“Whoa bit hostile there aren't you?” Esdeath asked, holding her hands up but Alister didn't budge, his calm eyes staring at the person before him. “You were told never to come back, that was the agreement for taking my mask,” Alister said to which Esdeath shook her head, walking over to the dried blood. “I came to deliver a warning to you, about Apollo and about that clown,” she said pointing to the graffiti on the wall. Alister lowered his gun, keeping his finger on the trigger in case Esdeath tried to pull a fast one.

“As you know, I left before you and your group and wanted to confirm Apollo's death with my own eyes,” Esdeath said recalling the events. She had walked out and around the tower to where Apollo's body should have been, but all she found was a large splatter of fresh blood on the ground. Pulling out a vial, she collected some of the blood to make sure it was Apollos. “Someone took the body, but the question is who? This mission was top secret so unless that old biddy hired another group, someone else must have been watching,” Esdeath muttered to herself looking around for any sign of life but saw nothing.

“Escentially, someone clearly has their eyes on you, those clowns that fly that symbol might be connected so watch your back,” Esdeath said walking away. Alister watched her pondering what she had said, he pondered this knowledge the whole drive home. Walking inside Alister let out a sigh and sat down at his work bench, he pulled out a blue print and started drawing on it. “If someone really is after me, I need to be ready,” he thought to himself not noticing Tesla walking in the door with Maple. The duo saw Alister hunched over working hard and decided it'd be better to not bother him.

Emerald sat in her office, one of her employees leaving the room after a lengthy conversation. She picked up the picture on her desk of the clown symbol. “Insanity is the truth, the world is a lie. What a bunch of crazies,” Emerald muttered but couldn't shake the fact that she recognized the symbol. Getting up, she walked to her mini bar and poured herself a drink, “It was way too close this time, if Alister didn't finish his nanomachines he would have died. I won't let that happen again but I can't let him find out what's happening,” Emerald thought to herself staring off into the horizon. Everyone was getting ready in their own way as a new threat was ready to rear its head.

To be continued