MR.GREEN

Meanwhile, Evangelist sniffed the artifact. It smelled like lavender, strawberries, and cute puppies. She thinks to herself that Hyuga was right on the money; it smelled amazing… But then she tripped over a pebble and dropped the legendary item. It was smashed to bits.

— FRANCHISE WHY!? — She cries over the broken pot.

— WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHY?! YOU WERE THE ONE CARRYING IT!! — He confronts her, shocked and furious by that mistake.

— YOU JINXED IT BY GIVING IT TO ME!! ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!!

They watched as the Shattered Essence exited the remains of the pot.

— WHAT DO WE DO?!

— IT WAS IN THE POT!! DON’T YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE???

— UH… UH…. UH…. HERE!

Searching franticly in her bag, Evangelist takes out some lipstick and throws it to Franchise. He takes it and pushes it against the blue energy. With little time, it comes surging into the lipstick and the relic was contained again. The duo sighs with relief and take notice of the new artifact.

— The Shattered Lipstick… — Evangelist awes in admiration.

— Hyuga won’t like this. — Franchise guards the Shattered Lipstick with its little cap.

— Oh, he won’t mind, we’ve broken relics before. And this time it’s not even broken, in a way. — She says, smiley, while admiring him.

— That’s the… whatever. Keep it on your purse. Safe and sound. — He hands it to her.

— This time for sure! — She says and places it, neatly within her bag. Nice and tidy.

They enter the Black Light District. The only city in Depth 5 in which people inhabit. It wasn’t a nice place. At all. Many who lived there were killed by the Party People and the remains of the city are used by skilled Searchers as little meet up points and places to rest. It was in that dark blue-sky city that The Ballada would meet up.

However, one block into it and they saw a most unusual sight. There were a few dozen corpses lined up, making a hallway in between. They were kneeling and had their hands together as if in prayer. But their heads were down, pierced by those praying hands and forearms, that came out the other side.

— What in the fuck is that… — Franchise takes notice.

— Are those Party People… dead? — Evangelist uttered.

The man that was there, got his hat back on. Light rain began to fall unto them, as the man sang to himself. They were in hushed tones, and as he sang to himself, he danced to his own tune.

“You’ve got the blue blood on your hands,

I know it’s my own.

You've come at me in the midnight,

to show me my soul…”

He turns to the two and with a kindred smile says:

— You seem like intelligent and polite people…

— Evangelist… — Franchise mutters, in high-alert.

— I don’t like this either. — She agrees, reaching for her scissors.

Green walked over to them, through the small corridor made by the giant corpses. He wore a suit and tie, green and black. His hat, green and black. His eyes, green and black. His soul…

— Searchers, right? Sorry for the mess.

— You killed these things? — Evangelist asks.

— No… — He smiles.

— You can stop walking now. — Franchise demands, ready to lick his fingers.

The strange man stops, 11 meters from the two.

— I’m Evangelist, he’s Masha.

— Who are you supposed to be?

— Depth 6 Enthusiast. You can call me Green.

The duo felt a shiver go down their spine. Something about that slender figure in the rain, surrounded by the corpses of allegedly immortal beings was extremely off putting. Evangelist and Franchise have had plenty of experience, but their sharpened sense screamed danger. They wondered particularly hard on the Depth 6 part, as there was no such thing.

— Say, you two know your ways around here… I’m looking for an artifact. — He takes a picture from his suit. — Oh, I guess you can’t see it from here.

— Wait… — Evangelist breathes heavy. She felt something in her hand. — Is this…

There was a polaroid picture in her hand, with a clear image of the Shattered Lipstick.

— Oh, so you have a picture too. — Green comments.

Evangelist looks over to Franchise, wide-eyed.

— Would you mind telling me if you have seen it.

— Yeah, we have.

Franchise feels surprised for uttering the truth.

— Lucky me. Can you tell me where to find it?

— In our —

Evangelist snaps her scissor and Franchise stops talking.

