It turned the corner again, and so did we. We chased it, following the screams of the young girl echoing throughout the labyrinth of alleyways we were shifting through.
When it hit a dead end, that didn't stop it. It started climbing the walls with all six of its mangled mechanical arms and onto the rooftops of the buildings.
"Ryo!" I yelled.
"Right behind you!" he confirmed as we jumped crisscross from wall to wall on the mecha monster's trail.
When we got to the top, it was already a good distance away, and we jumped down into another part of the alleyways again.
"Goddamnit, faster!" I said to myself as Ryo and I ran and jumped over the assorted building roofs to catch up to it.
By the time we jumped down to where we saw it go, it was completely gone. The screams of the young girl also could not be heard any longer.
"Fuck!" I said, throwing a foot down, shattering the ground from impact.
"What was that thing?" Ryo asked.
"That was it," I said with a slightly pissed tone in my voice. I didn't even face Ryo when he asked. I simply began pacing in the alley where we were, thinking about what might have happened to that young girl.
Ryo sensed my frustration and didn't pester. Instead, he began surveying the area for any clues. He went around the corner as I searched a different part of it, but before I got too far, he called for me.
"Greed, over here, look!" he said, semi-whispering.
I rushed over to where he was, only for him to stop me midway before I turned the corner. Ryo held a hand out to me as he still faced the opposite direction, looking over the wall we hid behind. When he finally looked back to me, he held his index finger to his mouth and gestured to the other side of one of the alleyway intersections we were on. I peeked as I saw a longer path, and at the end of it, we could slightly hear chatter and music of some kind. We were too far to tell.
"Okay? Looks like an event or something in this part of the Kingdom. What's this got to do with that puppet?" I whispered.
He held his hand out again. "Just look."
I looked closer as we continued to observe from the other side of the wall. A few people, about four of them, walked out from another part of the alleyway on that same row. They walked away from us, but we could distinctly see the logo on the backs of their jackets.
"Motherfucking fake Black Wolves," I said irritably.
"Language," Ryo responded.
I jeered and gave him the finger, and he shrugged at my vulgar gesture with that incredulous look of his.
What are they doing here? The fakes have never been seen behind Kingdom walls before. So why now? Were they under our noses the whole time? I continued to ask myself these questions, knowing I had none of the answers.
When the group of four exited the alleyway, I went in front of Ryo, taking the lead, and gestured for him to follow so we could see where they were going. As we sneaked closer, the music started to become more defined, and we saw more of them—more of the fakes.
The open street the group turned into was a larger district, here in the more ghetto part of the Kingdom. Crowds of fake Black Wolves were entering from all parts of the many alleyways that led to this main district. Faces I've never seen, all sporting the same outfit—Black Wolf Knight's attire—bantering and casually strolling to the same destination. It was hard to tell where they were all going from our point of view, but I assumed that we would just follow the music to wherever it was they were all headed.
"I'm assuming you don't know these Black Wolves, right?" Ryo asked, whispering, knowing the answer already.
I didn't even bother answering. I was pissed. The fact that so many of them were here was bad on all levels. On top of that, there was still that missing young girl with blonde hair…
Where did that mecha monster take her? And where did they go? Maybe we could find out if we followed this crowd. That was honestly our best bet at this point.
"I don't know what kind of a joke this is, but I'm going in. You with me or you out?" A stupid question, I know Ryo would come with me no matter what I said.
"What kind of a friend would I be if I left you on your own now? Honestly, I thought you knew me better than that?" he reassured.
"Alright, well, what size jacket you wear?" I asked.
"Medium, why?" Ryo asked.
Saying nothing back, I stepped out of the alleyway we were watching from and threw my hood on and hands in my pockets, dipping into a random crowd of fakes. I led one of the fakes out and pushed him into a random alleyway, where we were covered by the shadows shortly after. All that could be heard afterward was the sound of punches and groans, which ended as fast as they started. When it was over, I walked out holding his jacket in my left hand and him in the garbage.
Ryo was watching the whole time, I made my way back to where he was waiting and threw him the jacket.
