Xavier opened his eyes to a new day, the dim ambient light of his hotel room was adjusted according to the time. The clock reads 08:45 AM. An unusual time to wake up for him who rarely has his routine disturbed.
He awoke from the bed, stretching his arms and tapped a few keys on his wristband; it displayed the current mission of investigating The Red Menace also known as Elise Alexandria Beatrix.
As he got off his bed he headed towards the bathroom, following his morning routine he showered and let music play in the background of his hotel room.
As classical music from the 19th century played, he enjoyed a meal of canned beans and bread.
"Good morning! I hope last night wasn't too tiring for you." The text from Luna said. With a quick movement of his hand and the tuning device on his head. He opened the web zone to explore the current affairs of the sector.
Local web zones are a lot less hostile, with only a few million sites compared to the trillions that the international web zone hosted.
He opened a room and began exploring. Looking at local forums for any new events happening nearby.
"What's with the bodies left on the streets these days?" A user posted. The discussion on the thread talks about the recent surges of death in alleyways, around the neighborhood slums. The death seems like the usual vampire related causes. But it seems the frequency has made the Sector's clean up crew overwhelmed.
The forum also discussed a protest held in sector 4's impoverished areas, in which a man has rallied up the masses to protest on a newly proposed law to restrict certain types of comedy and recent price surge of daily goods. The perpetrator was given the name "Jester" due to the clown mask he wore as he protested. The news was huge enough to reach the other sectors.
"Huh, that's odd."He said out loud, Xavier was shocked by the news.
'It's been years since any protest was done in sector 4, so the law must be something really terrible.' he concluded. Before continuing to browse other threads of the forum. After what seemed like a couple of hours he logged off to prepare for his walk towards the library.
The afternoon streets were somewhat busy, corporate workers going in and out of the subways and monorails. He looked to the side, a plethora of stores under different brands, selling various goods for the people's daily needs. Sector 5 doesn't seem that bad right now, but deep down he knew this is just the city life that's different from the slums.
Using his wristband he contacted Luna to ask if Nathan had arrived at the library.
"Nathan? No, he's no here yet." She texted back. Xavier would sigh, knowing what he must do. He decided to book a train to Nathan's apartment complex far from the inner city of Sector 5. The door opened, allowing him to enter the crowded train. He found an empty seat amongst the workers and got himself comfortable.
As the train moved he decided to put on some earphones and listen to some tunes. As classical music played into his ears, something malicious was brewing on the same train he is in. An elderly looking man, shaking from head to toe, his red eyes and sharp fangs starts to show. The man shook his head, his face contorting to an animalistic hunger. The commotion caused people to spread outwards away from the old man. His heavily breathing and groggish movement shows that something is wrong with him.
Xavier, feeling squeezed against the worrying masses, stood up and assessed the situation. His eyes darted from left to right, searching for the source of the commotion. There he stood, the old man violently shaking as his fingers turned into sharp claws and he started lunging at the nearby citizens.
"May god have mercy on you." Xavier said as he grabbed his pistol and pointed towards him. A flash flickered as the first shot was fired. The deafening sound causes the masses to cry out in shock. It narrowly missed his head and went into his shoulder. The hole it tore quickly regenerated.
The old man was quick, pushing through the crowd of people like butter, his sharp claws and speed causing the crowd to be scratched and torn into a pile of gore and flesh.
Xavier ducked narrowly missing the man's razor sharp claws as it scratched the metallic walls of the train.
His momentum caused the train to shake as the man leaped towards Xavier. His claws move all over the place, in addition to Xavier's quick movement and reflexes.
With one deafening blow of a silver bullet, the man was pushed back. His head shattered into pieces as it flew off into the windows of the train. Xavier followed with more shots into his heart and body. What was left of the surrounding crowd was covered in blood, their bulging eyes and shaking bodies were enough signs to make Xavier sit down and think about what just happened.
The corpse of the old man began to shrivel and burn as he expired.
'What the fuck was that?' he thought as he wiped the blood off his glasses. His pistol was still hot after the rounds he fired. His chest rises and falls as he takes a deep breath.
The strength of that vampire was alarming to him, feeling the oddness of the incident. How could a being of the night be that strong during the day?
The train had finally arrived at his stop ending the endless thoughts that was flooding his mind. An empty glass vial rolled to his boot with the label 'NN' remnants of pink liquid visible on the inside.
He stumbled his way, holding on to his left arm that had been scratched. He didn't notice the bleeding, compressing his arm he continued to walk towards Nathan's house. His rhythmic breathing shows his effort to not panic or go unconscious.
Sweat dripped from his forehead, absorbed by the sleeve of his suit as he continued walking towards Nathan's apartment. A gentle knock on the door, followed by a deep exhale from Xavier.
"Wake up dipshit, I know you're in there." He said as he gritted his teeth.
Nathan opened the door. Yawning as his eyes widened from looking at Xavier's current condition.
"The fuck happened to you?" He said as he raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Had an incident with a corpse, You know the drill." He said to Nathan as he gestured to follow him. Nathan put on his worn out blazer and followed him.
