Aaron’s bus pulled into a parking spot, and unlike what normally happened, they decided to leave the triplets behind instead of Cyclops, who wanted to get out once in a while beyond his drinking sprees.

“Are you sure we can leave them alone with the bus?” Medusa asked wearily, still hearing the philosophical discussion of ‘why does peanut butter go well with jelly’ and ‘would banana slices go with peanut butter or honey’… strange discussions there.

“Sure, they wouldn’t dare do anything to it, or else Cyclops would kill them, possibly literally.” They looked over to Cyclops seeing him downing one of his seventeen flasks, and while his eyes spun a bit, he began drawing designs for something he wanted to make…

Looked like a Tank. Cyclops shouldn’t know how to make a Tank, let alone the bullets he seemed to be considering, ignoring that he didn’t even know how bullets worked beyond hurting things.

“What are you looking at, huh? Want me to put my spanner up your-” He was interrupted by a very cartoony drunken hiccup as he continued with his drawing.

“…Probably literal.” “Yeah, literally make them dead.” Empusa and Minotaur cut in with their own additions, Chimera, as usual, was quite the quiet guy, so he didn’t have much to say, though he nodded in agreement.

“Why are we even stopping here anyway? Typhon’s out there fighting for his life and we go shopping?” Empusa asked as Aaron looked to her with a frown on his face, disliking the fact that he was being reminded of his wayward friend.

“Empusa, trust him. I trust him to make his way back to us, but I owe him for many things, especially taking Leviathan away from us. So I’m going to do whatever I can to get what he wants while he’s gone, and what he wants is his sister back.” Empusa blinked at the sudden speech Aaron gave before he walked faster, pulling at his new suit with annoyance.

“Don’t mind his words Empusa… he’s just as annoyed as you.” Empusa turned to the hand Medusa placed on her shoulder, every member of their group wearing suits or dresses, but enough to move in…

The Auction was really formal apparently.

“Really, because Aaron doesn’t act like he’s annoyed.” She complained, but both of them knew Empusa was complaining just for the sake of it.

“Of course he doesn’t… Aaron is our leader, and that puts pressure on him. Worse, he’s our leader, and he could do nothing to stop Leviathan.” Empusa frowned at those words.

“Aaron is a good leader, but that’s just it, he’s a good leader, he isn’t a fighter, and when we faced an overwhelming problem requiring strength to fight, he was worthless. He knows that better than anyone.” Empusa let out a tired sigh, accepting Medusa’s words… Empusa knew what she was saying, but she needed to hear someone else say it.

Medusa and Empusa followed and soon entered the Opera House, Aaron already wearing a plain mask showing a white face that he was handed by that gardener, Chan. The rest of them didn’t have masks, but they weren’t bidding or auctioning anything.

“So how does this Auction work exactly?” Aaron was talking to a man at the entrance to the Opera House proper, who gave a slight professional bow at his question.

“The Auction works as such, sir. People bring in rarer material items, cars, a large supply of fresh food, computers, whatever people want to trade, and they can be bought for anything deemed of higher value by the Auction Master.” Aaron nodded at his words, having been talking to him for a bit before Empusa and Medusa walked in.

“So I need to get the stuff I want to sell verified first huh? How about… can I sell information?” Aaron asked as the man raised a brow from his previously neutral expression.

“Quite the interesting question sir, indeed you may, though only through the Auction Master himself, would you be auctioning your information, or trading it?” There was a slight difference between the two, in that auctioning something would get you something of equal value, but you wouldn’t know what it was.

On the other hand, if you traded, you’d be shown items and be able to select one. The question was, what if you picked one thing, but immediately afterwards something better appeared?

An appropriate term for that situation was ‘coughing blood in regret’.

“I’d be trading it, though I am willing to auction one bit of information.” Arthur admitted, and the man nodded, though he was clearly still interested.

“I have three bits of information I’m willing to use. The first, would be the recipe for Coca-Cola, I’m auctioning that.” Empusa and Minotaur nearly fell over at his words while Cyclops burst into laughter.

Hey, it’s been a while since that joke was made, who would have expected it to be of use here?

“That would likely not be worth a large amount though… some collectors might be interested, which would raise the cost a bit.” The man seemed to be working out the price, before nodding to himself.

