Mission: Damsel's Date

"Alien? My ex did say my legs are out of this world." The bartender snickered a bit, amused at her own little joke. There was a hint of pride as well, she was a woman confident about her body, though way less confident on her ability of getting the attention of the people she likes.

As for her impressions on Weelo, he seemed very friendly and if she had to guess, carefree as well as he was currently in a seat labeled for someone else. She simply eyed the seat for a moment in silence before returning her attention to the racer, he seemed shocked and expected an answer from her about the whole deal with Forget.

"Yeah, Irvine summed it up, whatever that goth did it brought out our Personas, i didn't thought much of it at first but considering everyone else is worried and shocked, well... and a race would be pretty cool too..." The girl scratched her cheek while giving a sheepish smile.

Two newcomers soon burst into the room. One was a blue man and the other a pink haired girl... and Weelo said they were the weird ones...Well, Irvine is, after all he is walking around with just a jacket and pants. She just watched quietly and somewhat amused at their antics, sometimes barely containing her snickers and chuckles at the situation. The Shadow was already handling the situation, no reason to butt in.

“Well shit..." Weelo shook his head and felt a wave of nausea wash over him. The citizens of Determination grew quiet as they listened to Irvine's recounting of the events. Outside the booth the roar of the crowd grew louder and more frantic. The muffled sounds of the race's announcement would be all but drowned out by the roar of the racers' engines.  "This... This is heavy man. I told Spei to come to let me know you guys arrived, give you guys a chance to check out the garages first. Didn't think it would put anyone out like that"

For a moment, Weelo listened to the sounds of the crowd outside and to the call of the Accelerators below. "Forget... And the rest of team Black Rider showed up about a month ago. Right when the preliminary's for the next Egocup started now that I think about it... They started cleaning up the prelims and climbed up to the top seed position overnight. Like they were like... Made of speed or something! I'd be had pressed to think of a single team that got that far that quickly! Even Blue Streak lost a few races at the start, but not Black Rider! So freaken fresh man!"

“Weelo, please contain yourself...” Ride stepped forward  placing a monolithic hand on Weelo's shoulder to attempt to calm the smaller man from his fanaticism. "What Weelo is attempting to convey is Black Rider's meteoric rise was unusual to say the least. However, had they simply been greater then any other racers it would merely be an issue of an uninteresting Grand Prix, however... Perhaps..." Ride cast his gaze out over the  race track as the racers lined up at the starting line.“It may be easier for you to see then to explain... Observe.”


The crowd's excitement reached a fever pitch as the racers prepared to begin the race. Forget took point for team Black Rider, with Discard close behind him. The large large black armored wolf that took up the rear easily dwarfed both men, standing at lest ten feet tall and twice as long. To the seekers observing from the stands, should any of them have... exceptional sight, they would be able to see that Forget's eyes were not on the track, his companions, or even his opponents, but instead they were focused on the booth where they all sat, a large toothy smirk crossed his face as he waved to the crowd.


Almost immediately Team Wild Style took off to an early lead, leaving Black Rider in their dust. The crowd's ecstatic cheers filled the arena with bombastic excitement as the racers approached the fist turn, Wild Style enjoying a strong lead over all members of Back Rider. However, as the racers approached the second straight away, the large armored wolf let loose a loud, reverberating and dissonant howl as a line of what looked like a thick black liquid shot forward from it's shadow. The line quickly overtook one of the Wild Style racers, the one piloting the large mechanical dinosaur, and sprouted a tall spike of black ice from beneath, skewering it from below, running it through and lifting it up for all to see like a head impaled upon a pike. The rest of the racers quickly passed this one by as the phantom form of their Accelerator dissipated, and the woman who had been piloting it, fell limply to the ground. A group of paramedics quickly rushed the scene and carried the poor woman away on a stretcher, yet the race continued.

Round the next bend, and as Black Rider began to gain on the remaining two members of Wild Style, the Wolf Shaped Accelerator turned it's head towards where Discard was sure to be, and fired a beam of sparking electricity from it's mouth in a wave that would surely decimate the horsemen. However Discard simply raised his shield to intercept the blast and waited. Once the attack connected the entire arena would be bathed in a shining bright light, and for a moment all were blinded by it's brilliance. However once the light faded all that had changed... was Discard's position as he had come right next to the Wolf shaped Accelerator and cleaved its head clean from it's body, his blade coated in a black flame that seemed to absorb the Accelerator as he cut it. The wolf shaped racer fell to the hard pavement below and skidded to a halt some few meters off the track, and once again, the racers flew past it without a second thought. The Accelerator faded away, and like his companion before him, the pilot was carried away on a stretcher.

