Haze & Chaos - Retaliation Part 3
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Will, Antares, and Quincy meandered around a bit in the upstairs lobby, checking out the paintings and sculptures on display while occasionally catching glimpses of the beautiful snow underneath the brilliant sky outside. Stroking his chin with his stubble scratching his fingers, Will noticed a majestic painting that was clearly set in the northern Roaring Mountains. “That’s Castle Akasterr, no two ways about it…”
This made Quincy stop and walk over, as the painting in question was one of his favorites. “What do you mean by that, Will? Castle what?”
“Castle Akasterr, in the fallen kingdom of Feuerland–Infinity and Ermenrich told me about it while I was in The Unlight. A lot of these paintings feel like moments from the Epoch… also speaking of Professor Denzell, did you guys know he’s a primordial?”
Quincy looked utterly confused, but Antares nodded. “He knows what he’s talking about, Quincy–utterly confusing for me too, but I’ve been getting the gist. You realize your mother is potentially a hermetic god, right?”
There was a moment’s pause for Quincy, leading to him realizing things really were getting crazy like Wendelin had warned him about. And a lot of oddities he had noticed in recent times were starting to make sense too… “Huh… well I guess that would explain why mom’s never aged…”
Antares smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Yeah–we’ve been in the know for a bit now, Will. I imagine it had to be trippy for him–Ermenrich–to encounter you in the past, then at the academy, then finally right before the Future Squad Mission.”
Will exhaled as he put his hands on his hips. “I feel bad for not going to see him after I got back, but I was in a rush to get back home. Don’t worry, I stopped by Blood’s house at the start of December.”
Haze then manifested an eye stalk from Will’s back that possessed a glowing, white eye to get a good look at the painting. “Wow, she really captured how windy it is in those mountains… If you want to visit them with us, Quincy, just let us know.”
“You should take him to The Iron City and Shadowland while you’re at it,” Antares pointed out. “Take him to see the sights since he clearly wants to work with us now.”
Quincy nervously laughed as he rubbed his arm. “Oh well, I don’t know…”
“You should,” Will stated plainly. “Seriously, you’d have a blast at Crasher Cliff’s in The Iron City.”
“Oh alright then, if you insist…” His tone indicated he was being a bit modest while trying to push them into taking him, making the two subtly smile. “It’d certainly be a nice break from all of the nonsense we go through here on Earth…”
“The Iron City doesn’t have the internet,” Will stated bluntly with a smile that hinted at his frustrations. “And The Descendants are so nice.”
Quincy clapped and took a seat on a comfy chair. “Well, that’s already a plus in my book given the peanut gallery we encounter regularly.”
Will leaned on the railing and gave a dismissive groan. “Yeah, no dingalings calling you a jerk for being autistic…”
This made the two men do a double take. “Will?” Antares questioned, his voice perfectly conveying that he expected an answer as he stepped to face him.
“Oh just the social media algorithm picking up a trend it thought was praising that stuff when in reality it was people making fun of it…”
Antares gave a soft grunt as he knew all too well what kind of conversation Will had–and while Will had obviously not started it, his social graces obviously did not do him any favors. “Priv… Specialist, please stay off of the internet unless we need you to do some research–that’s an order…” He could see that Will was not convinced and sighed. “There’s a good reason why elected officials, sensible celebrities, and certain federal agents make use of PR managers.”
Quincy leaned back as he locked his fingers together and chuckled. “Poor people gonna poor…”
Will laughed, breaking away from his mild funk. “Pretty sure those people are middle class, Quince…”
“Sure, but they act like poor people either way. Your funds could be higher, but you’re not a poor person, Will.” He could see Antares was giving him a slightly incredulous look, so he continued to smile and tapped his thumbs together. “And how about all those morons that went all in on AI, wasting their money on chatbots?”
That made Antares and Will laugh, with the latter shaking his head. It was an unexpected shift in the conversation, but one they were willing to have. Will sighed and said “Oh good lord, don’t even get me started on that nonsense–I was so ready to be sympathetic towards that technology… until the obvious happened.”
