The flashing lights, laughter and various noises that the rides and games made were much louder up close. Isaiah tried thinking back to the last time he had been to a carnival, a long time, as if he ever had the time to take such leisure. Well, he did, but that was beside the point. The two were forced to make their way through the carnival on foot. Running through would draw unwanted attention, two guys in black with weird masks running in this part of town would probably cause a panic or unwanted conflict. So they ditched the masks for the time being and casually walked with a sense of urgency, weaving through the loud crowds of families, friends, and the like.
Otto found the line to get funnel cake after a little walking, something about tasting the sugar in the air. That was, to say the least, the smell of cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, and other treats were floating through the air like a thick fog. It was almost like a hypnotic scent that screamed, 'Spend money'. This complemented the colorful display the carnival had set up, with large popping signs and exaggerated words that beckoned customers but contrasted with the dark skies they were just traveling beneath.
Isaiah leaned against the yellow rail that surrounded the carousel in the center of all the amusement. He faced the ride as its multicolored lights began spinning while all the passengers were yelling and having a good time. He retrieved his phone from his pocket just to play games and pass the time. After losing a few times, he looked around to find Otto, who was still in line about second from receiving his turn. He checked his black, digital watch, the green number projecting into the air just above the face, not too much time had been lost. Not that time was of the essence or anything. He sighed and looked up to the sky, and despite the fact that it looked ready to burst soon and soak everyone with rain, these people were still having fun.
The man turned around and leaned his back against the rail, looking at the vast amount of games placed in the grass across the street. Friends were gathered around arcade machines, cheering each other on while others played basketball and a multitude of other things. Then his eyes caught a young boy wearing a black and white jersey, jeans and matching shoes. The boy was struggling with a claw game, and he looked really sad about it. Otto was still waiting on his cake, so Isaiah made his way over to the kid.
The kid was looking into the glass, staring at one of the plushies inside. Isaiah looked to see which one he was looking at, then asked,
"Hey, lil' bro. Which one did you want?"
The boy turned and looked at Isaiah, not mouthing a word. He could respect it, he was a random stranger talking to a little kid after all. So Isaiah smiled, trying to seem more approachable and pointed to a blue dragon plushie.
"You want this one?"
The boy shook his head no and shyly pointed to a pink bunny. Isaiah blinked and shrugged.
"Alright, pink bunny it is."
The boy pulled a few quarters from his pocket and inserted them into the machine and pressed his face against the glass expectantly. The machine buzzed to life with a light-hearted music to accompany its evil intentions. Isaiah laughed at the boy's enthusiasm and started moving the claw around, he grabbed the bunny's ear and the boy clapped his hands above his head. He was moving the bunny towards the exit but its leg got caught on the plastic wall separating the toys from the exit, then the timer ran out and a high pitched voice said
"Uh oh! Better luck next time!"
The boy seemed sad and looked at Isaiah expectantly. He did not have any quarters or anything. The bunny was practically spilling into the prize slot, only being held by its foot. So Isaiah looked around, eyeing the crowd before he went to the side of the machine and shoved it a couple of times, causing the bunny to fall into the exit. He took it out and handed it to the kid, who grabbed it happily and spoke,
"Thank you."
Then he ran away into the crowd. Isaiah looked towards the game machine, which held a bunch of happy animals painted on the outside.
"Evil."
He was about to walk away but he heard the same kid calling to his mother and handing his bunny to a girl in a stroller who hugged the toy happily. The woman pushing the stroller reached for his hand and he took it happily. Otto came over with a mouth full of funnel cake and spoke,
"You alright?"
Isaiah shook his head and answered,
"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's get going. Hopefully, that smell doesn't get us caught."
Isaiah and Otto had made their way to the quieter side of town, near the coast. The streetlights were on and the streets were quiet. The two traversed through the large empty green park on the other side of the street from the carnival, following where the blue blinking light in the distance pointed to a while before. The previous waypoint guided them to cut through to the destination rather than traveling around on the main road that led to it. Otto was finishing off the rest of his pastry before they finally made it to the coastal town. The two pulled their masks and hoods back on and got back into gear.
