[The Daniels Estate, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 12:35 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
Stepping outside of the property, I finally walked out into the peaceful suburbs of Havok's affluent side. At this point, I couldn't care less what people thought. I had a mask and a vendetta. And on the bright side, nobody would recognize me.
"Hey! James, wait, we should get a taxi. Havok's actually quite a bit away."
I stopped in my tracks upon hearing Jack's voice. I turned to him as he pulled out his phone and began calling a taxi.
"Right, sorry." I muttered to myself and reached up again to touch the mask. It pulsed under my fingers, presumably because of Flow coursing through it or some sort of strange energy.
"Hey, I'd like a cab on 21st Graham Street, West-End? Yeah. Okay, thank you very much." He tucked his phone back into his pocket and looked at me. "So how's that mask treating you?"
"It's okay, it feels weird to the touch. I think it's because of some of that Flow stuff in it..."
Jack chuckled and patted my shoulder.
"Flow isn't 'stuff,' dude. But I'll explain that to you after we secure the meat. I'm starving! It sucks we can't ditch the girls and just get a pizza instead."
I turned to him and shook my head.
"We only ate an hour ago… Plus, we both know why that's messed up, Jack."
A car began pulling up the road. It was a yellow taxi-cab, the number '19' was both on the back of it and the front on the windshield. The driver rolled down the window. The driver was a short older man with a bald head, wearing a black baseball cap. He had on a black vest with a white t-shirt underneath, the man also had on some jeans and white shoes. He had a cigarette in his mouth which he quickly snuffed out and threw out of the window.
"Hey, ya two, I'm Amir, Amir Alexander, I'll be your driver for today! Hah? Come on in, don't mind the smoke." The man chuckled and brushed off some of the cigarette ash from his jacket. He had a strange foreign accent.
"Nice to meet you too, sir..."
Jack moved to open the door without a further word. I bent down to pick up the cigarette and the ash from the ground. Both Jack and the man looked down at me.
"Ay, what's with the mask — kiddo! What're ya doing? If ya need a smoke, I got's some smoke for ya, but ya can't smoke that one! Drop it!"
I stood up, with the cigarette and ash in hand.
"No thank you, sir. I just don't think it's a good idea to litter."
The man nodded, the grin on his face subsiding to an interested smirk, a faint gold tooth peeking out from under his upper lip.
"James, c'mon, let's go! I'm still hungry..." Jack pouted and got inside the taxi.
I looked back towards the house, noticing a similar parked taxi-cab further down the street, three silhouettes faintly visible inside. I sighed and got into the car, closing the door behind me, still holding the remains of the cigarette.
Amir looked back at us from the driver's seat, taking in our appearance.
"My, you boys sure are weird! Hah! Now, where the hell we goin'?"
"Hamloins, on Ridgeburn Avenue," Jack said.
The man turned back to face the front, starting the car and driving away.
"Jack, you sure do know your way around."
"I like walking! And I grew up in Havok, not that you'd remember though."
"So right..."
I turned to look through the back-window. The parked taxi-cab that was further up the road began driving towards us.
[Somewhere down the street, in a taxi]
"—Of course, yes, perhaps even to find relics... After all, Teen Spirit isn't something that can be defeated easily," Krist said as he looked out of the back-window of the taxi at the rapidly shrinking Daniels Estate in the distance. He was in a taxi headed out of the suburban area and back into Havok's 'commonplace,' the residential area.
"And you're sure that this is the source of the presence? We've been searching this entire city from top to bottom. If we don't find it soon, I'll have to report back to Jinn for the both of us!" A man to Krist's right replied. He was Black, wearing a black tank-top which showed off a bunch of strange tattoos over his body. His dreads hung around his forehead like snakes, a piercing on his lip glinting in the rising sun as it hit just the right spot. The man was wearing some dark jeans and black-beige hiking boots. The most striking features about him being a katana tied loosely to a sheathe on his back and a gun holster on his right hip with what looked like a gun tucked inside.
