Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved

Risu left Benzo's shop with a vigorous pep in his step.

After hearing what he heard, he was largely unsure of what to do. All he knew was that he had to tell someone what he saw because it was very big news. As a child, and even recently, he had a knack for spying on things he wasn't meant to..

Risu weaved through the undercity with ease before stopping on the roof of a building. He needed time to process what had just happened before his eyes. All the events in the past few days were finally coming crashing down onto him at once.

Tears welled up in his eyes as a result of the overload of information. He hated the situation that he was placed in, the situation the Undercity was placed in, and how weak he was to be unable to change it. Vander himself had to protect everyone here.

How far is Vander willing to go, Risu thought. He obviously wouldn't offer up any people of the Undercity, but he was willing to put his own reputation on the chopping block. What was next? Vander himself? Risu couldn't bear to keep thinking about it.

Risu had very few emotional "explosions" in his life. Often, he didn't react at all to certain events. The last time he remembered having a breakdown like this was a few years ago. That time he nearly beat up Mylo, which was why Mylo started listening more to Risu.

Risu grabbed his head and thought harder. If I can't figure out what to do with this new knowledge, why don't I ask Vi, he thought. He wiped away his tears and got up,

"Risu?" Ekko struggled to climb to the top of the building. Risu rushed over and lifted him up. Ekko was out of breath from trying to catch up with Risu. "Where are you going? We can't just go tell people this all willy-nilly."

Risu exhaled heavily, "I'm going to tell Vi what we saw."

Ekko had a shocked expression on his face and shouted, "No, you can't!"

"What? Why?" Risu asked, a perplexed expression on his face. He didn't see a reason to not tell her what happened. Plus, she was easily the most mature, so it would make logical sense for her to make the decision of what to do.

"We just… Can't! We shouldn't say anything unless we absolutely need to."

"But we can't just sit here when we know Vander is holding off the enforcers all by himself. We should tell Vi because she would know what to do."

"That's the thing. She's going to try and solve the problem by herself if we do that. We should tell her only if we need to."

Risu was fixated on his idea. "No, we'll tell her and we will solve the problem together. Like we always do. So please, lets just go tell her about it."

"No, no no. You're not getting what I'm saying. Look what happened the last time I let something slip to Vi. I'm the whole reason you guys are in this situation in the first place!" Ekko yelled back. He was nearly in tears, something Risu didn't notice until now.

Risu hugged Ekko, patting his head. "No, it's not your fault. Don't say something like that."

A few minutes passed of the two embracing each other until Ekko stopped crying. Risu finally released Ekko. "Hey, how about we go help with your Powder Problems~"

"Ew! No!"

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Powder looked through a hole in the colored glass, seeing a group of enforcers intimidating a man. She stood inside a large secret room in the Last Drop where there were various games and activities, including arcade games, shooting games and even a boxing game.

"Hey guys, I think you should see thi-" Before Powder could finish her sentence, the body of the man came flying through the glass. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the hole in the glass. The enforcers looked astonished through the glass.

"Search them." Said the only enforcer without a full helmet on. The enforcers stepped over the glass and into the room, each one going near one of the children.

"Go ahead idiots, we've got nothin'" Mylo said, fully confident that they had nothing left from the robbery. After all, only Vi and Powder knew about the gemstones that Powder kept. Powder tightly clutched the bag the stones were in while Vi stared at her, contemplating if they should run.

The enforcer leader walked up to Powder, nearly cornering her. Vi broke eye contact with Powder and nodded at Claggor, who pulled the lever on the wall. Most of the lights turned off except a dim neon blue glow. Powder ran away from the main enforcer.

Mylo dived over the counter of the shooting game, taking the toy gun and shooting wildly at the enforcers. The balls bounced off the enforcers' armor, but a metal plate came flying at them from the side and knocked one to the ground.

Claggor pushed the other enforcer to the ground as they all ran towards the secret escape behind the shooting range. Powder was grabbed by the main enforcer from behind one of the targets, but she activated a trap on the target and it clamped down on his arm.

The enforcer let go as the rest ran by, everyone bursting through the door and the enforcer barely running behind them. He held open the door as three enforcers ran through, yelling "Get them!"

