31 Chapter Thirty-One: Search Party (1/2)
As Alex, Zia, Finn, Rose, Holly, Satomi and Mikoto return to Vivi's house, they explain what happened to Vivi and the rest. No one knew what to make of this situation. No one, except for Zia. ”We need to look for him” she says, ”we can't just turn our backs to him like that!”.
”But what about the whole... you know” Finn says, ”that... monster thing? He's still our captain, so I don't want to just leave him hangin' like that, but... I dunno”.
”Exactly!” Zia says, ”he IS still our captain! He must've struggled for so long with nobody to be there with him, the least we could do is try to help him... I mean, how long ago was The Naris Catastrophe?”.
”Almost 170 years ago” Alex says.
”Right!” Zia says, ”and when have you ever heard of a man named Siran anywhere? Over the past nearly two centuries, he hasn't shown up in any textbooks or anything, so chances are we are probably the first people to actually stick around him after so long. If he had other people like us to be around him before, don't you think we would've heard about him from somewhere?”.
The rest of the crew fell silent. Everyone felt guilty. Even though Siran always refrained from telling them about his past, they felt they now knew a lot about his past. Siran was talkative and obsessive, but they now knew it was because he was so lonely.
”So” Zia says, ”... no answers? If no one else agrees, I'll go look for him alone”.
”Hang on” Vivi says as she stands up from her desk, ”I'll go. The idiot pisses me off, but he's still like family to me. I'm going”.
”I can't stand losing more people that are close to me” Rose says, ”I'll go”.
”He IS our cap'n after all” Finn says as he stands up.
”He saved Mikoto's life” Satomi says, ”so I owe him”.
”I'll go too” Mikoto says.
”He still owes me” Holly says, ”he promised me knowledge”.
”You're still on about that?” Finn asks as the rest of the crew that's standing looks and sees Alex, Demetri, Tanya and Robin still sitting on the couches in Vivi's house.
”What about you, Alex?” Zia asks, ”I know you were never sure about Siran, but do you honestly think he was ever plotting anything that didn't have our best interests in mind?”.
Alex thinks to himself for a moment, with anxiety filling his mind. ”Alright” he says, ”I'll go”.
”I'll come too” Robin says.
”No, we can't bring the kid this time” Alex says. ”You stay here with Demetri”.
Demetri shrugs his shoulder as if he didn't generally care about what he should do. ”I'll have to stay behind” Tanya says, ”I don't know how long the search will take, but I still have a daughter to raise, so...”.
”It's fine, we understand” Alex says.
”Sorry...” Tanya replies.
The crew of Vivi, Alex, Zia, Finn, Rose, Holly, Satomi and Mikoto searched periodically for two weeks with no luck. After two weeks, the search party was interrupted when looking through Balphor, the country north of Seeira. They were passing through the area where they last fought James Markwood, the last place they saw Siran. However, when passing through, they ran into the MTRU (Magitech Tactical Recon Unit). Six of them, all standing in their way. The familiar Ly'Lum soldiers that they had already ran into once at the large base south of Cairo, with the face masks and all black uniforms. This time, they seemed to have some sort of metal backpacks on.
”These guys again” Zia says.
”The men in the weird uniforms” Finn says, ”I totally forgot about them. Last time we saw them was close to The Pyramid of Djoser, wasn't it?”.
”Yeah, looks like they're still on the move” Rose says.
”What exactly are they after?” Alex asks.
”If I had to take a guess” Zia says, ”I'd say they're after us”.
”I've never seen any of these uniforms before” Vivi says.
”You must be The Six Guns” one of the soldiers call out. ”Something must be wrong with the intel, there's more than six of you”.
”Sucks to suck, doesn't it?” Vivi says as she crosses her arms and buries her hands under the armpits of her jacket.
”Surrender peacefully or-” one of the other soldiers start to say before they're interrupted by Zia jumping at him and trying to spin kick him. The soldier grabs her leg and stops her, then lets go and she falls to the ground. Suddenly, Zia feels an intense fatigue, as if all of her energy had been sapped from her. The soldier's backpack starts filling with a smoke-like black substance.
”As I was saying” the soldier continues, ”surrender peacefully or we'll have to use force”.
”What did he do to her?” Finn asks.
As Zia struggles to get back up, the solider says ”We've heard that The Six Guns have a high capacity for magic”.
”So to combat this” Vivi says, ”they developed technology that saps away magic”.
”They can do that?” Rose asks.
”Seems that way” Alex says.
The soldier begins to reach down to grab Zia, but Vivi shouts ”Don't even think about it!”. The soldier looks over as Vivi continues to say ”Leave them be, or else”.
”Or else what?” The soldier asks, ”you really think your threats scare me?”.
Vivi whispers to Alex, asking ”You guys all have that magic boost thingy that Siran gave you, right?”.
”Yeah” Alex whispers back.
”How long does it take for your magic to recover enough for you to no longer feel tired?” Vivi asks.
”For us, it'll only take about five minutes” Alex says, ”in comparison to the usual twelve hours”.
”Good” Vivi says, ”then we're going to hold them off until Zia can pick herself up”.