"Three of us, I'm also here, Carrion, and technically four with Amir ahead of us, and those two kids," the driver replied, looking in the rearview mirror at the two men. He was wearing a blue button-up jacket, two pristine black gloves, a blue kepi hat, and matching blue pants.
"The two of us. You don't count, Saeger, you're a newbie. You don't even have a rank yet. Plus, you work for the taxi-drivers, we can't necessarily trust you yet," Carrion said.
"I sure can! You seem pretty reliable to me, Broc!" Krist said.
Broc sighed, tipping his hat lower.
"Shut up. Taller kid saw me. Do I submerge or not?"
The man on the right sat up, perching on the backseat with both feet as he grabbed the car-seats in front.
"Ah, I see him. He's the one Jinn told me to keep tabs on. The Syndicate apparently wants him. So we've been sent to get him first before The Boss could get his grubby hands on him. Apparently he has some sort of special Divinity, I can sense it too from here. A substantial amount of dormant Flow is just... radiating off him," Carrion said.
"Is it me or is he holding someone's ashes in his hand — oh wait! Wait! The maid, back at the mansion, she put up some sort of golden bubble around herself! This could be what we were looking for, right?" Krist turned to Carrion, his eyes unfocused and grayed out as if he was seeing something from elsewhere, farther away.
Carrion turned to Krist and sat back down normally.
"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." He then looked in the rearview mirror, catching Broc's gaze. "You've got permission to submerge. Leave the car off back at Industries and report to The Overseer after this. Leave Krist somewhere here — his fly won't work further than a hundred meters, but this should be far enough so that they won't find him. Meanwhile, I'll go back to the estate, snoop around, see if I can find the presence. We've been searching for too long."
Broc simply nodded. The car suddenly dropped down through the asphalt itself, driving underneath the ground, as if it were air and only the bottom part was still a road.
[Back in the first taxi]
My eyes widened as I saw the taxi-cab submerge beneath the ground as if it was liquid. I patted Jack's shoulder.
"Jack! Look! The taxi behind us... It vanished!"
Jack turned to look behind us, then back at me.
"Sorry, I didn't know there was a car behind us... Are you sure, dude? You're not the type to joke around, I am!" He smirked and punched my shoulder playfully.
"No, I'm serious! They disappeared! I swear I saw one of them with a katana—"
Amir cleared his throat, drawing our attention to him.
"Ey! Ya kids mind if I turn on the radio? I don't really like silence and all that jazz!"
Jack and I looked at each other before turning to him.
"I don't really like music—"
"Sure, I could go for some tunes—"
The two of us replied at the same time. The man grinned, his gold tooth glinting in the sunlight.
[Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 12:45 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
"Alright, fine, I'll play some jazz, something nice and in-between. How's that for ya?" The man turned on the radio, shifting to a classical music station named 'R-1'.
I sighed and once again turned to look out of the window, cigarette ashes in hand, thinking about what I'd seen.
If we were to get attacked, we'd be fine. No, I can't think about that. I have to relax. I have to throw this away somewhere, I thought to myself, glancing down at the cigarette and ashes in my palm.
I then leaned back in the seat, and the car continued driving into Havok.
"Mhm, I like this song, buh buh buh bah bah!" Jack sang along with the radio, his leg began tapping in rhythm with the song, his head bobbing from side to side.
"Can you be more quiet? I'm trying to think... Something doesn't feel right here." I glanced over at Jack and then at Amir. He seemed to be bending down, trying to get something from the floorboard of the car.
The car continued driving, and we soon arrived in the main district of Havok. I lifted my gaze toward the city's centerpiece — the towering black structure gleaming under the sun. Bulletproof aluminum alloy windows reflected the harsh light, and a giant white 'A' symbol loomed, casting its shadow over the city.
The Ariston Industries Center.
