"My session with the shrink is already doing wonders for me. I feel much better than I ought to," Pinz said as she cringed at seeing the fighters flail and scream in agony. "I suspect you two would benefit immensely, too."
They had all shopped for fresh clothes on her insistence, and that had helped too. She had been wearing her Ubuckiff outfit since forever and changing from that had lifted her spirits.
She now wore a one-piece, short-sleeved, red jumpsuit that reached her knees. Its silver zipper at the front revealed a dark-purple top underneath, and a brown belt was looped around her waist. Her shoes were red, with a strap across the instep, as were her hair ties.
Crisscrossing with her belt was another black strap across her waist, affixed to which was the Virtual Backpack. It was shaped like a dark-orange paw with a chartreuse screen. Pinz had made Seluna remove her voice identification from the VBP and had reformatted it.
"Are you seriously including me?" Heraclark demanded, raising his voice to be heard over all the bluster. "I killed my father's murderer just three days ago. What could be more therapeutic than that?"
"And there is nothing wrong with me!" Jayrock said indignantly. "I am as sane as they come."
"Well, for starters, you think there is nothing wrong with you," Pinz replied, folding her arms. "And you seem to think killing is therapeutic."
"Lady, you got screwed over by your 'best friend.' Don't push your insecurities on us." Jayrock shrugged. He wore a white jacket with black stripes running along its arms. Underneath, he wore a black shirt with a pair of teal patches peeking out. His jeans were teal as well, and his sneakers were white with black soles. His VBP dangled from a pocket chain.
A nearby monitor frantically beeped as a fighter's heart rate surged. A medic rushed to her side and injected something into her cannula. A few seconds later, the fighter settled down, and so did the trace lines.
"What is wrong with me, by the way?" Jayrock asked.
"I can't believe you'd drag me in," Heraclark protested. "Don't tell me you think I should have spared him." He wore a navy tank top along with dark-gray cargo pants and black combat boots. A red muffler was wrapped around his neck, with a red-and-navy check pattern at its ends. His VBP was fixed to a navy band encircling his left upper arm.
"No, of course not. Far be it from me to question your decisions." Pinz put up her hands as if actually distancing herself. "It's just that you barely talk about anything else. Have you thought about what comes next?"
"It's only been three days!" Heraclark said incredulously. "You have been talking about your shrink for three days, too."
"Because I have done my fair share of talking about what happened at the arena," Pinz said wistfully. "Now, I am ready to move on."
When they left the arena in the truck, Seluna bound and gagged, everything still felt unreal — as if she had just observed some nightmarish events from far away. Pinz had to gaze at Seluna's face now and then to remind herself that everything was real. Her best friend had, in fact, betrayed her... tried to have her enslaved at the hands of horrible people.
Through the gag, Seluna kept trying as best as she could to plead her innocence, but Pinz could not bear to hear another word from that wily mouth of hers — the mouth that had spewed so many lies over so many years.
Pinz would not free her hands either — the hands that took Bastelle's life.
And that was the worst part. No matter how much she wished, Bastelle would never return. Never again would she nag at Pinz to work in her next project. She longed for Bastelle to come back, if only for a fleeting moment just so Pinz could ask her to forgive her — to say goodbye one last time. She clutched Puff and cried every time she recalled how she had yelled at Bastelle that fateful night. If only their final meeting had been a more pleasant one.
Previously, she had thought that the crew in her trailer had heard her being loud and that that was how things had reached Bastelle's killers. It had never occurred to her that the snake was the person she was talking to. How could she have been that stupid? Even Puff never liked Seluna — and Seluna never cared much for Puff, either. But nothing had opened Pinz's eyes.
When they reached the city, they handed Seluna over to the authorities, who immediately took her into custody. The Karomozians were probably eager to cover up the mess they had caused, and so, Seluna — the Felitte — was swiftly found guilty of multiple charges, including attempted murder. To hear the press, Seluna might as well have been the secret mastermind behind everything that went down.
Not that Pinz gave a darn. The Karomozians, whom Seluna had been so eager to betray Pinz to, were now using her as a sacrificial lamb. How fitting that she would spend the rest of her life in a prison of her own making, far away from home. Talk about poetic justice, Pinz had thought. Let her rot in Karomozian prisons. And Pinz shuddered at the stories she had heard about Karomozian prisons.