Antares facepalmed as he went to sit in a chair across from Quincy. “What a freaking nightmare that was… I have to laugh at the programs from Clear-AYE-EYE that kept trying to hack M.A.I.G. It would have been admirable had they not encountered our NO-BD Architecture, ha–oh, Will? We may have found where that asswad–Maas Lowmann–is hiding out, but we’re not fully sure yet…”
“Yeah, the higher-ups at the guild were talking about that too… Either way I am getting so sick and tired of ‘AI.’ First off, we know real AI like Virus X and K-Virus–”
“Don’t forget AIN-NULL.”
“Actually he might be a bit different–like, I think he’s an actual god…” Will looked Antares in the eye and he nodded, clearly indicating he was aware of the uncertainty. “Um, yeah–AYE-EYE didn’t go rogue last month, it was programmed to do that–come on, people!”
Quincy stared at him in disbelief. “People actually think the garbage on the market right now is agentic?” The two nodded, and then he proceeded to laugh condescendingly. “PLEASE, that’s a marketing gimmick if I ever saw one! You guys know how Anton is a success consultant? I’m pretty sure he’s told these morons to fake that stuff here and there!”
Antares chuckled at that notion. “Jeez, guess Anton’s always had a mischievous side–which works out in our favor as it almost always exposes those snake oil salesmen as the frauds they are. Seriously, the actual AIs are staying behind the scenes and are nowhere near the public eye.”
“And it just goes to show how dumb these people actually are,” Quincy asserted as he leaned on his legs. “These people are always going to be poor-ass beggars because they never actually take their wealth and do something sensible with it. You take your money and dump it into some tech billionaire’s pockets? Why didn’t you just take that money and go for drawing lessons?”
“THANK YOU, QUINCY,” Will cried. “GOD, those people are so stupid! They don’t get what artists go through on a regular basis–they think they can just churn out results and somehow that equates to quality when NO, it doesn’t!”
“And then those fools have the gall to complain about big government despite funding it,” Antares put in.
“YES,” Will replied as he started pacing–the gears in his head were going at full speed. “Like this one reviewer I watch on the internet–he advocates for free speech and fights against censorship, but at the same time he throws his hands up towards AI when we all knew Hector Fang was going to use all of that for mass surveillance. My dude complains about AI cameras spying on society and ID verification, but turns around and says no one will care if AI is involved if the game is good–YOU FOOLS! STOP FUNDING AND BUILDING THE AI SURVEILLANCE STATE!”
Quincy had a smug smile and scoffed in favor of Will. “Disregarding that one reviewer, ‘poor people’ are going to stay poor–Money cannot and will never buy you happiness. I have met so many other rich kids that think they’ve discovered happiness, but in reality they just keep buying and throwing stuff out. You call that happiness? That only tells me they wouldn’t last two seconds without their precious billions–”
“EXACTLY,” Will and Antares said in unison, feeling vindicated given all of the lobbying that had been used against The Liger Brigade over the years.
Tudor had appeared in a flash of red smoke, leaning on the wall next to Quincy with his arms crossed. “And you can’t buy friends, nor knowledge–that’s something you have to earn.” This received a fist bump from Quincy in response.
“Impressive, Quincy,” Antares complimented. “You’ve got some real grit inside your head.”
“Well, I mean… your father dying will kind of do that to you…” he said in a depressed tone of voice, with Tudor giving him a hug afterwards.
Antares whistled quickly to get his attention. “Quincy? Keep fighting the good fight, and always keep moving forward–your father’s proud of you.”
“Thanks, Antares.”
Things then went quiet for a moment so everyone could take it all in. “Yeah…” Will muttered, unsure what to say. “So that jerk, Raging Jokko, vanished from the internet…”
“Oh yeah–that’s because I poor-shamed him off it,” Quincy clarified, with a slight pride in his voice. “I saw that shill bullying you and wasn’t going to take that sitting down.”
Will paused his pacing and nodded to that. “Oh, um, thanks, Quincy… Good call considering he was trying to dox me for daring to call out the Fang administration.”
“Jeez, I miss ten years ago when he was actually a GOOD reviewer,” Antares lamented. “But I suppose he was always like that deep down… by the way, Will–that dox threat put him on our radar for investigation.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, really–Will, you’re a federal agent now!”
