Aaron frowned, even as they raced into Area 10, thinking of Typhon, Jaeger and Leviathan…

It had barely been thirty minutes since they had left Typhon behind, but Aaron had the feeling the fight would last way longer than thirty minutes… Leviathan was huge, Jaeger was skilled and Typhon was Typhon, enough was said on that last one.

It was now a race against the clock for Aaron and the others, knowing that Typhon could win, but better to assume he couldn’t than to hope and be disappointed.

Unfortunately for Aaron and his group they had just entered Area 10. Area 10 was famous for being almost as unlikeable as Area 4, because while no one found slavery or rapists to be acceptable beyond said people themselves, people who seemed to be pathological liars were not fun to deal with either.

“This place… is weird.” Cyclops noted and Aaron agreed, having had to wake up Cyclops who was beginning to get pissed with people disappearing when he slept.

“Yeah… doesn’t feel like a prison anymore…” Mino added and he was right.

Nice, plain houses, white picket fences, mowed lawn, people wearing suits and dresses greeting each other with a ‘hello neighbour!’ was most certainly strange.

They paused next to a house and Aaron called out to a man doing the gardening, apparently Asian with sunglasses on as the man looked to Aaron with a tilt of the head.

“Can I help you?” the man asked and Aaron leant from the second floor of the bus and spoke.

“Hi… we were wondering, is this entire Area like this?” Aaron asked, needing to confirm some things before they went anywhere.

“Oh yes, this is Area 10 after all, the most peaceful place in Tartarus after all.” The man said as another gardener walked over, a much larger Spanish man also with sunglasses, carrying a rake as he talked to the first gardener.

“Should I start raking mister Chan?” Aaron blinked at the generic name as the Asian gardener nodded while giving a tiny hand wave.

“Sure Pablo, I already trimmed. So, what are you all doing here in Area 10, came to move in, visit, relax, all of the above?” Chan asked as Aaron scratched his head, uncertain of how to deal with this ‘almost’ normal place.

See that was the problem… They were in prison, in Tartarus which was essentially the prison of the world.

There was no normal place here.

“We’re just passing through.” Aaron said, not bothering to explain where they were going as Chan nodded.

“Okay then, I do hope you get to where you want to go. Oh, but before you go, I forgot, I’m supposed to ask any visitors a question!” Chan said before he patted his pockets, then his back pockets before feeling in his shirt pocket and finding a piece of paper.

“Ahem, ‘what has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?’” Chan asked and Aaron blinked at the question with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh… the riddle of the Sphinx right? That question is normally answered as ‘Man’ but originally that wasn’t the answer.” Aaron said as Chan seemed to smile.

“Go on…” Aaron wondered why such a question would be asked but then realized what Chan wanted and he chuckled.

“Aaron Hassan. My name is Aaron Hassan.” Chan smiled at his words and elbowed his fellow gardener.

“You hear that Pablo, someone finally answered correctly! And here we thought we’d see no one new.” Chan’s words confused Aaron as Pablo held out a gardening tool box.

Chan smiled, reaching in and pulling out a small mask, reminding Aaron of a smiling theatre mask, before tossing it to Aaron.

“That mask is an invitation to an auction. All gardeners ask questions like mine, and if you answer one right, you get a mask.” Chan explained and Aaron blinked… right… apparently he was the source of the weird around here.

“Anyway, the auction holds quite a few cool rarities in Tartarus, like swords, grappling hooks, state of the art computers, and so on.” Chan explained, and Aaron nodded at the idea, looking to the mask, and noting the inside to contain directions.

“Whether you go to the auction or not, you earned that mask, you’re free to do as you please with it, Aaron Hassan. Oh, and make sure you don’t cause any trouble, Lord Sphinx dislikes people who mess with his auction.” Aaron noted the name with a contemplative look as he nodded towards Chan before he hit the side of the bus, signalling Medusa to keep driving.

“He’s interesting, isn’t he, Pablo?” Chan asked as the bus floated away, and Pablo grunted, lifting the bus and getting to work on raking some leaves, glad for the near constant climate Tartarus had… for an unknown reason… it was colder, but it never snowed.

Much, much later on, Aaron would explain to his group that weather control systems existed, and Tartarus’ walls contained such a system which left winters a bit warmer than normal, and summer’s slightly cooler than normal.