He broke out of the brush and crouched low, hearing the waves in the distance and seeing the low, simplistic houses that sat on the beach. Isaiah was crouched, ushering Otto along as they kept hidden, staying along the park's treeline to avoid detection. Most of the beach houses were occupied by the Roakon faction at this point, and one false move might trigger a warning. He sneaked around to the main street with Otto in lieu, fairly hidden still. A few cars passed down the street, the bright headlights did not detect the two luckily.
Across the road to his right was a small stone wall separation between the road and the sandy beach below. The dark waters were mysterious but not as mysterious as the glowing green lights of the Veverg that cast through the clouds that it towered over in the distance. The thing was absolutely gargantuan. Jutting out of the deep ends of the ocean and reaching past the clouds in the sky. Comparable to a skyscraper but much wider. Like half a football stadium or possibly even larger from what Isaiah saw.
He continued along until they crept to where an alleyway would be. They were safer here, where there was nothing but the occasional wild animal. Isaiah followed the tracker until it presented him with the back door entrance of a certain large house. The white brick house was an apartment, one of those, four in one apartments that looked like an expensive beach mansion. Isaiah simply thought it was a mansion. There was a bunch of yellow tape and warning to prevent entry at the back door they were faced with.
Isaiah looked around the empty alley before giving Otto the green. They both reached into the holster strapped to their waist by their belts and pulled out black handguns along with their flashlights turned on and Isaiah gave the nod to Otto. He held his breath in anticipation as Otto kicked in the door with a loud slam and they both entered with their guns raised and ready.
There was nothing in the main living quarters, just clothes strewn all over the place, furniture tossed, papers everywhere. The initial slam of the back door could count for anything in a neighbor's mind. So they made sure to avoid the tape when entering and to close the door back when they entered to divert suspicion. There were two passageways on either side of a long, dark hallway. He took left and Otto took right. He adjusted his grip on the pistol and moved cautiously towards the doorway, placing his back on the wall. Each step ushered another creak from the wooden floors, the sound was like someone breathing their warm, musty breath against the neck of a cold Isaiah, daring him to look behind him.
He reached out slowly and opened the door with one hand and took a breath before entering quickly, muzzle first. All he was met with was a messy bedroom with caution tape strewn everywhere. He made sure to check the closets and corners before he let his guard down, finding no one to be there, he started searching. He started looking through dressers and drawers to no avail. He even went so far as to flip the mattress, before he saw a small hole torn in the bed frame. He shone his flashlight into it, being cautious and slow in case there was anything inside. Suddenly a voice called from behind him and he whipped left to shine his light on Otto,
"You know my voice. Stop being so jumpy. Come on though, I found something you probably don't want to see."
With that vague comment, Isaiah nodded. He looked back in the hole, quicker this time and found a brown leather journal. He reached his hand in and picked it up, examining it. It was old and worn, it was nearly falling apart at the binding but somehow managed to stay intact. He flipped through the pages and they were full of all sorts of notes and journal entries. Then Otto called out to him again, so he placed the book in his backpack and went to his partner. They arrived in the other room, an office, and there was dried blood on the desk, it was old and nearly black. Ironically, the office was the cleanest place in the entire house. On the desk was an old name tag on a metal stand that read 'Avis Cameron'. All the evidence pointed to one conclusion,
"What do you think man?"
Otto asked as he went and picked up the name tag to examine it. Isaiah walked around, his shoes creaking against the wooden floor,
"I think someone got to the job before us."
With that, they started to look through Avis's things. Kenny told them before they left that if anything looked important or "really scientific", to pack it up and bring it with them. That was pretty much the entire office in Isaiah's opinion, but there were a few things that looked more special than others. Most of the things had been taken already it seemed, a lot of the books on the shelves were missing, there was a laptop cord but no laptop, the drawers were void of any papers or technology. They were almost ready to pack up and leave before coming across a book that read 'Lupus', Latin for wolf. He only knew that because he was sitting in with Kenny one day and listening to him go on about codes and the like for their group. Isaiah looked up when he heard booming thunder overhead followed by the roar of hard rain on the roof. Great. Isaiah picked the book up and flipped through the pages, it was nothing but an old book on wolf anatomy and biology or something. Just as he was about to close it, he came to one of the back pages that had a disk, when he pulled the disk out, a small paperweight memory card fell out.
