The trio landed their airship into the hanger of the cluster, on the lowest level. Priyanka silently took the bow out and walked through the hanger into the ships main hall. The place used to be a decently large housing ship surrounding Fightston before Chelic took it over. He then tried to steal a relic weapon to gain status and was exiled almost instantly by Zach's forces.
"Sup Xander." Said one of the girls from the technical department smoking a dubious herbal substance. "You back from the scouting mission?"
"I mean, kinda." Xander replied while scratching his head. "We went from the middlemen to…cutting the need for them, I guess."
"We got the bow, is what we're saying." Priyanka interjected.
"Wait, what?" The girl yelled before breaking into a coughing fit. "Can I see the weapon?"
Priyanka showed her the bow, and she stood awestruck. The paper containing the dubious substance fell out of her mouth and almost hit the weapon, only for Priyanka to dash forwards and almost spill some guys coffee.
"Watch it! This is a cultural artifact!" She yelled out towards her.
"Dude, I gotta look up what damage you caused to get this." The girl replied, walking down the hall.
"We only blew up one wall, I think!" Xander yelled as she left. The girl laughed as he said that.
Tsuki got a call on her phone. From Chelic.
"Hello, master." Tsuki said calmly, instantly making her voice sound cuter. "Yes, we have the weapon. How did we get it? Long chain of events. You want the weapon now? Sure thing."
She closed her phone and turned to the others.
"We're wanted upstairs." It was genuinly impressive
And so, Xander, Tsuki, and Priyanka made their way to the top layer of the cluster. All fifteen layers. Xander was trying not to flop to the ground as he made his way to the door of Chelic. Tsuki inspected her silkworms and put them on her shoulders as she walked in.
"Ah, the main event of the day!" Marcus announced as they walked in. "Chelic, I'm sure you heard the news!"
"I have, yes." Chelic said from his chair. Turned around, so they couldn't actually see him. "I would like to congratulate you on your efforts."
Priyanka presented the bow towards Marcus, who took it and placed it by the table next to him.
"You know, half the people in this room know what you look like." Tsuki reminded him calmly.
"I doubt that's relevant right now." Marcus said pleasantly. "Regardless, I feel he wishes to reward you."
"First off." Chelic said, showing a single pale finger to the trio. "Your rankings will all go up. But I need to ask who contributed the most during this mission."
"Without meaning to sound self-indulgent, I feel I made the biggest impact. I directed the group and used the tools provided to get the weapon."
"Yeah, Priyanka wins, I think." Xander nodded. "But I think I place last. All I did was set off the security and secure a path to the weapon. Tsuki did most of the fighting from there."
"Nope. If you didn't set the system off, we wouldn't have been able to get the weapon. I just fought a couple people off, and even that ended up hurting like a bitch."
She shown her bandaged hand to Xander, who brushed it off.
"I'm not even a wielder. Besides, if you're willing to mess up your hand like that then you get second place."
"Chelic, may we just have both Xander and Tsuki go up the same amount?"
"I'll do it." Chelic said. "Priyanka, your rank is now one hundred and forty-three. Tsuki, two hundred and twelve. Xander, two hundred and thirteen."
"Wait, for real?" Xander asked. "That seems kinda steep. For one, two hundred and fourteen could probably tear me a new asshole in under a minute."
"Well, this has taught me the importance of stealth in these missions. And speaking of missions, it's time for your next one."
"Already?" Xander asked, lurching forward in agony. "With all due respect, I feel like getting an ancient weapon owes us like, a break of some kind."
"If it makes you feel better, the travel time towards your next mission will give you time to recuperate. And I feel the pay bonus should be more than enough of a motivation."
"How much would that be?" Tsuki asked.
"Roughly three thousand tokens each." Marcus said calmly.
"Three thousand?" Tsuki perked up.
"Yes, as well as several thousand in forged Lux for your travels, naturally."
"We'll take it." Priyanka said sharply, startling Xander. "So, what's our next mission?"
"Your mission will be to go to Sangaria and retrieve their relic weapon."
"The shield of Sangaria." Priyanka asked.
"It's actually the spear, miss Priyanka." Chelic corrected.
"It's a shield. The spear is in Vannana." Priyanka corrected back.
"It is in Vannana." Marcus nodded. "Sorry, Chelic, they will be getting the shield."
"Understood, understood." Chelic replied, his voice noticeably lowered. "Regardless of what the weapon is, I'll need you three to retrieve it."