As comforting as that was, there was still a big, empty void inside her, threatening to engulf her. So, the snake had met her fate, but why had this happened? What had Pinz done to deserve this? Was there no one she could trust, ever? Was it futile, naïve, even, to be kind to anyone? She nearly drove herself crazy, asking all sorts of questions. And that was when she decided to visit a psychotherapist.
She chose a Neurax who practiced in Brivil. She had heard psychotherapists from Neuraxios used their mind powers during the sessions, which made some people uncomfortable, but Pinz didn't care. She needed someone to pour her heart out to, and if the mind powers helped, so be it.
After entrusting Puff to Jayrock and Heraclark in the hotel, she took a one-hour session where she talked and talked. She was amazed by how therapeutic the act of talking alone was. The hour flew by as she expressed her frustrations, fears, feelings of betrayal and isolation, regrets, and everything.
Your friend betrayed you because that's who she was, the psychotherapist had said. That doesn't have to change who you are. Don't stop being kind because of her. Be even kinder because of who you are... and I can tell you want to be nothing less.
Pinz had hummed along the way back to the hotel, updated her blog after ages, and made up her mind to help the fighters. She managed to convince the guys, and before long, she held a press conference, urging people to assist her in that regard.
"Their vitals keep destabilizing," the neurobiologist said worriedly as she watched a nurse secure a fighter's restraints.
"They have been through a lot," Pinz observed.
"What is wrong with me?" Jayrock asked again.
"You feel too guilty about your friend," Pinz replied.
"Who? Gylith?" Jayrock asked.
Is he pretending, or has he actually forgotten? "No. Your other friend," Pinz corrected him. "You know you didn't do anything wrong. If anything, you saved thousands of lives."
Jayrock winced. This chatterbox had somehow made him regurgitate so many things he didn't mean to. They were having breakfast in their hotel when she suggested they talk a bit about themselves just to "break the ice." After she had prattled on about herself, she began probing him and Heraclark. Jayrock had been quite successful at resisting at first, but then she started making guesses and bets about his past. He vaguely remembered scoffing at her inaccuracy.
The next thing he knew, he was telling each and every detail about his childhood — from the fact that his parents died in an accident when he was one year old to the fact that his parents' friend adopted him.
He even shared how for eleven years, his foster father, Borisco Meson, didn't let Jayrock know he was adopted and how strict he was. No matter what Jayrock did or accomplished, his foster father never seemed to be impressed and just told him to 'work harder.' Jayrock did work harder and harder to gain his 'father's' approval, but there was always something deficient, always much to be desired.
Saying Jayrock's eleventh birthday was full of surprises was a massive understatement. His foster father got him heaps of presents, including the army set he had desperately wanted for years. Even the cake was made out to look like a battlefield, with little soldiers locked in battle. All of his friends from school were invited to the party.
It was the happiest day of his life — until, later that day, his foster father finally revealed Jayrock was adopted. He had been playing with the army set when his foster father came into his room and sat Jayrock beside him. He asked Jayrock if he liked the presents before telling him he had always loved him and would always continue to do so. Jayrock remembered being confused at this sudden confession, but that was nothing compared to when the bomb finally dropped.
He wanted to stop his father from saying any more and stuff his words back into his mouth as if they had never been uttered. He wanted everything to go back the way it was a few moments ago so he could go back to playing with his army set — after all, he had only begun.
But nothing could put the arrows back in the quiver. Jayrock spent an entire week in a slump. It hurt to know that he had spent almost his entire life trying to gain the approval of a man who wasn't even his actual father. He kept wondering what his birth parents would have acted like — surely, they would have loved him more.
Then, one night, after gathering all his belongings and some money he had earned as a Grebrik Scout, he ran away from home. During that year, the orbits of Grebros and Honax had come very close, and both planets were locked in a conflict over space travel territories. The Grebrik military was conscripting people of all ages to aid in the effort, so Jayrock headed to the nearest barracks looking for young recruits and enrolled.
For three whole years, Meson tried his best to search for Jayrock and contact him. Once he found out where Jayrock was, he even visited the barracks dozens of times, requesting the authorities to allow him to meet his son, but Jayrock refused every time.
