Michael arrived at the gymnasium well ahead of the other Kings, he looked around and sighed. This is a hell of a mess, but he had his job - stall the Kings until Moon Rider could do whatever it was she was up to. He looked behind himself to Donny, the Sweeper that was tasked with protecting him and back to the eerily lit auditorium.
He walked slowly out into the middle of the court as the lights flickered on, shining through a thick layer of dust that hung in the air. He looked around and sighed, the gymnasium was a decrepit husk of a building, a remnant from the first days of Purple Crown Academy. The roof was padded and torn, insulation hung from the ceiling loosely. The windows were all barred from the inside the glass was stained with years of grime.
The lights flickered and Michael turned back around to face the double doors, the only way in or out of the building and waited for the Kings to arrive.
Michelle walked into the old gym, adopting a playful personality. He spotted Michael, then waved to him. "Hello!" Michelle greeted him cheerfully, smiling as she skipped over to him.
Michael blinked and opened his mouth, he gulped. The bubbly freshman was the last person he expected to show up first - or at all. She didn't look like she was in his class, or any of the other classes that Kings usually come from. It was a welcome surprise though and it definitely lightened the mood of the meeting.
Michael smiled and held up a hand, "Hey, I'm Michael. Thanks for coming out."
At Michael's mention of "thanks", Michelle stopped in front of him and tilted her head in a playful manner, putting her finger on her chin. "'Thanks'? For what? You sound like you invited me here." Michelle knew that, being so young, she looked nothing like a King, and used it to her advantage.
Michael smiled awkwardly and rubbed his head, "...I did, didn't I?"
Instead of answering that, Michelle looked away, pretending to be thoughtful. "Michael, Michael..." Michelle muttered. She then pretended to have one of those 'light bulbs' above her head, and turned to him to say, "You're that guy who's supposed to be Moon Rider, right? I read about that in that message everyone got! Are you hiding here so no one can beat you up?"
Michael sighed, "Yeah, something like that... It's a mess, really."
Michael closed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, he rubbed his neck and rolled it side-to-side, "I almost died today, don'tcha know." He laughed awkwardly and followed it up with a sigh, "But yeah, today's not my best day."
"Anywho, aren't you a little young to be a King?"
Michelle had already prepared herself for that question, and responded, "A King? You mean those Deep Ground people who are leaders of each guild? What made you think I was one?" Everything is going according to plan, Michelle thought.
Michael held out a fist and landed it on her head softly, "Don't you lie to me."
He squinted his eyes and bent over at the waist so that his eyes were level to hers, "So, which one are you?"
And here comes the things that don't go according to plan, Michelle thought as Michael bumped her lightly on the head. She placed her hands on her head as if it hurt, and shed a crocodile tear when he asked her which King she was. "You're mean. No wonder why everyone's trying to beat you up," Michelle said as she pretended to pout. "Do I really look like I'm a King?"
Michael stood back up straight, "Not really, but you're the first one here. So it's not like you saw anyone go in." He turned around and crossed his arms, "So, which one are you?"
At the mention of "first one here" Michelle brightened up and asked, "First one? You mean there will be Kings coming here?" She made her eyes grow wide as if in excitement. "Wait, why would they come here, though? Did you invite them here?" Michelle asked, ignoring the question Michael asked her for the second time.
Michael groaned audibly, at first her bright happy-go-lucky attitude was a welcome change, but now she was just being goddamn annoying. He turned back around and sighed, "Can you please just drop it? It's been a rough morning."
Michelle continued to smile and ask, "Drop what, Red King?"
Michael's eyes widened, "Wha- how- huh? How did you-"
"Surprise," Michelle said, her tone of voice take a sharp edge, although her expression did not look much different. Her playful personality was gone though. "Please to meet ya. I'm Shooting Star, the Yellow King."
Michael sighed and nodded, "That makes sense... Shooting Star is the King with the least play-time..."
Lucy was walking as fast as she could across campus, her boots clicking against the pavement. It wasn't really that she was looking forward to this, but in some small way she was curious as to who the other King's were. There was a ping, that notified her she had yet another message, but she ignored it, instead pushing open the doors to the gym to find two people standing there talking.
One was young, too young, Lucy thought, but if she was here, the girl must have been a king. The other, she recognized. Michael. To the both of them, she only waved and walked over, not wanting to interrupt the conversation.
Michael didn't have to do much to look behind Michelle as Lucy entered the room, he raised a hand, "Yo, Lucy. You're a King, huh?"
Michelle turned around to face Lucy, who was waving to both of them. "Hi, Lucy. Sorry I couldn't do much for your city," Michelle said, her tone of voice apologetic. "You need any help?"
For a moment, the smile on Lucy's lips dropped, but it was back shortly after. "No. I'm fine. Thank you," she said to the girl, and then turned to Michael.
"I'm guessing you've been holed up and haven't heard, huh?" Lucy pulled on the bright green scarf around her neck as if to emphasize it. "Green King at your service. You're a King too, right? You think we wouldn't notice the whole missing Red from the message you sent out?"
"The what?" Michael cocked his head, closed his eyes and sighed, "I forgot to send it to Stuffed Rabbit, didn't I?" He blushed, "Wai- that means- it's not what you think."
