“I swear, I just found out about this cult thing today!” Kada began to plead her case. She’d jumped up away from the couch to escape Phon’s intrusion on her personal space, but it only led to her being cornered by the others in the room.
“I haven’t been trying to keep it from you all. My people are looking into what’s happening, and have promised me it’s something they can handle, so I just wanted to have a full and complete grasp of the situation before bringing it to everyone’s attention.”
Phon could only cackle at that defense. “More like you were planning to solve it discreetly and sweep it under the rug—before any of us found out you were letting a cult develop right under your nose.”
“And it seems the accuracy of the situation doesn’t really matter anymore,” Xard added. “With that report, people will have already made up their minds regardless of what happens next or whether they’re actually even a cult to begin with.”
“Well I didn’t give them the go ahead to make that report!” the business owner spouted. “And we certainly didn’t give them permission to film and broadcast from the resort. I bet Chorus is already blasting them with litigation and demanding they issue an apology and retraction.”
Drim sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ultimately the blame doesn’t matter at this point. We have a duty to resolve this for more reasons than one. If Roque was here, he’d remind us that Mermaid’s Reef is a Fiendish Ventures property, and any negative backlash could hamper our investment business along with the rest of our projects that we provide funding for and endorse. Additionally, given our current election plans, having a cult tied to us, true or not, would undoubtedly cause issues.”
“But all of that has nothing to do with why we should actually intervene. If these people actually worship us, or even just idolize us, it’s our responsibility to help them back onto the correct path. From what it sounds like, some people are undeniably abandoning their past lives in pursuit of this cause, all because they believe we’re something more than we are.”
“That’s not something I can abide by. And if they’re further performing violent or disruptive acts in our name, we have to set them straight. We owe it to anyone they may harm and these Fiendnatics themselves. So we’re headed to Ledmer to see this situation with our own eyes, and if there’s a cult, we’ll put an end to it.”
Everyone grouped up together to make teleport easier for Phonscience—able to grab them by the handful instead of having to move their pieces over to Ledmer one by one. Even Kada had accepted her fate and joined with a drooping head. But one person still strayed from the pack.
“Are you coming, Jaid?” Phon glanced over to the couch where no one seemed to have any intention of moving. The two small youngins had already reclaimed their own spots on the couch. Drimini had swapped the TV over to a cartoon and was deeply enthralled. Meanwhile Pox had sprawled himself all over his own cushion, gearing up for what seemed like it’d be an epic nap.
And Jaid herself hadn’t moved during the confrontation, but did continuously glance over. Now she was a bit surprised to have been put on the spot. “Erm, am I allowed to?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t you be?” Drim tried to dismiss the exclusionary concept.
“Uhh, I don’t know,” The knight tried to find the words. “It’s just, it’s you four, going on an adventure together. Seems right, like it’s how it was supposed to be. I guess it’s because when people think of the Fiends For Hire, you’re the original group, so it’d only be natural for the four of you to head off by yourselves. And you all haven’t really been together to do anything since the prison, so I didn’t want to intrude.”
“That’s dumb. Come if you’re coming,” Phon insisted.
“Please, Jaid!” Kada clapped her hands together to beg. “I need more people on this trip who aren’t against me!”
“Oh, I never said I was on your side,” Jaid smirked, but still got up to join the others. This only caused Kada to lose even more heart as they were teleported across roughly a third of the continent.
“Wow, so this is your office,” the knight went over to the window right away, or rather one of many at the top of the tallest tower on Ledmer. “You can see everything from up here. Reminds me of the upper floors at the Central Peace.”
“Well that was the intention,” Kada hobbled over to join her, hoping the delightful view would hopefully distract from some of the chaos that was likely happening right below them. “I wanted to be able to watch the whole resort. This window shows the water park. Over there is the entrance and then the monster sanctuary. And that last side is the beach.”
“We can have fun later when we’re done with the Fiendnatics,” Xard broke up the tourist bait. “If this actually is a cult, I’d like to see it stopped in its infancy before it becomes an actual problem. Worst case, we could see a second Humanity, but this time they’d claim they were on our side.”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” Kada went over and pushed a button. There was a fountain in the middle of the room that suddenly stopped. After the water quickly drained away, the fountain split apart into quadrants and slid into paneling. A second later, a cylindrical elevator popped up and the doors slid open.
“You really like hiding things behind water features,” Drim couldn’t help but mention. “What’s with that?”
“It’s just cool, okay!” The Mermaid didn’t have a better argument. “Makes me feel like I’m finding a secret in a game.”
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“More like you’re hiding secret entrances to your lair,” Phon suggested as she hopped onto the lift, adding one final jab. “Like an evil super villain cult leader.”
“I’m not a cult leader!” the woman shouted in her defense as the elevator descended out of the office. Kada then pressed a few extra buttons, entering a secret code that let them skip any other floors on their ride down. As the questionable stares came her way, she justified it by saying, “I just don’t want us to run into any of the directors or executives on the other floors right now, alright?”
Since it was a private elevator, when they made it to the ground floor, they were let off in an employee-only hallway. The group made their way towards the lobby, but when they reached the door, Kada insisted that she head out alone at first. “Let me talk to my staff and get an update on what’s going on, and see if this is something that we can resolve quickly.”