— In our visit to the fields outside the city. We didn’t have a mission to retrieve it, so we left it there. Sorry. — Evangelist answers hastily.

— Not a problem sugar. Thanks for the info, I`ll be on my way then. Searchers.

— Have a good one mate… — Evangelist says.

Green takes his leave, and the world seems all the softer. Evangelist places her hand on Franchise`s shoulder.

— Sorry I cut the Thread that allowed you to speak. — Evangelist says, using her power to reattach the thread.

— Don’t apologize, you did the right thing. For some reason I was forced to say the truth to that guy.

— Well, he’s gone for now… But I don’t understand what happened. The Party People, and the picture…

— Let’s get to the others. And fast.

— Yeah…

Three blocks away from them, in the thick of the concrete jungle, there were cheers being heard amidst some ruckus. The Ballada fought against a caravan of Party People. Liver and Killerkill watched over the others, in a safer part of an abandoned skyscraper. In the streets, one of the slender immortal creatures was seen being twisted like a wet rug.

The young Imperium stood in front of it, with his left arm extended, ready to snap his fingers. His right arm was tightly held against his left, to keep it steady.

— Kaboom!

Imperium snaps his fingers and all the atoms that made up the creature began to spin around on their own axis. The creature was twisted so incredibly hard, that it undid itself and its molecules flew off in the wind.

— That’s three!

Another monster comes from behind, ready to kill the boy but a bullet goes through its head. The smoke that came off the flare, attracted the other creatures thar surrounded Juice towards the one that was shoot. As soon as they were all together, the bullet explodes, freezing all 5 of them in place. Juice gets another cartridge and reloads his gun.

— Three? I’m at eleven with that!

Ragnarok explodes out of a building, creating a crater in the street where she landed. There were 4 of those giants beneath her feet and she was sweating as much as she was bleeding. Her flaming mace comes flying back to her and a small shockwave is felt when she grips it.

— THIRTY-FOUR BOYS!! LET’S GOOOO!!! — She screamed with excitement.

— That’s all forty-eight then. Good job team! — Killerkill shouted coming towards the three of them now that it was safe.

Liver was just behind her and walked towards Ragnarok.

— She is the only one that got hurt… as usual. — Juice comments, hiding his gun.

— It’s more fun that way! — She laughs.

Liver, using a special pen, began drawing in the air. In his vision, he drew over Ragnarok’s bruises and injuries. Eventually when he was done, he signed the drawing and Ragnarok was healed back to normal. That was his VSS. Imperium’s VSS manifested the lethal capacity of spinning things in their own axis. Ragnarok’s allowed her to alter the gravity of a target or space, through an object. So, she decided to use a mace. Two birds, one mace. Killerkill was capable of seeing and learning unknowable truths. And Juice had his troublesome and varied flares.

As the group got together, Killerkill`s phone started vibrating. She checks the messages and sees that Evangelist had been trying to reach her. The text consisted of the many nicknames that Evangelist had for the student, followed by “turn around!!1!”.

As the girl does so, she is trapped by Evangelist, in a loving hug.

— KIKIIIIIII!! I MISSED YOU!! — Evangelist said, clinging on the girl that was shorter than her.

— Hi, Evangelist. — The girl greeted shyly, but with great joy.

Franchise approaches from behind his friend, greeting the others. Imperium and Ragnarök went to greet Evangelist, while Juice and Liver walk towards Franchise.

— Evangelist said that you guys already got the Relic. — Juice asked. — That true? We can dip now then, right Boss? How about some drinks with the lads huh?

— Is that true Franchise? — Liver asked.

— Yes. We had a little trouble with it, so now it’s Lipstick inside Evangelist’s purse. But we do have it. — Franchise signed when refereeing directly to his superior.

— Lipstick? — Juice wondered.

— That is good enough. Join us for a while then, we are in a manhunt…

— Fill me in. — Franchise signed.