[Quest Gained!

D For Detective!

Investigate the disturbance that Klatissi identified in the Refugee City and deal with it in any way you see fit. 

Rewards: + Reputation with the Prespian City Refugees, +2000XP, +500CRED]

Walking through the empty streets of the new Refugee city was a strange experience. 

It felt like the city had been abandoned, even though it had never actually been occupied in the first place. 

Empty houses, shopping centres that were completely shuttered, and entertainment complexes with no people being entertained. 

If I didn't know that there were currently millions of refugees pouring into the numerous parks of the city to be rehomed here, I'd be wondering what had happened to cause the city to die. 

"It's creepy, isn't it," Fal said, almost as if she had been reading my mind as we walked. 

"Yeah, pretty eerie," I agreed. "It just feels wrong for a big city like this to be so quiet, but I guess that won't be the case for that much longer." 

We didn't have to walk for long to get to the coordinates that Klatissi had given to us. I spotted the alien water mage first, who was currently standing with their back to the wall, creating complex algorithms of runes in the air. 

I checked up and down the street, trying to sense any manna signatures that I didn't recognise, but I couldn't feel anything that was untoward. Either way, I scampered across the road quickly, keeping myself crouched and low to the ground, to make it over to the alien that had summoned us. 

"What's the situation, Klatissi?" I asked in a hushed whisper. 

Without breaking his concentration on the runic array that they were carefully crafting in the air, Klatissi responded, "Sensed some strange movement out here with the drones, when I came to check it out I couldn't sense anyone, but I can't rule out the possibility that someone might be hiding their manna field and sneaking around in the shadows. Wanted some back up just in case things went wrong." 

I nodded at that. Calling for backup when engaging with a potentially unknown enemy was always the right decision to make, I'd learnt that the hard way when Lara had dragged me into a two on one dance with a Null Space Invader back when I had been much weaker, and I never wanted to be in that sort of a situation again. 

Not that I expected there to be any Null Space Invaders on this planet, our luck would have had to have been right at the bottom of the barrel for something like that to have happened. 

<Before you ask him and reveal just how green you still really are to the magical arts of this universe, yes that runic array is specially tuned to finding biological organisms in a given area,> BB cut in, just as I was about to ask the exact question that he had assumed I was going to ask. 

With a final flouring of their hand, the runic array was complete. It glowed a deep blue as it came online, shimmering in the air as it built up power, before suddenly blasting out a wave of light. 

"Pick anything up with your tracking runes?" I asked, unable to see if anything had been found myself. 

"There was a ping a little way west from here," They said, "Back toward the entertainment district. It was faint, but it was definitely there." 

The entertainment district of the Refugee City, which definitely needed a better name at this point, was something that I was extremely impressed by. 

The central area of the place was taken up by a huge park, half of which was an area filled with grass and wood, while the other half was a very high tech playground that was operated by robotic AI helpers. It was so advanced and cool that it easily outstripped most of the theme parks that I had visited back on Earth when I was a kid. 

Connected to the park via a set of hard-light holographic bridges was a massive mall. Inside were all manner of shops and eating establishments, as well as arcades and cinemas, all once again run by the AI helper system. 

It was the perfect place for people of all ages to gather together and hang out, but there was no way that anyone should have been there already. Especially not anyone that was deliberately trying to obfuscate their manna signature. 

"Alright, I'll go in high, Klatissi and Fal, you two go in low from opposite sides. I'll try and pick them out while I'm in the sky, if they're out in the open I'll give you the command to attack," I said, both of my subordinates watching with rapt attention. 

While I was their leader, it wasn't like I slipped into leader mode very often. If anything it was something I actively tried to avoid so I didn't end up distancing myself from the rest of the team, so I still felt approachable. 

Nevertheless, it was needed in unknown and potentially dangerous situations like the one that we were about to walk into. 

"No lethal methods, though, we want to bring whoever this is in alive so we can question them. That and it wouldn't really do to kill a member of the press on our first day by accident because we thought we were hunting a Null Space Invader or something." 

I got two nods for my trouble. 

"Right, in that case, I'll meet you both there," I said, simultaneously pushing BB down into our synchro mode, something I hadn't had to do since the battle back on Prespian City. 

I jetted off into the air with a blast of my [Propulsion', combined with the power of my [Anti-Gravity Fields] and shook my head as I reached the zenith of my ascent. 

I wasn't going to wallow in the past. That wasn't who I was. 

There was no point in feeling regret every time I go into a fight, that'd just lead to even more situations where I'd end up feeling even more regret. 

No. This was now, and I still had people counting on me.