Lars and friends immediatly srarted running from booth to booth playing games and collecting peices of candy.
"Hey there you said your name was Seymour?" A long nose man said.
"No.... its Simone...." Seymour answered. "God damnnit the one guy who gets my name right and I have to be undercover!" He thought
"Who are you exactly?" Seymour said wincing his eyes
"The names Nathan, grandson of the leader of this here city, why don't you come get a few beers with me while your kids enjoy some Sweet Sunday fun!"
"Tsk" Seymour grunted, angrily watching his underlings having the time of their life in the middle of their mission. "Fine, actually I could use a drink."
As Nathan patted Seymour's back he signaled to a seven year old child hiding behind a barrel of wine.
Scurrying off the child went after Lars and friends.
"Haha! The badlands is so Scary!" Reggie laughed putting on his best Seymour impression. "It's the worst place in the world!"
"When karma comes around its gonna hit you hard Reggie" Lance said.
"Not as hard as this root beer though!" B said. "This thing is off the charts!"
"So this is cotton?" 6 said analyzing a piece of cotton candy.
"No its cotton Candy!" Lars explained "It's fully edible go ahead and take a bite!"
"Hmm" 6 said waving it around in his hand."Ok..."
With one bite, 6's eyes lit up on fire and started blowing blue sparks everywhere.
"This is awesome!" He remarked.
"Hey you guys!" A little seven year old girl called out behind them. She wore overalls and a baseball cap and was covered with mud like she had just returned from playing in the dirt.
"What's up little one?" Lards said patting her head.
"Can you guys come with me... I need to find my grandpa but I'm afraid to see him by myself..."
"No problem" Lars said. "Where is he?"
"He's at the top of the road where that huge mill is!" the child said pointing to the steel mill.
"What's your name?" Lars asked
"Zrilla" The child answered
"Alright then Zrilla lets go!" Lars said lifting her up and putting her on his shoulders.
Within a few moments they had reached the mill where an old man waited for them. He was dressed in grease rags and work jeans, and had drool on his mouth like he had just woken from a nap. Complete with a thick pair of steel spectacles, a steel cane and a loud ticking steel tone watch, it was easy to tell the man was an engineer.
"Ok!" The child said jumping off Lars's head.
Her entire demeanor changed from a naive child to a savy troublemaker.
"I brought them!" Zrilla said. "Now pay up!"
"He... little rascal stealing your great grandpas money!" He said sliding her a card. "That has 40 ether on it, spend it wisely"
"Yay!" Zrilla cheered
"Wait what's going on?" Lars thought
Back in a bar, Nathan handed Seymour another beer.
"Hey friend can you take off your visor for a second?" Nathan asked.
"Why?" Seymour said taking them off.
"Because I promised my old man!" Nathan said erupting out of his chair. "I'd never hit a man with glasses!"
(Back to the mill)
"Wait what is this all about!" Lars asked. "She's not lost?"
"No its you who are lost and now you are found! That mean family man won't be able to harm you now! This is Sheridan! The haven for children! We free them from cratures like that horrible Simone fellow!"
"WHAT!" Lars and the other shouted.
"Heh, I bet Nathan has already made quick work of him!"
"Uhhh Hey Grandpa.." Nathan said striding into the room. He had bruises all over his face.
"Nathan! What happened!" Albert remarked
"IT seems there's been a bit of a misunderstanding..." Seymour said walking into the room with an S.P.A badge.
(A few moments later)
"Oh! I see so your here on a mission to investigate Lagara! That's excellent don't worry we won't blow your cover! We welcome the S.P.A here!"
"That's very nice but don't tell a single soul! If the operators of the mine find out they won't let us inside! By the way who exactly is responsible for it and how do we get in?" Seymour asked
Letting out a deep sigh, Albert took out a map.
"Lagara is on the other side of this city" Albert said pointing to Sheridan. "It was a land we were once apart of but broke away from. If I hadn't have left all those years ago, this child labor stuff would have never happend!"
"I see, now tell me who is in charge of this mine?"
"I'm sure you know who Darius is, correct?" Albert said.
"Ofcoarse, so its a member of his crew then."
"Wait who is Darius?" Lairs asked.
"Yeh, I've never heard of the guy" Reggie added.
Taking a deep breath, Albert looked at Nathan and then to Seymour. "They really are just kids" Albert laughed. "Should I explain or you?"
"Let's here it from the source" Seymour said. "This is your world after all, we are just visitors.
"Very well"
"Darius is the king of the Badlands, when I was young there was no King, no ruler, just a bunch of different places living outside of the law, however that all changed when we found the first Pandora."
"Pandora... those boxes?" Lars asked.
"Thats right! Boxes that are worth milloins of dollars! If we could just find one ourselves we could improve the lives of people everwhere, but let me stay on topic."
"When the Pandoras appeared, a man who was the toughest meanest and most visceral started collecting them and selling them to the N.H.O. Since the conditions of these mines can easily kill a person, the N.H.O was willing to look past the fact they were working with a criminal warlord."
"After he gained money from the first Pandora, Darius started taking over areas of the Badlands section by section until he had control of it all! I had left to work as an engineer in District 2, and was away during that time, when I came back the badlands were a completely different place.
"It was no longer free people living as they pleased, but people enslaved under the tyranny of some self-proclaimed King."
"But how was he able to take everything over?" Lars asked. "Just how strong is this guy?"
"Our reports on Darius..." Seymour said. "vary."
"What do you mean."
"There are some reports that say, simply just standing in a room with him can kill you, others that say he is the largest living Shifter on the earth, others that say he is the smallest living Shifter, there are even reports that say he is a man with over 10,000 arms, we obviously have never validated these claims and almost no one has ever physically seen him."
"That sounds terrifying yo! Ten thousand Arms!"
"Yes there is also the three men who serve under him, Sahara Sherief who controls the Desert, Bali the Beastman who controls Ritgers island, and finally Assap the assassin whoo controls district 4, together those three men make up the three eagles, the eyes and ears of Darius."
"I see" Seymour said. "So which of them are in charge of the mines?"
"No one that high up would ever be at a mine, but one of Sheriefs men, Guille is in charge of Lagara"
"Guille!" Seymour exclaimed. "The man who melted an Agents face!"
"Out of all the people out here in these deserts he's on eof the worst." NAthan said.
"Albert!" A voice cried from the halls.
"What is it!"
"Three men on Hovercycles just crossed the border!"
"This isn't good" Albert said wearily, "You guys are about to find out first hand, how horrible this guy is!"