“Right, it would be about seventy auction credits. To explain, we just use these to estimate the worth of information, they aren’t hard values. For example, that bus of yours could probably get about two hundred to five hundred auction credits.” Aaron shrugged, understanding the deal.

“Of course, it could be traded for more. As the Auction House, we’ll be taking a bit of an advantage for ourselves while trading this information, I trust you won’t mind?” the man asked and Aaron smirked in return.

“I know how business works, I don’t mind. So, you’ll be keeping the recipe yourself?” Aaron asked, getting to the heart of the matter and the man behind the counter smirked and nodded.

“Well, it seems fair. As for the two bits of information I’m trading…” Aaron seemed to think for a moment, wondering what he should trade.

“Alright, for the two bits of information I’m trading, one would be the name and location of the Mercenary Guild Leader, and the second would be how to make Biological Chained turn into regular humans in appearance.” Aaron stated, and the counter-man widened his eyes.

“Well… that would be worth quite a large amount to the right parties… quite a large amount… I’d estimate about one thousand five hundred Auction credits for the both of them.” The man stated, and Mino and Empusa widened their eyes then.

“Brilliant, I’m assuming one thousand for the Biological Chained bit, and five hundred for the Guild Leader name and location?” Aaron asked and the man looked a bit awkward at that.

“…You are really good at business… I’m certain the Auction Master would enjoy conversing with you.” The man stated, and Aaron smirked.

He was soon given a few pieces of paper, on one, he wrote the Coca-Cola recipe, when someone tried to sneak a glance he moved it away though. On the second and third pieces of paper, he wrote the word Leviathan, followed by ‘Swamp between Area 8, 9 and 10’ and on the final piece of paper he wrote…

‘Have Typhon use his Stabilization ability on you. Typhon travels with Aaron Hassan.’

The first paper was handed to the man, whiles the second and third was kept by Aaron, who nodded at the man and walked away.

“Why did you agree to trade those two bits of information?” Mino asked as they walked into the Opera House, Aaron taking in the large-ness of the place and feeling giddy at being at one of the most famous of Old Australia’s Landmarks.

“Well the Coca-Cola one was for fun; and besides, it’s been a while since I mentioned it. I like having people know that I know something that rare.” Aaron was a prick for saying that.

“As for the information regarding Leviathan and Typhon, it’s so we can send help to Typhon, maybe. If a Biological-Chained is selling something, then I can trade this information for it, and the Chained would be forced to go to Typhon for help. For those who have a grudge against Leviathan, they’d rush to find him.” Mino blinked and Empusa smiled at his words.

“Kind of obvious, isn’t it?” Cyclops stated out of nowhere with a swig of his bottle making Mino and Empusa look at him in confusion.

“What, I’m a drunk, not an idiot. Did you forget that I’m a motor mechanic that works on cars with near jet engines?” Empusa pushed out her bottom lip in begrudging acknowledgement while Mino scratched the back of his head.

“Well, let’s take our seats.” Medusa reminded the group, and they moved forward, Aaron leading Medusa with her holding onto his elbow in a surprising act of elegance, while Empusa and Mino felt out of place… and Cyclops was drinking without care.

They soon found some seats, and seated themselves surrounding Aaron, with Cyclops on his left, Medusa on his right, Empusa behind him and Mino sitting in front of him…

Aaron attracted bad vibes, so they didn’t want to take any risks.

Soon, more people poured in, a large amount, but not enough that there weren’t pockets of empty seats between separate groups, and thus, the lighting dimmed a bit.

“Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen to the Auction! I am your Auction Master, by now you all know me or have heard of me, the man of riddles, Sphinx!” the man himself appeared from a hole in the stage, and Aaron thought the man’s outfit to be awesome.

Hey, have you seen a Pharaoh’s headdress with a gold mask? It looked surprisingly awesome.

“And appearing on stage with me, as always, is my stoic fire-breathing assistant, Cerberus!” The second man to appear was big, not as big as Mino, but he was definitely more built, something Aaron didn’t think existed.

