Kapitel 365: Chapter 365: A Bakery Backdrop
Knock Knock
Ares had barely recovered from the splish splash that knocked him unconscious yesterday but he was out of bed and able to receive visitors so he didn't need to shoo away whoever was visiting. There was really only one person who would come looking for him and so Ares walked over to the front door to speak to Onno at length about various matters. He was probably here regarding his brother and the water pillar enabler. The latter of which was obvious, as Onno acted as a sort of go between regarding Ares and the federation officials, but the former was going to inevitably be him asking if there was anyway to bring Hunter back. Onno cared about Hunter and Ares was an anomalous existence who, at times, felt like a God who could basically freely do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted given his fundamental champion status. Bringing back the dead wasn't an impossibility to Ares in Onno's eyes so he must have been popping around ever since yesterday in the hopes that Ares had finally woken up and could give him an answer he wanted to hear. For what it was worth, although Onno's assumption were unfounded and a little ridiculous, Ares would indeed have an answer for him to soften the blow of yesterday's events somewhat. Hunter was dead but he could maybe come back in a few million years! It night take longer than that, or it might even be quicker, but undoing this death wasn't something that could be ruled out 100% Ares opened the door and nodded to Onno with a weary smile to signify immediately it was a 'yes' but a complicated yes that needed explaining. Onno sighed and was the first to actually speak during this conversation despite a small back and forth having already silently occurred.
"I'm guessing whatever you're planning regarding Hunter had something to do with the mess yesterday after the krakyrn fight ended? The stuff with you doing your best comet impression, I mean. I'll take whatever good news I can get. If I don't have to plan that idiot Hunter's funeral then I'll feel a little better about everything that happened so suddenly and without any prior indication... Why couldn't it have been that moron Jebben that died? I would have preferred it... Hell, why couldn't Cash have died instead?! Tsk, whatever. Hunter wouldn't want me to get up in arms about it and knowing there's still a chance for him is helping me calm down. I'll admit I've been anxiously walking back and forth since yesterday so you're assurance is a relief."
Ares simply shrugged. "It could never have been Jebben or Cash that died because neither of them would have made such a sacrifice for anyone other than themselves to begin with. Also, yes, yesterday was complicated but it brought about some positive news that I'm going to need to explain to you in full from the beginning. You might want to come inside because the full run down is going to take a while..." Ares let Onno come into the building and take a seat on a spare chair while he gave an extensive and compressive lesson on souls. By the end of it, Onno had two questions but seemed to understand the general gist of things.
"Can I see Hunter and can I speak to him?" The first half of the question was to make sure Hunter was 'ok'... As ok as a soul could be anyway. The second part was for Onno to berate his maniac brother for pulling such a reckless stunt and forcing everyone to accept that the person they cared about had died a gruesome death. Speaking of, Onno wasn't giving Ares trouble for the Shock Bead thing because it wasn't his fault! Ares never told anyone to commit suicide with the sacks, or even implied it was a good idea, so he was in the clear on this one! Even he hadn't expected this level of insanity and that was coming from a revenant. Sure he'd blown himself up before but that was inside a Training Field. Ares wouldn't ever randomly detonate himself unless the potential gains from doing so were considerable. He would never use No Fear to save Red Sun, for instance, as that just seemed like unnecessary overkill. Ares could rebuild or find another town. Sure it would be a shame watching the people he cared about be rendered homeless, maybe even dead, but his own life had value too! If he started falling back on the revenant excuse constantly and allowing himself to die then his own goals would take forever to accomplish and that was not something he could afford. The destruction pillar would permit him to die occasionally, namely if it wasn't his fault, but if he became some kind of death obsessed reckless individual it would ditch him real quick for someone less mortally challenged. Anyway, Hunter clearly did not feel the same way as he viewed this Federation with enough preference and fondness to give his life for it. So no, Ares wasn't being blamed for giving the guy a tool with which he could commit such an act. There was no predicting that level of dedication!