“Alright, fair enough,” Drim acquiesced. “This is your business, and you’re in charge, so we’ll give you the chance to handle things your way before we intervene.”
The big boss exited the service hallway which put her right out by the front reception in the lobby, so from there it was a quick stroll. She tried to avoid making eye contact with the large crowd standing around to avoid stirring anything up. That amount of people wasn’t abnormal, but it also wasn’t a normal day. Still, she locked her sights on her floor manager who himself was dealing with some rowdy looking customers at the counter.
“Ms. Susten?!” the man nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed his superior leaning over his shoulder. “I-err-we-I believe we expressed that we have this situation under control. There was no need for you to come in person. Everything will be handled as quickly as possible. You have no reason to worry. This is beneath you, so please, let us take care of it.”
“Nothing’s being handled!” the woman across the counter shouted. “Madam Mermaid, you have to help us, they’re trying to throw us out of here! We have the money to cover it, but this Fiend hater keeps saying we can’t extend our stay!”
“My apologies, miss,” the man expressed with his best customer service voice. “As I’ve said a few times now, your room has already been booked, and we can’t cancel their reservation because of an extension request. That would be unfair to our next guest who has already scheduled their trip and tickets.”
“I get that, but you can’t just throw us out like trash!” the woman wasn’t letting up. “You just have to find us somewhere else to stay then! It doesn’t matter where. We’ll take the cheapest room you have or the ritziest suite, but we’re not leaving.”
The manager could only let out a muffled sigh before they forced their smile back into place. “I’m afraid that because of your group's enthusiasm in staying here, we’ve had an unprecedented influx of guests, and we are fully booked out through the next month. We simply do not have any rooms available. If you like, we can book a reservation in the future, but for now, we must ask that you check-out.”
“No, I won’t do it! We won’t leave!” the woman looked ready to pounce at the man, abandoning all civility. But then she turned to Kada, and her face changed to something akin to a whimpering puppy. “Please Madam Mermaid! You see what they’re trying to do to us. Surely you can—”
“Wait, is that Kada Susten?!” someone cried out over the woman’s shoulder, cutting into her desperate plea.
“The Mermaid is here!” “A Fiend’s here?!” “One of Cosmos’ chosen!” the rest of the crowd received a wave notice and all turned her way. Before she knew out, a mob was stampeding her way, all shouting their requests or demands.
“Can you get them to move my room beachside?!” “They won’t let my pet Parakooster stay in the room!” “Can you sign my surfboard?!” “Would you come speak at our upcoming gathering?!” “Can you do something about the ocean, it’s too salty!” There were a dozen or so other requests shouted at the woman that she didn’t make out, but the crowd also wasn’t slowing down.
So The Mermaid bolted away, back into the service hallway, where she slammed her hand into a button on the wall, causing a shutter to slam down in front of the door. It was a good call, because those outside of it started banging on the door a moment later. But it begged the question… “Why do you have a shutter here?” Xard expressed his curiosity.
“Oh that, well, y’know,” Kada did a bad job of answering at first as she calmed down from escaping the swarm. “Doesn’t my resort seem like the kind of place that’d be one of the first places overrun in some sort of zombie or plague outbreak? Just wanted to be prepared in case the unexpected happened. But I didn’t have a cult as the reason we’d first use it.”
“There have been a few movie studios wanting to use the resort to film similar ideas, but that would require shutting most of the place down, so we haven’t worked out the details on any of that yet. But whenever it does happen, they’ll already have them and won’t need to build practical effects for it.”
Jaid then added a thought. “Well there is a monster sanctuary just outside, so if one of them got loose, then the shutters could be used either for the safety of those here or to help capture them.”
“Nuh uh, no way,” Kada refused the idea. “They’re all good boys and girls and genderless monsters. None of them would ever attack anyone here. Well, unless they were harassed by some of our more rowdy guests. But after that problem was removed, they’d go back to being good. Just like any of us.”
“Shutters aside, I want to commend you, Kada,” Phon spoke up, her words overflowing with sarcasm. “That was such great leadership and customer service out there. I’ll take it the problem is solved then and we can all go home. Great job.”
After the expected awkward silence, the woman continued, “Well unlike you, Jaid and I have been doing actual work into resolving this. She dug into their online presence and schedule while I’ve been scouting around to find where they’re located. They’re about to host another big gathering because your staff has been unable to stop them. So let’s go take a look, shall we?”
“The issue, however, is that it’s so packed that even the balcony stands are overflowing. So there’s no way we could infiltrate without causing another commotion. I suppose we could just watch from here and use my antenna, or rather… ah, yes, to the rafters we go!”
One quick teleport later, and the group of Fiends were now perched up high, staring at the massive crowd below. The convention hall was completely packed to capacity, with it even spilling out into the lobby. It was such an over attended gathering that even the biggest celebrities or musicians with sold-out concert venues would be envious.
Many among the crowd were chanting glory to Fiends, and several more were singing songs of their praisers. About three quarters were all wearing some sort of Fiend paraphernalia the vast majority of which stemmed from the Fiends For Hire. Plenty more were holding up signs, and there were some even with bibles from the church of Cosmos with the For Hire logo etched onto the cover. Regardless of the group’s intentions, they certainly weren’t beating the cult allegations.