"What do you mean?" Michelle asked, smirking. "People only say that when they're hiding something."
The smile turned to a grin as Lucy answered Michelle's question. "I think he's embarassed that his avatar is a girl. Although, I'm still not sure how that is unless...." Her eyes squinted as if she were concentrating on his appearance. "Are you hiding something from us, Michael?"
"...yeah, you guessed it." Michael sighed, "I'm a pretty cute girl though, aren't I?" Michael smiled awkwardly and closed his eyes, blushing.
Michelle tried to supress the laughter she had bubbling inside her, and asked, "So why'd you invite us here?" She had her own answer, but she wanted to hear what he had to say.
Michael opened his eyes back up and looked off somewhere in the distance, "We should probably wait for the other Kings to show up before getting to the serious talk." He nodded, "Yeah, it'd be easier that way."
"Ok then," Michelle said, her tone of voice having her edge back. "We'll just talk about what a cute girl you are in Deep Ground." She turned to Lucy and asked, "That sound good, Lucy?"
Lucy's expression wasn't exactly friendly as she answered the question. "No." She felt bad about her tone, but Michael was in her class, and she'd grown up with him. There was no reason to embarass him just because he wanted to wait until the others got here to talk about whatever the message had been sent for. "Let's talk about something else. Are you alright, Michael? No death threats or anything I hope?"
Michael sighed, "Only the one, no big deal though."
Michelle's smile dropped when Lucy said "no". Evidently playtime was over. "Alright then, let's wait for the others to show up," Michelle said. "Sorry, Michael."
Michael held up a hand and grinned, "Don't worry about it."
Just then, Sam entered the gymnasium, one hand in his pocket, with the other raised in greeting. "Yo." He said casually, putting a grin on his face as he approached the other teenagers. Michael was here, but so were two other girls. One was wearing a green scarf, probably to signify she was the Green King. Or it was a clever bit of misdirection and she was actually one of the others. Then again, given what he'd seen of the Green King, Sam didn't think she was the type to do such a thing. And the other girl was either a midget like him or fourteen at the oldest. From what he remembered of the current Yellow King, Shooting Star had skyrocketed to max level soon after she'd shown up in Deep Ground Online, so he supposed it'd make sense that the Yellow King would be so young. Still, he had bigger concerns at the moment.
Turning to Michael, he gave the other boy a smirk. "So...where's Little Red Riding Hood? Because from what I figure, you're either her, or you're going out with her."
Michael turned to look at Sam, "Little Re- oh~" he nodded and held a finger to his chest, "That's me, yeah."
Michael pointed to Lucy and Michelle, "And these are the Green and Yellow kings."
Michael smiled and pulled his bangs across his forehead, "Everyone's almost here, that's good. We're going to wait for everyone to get here so.... uh.... make yourself comfortable."
Michael spun around to look at the room, there was nothing on the court at all. There were doors leading to a storeroom in the back, but a glance inside showed that it too was empty. Still, the gymnasium seemed like the most opportune place to hold the meeting. It was the single most dilapidated building on campus, nobody would accidentally stumble on it, it was even rumoured to be haunted. Of course, it very well might've been, but still it was the one place he was sure that no outsiders would be able to eavesdrop on the Kings' meeting. It was a fair ways from the dormitories too, so it would buy time for the Black King if Michael couldn't hold their attention down.
He turned back to look at the three Kings and sighed, "You three plus I makes four... so we're waiting on two more, right?"
"No, just one," Aaron said as he entered the mostly empty room. The boy he'd met the night before wasn't here, and the Orange King quickly matched the faces before him to their likely titles. There were two girls, one much younger than the other, and just going off of in-game actions he would have assumed the younger to be the Green King and the other to be the Yellow. However, the older one was wearing green, and as duplicity seemed to be something the real Green King would be incapable of, Aaron was forced to swap his assumption. There were only two boys besides himself, and since brown-hair had just addmitted to being the Red King a moment ago, the last boy had to be the Blue King by process of elimination. With the addition of the White King from the night before, Aaron now knew the identity of every single King except for Moon Rider.
Michael turned to look at Aaron as he made his presence known, he waved at him and smiled, "Hey, great just one more person." Michael looked him over, the other three kings were male, assuming they weren't genderswapped like himself. He was sure that once they got going he would be able to tell them apart. Conquest Pantheon would probably go on a rant about how bad the Black King is. The Blue King would probably make some asshole remark about something - though they could be completely different in person.
Michael began to space out, wasn't he a different person this morning when he was talking to Moon Rider? Yoshino? I was an asshole, wasn't I? In fact, dismissing the gravity of the situation was probably one of the worst ways to go about dealing with it. Where did that come from anywho? I should probably apologize. Assuming he made it out of the meeting alive. Maybe with flowers - or was that too cliche? Michael sighed and looked around, "So, who are we missing?"
Michelle gave that question a bit of thought. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue.... Michelle thought as she counted off her fingers for each King. "We're missing the White King," Michelle said. "That's to be expected, though. I heard the White King disbanded the guild, then resigned."
Michael's eyes widened, "Oh really? Guess that makes things easier then. Alright, first things first - I am not the Black King. Or the King-slayer."
