[The Daniels Estate, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 11:15 AM, 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.
Jack Daniels: "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.
James Karawei: "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.
Jack Daniels: "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.
Jack Daniels: "So how's that mask treating you?"
James Karawei: "It's okay, it feels weird to the touch, I think there's some of that Flow stuff in it..."
Jack chuckled and patted my shoulder.
Jack Daniels: "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."
I turned to him and shook my head.
James Karawei: "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 it out of the window.
Amir Alexander: "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.
James Karawei: "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.
Amir Alexander: "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.
James Karawei: "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.
Jack Daniels: "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 street, taking in our appearance.
Amir Alexander: "My, you boy's sure are weird! Hah! Now, where the hell we goin'?"
Jack Daniels: "Hamloins, on Ridgeburn Avenue."
The man turned back to face the front, starting the car and driving away.
James Karawei: "Jack, you sure do know your way around."
Jack Daniels: "I like walking! And I grew up in Havok, not that you'd remember though."
James Karawei: "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]
Krist Cobain: "—Of course, yes, perhaps even to find artifacts... 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 dark-skinned, wearing a black tank-top which showed off a bunch of strange tattoos over his body, his dreads hanged around his forehead like snakes, a piercing on his lip glinted 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 liked a glock 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.
Carrion ???: "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."
Krist Cobain: "I sure can! You seem pretty reliable to me Broc!"
Broc sighed, tipping his hat lower.
Broc Saeger: "Shut up, taller kid saw me. Do I submerge or no?"
The man on the right sat up, perching on the backseat with both feet as he grabbed the car-seats in front.
Carrion ???: "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 has some sort of special Divinity, I can sense it too from here. A substantial amount of dormant Flow is just... radiating off him."
Krist Cobain: "Is it me or is he holding someone's ashes in his hand—O-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.
Carrion ???: "Good, that's what I wanted to hear."
Carrion then looked in the rearview mirror, catching Broc's gaze.
Carrion ???: "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."
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.
James Karawei: "Jack! Look! The taxi behind us... It vanished!"
Jack turned to look behind us, then back at me.
Jack Daniels: "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.
James Karawei: "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.
Amir Alexander: "Ey! Ya kids mind if I turn on the radio? I don't really like silence and all that jazz!"
Me and Jack looked at each other before turning to him.
James Karawei: "I don't really like music—"
Jack Daniels: "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.