"...and she just looked at me so innocently," Mary and Jelly had just gotten back to the lab at the Infernal Institute of Technology, and were explaining what just happened to Professor Rice and Jessie. "I actually feel bad for that angel, she was just doing her job. And she was sooooooohot."
Jessie's cheeks flushed as red as the blood plasma he drank. "Mary, what did you just say?"
"She was quite attractive, right Jelly?" Mary gushed. "Those crystal blue eyes, full lips, and oh those curves..."
"How about we discuss your crush later, Mary," Professor Rice cut in, eyeing Jessie's flushed face. "You two are extremely lucky to escape alive. Throne Angels are usually pretty hard to deal with, and I'm not sure why this one let you guys escape."
Meanwhile, Jelly was examining Mary's KV-2 launcher. She skilfully disassembled the control panel, then took out the tiny core of the launcher that was wrapped in wires. "Mary, what exactly happened with your launcher during the fight?"
"Ah, right." Mary patted the launcher. "When I fired this at the angel, the shell didn't explode!"
"Interesting," Professor Rice scratched his chin with his robotic hand as he examined the launcher.
"Ha, Mary's aim was probably too terrible." Jelly smirked.
"NO!"
"Mary," Jessie was seating next to the KV-2 and was viewing its manual in his brain. "Do you want to take a look at this?"
"Sure. What's up?" Mary pushed in next to Jessie. Jessie blushed like a tomato, suddenly losing his speech capabilities. "....uh...uh...."
"Let me see," Mary pressed a button on the launcher's core and its statistics were uploaded to her brain.
"WHAT?!" Mary jumped up, scaring Jessie so much that he fell onto the floor. "I FORGOT TO CANCEL THE TRAINING MODE!?"
"Problem solved," Professor Rice smiled kindly at Mary. "As an engineering student of mine, you shouldn't be making this kind of mistake."
"I'm sorry, Professor..."
Professor Rice gestured with his robotic arm, getting his students' attention. "Something important: I've just received permission to set up a portal in my lab. Come, come. The Department of Resources sent this in just this morning."
Professor Rice led the trio into his laboratory. The only light source came from a phosphorescent crystal lamp at the centre of the room, perched upon a table littered with unfinished creations and a big brass bell. The lamp cast a dim blue light on the wooden shelves lining the walls of the lab, filled with metallic models of all sorts of robots, vehicles and famous historical buildings. Hanging from the ceiling was the Professor's crown jewel: a full scale model of an enormous dragon-like combat bot, known as the FM-6. It was one of the most deadly combat bots in the world, being the first and only combat bot able to single-handedly fight an Archangel. But because the one in the Professor's lab was only a model, it lacked the proper armaments of a real FM-6, and was constructed with titanium instead of depleted uranium. Professor Rice led his students to the other side of the room where the portal stood.
"Behold." the Professor spread his arms in a grand gesture towards the swirling purple vortex.
His three students looked unimpressed.
"So what is this used for?" Jessie asked.
Professor Rice sighed. "I've told you a million times, Jessie. Remember Article 13? Does that ring a bell?"
Jessie blinked.
"Mary, could you please explain?"
"Sure. Jessie, remember Hell's initiative to collect more souls by hiring humans to kill other humans? I'm guessing that this portal will be the gateway that will allow us to travel to and from the world above to recruit them. Is that right, Professor?"
"Spot on."
"Wait," Jelly examined the portal curiously, "so we can bring a hired human directly into your lab?"
"Exactly, although I will try not to scare him that much." the professor smiled, pointing to the half of his body which was purely mechanical. "Then you guys could show him around Hell's layers."
"Sure," Jessie said excitedly, "could we take him to our boarding house rooms?"
"Maybe later, Jessie. Someone's at the door." The brass bell on the table rang sharply and the Professor went to open the door.
"Hi, Professor Rice! Oh, and hello Mary!" a muffled voice said from outside.
Mary looked out from behind the Professor, and was greeted by two familiar faces. "Oh, hey Jenny. Glad you're looking better from the fight with that angel. And Moth, what are you doing here?"