Three years later, Jayrock was deployed on a covert mission on Harrok, an asteroid of Grebros, to gather intelligence on nearby Honaxee activity. A Honaxee fleet ambushed his squad, and, in the ensuing battle, Jayrock suffered several firearm wounds until he passed out.
He woke up in a military hospital. Most of his squad was hospitalized. None of his superiors came up to check on him, and all he saw was the blank faces of the medics.
Once again, he was informed that someone had come to meet him. After all those years, Jayrock knew who it would be. This time, crushed by loneliness, he relented.
His father came in and tightly embraced Jayrock for what seemed forever. Then he placed a box on Jayrock's bed — the same army set he had just started playing with three years ago.
He apologized to Jayrock profusely. I love you to death, my son, he had said. I was afraid I would spoil you. I was scared I would dote on you so much that you would never be able to become independent and realize your potential. But I know I went too far. Forgive me, my son.
Jayrock had never seen him so miserable... so weak. And he forgave him.
He continued his career in the military, but he moved back with his father — back home.
Feeling loved and wanted at home again, he made leaps and strides in his career and got promoted to captain in record time. But that also brought him under the eyes of a certain colonel who quickly became wary and insecure of Jayrock's capabilities.
Jayrock didn't let that bother him too much, though, and he supposed he was doing a good enough job of it — until the night at the amusement park happened. And now, he thought he had completely recovered after he basically told Sandywick to get lost at Hotel Grande.
But who was I kidding? Jayrock thought. What he hadn't told Pinz Ailoraw was that the nightmares had returned since they left the Brivil Arena, each one more horrific than the one before.
Even so, here she was recommending he should see a psychotherapist. Maybe she is right, he allowed.
"And that came out wrong. I'm sorry for that," Pinz was saying. "I didn't really mean there is something wrong with you, just that... it's OK to feel weak and to seek help."
"Right," Jayrock said with a sigh.
Heraclark shifted his glance upward. The domed glass roof of the facility admitted a view of the night sky. Ahore was just a sliver, while Raimyor was in the waxing phase. The moons reminded him of the coastline they traveled along on their way here, of the shifting tides crashing against the cliffs.
They also reminded him of the night in the Gorven Woods — the night he finally slaughtered the pig.
He sat there on the rock for an hour in elation. He allowed himself to process the fact that the single goal that had driven him for most of his life had been accomplished. The pig — always an elusive figure, just out of reach — lay there, lifeless, right in front of his eyes.
He recalled the few memories he had with his father — memories, he realized, he had been pushing away all his life to focus on his singular objective to avenge him. He remembered spending hours in Dad's workshop before Dad would catch him. He would then gently admonish Heraclark for his intrusion, pick him up, tuck him in his bed, and kiss him goodnight — that was half the reason he trespassed in the workshop.
He remembered how his mother would worry about him not developing a passion of his own and would bring him books on various subjects to see if he showed an interest in any of them. But they were books, after all — why would he be interested in them?
Although his mother would be busy at her clinic, when Dad died, she devoted all her time to Heraclark whenever she was home. She would regularly inquire about his progress from his nannies, who were constantly changing owing to Heraclark's challenging behavior. He found it suffocating then, but he now knew he would have spiraled out of control if Mom had not worked tirelessly on him.
When it was time to choose his major, all he could remember were the multiple occasions Dad took him to the Bank of Loogmor, Heraclark's hand wrapped around his finger. And someday, you are going to be its manager, Dad would always say.
And that was all it took to decide his career path.
He didn't realize he had spent over an hour relishing old memories until he saw a figure in the woods, running frantically about. At first, he thought it was a wild animal.
But when he cautiously followed the 'creature,' it turned out to be a mer. His hands were in enercuffs, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face held an expression of... fear... confusion — not dissimilar from when Pinz first saw her cat during her rage.
When the man spotted Heraclark, he lunged at him, growling like a wounded animal. Heraclark had to muster all his might to subdue him before he rendered the man unconscious with a chokehold.
Heraclark had wondered who he was before he remembered the conversation he had overheard between the guards at the arena. He realized this person must have been the captive fighter who escaped into the woods during transportation.
Not long after, he got a call from Jayrock, asking for his location. Jayrock and Pinz had already called the local authorities, and after they regrouped, they located another fighter wandering in the woods. The next day, they began searching for those who escaped into the city when Heraclark set them free.
