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Chapter 83: Gathering Help

Author: Arya

The Beast was moving rapidly towards the Islands carrying an injured Jason, exhausted James, excited Kevin, still Sophie and frowning Diane.

The reason behind the excitement of Kevin was the mysterious attack and its source, which was also the reason behind the frown on Daine’s face. She wasn’t able to satisfy his curiosity.

Ultimately he had to stop when he noticed the irritation from Diane. 

Diane too had questions to ask the others, but she prioritized Jason and James’s health waiting for them to reach the Island first.

In order to not destabilize the situation, the Beast was moving at a relative low output.

All throughout the journey there was a heavy silence and tension on the Beast. 

The outline of the Island became visible as it reached the coast. 

The contrast between the black heavy walls mounted with metallic structures, cannons, tubes filled with purple cosmic energy and an ancient gothic style mansion with a fountain in the center seemed to create an image of a safe asylum away from the wildness of the huge trees and the darkness of the world.

The Beast entered the range and with a rattle of chains and metallic gears, the green patch of courtyard bisected itself, like a huge beast opening its jaws to devour its prey.

The roaring engines of the Beast powered by the latest Electro-magnetic propulsion system slowed down to a minimum as it slowly entered the underground landing bay, placing itself gently on the open space.

-Swish-

With a swishing noise the cargo doors open, Kevin and Diane carrying a-now unconscious Jason on a stretcher, Sophie supporting James, exited the Beast. 

Lights located on the ceilings guided their path as they moved hurriedly towards the med bay.

Thankfully, the areas like the med bay and the living quarters were moved back to the B-2 level, in order to facilitate easy and efficient access.

Elevator door opens and they are greeted by the view of a spacious room with seven capsules and multiple wires and tubes attached to them.

Lucifer could be seen undergoing treatment in one of the capsules. He lay there dressed in a skin tight outfit and various runes flickering with purple hue dancing on his body.

“Hurry, place him gently on the capsule bed.” Diane said, urging Kevin and also while pointing the other capsule bed to Sophie and James.

Gently laying both of them on the capsule bed, a voice resounded.

[Beginning diagnosis]

It was Aria.

A scan of blue light filled with minute runes ran past both James and Jason.

[Diagnosis complete]

[Six broken ribs, severe damage to the internal organs, tissue fracture and an acute blood loss detected in vice-captain]

[Minute muscle fractures due to excess pressure and a severely exhausted situation detected in Uncle James]

[Administering appropriate treatment]

Along with it, the capsule shut itself as many small runes started moving inside.

“How long until Lucifer’s treatment?” Diane asked Aria.

[6 hours and 20 minutes]

Turning back towards Sophie and Kevin, she spoke.

“Let’s take rest till Lucifer heals, he will explain everything to you.” 

Her eyes gazed deep at Kevin’s coldly, making him nod his head in fright.

Deep inside the base on a level deeper than B-6 was a huge space filled with all sorts of glittering light, metallic parts, wires, tubes. This was the lowest level of the base where the main body of Aria was located. A lot had changed since its creation. 

Six hours later, Kevin, Sophie and Diane were gathered in the med bay observing the capsule where Lucifer was located. 

After the elapsed time, the capsule opened gently.

Ah. It seems I overworked myself again.

Lucifer opened his eyes as he thought to himself. To his surprise he felt being gazed, upon moving his head he locked on the trio. 

“Do not stare at this handsome face for long or else you might fall in love.” He spoke with a neutral tone.

-Peh-

Kevin almost ended up spitting blood after listening to him.

“His head seems to be working fine.” Sophie spoke to Diane who in return nodded with affirmation.

“Man for one moment I forgot how troublesome it is talking to him.” Kevin adjusted himself while shrugging his shoulders.

Lucifer looked around and found Jason and James in the adjacent capsules.

He frowned and asked with a serious expression.

“Did something happen?”

Kevin narrated everything that had happened so far with their mission.

Lucifer took a deep breath after he was finished.

“I see, so this is what happened. Serves them right, these brutes with a dinosaur brain, no wonder you suffered a loss.” He said donning his spectacles.

“Actually it wasn’t entirely their fault. It was because of my family issues that they ended up injured.” Kevin said, gritting his teeth with an expression full of guilt.

Lucifer approached Kevin and patted his shoulders, Kevin for once thought Lucifer was comforting him, Sophie and Diane were also shocked by this action, but what came next was a reversal.

“Do not take it to the heart. You wouldn’t have been able to change anything, after all if they possess dinosaur brains, yours is non-existential and combining it with your combat sense! It’s a miracle that you aren’t in one of those capsules.” 

For Kevin, Lucifer’s action seemed like a cupid’s arrow, but his words turned that arrow into a deadly attack which shattered his heart into pieces.

“Hey, enough! Stop!” Sophie spoke as she hurried towards Kevin, consoling his now broken heart.

Lucifer chuckled lightly and looked at Diane.

“What about you, how was your trip?”

“It went fine.” Diane replied coldly.

“Let me know the details. After all we have time, plus for now I do not want to overwork my treasured brain and I am hungry.” Lucifer said nonchalantly.

Everyone moved towards the living quarters and gathered in the dining area. 

Sophie excused herself saying she would prepare food for everyone, Kevin and Lucifer took a seat in front of Diane urging her to begin.

*************

After Jason, Kevin and James left for their mission with the League of Traders, Sophie and Diane headed towards another location. 

According to Lucifer if the Luther family could leave a message for Kevin, then there was a chance that Oracle would have left a message too.

This thought had been bothering the sisters a lot, Oracle was their family and before the Reboot they did leave a warning message for them.

Taking a normal copter transport, the sisters reached an uninhabited island somewhere closer to the pre-world country of USA. 

The internal communication system of Oracle worked like a security safe. A message would be delivered to their main server located on the Ford class carrier, such a message if deemed worthy would be dumped in every remote server they had and those servers would be disconnected from the internet afterwards. This acted like a deposit of information.

The uninhabited island was home to one such facility. The facility required access codes, biometrics to be unlocked. Once a month one of the upper executives would approach the facility and perform maintenance. The task of establishing a secure connection to the main server was automated with a limited time window hard enough for any other system to notice.

Being the head of the Oracle, Diane had the highest authority and was able to access the facility.

Accessing the server she was blasted with a heavy amount of data which flooded her eyes. Filtering the data with the last known entry, she at last found what she was looking for.

The latest entry seemed to be almost a year ago and the message was simple.

[Under attack. Sustained heavy damage. Heading towards the nearest shipyard for repairs.]

Diane looked at Sophie, their eyes meeting. They could feel the joy in each other’s eyes.

Attached to the message was the current location of the carrier. 

With an elevated mood, the sisters returned to the base.

Lucifer pondered over the message as he spoke fiddling with the world map being displayed on the screen with a marker pointing to the location mentioned in the message.

“If their current location seems right then the nearest shipyard they would have access to would be the Naval yard located here.”

Saying so he pointed at a location near to the south-eastern location of the North American continent.

“But there are about 13 such locations in this region. Also the area is now the base of operations of the Mercenary League. If you want to find them, you should head there. Take help of those people, they might know more about it. There could also be a possibility that they were working in the Mercenary League, though I doubt it.”

Soon, Diane and Sophie packed their things and left for the Mercenary League. In order to not expose their identity they were not equipped with advanced weaponry but they carried their cold weapons with them.

Alighting near a location close to the current Mercenary League base of operations, they took the remainder of the journey on foot. 

The base of operations of the Mercenary League was located in the capital of the pre-world USA, Washington DC.

But unlike other surviving cities this one differed a lot.