44 Meeting with Ionas

Once they had been cleared to leave the hospital the four slowly headed for the doors. Each was nursing various bangs and bruises so they took their time leaving as to not aggravate their aching bodies. Waiting at the front of the building was an immaculately dressed robot butler. Micu raised an eyebrow, "Steve?" The robot bowed gracefully before the four teenagers.

Its manicured suit fit him as though its body had been crafted to wear those clothes. A silver glow radiated off its neatly polished exterior and two dull yellow eyes shined through a non-threatening face mask. It raised its back and spoke in a metallic posh accent. "Master Micu and company. I am pleased to see you are okay. Your father sent me here to retrieve you. Would you please follow me?" Micu was already walking after the robot before any of his friends could ask any questions. Shrugging their shoulders they followed behind the robot into an expensive looking car with a double helix on its side. One strand was organic and the other was robotic.

Micu sat in the co-pilot's chair next to Steve. His three friends slowly climbed in and did their best not to jostle each other too much. Jayce was the last to enter and he sat down slowly as his aching arms found purchase on the door. Micu turned his head to watch him enter and then spoke in Steve's direction. "We're all in." The robot nodded its head but the hovercar was already floating high into the air. It quickly zoomed into the streams of cars moving through the city.

"Steve is dad okay?" The robots head turned but it continued to nimbly navigate its way through the traffic. "Of course master Micu. He simply wanted you to be well cared for when you awoke from your battle." Micu nodded and furrowed his brow as he tried to figure out his father's true intentions. He looked back at his friends and all three were already fast asleep. He half smiled and then rested his head against the expensive leather. Micu couldn't blame them, he had felt a weight lift off his own shoulders when they finally escaped the hospital.

The car silently zoomed through the sky and Micu watched as neon signs whizzed past. Floating food trucks lazily hung in the sky as people zoomed past them. A couple of winged Lizards played some sort of game on a rooftop and Micu watched them until he couldn't see even their outlines. He sighed as he considered all that had happened in less than five days. Team Pure, Jayce getting attacked by an Overwatcher, talking to one dying Overwatcher and one severely weakened Overwatcher, fighting an actual monster, all of them sustaining actual injuries. He sighed deeply again and pushed it from his mind.

A large floating advertisement for Tara Sourcurl's show filled his view and Micu wondered what other crazy stuff was going to happen before they actually chose a team. Or if they would even be allowed to join a team now. Trying again to push the thoughts from his head Micu twisted around to look at his friends. Jayce was fast asleep on Ralnas' shoulder and Jenira was drooling slightly as she rested her head against the window. "We're still just kids." He thought solemnly. He stared off in the distance and wondered if he and Ralnas had anything special about them.

As he got lost in daydreams of wielding enough power to avenge Earth he felt the car slow. He looked around and noticed the car was heading straight up the mega-skyscraper that they had been staying at. He also remembered that his dad had purchased the penthouse of the building. He watched as the car burst through the clouds and continue climbing. The starry night sky reflected back at him. Away from the light pollution of the city, the sky gleamed. Micu almost felt a tear form as he remembered the night sky of Earth. Maybe I'll maintain this simulation and just make it better he thought to himself. This thought caused Micu to smile just as the car crested over the top of the building and began to decrease the distance to the roof.

Waiting next to the balcony door was Ionas. Dressed in a thick overcoat and slacks he looked lively and waved to Micu. Micu twisted around and gently pushed on Ralnas. "Hey buddy, we're home." Ralnas opened his eyes slowly and looked around before blinking away the sleep and yawning. His movements disturbed Jayce who awoke far more violently than Ralnas. He shot up and was breathing heavily looking around frantically before slowly relaxing. "You okay?" Micu asked him concerned. Jayce just nodded and said, "dreams," before he took a deep breath. Jenira opened one eye and peered around the cabin of the car before opening the other and slowly stretching her body.

Steve twisted its head 180 degrees to look at the three of them. "Welcome to the penthouse of master Ionas. Please wipe your feet before stepping inside." The four nodded dumbly as they waited for Steve to unlock the doors. Micu forcibly opened his door and walked briskly to his dad who hugged him tightly. "I'm glad you're okay." Micu gripped his dad with all of his remaining strength, "me too."

The three others waited a respectful distance away until the two had finished embracing and then moved to wipe their feet and enter inside. Ionas watched them and moved his eyes to Steve's frame. "You told them to wipe their feet again, didn't you? I've told you before Steve, guests do not have to wipe their feet before entering." Steve bowed deeply, "I am sorry to have failed you master Ionas." Ionas rolled his eyes, "It's okay Steve. Just remember for next time."

He ushered the four into the apartment and had them sit on the circular couch that took up most of the living room space. "I'll be right back with Jayce's mom." Jayce jumped to his feet, "my moms here?" Ionas was already halfway up the stairs, "see for yourself!" Jayce stayed standing until he saw his mom's figure appear at the top of the stairs. "Mom? Why are you here?" She ran down the stairs and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're okay! Are there any areas the hospital missed? I can bandage them for you if you want."

Jayce felt a little overwhelmed and patted his mom's back. "I'm fine I promise. Out of the four of us, I am the one with the least amount of damage." She released him from her iron grip and held him by his shoulders as she looked him up and down. She finally nodded and sat down on the couch as well. Ionas strolled down the stairs while whistling a tune. Micu watched his father warily. "You only whistle like that when you're trying to delay saying something important."