The group ran into a dead end as they realized there were two enforcers on the other side of the alley, holding up a poor victim. They noticed the group of four and dropped the man, opting to run after the children.

They heard the sound of a whistle as a fire escape came down above them. "Over here!" Ekko and Risu yelled down to them. They climbed the ladder in quick succession. The enforcers tried to climb the ladder but Vi kicked the ladder off the fire escape.

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"We should hit them back! We've got the numbers to beat them!" A woman named Sevika, who looked to be around her late 20s to mid 30s, slammed her hands on one of the tables in the Last Drop.

"Yeah, let's teach 'em what it means to mess with us!" A man called out. Many people in the bar cheered in agreement.

Vander called all of the important figures of the Undercity to a meeting where they discussed the recent actions of the enforcers. Many people were getting riled up because of the arrogant and unreasonable actions that they had recently.

Vander lit his pipe and rose up from his resting position on the counter, taking a puff. "Are you sure that's what you want?" He released the smoke from his mouth. "We've crossed that bridge once before. We all know how that ended."

A man with a scar on his face and a gravelly voice spoke up, "You're just protecting your kids!"

Vander stood up even more straight, now looking directly in the eyes of everyone in the bar. "I'm protecting our people. I'll do the same for every one of you. We look out for each other-its the way its always been. This will all blow over, we just need to stand together."

Sevika stared defiantly in his direction. "The Vander I knew-the one who built the underground-wouldn't be afraid to fight."

Vander walked up to her and got in her face, taking in another puff of his pipe. "Do I look afraid?"

Sevika decided she would stand up to the "new" Vander. "No, you look weak." Sevika whistled and the people in her gang got up and left with her.

"Why isn't he doing anything?" Claggor asked. The group of children were in a small doorway in one of the corners of the bar. They watched the entire meeting from there.

"We kicked the enforcer's butts with just the four of us. Imagine what the whole of the Lanes could do!" Powder argued.

"Tch, even Powder wants to fight." Mylo turned and walked back into their living area, the others beside Ekko and Risu following.

"So why aren't we?" Vi yelled, tired of being pushed down. Risu and Ekko shared a guilty glance, which Vi caught. When she stopped to take a closer look, the two looked away from her. Ekko accidentally made eye contact with Vi.

"Spill it, you two." While Vi was looking at Ekko, Risu was behind her and doing anything to signal him not to say anything.

Ekko cracked and started spilling. "Um-okay, well… Vander's got a… deal with the enforcers." He muttered.

Vi was extremely shocked. She never expected Vander, of all people, to make a deal with the enforcers. "What deal?"

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Everyone was relaxing in their living quarters. Risu was napping under his kotatsu, Ekko and Powder were building bombs, Claggor was reading a book and Mylo and Vi were talking. Everyone stopped when a loud ringing sound came from above the beds.

A toy monkey called a jolly chimp came down with symbals in its hand, clapping them rapidly. Its eyes were glowing red, signifying that it was the alarm system. Someone was coming into the room, most likely enforcers.

When the enforcer came down to the small room, the entire room was dark and there was no sign of anyone there. The only sounds were his heavy footsteps and breathing through the breathing mask. The enforcer turned on his flashlight and shined it around.

Everyone grimaced in their hiding place, looking at the enforcer who slowly searched their stuff. Under the beds, inside the vents, under tables. The thing he didn't realize was that all of them were hanging off bars and pipes on the ceiling.

Powder was in an extremely uncomfortable position: her legs were resting on a small ledge and both her arms were wrapped around a pipe sticking out of the ceiling. A majority of her body was dangling right above the enforcer.

She was struggling to hold onto the bar, her fingers slipping now and then. Risu and the others noticed this and silently prayed that she wouldn't fall. Risu slowly grabbed onto a bar closer to Powder, getting the attention of everyone around him.

Vi mouthed, "What are you doing?" to him, but Risu ignored her. He grabbed onto another pipe and gently swung towards Powder, making a quiet bang. The enforcer waved his flashlight around but returned to searching.

Risu crawled across the ceiling like a spider, eventually reaching Powder. He flexibly folded himself so he could fit on the wooden ledge before holding onto Powder's legs, being able to gently lift her into the air. Eventually, the enforcer passed and Risu nearly dropped her, but he simply fell to the ground with Powder on top of him.

