After the battle had ended, the elite officers of the revolution had all decided to go to the infirmary next, to check on all the wounded.
Nick had recovered for the most part, and was standing by the entrance of the tent holding crutches. Jessie was also present, and was helping him stand up. Banner was still sitting next to Tom's bed.
When the bunch arrived, Jessie immediately went to hug her sister.
"I am so glad you're alive!" She excitedly said. "What were you doing in there for so long."
"Better question." Said Nick. "Where's the bastard's corpse?"
"No corpse." Said Anthony as he helped the medics set Leo on a bed. "He vanished!"
"All that was left was a pile of cloth, and this key." O'Lop said, and showed the weirdly shaped key. "We also retrieved his crown."
"Enough of that, how's Tom?" Renée asked.
"Not well." Said Banner, with a very deep voice.
"Unfortunately we don't have the equipment to treat him." Said the head medic who was also nearby. "We stopped the blood flow, but the damage has already been done. We need actual medical equipment for a chance he survives."
"That will not be a problem." Sounded a new voice. Everyone turned around to see Lucius, accompanied by a man wearing a top hat, monocle and tuxedo, along with another young fellow wearing a bowl hat and roughed up suit, who looked a little lost.
"Dad, who are these people?" Asked Jessie.
"This is my friend Ed." He answered.
"Edward, king of England." He shook Anthony's hand.
"And this is-"
"Francis Gaspar." Leo spat. "How dare you show your mug here? After what your old man did?"
"I assure you, I don't share his beliefs. I hated the old guy."
"Why did you bring this...thing here, dad?" Renée asked.
"Francis was the heir to the Austrian throne. Which means if we're signing an actual agreement, we'll need his signature." He explained.
"That bloody snake would make us sign our souls away, mate!" AJ yelled.
"I don't trust him." Jessie announces.
"Me neither." Roufail says, the turns to face Edward. "Now, what is it you said?"
"I will take your severely wounded in my helicopter to an actual hospital in London."
"You heard him. Help load the people onto the chopper!" Leo announced.
"What about you?" Roufail asked.
"I'm fine. Just need to stretch my legs."
"You dislocated half your bones, man."
"Turned out Chet is also a chiropractor. He fixed me right up."
Roufail turns to face a smirking Chet Douglas.
"Uh, alright."
"Now, I need a coffee. After that we can discuss the treaty." Edwards said.
"Follow me, Ed. I know a great place..." Lucius said, and the two left.
"We still don't know what this does." O'Lop said as he spun the key in his hands.
"I know where that goes." Said Francis.
Everyone raised an eyebrow.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Soon enough, Francis led a group consisting of Leo, O'Lop, AJ, Anthony and Banner, most of whom fully armed, into the castle of Sowei City.
"Augh, mates! He's taking us to a hidden location so he can manifest a stabby and murder us, and nobody will find our bodies!" AJ said.
"I'm right here, you know." Francis said, without even turning back to look at him. "And I don't want to kill you. I just happen to have the thing you're looking for."
"How do you even know where this place even is?" Leo asked, doubting him.
"When I was little, my uh dad used bring us here for vacation. I had explored the entire castle and stumble onto it. When I asked what it was, he dodged the question and took me to get ice cream, which was very rare. I kept asking him about it, but eventually he just figured out I was doing it to spend time with him, so he grounded me and we never came back again." Francis explained.
"What did you stumble on, exactly?"
"Behold!" Francis said as he opened the door to the basement. "This thing!"
What they saw was a ginormous machine with glowing orb in the center. It had a weird symbol engrained onto it, same as the one on the key.
"What the hell is that?" Roufail asked, shocked at to what he was seeing.
"Dunno. I always just called it the basement machine."
"Real original." Leo deadpanned.
"Yeah, thanks. Just insert the key in that keyhole, and twist it. Something should happen."
"This is it, mates! The murder machine! He's been planning this all along!" AJ tried to get everyone's attention, but he was ignored, as Leo entered the key into the socket.
________________________________________________________________________________
In the realm of The Above, the two heavy-armored knights, Titan and Signus were back to guarding the matter transporter, a heavy machinery identical to the "basement machine", when suddenly, the red core starts shining bright yellow.
"Yo man, check this out!" Titan wakes up the half asleep Signus. "This machine thingy started going all glowy and stuff!"
"Holy smokes man. That! Is insane."
"Should we do something?"
"Naw man. It's the natural order of effects taking it's toll."
"That's deep, man."
"WHAT ARE YOU BUFOONS DOING?" Someone else yells at them. They turn around and see Nova, the God of Magic. Along with him was also Geowar. "Did I not tell you fools to inform me should anything happen to the matter transporter?"
"What did happen though?" Asked Signus.
"Yeah, it just changed from red to yellow, man. Maybe it's going through a transitional era, y'know?" Said Titan.