"Hope that fits; these fake Black Wolves jackets are not authentically made. It's trash quality if you ask me." I said, standing before him, hands in my jacket pockets, looking away into the crowd passing by.
Ryo chuckled, then switched his own jacket with the one I stole for him. The bomber he wore disappeared into a magic item he had in his pocket, meant for storing other items and such.
"Ready," he said.
I looked him up and down before heading out. "Yeah, that look doesn't suit you at all."
"I'm hurt," He replied sarcastically, fist-bumping my chest and then heading into the crowd before me.
From there, we stepped out of the alley and merged into a group of fakes, making our way to where the rest of them were going, blending in, and following the crowd… wherever we were going.
***
The crowd led us to an underground passage under an abandoned building. The music reverberating could be heard a lot more clearly and was only barely muffled as it vibrated the walls.
We kept walking with the crowd until it finally halted. A line. And it looked as if it led into a room or area where the music was coming from.
There were bouncers, wearing all-black suits, at the entrance, and it didn't look like they were checking anybody that passed through unless they weren't wearing a Black Wolves jacket. Or so we thought…
Ryo and I adjusted our hoods when we got near the doors. Refusing to make eye contact with the bouncers. And then…
"You there!" a bouncer yelled in our direction. We looked up, but not too much so as to show our faces.
Behind us, a male wearing a Black Wolves jacket and a billed cap jerked up. He squealed and shot out, running off in the opposite direction of the crowd. The one bouncer who called him out started to chase after him. And he didn't get very far before he was tackled and pinned down, his billed cap falling off at the same time as his hood when he staggered on the ground.
"Negative. This isn't the one. Was just a similar-looking billed cap," the bouncer relayed on an earpiece he had on, as he knelt down on top of the male he chased after.
"Get off, man, I can't breathe! I'm just here for the party!" the male said as he squirmed on the ground under the bouncer's knee.
"Damn junkie…" the bouncer murmured as he released the male, who then went to grab his billed cap off the ground.
I looked slightly over to the scene behind my hood as we walked in. Billed cap, huh…
After the small incident, Ryo and I finally made it through the doors, and the music blasted through like it had been waiting for the drop just as we walked in. It was like an underground techno club that consumed all our senses.
Random colored lights flashed everywhere as we proceeded through the dark room. It was filled with people, mages—all of them fake Black Wolves, all of them dancing to the music that we had followed earlier. Some were drinking or doing drugs in some parts of the huge room. The room itself had indoor balconies where you could continue to see the fakes mingling and dancing from above. Some of the girls were almost half-naked and had multicolored luminescent paint on their faces and random parts of their bodies.
The crowd was thick as Ryo and I struggled to maneuver our way through it. Girls began dancing on us, and I pushed them away disinterestedly. Ryo, on the other hand, didn't want to be as rude as I was, finding a more polite way to disengage.
When we finally got through it, we saw the room extend into a hallway of sorts farther down, and we continued to make our way in that direction.
Passing through the extended hallway, we found ourselves at a bleacher seating area of a huge arena. The music and the lights and the fakes extended here, dancing all over the bleacher area. The only part that remained clear was the arena itself.
There was a DJ on a floating pedestal that had girls dancing seductively on it with him, wearing nothing but bikinis and fake Black Wolves jackets and more multicolored luminescent paint on their skin. On another floating pedestal opposite from the one the DJ was on, there were what looked like an MC, more girls, and another figure I couldn't distinguish sitting on a throne-like chair, hovering all around the arena above us.
What a mess this all was. And right under our noses too. But I had to keep cool until the right time. We needed to see what was going to happen here tonight. Why had they all gathered in these numbers here on this night.
"Hey, did you hear? They say the big boss will be here tonight too!" a random male said to another.
Big boss. Wonder who that could be…
The music's volume lowered throughout the underground club, allowing the MC to make an introduction. His voice echoed through the speakers that were laid out all over the place, "Alright, you wolfies, AWO-AWO-AWOOOOO! Tonight, we have a big event to showcase to you all. Please stay clear of the arena unless you want to get completely fucked and shredded. The colosseum matches are about to begin!"
