STARSTROM MOTEL

BRIKEN, GRATA - 2:27 PM

“Ugh, my back is killing me!” Gareth exclaims as the four continue their climb, having just arrived on the seventh floor vents.

“This coming from the guy whose entire personality revolves around the gym?” Emilia snarkily replies as Gareth brushes her comment off. Fortunately, the four are able to find rest when the tunnel separates into an open space leading to a fork. Gareth immediately sits up straight while Emilia, Luke and Celeste lay relaxed.

“Any chance you could put my spine back into place?” Gareth asks Celeste while caressing his back.

“Oh stop being such a pussy! Imagine if Viktor saw two randos- no offence, doing way better than you!” Emilia scolds Gareth.

“Who cares what he thinks? He’s always so pissy anyways.”

“What’s he like?” asks Luke.

“Viktor? Guy’s the definition of grumpy,” replies Gareth as Emilia starts smiling, anticipating Gareth's next words.

“I swear, you can do amazing on a job and he’s like Ehhh, I’ve seen better.” Gareth says in a deep voice, impersonating Viktor while Emilia breaks into laughter.

“He does not speak like that!”

“Yes he does!”

“No, it’s more like Eh, I’ve seen better.” Emilia says monotonously as Gareth laughs. Luke and Celeste look at each other, confused at the two's mockery of their boss.

“Why’d you ask? Think of joining Palladium?”

“No thanks, we’ve heard all the horror stories,” replies Luke, content with his life in Aeternum.

“About demons? Please, they all die in one hit anyways,” Gareth says confidently.

“Most of the time at least. Usually the firearms you sell us are enough, but for some reason the Yundash division’s really getting their ass kicked by this one demon.”

“Yeah. We got a call right before we left telling us to head straight there once the deal’s done. Unfortunately…”

Gareth looks over to his right, seeing water drip from above.

“...Maybe we should stop picking Grata as our meeting place.”

“One of us is picking up a deal in Precidia from you guys, but that’s really far from Valcove, isn’t it?” Celeste asks the two.

“Precidia? I’m pretty sure this was the last deal Alex set,” Emilia says, unsure as she looks towards Gareth.

“Yeah. Never heard anything about Precidia.”

Celeste looks over to Luke as she reaches for her phone. She tries texting Nick, warning him about Precidia but the message fails to deliver.

“What, you got scammed? Well there’s no signal here, so we gotta get rid of whatever’s causing this first.”

“Hey, you never told us what you can do,” Emilia tells Luke.

“Trust me, it’s way better if you see it up cl-”

“He can create explosions,” Celeste says, cutting off Luke as he looks at her disappointedly.

“He likes to show off.”

“Shit, like Rhyne? If that’s true then Viktor would love to get his hands on you two.”

“One of our strongest members had explosive abilities; ended up retiring a while ago. And the Yundash division would kill for telekinesis. Makes rebuilding way easier,” Emilia explains.

“Wait- did you just say Rhyne?” Celeste asks Gareth as the building violently shakes with the sound of flowing water echoing throughout the vents.

“Hold on. Let’s go get this asshole first,” Gareth says as the four resume their climb.

STARSTROM MOTEL

BRIKEN, GRATA - 2:34 PM

Finally arriving at the eighth floor, the four exit the vents into an empty room.

“So, how do we do this?” Luke asks.

“See, normally we’d have a radar that detects movement. But technically we’re off-duty right now, so no equipment for us. Weapons included,” Emilia explains.

“That reminds me. How the hell can you pull objects out of thin air?”

“We had these chips inserted in us that could create and retract weapons anytime.”

“Our boss did it so we could control our abilities,” Luke continues as Emilia and Gareth are stunned by the information.

“...Who the hell do you work for? E-Drive?” Gareth says before opening the door and checking the outside.

“Nah. But our b-” Celeste bumps Luke in the elbow before he can continue.

“Sorry if we’re overly curious, it’s just that… y’know, two demedioms in the wild with tech that rivals Eternal Drive?” Emilia says, signaling suspiciousness by waving her hand horizontally.

“What, you guys threatened?”

“For all we know Mr. Flood could be one of your guys. I mean, demedioms don’t just go and out themselves like that.”

“Listen, we wanna get out of this predicament just as much as you guys. We’ve had bad luck with other demedioms before. We don’t wanna risk anything again,” Celeste explains, trying to diffuse the situation.

“We trust you guys since you’re Palladium. Protector of the people, and all-that jazz.”

Before Emilia can reply, a huge wave crashes through the hallway, pushing Gareth out a window. He manages to grab a railing before falling eight stories, and jumps upward, rebalancing himself on the balcony. He stares angrily across the hallway, where an individual with slicked back blonde hair wearing typical biker gear stares back at him. His sleeveless jacket reveals a series of tattoos on his arm, including a very prominent “PB” on his left shoulder.

The individual raises his arms as water spirals around them. He pushes forward, with another wave of water crashing down throughout the hallway. This time however, Celeste intercepts it, directing the water out of their room’s window. This gives Gareth the opportunity to lunge at the stranger with inhuman speed, punching the man and sending him flying through a room.

Emilia begins rushing towards that room, but is sent back by a wave of water that pins her against a wall. Luke manifests his steel bar, waiting for it to charge to the fullest before creating a series of explosions that pierce the walls of each room parallel to his, revealing the demediom’s room from his angle. Before he can fire another explosion, the demediom creates a vortex of water and fires them through the holes, blasting Luke away.

Emilia freezes the water keeping her in place, breaking pieces off as Celeste assists in freeing her. Gareth rushes towards the man once more, but misses every strike. The stranger eventually counters by creating several ropes of water that trap Gareth’s limbs, limiting his movement. Before the demediom can land a hit, a thin icicle comes flying at him, piercing his left arm. Emilia resizes the icicle, initially making it smaller, but making it expand afterward, completely crushing the stranger’s arm from the inside as he screams in pain. Celeste frees Gareth as the latter lands several jabs on the wounded demediom, eventually knocking him through a room with an energized hook.

Luke, recovered from the blast, rushes to the room where the very wounded demediom begins to bring down an enormous waterfall as a last resort, having created a massive vortex mid-air using the pouring rain while the four were making their climb. Emilia tries to make a wall of ice to block it, but the force is too much and the water ends up breaking through. Celeste steps up, holding the water in place before they get submerged.

“Do it, Luke!” Celeste commands. Luke obeys, energizing his steel bar to hit the demediom directly, detonating and completely destroying the latter’s body whose limbs fly into different directions. With the demediom defeated, most of the water disappears with the rest crashing downward as Celeste lets go.

“That-” Luke points at the demediom’s severed head.

“-is how we do it in the south.”

“Gotta-” Gareth says as he grabs the demediom’s severed hand.

“-hand it to you guys.” jokes Gareth, as he and Luke laugh.

“That guy really coulda used a-” Luke picks up the other hand as the two laugh even harder. The women look at each other, unamused by the men’s twisted sense of humor.

“Y’know, if you ever get tired of this place, Valcove’s doors are open.”

“Sorry but, morbid as it is, we kinda like it here,” Celeste replies.

“That’s a shame. But if you ever change your minds-” Emilia reaches out of her pocket and hands Celeste a wet card containing the Palladium logo and a phone number.

“Give us a call,” Emilia says, signalling with her hand as Gareth and Luke still laugh uncontrollably at their awful jokes.

To Be Continued…