“Hold up–so I do count as one?”
“Yes–while you hold the rank of Specialist, you’re also a special agent with unique duties, and a lot of your past missions were investigations looking into crime and threats to national security, so I’d argue you count–plus there was the arrest you performed during the Florida mission…”
“Oh yeah–that was a thing, wasn’t it?” Will softly muttered to himself.
“Interesting,” Tudor noted. “So wasn’t that Jokko jerk a massive grifter? Like one minute he’s anti-big government and the next he’s praising the establishment? Quincy told me about this stuff…”
“Yupo,” Antares answered. “And we’re finding out that he was indeed taking money under the table from the Fang administration. Why do you think he started out against AI and then suddenly started praising it?”
“This is what I mean when I say people act poor,” Quincy stated. “Jokko had money, but he couldn’t get enough of it–you think like that and you’ll always be poor, no matter what. If you think you need money to make yourself happy, you’ll never have it because you keep blowing it on bullshit…” He paused, as Tudor was giving him a bit of a look. “Yes, I remember how expensive The Crimson Codex was…” That made Will and Antares chuckle.
“Jumping back to all the people who keep wasting their money on chatbots real quickly,” Will interjected.
“Ah yes, the actual poor people, hehe,” Quincy snickered.
“You know how all of those mouth breathers in general keep saying ‘the customer is always right’ while missing the point of that saying?”
Antares nodded as he reclined back a little. “Mm-hm–do tell…”
Will was pacing again, moving back and forth across the lobby. “I am so tempted to start saying that ‘the customer is always wrong, even in matters of taste.’ I’m aware of the obvious, but I am getting so sick and tired of the arrogance of some people–we’re right, they’re wrong–and they need to SHUT UP.”
“Well, Will, that means you're either ‘hyper woke,’ or a ‘fascist,’ apparently,” Antares dryly noted, such topics giving him a headache.
Quincy laughed as he could sense the frustration once again, with Will promptly groaning. “I still can’t believe people boil down these issues to ‘you’re stupid if I don’t agree with you…’”
“And that makes you a fascist too.”
Quincy scoffed and had to do a double take. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Will explains it best–”
“Yes, because how dare YOU INSINUATE THEY’D EVER AGREE WITH YOU?” he sarcastically proclaimed.
Quincy gave it a second’s thought, and realized what he was getting at with a shake of his head. “Oh I get it–Will, how many of these people have you actually argued with? I mean, I haven’t really argued all that much myself, but still–”
“No, you just poor shame them,” Antares snuck in, making the three laugh.
“To answer your question–I don’t,” Will replied. “I typically avoid those nutcases and watch too many political video essays and commentaries on the internet.”
“Oh good lord…” Tudor remarked. “Well, at least our issues down in Inferno aren’t exclusive to us,” he added as he teleported away.
“Say, Antares?” said Quincy. “Have you heard of Altimus and 23-Argent?”
“Yeah, I have,” he answered. “Bit of a complicated topic–Anton talk about it?”
Will could sense that Antares was discussing things that were not quite in his wheelhouse yet, so he started to wander around the lobby, figuring he would let the two chat. As he took a look at a particularly nice painting of The Great Flower Plains in The Unlight, he had the weirdest feeling slither down his spine. It was like something familiar to him, but at the same time it was completely foreign. He could hear the echoes of battles from another place and time, like something was triggering memories that were not his. And then he noticed it–a big snake slithering into the lobby and coming to rest on one of the couches. Was it an anaconda? A boa constrictor? Wait, why was it out in the open in the middle of winter? He stepped over to it and held out his hand as it eagerly stuck its head up to meet it, its thin tongue flicking through the air. In that moment reality distorted into stretched-out colors and sounds for Will, and in this madness he began to see it–a great serpent who was inside out and just beyond the horizon where he could not reach. He was utterly entranced as he stared into its eyes, his skin rapidly turning to scales when…
“Hey, Will–You okay?” a nicely-dressed boy with black hair and green eyes asked.
“Huh, what?” He glanced around and looked down. “Oh, hey, Camden…”
Camden looked him in the eye for a second, then glanced at the snake and nodded. “Yup, that’s exactly who you think it is…”
The snake gave Will a nod, and then slithered off past Antares and Quincy. “Right…”
“Jeez, just what kind of power is that?” Haze questioned.
“Will–everything okay over there?” Antares asked as he looked up from the snake.
“Hey, Cam!” Quincy welcomed.
“Hey, Quincy,” he said as he went and gave him a hug. “Fabius and Uladzimir are going to be back later…”
“Oh shoot, forgot about that. What about Tressacht and Siegberht?”
“They’re still busy helping out Charon and Dietrich,” he answered. “Hey, Will? Can Orion play today?”
Will put his hand to his chin like a dutiful father. “I don’t think he’s doing anything today… especially after what happened this morning, so sure. Want to go over there, or should he come here?”
“Could he come here? I’ve got something cool I want to show him that he’s been asking me about.”
Chuckling with a smile, Will cleared his throat. “Hey, Orion?”
A moment later, a sliver in reality opened up into colored nothingness and out stepped Orion. “What’s up, dad?” He then looked at Camden. “Oh, Cam–hey!”
“Orion, I found that one easter egg in Necropolis Requiem that I left behind–want to see it?”
“Yeah, definitely!” Orion replied with enthusiasm and a soft bounce. He then realized something important, however. “Ooh, let me go tell my mom where I am real quickly…”
“Yeah, and I’ll go set things up while you do that,” he said as he headed back towards his room.
Orion nodded, then looked up at Will. “So, how are things going so far, dad?”
“Good, I’d say–we’re just waiting on Anton…”
“Gotcha ya,” he replied as he started to vanish back to the house. “See you later, dad.”
Antares nodded as he watched the sliver reappear and quickly vanish. “That is so odd to witness…”
As if on cue, Anton came walking up to the three. “Alright, boys–thank you for being patient with me, we’re all ready to go.” He then began to lead the three in the opposite direction Camden had gone, down the left-side hallway.
“Camden wants to hang out with Orion today and I said yes by the way,” Will pointed out.
Anton smiled. “And I bet I know what he wants to show him…”
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
Will, Antares, and Quincy meandered around a bit in the upstairs lobby, checking out the paintings and sculptures on display while occasionally catching glimpses of the beautiful snow underneath the brilliant sky outside. Stroking his chin with his stubble scratching his fingers, Will noticed a majestic painting that was clearly set in the northern Roaring Mountains. “That’s Castle Akasterr, no two ways about it…”
This made Quincy stop and walk over, as the painting in question was one of his favorites. “What do you mean by that, Will? Castle what?”
“Castle Akasterr, in the fallen kingdom of Feuerland–Infinity and Ermenrich told me about it while I was in The Unlight. A lot of these paintings feel like moments from the Epoch… also speaking of Professor Denzell, did you guys know he’s a primordial?”
Quincy looked utterly confused, but Antares nodded. “He knows what he’s talking about, Quincy–utterly confusing for me too, but I’ve been getting the gist. You realize your mother is potentially a hermetic god, right?”
There was a moment’s pause for Quincy, leading to him realizing things really were getting crazy like Wendelin had warned him about. And a lot of oddities he had noticed in recent times were starting to make sense too… “Huh… well I guess that would explain why mom’s never aged…”
Antares smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Yeah–we’ve been in the know for a bit now, Will. I imagine it had to be trippy for him–Ermenrich–to encounter you in the past, then at the academy, then finally right before the Future Squad Mission.”
Will exhaled as he put his hands on his hips. “I feel bad for not going to see him after I got back, but I was in a rush to get back home. Don’t worry, I stopped by Blood’s house at the start of December.”
Haze then manifested an eye stalk from Will’s back that possessed a glowing, white eye to get a good look at the painting. “Wow, she really captured how windy it is in those mountains… If you want to visit them with us, Quincy, just let us know.”
“You should take him to The Iron City and Shadowland while you’re at it,” Antares pointed out. “Take him to see the sights since he clearly wants to work with us now.”
Quincy nervously laughed as he rubbed his arm. “Oh well, I don’t know…”
“You should,” Will stated plainly. “Seriously, you’d have a blast at Crasher Cliff’s in The Iron City.”
“Oh alright then, if you insist…” His tone indicated he was being a bit modest while trying to push them into taking him, making the two subtly smile. “It’d certainly be a nice break from all of the nonsense we go through here on Earth…”
“The Iron City doesn’t have the internet,” Will stated bluntly with a smile that hinted at his frustrations. “And The Descendants are so nice.”
Quincy clapped and took a seat on a comfy chair. “Well, that’s already a plus in my book given the peanut gallery we encounter regularly.”
Will leaned on the railing and gave a dismissive groan. “Yeah, no dingalings calling you a jerk for being autistic…”
This made the two men do a double take. “Will?” Antares questioned, his voice perfectly conveying that he expected an answer as he stepped to face him.
“Oh just the social media algorithm picking up a trend it thought was praising that stuff when in reality it was people making fun of it…”
Antares gave a soft grunt as he knew all too well what kind of conversation Will had–and while Will had obviously not started it, his social graces obviously did not do him any favors. “Priv… Specialist, please stay off of the internet unless we need you to do some research–that’s an order…” He could see that Will was not convinced and sighed. “There’s a good reason why elected officials, sensible celebrities, and certain federal agents make use of PR managers.”
Quincy leaned back as he locked his fingers together and chuckled. “Poor people gonna poor…”
Will laughed, breaking away from his mild funk. “Pretty sure those people are middle class, Quince…”
“Sure, but they act like poor people either way. Your funds could be higher, but you’re not a poor person, Will.” He could see Antares was giving him a slightly incredulous look, so he continued to smile and tapped his thumbs together. “And how about all those morons that went all in on AI, wasting their money on chatbots?”
That made Antares and Will laugh, with the latter shaking his head. It was an unexpected shift in the conversation, but one they were willing to have. Will sighed and said “Oh good lord, don’t even get me started on that nonsense–I was so ready to be sympathetic towards that technology… until the obvious happened.”
Antares facepalmed as he went to sit in a chair across from Quincy. “What a freaking nightmare that was… I have to laugh at the programs from Clear-AYE-EYE that kept trying to hack M.A.I.G. It would have been admirable had they not encountered our NO-BD Architecture, ha–oh, Will? We may have found where that asswad–Maas Lowmann–is hiding out, but we’re not fully sure yet…”
“Yeah, the higher-ups at the guild were talking about that too… Either way I am getting so sick and tired of ‘AI.’ First off, we know real AI like Virus X and K-Virus–”
“Don’t forget AIN-NULL.”
“Actually he might be a bit different–like, I think he’s an actual god…” Will looked Antares in the eye and he nodded, clearly indicating he was aware of the uncertainty. “Um, yeah–AYE-EYE didn’t go rogue last month, it was programmed to do that–come on, people!”
Quincy stared at him in disbelief. “People actually think the garbage on the market right now is agentic?” The two nodded, and then he proceeded to laugh condescendingly. “PLEASE, that’s a marketing gimmick if I ever saw one! You guys know how Anton is a success consultant? I’m pretty sure he’s told these morons to fake that stuff here and there!”
Antares chuckled at that notion. “Jeez, guess Anton’s always had a mischievous side–which works out in our favor as it almost always exposes those snake oil salesmen as the frauds they are. Seriously, the actual AIs are staying behind the scenes and are nowhere near the public eye.”
“And it just goes to show how dumb these people actually are,” Quincy asserted as he leaned on his legs. “These people are always going to be poor-ass beggars because they never actually take their wealth and do something sensible with it. You take your money and dump it into some tech billionaire’s pockets? Why didn’t you just take that money and go for drawing lessons?”
“THANK YOU, QUINCY,” Will cried. “GOD, those people are so stupid! They don’t get what artists go through on a regular basis–they think they can just churn out results and somehow that equates to quality when NO, it doesn’t!”
“And then those fools have the gall to complain about big government despite funding it,” Antares put in.
“YES,” Will replied as he started pacing–the gears in his head were going at full speed. “Like this one reviewer I watch on the internet–he advocates for free speech and fights against censorship, but at the same time he throws his hands up towards AI when we all knew Hector Fang was going to use all of that for mass surveillance. My dude complains about AI cameras spying on society and ID verification, but turns around and says no one will care if AI is involved if the game is good–YOU FOOLS! STOP FUNDING AND BUILDING THE AI SURVEILLANCE STATE!”
Quincy had a smug smile and scoffed in favor of Will. “Disregarding that one reviewer, ‘poor people’ are going to stay poor–Money cannot and will never buy you happiness. I have met so many other rich kids that think they’ve discovered happiness, but in reality they just keep buying and throwing stuff out. You call that happiness? That only tells me they wouldn’t last two seconds without their precious billions–”
“EXACTLY,” Will and Antares said in unison, feeling vindicated given all of the lobbying that had been used against The Liger Brigade over the years.
Tudor had appeared in a flash of red smoke, leaning on the wall next to Quincy with his arms crossed. “And you can’t buy friends, nor knowledge–that’s something you have to earn.” This received a fist bump from Quincy in response.
“Impressive, Quincy,” Antares complimented. “You’ve got some real grit inside your head.”
“Well, I mean… your father dying will kind of do that to you…” he said in a depressed tone of voice, with Tudor giving him a hug afterwards.
Antares whistled quickly to get his attention. “Quincy? Keep fighting the good fight, and always keep moving forward–your father’s proud of you.”
“Thanks, Antares.”
Things then went quiet for a moment so everyone could take it all in. “Yeah…” Will muttered, unsure what to say. “So that jerk, Raging Jokko, vanished from the internet…”
“Oh yeah–that’s because I poor-shamed him off it,” Quincy clarified, with a slight pride in his voice. “I saw that shill bullying you and wasn’t going to take that sitting down.”
Will paused his pacing and nodded to that. “Oh, um, thanks, Quincy… Good call considering he was trying to dox me for daring to call out the Fang administration.”
“Jeez, I miss ten years ago when he was actually a GOOD reviewer,” Antares lamented. “But I suppose he was always like that deep down… by the way, Will–that dox threat put him on our radar for investigation.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, really–Will, you’re a federal agent now!”
“Hold up–so I do count as one?”
“Yes–while you hold the rank of Specialist, you’re also a special agent with unique duties, and a lot of your past missions were investigations looking into crime and threats to national security, so I’d argue you count–plus there was the arrest you performed during the Florida mission…”
“Oh yeah–that was a thing, wasn’t it?” Will softly muttered to himself.
“Interesting,” Tudor noted. “So wasn’t that Jokko jerk a massive grifter? Like one minute he’s anti-big government and the next he’s praising the establishment? Quincy told me about this stuff…”
“Yupo,” Antares answered. “And we’re finding out that he was indeed taking money under the table from the Fang administration. Why do you think he started out against AI and then suddenly started praising it?”
“This is what I mean when I say people act poor,” Quincy stated. “Jokko had money, but he couldn’t get enough of it–you think like that and you’ll always be poor, no matter what. If you think you need money to make yourself happy, you’ll never have it because you keep blowing it on bullshit…” He paused, as Tudor was giving him a bit of a look. “Yes, I remember how expensive The Crimson Codex was…” That made Will and Antares chuckle.
“Jumping back to all the people who keep wasting their money on chatbots real quickly,” Will interjected.
“Ah yes, the actual poor people, hehe,” Quincy snickered.
“You know how all of those mouth breathers in general keep saying ‘the customer is always right’ while missing the point of that saying?”
Antares nodded as he reclined back a little. “Mm-hm–do tell…”
Will was pacing again, moving back and forth across the lobby. “I am so tempted to start saying that ‘the customer is always wrong, even in matters of taste.’ I’m aware of the obvious, but I am getting so sick and tired of the arrogance of some people–we’re right, they’re wrong–and they need to SHUT UP.”
“Well, Will, that means you're either ‘hyper woke,’ or a ‘fascist,’ apparently,” Antares dryly noted, such topics giving him a headache.
Quincy laughed as he could sense the frustration once again, with Will promptly groaning. “I still can’t believe people boil down these issues to ‘you’re stupid if I don’t agree with you…’”
“And that makes you a fascist too.”