“We’re in for an interesting evening folks, as I’ve been informed of a guest who had brought in over a thousand Auction credits for his very first Auction, we’re sure to have an interesting go.” Medusa looked at Aaron with narrowed eyes and Aaron sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Empusa, behind the two of them, wondered why the thought of Medusa scolding out her husband Aaron just made that scene seem so right… then blamed it on romanticism.

“Now for our first bit, put up by a racer from Area 6, is a GT-R apparently previously owned by the man who won Pegasus’ first hover car, bids are starting at one hundred auction credits!” Aaron’s whole group just looked at the GT-R with dead eyes.

“…Cyclops… I know we said they could trade it, but…” “I know… this is weird…” “I miss that car.” “You’ve never even been in that car!” “My horns never fit…”

Understandably, there was some awkwardness, especially when the next item up for auction was pants worn by Minotaur, a musket rifle dropped by Jaeger and a Jeep with a dent in the front due to knocking over something.

Yes, Aaron no longer considered this an Auction, but instead a museum of strange things that occurred to his group. It was getting a bit too much to bear until the Coca-Cola recipe was sold… for information on the recipe for KFC’s Chicken.

“I blame you. I don’t know how, or why, but I know you somehow caused all this insanity Aaron.” Empusa growled quietly behind Aaron as even Aaron felt confused on this…

Besides, he already knew that recipe, the skin was the only good thing about it in his opinion, though it was quite good a few years back.

“Hi there.” Their attention was pulled off the next item for sale, a high tech computer, as Aaron looked to see a man with a person in what looked to be a hooded cloak behind him.

“Hello, have we met? My name is Aaron.” Aaron greeted casually, even as Medusa’s eyes widened and grabbed his own arm.

“No, but that isn’t really important.” The man stated with a shrug, before fixing his suit and sweeping his slightly longer hair to the back.

“Aaron, that is Lukas Vann… and Echidna.” Medusa whispered in his ear, and three things happened immediately after that.

Aaron’s eyes widened, the robed person, Echidna apparently, widened her eyes, and Cyclops burped loud enough for the entire Opera House to hear.

“Well… that’s disgusting. Who cares though, end this auction Echidna.” The man, apparently Lukas Vann, ordered, turning and walking away, a man with electric blue eyes and blond hair in the next row standing up and following behind him…

As for Echidna, her robe shuffled a bit as steel wires soon appeared from beneath the robe, pulling what looked to be swords with no handles along with the wires, and glaring.

That was when Aaron realized he might die soon and so spoke his earnest thoughts.

“Echidna, did you know there’s an animal named after you?”

It was enough to give pause to both Echidna and Aaron’s group, all of which were a bit uncertain… was he sane?

Whereas Echidna was still questioning this, Aaron’s group already knew the answer as Medusa grabbed him and jumped back.

The answer was surprisingly yes… but his actions sure didn’t send that message. It was more of a maybe…yeah…kind of?

Of course, as Medusa jumped back, the blades, eight of them, shot forward to attempt to stab… Sphinx, whose eyes widened as Cerberus stood in front of Sphinx with his arms in a cross form, the blades skidding off the metallic arms and shoulders Cerberus possessed.

“What is the meaning of this?” Sphinx’s voice boomed as many people began running out of the auction in fear, some of the Chained, the rare few that were at the auction, seemed to contemplate staying but instead left, deeming that it wasn’t worth their time.

“Mister Vann wants this auction over quickly so you can do your job. It’s just business.” Aaron, even as he was being dragged away by Medusa, noted the voice, soft yet gently carrying along to be heard even with the sound of people running.

“This was not part of the deal… Fine, I’ll do my part, but Vann will regret this!” Sphinx shouted, sounding like a stereotypical villain as he no longer used the microphone, Echidna rushing out as Aaron watched.

“Wait, please wait!” Aaron called, but it wasn’t enough to stop Echidna from running away as he scowled, wishing he had opened with ‘Hi, we know your brother Typhon’ instead of his silly note about animals…

Okay, he wasn’t thinking straight, and that was the first thing that popped to mind… but still, she was so close, the girl Typhon was looking for, his twin sister!

“Go, after her!” Aaron shouted, but he was interrupted by Sphinx of all people.

