09/26/3122 YDB – September 26th, 3122
As Archer Griffen walked his way down the street, he felt his phone vibrate. Then again. Archer confused pulled out his phone and saw that there were already two missed calls from Zoe, or rather ‘Soothsayer-2’. A third call was currently being sent his way and Archer accepted it.
“Hello, hello.” Archer said in greeting. He was then met with a flurry of profanity. After what felt like nearly a minute, Zoe finally cooled down, and she talked in a far more even voice.
“Archer, have you seen the news?”
“Oh, no just walking my way to school.” Archer answered.
“Please check it.” Zoe said.
“Why?” Archer asked coyly.
“You know damn well why.” She seethed.
“Well, oh look there’s a massive LED screen on a building.” Archer said as he casually glanced at it, “Oh wow there’s breaking news.”
“I will kill you.” Zoe said as Archer took a moment to watch.
“Coming up at eight, a large operation run by the Canolia gang had been raided last night, there seems to be a new vigilante roaming the cities, the Raggedstars have made it to the playoffs, and does Lady Silverstreak have a new lover? The photos imply so. More at eight.” A news anchor said before a commercial played.
“That’s some interesting development. Who knew that superhero gossip was so popular?” Archer said, “Who is Lady Silverstreak again?”
“Archer.” Zoe spat with enough venom to kill an elephant.
“Okay, okay.” Archer finally relented, “Seriously though, what’s wrong with what I did anyways? You knew I was going.”
“I thought you were going to do a stealth mission! You made yourself enemy number one! Not just with a gang but this place has a law for licensed heroes! Anyone who sees you gallivanting in the night will try and catch you.”
“So I’ll avoid being caught. Simple.”
“Archer.”
“Hey, isn’t this the job?”
“Yeah, the job that adults do. You’re too young to have to deal with all of this! You’re supposed to just deal with school problems! Not become a full-fledged vigilante!”
“You knew that was never going to happen.”
“Yeah, well you’re making my job harder too. Just stay safe and be smart about things.”
“I always do.”
“I doubt it.” Zoe said as she hung up the phone.
With a shrug Archer stashed his phone away and continued on his way to school. It was Friday today and tomorrow was the weekend. After school he and the others will help train up Luna, on Sunday he was going to the tower with Rosaline.
That meant Saturday was free. What was he going to do? As he pondered, he made his way to the front gate and was greeted by a smiling Esme. As she checked his name down and saw that he was following the school dress code, she let him in.
“Hey Archer.” She added as she was checking his name.
“Yes?”
“Cassia was one of the people who tried to kidnap Rosaline correct?” She said quietly. Archer only answered with a half nod and she continued, “She met with Rosaline today.”
“Huh.” Archer said, tilting his head as he pondered for a second, “Thank you for the info.” Archer said as he headed into the school.
The rest of the day passed normally as lunch rolled around. Archer made his usual route of avoiding any of the B-ranks that wanted to mess with him for being close to Luna. It was honestly a bit confusing, Luna hangs out with Ran more than she does with him during school.
Oh well, if he could draw their ire for Ran that was fine with him. As he got his plate of goat curry and naan bread, he felt the presence of someone sitting down next to him. Julia Ming, the A-rank girl with a long black-haired ponytail.
“Isn’t this bad for you?” Archer said casually.
“What, hanging out with an F-rank?” Julia said as she twirled her pasta onto her fork, “I do that with Luna already.”
“Yeah, but Luna’s actually trying to get better.”
“That’s not necessarily a good thing.” Julia pointed out.
“True, but she’s a girl and I’m a boy.”
“And?”
“And, your ex still likes her and hates that she doesn’t hate me. That and I am sort of still known as the most incompetent one in my class. Also Annaxia doesn’t like Luna and by proxy, me.” Archer explained.
“Not enough to stop me from sitting next to you during lunch.”
“What about rumours?”
“I don’t really care.”