Sam frowned at Michelle's remark. "Seriously? White pussed out on us? Wasn't he going on about how he wanted to introduce Blackie to his fists or whatever?" He shook his head before turning to Michael. "And yeah, no shit. Funny how your Avatar's still a girl either way, though."
Aaron chuckled coldly. "You think that's funny? You know what I think is funny, how about how the very King who proposed that we team up against the Black King is actually the closest one to her." He chuckled some more, though the joke wasn't really worth laughing over. "It seems to me like this Masked Man doesn't quite like the Black King too much, so why would he frame Rabbit here for her crimes if he was actively fighting against her? The way I see it, it only makes sense if the Rabbit wasn't Moon Rider's enemy from the beginning, that they are working together."
Sam raised a hand into the air lazily. "Alright, before we start going on about Red Riding Hood sleeping with the enemy or whatever, I'm just gonna come clean with this. Pretty sure Blackie didn't kill the other Kings." He crossed his arms, yawning. "Remember the night they died? Remember how the game was supposed to be down? Yeah...it kinda wasn't. And I know because I managed to log in that night. Before you ask why, it's cause I'm kind of an addict to this shit." Sam shrugged. "But yeah, I logged in, and you know who I came across? The Ebony Strykers fighting that Corpse Collector hacker chick. And then that masked asshole made me sit and talk to him. Said something about Blackie being logged into the game too. So you tell me this: how's Blackie supposed to kill four kids in one night while being logged into Deep Ground?"
Michael nodded, "Pretty sound stuff. So we know that I'm not the Black King or the murderer and the murderer is not the Black King, right?"
"Worse yet, that masked man has been telling everyone lies," Michelle said. "First he says Moon Rider was logged in, meaning the murder of the Kings, as you say, impossible. Now he's saying he saw their murder with his own eyes." She shook her head, continuing, "Terrible inconsistencies."
"Not at all," Aaron said with a frown. "Not if the murdered Kings were killed from inside the game."
"But that's not possible," Michelle argued. "There shouldn't be any way for them to be murdered in-game. Even if there was such a way, the admins would surely be at least trying to figuring out how such a feat was accomplished. It would be an event that would surely force the shutdown of Deep Ground, no matter what other events would be happening within it."
"Besides, perhaps the Silver Jester is targeting me because I'm the one who proposed the alliance. Who knows what he's thinking?" Michael chimed in, "All this could just be a huge coincidence, a game or something."
"There's no such thing as coincidence," Michelle said. "We need more information." She gave it a second of thought, then turned to Sam. "Blue King, you said you were logged in during the supposed shutdown, right? And that masked man spoke to you?"
"Yup." Sam replied. "Wait, I thought you were logged in too, Goldy." He raised an eyebrow. "The masked douche did mention you while we were talking."
"I wasn't logged in. I never knew about Deep Ground still being operational. I was in my room, thinking up a new name for my Guild at the time," Michelle said. "Did he say anything else?"
Sam frowned at the response he was given. Well, there went his theory on how only the Kings that were logged in survived at the time.
"Uh, let's see here..." He racked his mind trying to remember the conversation from a month back. "He asked me why I was logged in even though the game was supposedly under maintenance, so I told him I was bored. Then he told me that I was one of only three Kings that were still alive. And then he said something stupid about how if I continued on with my regular life or something, then the dead Kings would stay dead. Yeah, I don't know either. He's kind of a jackass."
Michael nodded along with the conversation, he thought maybe that if he didn't participate too much to the 'find out who is doing all this nonsense' discussion he might could keep himself from sleeping with the fishes. Besides, he was never one for over-the-top logic or doing all this detective work anywho. Anything he had to contribute would probably come out sounding like Aaron's theories - jumbled without any sort of linear thinking or reason, though anything he could do to steer the discussion away from himself or the Black King would probably help, "So, what does the Silver Jester want?"
"Apparently to dick around with us." Sam shrugged before he turned back to Michael with a grin. "Anyways, moving onto more important things: what's this about Red being close with Blackie, now?" Honestly, talking about the masked ass was getting boring, especially when there were more pressing concerns at hand, like dealing with Blackie.
"Well this is news to me," Michelle said, curious to see where this would lead. She turned to Michael, smirking, and asked, "You're... close to her?"
Michael laughed awkwardly, "I'm pretty sure that's just some nonsense that the Orange King was saying earlier - like the reason the Jester tried to pin it on me was because I was close to her or something."
"The best lies are based on truth," Michelle said. "A tactic I used against even you. Who knows, maybe it's not even a lie."
"Let's ask the guy who made the accusation." Sam said, turning to Aaron. "So what's the reasoning behind this, OJ?"
"It's as I said, the Masked Man seems to have some grudge against the Black King for some reason. While I don't doubt he could have framed anyone just to stir up chaos, everything so far points to him being an enemy of our enemy. Him framing the Bunny might be a friendly way of alerting his enemy's enemies of a mole in their midst." Aaron gave Michael a pointed look. "I certainly see no reason for the Masked Man to feel the need to make things any more difficult for us than they already are."
"Wait- what do you mean when you say that he has a grudge against the Black King?" Michael retorted, he seemed a bit on edge - though it's not uncommon for people who are suddenly put on trial to be a little startled.
Aaron shrugged. "One doesn't frame a friend for four accounts of murder is all."
