thought of watching the match outside again, but then disregarded it. The system could take care of everything and at least this did not need his supervision. With that, he had some free time on his hands. Now it was time to do something he had been putting off for a while.
Lex lay down on his bed and summoned the bottle of Purified Wraiths blood. This little reward would help him strengthen his soul, but also put him to sleep for a few hours. Now, more than ever, he was anxious to raise his cultivation. Watching a 17 year old Foundation cultivator was only a part of the motivation. As cliche as it sounded, he realized how little power he really had. Sure, normally on Earth, he could survive and thrive with his skills by earning a decent living. But that was only if he operated inside a working system that governed society. During exceptional times, such as war, when that system could not influence anything, he was powerless. Strong personal connections and strong personal strength were the things he decided would help him.
Without waiting anymore, he gulped down the Wraiths blood and lay down in bed. Sleep did not suddenly come to him, but slowly and steadily his mind slowed, until he fell asleep without even realizing when.
Just as Lex fell asleep, at the front of Midnight Manor, a light flashed and a bleeding Larry appeared. His body was covered completely by a thin layer of metal that rippled as he fell to the ground. It was as if his skin was made of mercury.
But despite the metal skin, several gunshot wounds littered his body. His legs, especially, had nearly a dozen bleeding holes in them, though somehow he was not bleeding as much as he should have been.
He looked around for a moment, confused and muddle headed, but could not understand where he was.
A moment later a few panicked A.I.s approached him, followed by Velma.
"Dear guest, you are gravely wounded. Do you give me permission to take you to the recovery room?"
Larry looked at her, and nodded, only hearing the word 'recovery', but then collapsed right after.
"Quickly, call Gerard! We cannot let a guest die on our watch!"
The A.I.s scrambled to do as they were told, and Larry quickly found himself in a recovery pod. Just by happenstance, as he was being taken in, Marlo was exiting another room, and happened to see his bleeding student. His eyes went red with fury.