But that’s another story.

“Sure is boss… and boss… no one’s around.” Pablo said as Chan sighed, looking to the distance before he turned back to Pablo, moving his glasses, revealing electric blue eyes.

“I know that Cerberus, but I enjoy messing with people. Now come on, my auction is starting in an hour, and I have a feeling this auction is going to be kind of interesting.” Chan, no, Sphinx, said with a smirk as Cerberus rolled his eyes behind his glasses, moving over to their van, placing the gardening tools in the back as he moved to the driver seat.

“Boss always says that, and what happens, some idiot who doesn’t know the rules causes trouble and then I have to leave a mess.” Cerberus complained a bit as he took his glasses off, revealing his own electric blue eyes.

“Yes… you do have a point. I like to think positive but that same thinking says that I’m positive someone is going to do something stupid.” Sphinx added with a false groan of annoyance as they pulled up to one of the standard ‘white picket fence and clean garden’ houses.

At the door stood a man in a suit who looked a bit nervous as Sphinx approached, not that Sphinx cared much for his nervousness.

“Paul, nice to see you, how is the wife and kids, still backstabbing one another?” Sphinx didn’t even mean that as a joke, at least, not entirely, because this was Area 10, the world of lies.

“They’re as well as can be expected considering I killed my wife last week and I never had any kids in this place.” Morbid, but at least Paul was honest with Sphinx… then again, Paul could tell Sphinx would have him killed if he tried lying.

“Great, great, we’re going to be holding the Auction soon, so let’s get done.” Sphinx said as Paul nodded and opened the door.

Sphinx notably ignored the body lying to the side, his neighbour Ned, and Sphinx went up to a room to find a suit and his usual Auctioning outfit.

Cerberus did take note of the body, and looked to Paul with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re getting sloppy Paul. Normally there would be little blood… the body would also be gone.” Cerberus added with some looking at the dead body of Paul’s neighbour Ned.

“Well he tried to kill me so I returned the favour, couldn’t help that I was sloppy, it was a rushed job.” Paul was very afraid of Cerberus, but he feared Sphinx more.

Cerberus was, as his name suggested, a guard-dog, a bodyguard, he wouldn’t go out of his way to kill anyone unless they harmed his boss.

His boss on the other hand, was eccentric, what with how he pretended to be a gardener for fun, and he’d do what he wanted, with little to no consequences…

Sphinx was ex-Triad, and everyone in Area 10, except for the gardeners who work for Sphinx, were white collar criminals who were great at lying, cheating and backstabbing.

Basically, they were feeble wizards while Sphinx and his gardeners who almighty warriors. Wizards die when a warrior punches them.

Paul also belatedly thinks that he should never have begun playing Role Playing Games inside a prison; it made him weird… well, weirder.

The point of the comparison was that Cerberus would kill Paul for messing with Sphinx. Sphinx could kill Paul for leaving dust on his suit.

“Paul, there’s dust on one of my suits, I’m not wearing that one today, but fix it.” Sphinx stuck his head down the stairs and Paul nodded curtly, wishing that his boss wasn’t like that.

It was about ten minutes later when Sphinx came back down, in his auction uniform as opposed to his fun past-time uniform, which was his gardener outfit.

It was a strangely gaudy black and gold stripped suit, the stripes being horizontal in a zigzag pattern of gold, showing off his eccentricity.

On his head was an Egyptian Pharaoh’s headdress, and a gold mask in the shape of a plain face, if it were perfectly symmetrical and perfect…

The total appearance gave a horrible sense of incongruity, with the suit being strange, but the head area providing a sense of dread and authority, despite how out-dated it was.

The dread part might be because of the visible electric blue eyes glaring through the eyes of the mask though.

Cerberus looked down at a phone, tiny in his hands, with a frown on his face before he looked back up to Sphinx.

“Boss, our watchers just said Vann is coming.” Sphinx scowled behind his gold, real or not, mask at Cerberus’ words.