It soon became apparent that they would not be able to do it on their own. Heraclark and Jayrock were wondering what to do, trying to care for Pinz's cat as best as they could, when Pinz returned from her session and revealed her plans.
She contacted as many media outlets as she could and soon held a press conference at the hotel, urging everyone to help her in the cause.
"Ah, there he is!" the neurobiologist exclaimed, interrupting Heraclark's train of thought.
The three of them turned their heads to the left. The automatic doors at the far end of the floor had parted open, revealing the covered, glass bridge connecting to the adjacent building. A man emerged from the bridge. He wore enormous glasses along with a shaggy, loose-fitting suit and had slightly graying hair and beard.
A girl followed him close behind. She had black, silky hair that fell past her shoulders, held back by a pair of yellow barrette clips. She wore a short-sleeved yellow top with sky-blue polka dots on the torso area. Her cyan camisole poked out from under her top at the waist, with its straps also visible at her neckline. Her skirt was midnight-blue along with knee-length, yellow socks with sky-blue polka dots and midnight-blue pumps.
Doxonica looked around the floor as she walked behind Rik. It looked more like an infirmary than a research facility. The expansive floor was tiled with glossy, white slabs. The walls were embedded all around at intervals with vertical shafts of white lights that brilliantly illuminated the room so that no shadows were being cast. Above was an enormous glass dome, with the night sky looking like the view inside a planetarium.
Dozens of beds were lined up next to the walls along with monitors and other equipment. Doxonica covered her mouth as she saw the people on the beds, flailing, writhing, and screaming in agony, trying to break out of their restraints. Scientists in white coats bustled about the room, injecting medicines, securing bonds, watching the monitors, and taking notes on their holopads.
Doxonica had spent most of yesterday discussing and finalizing the deal with Mavis. He had even started work on building the new PFTs. She left late in the evening with a promise to return the following day to take a look at whatever his 'guests' needed her help with.
"Welcome, Ms. Ailoraw. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long," Rik greeted pleasantly.
Ms. Ailoraw? Doxonica turned her gaze toward the three people standing next to a bed.
"No, not for too long," Pinz said, smiling as she shook Rik's hand.
Well, I'll be darned. Doxonica thought. I never saw that coming. She remembered now. Pinz Ailoraw was the actress who had her custom-made trailer built by RDE Transport. She recalled Pinz's unpleasant secretary, who had a thoroughly entitled demeanor and kept finding faults with one trivial thing or another. Even Doxonica had to get personally involved after her crew complained.
Doxonica vowed never to accept any contracts from Ailoraw again, but she had forgotten that until now. Well, Rik could have had worse guests, Doxonica thought. Aunt Noiry for one... or even her coward brother.
"So, this is Doxonica Enzene, owner of RDE Transport," Rik introduced. "She has graciously offered her help for our noble cause."
I didn't offer it yet, Doxonica thought.
"RDE Transport!" Pinz exclaimed as she studied Doxonica. "Why, it's a pleasure to meet you! I never got the chance before."
"Thank you," Doxonica said as she gingerly shook Pinz's hand.
An uncomfortable silence settled as Doxonica felt she was being expected to say something more. "Where is your secretary?" she blurted out and immediately felt stupid for it.
Pinz felt her face flushing as Jayrock and Heraclark's heads turned toward her.
"So, I got my trailer built by Ms. Enzene's company," Pinz explained to the guys, trying to hide her embarrassment. Then she turned toward Doxonica. "Seluna was not my secretary. And she is in prison. Do you not watch the news?"
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Doxonica replied. Grandma would be proud of this lie.
What a weirdo, Pinz thought. "Please, don't be. She is where she deserves to be."
"Right? What an unpleasant person!" Doxonica said before she halted. What are you doing, Doxonica?
Pinz almost flinched. So, even a complete stranger saw her for who she was, and I, the idiot, couldn't.
As she struggled to think of what to say, Rik chimed in, "So, anyhoo... um" — he rubbed his hands together — "this is Professor Arna Zinvor, our resident Head of Neurobiology." He motioned toward the female neurobiologist.
Arna Zinvor wore a neat, white lab coat with her dark-brown hair secured in a bun, well away from her face. A pair of thick-rimmed spectacles sat on her eyes. Her hands were clasped into each other as she held them in front.