“I’m afraid that’s not in the cards, Aaron… sorry to say, but I need to try and kill you now.” Sphinx said and Aaron blinked a bit at Sphinx knowing his name…

That was all he was allowed to do before Cerberus charged forward, Sphinx right behind, Mino and Empusa stopping Cerberus, which surprised Aaron, Mino was the strongest Chained physically that he knew, barring impossibilities like Leviathan and the combined Hydra…

And Cerberus punched Mino hard enough to lift him off the ground for a bit, Empusa had it slightly better, as she was actually pretty heavy due to compressed mass.

She was still thrown away when Cerberus gave a mean uppercut that likely would have punched through steel. As it was, she’d be bruised for quite a while on her arms.

As for Sphinx, he was facing off against Medusa now, Cyclops and Aaron getting ready to run when Aaron stopped, causing Cyclops to look at him for answers.

“We can’t go outside, that Lukas Vann guy would be there, along with one of his Chained and Echidna. We need her on our side, but until certain conditions can be met, we can assume he has another Typhon outside.” Cyclops paled at the implications of fighting anyone at Typhon’s strength level, as he was just barely stronger than Empusa, not counting her creature transformation abilities.

And everyone had already heard the story of Typhon punching a dragon version of Empusa.

“But… I do have an idea.” While Aaron and Cyclops moved to sort out his plans, Medusa was glaring at Sphinx, who cracked his gloved fists as he stared at her, ignoring the class of metaphorical titans behind him.

“Why are you after us?” Medusa asked with a raised brow as Sphinx held his hands out in a ‘what can you do?’ gesture.

“Lukas Vann made a deal Cerberus and I couldn’t refuse, and in exchange we’d try to kill Aaron Hassan…” Sphinx said, making Medusa pause.

“Echidna, she Synchronized you, didn’t she… and Vann fears Aaron cause Aaron’s doing what he did, at least, it looks like it, and Vann doesn’t want competition.” Sphinx widened his eyes in impressed surprise.

“Well… you’re smarter than your information mentioned… a side effect of your ability, likely related to Aaron… you have his memories?” Sphinx countered and Medusa’s ‘claws’ appeared.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not the smart one between the two of us.” Sphinx chuckled at Medusa’s words as he stepped forward, uncaring for her ‘claws’… he’d just have to not get hit.

Medusa didn’t think Sphinx would be that hard to fight, he had a bodyguard after all, so hopefully he wouldn’t be too difficult to beat.

Closer to the stage, Mino was getting his ass handed to him by Cerberus, and for the first time since being defeated by Typhon had he felt physically inferior to another being.

Sure, in sheer strength he beat Typhon, but Typhon used his power better than Mino did, allowing Typhon to toss Mino around even when he was huge, as he was now, Typhon actually found it a bit easier, though Mino was indeed a bit stronger.

But Cerberus, for some reason, was matching up and surpassing Mino with near ease, the only sign of exertion when he’d throw a punch at Mino was the look of annoyance that Mino didn’t seem to explode into a cloud of red.

Empusa was helping with her animal transformations… well, she didn’t look to be transformed, but that was a trick Aaron had been walking her through, and it had started with:

Can’t you internalize the changes instead of showing them?

From that question, Empusa had been trying to hide her physical changes, and eventually hit the point where she could, but only with certain parts, such as converting her nose in some form, or making her muscles denser.

Empusa was slowly but surely reaching into what Aaron had been trying to explain to her, and she was getting there… to the point where she’d be capable of freely manipulating her flesh to her will.

She was showing signs of it now, her tiny form punching harder than it should, moving with more flexibility than she had originally known, there were moments where it didn’t work correctly and she’d know pain soon after when Cerberus would hit her, but it was getting better…

She was still busy focusing on a change she was attempting when Cerberus had punched her away and then went on to suplex Mino into the stage, turning and, to Sphinx’s delight and horror, proceeded to chain suplex’s in a beautiful manner.

Hey, it wasn’t very effective against trained combatants, but between two people who didn’t have proper fighting styles, wresting was perfectly acceptable… and awesome.

That last bit was really important. Was it mentioned that a continuous suplex is the stuff of legends?

It got worse when Cerberus was almost interrupted by Empusa, instead choosing to throw Mino at Empusa, who unfortunately had to catch the huge man… and yes, her strength had increased by quite a bit at this stage…

Were Aaron here and not doing something related to future plot, he’d wonder if the people who made the Chained would be able to believe Empusa’s growth from a low-tier Chained to being in the Upper-Middle Class.

