Era of Madness

Siblings' reunion

Eventually, Erica managed to drive the floating ship to Amanda's building. She wasn't delusionnal: she knew there was few chances that the clumsy Cifer's operator was still alive, same went for Penny. On her way there, she had all the occasions needed to realize just how ravaged the whole planet was, pulullating with the most infamous of abominations, and people trying to kill each other at every crossroad. Londris was condemned, doomed.

Now, the only thing left to do was to quickly join the terminal, get to their ship and fly away from Londris as fast as they could, she only stopped by Amanda's hideout because it was on the way. If she could get her and Penny, it would be for the best but else, there was no need to bother herself too much. From Cain actions earlier, he didn't seem like he wanted them to die now anyway, so he would probably divert the fight elsewhere and keep their ship in a single piece. Meaning she could allow herself to take a certain level of risk.

Arriving at the building, she had the 'good' surprise to see that Amanda was still alive... unlike Penny.

Erica's mood worsened even more, admitting it was possible. First Tyler and now the adorable little android? How bad could this day even get?

Amanda tried to explain what happened, but Erica stopped her. Despite Cain's intentions, she wasn't naive enough to stay here any more than necessary. She made her enter first, resumed flying to the terminal, and then listened as she was piloting.

"They... they appeared out of nowhere... And they were... no, there is monsters everywhere! And then this man disguised as a magician made an anti-matter ray appear out of nowhere and..."

"Okay, stop right there, you sound like a three year oldtrying to come up with a movie scenario" Erica cut her off. "Calm down for a minute, organize your thoughts and then you speak. We have like... I don't know, five or ten minutes before arriving, don't press yourself. Okay?"

Amanda listen to Erica, and tried to do just that. To calm herself, she tried to think about her childhood. She remembered her mother, pushing her on a swing. It was fun, she did it every day when they she was kid. She loved her mother. She loved her father too, but he was never present: he worked as an opposant of the Paradise Council, and naturally was always occupied.

One day, though, a minor accident had occured. Amanda's mother had pushed too much, and she, as a small child, had fell off the swing and twisted her ankle. That day despite all his obligations, her father had found the time to come home, comfort her and make sure the injury healed correctly. Een now, Amanda still remembered how happy she had been that day.

And what she also remembered was that, the day after, his father was found dead. Was that an accident? The Council getting rid of an annoyance? An unlucky murder? She had never known... What she knew was that, soon after, her mother had taken her away.

She didn't remember the next years, all she remembered was that, eventually, her mother died and she ended up joining Cifer. Not to accomplish any kind of vengeance, but just because her path had led her there by pure chance. Even then, she had never tried to changethe order of things, or even to perform any major action. She just remained passive, doing nothing more than what was asked from her, if not for a few small jokes and small talks.

Yes, jokes and small talks were never a bad thing, were they? People went there and went away, she never knew when it'd be the last time she met someone, nor when she'd meet someone new, be they pleasant company or not... Trying to be friends with everyone as much as possible couldn't be bad, could it?

Finally, she managed to regain enough composure to tell Erica everything that had happened, and even ended up on a small 'joke':

"Haha, we were talking about horror stories when I first met Tyler" she said. "I just wanted him to feel a bit scared by what was hiding in Ghost London... Who would've thought that it's when he's not here that the true horror stories come to reality? Haha... everybody can't have Gentleman's luck, I guess..."