“Hmm.” Archer said as he dipped some more of his naan, “Don’t you usually hang out with other friends?”
“Yeah, Trista is sick and Renice is busy with a project. Esme is making the rounds and Luna is busy with her classmates.” Julia said.
“So I’m plan C? Or am I D?”
“Oh, definitely D.”
“Wow, that really hurts.”
“Well it’s the truth.” Julia said smiling, “You like being a loner don’t you?”
“I like to think.” Archer said with a shrug.
“You know you can go to others for help right?” Julia said taking a sip of her drink.
“I know.”
“But you don’t really do you? Not even back home do you?” Julia said as she smirked, seeing Archer clam up, “People like you Archer, they want to be your friend. So let them and let them help you.”
“Will that help raise my rank from plan D?”
“It might.”
“I’ll keep that in mind then.” Archer said as he spooned some more curry into his mouth.
“By the way.” Julia added.
“Yeah?”
“They say there’s a vigilante running loose.” Julia said, “Took down an entire gang.” She said giving Archer a pointed look.
“Hmm, well things might be a bit more chaotic.” Archer said with a shrug.
“You can handle this right?”
“I know when I’m beat.” Archer lied.
“I hope so.” She said nodding her head, “So… I heard people were scared of this vigilante.”
“Well, something coming at you in the dark will no doubt be frightening.”
“I don’t doubt it.” She said recalling Archer’s grin when he snapped the wolf familiar’s jaw.
“It’s not that bad.” Archer said looking a bit offended.
“As if.” Julia said with a chuckle, “By the way Archer, I’m planning on starting a club for item crafting. I’m planning on it being open for everyone.”
“It would be risky, a lot of people will try and stop you.” Archer said.
“Less if Ran wins.” Julia said.
“True.” Archer said nodding as the two continued to talk during their lunch.
***
“Hey!” Jarold Walker, the S-rank first-year student that was part of the student council shouted loudly down the halls. Looking agitated he quickly marched his way over to the person he called out.
“Uh, yeah?” Alex Murphy, a timid F-rank said looking nervous, “C-can I help you?” He stammered out.
“You were here during lunch right?”
“Uh, y-yeah. Did something happen?” Alex said looking horrified that an S-rank was acknowledging him at all.
“Did you see anyone?”
“What?”
“Did. You. See. Anyone.” Jarold said.
“Uh…” Alex said looking lost.
“Jarold.” Mercy Cowen the long baby-blue hair called out to her fellow student council member. She and Esme seemed to have been investigating another area.
“What?”
“He has no clue, now stop wasting time. We found something.” She said beckoning him over.
“What is it?” Jarold said quickly forgetting about the shivering Alex, and made his way to the two others. Alex quickly scrambled his way back to his class.
“Esme said that someone broke into one of the storage rooms.” Mercy said.
“This has something to do with the intruder? People try to steal stuff all the time.” Jarold asked unconvinced.
“There’s a student uniform missing.” Esme answered causing Jarold to give pause.
“Someone thinks they can hide as a student? Without any real ID?”
“It’s not hard. Including none-hero curriculum students, they number in the thousands. They can easily move around most of the school.” Mercy said.
“And here I thought it was just some brat that was trying to screw around.” Jarold said with an aggravated sigh.
“Why would they even try something like this?” Mercy wondered aloud.
“They’re after something.” Esme offered.
“Urgh, where the hell is Pontus? He pushed this stupid thing onto us. Lazy asshole.” Jarold complained.
“If there is someone pretending to be a student then forget Pontus or even other second years, we would need to get the third years involved.” Mercy said.
“They won’t help until something actually happens.” Jarold grumbled, “Has anything happened yet?”
“It’s only been twenty minutes since we noticed the entry and if they were blatantly suspicious, we would already be made aware.” Esme said troubled.
“Okay, we'll tell the rest of the first-year student council members, you warn the discipline committee and we’ll keep an eye out for now.” Mercy said.