As Arna nodded, Pinz said pleasantly, "We met."
"And may I know who your companions are, Ms. Ailoraw?"
"This is Jayrock Petrolons from Grebros. He is a commando, and it was he who gained the intelligence reports about these fighters being held captive in the arena compound," Pinz replied.
Jayrock opened his mouth to speak, but Pinz prattled on, "And this is Heraclark Scotnyx from Loogmor. His father invented the prototypes for these gadgets that have been used on me and these fighters," Pinz said with a little more bitterness than she intended. "He has also brought along his father's—"
Heraclark elbowed Pinz before she could say any further. I can't reveal that before I trust these people, he mentally yelled at Pinz as he stared at her.
"Blueprints," Pinz completed, rolling her eyes. "To see if they could be of any use in helping these fighters recover their sanity," she said pointedly.
She is lucky she is a good actress, Heraclark thought. "However, I would like to know everything about their condition before I share the blueprints," Heraclark said matter-of-factly.
"Right. Arna? If you would be so kind?" Rik said.
Arna cleared her throat. "We have done a lot of investigations. We have the results for some, and some are awaited. But I can say this with certainty — their condition is not good. The one major problem that is evident is that... how should I put it... their entire nervous system is... fried."
"That bad?" Rik asked.
"Yes," Arna said and pulled up a holographic projection of the monitor next to her. It showed color imagery of what looked like nerves in different parts of the body. "There is wildly erratic electrical activity in their brains, the neural connections and synapses have gone haywire, and their mental functioning is steadily declining. It's a wonder they are even alive," she explained as she cycled through the images that showed rapid fluctuations in various structures.
"What did that? The gadgets? Or the pods they were kept inside?" Jayrock asked. "I mean, Pinz seems fine... mostly."
"Both," Arna replied. "The devices used to elicit excessive rage and anger impaired normal functioning of key brain regions and primed them to be hypersensitive to even minor stimuli. The pods, on the other hand, kept them in suspended animation and ensured that the nervous system stayed in this condition indefinitely, for better or for worse." Arna paused and pursed her lips for a moment. "But that's not all."
"That's not all?" Pinz asked, shocked.
"We just received the results for the samples we drew a while ago," Arna said. "All of them are positive for current or past infection from Mentisite."
"What's that?" Heraclark inquired.
"The causative agent of the Mad Diver disease," Arna said solemnly.
"Mad Diver disease?" Doxonica asked. She recalled how she had had to ensure stringent disinfection of all interplanetary transport vessels because of this epidemic. "Isn't that—"
"A potentially deadly disease, yes," Arna said. "The pods might have something to do with their survival. These fighters outlived the pathogen in suspended animation. However, the damage is done."
"But there is a cure available now!" Heraclark said. "It's all over the news!"
"And we have ordered several dozens of canisters from Curavez Pharmaceuticals," Arna admitted. "It will be helpful, for sure, but I fear its effectiveness will be limited under the circumstances. It is mainly designed to kill the pathogen, but many of these victims are free of the organism itself. And while the drug formulation also aids the repair and healing process of the nervous system, the deleterious effects of the experiments will be hard to cure — unless we somehow stabilize the erratic electrical activity first."
"So, you're saying they intentionally infected these fighters? Why would they do that?" Jayrock asked.
"My theory is that the pathogen helped 'tame' their nervous systems... made them easier to prey upon and control with the devices," Arna replied thoughtfully.
"So, that's it, then? They are beyond help?" Pinz asked in despair.
"And where do I come in, Mr. Mavis?" Doxonica inquired. "How could I possibly help with this?"
"Right," Rik said and gathered his hands behind his back. "Now, I am no neurobiologist like Arna here, but when I first heard about what predicament these captives were in — and that this was brought upon them by gadgets — I just knew the answer should be advanced technology, as well. Now, this infection complicates things, to be sure, but the drug from Curavez Pharmaceuticals will cover that. My point remains the same, however — conventional medicine solely isn't going to cut it. That is where you come in, Ms. Enzene."
Doxonica cocked an eye at Rik as he continued, "We have recovered some samples of these 'spellbinders,' as the Oracle Industries likes to call them, and I want you to have a look at them."
"Oracle Industries?" Pinz asked, confused. "But it was the Galactic Enterprise that sponsored the tournament."