"Now come on, we're already a few minutes late." Xavier said breathlessly, breathing rhythmically for each step he took.
"You look like shit man." Nathan said to him. Looking over to his bleeding arm, Nathan looked at his own arm with confusion remembering what happened last night.
Xavier grinned through his pain, he typed into his wristband to order a taxi.
"That's rich coming from You." Xavier said as they got in the taxi. They stopped at the pharmacy.
Xavier stepped out of the taxi followed by Nathan. The world begins to shake with each step, the moment he got to the counter he could only mutter one word.
"Pain-" Xavier managed to say before passing out. Nathan watches as Xavier loses consciousness, quickly grabbing him before his head could hit the floor.
"Fuck." He exclaimed as he grabbed his body and laid it out on the floor. The receptionist quickly applied first aid on Xavier.
In another place
The red dress we usually see worn by her is replaced with a tactical red suit. Elise stepped out of a vehicle into the front yard of a worn down building in the depths of Sector 5's slums, a small cafe can be seen with the sign that reads "Cofé le sang" . A man is seen drinking a glass of gin on the outdoor table of the cafe.
She walked closer to the man, his brown coat was decorated with many pins. His eyebrows express the emotion not visible from his eyes. His circular tinted glasses serve as a barrier to his true intent.
"So? Did you find anything about him?" She said as she sat across from him.
"Talos Instrict, he goes by many names... quite a name you found there." He said as he took another sip of gin. With a few taps on his wristband he pulled open a hologram displaying a hologram about the man.
"Quite the individual he is, hunted by the United Government and still dare to mess around in the web zone." The man said as he drank the last gulp of whiskey.
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He stood up, signaling the waiter to come before paying him.
"Back to our business. I'll give you a heads-up on where our tech rippers last found his digital signature." His hand moved towards her, opening his palm revealed a small blue chip ready to be inserted.
"Thanks Doc, I'll get the information out of him ASAP."
"Your welcome, this mess has gotten the attention of the higher ups... Be careful, we may need to thoroughly clear all loose ends." The tone of his voice carried weight into Elise's Mind.
"Gotcha." She said as she walked away from the bar, the silhouette of the city was visible from the cafe, reminding her of the sheer size of it as she walked back there.
Back to the infirmary of The Pharmacy.
His eyes slowly opened to a stinging pain on his left arm. In his right side the scruffy fellow he's used to seeing is talking to the nurse about something.
"He just randomly collapsed. I don't fucking know what happened." He said monotonously, but his eyes were visibly darting from side to side trying to think about a solution.
"Thanks." Xavier said as he sat up from the bed to Nathan's surprise. Holding his bandaged left arm.
"Still alive?" He said sarcastically with the same expressionless face.
"Unfortunately." Xavier's face turned to a smile as his right hand grabbed the glasses on the counter next to him. His hand feeling his waists noticing something is missing.
"My gun! Where the hell is my gun?!" He exclaimed worriedly. Nathan rolls his eyes before throwing the guns to his lap.
"Why do you carry so many guns?" He said as he held his rifle. Examining the weight it has and the ergonomic shape.
"It's essential. I don't carry dead weights." Xavier said as he looked directly at Nathan.
Nathan thought about it for a second before burrowing his brows. He threw the rifle at him, Xavier instinctively caught it with his left arm.
"Fuck!" He groaned in pain as he held his left side. Nathan gave him a mischievous smile. Served him right after that comment.
The nurse came and gave Xavier instructions for the aftercare of his treatment. Then they discussed the matter of payment which was swiftly handled due to his membership of premium healthcare.
After the whole ordeal Xavier ordered his usual taxi to drive them to the library.
"Just how strong was that corpse you were fighting?" Nathan's curiosity indicated the strangeness of the occurrence.
The idea of a vampire being able to resist the sun's weakening was something out of the ordinary for him.
"He wasn't strong. He was aggressive and the place we were in was crowded." He said fidgeting with his pistol recalling the event. The strange details about the old man.
"In the afternoon? How strong can an afternoon corpse be?" Nathan said, the tone betrayed the stoic face he has. They both discussed the possibilities of what could cause the sudden strength, until Xavier mentioned something that piqued his interest.
He remembered something, the glass vial! It was a rather suspicious object to be found near an odd incident.
"An empty glass vial? Sounds like a druggie to me." Nathan said, feeling like he has seen something like this in his past misadventures.
"A druggie? A vampire who's a drug addict? Sounds hard to believe." Xavier rebutted. Comparing his experiences to Nathan.
"It's unlikely, since their bodies are more resistant to drugs." He added.
They decided to put the thoughts aside once they arrived at the library. They went inside, Luna greeted them with a warm group hug.
"I'm glad you guys could come! I-I was getting worried since you guys came a bit late" She said excitedly.
"Yeah, we ran into some trouble on the way here." Xavier said as he showed her the scar on his left side.
"Oh my, at this time? M-Must be one strong vampire..." She said with an oddly perverted expression on her face.
The two men were quickly repelled by her expression, she noticed and quickly snapped back to reality.