Fair enough. "Still, I don't think the Masked Man is on anyone's side but his own - I mean, if he wants to get something done he doesn't need any of our help, right? He's not a regular player."
"Maybe that's exactly why he needs out help," Aaron mused. "He doesn't seem particularly open to revealing his real-life identity, a lot like a certain Black King we know, so what if he needs us in order to bring Blackie to justice in the real world? He can't do that no matter what sort of proof he's found without having his identity revealed."
"To... justice?" Michael questioned. He cocked his head and squinted his eyes a little.
"Oh for Christ's sake, OJ," Sam groaned, facepalming. "Can you stop blending real life with the game, dude? For all we know, she's done literally nothing in real life. It's a fucking game. Can't you just be happy with trying to take her down online? Seriously, you're starting to sound like Whitey now, except worse."
Building off of Sam's momentum, Michael continued, "Yeah, besides... we already established that she couldn't be the murderer. So there's nothing to be guilty of..."
"She killed them, and I'll prove it," Aaron growled at the traitorous Rabbit.
"You're fucking crazy, and possibly an asshole." Sam shot back, a cocky smirk still on his face. "Seriously, calm down."
"Language, boys," Michelle said, thoughtful of what she knew so far.
Michael sighed, partly out of relief and partly for the sake of sighing, at least now Aaron had discredited everything he'd proposed so far - it was a load off of Michael's mind. He looked between the people, "Still, maybe we should put more effort into finding out who the King Killer is, rather than whatever the Jester's trying to pull."
"Or we could do what you gathered us for together in the first place, Little Red, and work out how to take down Blackie." Sam interjected. "Remember how you were the one who called us out to work together? That'd be swell right now, considering Green just got steamrollered and White's pretty much dead in the water."
Michael shrugged, "Alright then, what do you have in mind?"
"Work out a coordinated strike on the Black City." Sam said. "All of our guilds attack at once, in full force. We need to take Blackie down now before she gets stronger, considering we're apparently getting weaker by the day."
"So we just rush it?" Michael asked, "I mean, it'd make sense if we had the numbers - like the Strykers had at Green City - but even all together we're not as strong as they are. Some of the members of our guilds are Sweepers even."
"It's your own fault for letting any random person join your guild," Aaron threw in unhelpfully.
Michael held his hands out palms-up beside his face, "Oops." He lowered them and looked over to Sam, "We're going to need a real plan though if we're going to follow through with this."
"Yeah, I know." Sam grinned, hands in his pockets. "Like I said over chat, taking down Blackie's pretty much our win condition. It doesn't matter if our guilds lose the main battle as long as Blackie goes down. Take down the head and the rest of the body dies with it. She's the only one holding the Ebony Strikers and Sweepers alliance together."
"We could try assassination," Michelle proposed. "One or two of us can sneak into the city, while others draw away attention."
"No point in just taking out Moon Rider, she'll just show up again 24 hours later." Aaron hated to say it but he had to. "She had the right idea by destroying the buildings in the green district. That's something not so easily replaced."
"The point isn't taking her out permanently, it's showing the rest of her guild that their leader's vulnerable." Sam replied. "The Ebony Strykers are made up of a ton of idiots that flocked to the edgy, mysterious guild as soon as it opened up its doors. If we show that Blackie isn't the goddess those idiots think she is, someone's going to get it in their head that they can do a better job, and they're going to start fighting amongst each other. And then we go in and mop up what's left." He said, before grinning at Michelle. "And yeah, assassination's what I was thinking of."
"Right," Michelle said, smiling back. "Who's going to volunteer for distraction duty? Besides me? And I'm pretty sure at least one of us here is an Assassin."
"I think Orange King would be the best for the distraction - he's a tank, right?" Michael suggested.
"I refuse to be a part of any plan that involves the Rabbit," Aaron said flatly. "He'll just report what we say to Blackie and we'd be walking into a slaughter."
"Attacking the Black City will be a slaughter either way, it's a pyrrhic victory at best," Michael said bluntly, looking between Sam and Aaron.
"You know, for being the guy who called us together to group up in the first place, you're being really resistant to the idea of fighting." Sam jibed at Michael. "Starting to get the feeling that OJ might be slightly right about something."
"Huh? No, it's just that if we're going to make a plan, we have to make sure it's going to work - playing devil's advocate here." Michael replied hastily. "If we try to attack and we end up failing, what's the point? We'll just lose more members than we already have... it's the exact opposite of the reason for even trying."
Michelle folded her arms together and looked at Michael with a raised eyebrow, but debated whether or not to say anything about it. She probably didn't have to. A monkey could tell what his body language was saying. Then again, maybe it was just her who could tell.
"Red, who cares?" Sam grinned, bringing one hand up to scratch the back of his head. "If we lose, we lose. It's just a game, man. If we're good enough to be Kings, we're already made men anyways. And women, no offense, Goldy. Our futures aren't exactly on the line anymore. So why not try to win? It's more interesting than slowly being chipped away at anyways."
"None taken," Michelle replied. "And I think Blue is right. I'd rather go out with a bang."
"Your kill-to-death ratio won't do you any good if what happened to the last four Kings happens to you, Blue King," Aaron reminded his peer.
Michael looked to Aaron and sighed, "...you're a real downer. But- yeah, I guess if we're going to go out, we should go out with a bang."