“Vann… what does he want here? I’ve left Area Eleven, as he asked, so he shouldn’t have anything more he wants from me.” Sphinx was angry, and rightfully so, he had once been the authority of Area 11, the Family Head, which in Area Eleven was a big role capable of being compared to ruler…

Well, even he couldn’t get away with everything, despite his position as a Chained with heightened management skills being his base ‘ability’ given to him by his enhancements, he was still a part of the Area 11 code, which was simple.

Respect the worthy, and do not spill the blood of family.

And finally, outside of Area 11, they could be segregated, but within Area 11, it was neutral ground, no fights between Familia, Triad, Yakuza, no, such fights were only allowed outside of Area 11.

As the Family Head of the Triads, Sphinx had been one of six, and he followed the rules he himself helped create, so they had lived peacefully… for the most part, fights happened outside of Area 11 frequently, but never inside, for a really simple reason…

No one liked conflict in their home. Area 11 was the home of the mob related crimes; no one liked fighting inside their house with people who lived there as well.

But then Vann appeared, and things went horribly wrong. Vann and that woman that followed him, and her terrifying abilities…

Sphinx was lucky enough to be able to strike a deal with Vann, that he’d leave Area 11 as long as Vann left him alone…

“It seems he has a favour… he’s willing to trade.” Cerberus stated and Sphinx frowned, hating that he had boxed himself in with his own rules and promises, that as Auction Master, he’d always listen to a trading proposition, if he refused…

Even if Vann was going to try and kill Sphinx, it would still be a heavy blow to Sphinx’s reputation if he refused to see someone based on that… and reputation (face) is important.

“What would that monster be willing to trade with me?” Sphinx asked, and Paul was a bit late to realizing how scary Vann must be if Sphinx considered him a monster.

“I don’t know Boss, but I don’t like this.” Cerberus frowned, a spark exiting his mouth as he clicked his tongue.

“Neither do I Cerberus, we’ll just have to hope that we get out of this with as little issue as possible.” The three, Sphinx Cerberus and Paul, moved out to the car, not the gardening van but instead a Mercedes Benz car of fifty or so years ago, a W222 S-Class.

Normally, Cerberus would drive Sphinx around, but in this case, Paul was their driver while Cerberus and Sphinx sat in the back, as they approached the one place in Tartarus with a pier.

The Sydney Opera House, left standing after most of Australia was cleared out and walled away, the Sydney Opera House was one of the few landmarks left standing after fifty years in Tartarus, other notable landmarks that survived would include Ayer’s Rock, which it is more known as, though it is now known as Uluru, as well as the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Rock was in Area 4, so no one went near it, and the MCG was in Area 12 which was filled with Chained, so no normal people really visited.

On a side note, when Aaron found out that the venue for the Auction was the Sidney Opera House he had a moment of schizophrenia where he was excited to see the building in person, and annoyed that they couldn’t just say it was that huge wave looking building that anyone who knows about the old Australia would know.

Still, Sphinx arrived at the Auction House, as those who now knew about it referred to it, and he frowned, knowing that Vann would be nearby…

And as they parked the car in a hidden section, Cerberus and Sphinx tensed as some footsteps moved closer to them… and from around the blind corner came Lukas Vann and his pet Chained, as usual dressed in a cloak that hid everything but the electric blue eyes of a Mechanical Chained.

Vann dressed similarly to Sphinx, in that they both wore suits, though beyond that they weren’t really the same, with Vann being of Northern European descent and Sphinx being Asian.

Vann looked smug as he glanced at both Sphinx and Cerberus before he smoothed his slightly longer straight black hair to the side for a moment.

“Ah, Sphinx, good to see you again… I take it you got my message?” Sphinx nodded, glaring at the offender as he wished that phones hadn’t made it into Tartarus…

Their phones were all models from before 2020, so they were still connected to the old internet before a whole new system was put in place around 2048, meaning the only people on the old system were those who lived in Tartarus.

Their signals couldn’t go beyond the walls of Tartarus anyway, but inside, phones worked fine… and Sphinx wished they didn’t, so he could say he hadn’t gotten the message.

“Great, so you know I wish to deal… well, see, I hear someone I’m really against has just entered your area, and I’d really appreciate it if you could get rid of him and possibly his group.” Sphinx raised an eyebrow beneath his mask as he thought on Vann’s words…

Vann had three powerful Chained obeying his commands, one of which was more powerful than the other two, so he usually feared no one but larger organizations, and they usually left him alone because he stayed in Area 11, away from everyone else.