Ionas raised his hands in a shrug. "I wish you would stop listening to your mother when she says stuff like that. Sometimes I just like to whistle." Micu smiled at his dad, "That might be true but right now it's not is it?" Ionas chuckled, "I also hate how much observational skill you got from her." He sat down opposite the four of them and diagonally from Jane. "Yes, I do have something serious to tell you this time." Micu was internally happy that he had successfully read his father's mood.

Ionas lounged with one leg over the other as he did his best to look relaxed, but with his mechanical upgrades his attempts just ended up making him look even more uncomfortable. "Dad just tell us," Micu said with a resigned sigh. Ionas pushed his fingers together and looked at Jayce. "Jayce I fear you've just destroyed an elite team." Jayce looked as though he had been slapped. "You see while I have a day job here working for the hub I also do research on the side. I'm fairly certain it's a division of team Eternity but they'll never come out and admit it. What I do is run analysis on the elite teams to see what strategic advantages we can find within their individual members." Ionas reached under the couch and pulled a thick tablet out. "Inside this brick of a device is all of my notes. I run a team of ten people. One for each team and me at the top overseeing everything."

Micu and Jayce looked the most surprised. Ralnas and Jenira were curious but they weren't surprised by much regarding anything about Micu's family anymore. "Dad, you work for team Eternity?" Micu's voice shook slightly with excitement but also a tinge of doubt. "Well not directly, and not for sure. But I'm pretty sure," he said rambling, "I am 97% sure I work for someone in Eternity but at a distant branch that they won't formally acknowledge. It's not uncommon. Every single advantage can win a game so teams pay big money for anything that might be of use to them." Micu nodded but was still excited that he might have an inside connection to Eternity, even if it was a distant one.

"Anyway, team Pure formed right around the time most historians agree that Neith and Tohil stopped interacting with the simulation. No one is completely sure but most agree that they were formed to be some sort of force for the surviving Overwatchers." Ralnas held up a hand, "Sorry Mr. Ionas, but did everyone know about there being five Overwatchers but me and Micu?" Ionas tilted his head and looked at the four teens seriously. "You mean you didn't know that? What kind of history was that Chiron teaching you?"

Jayce quickly interjected, "We got to choose what classes we took, so we probably just missed the one where he went over the history of the Overwatchers." He offered hopefully. Jenira smiled inwardly seeing him try and defend their former teacher. Though she knew that she and Ralnas would also be just as quick to prevent anyone from slandering his name. Ionas raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment before his mechanical eyes dialed back in to focus on the four of them.

"As I was saying, Pure has long preached about the three rulers and the two fallen. It forms the backbone of why they must reclaim the simulation. To prevent more of their so-called gods from falling to the corrupting influence of the "lower races," he said with air quotes. The four nodded along with what he was saying, their conversation with the team Pure recruiters had followed a similar storyline. "Well if the two dead Overwatchers are in fact alive and they have chosen a member of the lower races to be the one to bear their marks that ruins a lot of that ideology."

Jane finally understood what he was trying to tell them, "You mean that some religious fanatics might target Jayce?" Ionas released a breath of relief. "Yes exactly. In so many words." The four teens finally understood the destination that Ionas was trying to get to and silently thanked Jane for skipping through more of his roundabout explanation. Jayce looked at Ionas with a curious look, "but why would they want to kill me? Isn't that like killing their gods?"

Ionas slowly shook his head, "A lot of their high tier members are pretty brainwashed into their cult. It's hidden knowledge but to become a member high enough in stature to compete in the elite games you essentially have to join this cult of theirs. They call it the "Order of the Three" and all the members of Pure you've seen in matches are part of it." Ionas opened a tab on his watch and flung it onto a screen. Four gleaming angels appeared. Ralnas quickly named them as the high angels that Anna had told them about earlier. "Well done Ralnas," Ionas said impressed. "These four have amassed more secrets than any team we've been studying. The leader, Zakzakiel, goes into his workshop for weeks on end trying out bizarre experiments. Our spies within the organization have never gotten so much as a look at it without immediately being exposed and thrown out."

He moved forward slides to one focusing solely on Zakzakiel. "When the current member to become the one to play the role of Zakzakiel took over things began to change within Pure. They had been a religious leaning team but still offered talented members invitations to join without having to join the church. Now, as you four may know, he's changed that and the church and the team are one and the same." He moved on to the next slide. The front of their castle base gleamed in the displayed picture. "We've gotten multiple reports that the lower stature members are in an outright revolt against the church and the team. Dozens of mid-tier talents have up and quit the team within the last hour. Pure is losing members by the second which causes two outcomes."

He flipped to a slide that had all nine elite team emblems displayed. "One, team Pure becomes even more fanatical with the members that remain. Those who stay and aren't a part of the cult will surely join it. This will push Pure even further against you if they feel you might damage their cause. I suspect you will need to be on your toes every time you play a home match against them. And try not to piss them off the way you did to Leon Roberts," Ionas paused as he took a sip of water and let this information dump settle for a moment before continuing. "Two, there are now hundreds if not thousands of previously committed competitors without teams. I suspect most will join team Chief but that's another matter altogether. There are bound to be some among them that see you as chosen of their gods and may even begin following and worshiping you." He looked at Jayce seriously. "You may have just created a new religion Jayce."