There's just something wrong... She couldn't quite pin point what, but Grace knew that there's something wrong with the Hollow. Beneath the layers of metal arches and yellow lines, above the spires of steel and industrial vehicle, beyond the catwalks that stretches on to oblivion.
There's something watching her. Something that isn't an Ethereal, nor human.
"Come on darling... Where you at?" Grace muttered to herself, waving around her scanner while looking for a response signal. She dipped her scanner into a puddle of oil, watching the waves from the scanner turn into fishes swimming off into the distance.
After a while, a flock of bird came rushing at her from the sky. It melded into the background and vanished as the scanner detected a new signal. "Found you~" Grace grinned and start running down the dirt path into a large abandoned truck.
The girl stepped into the truck and climbed up the roof of it, finding herself inside a storage room. She looked around, hand on her gun, ready for a fight.
"Naughty Ethereals... Where are you..." Grace muttered to herself, looking around.
The crates surrounding her began to shake, spindly spider leg burst out below them as the front cracked open revealing a gaping maw. It skittered around like spiders, some climbing up the walls while others charging straight at her.
Grace didn't even flinch, backflipping and shooting bullets and tasers. Spider crates rain down from the ceiling, only to be met with an electric explosion. "Behave everyone~" she said in a sing song voice, raining down grenades all over the storage room.
Soon, she found herself alone, surrounded by broken crates. Grace continued her way through the storage room, checking her scanner everyone once in a while. "That's... strange..." she whispered to herself. "I swear the signal was..."
Grace opened the door, finding herself at the edge of a skyscraper. She jumped off the edge with no hesitation, the 100 stories height turned out to be just a 2D picture. She walked down the floor painted like a drop, checking her scanner for any anomaly.
"The last proxy we hired said that something was disrupting their carrot..." Grace mused to herself. "The next few ones I hired also found the same thing," she soon found herself in front of the skyscraper at the other side of the strange floor that looks like city skyline.
Grace stopped in front of the building. "Either this Hollow has something in it that disrupt carrot data or..." she opened a door, revealing a large open area with an abandoned heavy machine in the middle. "Someone is actively sabotaging me..."
The woman closed her eyes. All her instincts are screaming that it's all Phaethon. Even though there's no clue, no evidence, and no reason for any of this to happen. The Cunning Hares and Phaethon were good people, she wants to believe that they'll never stoop that low.
"Haa..." Grace turned to the gigantic machine in front of her. "The signal leads to you honey," she stepped closer to it. "You have something to say?" she put a hand on the yellow metal casing, a soft smile on her face. "How long have you been here? You're not the one I'm looking for, but there's no reason for me to return empty-handed..."
There was a loud whirl and the machine sprang to life. It began to move erratically, swinging its mechanical arms around.
Grace barely flinched, she stepped aside to dodge a metric ton of steel crashing on the ground before walking towards it. "There, there," she said softly. "It's okay..." she ducked under a steel cable whipping towards her with a terrifying crack. "Calm down..."
The woman jumped back, as the behemoth of steel came barreling at her. She slid under a flying swipe of a crane and hid under robot. "Okay hun... Let's put you to sleep," she took out her screwdriver while hanging on to the bottom of the machine.
It was then she realized that there's no reason pulling out a screwdriver. The panel is already open, with the manual energy switch in the open. "Huh?" she froze, at the sight of it. Does that mean someone activated this machine? Could it be...
'CRACK'
"Ghk!" Grace found herself flying, searing pain on her arm. She gritted her teeth, clutching her arm that dangled uselessly off her soldier. "Ahhh... Shit..." she gazed at the haywire machine, limping towards it. "Come on... Work with me sweetheart, please..."
Grace dashed towards the machine, dodging slabs of steel raining and pounding down at her. Until finally, she leapt right under the machine and pulled the lever.
The machine came to a stop and the woman sighed in relief. She crawled out from under the machine, clutching her arm. "Owww... Sweetpea's gonna kill me..." she muttered, realizing that there's no way she can hide her broken arm.
There was a moment of silence as Grace gazed at the deactivated machine. Not a single trace of malice or resentment on her face. If anything, it was only that of pity and sadness. She wondered if the machine sent that signal so she could put it to sleep once again...