"Hey Jack? Why do these guys need bullet-proof windows anyway?" I gestured to the outside, and then I turned to Jack. He was still tapping his foot rhythmically, still bobbing his head from side to side. "Hey, Jack—"
I saw it. For a split second, a look in his right eye that looked like panic. My hand shot out, shaking his shoulder.
"Jack! Can you hear me?"
I then looked up to see Amir glancing over the driver seat at us, a gun in hand, grinning.
"Why don' ya leave him alone, kiddo? He's jazzing!"
I fell backwards before he could shoot, kicking up at his hand with my foot, diverting it just as he shot. A rose quickly formed in my right hand.
"Let go! Damn you—"
He grabbed me by my leg, shot again. I dodged to the right of the backseat, falling in-between the passenger seat and the backseat. The car swerved, hurling Jack against the left car-door.
"Fine, suit yourself, kiddo, but I've gotta take care of both of ya. You're pretty dangerous~" He pointed the gun at Jack.
I raised my hand quickly, a bubble shooting out of the rose in my palm, knocking the gun away.
"I knew it! I knew something was wrong!" I reached out grabbing the gun, but then I felt something pressing against my head.
"Oh, you's thought I didn't get prepared? I know how dangerous ya are!"
I glanced up, seeing the barrel of a shotgun pointed at me. I took a deep breath and headbutted the gun, making the stock hit his chin. He shot upwards.
"Ouff! Why you little—"
I pointed the gun at him.
"You're done. Drop the gun, just take us to our destination. This doesn't have to end badly..." My hands trembled as I pointed the gun at him, the rose still in my palm, pulsing.
He grinned and put the shotgun down.
"Alright, I see... Not bad, kiddo. I was just joking about the whole ending you thing. I was testing you out, to see if you're... good. Ya are." The man chuckled and pulled out what looked like a business card from the upper pocket of his jacket. He held it out to me.
"What?! Good? I don't... trust that. What's your plan here, huh?! Why would you threaten two kids for... no reason?! Who are you?"
"Calm down... I just wanted to see what you were made of. I'm a double agent, working for Iris. I've been with these guys for a while, trying to get any leads into The Syndicate since nobody has any idea where the hell they could be! We barely know anything about them, so I've been sent to snoop. Don't tell anyone about this though. I'm a Taxmatrian, from Taxmatria."
I lowered the gun ever-so-slightly and grabbed the business card. It was yellow, having a taxi-cab on it, three separate phone numbers, and a strange symbol at the bottom. The back of the card read "Taxmatria" in bold silver lettering.
"What? What's Taxmatria? This — this is stupid."
Amir chuckled, gesturing behind him.
"Yeah? Tell that to my driving skills. I've been driving without looking for like ten minutes now." He turned back to face the front, swerving narrowly around a bus, getting a honk from the driver. "I'll turn off my Uptown Funk, you're fine! I like ya kiddos. Ya seem tough. So, if ya ever need a ride, call those numbers. Just wanted to let you know. Oh, and we were being followed, but we're fine now. I'm on your side, so… yeah."
He turned off the radio. Jack almost immediately stopped tapping his foot, gasping and coughing as if he had been holding his breath.
"Ack… What… Huh?! What the heck was that about, old guy? You were going to put a hole in my ponytails! I almost choked to death!" Jack peered over the driver seat at Amir, seemingly unphased.
"Meh, you've been through it before, I can tell. Kiddo back e're has The White Rose's ability, he's the one I was tracking before you murdered him. Since he seemed weak enough."
"Wait, Uptown Funk? That's what you were doing to Jack?"
"I'll give you the short version: if you move to the rhythm, you're stuck like that! It's quite simple but effective."
Jack looked back at me, snatching the gun from my hand and throwing it over the passenger seat.
"Jack! What are you doing?!"
"You won't need it, we're strong as is. We know his ability now! It's rhythm-based nonsense! Plus, he said he was only testing us." He smirked and fist-pumped the air.
