《Fantastical Stapler》Chapter 8: The Trip Part 3
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The surprise made them jump but they quickly returned to their composed selves. Onlookers were weirded out for a second but went on their way as they had no interest in the topic being discussed. Sincan swallowed before continuing.
Sincan: "You're telling me there is an actual heretic controlling those guys?"
Angelo: "All evidence points to that. Before I can actually go and deal with the heretic, I'll need to find him. If you would let me come along with you?"
Moris: "How could we help someone like you? We're just office workers!"
Angelo: "He seems to be trying to get rid of your office specifically for some reason. I'm sure if I tagged along I'd be able to figure out why."
Moris: "We're going to have to ask our boss for that."
Angelo: "Don't. He might have a mole. Just continue on with your search while i come with."
Angelo took off his Cream coloured jacket which had the church's logo on it. He then put on some glasses and a dark red hoodie instead. Sincan was confused but went along with Angelo on discovering the hideout of this heretic.
Sincan: "We're going to check on the rest of the employees around the city. that ok with you?"
Angelo: "Yeah, fine by me. Show me the locations of these guys though."
Sincan handed him the addresses of the workers which Angelo used with his phone to make a line.
Angelo muttered: "If it's true, then he's an idiot."
Sincan shrugged and called a taxi. Throughout the day they visited the rest of the employees. After visiting the first one, Angelo spoke up.
Angelo: "Leave me here for now."
Sincan: "Is there any reason for that?"
Angelo: "Yeah I might have a clue."
So they did, and for the rest of the day visited the other houses. There learned nothing new from them. After finishing the last house on the list, Angelo called Sincan.
Sincan: "How the hell did you get my freaking number!"
Angelo angrily whispered: "I'm a priest now pipe down! It seems to me that they're actually threatening anyone who comes close to a certain area of the city. Coincidentally, this area's value is going down."
Sincan*: "Damn, the church must be rich."
Sincan: "So you're saying that he's going to buy up property? but why?"
Angelo: " People would pay a lot of money for a wheelsmith, that's exactly why we can't let them leave and reveal the secrets of the church. We cut off any way for him to go to a foreign nation, so he might try building up money here instead."
Sincan: "Well, what can we do about it?"
Angelo: "Easy, tail one of them back to the base. Whoever's doing this isn't strong enough to control this many people for this long."
Sincan: "Seems simple enough. You on it?"
Angelo: "Yeah but just in case, follow someone else back. There might be more than one hideout."
Sincan: "Alright, will do. Stay safe, Angelo."
Angelo: "I should be the one saying that, see you later."
Sincan turned off his phone and turned towards Moris and Lori. He explained to them what the plan was and before stopping said one last thing.
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Sincan: "Lori, you stay back."
Lori: "What? Why?"
Sincan: "Too many people make it hard to tail someone. It'll be safer this way."
Lori: "B-But"
Sincan: "You've got no reason to go with us. Moris and I can handle this."
Moris: "Yeah, rest assured. We'll get back safely."
Moris and Sincan escorted Lori back to her house just in case. After saying farewell they departed and searched for the gang members before finally finding one. They staked out until they started moving. They tailed the gang members back to a building which one of them locked after entering.
Sincan whispered: "Any ideas?"
Moris: "Yeah bring me some snow."
Sincan did as he was instructed. Moris picked up the snow before pushing it into the keyhole. He then solidified it into the shape of the key before repeating this with more snow in order to fashion a makeshift key.
Sincan: "Smart idea."
Moris: "Well don't get used to them."
They slowly peaked through the opening of the door. They saw a man with weird tools laid out before him. He was working on a boy's back and writing something onto it.
???: "Stupid Church with it's stupid rules. I say if they want it, let them have it!"
The man was clearly mentally deranged.
Moris spotted Angelo in another corner of the room and signaled to him. He didn't notice so Sincan tried a different approach. he used a small wind magic in order to make his voice travel to Angelo. He was surprised but afterwards noticed Moris. Angelo told them to get ready and pulled out a small floating sphere before counting down with his fingers.
All three of them burst out of their hiding spots in front of the heretic which startled him.
Heretic: "AH! What do you want from me!"
Angelo: "Victor, I just came to talk, alright. Calm down."
Victor: "Calm down?! I know what's going to happen to me if you catch me. You're going to kill me, aren't you!?"
Angelo: "You and me both know that's not how it works. Repent now, or face judgement, Victor Salazar."
Sincan and Moris could only stand there as Angelo and Victor talked. They knew the situation was severe and did not want to aggravate it.
Angelo: "Just come back and we'll cure you, I promise!"
Victor: "There's some things that can't be cured with just repentance!"
The insane Lyclan took off his robes, revealing his body to be covered in Wheel tattoos and connecting lines.
Angelo: "Oh my God, what did you do to yourself?"
Victor: "I needed to do it. If I didn't, who knows what kind of people would have taken advantage of me."
Angelo: "I'm sorry, but I need to make sure you don't hurt nobody."
Angelo moved the sphere towards Victor with force in order to knock him out. The man countered by kicking it away. Angelo ran towards him, trying to slip him up with feints and attacks that put him off balance.
Angelo screamed: "Stop it! You don't have to keep doing this!"
Victor: "Shut up!"