A good example of Highest Class would be Leviathan, and apparently Baal, both of whom had slain a Hunter… Aaron was really hoping someone like that existed in the Greek group, because Typhon, while High Class, wasn’t up there just yet.

Close, but no cigar, was the term.

On Medusa’s side of the fight, she was really worried at this point that her assumptions were wrong, and that she should listen to the little ‘Aaron-esque’ voice in her mind.

As it was, her own assumption was that Sphinx was someone who needed to be guarded, and wouldn’t put up too much of a fight against Medusa who, while not primarily a combatant, was capable much like how Typhon was a ‘Support’ type Chained yet capable of defeating roughly ninety per cent of all Chained.

The ‘Aaron’ bit of her mind disagreed with her belief, thinking that Sphinx was still a Chained, not to be underestimated because that got people killed…

The Aaron part was quite right, as she nearly died several times in the short time since the fight had begun.

“Ah, I missed again… it’s been a decade since my last fight you know, these old bones are still getting used to moving again.” Medusa wished she had a larger vocabulary of curses to complain about this moment, as even the information she had gained from Aaron didn’t have enough words for her to complain at the nonsense coming out of Sphinx’s mouth.

“I can taste the sarcasm.” Medusa bit out, wiping away a bit of blood from her mouth and holding her side tenderly as Sphinx shook his arm a bit.

“Hey, don’t complain that I’m not fighting as well as I used to, I’m newly Synchronized so It’s still a bit weird, why do you think Cerberus is breaking out wresting moves?” Sphinx pointed over his shoulder, referencing the continuous suplex that had just ended.

“Cerberus is a very proficient at boxing, both the English/American version, and the Thai version… as for me… well, you now know how much it hurts to have your organs rupture slightly.” Sphinx said, settling back into his bastardized Karate stance.

Medusa wasn’t a trained fighter, she knew that, she got by on instinct and some of the strange calculating power all Cyber-Chained possessed which let them know some things they normally wouldn’t.

Sphinx was most certainly trained, and with his current enhanced abilities gained from becoming a Chained almost fifty years ago, he knew how to use his enhanced strength to a point it was scary.

Really, all he had been doing was dodging while punching and once in a while a kick would appear.

The worst part of it, in Medusa’s opinion, was that it wasn’t even flashy like most other Chained, Typhon’s Chinese Kenpo she knew was excellent, but clearly it was abandoned due to him not focusing on it enough, instead using what amounted for animal instinct to fight.

Sphinx’s attacks were so plain it almost felt like she was fighting something automatic. Straight punches, straight kicks, calm side steps, only changed slightly for angling to hit her or shuffling a bit for a better dodging position…

Medusa wasn’t a fighting expert, but one quote Aaron had read once had appeared at the forefront of her mind unbidden.

I fear no man who had practiced ten thousand kicks, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.

Medusa finally realized what she was experiencing and widened her eyes… the basics. That’s all Sphinx was using on her. Some of the very first things ever taught, in just about any martial arts, practiced to the point he could beat just about anyone in a fist fight using it.

Of course, he wasn’t invincible. Leviathan could squash him easily, and Typhon didn’t need to get close to an enemy with his chains, Jaeger as well could simply shoot him from a distance, if his own close fighting style wasn’t enough.

But another benefit of what Sphinx was doing was that he was practically always at full strength.

Typhon was only at full strength when mixing his Kenpo with his chain usage, and he hadn’t been doing that much lately, though he was trying to go back to those basics, Jaeger could be separated from his weapons, Leviathan seemed invincible until one remembered that he would be heavily hindered away from his blood-soaked swamp.

A good way to explain Sphinx’s abilities would be ‘My fighting stance is called awake’

Not to mention his hits did a lot of internal damage, the blunt force bruising her insides.

“No hard feelings here… it’s just business. If it helps any, know that I plan on banning that Lukas from ever entering the Auction again.” It didn’t help, but it gave Medusa an opening…

“Mino, switch with me!” Sphinx widened his eyes as he turned, seeing Mino get tossed by Empusa straight at him… both the target and the ammunition were not happy with this arrangement.