"Yes, it was," Jayrock replied. "But consider this — do you have any idea about who exactly these people are? What does this enterprise actually do?"
Pinz remembered Bastelle's words the night she died. The original tournament sponsor was murdered two months ago... these new sponsors, no one is quite sure who exactly they are, and frankly, no one really cares now, Bastelle had said. Pinz had been furious then, but now she realized Bastelle was right all along. Even I didn't care who they were. "I have no idea," Pinz admitted. "Do you?"
"Galactic Enterprise is one of the many shell companies of Oracle Industries. They have been using this one for some years to influence the Galactic Battle tournament from behind the scenes. This year, however, they decided to go ahead and murder Orshim Weller to take complete control," Jayrock explained.
"You knew about that?" Pinz inquired.
"Not until a couple days ago," Jayrock replied. "The complete picture, at least."
Now it makes sense, Doxonica thought with a coy smile. Rik didn't strike her as a particularly altruistic type. Yet, here he was, using his resources to help people he didn't even know. "What a coincidence," she said innocently. "You'll not only be able to help these poor fighters but also to expose Oracle Industries."
Rik cleared his throat and shook his collar. "Yes... that is... um... convenient. But who cares about that? We are all here to help these fighters, right?"
"Right." Doxonica nodded.
"So, there's a whole corporation still operational. That's why we couldn't account for all the fighters who escaped," Heraclark deduced.
"Someone out there was hunting for them, too," Pinz agreed.
"You bet they were. They wouldn't want their assets to fall into the wrong hands," Rik said. "They have even kept the location of their new headquarters a well-guarded secret. Fortunately, we need not worry about that anymore, since I understand that Ms. Enzene is privy to that knowledge."
Good grief, Doxonica thought nervously as she looked at her feet. When will he let it go?
"But we will get to that later," he continued. "Mr. Scotnyx... Ms. Ailoraw mentioned you have your father's blueprints."
"I am not ready to share them... yet," Heraclark said bluntly.
"Heraclark," Jayrock said as he turned toward him. "Your father was nothing less than an exceptional man from what you have told me. If he saw all this" — he motioned toward all the beds — "what do you think he would have done?"
He turned against me too? "Well, he invented the gadgets in the first place, so I don't really know what he would have done," Heraclark said defensively and folded his arms.
"He invented them and then went out of his way to prevent that knowledge from getting into the wrong hands," Pinz argued. "He wanted it in your hands. It's up to you to decide how it's going to be used."
"And why should I trust these people not to repeat what that Oracle or whatever did?" Heraclark retorted.
"You shouldn't, Mr. Scotnyx," Doxonica spoke up. Everyone looked toward her. "But you should trust it when one rival is trying to bring down the other."
Everyone fell silent for a moment. "What rivals?" Heraclark finally asked.
Rik quickly said, "Mr. Scotnyx, please, give us a chance. Or at least give Ms. Enzene a chance. It was me who persuaded her to consider this situation, and she has no reason to do whatever it is you suspect. Plus, she has proven quite adept at analyzing and understanding a given device's operations with remarkable swiftness. I have trust she will be able to provide some valuable insight."
The heads turned back toward Heraclark. I almost lost them before, he thought with a sigh. But I will make sure it doesn't happen this time. "Fine," he relented. "But at no point will they be out of my sight."
"You have my word," Rik assured.
Heraclark reached into a cargo pocket of his pants and produced an envelope — containing the two blueprints he salvaged from Umberton's workshop.
Shortly, they left through the covered, glass walkway and moved into the Savvo Tower. They arrived at another set of double doors and entered a vast lab with an enormous touch screen table set in the middle.
At the other end, massive glass windows gave a sweeping view of the sprawling Savvo Headquarters, with its skyscrapers lit up like a carnival in the night. The two moons, which had shifted positions in the sky, seemed dimmer in comparison. The entrance gates were visible off to the right, proudly displaying the Savvo Corporation insignia in bright neon lights.
Doxonica sighed in relief. The lab's tranquil calm was very much welcome after the constant screams and shrieks in the infirmary.
As they approached the table, Rik touched it, making it instantly light up. He gestured some commands, and the windows abruptly turned opaque. "For some privacy," he said. "Mr. Scotnyx, if you will, please place your blueprints here."