Victor kicked the ground, raising up a pillar of stone that he once again kicked towards Angelo. Angelo recalled the orb and hit the pieces of rock off course. They landed behind him. Victor coated his arms and legs with crystal before jumping. Angelo moved the orb directly up which hit Victor in the stomach and pinned him to the ceiling.
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Victor punched the ceiling and the orb shot past him, allowing him to come down and hit angelo with an axe kick. It shredded his red hoodie and some small cuts could be seen. Sincan and Moris were frozen as this man was stronger than any person they had faced before. A single hit could knock either one of them unconcious.
Angelo*: "Gotta knock that armour off."
Angelo summoned was seemed to be silver gauntlets which had blue crystals in them. He put his hands towards Victor and gravity seemed to increase. While witnissing this, Sincan and Moris snapped out of the trance they were in and went to free the kids locked in here. They broke open the cells they were in and guided them out. Victor witnissed this and shot some of his crystal armour at the kids.
They almost hit their targets as well until Angelo reversed their gravity. This made the kids float for a few seconds but they soon stood back on the ground and ran away. Sincan told Moris to call the police before returning to the scene of the fight.
Angelo was dominating , parrying all the attacks Victor could throw at him.
Victor: "Not...gonna...lose.."
The air around him started to become thin, black smoke coming off of his body. He was fully enveloped as a burst of energy blew apart the builiding. Sincan was shielded from the blast by Angelo.
After the dust cleared, Sincan could see a creature standing stall. Its shape was that of an Aliusapien, but about twice as big. It had what seemed to be black plating across its entire body except for it's chest and elbows. Those were covered glowing blades, dark purple. His face had no mouth, but a chin which formed an upside down U. His eyes were purple. He had finished reminiscing about the events that led him here. Angelo was healing himself with water magic. He looked at Sincan before speaking.
Angelo: "Scary thing, ain't it. Don't worry though, I'll take care of it!"
He laughed. Why did Sincan laugh? Because he was dumbfounded that he had met someone else stupid enough to smile at the monster before them.
Sincan: "You're an idiot."
Angelo: "Well you know what they say, great minds think alike. Here, take this."
He handed Sincan the gloves that he was using before forming blades of ice coated with crystals.
Angelo: "Having a conception type comes in handy."
Sincan: "Might want to get my hands on one of them someday."
Sincan replies while putting on the gauntlets.
Angelo: "I thought you were an office worker?"
Sincan: "I'm really committed."
They monster howls before running towards them, ready to kill. Sincan kicks reverses gravity beneath their feet and raises both him and Angelo onto a floating platform.
Angelo throws his swords at the monster which are easily broken. The monster kicks up some dust before bolting towards a building on all fours. Running on the walls of it like an animal, slowly getting higher.
Sincan tries to bring the monster down by increasing the weight on it but it just hangs on even harder. The monster jumps at their platform before slashing it in half. Sincan and Angelo make it away safely with minor wounds.
Angelo: "Keep it away from the ground!"
Sincan nods and then proceeds to float the creature which tries sticking to the ground.
Sincan: "It's not budging!"
Angelo forms a blade right under the creatures chest and shoots it towards him. This makes the beast float in the air while it moves around, trying to touch solid ground. The area around the battle has been destroyed. Buildings are broken as the monster struggles.
Angelo summons one last blade, one as wide as a Scalin, and as big as a small building. He shoots the blade toward the creatures back.
The battlefield is covered in snow crystals, a result of Angelo's last attack. A man lays there dying, talking to Angelo.
Angelo: "May you be judged fairly..."
After muttering that, the man dies. Angelo stands up and looks over at Sincan. Sincan quietly walks towards the body and gives a small prayer. It was not a hard battle at all, but death was not the result they were seeking. Angelo knew that anything less wouldn't cut it. Victor had been fully transformed and had too much bewl flowing through his body.
After a while, the police showed up. Angelo showed them his badge and went to give his statement along with Sincan. After giving their statement, Both Sincan and Angelo departed. But not before Sincan returned the gauntlets that he borrowed. They were a church artifact after all.
----
Sincan arrived at the office, where everyone was waiting for him. Vanessa had a stern look on her face and Moris was frowning.
Vanessa: "Of all the stupid ideas, irresponsible decisions..."
Sincan: "Gimme a break..."
Vanessa: "Not this time! Do you know how idiotic that was, that was a fight between trained killers and YOU DIDN'T RUN AWAY?!"
Sincan: "I-I needed to help him. The guy was dangerous!"
Vanessa: "If you wanted to be a Solik, then just go be one! Don't give me a heart attack!"
Sincan couldn't refute that. He had seen more action than most Soliks even. Vanessa walked away after telling Sincan that they were leaving the next day.
Moris: "Well, I've got good news for you."
Sincan: "What is it, Moris?"
Moris: "The upper brass are deciding right now but it seems you're gonna get a hefty promotion."
Sincan*: "YES, finally! I knew it'd pay off."
Sincan: "Really? That's great !"
Cosja: "And before you leave, the workers and I wanted to congratulate you."
Lori: "Yeah, so here's a gift."
Lori hands Sincan a present. He opens it and it seems to contain a bracelet with 4 cyan crystals on it.
Sincan: "Woah, this is a bit expensive don't you think?"
Lori: "Well Vanessa did say it's going to get more dangerous for you so."
Sincan: "I'll be sure to watch my back."
After getting back to the Sonh branch, Sincan was thrown a party by Firil with the rest begrudgingly accepting. It was a good day to be Sincan Tolkin.
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