"Come on, OJ," Michelle said, giving him sparkly eyes and putting a little "cuteness" in her tone of voice while leaning towards him.
"...Wow." Sam remarked, looking askance at Michelle. "Did you practice that? Because that works a bit too well." Shaking his head, he turned back to Aaron. "And have you considered that we should leave that to people who actually know what they're doing? Because we're just a couple kids playing a game. What are you even realistically expecting to accomplish anyways?"
"'Playing' this game is how we determine our future. We aren't children, we are leaders, important people once our time in the game is over. I plan on gathering enough evidence to prove that Moon Rider is responsible for the four murders of the kings, enough to put her away for a long time." Aaron stopped his speech and turned to the little girl who was leaning against him. "Would you please stop that?"
"Some of us are still children," Michael said as he shot a glance at Michelle.
"Knowing how to use this face gets people places," Michelle said, standing back up straight. "Guess it won't work here. Oh well."
"Alright, so this plan. So, Sam and someone else will be heading inside to get at Moon Rider while Michelle and the other person keep the Strykers busy?" Michael said, trying to get the discussion back on course.
"I must again point out how unwise it is to allow the spy to suggest the plan," Aaron said with a tired sigh.
Michael contemplated on asking Aaron to leave - but knowing the Kings he'd probably end up 'stumbling' along the Black King on her mission. He sighed and looked over to Michelle who seemed to be speaking on behalf of the rest of the group for this one.
"Do you have any better ideas, then?" Michelle asked.
Lucy could stay quiet no longer. "We can't assassinate her. It's... wrong. I mean, jesus. That's just stooping down to her level, and as was said, she'll only be out for 24 hours. You realize as soon as she's back in the game she's going to use all of her forces to destroy every single one of our guilds."
"Stooping down to her level is hacking the game and razing an entire city," Michelle reminded her.
"...You do realize that assassination's a viable game mechanic, right? If it was put in the game and the GMs allow it, it's kosher. And 24 hours is enough time for me to set up a nice little camping spot where she died. I did the same with the previous, previous White King, after all." Sam said, perking up a bit at the memory of spawn camping like an asshole.
"That's even worse!" Lucy raised her voice at the mention of camping on Moon Rider's death spot. "You do realize that she's allied with the Sweepers? Did you forget what their original job was?"
"Did you forget that we're all damn good players?" Sam asked in response. "You really think they can take even three Kings on at once in an enclosed space?"
"You really think three kings against hundreds of Sweepers is even odds? You're more egotistical than I thought."
"I mean, you ARE a healer, first of all." Sam said flatly. "And second of all, numbers don't mean jack if you've got correct positioning and you're in a narrow corridor."
"Even I have my limits. But you're still forgetting the backlash that will come from this entire plan. You're just assuming if you can defeat Moon Rider and even most of the guild, that she'll just stay down and take it. Which I doubt." Lucy was remembering the destruction of her city, and realized that no one else here knew just how that felt. More so, they probably didn't even care.
"So what, you've got an alternative that'd let us beat Blackie? Because as bad as you think spawn camping is, you know what's worse? Taking this into real life, which seems like the only other alternative. Which I'm not doing, because I'm not that much of an asshole."
For a moment, Lucy was quiet, and then remembered. "I do! I know where those Mayhem Riders are going to be, and I know how to take them out! Well.. if the information was reliable. That would take out a main force of Black."
Sam paused for a second and grinned. "Now we're talking. Let's hear this info."
"They're attacking Red next. Going through tunnels, if we can collapse them we can cut them off from the City, and if we have the support of all the guilds, we might even be able to defeat them in those tunnels."
Michael raised his eyebrows at the mention of the Red Guild being the next target - it made sense though. The Black King wasn't exactly keen on announcing their newfound alliance with the Red Guild, at least not yet.
"This. I like this." Sam's grin grew wider. "The Bruisers are in. I'm still keeping the assassination plan on the table, though."
Lucy let out a breath of relief. "Okay. Depending on when they attack tonight, the Rangers will be there. Most are on 24 hour probation right now, though."
"Yeah, I'm on probation too but if they're going to attack the Red City, I'll be there when they get there," Michael said, it was a given that the Red King would show up to the battle for his own city, but he felt like it needed saying nevertheless.
"I can get there in very little time, no matter where I am," Michelle said.
Aaron had been uncharacteristically quiet for a while, but now he decided to interrupt the others' conversation with a cough. "I think you may wish to stop and hear this," he said. A smile broke across his face as he delivered the news.
"The Black Guild is no more." He paused and then continued. "Moon Rider's city has been razed to the ground. Nothing is left but the rubble."
"Wait- what?" Michael said, looking attentively at Aaron, "How the- what?" Michael blinked a couple of times, it's an impressive feat - though, perhaps he was just using the early morning as a means to get them off guard - in which case, it's not all that surprising.
"...Nice." Sam smirked at Aaron apprecatively. "Did you do something? Because if you did, that almost makes up for the whole crazy talk thing." He chuckled a bit. "Almost. Kinda wish you'd have brought me or someone else in on it, though. You know I would've gone for it."
