n an office high up in a 25 storey building, two men sat across each other. These men could be considered as the city of ZOA's elites. Sitting across the table on one end was Mr Rogers the CEO of Wayne inc, the popular gaming company responsible for the hit game "The heat" and across him was the former mayor of the city, the man who he beat in the just concluded election, Mr Josh.
"So.. Mr ..eh...Josh to what do I owe the pleasant surprise". Mr Rogers questioned with a smile on his face. He was in a blue suit that not only looked expensive but wreaked of class and style as well.
Clearing up his throat Mr Josh began .." I came here personally to congratulate you one your win, the city deserves the best and I think its only right to acknowledge that you're are the best".
"Haha...thank you, and I'm glad we at least still have gentlemen in our society today who are willing to take a loss and move on with it" Mr Rogers replied with a slight chuckle at the end of it all. Soon after an awkward silence ensued, as it seemed both men were looking at each others soul content trying to read what the other was thinking.
"So Mr Josh, I believe you didn't come all the way down here to congratulate me, considering your busy schedule" Mr Rogers finally broke the awkward silence ending his statement with a smile yet again.
"You are right my fine friend, I'm here to talk business with you". Mr Josh replied with a smile of his own. This reply was unexpected as Mr Rogers never expected something like this from Mr josh which caused him to sit back a little bit and rub his hands on his chin as if to say he was in the middle of a thought .
"Business you say?...what kind of business? Last time I checked you weren't into the video games business" Mr Rogers finished and to this statement Mr Josh laughed slightly.
"Well I'm not exactly here for what your company is well known for, I'm here for something entirely different".. He paused then continued." You see, the city has been experiencing rather strange disappearances and I believe you being the city's mayor would be saddled with the responsibility of finding the missing kids correct? " Mr Josh asked..
"That is true".. Mr Rogers replied.
"Good, now as you may have heard, there's been rumours going on about the hack in your video game and.." Mr josh was about to continue before being interrupted by Mr Rogers.
"You see...there are some things that are beyond our control, accidents like this do happen but believe me when I say I have my team of professionals working on that said issue, now where you come in all of this is what I'm curious to know" Mr Rogers stopped to allow Mr Josh continue.
"I will tell you, but there's another rumor I would like to find out first if its true. Word going around says you have the best wines in the city"... And almost immediately both men began to laugh.
"And the most expensive too" Mr Rogers added as he laughed as he knew that what Mr Josh was implying. Not wasting time as he had gotten the cue, he smiled before saying...
"Say ..why not come with me for a drink and then you can see if that rumor of yours is true" Mr Rogers said with a chuckle.
"Well if you insist." Mr Josh replied with a slight chuckle while standing up from his own seat and following Mr Rogers closely behind. The two men walked uo to another door in Mr Rogers grand office and the Mr rogers pulled out a key and opened the door.Entering another room, it lit up blue as they both walked into what could only be described as wine heaven. There were rows and rows of exotic wines sitting on shelves. Mr Rogers turned around to look at Mr Josh before saying
"Intriguing right?, I have one of these at home too" he added with a smug look on his face.
"Yes very intriguing, but you see I'm not here to drink with you!!" Mr Josh shouted before grabbing Mr rogers by the neck.
"What ...are ....you.... doing Mr ...Josh?" Mr Rogers managed to question while gasping for air as he was currently held up with both his feet off the ground by Mr Josh.
"Where is the Mana crystal!!!...where is it!!".. Mr Josh demanded.
"I don't know....I don't know ...what ..you ...are talking about" Mr Rogers managed to reply.
Mr Josh sighed before saying .. "In that case I have know use for you". And on hearing this statement Mr Rogers eyes widened as it looked like he was pleading for his life. The thing about the situation he found himself in right now was for one, he couldn't scream for help as he was clearly being choked out. Two, even if he did, there was no way anyone would hear him behind the closed doors of this room where he kept his wine.
Mr Josh's eyes lit up white as his hands began to release sparks of electricity, he then formed what looked like a condensed bolt of electricity with his other free hand and stabbed Mr Rogers right in the heart. And almost instantly Mr Rogers was dead.Then suddenly it looked like Mr Josh's body was melting and rearranging itself and after some seconds he had turned into a different person with an all white and gold trim outfit.