"Would that be a good idea?" Tsuki asked. "I mean, I have a feeling we're wanted criminals by this point."
"Well, there's the beauty." Marcus said calmly while showing a computer on the table next to him. "News of you stealing the weapon is breaking out all over, but not a single news source has your faces or identities. Granted, when the people you put in comas wake up, they'll probably be able to provide detailed descriptions of who you are, so you'll need to act fast. But once you come back, you will get three months' time off to ensure your health."
"I'll allow it." Chelic replied. "Except for Tsuki. Those knockouts are second to none."
"Understood, master." Tsuki said with an eye roll.
"Now, rest up at once." Chelic ordered with a slam of his fist onto the table. "You'll be going at sunrise."
The three left the room. Xander instantly gave a nervous look at Priyanka.
"Hey, can't help but notice that Marcus mentioned comas. What's the deal with that, exactly?"
"I assume I put people in comas." Priyanka said calmly. "Nothing more to it."
"Okay, you are way too calm for taking about putting people in comas." Xander yelled as they paced through the empty hallway. "I know we're being forced to fight them, but these are actual people we're talking about here."
"Did you seriously go into this mission expecting for nobody to get hurt?"
"Maybe a broken bone or something, but not comas! Okay, can we agree for this mission that nobody gets into a coma? Or worse?"
"If it comes down to it, I'll do it."
"Nope. If you put anyone into a coma, then I'll just report you. And claim to be kidnapped by the new legion and forced into your schemes."
"You wouldn't do that. You have nowhere to go."
"Deserting from what's basically a terrorist organization and spilling their secrets would make me pretty valuable to stopping you, I'm just saying."
Priyanka stopped for a second. She turned around to look towards him.
"Okay, fine." She spoke. "Anyway, this is the floor you live in, correct?"
"It is, yeah."
"I think I'll stay behind, too." Tsuki added. "I am way too tired to go back to Chelic's floor, so I'll just crash with Xander."
"Understood. See you at sunrise."
Priyanka went down the ladder towards her level, and Xander and Tsuki went into his room.
"There's a lot of stuff piled up here, just kick whatever you want out of the way."
In Xander's room was a pretty advanced PC with a pretty big modem next to it on a desk with a bunch of floppy disks next to it, with a trash can overflowing with cans and snack food wrappers. As well as an assortment of random electrical components and robotic parts littered all over the floor. The only thing not covered in trash was his bed, so she took a seat there. She only took her shoes off after making the trek there, feeling that stepping on anything there with bare feet would be a really bad idea.
"So what's with the tubes on the wall?" She asked, pointing towards the multiple thick metal tubes attached to Xander's wall.
"Oh, that? Prototype I'm working on. If it works like I hope it will, then I'll be able to attach a panel to the wall, like so." He picked up a small cardboard replica of what was basically just a rectangle. "You put your trash in this, and it goes through the tubes into a massive trash can, which can then get emptied out over the grand to the world below."
"So what, it's just an excuse to not throw your trash out?"
"Look, Tsuki. Agriculture was made because somebody didn't want to go out and hunt for food. Writing was made because some dude didn't want to verbally retell everything that came to his mind. Behind all innovation is a guy who didn't want to do something."
"Well, when you put it like that." Tsuki nodded. "You really seem to like inventing crap like that. So would you actually sell the cluster out if you had to?"
"Look, here's how I see it. I hate Chelic. I hate having to follow his stupid whims, I hate his stupid plans to destroy everything, his stupid takeover of smaller airships, and he probably has a really stupid face."
"Ehhh." Tsuki shook her hand. For his many, many faults, he was still kinda hot.
"But." Xander added. "The infrastructure he's built up. Admittedly pretty good. So if we were to just take it and use it to benefit everyone, we'd all be way better off, you get me? Even the other ships if they let us."
"It makes sense." Tsuki sighed. "And being part of his harem blows ass. Dude's a total creep."
"Don't even get me started on that! Kidnapping women and forcing the hot ones into relationships! Like, who does that?"
"Look, all the girls learned that if you knock him out and tell him the sex was so good he got short term amnesia from it, he'll actually believe that."
"That's good, but it also proves he's a fucking idiot. Anyway, if you want to go to sleep on my bed, I can chill on my chair."
"We can share a bed. We're in a relationship, dumbass."
Xander paused for a second while taking a sip from an opened can of energy drink. "I mean, if you're okay with that." Xander said, taking his hoodie off while Tsuki put her hat onto his desk.