But Vann wanted Sphinx to kill this guy, so this guy probably threatened Vann in some way, and Vann either didn’t want to bother with him, or thought Sphinx could get rid of him easily.

“Well, before I agree to a request like that, I need to know who the guy is, and what you want to trade.” Sphinx didn’t beat around the bush; he liked his own blunt nature after all.

Tartarus was based on deals and trading, and with the exception of the idiotic liars that lived in this Area, and thieves from Area 1, deals were honoured largely in Tartarus.

“I want you to get rid of Aaron Hassan; he travels in a floating bus with about nine Chained.” Sphinx blinked at the name, realizing he had seen someone of that exact description that morning…

Wait, so all the people with him were Chained, but they all looked really human, with the exception of one with bull-horns… and the second problem was that said bull-horned guy didn’t have electric blue eyes like Sphinx and Cerberus, meaning he wasn’t a Mechanical Chained…

“Wow, he must be strong to gather that many Chained…” Sphinx fished for a bit of information and was surprised when Lukas Vann willingly provided it.

“No, he isn’t, he’s a normal human, like myself. However he seems to have the allegiance of a Chained with tremendous power, and using that Chained, he managed to gather more.” Lukas looked over to his own personal shadow that had that role within his own forces…

Sphinx found himself a bit conflicted by ‘Vann’s Hound’ as she was referred to by those who knew of her. When Sphinx had been given an opportunity to converse with her, he found her intelligent and fun to talk to in a professional sense, but her boss was someone he hated.

“Wow, so the second coming of Lukas Vann eh… sounds dangerous, especially for just Cerberus and myself, considering I’m not much of a fighter.” Everyone there but Lukas’ bodyguard caught the nonsense coming out of Sphinx’s mouth at the end there…

One didn’t rule the Triad by being weak, especially in a fight. It was rare to find a Triad boss that couldn’t beat up someone, unless they were on their deathbed of old age.

“Well from what my people inform me, their group is quite a bit weaker than it would normally be.” Lukas reached into his pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper, holding it out as Cerberus walked over, took the paper and looked at it, before handing it to Sphinx.

“That there is what we know of his group, not a huge amount due to their changes, but it should prove sufficient to inform you of the risk.” Once more Sphinx felt himself acknowledging that while he hated Lukas, he was a good deal maker… as much as Sphinx, the Auction Master, disliked that.

On the paper were the details of the entire group Aaron had, and Sphinx once more found himself impressed, both by Vann and this Aaron fellow.

Nine Chained, in the span of four months, and he’d been in this prison for five. Of the Chained, seven were Biological-Chained and two were Mechanical-Chained.

The descriptions of the Chained proved that they were all a bit dangerous, even their mechanic, Cyclops, one of the previous ‘rulers’ of Area 6 along with the now deceased Pegasus.

That was such a shame, that last bit. Pegasus had been holding the monopoly on how to make hovercraft, so with him dead, Sphinx had assumed that bit of technology was gone from Tartarus… but apparently not, if Aaron had gotten a hover-bus… Pegasus didn’t work on larger cars, only older ones.

So monetary wise, Cyclops was the most valuable member of this nine Chained group. Of course, their leader had a questionable amount of value to his name as well, being capable of making Biological Chained look human again, with slight upgrades to their abilities?

Sphinx realized that he had heard of a similar ability before, and gave the guard of Vann a glance… a similar ability, working on the two types of Chained… if Aaron or Vann could get both of them together, they could theoretically get just about every Chained in Tartarus to obey them…

Sphinx really didn’t want to help Vann now, not to give him more power than he already had… but a deal was being made, if the price was right, Sphinx couldn’t refuse.

And so Sphinx folded the page and looked to Vann, mentally adding in the danger of Empusa, Minotaur, the Hydra, Medusa and the Chimera into the group, knowing that Cerberus could face most of them…

“Well, I’m certain we could kill a normal human with this much information on the group, but deals are two way streets. What do I get from this?” Sphinx asked, glad that his gold mask hid his expressions… it gave him quite the edge in negotiations. Yes, it wasn’t just because he liked gold.