Thus all that was left was the single Wild Style racer piloting the lion shaped Accelerator, and Black Rider. In half a lap, two thirds of Wild Style had been eliminated from the race. The final racer Pulled ahead, rallying their determination and took the first lap. As the pack approached the first corner for the second lap, Forget broke from the group and forced himself to catch up with the final Wild Style Racer by planting explosions behind him and boosting himself with the flames. The Wild Style racer swiped at him with their accelerator's massive golden claws. Forget allowed the swipe to take his accelerator out from under him as he leaped onto the back of the massive white lion. Even over the roar of the crowd and of the accelerators below, the Seekers could hear his twisted cackle as he planted his sawn off at the base of the Lion's neck and began to fire. The massive accelerator lost control and spun out under the agressive onslaught, allowing the rest of Black Rider to pass it by.

As the wounded accelerator struggled to stand, Forget, who had been thrown from it's back in the crash, staggered to his feet and raised a hand above his head. In it, a massive ball of red and black flames formed. His cackling laughter reached a fever pitch as he brought the ball of destruction down on the crippled accelerator. The crowd's roar became deafening as the massive explosion there after left an equally large crater in the middle of the track. In the center lay the unmoving body of the final Wild Style Racer.


"Those racers, Wild Style, appear simply injured, but I can assure you..." Momo's calm voice cut through the thick silence of the box. She placed a hand on the glass and watched as down below Black Rider took their victory lap. "They are very much dead... We are unsure of how, but after each race with Black Rider, the opposing team all perish. There are no signs of physical injury, or of toxins or poison. They simply cease to be. As if their very souls have been ripped from their forms."

“The public at large don't know and frankly they don't need to... not like there's anything they could do about it anyway... Damn it!" Weelo slammed his fist into the glass divider, a loud thunk reverberated through the small box.“You guys escaped with your lives..."

"Gods..." F'Xiong whispered as he brought a smoky hand to his face.  Damsel stood speechless as she watched the celebration below hands clutched tightly together over her heart as she came to terms with what she had just witnessed.

Irvine gripped Momo's seat tight. The way each of the racers had been taken out was gruesome enough, but to hear that each and every one of them was dead...


He smiled, but it was icy cold, expression seeming to plot just exactly how to return the suffering that had been inflicted here sevenfold unto the ones who first called it down. "You know, you three...just how normal is this? The executions couldn't be any more blatant, but every one of those people is cheering along, roaring their approval as people die before their eyes. Sure, it's pretty obvious that nobody else has died the way every one of their opponents have. The way the spirit rippers have ended all of them certainly isn't obvious to the crowd, even though from where I'm sitting, it really should be. So I have to ask all of you - is this normal? Beheading, impalement, and devastation all - is this just a quirk of theirs, or does everyone do this and people walk away from it?"

The shadows lash and writhe in the room, not just Irvine's, but the dark silhouttes of every person and thing in the room expanding and malforming. "And for that matter...what if we can do the same? What if whatever he's done to us has shaped us as well, to surface at a terrible moment while we still don't know how any of this works?"

"Can we kill like them?"

"Could we kill the reapers? The bastards that lay claim to others' lives and deaths?"

Watching that race filled the young woman with discomfort but at the same time a sense of relief. In one hand it was terrible that they would kill someone over a competition, it deeply disgusted her that someone would even do such a thing, on the other she just dodged a bullet by being dragged away by the others and not staying around Forget for too long. She would quickly come to terms with it, having witnessed much death back in her world. That also explained Spei's Pale face. The possibility she might die after having raced Forget didn't do much to her emotional state however, were not for those weird shrooms she consumed she'd be dead by now, this would only haste the process for a couple years.

"...I'm not sure if that's the right course of action. Though even if we were going to do that, first we must figure out how they do it." The girl sighed, Irvine was starting to show a rather violent and vindictive side, not something she expected. "Are you sure we aren't going to slowly die? They could be using some form of... magic? Curse? Eh, whatever. We can't let this happen again, if we stand around shocked their kill count will just keep increasing." That last bit was an attempt to motivate both F'xiong and Damsel.

"So uhm... Who's their next opponent?"

Weelo's gaze narrowed to a glare as he took in Irvine's words. The cool and relaxed demeanor that Weelo had radiated sense the group had arrived was gone, replaced with a cool agitation and tense aura that was directed squarely at Irvine at the moment.“The Ego Grand Prix has always been a dangerous sport, and it's always involved combat in one way or another but no one in the history of the sport has ever died!...and officially that record still holds true." Weelo stepped away from the window and took a few calming, cleansing breaths before returning to his seat and plopping down in it with a withered sigh. “Officially all of Black Rider's opponents are recovering from injury. Not even their families know the truth. The Commissioners thought letting the public know would cause a panic... After what happened last time I actually agree."