"You need to seriously take a chill pill, man." Signus told Nova, and the two knights started giggling like idiots again.
"It's not a person you moron! It's a machine!"
"In retrospect that kinda makes sense." Says Signus.
"Hey, machines have feeling too. You shouldn't disrespect them like that." Titan said, and then went back to giggling.
"You two are the most incompetent idiots I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. But, on the bright side, it appears the connection to Terra has been re-established." He then turns to face Geowar. "Geowar, are you ready to go through?"
"I was born ready."
"I mean, you weren't. If you were you wouldn't have had to train, right?" Titan pipesdup from behind the ginormous Nova.
"Do you imbeciles ever stop talking?"
"I guess this is goodbye, then" Geowar said.
"Only for now. Need you any assistance, you can always seek my guidance." Said Nova.
"Good luck, man." Signus told Geowar.
"Don't die on us!" Titan jokingly states.
And with the final words said, Geowar goes through the glowing portal at the center of the machine.
________________________________________________________________________________
Back in the basement, the squad looks as the glowing machine, not amused.
"That's it?" Leo asked.
"Look, you asked where the key went, and I showed you." Francis replied.
"Let's just go." Anthony told him.
But before they could leave, a peculiar sound echoed through the whole room. Everyone turned around to face the basement machine once more. A caped man with glowing white eyes emerged from the center.
"YOU!" He yelled, and pointed towards Leo and O'Lop. "I can sense it... You have Blaze's power! You must be his lieutenants!"
"Who the hell is Blaze?" Asked AJ, but he got no answer. Instead, the caped wonder attacked the group with a laser blast, that Leo had to jump out of the way to dodge.
"What the hell!? Another one?" Leo shouted to nobody in particular. Everyone was in shock. O'Lop got into a fighting stance, gripping the handle of his hammer tightly. Banner unbuckled both of his automatic rifles from his back and AJ took out one of his grenades.
"I-I'll get help!" Francis said and ran out of the room, tripping and falling down once on the way.
"You shouldn't have come here, fiend!" O'Lop dramatically announced and hurls the hammer straight at the new guy's face, accompanied by a "Hiyahh!" The caped man punches the hammer with enough force to create a small shockwave, sending it flying back towards O'Lop who gets hit in the face and gets launched several feet back, while the hammer lands with a thud.
Seeing that, Banner immediately opens fire, and Anthony runs to tend to O'Lop. The caped man reflects most of the bullets with a mirror he constructed, causing Banner to roll out of the way of the reflected barrage. Seeing bullets be ineffective, AJ is quick to act as he tosses a grenade towards the attacker, who in turn creates a giant hand out of hardlight, grabbing the grenade as it flies towards him and tossing it back. The grenade explodes in front of AJ, knocking him back as his head hits the wall and he goes unconscious.
"My fight is not with you!" The caped wonder yells at Banner, who still tries to shoot him down. The flying man lets out a sigh, before blasting Banner in the chest with another laser blast.
Anthony and Leo, both unarmed decide so start running in opposite directions, so their attacker has two targets.
"How the hell did you survive against Fred?" Leo asks Anthony while running around.
"I don't know! I just grabbed whatever I could find!" He replies, and then gets ripped up by a laser blast and falls face first on the floor.
Leo is the only one left standing, as he looks around in hopes of finding something to defend himself. He spots O'Lop's hammer, and makes a dash for it, while dodging various laser blasts. He slides underneath a high laser and grabs the handle of the weapon, jumps up, and with incredible force throws it towards the caped man. He, in turn, slaps it away with a hardlight shield construct, but the hammer comes back to Leo's hand.
Leo again throws the hammer towards the attacker, who creates a big shield to repel it. The shield cracks. For the third attack, Leo makes a huge leap into the air and crashed right into the shield, breaking it apart and startling his opponent, as he falls to the ground
Just then, Francis runs into the room, accompanied by Lucius and Edward.
Edward quickly unstraps his weapon, an elegant handgun with various golden highlights, and shoots the caped man in the shoulder. He grunts his pain as he grips his shoulder, and seeing the blood splattered on his hands, the caped wonder passes out in mid-air, and lands of the floor with a thud.
"YOU!" Leo yells and runs up to Francis, grabbing him by his shirt's collar. "You knew this was gonna happen! You wanted us out of the way so you could claim your father throne!"
Francis pushed him away, and Leo tumbled over his feel and fell down.
"You think it's an every day occasion for me to open up machines and flying assholes come out? I told you I didn't know what it did!" Francis defended himself.
"Am I supposed to believe that?" Leo asked as he got up and dusted himself off.
"Enough." Lucius said. "Someone grab our friend here, we're going upstairs and we're having a discussion about where we go from here. The four of us."
"What about the others?" Leo asked.
"I'll take care of it." Said Banner, who had just regained consciousness.
"Let's go." Lucius finally said, and the four men started climbing the stairs to the rest of the castle.