"Can you see him?" Ares scratched his chin and fiddled around in the Blade for a while. "I guess so? His soul hasn't really taken shape yet, as its still in the early stages of forming, but I guess you can see his soul if you really want. But no, it cannot speak to you and might not ever be able to. A soul needs to be really powerful, or have existed for a long time, in order to speak usually. There night be some other traits that can enable a soul to speak or retain intelligence but, honestly, I wouldn't count on it. Hunter's soul seems to be pretty standard, and I'm not like those heaven folk who can preserve souls with utmost care, so you're just going to have be happy with this bluish, whitish blob for now." Ares whipped out the soul in question and it was exactly as described. He held it within a small zone of nothingness and it seemed content to just rest there without flying off and trying to escape anymore. It was exactly where it wanted to be so Ares kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't become a venator or something. He didn't understand that process 100% so he made sure to check in on the thing and prevent it from mutating or anything equally dodgy. If he saw signs of disaster he would immediately remove the soul from the void patch and try to figure something else out. Anyway, Onno stared at the soul for a few seconds until he got bored of it. There was really nothing to be done with the soul, and it couldn't be interacted with no matter how much he stared holes into it, so Onno just gave up. Plus, to him, it was barely even visible because he wasn't as well versed in dealing with souls as Ares now was. It was like a small flickering flame, about the size of a tennis ball, to Onno so he just gave up on trying to have any kind of communicative back and forth with it.
"Ah, can you go and show the soul to Nibbler? You know, just to explain things to it and make it feel a little better maybe?"
"What's happening with Nibbler anyway?" This was a question Ares really wanted the answer to!
"I'll be looking after it from now on so expect to see it hanging around the sect... But right now its really depressed. Its been sleeping inside its dog bed in the wreckage of Hunter's underground gadget lab. It keeps whining and crying all the time and its refused to eat or move ever since Hunter died. I'm starting to worry for its health as well but every time anyone tries talking to him he just keeps crying at them. Poor thing is miserable and can't be consoled. I think it would rather just lie there and die of loneliness than try to get over Hunter's death so you really need to go and make it feel better with the information you just told me. Honestly, that was my main concern. I miss Hunter already, sure, but I would never do what Nibbler is doing. It's a shame, but life needs to move on and I've already had a day to parse his final decision and accept it. Nibbler needs help though so I've been keeping tabs on when you woke up specifically for his sake. You don't mind having him at the sect, do you? He'll probably pester you to see the soul every now and then but he should be a good addition if overall military might is what you care about. He didn't get a chance to transform but he's a real powerhouse if he does... Although I've heard the rumours about your obsession with cute things so I don't think you need persuading..."
Ares gave a joyful nod in response but the smile quickly disappeared because imagining an unhappy Nibbler was somewhat upsetting. If Ares died and Appa did something similar then smiling like this and being happy for selfish reasons felt wrong. Nibbler was a child that just lost its adopted father so being overly excited about the situation was definitely not the kindest approach and being a bit more solemn and understanding was necessary. Hopefully Nibbler would be somewhat happier knowing there was still a chance for Hunter to return so that was going to be destination numero uno on Ares to do list. After that, Ares could worry about the Deep Blue. On the subject of which, Ares still needed to figure out who had it! Who walked away with the treasure while he was unconscious!? Who dared?! Who's balls were big enough to think they could steal from Ares!?
"I'll go see Nibbler in a bit... By tthe way, who has the Deep Blue?" Ares expected this to be common knowledge because everyone's eyes would have been on the krakyrn following Hunter's sacrifice. There was no way nobody saw who took it. Not that it really mattered, Ares would inspect literally everybody aboard the ship one by one with Omniscience and his lie detector if need be. That enabler was not escaping his grasp under any circumstances!