"Ehem... A-Anyways I did some modifications to your tuning devices..." She handed a tuning device that has been decorated with a purple accent. There is also a newfound compartment containing a specialized chip. The two of them examined the tuning device before putting it on.
"What's the difference?" Nathan inquires.
"T-Tap on the sides!" She told him, as he does, a window popped up showing a miniature version of the room, two dots representing the other people in the room.
"How did you do it?" Xavier asks. As he puts on his Tuning Device.
"I-It was a newer edition from the United Government." She told him.
Nathan struggled to press the aforementioned buttons, fumbling around with his Tuning Device as Xavier watched disappointedly.
After a few taps Xavier got the hang of his Tuning Device, being able to see the mini map of his location.
After a sigh Xavier lends his hand in aiding Nathan figure out his Tuning Device.
"Thanks man." He said to him,
The three of them turned on their tuning device, Xavier opened the gateway with his usual hand gestures, allowing them to enter the web zone.
Greeted by the bright flashes of advertisement they stood amidst the ever-changing landscape. An interface appeared In Front of Xavier which he promptly typed the location of the room he's trying to enter.
The landscape moved endlessly as the three of them were transported to the front of a building, the retro style reminiscent of the classic nineties video game store.
"We're here." Xavier said to the two before entering the building. Greeted by the usual robotic sound system.
[Welcome users, please take a number or redeem your order receipt.]
Xavier would enter the code on the receipt, opening a metal door nearby.
[Right this way] the monotone robotic voice said to them. The trio walked into a corridor leading to a room with a lone man sitting down a metal chair.
"Well, ain't ye a buncha preppy cunts. Whaddaya want?" His accent was apparent as he greeted us with a smile as he puffed the cigarette on his mouth.
"We want you to decipher this." Xavier threw the memory stick to him, he catched it swiftly before examining it with his goggles.
"Well what a nice surprise ye got me here. A 343 memory stick, Whose grandpa did ya steal this piece of fossil from?" He laughed to himself before strapping the memory stick to his desk decoder.
"Just decipher the damn thing." Nathan rolled his eyes in annoyance as he clenched his fist.
"It won't take long, it's hard to believe anyone still uses these things." He said as he typed on his computer and observed the screen.
"H-How much would it cost?" Luna asked.
"Well I'll bill ya the cost later aight? It'll take a few minutes, just sit your asses down and let me do my job." A few chairs appeared behind the trio allowing them to sit and wait as the man did his work.
The memory stick glowed red as a bar on the screen progressed, the man looked at the progress and nodded to himself before continuing to tinker and type on his keyboard.
A few minutes pass and the memory stick glowed green,
"Well there ya have it. Ye wanna view it now or later?" The man said, holding his cursor over the folder contained in the memory stick.
"I-i think we should w-"
"We want to see it now." Nathan interrupts. To Luna's dismay, Xavier stayed silent as they huddled closer to the screen.
Upon inspecting the folder, they found more lists of transactions starting to come into view. Scrolling further down gave them explicit evidence of Orpheus's involvement through photographic record of two men in the slums wearing a suit and posing for the camera. One of the men has a specific looking badge that resembles the logo of Atlas.
"Looks like those guys were involved with the gang war a few days ago." Xavier scanned the files.
"But what does that have to do with vampires?" Nathan inquires.
"It doesn't. But since those fuckers hired vampires, it sure as hell connected." Xavier explained, he sent the files to someone he knows.
"T-Thank you for your help Mister...?"
"William, no need to be so tense young lass, I don't plan on catching a case today." He laughed to himself before snuffing out his cigarette, causing it to disintegrate into ones and zeroes.
"The pleasure's on me lads, here's the encryption key." He hands Xavier a piece of paper.
"The payment... 10 credits. I'll give you a discount cuz ye brought me eye candy for the job." He laughed once more after his remark which prompted Luna to blush and cover her face with her hood.
"Sent." Xavier scanned his wristband on to a device the man placed on the table. He bid them farewell, the three of them walked back where they came from and back into the waiting room from earlier.
"Looks like this night is about to be a long one, let's get out of here and give the location here a visit." Xavier said to the two of them.
They exit the shop, thrown back into the endless amount of brightly lit colors and advertisement, with Xavier quick hand gestures he opens the door out of the web way and back to reality. The three of them appeared back at the library, they took off their tuning device. The two men started walking towards the front door.
"W-Wait! I need to close the library first." Luna exclaimed, the two men sigh as she pressed the button that encapsulates the library in thick sheets of steel. They exited out of the library through the backdoor. The sky was dark, droplets fell from the sky as thunder could be heard.
"I-It's raining..." Luna said as she reached around in her bag for an umbrella.
"I'll call a taxi, don't worry." Xavier tapped on his wristband once more.
"Wait, we're bringing Luna?" Nathan asks.
"Well, do you think she'd be safer here when there were two men threatening her yesterday?" Xavier raised his eyebrow.
"True..." Nathan conceded.
As the taxi pulled up the three of them went in, Xavier told the driver the location they needed to go to.
"This address is quite interesting... I want to know what the descendant of one of the heroes has to do with Exses and Orpheus..." Xavier said to the others as they drove off.