《Airi in a Thousand Worlds》Mystery and Enigma (18)
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“Eni, how did you even manage to get that information?” Compared to Dean’s elation, Amara and the rest were feeling conflicted.
They knew that Enigma was an amazing hacker; they had worked with him for so many years, after all. But to break into a massive company like Pandora and steal that kind of confidential information unscathed was a crazy move. They didn’t even realise what he was up to the whole day!
“Don’t worry. They didn’t even notice me at all.”
“That’s beside the point,” Dean butted in. “Don’t you guys realise?”
“What?”
“I think, Pandora Corp isn’t just simply investigating superhumans, but also… experimenting.”
Enigma nodded, “Yeah, you’re about right.” He pulled out another report. “This is one of the oldest reports I could get my hands on. It was tough getting it since it was so heavily protected.”
He allowed the rest to take some time to read the report.
By the time they finished, their mouths were wide open.
“W-what is this?!” Belle cried.
“I can’t believe it…”
“Pandora’s business runs deeper than we thought.” West placed a hand on his chin in a thinking manner.
“Gene modification is illegal, isn’t it?!” Lukas exclaimed.
From the report, they found out that Pandora Corp had been modifying DNAs and implanting questionable genes into babies.
“That’s not all.” Enigma added another report into the heap. It was about a research on a ‘magical concoction’ that allowed people to manifest superpowers.
“Oh my gods…” one of them gasped. “They’re torturing these people!”
Amara raised her head to look at Enigma, showing him a complicated look. “It seems like your sister is one out of many victims.”
Enigma nodded, but he was not finished with his presentation yet.
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“These are the video reports that I managed to grab before I left Pandora’s archives.” He played the most recent video.
In the video, several young children were placed in chairs with restraints. The children screamed as though they were in immense pain. Every once in a while, an observer would comment on their conditions with an apathetic voice.
As soon as the video ended, another one automatically played. In this video, a young girl was bleeding from her five orifices as she begged and pounded on the glass wall. The space around her seemed to contort, as if her powers—gravity—was out of control. However, the observers did not signal her to stop until she collapsed ten minutes later.
They watched the recordings one after another, each one unveiling more and more of the horrors hidden underneath Pandora Corp's pristine reputation.
“We need to do something!” Belle sobbed. Watching the videos pained her deeply. All those people who became the test subjects were clearly unwilling.
“Saving one person is one thing, but if we want to save all of them, then we might have to bring the whole corporation down.” West says, warning her.
“But—!” Belle was someone with a soft heart; she could not bear to see such young children in so much pain and suffering. She pleaded to the rest.
Amara, who had been quiet the whole time, finally opened her mouth. “Let’s do it.”
“Huh?”
Amara stared at ach one of them with a firm gaze. “Let’s do it. Let’s destroy Pandora.”
“Are you being serious right now?” West laughed nervously. Deep down, he knew that what Amara says, she will definitely do. She was that type of person, after all. Meeting her resolute gaze, West could only sigh. “Fine, then. Let’s do it. Are you guys in?”
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Dean twisted his head, as if contemplating. “Hm~m. Well, it can’t be helped; I’m in.”
“Me too!”
“I’m in, too!”
Enigma nodded his head slowly. “As long as I can save Mysty, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“You guys—!” Belle sobbed, her eyes glittering with gratitude. She knew that the task was nigh impossible, but the rest went along with it for her sake.
“One for all and all for one,” Joy says, smiling. She patted the other girl’s arm reassuringly.
The seven spent the whole night poring through the materials Enigma had found while simultaneously forming a plan.
The next morning, the seven hauled a cab and headed to their new residence with the miniscule amount of luggage that they had.
“Oh, speaking of which, what should we call ourselves?” As they were putting their luggage in the boot, Joy asks.
“Uh?”
“Call ourselves?” Amara repeated her words, tilting her head quizzically. “For what?”
“Wouldn’t it be cooler if our group had a name? Like ‘the Vigilantes’ or something.” Joy grinned.
“That’s not a bad idea. Let’s choose one!” Dean agreed.
“Childish.” Enigma raised an eyebrow at their happy-go-lucky behaviour. It was as if they had not been planning the destruction of a multi-trillion conglomerate just the night before.
“Why not? That seems fun.” Amara poked her head out from the aerocar, sharing Joy’s grin.
“So? What should our group name be?”
“Hm…”
“This is surprisingly hard, huh?” Lukas commented, laughing nonchalantly. He turned towards Enigma. “What about you, Eni? You came up with your hacker name yourself, right?”
“Oh, ‘Spectre’, wasn’t it?” Dean remarked. “Coming and going like a ghost; before you realised it, your money’s been stolen by ‘Spectre’!” He cackled, making up a catchphrase for Enigma’s hacker identity.
Enigma sent him an annoyed glare.
“’Spectre’, huh…” Amara thought deeply. Suddenly, she brightened. “Ah! I know!”
“Did you think of one, Amara?”
Amara grinned, “What about ‘the Seven Spectres’?”
“The Seven Spectres…” The rest mulled over the name. “Yeah, that sounds nice. Good going, Amara!”
Seeing that the name sounded both cool and ominous, the rest simply agreed with Amara’s choice, praising her.
And so, that was how the infamous rebel organisation, the Seven Spectres, got its name…
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