"Otto."
The man turned around and walked over, taking the drive and examining it.
"I can open it, you think it's important?"
Otto asked.
"He hid it in a book with a wolf on it. I'm no detective but I think it might be a message to the Wolves."
Isaiah responded, closing the book and placing it back on the shelf.
"Worth a shot."
Otto replied before pulling out his phone. He inserted the card and began hacking into it before a voice memo started playing for them both to hear.
"Hello. This is Avis Cameron. I hate to be the cheesy type, however, if you have access to this record, I have likely already passed. I am recording this as a message to the Wolves. I have not betrayed you. Far from it, I have discovered probably the most important piece of the mystery to Veverg. Wolves.. This faction war, this rivalry with Lestallum, everything that we have been fighting for previously... Its urgency pales in comparison to what I have discovered. I hid her. I've hidden the location in this encrypted file. It will give off a signal that will allow you to find her in case my systems have caused it to move again-"
"Why does he have to play the pronoun game with us?"
Otto sighed,
"Wait. Did he say that this file was going to give off a signal?"
Isaiah asked. The file kept speaking and they stayed silent for a moment before they heard the faint blaring of alarms. Otto went to deactivate the signal and memo, muttering a few curses. Isaiah looked out the dark window, seeing a small puddle of water forming on the dusty windowsill. There was a crack somewhere in the window, allowing the rain that was beating against the outside to seep in slowly and deliberately. He peered outside and could see a sign, one of those lawn signs indicating that a house had some sort of defense system. Who keeps a home defense system online for a dead guy?
"Otto."
Isaiah prodded in a concerned voice,
"I know."
He responded, annoyed,
They reactivated their ARC's and slowly the two made their way back into that dark living room and crept down the long hall. They started hearing sirens getting closer to the area they were in. They got to the end of the hall when they started hearing multiple, rapid footsteps on the other side of the building and dropped the stealth, running down the hall and out the exit they came in.
The two burst forth into the now stormy night. The tape from the door blew in their faces but they quickly removed it. Thunder was rolling and the rain was heavy. They had their hoods on which kept their vision fairly clear, but it was still hard to see. Without the ARC's they would be blind. They were in the same alleyway and the rain caused a foul smell to emit from the garbage dumpsters. However, that was the least of their issues. There were Roakon task enforcer vehicles parked on one end of the alley with their lights shining right near the two. After a few moments of silence and rain, they thought everyone went into the house until they heard someone scream,
"STOP!"
With that very convincing order, the two proceeded to sprint in the opposite direction. Activating their Jets, they started making their way to the main beach, where the large street next to it would take them back to the Southside. They were skating, hovering above the wet ground, Isaiah's face felt those stinging raindrops and then the sound of car engines and sirens started creeping behind them. Rifting gear was fast, allowing the users to skid along the ground at the speed of motorcycles, but they were more useful on rooftops, in more urban settings. In a flat, open area like this, they had to think outside the box. So they continued at their top speed down the road until one car decided to try and ram them. Otto turned around, continuing his forward momentum and legitimately juked the car, sliding to the driver's seat window and catching the rearview mirror with his left hand, his right had pulled out his gun and fired a few shots into the car, breaking the glass. He then reached in and grabbed the wheel. Isaiah looked back to see the car veer off the road and towards the beach.
"OTTO!"
He yelled but heard nothing back in return. He cursed multiple times as the vehicles started catching up with him, then a roadblock up ahead forced him to stop. The cars behind him were catching up and he was running out of options. He raised his gun and started firing at the incoming cars, trying to take out the wheels but getting a good shot in that heavy rain was almost impossible. Then the sound of an engine closing in startled him before a truck rolled up on him from the beach-side, a bleeding, injured Otto yelled for him to get in and Isaiah, relieved, obliged. He climbed into the truck and Otto floored it. The armored vehicle smashed through the blockade of squad cars and lumbered down the road, bullets whizzing past the two as they made their way down the small highway that went around the park instead of through it.
"Isaiah we're gonna have to get out and hoof it soon, but my ARC's are on low power so I can't see anything in this weather, man."