Ride seemed to shift uncomfortably at that, though only slightly. If the group was not paying attention to the large grey man, they likely would not have seen it."I would not worry for your own health." Momo spoke up to Blake's concerns. The young racer pulled a small device that resembled a smart phone from her skirt, and with a few swipes began to read skim through what would look like medical sheets if someone was looking over her shoulder. "The effect of what is currently being called Rider Sickness are almost immediate and occur in three phases. First the body grows cold and looses coloration of the skin. Then, in the second phase, the body undergoes severer convulsions during which a thick black liquid is ejected from all facial orifices. This phase lasts from anywhere between ten and twenty minutes, after which the patient progresses to stage three, a complete and total shut down of all bodily function. No treatment has proven to stop the effects, however Accelerator based healing spells seem to slow it's progress slightly. All tests on the black liquid have returned negative." Momo's monotone, almost robotic voice read off the symptoms of Rider sickness with a detached boredom that could border on apathetic. "Were you suffering from Rider Sickness you would surely already be in stage two. As for their next opponent..."

“It's Blue Streak... Us." Weelo shook his head and let out a low sigh as he tried to relax in his seat.“All other teams have dropped out of the Ego Grand Prix. All of em say it's just not safe. Wild Style was the last of the teams to stick it out. The final cup race will be a one on one bout between Blue Streak and Black Rider. There's a few more qualifiers scheduled but... no one left to race."

“We of team Blue Streak will deal with these demons, as Blue Streak always does.” Ride turned to Lucian, allowing the man's words to come to an end before continuing. “This is none of your concern Junction Racers. It was pertinent to inform you of the danger our negligence put you in, however your involvement in this world and it's people ends with the trade negotiations. Determination has had enough interference from the heavens...”

"Bu-" Damsel started, stepping forward only to be silenced by F'Xiong's arm barring her path.

"We understand how difficult this must be for you all. According to current estimates Junction will be remaining on Determination for a while longer, if need be the trade negotiations could be pushed back for your convenience." F'Xiong's words were calculated and rehearsed, to the point there he almost stumbled over the word "Determination", as if he had said this very same phrase dozens if not hundreds of times in the past with different names in that spot.

Irvine seems to recoil at Lucian's words, visibly shocked out of his vindictive haze as awareness returns to his features and the shadows calm. He facepalms as red eyes form in his shadow to stare down Lucian, as if disappointed at the turn of events. "...Forget's what's fucking wrong with me. I've already said he dredged up things that I'd rather never know again. Guess what that was." As the black colouring to his skin continues to recede, the fibres of his clothes seem to start to grow and knit together again, slowly reforming its original state of repair. "Guess I can't shut the box again so easily."

Irvine bore the sudden intensity from Weelo as if it were nothing, listening silently as each of them spoke. Only when F'Xiong spoke did he finally act, black shadow wrapping around the head of the man to blind him to the world. "You done with the bullshit from on high, blind man? This isn't some act of nature or something. People. Are. Dying." His gaze flicks to Ride. "This isn't just trade. It's not going to be just trade unless Forget loses interest, and I don't see that happening. Even if it started here, do you really think he plans to let it end here? Because with someone like that, that's a ridiculous idea." Irvine's teeth grit as he looks out the window again. "He's going to keep killing people. The deaths he causes will be known eventually. And no matter whether you win that race intact or not, he's not going to stop til someone makes him. So, by all means, tell us it isn't our problem. But while he's still able to hop a ride with us, you can Forget about us believing that."



"Say, Weelo! Got a couple questions!" Powering through the weariness with false glee and loathing, he traced the outline of a wolf in the air, filling it in to make a floating black silhouette. "Since we never saw them, who's reaper number three? And second...just what exactly do you mean by after what happened last time, huh?"

"Won't people start asking questions when they stop seeing them in races? The audience might miss, but their families and friends certainly will eventually." She place her index finger over her chin, curious about how they would cover that up in the long run. They couldn't keep the facade forever and all would come crashing down on their heads. "Wouldn't it be easier to come clean with the public and halt the event for proper investigation? Excuse me if that sounds dumb to you guys, i'm not used to Determination's culture." To her it was the logical thing to do but maybe this race was extremely important to them for some cultural reason, or maybe an angry car god would strike them down if they didn't.