Powder quickly got up because she noticed Risu was groaning and holding his stomach. Risu quickly got up and tossed Powder back onto the ceiling, this time in a much more secure place. Vi caught her and Risu jumped back up with ease.

A minute or two passed to make sure that the enforcers wouldn't come back before the door opened. Everyone looked and saw it was Vander. "You all okay?" He asked them. Vi dropped down from her place on the ceiling, landing in front of Vander.

"No, we're not okay, they almost saw Powder-What if they took her?" Vi frantically spoke to him. Everyone else dropped down after her.

"No one is taking any of you. Never let that happen."

"It's already happening! You heard him, they won't stop! We need to fight back!" Vi slammed her hand on the pipes next to the staircase both she and Vander stood on, making a bit of dust seep out of them. Everyone was slightly frightened beside Vi and Vander.

"And if you won't… I will."

Vander exhaled, seemingly recalling a memory before saying, "I've heard this kind of talk before."

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After the small argument between Vi and Vander, Vander took Vi out somewhere that the others didn't know. They all went back to hanging out except that Ekko had gone back home.

Vi returned not too long after, only around an hour or so since it was raining. Risu sat with Claggor and Mylo on the couch. Mylo was bandaging his arm, Claggor was polishing a knife, and Risu was reading a book, yet it seemed more like he was staring at it blankly. Powder was on her bed, fixing up more bombs.

"Vi, where you been?" Mylo called out to her, pausing his bandaging.

"Rumor is that the Lanes are gonna fight." Claggor added. Risu looked up from his book and glanced at Vi conspicuously. She raised an eyebrow to him, signaling that they would talk later. Vi walked over to Powder without giving a greeting to the other two.

"Look, I made these for the enforcers!" Powder handed Vi a few of the bombs she made. "This one's a smoke bomb and those two are full of nails." Powder chuckled nervously as she took something else from her stash. "They're gonna work this time, I know it."

"Me too." Vi scooted closer to Powder, brushing Powder's hair out of her face. Powder held the doll that Vi lost years ago and presented it to her. Vi clutched her hand, beginning, "You know, Powder? What makes you different makes you strong. Always remember that, okay?"

Risu stared at Vi, concerned with her small monologue. It sounded like the same kind of speech a protagonist's role model would give before sacrificing themself. Vi walked back out, Risu following her. Claggor called out, "Hey, where are you going? You're leaving again?" but the two didn't respond, only glancing at them.

Vi pulled her hood up and Risu threw on a cloak to conceal their identities. There were people in the Undercity scummy enough to rat them out if it meant even a chance at appeasing the enforcers at the cost of their own blood.

The two ended up in a vacant corner of the Undercity, a small area where a heap of trash concealed them from the main streets. Risu sat on a broken and rusting piece of metal while Vi leaned on the alley corner.

Vi gestured for him to start talking, "So,,, You brought me here because…"

"Vi, I'm just really concerned. Recently, the Undercity has been taking loss after loss and I don't know how much we can take before we finally go crazy and do something extreme." Risu explained, gripping the ends of his faded brown cloak tightly.

"Risu, don't worry. This will be over soo-"

Risu stood up and slammed his hand on the metal beneath him. "Vi, that's what you don't understand. This could all be really fucking bad for us. If the Undercity keeps boiling over like this, we could have another war. Both of us remember what the last war was like."

Vi stood there with her hand on her hand, waiting for a moment. "So, what do you think we should do to calm the Undercity and the Enforcers? This is the only option we have."

"I don't know, that's the thing. I'm just warning you so that we can prevent ourselves from this fate. What do you think could happen to Powder? To Ekko? To anyone we know in the Undercity? I just want you to know that something bad is coming, and we need to be careful." Risu said, finally sitting back on the lump of metal, closing his eyes for a moment.

Vi looked down at the ground, thinking of everything that could happen. A determined look spread across her face and she stopped leaning on the alley wall. "I know what I have to do to fix this."

Risu almost didn't hear what she said and stood up suddenly. He looked around, but Vi was already gone from his sight. "Vi, what the fuck are you gonna do?" Risu said to no one in particular.