"You do... Or, you will in about two seconds anyway." Onno fished out the jewelled necklace in question and handed it over to Ares without so much as a single fuss raised. He didn't want it at all, likely because he knew what lengths Ares would go to to get it, and so made no effort to try and sell it to Ares or withhold it from him. Ares was his sect leader after all. Plus Ares was in charge of his brother's soul so haggling with him was a sure-fire way to screw himself over and Onno was not so obsessed with making money hand over fist he would make such a rookie mistake. "I was the first to pick it up after the krakyrn fight but there were quite a few discussions held about who should own it amongst the higher ups. Geordie and I vouched for you, along with Shold and Bort, but they were still being obstinate and took a lot of persuading... Or threats, in laymen's terms. I warned them what would happen if you woke up and were being denied possession of the Deep Blue and that seemed to shut them up well enough.
Cash did mumble something about killing you in your sleep but being a revenant probably saved you from attempted assassinations. Not that Aejaz here would have let that happen on his watch I imagine. He still had access to your destruction magic, even while you were out cold, so that was not a risk worth taking for the Federation. He's not an equivalent threat to you but even if he could only cast a weaker version of Armillary that would be sufficient to make those lot shit themselves and prevent them from trying anything funny. Up until now I held onto it but its all yours now so go have fun with it to your heart's content I guess. Oh, but one more thing. The auction lot did also kick up a fuss about ownership of the treasure but, seeing as how it belonged to the Firestarters beforehand, we all decided you had no obligation to give it back. If the auction house want to cause trouble, they were invited to take it up with you personally. I imagine they don't have the cojones needed to pick such a fight, though, so you should be in the clear. Just as a warning, however, apparently the Firestarters received the Deep Blue from someone else so, although the auction and Firestarter lot won't hassle you, the original owner might show up one day. Maybe. No guarantees but they did lose out on a lot of money and you never know who originally owned it or, better yet, why they gave it to the Firestarters in the first place."
"Hmmm." Ares had a reasonable assumption in his mind that this was the work of the torchbearer but, seeing as how he couldn't confirm or deny it, he ignored that for now and just opted to deal with whatever came his way, when it came his way. If someone came looking for his new enabler then he would deal with them as was needed. "Alright, I believe that's everything?... Actually, you wouldn't happen to know anything about mechanical reconnaissance pigeons would you? I spotted one yesterday during the soul scuffle and was hoping someone might have info on it."
Onno tapped his chin while deep in thought and eventually came up with an answer of sorts. "Maybe? I once saw a robo in Neo Gear who owned mechanical pigeons, a journalist of sorts with deep political connections, but that's about as much as I can say on the matter. It wouldn't surprise me if such a thing came out of Neo Gear even if it had nothing to do with that particular robo, though, so that'd be your best bet if you're dead set on getting answers. You've already declared your intent to go there at some point so you can investigate it yourself later."
Ares nodded but he didn't see the need to investigate deeper as he pretty much had all the information he needed to piece together what had actually happened over the course of this journey, give or take, regarding the Torchbearer's goals. Though Ares didn't know it, elsewhere in Neo Gear, a conversation was taking place that near enough confirmed all his deductions and summed up things quite nicely. The conversation was taking place between two hooded robos sitting opposite one another with a small table between them. The building they were in was like a bakery of sorts but catered to robos and sold oil coffee as well as bread with small nuts and bolts in it. Normally the shop was closed during the day, what with it being run by a neo droid lest it wanted trouble with aggravated and punkish locals, but there were still these two robos inside chatting away about various matters despite the 'closed' sign hanging on the front door. The one furthest from the door peered out the windows and made sure no one was eavesdropping before taking the current conversation, one about various political matters, in a very different direction as the store shutters lowered automatically with a wave of his hand.
"When will it return?"
The hooded robo opposite sat perfectly still for a few seconds as small lights lit up on its chest before giving a response. "Which one?"
"The Federation pigeon. I'm curious about how matters there played out what with that Ares kid aboard."