"How about let's discuss this inside." the Professor welcomed Jenny the dragonoid and Moth inside and shut the door.
"Professor Rice came to my university yesterday," Moth took out a special supporting stick and sat down on it. "He was asking for a law student to help him with some task about recruiting a human, so I signed up."
"You guys know each other?" Professor Rice took out a bottle of golden coloured liquid and poured it into 6 differently coloured crystal glasses. "Good, then it'll be easier for us to discuss the plan."
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"You let them go?!" Micuffy Valkyrie laughed as hard as she could as Raphael sat unmoving on the white marble chair. "I still remember you were so pissed when I let that dragon escape."
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The two angels were talking in the middle of a garden, with trees bearing red-golden fruit glistening in the sun, fully pruned vines bursting with grapes, and a bunch of other exotic plants surrounding the narrow marble paths. Usually when Raphael came here, she would marvel at their beauty. But today, all she could do was twirl her sword and think about her.
Raphael sighed. "She had an interesting ability."
"What ability could have been that powerful?" Micuffy pressed on. "I thought a Throne Angel can literally do anything she likes."
"Will you be quiet for one second?!" Raphael yelled in exasperation.
Micuffy looked down at the Throne Angel. "Yep, that's a second..."
"You are just like that devil!" Raphael threw down her sword, which stuck in the rich soil. She was still distressed over that encounter.
"Yea," Micuffy turned around swinging her long, messy golden hair in the air, "that devil is actually pretty funny, I hope I can meet her one day."
"What is Trust Point?"
Micuffy stopped, but she remained with her back facing Raphael, "what do you mean? You mean how much you can trust a person?"
"No," Raphael sat back down, "before the fight, the devils asked me if I want Trust Points."
Micuffy swallowed nervously, "not sure what are those, maybe you should check em' out next time."
"Micuffy?"
"Yes?"
Raphael walked up to Micuffy, she wasn't even sure if they were friends, but they had been together since their creation, "Can I please ask you to be a little more serious about things. I know you hate to do those extra work, but please, if we let those devils do whatever they like, the humans will suffer and will go extinct, which will led to the destruction of both Heaven and Hell."
"I'll try my best," Micuffy smiled, "should I come with you next time incase if you ran into those devils again?"
Raphael tried to hug Micuffy but Micuffy dodged by leaping forward, "Raf, I'm not ready for that."
"What do you mean?"
An evil smile appeared across Micuffy's angelic face, "I know you are, but I am not, is that clear Raf?"
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Another day of physical labour in the munitions factory, Teasel wiped his face with a black towel that was already soaked with the mixture of sweat and high explosive powder. However, he liked to work in the munitions factory, because this is the only place where he could reward himself with something. Teasel tapped his chest pocket, feeling the soft, sand like contents in there. He would be able to save up a lot by the end of this month, and that amount, as he calculated, will be able to blast a hole on the thick concrete wall of the Education Centre.
Suddenly something strange appeared in his mind, was it a smell? Or, the tiny poster below his foot, that read 'looking for part-time employees'.
In the Asiana society, or the Xijing society, you could only be employed into a former job if you become a member of the lower zones, and if you were someone from the upper zones, you would be forced into 'voluntary', government organised labour camps. There were some small recycling business up in the upper zones, but they relied mainly on robots rather than employing anyone nearby.
Teasel studied the poster again, it looked rather new, and was painted in a dark red colour, a printed arrow on it was pointing towards his right. He took a short glance, it was a narrow passage between two broken P1000 main battle tanks, but the trash on the ground was cleaned away neatly, indicating that this was an actual path.
Before he could think of anything else, Teasel's body started to move towards the passage on its on. He could have controlled it, but he wasn't bordered to any mental actions against it back then.
Teasel stopped at a door at the very end of the long passage, light from inside smoothly surrounded him through the pink frosted glass, a small welcome sign was hanged neatly upon the brass handle. Teasel hesitated, he knew very well that something was off, but he still reached out his hand towards the handle.