Pinky assured both her and Irvine were safe yet again, it seems the disease would have manifested by now. She went on to describe a bit more, which was useful information. Blake instinctively bit her lower lip when the news that Blue Streak was going to race them, and neither the races themselves nor F'Xiong were keen on letting Junction people getting involved. They weren't really wrong, they were just doing diplomatic job but there was one last thing on her mind...

"Hm... Is there a risk of something like that getting into Junction?" The bartender asked.

“A black… liquid?” Lucian asked, far too well aware of the implication of such a thing. Back in Permanence, such a substance had emanated from the Avatars Gaia had taken over. If Alice’s reports were to be trusted, then there were other entities suffering from the same unfortunate tragedy under similar conditions wherever Junction went. Alleged words rung deep in Lucian’s mind…


“Hey, Damsel.” Lucian whispered to his superior. “Is there any legal binding preventing us from sharing our knowledge of other worlds? If we’re not, I think I know what might make Weelo change his mind.”

There were a variety of circumstances under which the black liquid seemed to be involved, but they all had traits in common that all pointed back to one possibility; that the black liquid was a tool of control, possibly given to the enemies of Junction by a third, hostile party that means Junction harm.

“If we win they'll stop... They have to. That's just how it works!" Weelo looked to Irvine with a mix of confusion and anger. As if his questioning of the legitimacy of his plan to simply beat Black Rider at their own game and save the day was in and of itself ludicrous and confounding. This slight dumbfounding and rage was compounded by Irvine's sudden assault on F'Xiong, who responded with panic and screams which made Irvine's lecture to the man a lost cause. Someday, maybe in the far off future, F'xiong may become used to all this Seeker garbage, today is not that day.

"You must understand, it was not our decision." Momo slowly wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to calm her nerves. Despite her cool exterior, her muted emotions raged from within. Irvine's tirade and frankly good points were not helping the issue. "It was decided by the governing bodies of the Ego Racing Association to with hold knowledge of the incidents on the grounds that should the information become public the races would surely be terminated. It is still unknown how the murders take place or even if Black Rider is solely responsible for them. Regardless it would spell the end for the up coming Ego Grand Prix. Perhaps it is different where you come from, but for our people this would be simply unacceptable."

“The people of Determination are proud and strong, surely even if the treachery was found the offenders would likely be tried by race in the Grand Prix regardless.” Ride said his focus now turning towards Irvine as the man asked his questions.“The members of Black Rider aside from Forget are Discard, the man riding the strange four-legged creature., and Treasure, the large mechanical beast. Only Forget has ever been interviewed or spoken on behalf of his team... As for the events of 'last time'... Suffice to say that the specifics are of no importance, only that the panic and lost faith of the populace have only now begun to heal...” Ride, having said his piece quietly made his way to the door he had broken on his way in and took his leave.“Weelo, Momo, finish here and meet me at the track. We race in three days... unless someone else steps forward and qualifies we will be all that remains. I will inform Kylo....”

The room would suddenly feel much larger and emptier without the wall of a man standing  in the center. Both Weelo and Momo seemed at a loss with Ride's words and sudden exit. However, with F'Xiong still fighting to see and no longer able to silence her, Damsel stepped forward, determined to make her piece heard."Irvine and Blake are right to worry, so long as Junction is here there's a chance that whatever is causing this will get on Junction. That makes it our problem." Damsel smiled a warm and heartfelt grin as she took Weelo's hand in her own, only furthering the man's confusion. “And as Far as I know there's no rule about giving away Junction's secrets Lucy. Go for it!”

Is it bad he found F'Xiong's screaming funny?
...well, the answer was yes, but did this asshole really count?

Irvine just gives Weelo a flat look. "No it isn't. Unless you're saying whoever you pulled this on is just like Forget, gleeful murder and all - no it isn't."

Similarly, he gives Ride a look that can only be translated as 'Seriously?' when told their solution to dealing with someone who has been murdering people in races is to put them in another race. "And racing has any relation to one's innocence or guilt...how?"

Life springs to Irvine's face at the mix of Damsel enthusiastically advocating giving away Junction secrets, and F'Xiong's protests about the whole thing. "I don't know, sounds like an idea to me. You gonna listen to Smoky? He doesn't even have a face right now."

Life fades away again at Lucian's explanation.
"...so that's what was going on there."
He gives a hard look to his shadow, which salutes back at him with red eyes. Then to Weelo and Momo, before closing his eyes and gritting his teeth. "...as much as I don't want to be involved with that thing, it's there now, and it'd be selfish to not at least try and help with it. So, you two." His yellow eyes open once more to fix on the pair. "Since that seems to be the way you solve everything around here, who the hell do we have to race before you'll let us cover our own asses?"