"ETA ten seconds..." The second robo removed its hood, now that the shutters had given these two full privacy, and unveiled its bird cage head in full. It was a neo droid from the neck down, with all sorts of technological breakthroughs in communication dotted across its body, but the head was an old-timey bird cage that looked more like an antique than anything modern. Though this robo wasn't a member of the scraps, he was a result of their handiwork and had to live life like this. Such a body did complicate daily life, and his eyes were actually somewhere amongst the blinking lights, knobs, and dials on his chest, but this form did come with certain benefits... A mechanical pigeon, one that Ares had seen just yesterday in fact, came flying in through the chimney and perched itself within the robo's cage head. It sat neatly atop a small metal branch and connected its feet to the data recovery point to transmit its visual recordings into the robo it belonged to. This individual was known as K.G and was a famous journalist that had the ability to find even the most well buried of secrets thanks to his information network that consisted of numerous mechanical spy birds. They would stalk various famous figures from the skies above and come back with boat loads of information that could be easily transmitted through the cage and into K.G's marvel of a technological body.
K.G's body was an excellent combination between gear folk and neo droid that enabled the existence of a phenomenal scout and served as living proof that the scrap's ideals weren't necessarily all talk and had some merit to them. Rather, in recent years, there had been many scraps that were extraordinarily talented despite their heritage being a muddied mix match. K.G, Slick, and one other individual known only as 'Switch', all of whom were extremely talented in their respective fields of journalism, guardian, or hitman respectively. As for K.G, however, he was more than just some mere journalist. That was but a front for his real dealings with politicians to uncover all sorts of dirt on political rivals. There was none better than him at his job so he was relied on frequently by both sides of the political spectrum but his real allegiance lay elsewhere. Not with the scraps, not with the neo droids, and not with the gear folk either. Journalism and political subterfuge were all just convenient fronts to keep tabs on what everyone was up to so as to keep people distracted from the real lord and master of all robos, biding his time in the underbelly of neo gear, the Torchbearer. K.G's real efforts, currently, were directed towards keeping an eye out on the various plans Torchbearer had set in motion to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was happening. As of right now, the only plan, the success of which was in question, was the one underway on the Federation and the result of it all was about to be made clear. K.G downloaded the data from the pigeon, which had obediently been observing all of Ares' antics for a good while now, and set it free after so it could go and recharge before returning to its duties.
"It would appear our Federation plan has failed."
"Which one?" The other hooded robo, one of K.G's superiors, wanted a clear picture so he could report to Torchbearer without missing a single detail.
"Both. The Firestarters were barely even useful at all..."
"Of course not." The hooded robo interrupted. "They were plan B from the start. Their only use was to hold onto the Deep Blue and attract the krakyrn. Nobody ever expected them to fulfil their assigned role from the start. Still. We went to all that effort to recover the Deep Blue only for plan A, that krakyrn monstrosity, to fail in destroying the Federation... This Ares kid is stronger than we gave him credit for and that's saying a lot considering how much we tried to avoid him. We didn't commit to any plans in Central Land specifically to avoid his direct intervention and yet he stumbled across our machinations elsewhere anyhow. What poor luck for us. This will partially affect our overall goal moving forward too... He's headed to Xasca, right?"
"That is correct. He will almost definitely get involved with the quarry and the Riddlemyd at this rate... But does it even really matter? Our goal was to sink the Federation, giving the Xascans nowhere left to run but towards Isasz when the quarry detonation was imminent and unavoidable. Our plan from the very beginning was to corral them all into Isasz and have the plan there finish off millions of humans in one fell swoop. Without the Federation sinking, surely most Xascans would opt to flee the quarry explosion that way instead of Isasz? Or, rather, will the Xasca plan even pan out if Ares is there to prevent it? Isn't this all rather concerning?"
"Yes and no. Realistically, these plans are all just for convenience's sake. We will remove all non-mechanical lifeforms from Sheryashka at some point. We're just trying to thin them out now before launching the final push for full eradication. Not geocoding the Federation and all of Xasca is a time waste but not a problem for Torchbearer. He's the strongest thing in this domain currently, bar none, and can wipe them out in passing when the time is right. It adds a bit more work to our plate down the line but doesn't actually affect our current schedule at all. Also, Ares can't be everywhere at once. Even if he solves the Federation, Xasca, and Isasz issues we still have plenty more dotted around Sheryashka. Akarala, for instance, ought to be a massive one that will single-handedly wipe out half of this domain at the bare minimum. He has no reason to go there, surely, so we're fine to just sit back and see how things pan out without getting directly involved. If we leave too many traces then this could become an international incident and having everyone band together, globally, would cause us a great many issues. Just let the plans take their natural course and hopefully we can silently turn the tides from the shadows before actually announcing our presence and goals when we can no longer be stopped. Torchbearer is strong but he's only one robot so we need to set the stage carefully for him and not earn the ire of the rest of the world too soon.
