Before another word could be said, Lass's face met with an aggressively flying coffee cup, some liquid hitting his face. Thankfully for him, because it looked like the cup only had one-third of its maximum capacity, he was spared of the cleanup, but not from an angry look from a now well-brushed Ikarisa.
Ikarisa looked at Lass, "No.", she turned at Anya, "No."
"Sorry-", Anya tried to say through her daze.
"No.", Ikarisa cut her off.
Lass wiped the coffee off his face, "Alright, we get it, seriously! Just...leave us. We won't do stupid things, I promise you that for this time."
Ikarisa exhaled deeply, "Alright, sure. But please you guys, behave yourselves. I really don't want to worry about something happening so soon again."
"Nothing will!", Anya snapped out of her daze and reassured her, turning back to Lass.
"Really Anya?"
"Hey, sorry, but I had, to get you to snap out of there. Honestly, where would you be without me, gazing at the sky like a vegetable."
"In peace and quiet."
"Gotta at least ask. Why the reactions to the juicy jokes? You crack a smile every time, at least a little. Come on, have you never at least, you know? Loved someone, in that way. Obviously, I have. This little shit sleeping behind you has, and scored, apparently, so what gives. If you haven't realized yet, I'm asking out of morbid curiosity, because you actually do intrigue me."
"Hey, don't treat me as a test subject, mutt."
Anya giggled, "I'm not, dude. I seriously do find it very interesting, considering...you know. Your approach to things. I can see through you but not quite pin you to a certain point. You know, I had a friend just like you that I hung with literally all the time...hence why if you don't mind, I'd like to know a little bit more. I mean we are going to be stuck for a while anyway, so might as well not keep it to small talk, and I am also not leaving you alone in there. Your head actually makes you look a little...not good. I don't know how to put it."
Lass sighed, "Pretty sure anyone you treat this way if you hand out with them will have the exact same reaction. You know. Like a normal being would. But…alright, fine. It's not that I dislike them...just that. You know.", Lass played around with his eyes on Anya's body.
"Yeah, I think we've clearly established that dresses aren't for me, and I'm the initiator on them, so you're lying."
"How the hell did you just laser pierce through that, that quickly?"
"Not exactly making it hard for me anyway. And from your Semori! bio, with all the movies and books you've got listed, I can really tell something is missing here."
"Wait, what?! That's a friends-only account! And I don't have any friends! Plus, I don't log on that thing for anything other than account linking!"
"I mean you accepted me when I requested."
"What? I did no-", Lass was taken fully aback, "Son of a bitch, Regina I will cause a fucking mass murder on all of your-", he was interrupted from his up-and-coming tantrum.
”Hey, chill, I just took a look at it, nothing too intensive. What, never done background checks on anyone or have dwindled with customer service because of your job?”
”Hell yeah I have, my only available job during my murder attempt of a college degree was at a restaurant. And much like what you’re doing right now, I hated that shit. Who wouldn’t, since we would get people like you who never once consider others as human beings, as if they never had to pass through the same hellhole when they had no other way to make cash!”
"Man, I've gotta say that this subject makes you go completely off the usual, and I love it. But now seriously, relax. It's just me on Semori! Now, come on dude, I'll be straight with you. You obviously more than know what I'm on about. You never had fantasies at least?"
Lass cringed, "Anya, what-the-", he was interrupted.
"Just say yes or no."
"No, I will not say shit, can you realize how off the rails this conversation is."
"So you have. Otherwise, we can talk about how the weather is nice and the sky is blue, and I know you despise small talk."
Lass exhaled till his lungs carried no more air, "Just because you know that the one person I don’t want to see pissed is Risa, that’s why you’re cornering me here, right?Weaponizing weaknesses now? Actually sad. Why are you asking these things anyway? It's irrelevant to what you actually wanted.", he looked around for a possible escape without drawbacks.
"I can see a confession coming, out of a need to end the subject~", Anya said in her usual, smug self.
After contemplating for a momentary eternity, as Lass would describe it, knowing he couldn't escape the conversation or the road without severe continuances followed by Ikarisa, he leaned towards Anya as he did the same. The moment Lass started detailing, down the very last drop of detail, as he more than knew he wouldn't be left alone if he didn't do it, Anya's tail and ears pointed to the sky, before Lass quickly retracted and hoped that it would all end in a passing fad.
Anya laughed loudly, crying from laughter as she caught her breath, "Haha! Oh my god, big guy, that's actually adorable! Down bellow ground, despite all those bullshit romantic things you are on! That's so cute! That is actually freaking cute! And here I thought that the only girl you’d ever want to stay around with that attitude of yours was your moist palm at midnight! Cute!”
Lass died inside as if hadn't already been ten times over, "Now please, just leave that subject and me alone, ok?!", he cried from embarrassment.
"Oh, come here you!", she hugged him as she rubbed his head, "Adorable little big guy, I love you more by the second!"
"Alright, alright!", Lass tried to push her away.
Meanwhile, despite the noise from behind, Ikarisa smiled happily as she looked back at them both, deciding not to come in between the two again, as she more than knew that it was anything but trouble that they would bring at the moment.
"More than right, how it is.", she whispered to herself before turning back to face the front, "Almost there!", she said out loud.
Yuno finally woke up, blushing red, "Holy shit, Lass. What's with all these images and imagination in your head?", he whispered as he tried to understand what had just happened inside Lass's head, images flowing through his mind.
After that point, not long after they had encountered the city on the horizon, they started seeing more and more bright and flashy neon signs on clean, aesthetically built shops, streets and eventually skyscrapers. Going further and further from the sides of the empty highway connecting the outside with the city on their mecha-horses, they were baffled more and more by the sights they saw. Clean as a new metal slate and shiny as a diamond, the cleverly built city began showing more and more of its wonders. On both their sides, showcasing the ingenuity of design, they never once felt the claustrophobic feeling they imagined would come along with the city's atmosphere, as despite what it looked like on the horizon, the buildings were placed in mere perfect distances to avoid stimulating said feeling. The neon lights shone brightly, still through the day, with one easily being able to imagine how many eyes they would attract once their full potential sprung out at night. Neatly placed flora was around the streets, as well as between road lanes, maintained in their little squares, with what looked like automated gardening, spherical robots taking care of them. The reflective sunlight shone down upon the road lanes by bouncing off the windows of the skyscrapers, further showing the most well-maintained infrastructure on a concrete road. Above them flew a couple of commercial zeppelins, showcasing a transmitting message of a powerful-looking man, looking down at the city landscape, with the caption "AS ONE", on top of his image, before it started playing a video of what looked to be a movie trailer for a military film of sorts.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Woah...ok. That's amazing.", Yuno was left in awe, processing the sights of the city for the first time.
"Welcome to the big city.", Anya paused as she took a look back at the road they had travelled.
The more they headed inside the city, the they saw more of its wonderful works of art, such as a levitating statue of a symbol carved with pure white steel, an open mall area able to be traversed by vehicles, with a slew of closed stores displaying their wares, likely locked because of the early morning hours and what looked like a massive, beautiful park area that expanded more than their eyes could see. The more they headed inside the city, the less intensive the traffic became, allowing them to easily manoeuvre around the area, looking for their next move after taking in the wonderful sights.
"Wait, guys. You got that feeling coming in too?", Ikarisa briefly stopped.
Lass paused behind her, "Uh...yeah. Where the hell is everybody? The streets got more and more empty by the avenue, at the busiest time of the year for Delpha."
"Yeah. This specific district is near the docs branching further in towards Sandaco and Vardard, with the railway to Reingard being literally a few blocks away. Right now, the streets should be overfilled with trucks moving cargo back and forth to trains and ships from the storage facilities. This is usually when we get most of our supplies of tech for the year, and considering the release of the MXPhone 357, there should be brand trucks in literal rows right now."
"The GPS clearly says that the city hall is further inside the area. By now, we should've probably run across some official to permit us to enter the area after Thaddeus did his thing, right?", Lass added.
"One hundred per cent. Delpha's infrastructure is split evenly into 3 areas, one for residence, a commercial and a tourist area...now we must be at the innermost circle, the factory district. No way in hell they wouldn't have security around this area, considering company HQs and governing facilities are all in one place."
"Wait, government? We are in Insinia. Shouldn't Reingard have more control over here, as the capital?", Yuno wondered.
"Remember the statue symbol? That's their flag symbol. After the Great War, Delpha specifically chose to detach and become a sovereign state from Insinia. Many did. And I think that's the reason why so drastic choices can be made and done in such a short frame, considering that it's just a city. A small, powerful, rich and technology-leading city. I'm just counting my blessings as to how I managed to sign a contract with every single company here in a year. Lemme tell ya, multitasking on this shit is absolutely not easy. But hey, I'm awesome.", Anya explained, flexing her muscles.
Lass rolled his eyes, "Let's just move along with caution. I really don't want another misunderstanding having a gun pointed at me."
Anya giggled, "Not expecting guns in Insinia?"
"True. But I'd rather not be the big guns for now.", Lass sighed, anxious from his empty surroundings.
"Same here. Let's do it as Lass said and move with caution.", Ikarisa agreed.
"Gears out. I don't care if we run across some random security fatso, so better be alert. I'm getting that god-awful feeling down at my spine."
Being on the ready, despite not wanting to provoke anyone, they all summoned, took out and loaded their arms. Being fully cautious and moving slowly, with each step granting more and more anxiety to their already alert selves, they headed deeper into the factory district. Slowly approaching a fenced area, they hopped off their mecha-horses and started slowly walking through an open area between what looked like company HQs, having their logo's flashed from above. As quiet as it could be on a working day, the open area only helped to further rouse suspicion and alert everyone.
"Why does this place look so abandoned? They just hopped on the trains and left or what?", Lass looked around.
"Thaddeus said something about them cutting Reingard off suddenly. And this looks more and more like their reason wasn't their choice. Monster attack, perhaps?", Ikarisa briefly stood still.
"With the kind of weapons, Delpha pumps out? No way they fell that easily. You could say military and the such is not their forte, but I guarantee you, even Victoria's L.A.B. which specializes in warfare equipment get's baffled by what they come up with sometimes. Weapons alone should have Enmities disintegrated on the spot."
"Shadowers we faced back in Kaci definitely had those weapons on them. Moreover, these things were...smart. Too smart for anyone's liking.", Yuno said.
"Could be them too, though I still doubt that they adapted that quickly.", Anya thought.
Ikarisa grabbed a really muddy flyer, "What's this?"
"A muddy flyer.", Anya pointed the obvious, "Though that's even weirder. They never allowed for commercials or product placements of any kind to happen within the factory zone, to keep things neutral.", she took the flyer from Ikarisa, "This thing is soggy as hell. Can't make out what it says at all. Screw it, follow me. I spoke of MX earlier, and their headquarters is like, right next to the open common area. I have VIP access with an ID scan, so we will go there first. Hopefully, find someone who's on their shift to tell me what the hell is going on."
Following Anya and crossing the very silent open area, stepping on torn patches of ground from the otherwise neatly cut grass, they finally made their way to a nearby skyscraper with the MX logo on it. The more they made their way towards the building, they came to soon realize what was going on. A partially destroyed pillar, a flipped-over mobile canteen with papers, work IDs and even pieces of burnt cloth were scattered all around, in front of a massive, damaged lobby area with the glass broken and shattered everywhere inside, while precise bullet holes became more and more apparent when they came closer to the entrance are. They all briefly gazed at the building, before Anya decided to check herself in, having to use the front door to enter, from the surrounding thick windows still standing.
"Alright, in here...", Anya worryingly said.
"You dead ass want to go inside the giant building with bullet holes greeting those coming in?", Yuno said.
"I know I do. Mainly because something tells me that we were absolutely lucky to cross the open area too.", Lass entered.
"What makes you say that?", Ikarisa looked back.
"The fact that these windows are thick as hell and have been penetrated with either bullets or energy-based weapons. Let me tell ya, I definitely know a thing or two about weapons, and to do this damage to this structure, I'm pretty sure it's not where you will just reach a stopping point."
"So you're suggesting that the attacker settled in here?", Anya looked around.
"Let's hope it's the defender instead. Because this isn't exactly a strategic building to attack, which means that if the attacker settled in a public building they shot...well. We are considered more public.", Lass took out his blade.
"We're going in full force."
As they scanned around the lobby, finding no one in it, they started moving around to other nearby rooms. Conference rooms and bathrooms, were all but stable and empty, without a hint of an attack. Reluctant but willing, they went to the HQ's main storage facility, trying hard to find any clues as to what had devastated such a highly advanced city. Entering the storage area, they found a massive expanse of cubical offices and papers scattered around. They gazed further to the shelves with multiple boxes, properly tagged and stacked with markings and everything in an ever so large path that split down several others.
"Alright, time for some hacking work.", Anya cracked her fingers.
"You know hacking too? Seriously? So much for a shopkeeper and supplier.", Lass relaxed briefly.
"I mean I know my way around computers and stuff, yeah. Who doesn't? But I was referring more to entering "1-2-3-4-5-6" on every computer user we could find."
"Checks out.", Yuno looked at her awkwardly.
"You guys can go ahead to the storage area. I'll just spam the computers in here with all I got.", Anya started typing on the first computer in front of her, "First one is a bust, we got approximately 99 more."
"Oh...you were serious.", Ikarisa scratched her head.
"I mainly want to at least find the CCTV app on here. The security staff is also around here, so there must be a chance for that existing, and since they usually have data lasting for 6 months it will surely be useful."
And so, not wanting to face the probabilities of possibly flawed logic, Lass decided to take the others with him and leave Anya alone to her devices, being more curious as to what actual documents had to provide among the large storage hallways.