Isaiah bit his bottom lip in frustration, the weather was too much to take a risk and hit the jets in without ARCs. But that was their only option, as getting away in an enemy armored truck was less than likely. He tried to make contact with Kenny without any luck. Not a big surprise due to the weather but still, they needed a plan.
"Wait, are you able to turn off every other function and focus on the energy from my own Jets? If you can have it focus only on me, you should have enough juice to follow me home. I'll just have to keep the road simple. So you're gonna have to pay attention. Alright?"
Isaiah was unsure about it and hated every suggestion he was making, but he had to make the call.
"Yeah man whatever you say, but we've got to move now."
Otto replied.
They stopped a few feet away from where the urban streets began and ditched the truck, the sound of pursuit close by. They activated their Jets and scaled a building in no time. They started making their getaway when they heard a loud humming noise. Isaiah stopped and turned around, looking up to view the large aircraft making its way towards them from a distance, a helicopter. They called in a helicopter on them, why not? By this time they probably figured that it was Jet/Wolves who had broken into their territory, so they brought out the big guns. There was a spotlight on them and Otto yelled for Isaiah to keep moving, so they continued to tumble, jump and skate along the buildings. The light shone right atop Isaiah and screwed with his night vision, blinding him for a moment. Adrenaline was causing his heart to nearly burst out of his chest. The rain was relentless, the chase was dire, and the situation kept getting worse and worse, taking his vision for a moment almost sent him into a full-on panic, but he felt a hand grab him and drag him out of the light.
"Go normal vision!"
Otto yelled over the chaos, so Isaiah calmed down and deactivated the night vision then continued running. He was soaked at this point, the cold rain settling into his bones as he had to keep moving at lightning speed. They zig-zagged and ran to avoid the aircraft but it just kept on their tail. The deafening sound of its fans never ceased to find them. The only way to lose it would be to go through mainside and travel to the third layer via free fall. Bullets began firing from the aircraft and the two evaded the best they could until they made it to the Mainside of the megacity. After a few jumps and staggering tumbles down walls, they made it to the city streets. Now the city was known to never be dead, and this part of the city was immensely lively, being that they were on the Third layer. The skyscrapers and buildings were perfect covers to avoid the Roakon helicopter. Isaiah and Otto dashed past people, rushing along the streets and crossing sidewalks with no concern for passing cars. Soon they stopped to catch their breath, the sounds of honking vehicles and indistinct conversation overtook the sound of the helicopter, so they thought that they lost it. Isaiah leaned against a metal wall and looked towards the sky. The ceiling was riddled with lights and hanging fixtures. The city was built in layers, they were currently on the Third Layer, which was most relatable to a modern day city. Going higher meant higher class, and better technology. There were two layers up and two down. The Third Layer was the surface and the second and first were underground.
Otto began making a call to Kenny for an emergency car to be sent to vent four, where the two were headed. Then Isaiah heard that sound, sure enough, overhead a few miles away he could see another helicopter searching for them. Without a word, he grabbed Otto by the arm and pulled him into a sprint in the opposite direction. They rushed past people on the streets and towards the center of the city on their Jets. They were still being pursued before they finally arrived at the Fourth Vent. The vents were not at all made to transport people from layer to layer, but people used it anyway, as the main layer transit system was scheduled. The Vents were made for a ventilation system for the underground layers, as mostly it was factory and the like. To keep the fumes from suffocating everyone beneath, they built the vents as a purge system. They were also used for unmanned mass goods being transported, and overall city functionality. Not at all for individual transportation. When they looked down into the large crater, they could see multiple layers of the city underneath them, more districts, more areas, and a chance of escape. The two paused for a moment to adjust their Jets before the jump.
Isaiah was muttering curses to himself and butterflies slammed against every side of his stomach as his time to prepare was cut short, he looked down the street and saw two helicopters speeding from two different locations towards the two. He was forced to stop adjusting and stood to plan where he was going to jump, center to avoid injury from the structures along the edge. The fumes rising were thick, but he would veer out of the fog a few feet into the jump. His planning was cut short by the sound of a gun and pain exploding in his left shoulder. He screamed in pain before the force of the shot sent him falling down the Vent and spiraling uncontrollably, he could hear Otto yelling in his ears but not for long. He hit a few structures on the way down and the sound of rippling winds in his ears faded until it was as dark as the skies outside.