“Glad to see you’re open to the deal continuing… I’m willing to trade you killing Aaron for having my guard use Synchronize on both you and Cerberus.” Sphinx widened his eyes looking at the girl behind Lukas with a glint in his eye.

Synchronize, it was something all Mechanical-Chained instinctively sought, with the knowledge that they weren’t whole, they weren’t all there.

In Cerberus, it manifested as him needing something to guard, to defend, as well as making more dog-like with how he growled at people that made him truly angry.

With Sphinx, it was quite a bit subtler, but no less horrid in that he found himself testing anything and everything, especially people, with his riddles and deception; it caused an itch in his skull if he didn’t get near gold in a while too…

Though that might just be because he was ex-Triad and liked money.

But Synchronization would change that, it would let them think clearly for the first time in years, Sphinx had been in Tartarus since the beginning, and Cerberus had joined him a few years later…

They had gone too long not remembering how it was to think like normal people, and it hurt.

“That… is a very attractive deal… the problem here is that we’d likely be incapable of winning without Synchronize in the first place. Each of our enemies have been enhanced, with the exception of Cyclops and possibly Medusa…” Sphinx looked to the guard who shook her head at his last words and Sphinx scowled…

It seemed that their enemy only had enhanced Chained except Cyclops who wasn’t even a fighter.

“Oh I was planning on having her fix you both now, as it would only be fair. I know you Sphinx; you’ll honour the deal, especially when you’ve already gotten your payment.” Sphinx could see the appeal there, and he nodded after sharing a glance with Cerberus.

“Very well, we accept your deal… I won’t be attacking during the auction however. The auction is neutral ground.” Sphinx clarified and Vann’s lips twitched slightly from their smile, Sphinx not having caught it due to looking to the Opera House.

“I’ll… right… very well.” Lukas Vann seemed to be thinking something serious as he nodded to his guard, who walked over to Cerberus first. Cerberus was huge, at just under the height of Minotaur in his human form, so he had to kneel for the guard to place her hands on his head.

He began to grunt in pain, something that made Sphinx worry a bit because Cerberus was quite tough, he wasn’t one to scream in pain… meaning this was going to hurt.

It was soon over, too soon for Sphinx’s liking, and he found his head held between two surprisingly dainty hands as searing pain shot through his skull.

Sphinx wasn’t aware of when it ended but he was on the floor catching his breath, glad that he hadn’t vomited, or screamed, at least for too long.

And then the clarity came, and Sphinx felt as if he’d been… well, what would be a good way to describe it… he felt as if he had lived in the dark for his whole life, only to find out the sun existed, it wasn’t enough to describe it, but it was as close as Sphinx got.

He soon stood, wobbly, with help from Cerberus, both of them looking to the girl with happiness in their eyes… she’d helped them. And for just a moment, her electric glare softened a bit and she nodded, walking back to go to Lukas Vann’s side.

“There you go, you’ve gotten your part of the deal, now just try and kill Aaron Hassan and we’ll be square… oh and don’t worry about their Chained leader. He’s preoccupied with a huge problem.” Vann walked away, his guard following, and Sphinx looked to Cerberus.

“…It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Sphinx asked, and Cerberus smirked in response.

“Feels better than se… maybe not?” Cerberus looked confused and Sphinx chuckled at his words, feeling happier than he had in years.

“Probably not, Cerberus… I doubt anything is better than that, except gold.” Paul, otherwise forgotten, sighed at their words… but had a small smile on his face, shaking his head at the renewed antics of his boss and his bodyguard.

“Eh, everyone has their own likes. Such a shame, isn’t it boss?” Cerberus asked as Sphinx nodded, walking to the back entrance of the Opera House, a smirk under his mask, renewed power in his footsteps as he stalked forward, no longer meandering like Sphinx the gardener, now he was Sphinx the Auction Master.

“Indeed Cerberus… So much potential for that group, they might have been capable of killing Vann… too bad they didn’t deal with us first.” Sphinx added, and Paul felt sorry for this ‘Aaron’ fellow.

He’d be going up against the ruler of Area 10 soon, and Sphinx ruled with an iron fist, and a fire breathing bodyguard.

Paul held in his sigh as he wished he could go home and kill some goblins with a Firaga or something.