"Yes, the Black Guild was completely destroyed by a small team of my most skilled Marauders," Aaron said proudly. "And I very may well have told you of the attack if it had not been set into motion on such short notice. In hindsight, I'm glad that I didn't. I doubt the attack would have been successful if a certain traitorous Rabbit had told Moon Rider of it in advance."
Michelle was speechless. She didn't think such a feat was possible, at least without the participation of at least 1 other King. Then she snapped out of it and asked, "Wait, where's the proof? This sounds too good to be true."
Lucy probably had the most absurd reaction of the bunch. First, her expression was confused, then disbelieving, but after a few seconds, it settled on absolutely horrified. All of these people around her acted as if this was a good thing, a great thing even. To have leveled the Black City just as the Strykers had done to her own, but it wasn't. It was terrible. It was.... unimaginable.
It was as she had said to Donny the night before. Lucy was torn up over what had happened to the Green City and her Rangers, but she didn't want revenge. She wanted the fighting to end on peaceful terms. She hadn't wanted to take someone else's territory from them, and she certainly didn't want to destroy what some might have considered their home in DGO.
Suddenly, Lucy wanted nothing to do with every single one of these kings.
Lucy's disgust was short-lived, something now was preoccupying her mind - all of their minds - a searing pain eminating from the deepest depths of their brains. Like a beast desperately clawing, gnashing at the walls of their skulls trying to break free. A pulsating pain on a magnitude never-before-seen. Seconds turned to minutes, the longest minutes of their collective lives.
Michael stumbled at the first burst of the pain, "Gyah..." As the pain continued to pulse he was forced to his knees, he bent over postrate, craddling his head in both hands. His eyes shut tightly, tears fell from his eyes and he choked on them as he let out gut-wretching screams of agony.
Lucy's hands shot to her head, as if they could push the pain back into the depths of her mind. A scream caught in her throat, as she focused on staying upright. It hurt, God did it hurt, but she had more important things to worry about. Each of the people around her were experiencing this pain as well, and to the Green King... well, other people had always come first even if just moments ago she had wanted nothing more than to leave.
Her breathing was heavy as she struggled to take a step forward, fireworks exploding in her head. Each scream she heard forced a shudder through her body, as if she was experiencing their pain along with her own. Finally, she was forced to stop, to concentrate on keeping quiet, standing, and tear free. Maybe it wouldn't help the others if there was one less person crying out in pain, but Lucy knew it certainly couldn't hurt.
Aaron was about to respond to the Yellow King when his body simply gave out. A pain unlike anything he’d ever felt before tore through his head. He couldn’t hear his own thoughts, his head was too full of his own tortured screams. If it was possible for one’s internal voice to become hoarse, his did.
Something pulled Aaron back from the pain-filled delirium, just enough for him to manage to piece together fragments of ideas into vague thoughts. Damn it, was this how the Kings had been killed, an attack on their minds until their bodies simply gave out? Was this Moon Rider’s revenge for the destruction of her guild? Aaron forced one of his eyes open, and saw that it wasn’t just him feeling this pain, all of the gathered Kings were in pain. No! Why was she punishing them? He was the only one she should want to strike out at! The pain redoubled inside his head, and tears sprang up in the corner of Aaron’s vision. It was all he could do to keep his jaw locked shut.
Then - after a few minutes - it all went away. Like a lightswitch, click. If the simultaneous crippling pain weren't enough to clue that these weren't natural pangs, the simultaneous relief was concrete proof.
Michael gulped and breathed heavily, choking back tears as he rocked in his postration. He whimpered, like a pup who caught his paw on a bur. His hands rubbed up and down his head, he looked up briefly and turned around to look at Lucy, Michelle, Aaron, and Sam. He moved his head back to look down at the floor, "...what was that?"
An epiphany struck Michael in that moment: if all of the Kings, potentially even the entire school felt that pang just now, Yoshino did too. How was she taking it? Michael gulped and stumbled up to his feet, he swayed, nearly losing his balance as he managed to stand erect. He made quick strides/stumbles towards the door while swiping in the air to call up Yoshino through the Interface.
When the pain stopped, Lucy finally fell to her knees as if she had lost the strength to stay standing any longer. She barely had enough to look up and watch Michael run off barely able to stay upright as he did. Where was he going? She didn't know and couldn't form the thoughts she needed to guess. Instead, she turned towards the others, "Is... everyone alright?"
Michelle felt the same pain the other Kings did, and she had fallen to the ground clutching her head as if it would explode. She screamed loudly for a second, then yelled, "Make it stop!" It was a terrifying and painful time for her, especially since she had no idea what was causing it. Fortunately, it finally faded away, and Michelle could not even begin to describe the relief she felt. She felt something on her cheek, and when she wiped it away, she found her hand wet and realized that she was crying.
Michelle massaged her temples as she sat up on the ground, looking around and realizing that everyone else had experienced the same sudden massive pain in their head. "I think so..." Michelle responded tentatively. "Whatever that was, I don't wanna go through that again." She sniffed, then reached over and hugged Lucy tightly, unable to stop the tears.
A sound of surprise escaped Lucy's lips and her eyes widened as the girl squeezed her. Soon enough, though, she was wrapping her own arms around Michelle, knowing the young girl needed the support. One hand stroked brown hair while she whispered words of comfort, such as: "It's alright, you're fine now," but her eyes did not leave the remaining Kings.