The door burst opened before the boy's hand could make contact with the handle, Teasel jumped back by the surprise appearance of a young female at the door. She was wearing a unique dress. What shocked Teasel the most was how plain and white the dress was, it was whiter than anything he had ever seen, even the white smoke from the power factories. The girl looked down at him and tidied her pink hair in a weird fashion with her hand that was wearing a white glove with leather-like texture.
"Hello?" the girl smiled and widened the door, "wanna come in?"
Teasel nodded lightly, and he walked up the staircase as the girl stepped back into the room.
"So what do you have here?" asked Teasel.
"A cafe," the girl smiled and turned around suddenly and sat onto a clean glass table, "we just opened yesterday."
"Sounds fishy to me..." Teasel investigated the room nervously, it was just oddly spotless, it was even cleaner than the Governor's Hall where the upper zones party members host their meetings. There were several round glass tables, a counter with a brand new set of machines that he had never seen before, "what are those?"
"Coffee machines?"
"Coffee?"
"Hang on?!" the girl jumped on the floor and clapped her hands, as another girl appeared from behind the counter, "we have a customer!"
"Wait a second," Teasel stepped closer to the girl, "what are you guys selling? I'm just curious about the part time thing."
"Ohh," the slim girl from the counter walked out, she was also dressed in an unusual uniform.
"We just sell coffee and other drinks that hum... I mean, do you want to work here?" Jelly eyed Mary nervously, she was a terrible actor unlike Mary who did a drama course during her high school period.
"So what do I need to do?" Teasel asked interestedly. Mary hopped with Jelly, "basically, just take orders from our customers and work with these machines to make coffee."
"I worked in a machinery factory before," Teasel said quickly, "but I'm not sure how to use those."
"Please come here," Mary grinned, without showing her sharp fans, "I'll show you."
"Someone's at the door." Jelly said nervously, as the door opened and the girlish vampire walked in. Jessie almost fainted at the sight of Teasel, he had never seen a live human before, but he managed to hold himself together and sat down near a table, "may I please order a cup of coffee?"
"Sure," Mary pressed a button on the machine, and placed capsule into the machine, then she placed a cup below the machine. After a long buzz, Teasel watched curiously as the brown liquid poured into the cup, he had never seen a machine that was used to make food instead of making weapons or for recycling purposes.
Mary placed the plastic cup onto a aluminium plate and served it to Jessie, who blushed as his eyes made contact with Mary's.
"Yea," Mary turned to Teasel, "that's about everything you need to do aside from cleaning."
"Oh really," Teasel spoke silently, "but what else is needed for me to be employed?"
"Nothing much really," Mary sat down upon a table again, "if you want to join us, feel free to join anytime..."
"I SMELLED SOMETHING NICE HERE!" the door burst open again, and the huge figure of Hans squeezed through the narrow door.
"GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" Teasel screamed.
"Teasel, why are you here?" Hans looked at Teasel, "you are here because of the smell or..." then his eyes focused onto Mary and Jelly, "...".
"Boy," Mary tried to act angry, "its not like we are doing anything illegal here, this boy just want a drink, a single drink won't kill him."
Teasel said nothing else, but he eyed Hans viscously, who sat down heavily near a desk beside Jessie, "hi there, never seen you before, are you one of the girls from zone B?"
Jessie looked up instantly, he's face was like an over ripened tomato, as Jelly and Mary tried their best not to laugh.
"You are a shy girl, maybe you'll talk later" Hans turned to Mary and Jelly, "what do you guys have?"
"Coffee."
"Coffee? Fine, may I have a cup," Hans laughed.
Jelly went to make him a cup as Mary turned to Teasel again, "so have you decided yet?"
Teasel remained silent for a few seconds, and he walked up to Mary and whispered in her sharp ear, "I'll do whatever you want me to do, but please let this guy live."
"Haha," Mary smiled, "I don't get what you mean, but sure, wait here, I'll get you an uniform."
Teasel couldn't believe what was happening as he was dressed in the finest clothes he had ever seen, it was a normal waiter's uniform but was so clean and nicely done as if they were taken from a painting. After Han's entrance, more and more, normal people showed up, workers, youngsters, and even Party Guards who were rarely seen flooded into the store. Teasel tightened his bowtie, and started to work.
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