"Okay, whatever. Hold on... Wait, you've been following Mr. Nakamura?"
Amir glanced up into the rearview mirror at us.
"For about a year. A lot of people got... decommissioned, tracking him and such. He kept taking out both Iris agents and Taxmatrians. We've learned a bit more about The Syndicate, like their ranks and whatnot, but we haven't figured out where their main base of operations is. Must be somewhere on The Eastern Continent."
"Ah... So you're double-crossing Iris, I see... You're a terrorist with a kind heart! Awesome!" Jack said.
"I ain't a terrorist, kid, I'm a taxi-driver. There's a big difference."
"Clearly — look, we really don't care, we appreciate the 'testing' or whatever that was, but we'd just like to get to—"
"Hamloins! Mhm, fresh ham, no scam!" Jack interrupted.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead, the wooden mask pressing into my face.
"Yeah, yeah, and remember what I said. If you need a cab, just call. We're the good guys. Alright?"
"Doubt it," I muttered under my breath and looked up to see Jack shaking the driver seat, bouncing back and forth excitedly. I smiled and handed him the card.
"You're always energetic, aren't you?"
"Yup! Ooh... I like yellow, this is a nice card. Thanks!" He tucked it into his pocket and continued bouncing back and forth.
"Leave the car seat alone, kid, you're giving the whole thing a massage! Ay…"
I looked down at my left hand. The cigarette and the ashes were now scattered across the floorboard of the car. The rose retreated back into my palm. Instead of using my ability without it, my body acted instinctively. I needed to practice, just like Cathy, to tap into my Divinity. It's like I was getting used to the chaos.
"But even that's a lie..." I muttered as I looked out of the window again, the Ariston Industries Center catching my eye.
Jack leaned over suddenly, blowing air into my left ear, making me bump my head against the window.
"AH! W-what was that for?!"
Jack laughed and patted my shoulder.
"We're fine... Calm down, dude. Look, Mr. Amir gave me some gum!" Amir grinned in the rearview mirror as Jack chewed the gum loudly.
"If you die, that's on you."
"Ouch, harsh aren't you, bro? What's up, c'mon, tell me." He nudged me insistently.
"I'm just wondering about Ariston Industries... It's the main front of The Syndicate."
"You've gotta be shittin' me!" Amir glanced back, jaw slacked in shock. "I knew there was something to them! Good job, kiddo, you're making my job easier! Haha. What else ya's got?"
"Yeah, right... They have these buildings set up pretty much everywhere. They act like call centers, complaint departments, places to store their trash which they call Agents, oh, and uh, you can get hired there, I think. They mostly work like normal offices, desk stuff, totally boring." Jack paused, leaning back against the back seat, pulling the gum from his mouth and sticking it to the underside of the seat.
"Jack! That's gross..."
"Well sorry, I'm not just going to swallow it, they stick to your stomach, dude. Anyway, I'd heard stories of it from Cathy when we were younger. But hey, I don't know much more than the public does... And Cathy doesn't even know that much either, so yeah."
"Yeah indeed..."
The city made me nostalgic, even though I'd never been inside the city before. Other than school, I wasn't allowed to wander about. It was a family rule.
As the car continued driving down the streets, a police car whizzed by, sirens blaring. People walked past, glued to their phones, lost in their own worlds. It was all strangely peaceful to me. Even after everything that happened.
I knew the news had spread about what we did, that much was obvious. People were talking about 'The Oakland Incident,' but nobody knew the real cause. No reliable witnesses, other than us, and we were on the run. Those who saw the destruction were either in the hospital or couldn't make out the faces of the culprits — us.
Or they died.
Either way, it made me feel guilty. A lot of lives were lost. But it wasn't like we could walk into a police station and confess. That would just create more problems than it would solve.
Wouldn't it? Could I seriously just... give up? I thought to myself, feeling a headache buzz in my head.
Maybe a life behind bars would've been better than where I am right now.
Maybe everyone would've been safe.