Heraclark took the blueprints out of the envelope and placed them onto the table, side by side.
As Rik operated the table, graphics scrolled over it before it scanned the blueprints. In a second, they appeared as holograms, hovering over the table.
Everybody looked on in silence for a moment.
"Wow," Rik exclaimed.
"I have never seen anything like this before," Doxonica couldn't help but comment.
"My father designed these," Heraclark said proudly.
Doxonica realized she had not yet consented to provide her help. And yet, the more she observed the blueprints, the more eager she felt to delve inside them and crack their operations. Oh, well. I haven't taken a break in so long, she thought.
Meanwhile, Rik took out a small gadget resembling an earpiece and a gauntlet from his overcoat. Written on them was the word, 'fightsense.' He placed them on the table. "So, which one was used to make these?"
"This one." Heraclark pointed to the hologram on the left. "They had somehow acquired this blueprint before I ever got involved."
"What exactly does it do?" Rik asked.
"It makes you angry... very, very angry," Pinz said resentfully. "You don't even stop to question why. You just are."
"Tell me about it," Jayrock said as he instinctively nursed his arm.
"As you said, they called it the 'spellbinder,'" Heraclark added. "The pig... Umberton — the man who stole it from my father — claimed it can only induce anger, but it could theoretically be... 'improved' to achieve mind-control."
"Fascinating... I mean, terrifying. And the other one?" Rik inquired, stroking his chin.
"They called that one the 'augmenter.' Umberton sent a mercenary for it to the Bank of Loogmor — where I am the manager and where my father hid it," Heraclark replied. "Umberton uttered a bunch of gibberish about it. In summary, it can potentially make you stronger and invulnerable."
"Why did they even bother trying to steal this one?" Pinz wondered. "Isn't mind-control much more dangerous?"
"Arguably, yes," Jayrock replied. "But Oracle wants to create super-soldiers for Project Elemorts. And what good is mind-control if you don't have an invulnerable army to control with it?"
"You know of the project?" Rik asked, surprised.
"I do. From the same intel that alerted me to these fighters' presence in the arena," Jayrock explained.
"Interesting," Rik said curiously. "What else do you know? Your knowledge could come in handy."
"Mr. Mavis, if we could please start working on the matter at hand?" Doxonica brought herself to interrupt. "I already see some interesting circuitry in these gadgets, but I'll need Ms. Zinvor's help to figure out what effect these would have on mer biology."
"Right," Rik agreed. "Please, have at it."
For the next couple hours, Doxonica zoomed in on several parts of the blueprints, debating the operational mechanisms and the role each module had to play. She was stymied several times by the purpose of several outputs, but she had Arna explain to her what their likely impact on the nervous system could be.
"The gauntlet isn't featured in any of these blueprints, and I can't discern any effects it would have on a mer," Doxonica said, perplexed. "It merely seems to be an energy generator... of some kind."
"I did have this force field around me when I wore it," Pinz replied thoughtfully. "My opponent and the entire area was covered in it as well, and it didn't let me feel his blows. Maybe it has something to do with that?"
"Ah!" Doxonica exclaimed, glad that the mystery was solved. "It makes much more sense now."
I'll dig further into it when I get the time, Doxonica made a mental note. As the hours passed by, she found herself grasping and fluently recapitulating complex concepts she had heard today for the first time in her life.
"I feel the cure was with you all along, Heraclark," Doxonica finally declared. She forgot when exactly the first-name basis cropped up.
"What do you mean?" Heraclark inquired.
"The augmenter," Doxonica replied. "Although it was designed for other purposes, I believe it can be modified to aid the healing process in the scrambled brain regions."
"You really think so?" Heraclark asked.
"Yes. I think it could be configured to apply minute electric shocks along with a pulsatile, subcutaneous release of neurotrophic factors. We need some resources, though," Doxonica said.
"Anything you need, and I'll have it arranged," Rik assured her.
"Then, please hurry," Pinz spoke up. "Dozens of these victims' loved ones are waiting for me to inform them about their condition — and I just can't — not with them in so much agony."
"Then let's get started," Doxonica agreed.
"I never asked you formally, Ms. Enzene. Does that mean you consent for your help?" Rik asked pleasantly.
"I guess we both know the answer by now, Rik," Doxonica replied coyly.
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