Sam picked himself up off the ground, gasping for breath as he doubled over. God, that had been the worst pain of his life. "Fuck." He rasped, eyes still wide in shock. "Fuck." Looking up, he saw Lucy checking over her fellow Kings in concern. "I-I'll live." Sam stammered, head still pounding from the pain. "What the hell just happened?" He pulled out his phone, wincing as he strained his eyes through the lingering pain to check the forums for any kind of news. After several seconds of refreshing and finding no new topics, he shook his head. "Well, there's no one screaming about this on the forums. You think it didn't happen to anyone else?" He fell back on his ass, still panting from the shock.
"I think..." Lucy's response was slow, unsure, "that we now know what happened to the other Kings.."
When the waves of crippling pain vanished, it was just as sudden and unexpected as they had appeared. A few seconds passed before Aaron was able to push himself up from his hands and knees though, and even then his muscles were still shaking from the pain, making it hard for him to move his body. Aaron spit onto the floor, and it was red; he’d bit his tongue. He wiped his eyes to get rid of the tears and calmed his erratic breathing down.
“So, I guess no one thinks an attack from inside the game is so crazy now?” Aaron looked at each of the other kings, and for a second he looked confused, but that emotion was quickly buried under suspicion. “And where… is the Rabbit?”
"It wasn't him!" Lucy didn't know if that was what Aaron was actually concerned about, but she was getting irritated with all of the suspicion towards Michael. "He was in pain just like the rest of us!" And then Lucy was standing and stumbling out of the gym in search of Michael, knowing she probably wouldn't find him. As expected, she did not. Michael was long gone.
Michelle let go of Lucy when her tears finally stopped. "Thanks, I needed that," she said, wiping away a last tear from the corner of her eye. She then tried to piece together what she knew about the whole situation. Everyone here experienced the same sudden wave of pain, and there was no mention of it on the forums.
Michelle opened a window on her interface to see if there was any news now, and found that there wasn't. "I think it's safe to say that only the Kings were affected by this... whatever this was, " Michelle said. "Maybe the Black King too..." Michelle sighed and got up from the ground. "Let's get out of here. Maybe we'll find some more answers outside." Michelle then walked out the doors of the old gym.
Michael had left the gymnasium in a hurry, far before any of the other kings could recover - Michael, though, was in no better shape than they. He swiped in the air as he stumbled out into the open, pulling up his interface and opening a link to Yoshino, the chimes rung for a couple of seconds until the connection was established, as soon as it was Michael leaped to it:
"Hey, are you okay?"
By the time Yoshino recieved and checked the call, she was already dressed and pacing out of her dorm room. She had left Retsu to discuss their next move on this matter with their...uninvited guest. It was the best decision, as she was still reeling a little from the earlier assault on her brain.
"Michael? Yeah...yes, I'm fine," she said with a hand still placed over her temples gingerly. Talking and walking was already putting more strain on her than expected and she kept calm to hide the pain in her voice.
Damn the World Interface. Damn it all.
Michael sighed, "That's good. Wait- did you feel it too? I mean- you probably did. What was it?"
Michael was regaining his normal step, now walking along the road briskly to nowhere in particular, just away from the other Kings so they wouldn't get curious about who he was talking to and how they were related - that was one thing he could definately do without, the constant harassment about who she was.
Yoshino narrowed her eyes.
"That's not important. I don't know myself...it might have been some backlash from the system, but I can't say for sure. We're checking it now. Anyway, how did your meeting go? I hope you didn't cry like you did on our first date."
Wait, last night was a date to her?
"That's mean- I mean- I didn't cry..." Michael blushed and rubbed his temples, "...where are you at?"
Michael looked around, it didn't seem like anyone else was affected. He saw people walking and talking as if none of them even knew that there was some kind of terrible mind-numbing pain going around like the plague. Could it have just been the Kings?
"Didn't we discuss this before? I was in Deep Ground and-"
Another pause.
"...we weren't able to locate the Silver Jester," she said with finality, almost missing a step before catching herself at the last moment. By now she was heading towards the front of the school, her mind too preoccupied to worry about people staring at her.
"Yeah- I know. I meant right now."
"O-Oh..."
Becoming annoyed with herself, she up picked her pace despite her disorientation. Was the attack on her mind that severe enough to leave such an imprint? Probably, given the true nature of their enemy...
Michael turned a corner and dove into the regular coffeeshop just a few blocks down from the abandoned gym, he walked up to the the register and muted himself for a moment, "One caramell machiatto and one black." The barista nodded and sent him a transfer request, Michael reached out and hesitated, "And a tiramisu." The barista nodded, readjusted the transfer and Michael reached out to patch it through.
"Michael, where are you?"
The barista came back and set down two cups on the counter and a small white paper bag, "Enjoy!" Michael smiled and nodded, reaching down and grabbing up all the stuff and leaving the shop, he reached out with one hand and unmuted himself with his pinky,
"Uh... just outside the coffeeshop, why?"
"Because I get the strange feeling that you're taking time out of your day just to do something nice for me."
Sighing, she crossed the street and headed for the coffee shop. Seeing him there, she walked up to him with the usual stern expression on her face.