I looked at Ryo, both of us still had our hoods on. We found some clear seating and sat there, waiting for this "event" to start.
The crowds gathered and sloshed about, and the whole place was jam-packed. Even where we sat, we were being pushed and shoved just by the sheer number of them all. Then the song changed. A lower, more intense beat started playing around us.
"AWO-AWOOOOO! Are you ready, you freaks?! Let's get these matches started!" The MC shouted through the speakers.
At that moment, parts of the ground in the arena began to sink. The dirt from underneath fell into the rectangular holes they made in the ground. When they arose again to fill the holes, there were mana cages that now lined up all around the outer layers of the arena. I couldn't see what was in them; the barrier shrouding them was too dense.
Then one of the cages lit up, and what was inside was a monster of sorts. Afterward, the middle ground formed a hole big enough for a person to fit through, and a heavily armored mechanical figure emerged from it, elevating it to the main arena grounds.
The cage that held the monster undid itself, and it was free to roam in the arena. The other cages, still hiding what was behind them, went back underground as the monster and the mechanical figure were left to each other's devices.
Ryo looked to his upper left and found a balcony where a shadowy figure was sitting all by himself. He nudged me, and I confirmed with a head nod.
"Looks like that's boss man," Ryo said, yelling, though it would have still been considered a whisper with how loud the place was.
The crowd cheered like a bunch of drunken, tweaked-out animals as the two creatures in the arena hashed it out.
The monster was probably a Grade 5. It stood no chance against the mechanical figure, which bore a resemblance to the six-armed mecha monster we were chasing down. This one had legs and wasn't as large, but it still wore thick armor and looked more like a tall mannequin than anything else.
We sat through the fight as the mecha figure utterly destroyed the monster, leaving green blood splattered in one area of the arena. It was decorated there for a bit, then began to fade into the ether soon after.
"Looks like Puppet Master has won this round!" the MC announced.
Puppet Master… Things were starting to connect. All I need is to see one Blue Phoenix here, and that will conclude our suspicions… but that was the thing. Although the Blue Phoenix Knights were a larger group than us, Ryo and I would have at least spotted a few of them here. But to our surprise, none of these faces looked remotely familiar to either of us. And Ryo had a remarkable memory to bat.
Just one was all we needed to prove that the fake Black Wolves were the Blue Phoenixes.
The cages emerged from underground again, and once they were situated above ground, one of the cages lit up. My eyes widened as I saw what was inside.
Scared, confused, and crouched down in the corner of the cage was the young girl with blonde hair.
That was her. The young girl we were chasing earlier, taken by the mecha monster. In the arena and about to face the mechanical figure—aka Puppet Master—to the death, just like the monster earlier.
Her cage was undone, and the other cages went back down underground.
Standing there was she and the "Puppet Master."
She fell back and attempted a scream, but her throat was dry. Panting, she turned over to crawl as fast as she could.
The Puppet Master drew closer with each step. It held up a gnarly hand as it inevitably reached her, forming a fist to strike down. She looked back, and tears were in her eyes as she witnessed it. The crowd cheered in an animalistic way all around.
"Get her!"
"Tear her to shreds!"
"Rip that bitch apart!"
"Beat the shit out of her!"
The Puppet Master's fist was thrown down to her aggressively.
"I've had enough…" I said under my breath as I stood up, and the sound of the crowd muffled in my ears, pushing away the fakes that surrounded us.
Faster than anyone could see, I dashed toward the young girl and the mechanical figure. From the bleachers I sat, the fakes around me had recoiled like bowling pins as I shot down to the arena. Its fist bore down right at the center of my forehead just as I arrived, and I stopped it in its tracks immediately.
SLAM!
My eyes were a wild rage as I glowered at it, and its fist remained on my forehead, unable to penetrate nor move me, not even an inch. The wind from the impact scattered the dirt from the right and left sides of me, avoiding the girl as a small breeze fluttered her blonde bangs from her face. Dirt and smudges all over her, she stared at my back in shock as she asked,
"Who... Who are you?"