First and foremost, the most important plan is the one we're brewing here. Though these people..." The hooded robo gestured all around to signify he was talking about the robos of Neo Gear. ".. Are all technically our brethren, they need to see the light first and be reconstructed with our will in mind. This upcoming civil war is the plan that truly matters and everything else will fall in line afterwards regardless of Ares' intervention. Keep on doing what you already were and don't change course. Keep observing the various countries and handing out the encrypted letters to anyone you think will be useful to our cause here in Neo Gear. Keep them within Neo Gear, though, as we aren't taking on any real collaborators outside of this country. The Firestarters were pawns and nothing more and the same is true of anyone else we're 'working' with. Our allegiances are to ourselves and that is all."
"Understood." K.G threw his hood back on and left shortly after receiving his orders for the time being. He took a back exit and shuffled through some alleyways whilst thinking he was safe from any and all observers. He was a bit of a talented stalker himself so he was fairly confident there was no one around and, to be fair, he was half correct. There was nobody in his immediate vicinity but he, unbeknownst to him, was in fact being watched by an individual named 'Switch'. Describing Switch was somewhat of a fallacious task, due to bipolar nature actually affecting his aesthetic but, currently at least, he was adjusting the scope on his sniper cane while taking a sip of tea. He fiddled with his monocle, twirled his metal moustache and took a deep sigh as he watched K.G depart from the bakery. Switch was a scrap in name but didn't always necessarily play ball with them and had a complicated relationship with that particular group. Sometimes their goals aligned with his and he worked for them, sometimes they didn't and he outright ignored them.
Switch was perhaps the only person aware of the Torchbearer in this entire country and so he'd taken it upon himself to keep a watchful eye on these lot. There was admittedly nothing he could do about them on his own but this Ares individual might be helpful. He was ruining their plans abroad and even had plans to visit this place in the future so maybe he could be a convenient ally for sorting this mess out. The sniper wielding gentleman gear folk wanted to invite Ares for a spot of tea and discuss the matter politely but his other half hidden within himself, the shotgun wielding neo droid with a strong mafioso vibe, wanted to tie Ares up and throw him to the fishes until he accepted whatever arrangement he had in mind. The gear folk wanted to take things slow, the neo droid mobster wanted to rush headfirst into things. Maybe those personality traits were a result of their magic affiliations to the time pillar respectively, or maybe it was just inherent in their programming, but either way they were keen on meeting Ares at some point. Until then, they would just keep doing their part as a hitman and taking out various troublesome targets that were doing more harm to this country than good. It was time for Switch's name, as well as their victim's, to appear on the front page of newspapers again as a high profile crook was embezzling funds for selfish reasons and he was next on Switch's to do list. Nobody would ever know of this crook's dealings other than Switch, and he was just seen as a maniacal killer on the loose, but that was acceptable.
Switch wasn't in it for the fame; in fact he didn't even really have any reason for his vigilantism at all. It just felt natural to him, like it was his calling in life, and that was a bug in his programming that he couldn't override. The scraps had really done a number on his internal wiring at birth and it couldn't be undone so this was just the life he was going to live forever more. At least he still had some 'free will' and could choose to disassociate with the scraps of his own volition. That was something. Anyway, Ares wasn't here right now and so he would just have to wait to deal with the Torchbearer lot. Ares was currently entering Hunter's wrecked shop and searching for a downtrodden sharkdog, looking to console him with a soul and some comforting words of sympathy. Poor little sharkdog. maybe some pets would cheer him up! They'd certainly cheer Ares up at least...
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein