The majority of people in the country had been underground for many decades due to the threat of the Viruses. Not in proper cities like Vince had understood when he was seven, though there were most likely enough people to equate to a city wide population. But instead in districts, notably grouped apart by wealth.
The sunlight of the underground was facsimile, being generated by special light powered by solar panels on the aboveground. On the days it rained on the surface it was nearly impossible to appreciate depending on the district, even with the street lights and oil lamps.
"Thought about what to get when we arrive at the marketplace?" Samantha turned to him.
"I'd really wanted a new blanket for some time now," he started.
Most buildings were made of bricks and concrete, depending on the area they did not have comfortable insulation which meant blankets and thick quilts had become the highlight purchases of the summer season in any of the marketplaces.
"The odds of getting a replacement blanket were extremely low but I had been considering it." He admitted. He didn't tell her that the new blanket was to replace the one he planned to give Ado.
"Trust you to consider something you need for a luxury item," Samantha sighed.
The marketplaces; twelve in each of the underground districts, were the equivalent of stores and shopping during any holidays could quickly go from an intriguing auction or a violent bloodbath.
Genevieve had given enough money to buy three special items for his birthday and the closest one was almost a mile away, where Samantha and Vince headed now. It was also unfortunately near the greenhouse by the first orphanage, where everything started for Vince.
"Bet those kids are your school treat you like that cause they got parents who care." Samantha scowled listening to Vince explain how his week at school went. He brought up school to avoid explaining why things sometimes disappeared from his room or the additional presence there.
"Care about how they look in the eyes of the public you mean," Vince muttered sardonically.
"Let's stop here," she grinned picking up a container of chocolate and a few other boxes. He cringed at the colorful reminder of the day he and Ado went to the garden.
"What's that other box?" He asked curiously.
"Everlasting gobstoppers." She replied shaking the box to be sure it was completely filled up and adding it to the stack.
"The Caretaker will insist that you eat some real food you know," Vince commented casually.
"I'm not buying these snacks with my money for me. I'm buying it for you," she smirked poking him sharply. He blinked as he placed the colorful box holding no doubt equally colorful candy in to his pocket.
He thought long and hard about what he intended to get and told Samantha his choice. She always went to the Marketplace so she knew where the appropriate stalls for his three chosen items were.
After he had his purchases mailed off, he and Samantha wandered the marketplace before stopping again to get something to eat before going home.
He carried most of the candy bag that he'd bought with the leftover money.
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"Do you wanna go in there? Knowing you're breaking the rules of the district?" Samantha asked, eating a piece of chocolate.
"Yeah , I think entering it today will help me,"
'I wonder how much this place has changed,' he thought.
She was referring to the stairway that led to the greenhouse. The same from when he was seven. They had went through the effort of distracting the guard, telling him a surface animal, a small cat had wandered in and was making it's way to food shops.
"No... Something... Something's off..." He muttered. He veered away just in time for the doors to blast open. Along with the black fence that blocked off the stairway.
A woman with deathly pale pallor featuring multiple layers of green eyeshadow that make her eyes look sunken in, and vines coming out of her left eye. In her mouth was a tulip and what appeared to be mint and strawberry leaves.
"Vince you have really bad luck!" Samantha remarked.
She wore a black bodysuit with green Venus flytrap patterns. Her shoes are bright pink invert heels with fangs molded onto them.
"What is it with Viruses and this greenhouse?" Vince yelled as he stumbled backwards, startling the guard who was returning.
"Alright very funny. You kids need to find another source of g-- oh God!" He yelled and fumbled for his radio.
Vince stumbled to his feet and ran, Samantha a few feet ahead of him.
"We can't lead it back to the orphanage! It's got the telltale signs of a Virus!" She yelled.
"What do we do?"
"Quickly! We'll split up!" Vince told Samantha gently pushing her in the direction of the city.
Hopefully she'd find the police.
"Are you mental?" She yelled as they turned hiding behind a garbage dumpster.
"Find the police. Say you specifically want the help of Inspe- Detective Mandarin! He knows my situation they should take him seriously!" Vince told her.
"But what could they do against a Virus?" Samantha blinked.
"Don't only the Virus Resistance have the real power and weapons to fight this?"
"Worry about that after?" He tried.
Vines with Venus flytraps for heads lunged out and impaled themselves in the wall. Both Vince and Samantha ducked. But a vine seemed to have slashed her arm. Samantha yelped in pain.
"I'm okay it just grazed me! I'll be fine with some medical attention." She assured, panting heavily. Vince hoped it was because of the running.
"I'll lure it to the old factory ward beyond the district, you remember what I said."
"Wha-" she started.
"It's okay," he said determinedly. "I have already been attacked before. I think I'll survive this," he said pulling on the vine knowing the attention that would earn him.
Then he flinched at the screech and took off running.
'I know I said I had this covered, but my mind keeps thinking: Not again!' he grimaced, flashing back to the time he was seven. His brown and green eyes wide with panic.
"Am I a magnet for these monsters?" He questioned as he begin to make a mad dash for the factory. No people should be there so he hopefully wouldn't be breaching his agreement of causing casualties.
He focused on heading towards the district limits, another tempting set of stairs leading to the surface in sight.
In a lavender crystal prison was a young woman possibly Vince's age sitting on a stone, her expression bored looking as she rested her head in the enormous sword in the ground. The weapon likely held in place by her hand, while her free arm rested in her lap.
"Andromeda! Your chance is slipping!" A voice echoed in her prison.
"Robin Yolanda...." She remembered.
"Don't try to bait me into helping you with your plot to save the world," she scorned.
"My chance is slipping? So be it," She said. Willing to remain in her glass 'prison'. Yes she would lose her chance to leave her pseudo Arcadia, a result of her pact with the Deities of the Law of Cycles. That was fine.
"But the boy being pursued now, he may not be the one you are searching for. But he can take you to the one you seek. And won't you help the Eldritch Fated humans? They look so much like -"
"Stop," she snapped. Then seemed to reflect on it for a moment.
"That person I am looking for...." She murmured softly. Her sword reflected the silhouette of herself with a man and woman about her height.
Several feet above her, Vince was dodging obstacles of broken equipment and trash as he ran. Until he tripped over some broken machinery.
"Vince!?" Ado asked surprised. He stepped out of a empty warehouse.
Vince babbled something about being surprised Ado was there then focused his attention on the Virus who grinned maliciously.
'I... I command it! I call forth the power, the power that sets me apart from others
The power I've hated til now--' Ado thought determinedly as he stretched his hand outwards. His chest hearing up with a unfamiliar energy.
"-- To save Vince!!" He yelled.
In the process it destroyed the doorway of the warehouse. But he felt relieved that the armored snake like creatures had momentarily pinned down the entity chasing his friend.
Behind him a magic circle, barely hidden away by the ground and rocks, began to shine as if following some unknown signal. If anyone has been paying attention, they would have seen Robin Yolanda raising a wooden staff over the circle.
Ado's two armored serpents begin to crush the Virus they had trapped and Vince shouts, a cry for aid that echoes through time and space.
Normally, a dark mage would answer it, bound as she was to protect the rising heroes. She too, made a pact of her own with the Deities of the Law of Cycles for such occasions.
If the call reached her she would jump at it, and her life would be better for it eight times out of ten. Usually.
But this time, this cry misses her.
A blinding light floods the less empty factory ward. Followed by the shattering of something made of crystal.