"I will have my revenge" the strange figure said and instantly he turned into a lightning bolt and disappeared. Leaving the ground where he stood scorched. And as for Mr Rogers body, it was completely fried from the onslaught of the stranger.
*****
Deep in the forest, a group of 9 were seen running. These were the legion members and they had been running for quite some time now till they finally decided to stop.
"I think we've gotten far enough".Blair said huffing and panting.
"How did you do that back there..the passing through the wall thing?".. Corey asked looking at Rodney.
"Does it really matter? What's good is that we escaped that maniac!!" ..Jack responded with heavy breathes. The others weren't so keen on hearing how they had managed to escape as well. What they were all worried about was then voiced out.
"So where to from here?" Eiko asked looking at Rodney.
" I'm just as confused, don't worry we'll figure things out" Rodney replied and immediately drifting into his own thought, "The game is getting more dangerous... I don't know if its you preacher...but thank you". What Rodney was referring to was the Enchantment skill that had just saved them a while ago. Though he didn't see the preacher, he felt like it had to be him as he was the only one he had seen doing something of that nature. The skill had transported them away from the town's square and after a while of running, they had arrived at the forest they were now in.
"I think I can help" a voice from nowhere said and the group looked frightened as their guards were on high alert from the fear of the assassins. They all drew their weapons and activated their abilities. Even with all this show, they weren't sure they would outlast their opponents as they were not only weak but exhausted.
"Calm down, if I wanted to kill you all, I would have done that before now" the voice said again.
"If you truly mean no harm I doubt you'd be hiding!" Rodney said tightening his grip on the hilt of his intermediate feral beast sword.
In the middle of all of the running through the forest, they had come across some beast and leveled up. Rodney's system had acquired a crystal directly from the beast and the system had asked if he would like trade it with a weapon of roughly the same value of which he had accepted.
"Whoa... sick blade bro" Blair said, seeing it for the first time as it they had all spent more time on preserving themselves to pay attention to the new sword in hand.
The hilt was mostly black and had the scales of the beast used to craft it. There was a design made on two dragon tales colored red running down to the pointed edge of the blade intersecting each other then at the end of it. And at the hilt of the blade, another sword image could be faintly seen carved into it.
"Alright ..fine" the voice said and a man landed from above in the center of all nine of them with his hands in the air and a fan in his hand. This new person had with a long purple hair reaching down to his neck putting on a white robe, had a face that resembled that of a god as he was absolutely gorgeous on his own and yes he was a male.
" I'm Yang....one of leaders of the hunter faction". The purple haired newcomer introduced himself to the legion faction.
"What do you want from us?" Eiko asked not showing fear in the slightest. This came off rather rude as he had completely ignored the introduction. But the man who was wronged understood their situation pretty well and wasn't in the least offended by this remark.
"Those assassins are on your trail and I'm...." The man was about to finish but was cut off
"How sure are we that we can trust you?" Erwin asked showing he wasn't buying any of what the man in question was selling. This time on hearing the remark, the man smiled before giving an answer.
"I can't explain everything now. They're coming so we have to move now" Yang said.
"We can't trust him" Jack said as he stared at Yang holding his the hilt of his weapon. They couldn't be blamed for feeling apprehensive. They had all escaped death twice in one day, it was a natural response to be on the look out for anything suspicious. And right now, everything was suspicious to them.
"I'll have you know that am a faction leader and you'll treat with me with respect" Yang said as he threw his fan heading in the direction of jack but this was knocked back by Rodney's blade.Although the fan was thrown at an incredible speed,it was expected by Rodney as he had been watching the man keenly from before and so the attack coming right after Jack made the comment.
Although he had leveled up, it wasn't because of this that he had been able to see the attack and or to talk of knocking it back. In fact it was the opposite as it was thrown out with little to no effort on the side Yang who never intended to kill jack so he held back the speed and strength behind the throw greatly.
"And I'm Rodney...leader of the legion faction". Rodney said stepping up.
"Fine....suit yourself. Am out of here" Yang said as he caught his fan and stared at Rodney for a while before he ran off. And just as he left the legions, loud footsteps were heard from behind them. And the sound looked to be getting closer and closer.
"I think we need to follow him, we can't fight off all those footsteps I hear coming... Well at least not if we want to stay alive" Blair said looking worried as well as everyone. If they were hesitant before, the sound behind them had suddenly become a motivating factor.
"I agree" Mia said and they all dashed after Yang.
******