“Who throws someone?” Sphinx shouted in surprise as Medusa jumped, trying to ignore pain in her insides as she stepped off the flying Mino, who was quietly cursing out her family, her, and her dog she didn’t have.

Not all curses make sense in context, but if was euphoric to curse like that, Medusa knew.

Mino landed in a crash while Sphinx jumped back, only for Mino to turn his crash into a role as he tried to smash Sphinx, who dodged the massive swing and punched Mino… making Mino grin with a raised eyebrow.

“That was a pretty good punch actually, better than Typhon when he isn’t using that Chinese stuff he does… but that doesn’t work on me.” Sphinx widened his eyes in remembrance… Minotaur was immune to blunt force.

“Well… can I surrender?” Sphinx hoped Mino would say yes, because Mino was practically a perfect counter to Sphinx.

“Sure, now sit down and wait.” Sphinx blinked at Mino’s words, having expected a punch or possible death through being gored by bull horns.

“…Really?” Sphinx asked, and Mino nodded with a straight face, sitting down in front of Sphinx, knowing that Sphinx couldn’t hurt him right now.

“Really, Aaron doesn’t really like us killing in the first place… and more than likely, he’d want to make a deal of his own with you.” Sphinx blinked, then chuckled as he sat down, removing the golden mask and headdress, surprising Mino upon seeing the face of ‘Mister Chan’.

“What, can’t a guy with an Egyptian name be Asian?” Sphinx asked jokingly as Mino shrugged, before pointing at his own head.

“I’m expected to be bald, and apparently Jiang-shi who works for Vann is British. Aaron thinks the guys who make Chained are doing it for humour.” Sphinx blinked, barely registering that Empusa and Medusa were actually taking down Cerberus, to his surprise…

Some combination of Medusa being too fast for Cerberus and Empusa somehow creating the organ electric eels used for discharging voltage… so now Cerberus was feeling quite crispy as his hair smoked a bit…

Cerberus wasn’t out though, he could probably still win, but he saw Sphinx sitting on the floor in front of Mino and realized that the fight was over, giving up…

It was ten minutes later Aaron walked back in, suit still impeccable, with Cyclops drinking behind him and Chimera following.

And it was soon after talking to Aaron that Sphinx learnt of Aaron’s magic words.

Khul Ja, Shem-shamayim. Aaron believed the doors to heaven were opening, and his grin filled with controlled madness only served to make Sphinx both excited and terrified at the implications.

Meanwhile, in Area nine, they were experiencing significant disturbance in the form of a massive sea monster thing, chasing down two smaller forms which periodically attacked back.

“Why did I agree to help you?” Jaeger wheezed as he hid behind a corner, Leviathan far enough away for him to relax slightly… he had been running and grappling for practically a few hours with few breaks, taken by having Typhon of all people carrying him.

“Maybe you agreed because I’m the only one who can hurt him and you can’t?” Typhon wheezed back, only slightly less exhausted as they had traded turns resting as they moved…

They were struggling at this point, Leviathan was resting as well, but he wasn’t as tired as the two of them…

But chasing them required Leviathan to exit his swamp, something which irritated him, but couldn’t be helped… he just had to make sure to kill all witnesses.

“Screw you Typhon... by the way why are you still here?” Jaeger asked, and it was a relevant question, Typhon could escape easier compared to Jaeger, who actually had a grudge against Leviathan.

“I’m here because he knew my father… and I have something to do.” He looked down to his wrists, and further past them his ankles, and focusing on the nanotech bracelets he possessed…

He had a goal, a goal beyond proving himself stronger than Jaeger, beyond defeating or possibly killing Leviathan… and, should Aaron succeed while he was gone, a goal beyond even finding his sister.

“Well… I don’t like you, but thanks.” Jaeger said, and Typhon was loath to admit, but he was likewise thankful…

So instead of admitting it, he just rolled to the side with a grunt of acknowledgement.

Leviathan would be going to sleep soon… he was far enough away that only Typhon could tell where he was, and Leviathan didn’t have senses as good as Typhon’s

They could rest, a weary rest, but rest nonetheless… Typhon would rest… then, he’d prove his might.