Quincy scoffed and had to do a double take. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Will explains it best–”
“Yes, because how dare YOU INSINUATE THEY’D EVER AGREE WITH YOU?” he sarcastically proclaimed.
Quincy gave it a second’s thought, and realized what he was getting at with a shake of his head. “Oh I get it–Will, how many of these people have you actually argued with? I mean, I haven’t really argued all that much myself, but still–”
“No, you just poor shame them,” Antares snuck in, making the three laugh.
“To answer your question–I don’t,” Will replied. “I typically avoid those nutcases and watch too many political video essays and commentaries on the internet.”
“Oh good lord…” Tudor remarked. “Well, at least our issues down in Inferno aren’t exclusive to us,” he added as he teleported away.
“Say, Antares?” said Quincy. “Have you heard of Altimus and 23-Argent?”
“Yeah, I have,” he answered. “Bit of a complicated topic–Anton talk about it?”
Will could sense that Antares was discussing things that were not quite in his wheelhouse yet, so he started to wander around the lobby, figuring he would let the two chat. As he took a look at a particularly nice painting of The Great Flower Plains in The Unlight, he had the weirdest feeling slither down his spine. It was like something familiar to him, but at the same time it was completely foreign. He could hear the echoes of battles from another place and time, like something was triggering memories that were not his. And then he noticed it–a big snake slithering into the lobby and coming to rest on one of the couches. Was it an anaconda? A boa constrictor? Wait, why was it out in the open in the middle of winter? He stepped over to it and held out his hand as it eagerly stuck its head up to meet it, its thin tongue flicking through the air. In that moment reality distorted into stretched-out colors and sounds for Will, and in this madness he began to see it–a great serpent who was inside out and just beyond the horizon where he could not reach. He was utterly entranced as he stared into its eyes, his skin rapidly turning to scales when…
“Hey, Will–You okay?” a nicely-dressed boy with black hair and green eyes asked.
“Huh, what?” He glanced around and looked down. “Oh, hey, Camden…”
Camden looked him in the eye for a second, then glanced at the snake and nodded. “Yup, that’s exactly who you think it is…”
The snake gave Will a nod, and then slithered off past Antares and Quincy. “Right…”
“Jeez, just what kind of power is that?” Haze questioned.
“Will–everything okay over there?” Antares asked as he looked up from the snake.
“Hey, Cam!” Quincy welcomed.
“Hey, Quincy,” he said as he went and gave him a hug. “Fabius and Uladzimir are going to be back later…”
“Oh shoot, forgot about that. What about Tressacht and Siegberht?”
“They’re still busy helping out Charon and Dietrich,” he answered. “Hey, Will? Can Orion play today?”
Will put his hand to his chin like a dutiful father. “I don’t think he’s doing anything today… especially after what happened this morning, so sure. Want to go over there, or should he come here?”
“Could he come here? I’ve got something cool I want to show him that he’s been asking me about.”
Chuckling with a smile, Will cleared his throat. “Hey, Orion?”
A moment later, a sliver in reality opened up into colored nothingness and out stepped Orion. “What’s up, dad?” He then looked at Camden. “Oh, Cam–hey!”
“Orion, I found that one easter egg in Necropolis Requiem that I left behind–want to see it?”
“Yeah, definitely!” Orion replied with enthusiasm and a soft bounce. He then realized something important, however. “Ooh, let me go tell my mom where I am real quickly…”
“Yeah, and I’ll go set things up while you do that,” he said as he headed back towards his room.
Orion nodded, then looked up at Will. “So, how are things going so far, dad?”
“Good, I’d say–we’re just waiting on Anton…”
“Gotcha ya,” he replied as he started to vanish back to the house. “See you later, dad.”
Antares nodded as he watched the sliver reappear and quickly vanish. “That is so odd to witness…”
As if on cue, Anton came walking up to the three. “Alright, boys–thank you for being patient with me, we’re all ready to go.” He then began to lead the three in the opposite direction Camden had gone, down the left-side hallway.
“Camden wants to hang out with Orion today and I said yes by the way,” Will pointed out.
Anton smiled. “And I bet I know what he wants to show him…”
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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