“And upon the world, a pox.

Sickness and disease to visit one and all.

So terrifying it will be, not for cause of panic and fear,

but rather for its illumination of a simple truth:

human lives are far too fragile.”

-Anonymous

Such words were spoken far away and long ago, and such words have come to burn brightly today.

Guinevere and Bonnie set off not long after their respective struggles. They returned to the convoy The Stragglers had been erased from and found a working hangar truck to transport their one remaining MAC; the MAC that contained the soul, or essence, or perhaps only some twisted cocktail of memories of the little girl known as the Vice Admiral.

Fortune was such that the three girls shared a single goal: to kill the man known as Jace.

With this goal to tie them together, they set out; not quite as comrades, but rather thinking of themselves as kin in murder.

The MAC the little girl inhabited was still steel and pistons as opposed to flesh and blood. This was thanks entirely to her efforts of fighting off the creature that dwelled within the metal beast. The downside was that a MAC of metal and pistons couldn’t refuel and rearm itself the way an awakened MAC could.

And so the trio of minds, all bent slightly askew from their own revelations, began the long trip back toward The Alley’s lands in search of the means to continue their hunt. None of them thought The Alley would be willing to fund their passion project of bloody thoughts, but it was the only military connection they had.

Little did they know that The Alley would soon come to meet them.

A House Keeper accompanied by an auditor, both directly from the capital of The Alley, had begun their own hunt.

The resistance movement in Old Mexico had taken over, creating the Kingdom of Huitzilopochtli. Their standard of an eagle, cactus, and serpent had been planted all along The Alley’s southern border. Worryingly for The Alley’s officials, the banners had been slowly moving into The Alley’s territory.

Even with a new war looming for The Alley, they sent the valuable House Keeper and the auditor out west to investigate two things:

Firstly, they were to find The Stragglers. The mercenary group hadn’t responded to calls in a week and many of the trackers on their machines had been destroyed. The Alley needed those military assets fighting on this new front, and they had every right to send The Stragglers to their deaths as per the contract Ukko had signed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Secondly, though this was of far less importance, the House Keeper and the auditor were to find out what had happened on the coast. A large energy reading, far beyond what any researchers in The Alley could explain, had flashed for a moment before dissipating into near nothingness.

The House Keeper and the auditor made their way along the same highway The Stragglers had used to enter these western lands. They rode in a single hangar truck, much like the truck Guinevere and Bonnie were traveling in, accompanied by their crew of mechanics and technicians.

Two MACs would meet on that highway in the coming days.

Two MAC pilots would discuss the newborn God.

One knowing full well that the darkness of the MAC cockpits held mind-melting secrets.

The other confident that the machines were nothing more than that: machines.

How, one must wonder, could the enlightened pilot convince the House Keeper of their new reality? The fate of far more than the world will depend on the conversation had on that highway in the flatlands.

But The Alley was not the only country to be made aware of such strange readings from the western coast of the continent.

The Boryokudan, the group currently in control of large portions of east Asia, picked up on the reading as well.

The Boryokudan is less of a country and more of a business. It operates in many established countries in any number of ways. Their singular goal seems to be brining in revenue, though to what end no one knows.

On the books, certain subsidiaries of the group work as mercenary organizations, but the only contracts they seem to accept come straight from the Boryokudan itself.

A country in the guise of a business that holds far more power than most are comfortable with.

Such strange energy readings were picked up on mainland Japan and the group was quick to dispatch two MAC pilots and their crews across the vast expanse of ocean on a surefire path to the coast where a God was born.

The two members of the subsidiary known as the Grand Zaibatsu sat patiently in their non-descript container ship. It was mostly loaded down with goods destined for the now-defunct Old Mexico markets, but the entirety of the ship’s hold was serving as the means of transport for the two MACs and their operational necessities.

Jace… Jace has become a rather curious creature.

No… no I’m afraid that is only an excuse for my own failure.

The truth of the matter is that Jace has escaped.

He has escaped The Stragglers, no longer beholden to them as a prisoner.

He has escaped the North American continent, following that God-like creature that turned into a stream of light.

He has escaped a great many things.

Including me, unfortunately.

I can no longer see him, nor can I peer into his thoughts.

He has escaped…

However, there are two things I can be sure of: his feelings regarding Atlantis, regarding the relationships he made there, are not settled by any means. And, secondly, in his journey of self-reflection, he shall leave blood.

Streams.

Rivers.

Lakes.

Oceans.

That man’s future, unknown to even me, is not a void or an absence. No, rather it is awash with blood, painted with gore, and coated in innards.

A pox, yes indeed, a pox has truly come.