"Be grateful Dark Wraith isn't here seeing us," she said lightly. "I don't have to worry about being murdered and hidden under a desk somewhere. You on the other hand...."
Michael sighed and handed out a cup of coffee to her, "Sorry- I just, thought I'd apologize for earlier... I wasn't really taking this whole thing as seriously as I should've."
Sipping the black and bitter liquid, Yoshino closed her eyes to collect her thoughts as well as fight back the after effects of the pain.
"It's fine. How did your meeting go? I take it no one actually believed you were me?"
Michael shook his head, "Nope, none of them... we talked about how we're going to beat you though." He took a sip of his drink, "...do you think we should go somewhere more private? I mean - anyone of them could stumble on us right now."
Again, Yoshino mentally cursed herself for overlooking such a simple action. What was wrong with her? Was it fear? Despair? No...maybe it was the knowlede she carried. Knowledge that whatever they tried to do now, would, could, and will be countered by their enemy flawlessly.
"Right. We should find somwhere else to talk. Any sugesstions?
"Well, the girl's dormitories are a few blocks that way- I mean- I'm not trying to-" Michael flushed red, "...it's the closest place is all."
Yoshino thought of the potential dangers to that particular option and immediately thought of Retsu. There was no telling how long her meeting with Hibiki would take, and bringing Michael over there now would surely cause...complications.
"How about we go to my office instead?"
Michael nodded and looked down at the ground, "Alright. Uh... lead on."
And lead on she did. Classes having started anyway, there was little possibility of them bumping into someone that would cause problems. Besides, most days Yoshino spent cooped up in her office anyway, Purple Crown Academy deeming her too much of a liability to send to regular classes. That or they were just too lazy to do the paper work themselves.
Reaching her Student Office, she locked the door before taking a seat in her familiar chair. Another sip of cofee and she was staring at Michael, waiting for him to reveal everything.
Michael walked over and sat in a seat across from her, he set the bag down on the table, "I uh... bought you a cake. To say sorry." He opened up the bag and pulled out a boxed slice of tiramisu, setting it down on the desk. He slid it over to her.
Yoshino blinked in surprise. Well she was right about the being nice part at least. Looking over the pastry, she fiddled with her glasses once.
"Sorry? What for?"
"Well- it was pretty rude of me earlier... you know- not taking any of this seriously. I thought maybe I made you mad or something- were you mad?"
So that was it then. The Black King loosened her features and smiled softly at him. The world was possibly ending, and he was concerned about invoking her wrath?
"I see you're as smitten with me as ever," she said lightly. "But no, I wasn't mad. I was just...worried. About you."
MIchael raised his brows and coughed, "Oh- really? That's- thanks..." he took a drink of his coffee, "I was worried about you too..."
"And I also see you still tend to drink when you're embarassed," she remarked. "It's kinda cute really."
MIchael smiled and took a drink again, "...thanks." He looked down at the desk and back up to look at Yoshino. What was he going to say? Is there anything to say or should they just sit there in awkward silence?
"...well as much as I like looking at you Michael, I'm afraid we can't spend all day fawning after each other," she said, guessing what was on his mind.
"Tell me, what happened at the meeting? Do not spare any detail."
"Uh... nothing much. We talked about trying to stop you from squashing my city... then how the Orange King squished yours... then we all got this burning pain at the same exact time."
Yoshino wasn't surprised about the destruction of her Guild's Kingdom. Truth be told, she was reassured by Retsu that it was to be taken care of immediately, and she had faith in the other girl. However, the news of the pain experienced by all of the other Kings made her blood run cold.
That confirmed it then. This wasn't some deranged Hacker or an Admin gone rogue. The World Interface itself wanted her dead. The entire world wanted her dead.
"I-I see. And you don't know what caused the pain?"
"No... but when I got out of the gymnasium, it didn't look like anyone else felt it." Michael sipped from his coffee, "You felt it though- right?"
"Yeah..."
The Student President leaned forward to rest on her arms, thinking over her next few words very carefully.
"Michael? What do you think of me?"
Michael's eyes opened wide, "Wha- what do you mean?"
Yoshina fixed her amber eyes on Michael intensely now, as if her eyes would bore to his very soul from behind her glasses.
"I mean, how much do you care about helping me. Helping my goals? There are people in this world Michael, in this school, who cannont survive without the Deep Ground Program in their lives. If I find myself in a situation in which I may very likely get myself killed...will you run? I'll understand if you do. This is my burden after all, and there's no need to drag you any further than my own end."
Michael opened his mouth and looked down at the desk, he brought his cup up to his mouth. He thought for a moment, could he commit to that? Potentially actually dying... for what? To impress a girl? Was it really worth it?
Michael sat the cup down on the desk, he gulped, "I uh... I don't know."
"I see."
Yoshino said nothing more. She did not sigh or complain or even comment on his half-choice. Instead, she only smiled. Whatever he decided was fine with her. Her fate was already sealed anyway, so she would not force him to choose for her sake.
"Now I think the second piece of discussion is something much more essnetial in our long term goals Michael. Have you considered a location for our second date yet?"
Might as well make the mood lighter again.
"I uh... no... not really. No." Michael sipped on his coffee and looked up at Yoshino again.
"As tactful as ever. Very well then. One more thing to consider before my assembly begins..."