"Now... To put you permanently to sleep." Grace climbed into the machine, admiring every scratch and every crack on it. This machine has served them for so long, it always saddens her to see it abandoned just like this. She looked at all the buttons, levers, and everything below her. With a few loving strokes, she wiped the dust off the display.
"Is there anything else you wish to say darling," Grace tried to press a few buttons on it. "It's okay... I'm here now..." the girl cracked open the casing to take a look at the Logic Core. "Oh dear..." she looked down, expression fell at the sight of it.
Strange crystals covered every inch of the motherboard and the chip. Sparks of electricity and something else that doesn't belong, flashed from within.
"Sweet dreams my love," Grace gave the display a loving kiss before taking out her grenade.
[LINE BREAK]
Koleda is anxious.
Two weeks after they hired a new proxy from the inter-knot and thing has gone from bad to worse. From the first few days, it's just obvious that the proxy simply isn't up for the task. For one, they keep getting lost, which is kinda the one thing a Proxy shouldn't do.
Koleda tried to call it quit and shelf the missing machine problem for later. Unfortunately, Grace was being really stubborn and start sneaking out into the hollow by herself. The first few times, she let her be, it was until the mechanic returned home limping that Koleda decided to step down.
"And what the fuck did you do this time?!" Koleda shouted, arms folded on her chest, a scowl on her face.
Grace narrowed her eyes. "Language young lady..."
"To hell with language!!" Koleda retorted. "You kept sneaking out into the Hollow, refusing to hire proxies, and now this!?" she gestured at the wound peppering Grace's body and the way she held her arm. "The fuck were you thinking!?"
Grace clicked her tongue. "Look... I got careless," she admitted.
"You're being RECKLESS!!!" Koleda yelled, ignoring the looks she get from surrounding workers. "I don't know what's going on, but if you keep pulling this off, I'm sending you on a house arrest! Not only are you a danger to yourself, but you are disrupting operations!"
"Listen, sweetpea, there's something strange in the hollow the machine there was..."
"Oh there's something 'strange' in the hollow," Koleda's voice turned sarcastic. "Oh I saw a Bangboo in Lumina Square, hey, I saw some coffee in the coffee shop, can you believe that?!" she walked up to her. "It's the HOLLOW!!! What the fuck were you expecting!?" she grabbed Grace's hand and pulled. "Come on, let's..."
"Khaa!" Grace gasped.
Koleda froze and looked down at Grace's hand. "Grace..." her face paled. "What happened?"
"It's... it's okay... I just..."
"That's not okay..." Koleda looked closer at her arm and gasped. "Grace, you need medical help, stat..." she gazed at the strange, off, jagged part of her arm. "You broke your arm... You..." the girl bit her lip, as tears began building up. "Damn it! Damn it all!"
"Sweetpea it's not your fault, I..."
Koleda put both hands over her face. "Grace! Aaah!!! Bear with me, PLEASE!" her voice cracked. "I'm trying my best here... Please just trust me for once..."
Grace crouched down and put her good arm on her shoulder. "I trust you... it's..." the woman closed her eyes. "It's me, I'm being stupid, I'm being reckless, there's no excuse for what I've done, don't blame yourself."
"You wouldn't do this if I was him, right?" Koleda whispered. "You acted on your own because you don't trust me," she clenched her fist. "I'm sorry, okay!? I'm sorry for being slow and indecisive! I'm sorry you have to work for me!" she glared at her. "So, guess what!?" she looked away from her. "BEN! GET YOUR FURRY ASS OVER HERE STAT!!!"
Her voice echoed through the construction site as a huge bear came rushing towards them. "What's wrong President?"
"Take Grace to ER, she's on house arrest until she's fully recovered!" Koleda turned around. "We're going to hire Phaethon for the next business, allocate some fund to compensate them,"
"Wait, sweetpea," Grace she struggled against Ben, but the bear's hold was firm.
"My apologies miss Grace, but you need medical check-up, we'll take it from here," Ben said, as he hauled up the woman.
Grace gritted her teeth, before sighing. "Okay! I... I'm sorry! But please be careful!"
Koleda scoffed, wiping some tears off her face. "Be careful..." she muttered to herself. "You be careful, you idiot..."