“Right, I’ll see if I can get some information.” Esme said. Archer has class right now. Wait, it’s Friday he would be in the dungeons. Esme thought. She felt a bit guilty having to rope him into this, but then again he was here to help solve these problems. Saying her goodbyes to the others she rushed off to the school dungeon.
***
Archer Griffen was crouched facing a wall with a small knife in his hand. He was playing around with the dungeon by etching into the walls.
“Hmm.” Archer said as he watched his flower that he carved slowly vanish and the rock wall become unblemished, “I wonder what happens if the dungeon core was damaged then?”
“Hey, Archer.” A familiar voice called out to him, Rosaline. She approached him, carrying her large backpack and dressed in some rudimentary gear. But she came alone.
“Huh, aren’t you supposed to be with your brother?” Archer asked.
“He wanted me to go back up and get some soda for the group. I just saw you as I made my way back up and wanted to say hi.” Rosaline said.
“That’s very kind of you. Though he seems surprisingly relaxed today to allow the group’s supply carrier to leave.”
“We didn’t go too deep this time. Since with the extra money, he’s been able to relax a bit.”
“You told him about our agreement?”
“No, it’s just less people are hounding for money now. I’m sure he suspects something but right now he’s enjoying the peace.”
“Alright, well just be careful when it comes to money.” Archer said wondering if he should start looking more into the Bents history. Something about the whole situation set off alarm bells for him. It felt like a ticking time bomb that would set off in the near future.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been watching over my brother for over a year now.” Rosaline said as she carefully looked at Archer, “What have you been up to?”
“Just trying to pass the time.” Archer said, “Say, you know someone named Cassia?”
“Oh yeah, she talked to me this morning.” Rosaline said nodding her head.
“Really, I was told that she tends to be very standoffish. I was trying to see if I could talk to her.” Archer said.
“Yeah I heard that too, she was very nice to me. But…” Rosaline paused remembering something.
“Something wrong?”
“Well, it was weird how much she was looking after me. It was almost like she owed me something.”
“That is strange. She ever say why?”
“Not really, just that it was right for her. But then she disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“She kept looking over her shoulder and then suddenly gone during lunch.”
“Hmm.” Archer looked thoughtful. There was another person he needed to keep an eye on, yet it seemed that they had their own issues that they were taking care of.
“Why did you want to see her anyways?”
“It’s work-related.” Archer said.
“Do I want to know?”
“Probably not.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“No idea right now.”
“Then I wish you luck Archer.” Rosaline said, “Now I need to get back to my brother before the drinks get warm.”
“Stay safe.”
“I should be saying that to you.” Rosaline said leaving the area to descend down to the next level.
Archer then turned the opposite way once Rosaline was out of earshot, “So what are you doing here Esme?”
“How did you know?” She said surprised revealing herself from the corner she had hidden herself in.
“Sort of need to be good at this stuff for my job.”
“Right, so how is Rosaline? Everything fine with her?”
“For the most part. Right now at least. So anything interesting happening for you?”
“We think someone broke into the school and stole a school uniform.”
“When was this?” Archer said frowning.
“During lunch.”
“Make sense, people are moving in and out during that time, but how do you know for sure it was an intruder?”
“Someone entered through the forest.”
“Right, the forest where you need a permit to be in right?”
“Yes, it triggered an alarm when someone entered without a permit.”
“Wait, so there’s an alarm system in a forest that contains dangerous plants and animals but not for the school itself?” Archer said with a chuckle.
“It was installed by one of the teachers. They had a particular love for the forest, if it wasn’t for that we would have no idea.” Esme replied.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm? What does your ‘hmm’ mean?”
“I might have a lead.” Archer said, “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Does it have to do with Rosaline?” Esme asked, “You have a look like two things clicked together.”
“Not Rosaline no, but Cassia, maybe.”
“The person who might be a hitwoman? What’s she have to do with this?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” Archer said as he began to head in the direction of the surface.
“Where are you going?”
“Ditching class, don’t rat me out!”