“You...did just see them eviscerate Wild Style right? Do you really think they could be arrested and put on trial the normal way? They'd just shoot their way out of any police raid they got caught up in! Our officers use Accelerators to man... Taking them down in the Grand Prix is our only hope at this point." Weelo's iron resolve failed to waver in the wake of Irvine's clearly flawed logic. Should Black Rider be defeated in the Grand prix there would be no way they could continue their murder spree, because they would have been defeated and reformed. That's just how it works. Wherever these Junk people were from must have been a pretty ass backwards place.

Weelo would be a little put off by Damsel's approach, though not uncomfortable with the sudden contact. He would however  nod slightly at her logic. It would, however, be Lucian's speech that would  bring a dawning horror to Weelo's relaxed face.“H-Huh... That's... That's heavy man I don't really know what to say at this point. But if this is something you guys have seen then yeah, we could use your help." Weelo's smile returned as he crossed the room and offered a hand to Lucian to shake. “If this is an issue you lot have a vested interest in then I guess I can't really stop you. Though if you plan on taking this guy down yourselves you'll need to qualify for the Grand Prix! There aren't any other teams willing to take Black Rider on right now so everyone you could race to qualify has dropped out... Buuuut there is another way to qualify." Weelo smirked and chuckled to himself as he shifted his focus form Lucian o the still struggling F'Xiong. “We'll send your office the information you'll need to pass on to your racers, no biggy" F'Xiong's screams of protest had devolved into defeated sighs and resentment as he merely waited for this all to end so he could try again on the next world.

"We won't let you down Mr.Weelo!" Damsel could barely contain her excitement over every aspect of what was was happening right now. Though she would notice how quite Blake had been during the events and decided to take her hands in her own and try to pump some life into the girl with some excited bounces. "Isn't this exciting?"

“Then it's settled! Consider me convinced." Weelo chuckled to himself as he began to move towards the same hole that Ride had exited through moments before.“We'll be in touch soon, I'll do my best to get the Grand Prix pushed back to make time for any qualifiers you guys want to do. Heh... Little green men from Pluto racing in the grand Prix! What a hoot!" With a shake of the head and a pep in his step Weelo took his exit. Leaving only Momo in the room with the Seekers.

Momo would wait for a moment to allow Weelo to exit ear shot before dropping her clasped hands and looking to Irvine with a blank and cold gaze."I want you to murder Team Black Rider. Weelo is to used to people joining his cause after defeat. Though it has worked in the past I doubt it will work here. I don't care how or when you do it, just know that if the job is done you're city will be rewarded handsomely. Do not let Weelo know we had this conversation, thank you." Momo would, without waiting for a response, take her leave of the room as well, moving quickly to catch up with Weelo and Ride.

"...exciting?"
Damsel might have had a point, if it was just the races. Instead, they were dealing with a murderous group that connected with some sort of black sludge that allowed people to body puppet others.
Nobody needed the reminder, though.

Irvine pays close attention to Momo as she makes her own proposal, expression solemn and stern. He hadn't expected this, to be honest. She was asking something heavy of them. But, at the least...one of them seemed to understand that Weelo wasn't expecting anything realistic.
He grinned at Momo as she made to leave. Not the mood for it, but it was a little gesture that'd help him hold onto himself. "Not a word from me. Promise."

As the door closed again, Irvine took a breath in and out, and the brightness faded from his features, leaving him once more tired - and just a little more torn. He looked between Lucian and Damsel, before settling on staring Lucian down. "And we're going to keep him locked up...how? I'll wait."
He pauses, turning his head and holding a hand up to his ear for a couple of moments, before going back to staring. "I don't know about you, but this looks a lot like the Seeker stuff that's turned up recently. And Forget is not weak. You want to interrogate him? You've gotta capture him. Then, you've gotta keep him. And even if you can do that and keep your interrogator safe...how are you planning to actually get anything out of him?" He scoffs. "Can I also just say, I love the way you ignored that Discard and Treasure's necks are on the line, too. They have been doing just, as, much, as, Forget. He's just the mouthpiece. Those two have to be dealt with too. Even if you can handle one, can you keep three of them locked up? Hmm?"

Irvine pauses. "Oh, wait...I've got an idea how we can get an idea on that!" He unblinds F'Xiong, and his sight returns to Irvine staring harshly at him. "Hey, Smoky...you got any idea of what it'd take to drag three powerful Seekers onto Junction and keep them locked up? We got the resources for that?"

He knew he had another question to answer...but this one needed answering first.
It'd decide plans going into the death races, after all.