Radical-9

CHAPTER 16: I carry your heart with me

February 24^th, 2022

5:30 am

Jen runs up to me and throws herself into my arms. “Andy! I've so much to tell you, but right now I'm just so glad you're alive,” She can't stop crying. I'm wrapping my arms around her. I'm so out of the loop I must be near Saturn. There are so many things running through my mind. Gregor is dead, he was forced to do a job he died for, then there still is the matter of the Keystones, but now Jen's in here?

“Dex, who is this?” Athena asks.

“Andy?” Klein asks.

“Klein, not now,” I begin. “This is my younger sister, Jen. I...how did you get here? Where's Mom? How about-”

“Andy, I hope you know how much danger you're in here,” she says.

“Yes, I'm aware of the situation,” I say.

She nods her head, “I've got so much to explain I don't even know where to begin,” she says.

“How about we walk and talk?” Athena asks. “Plus, we got what we needed from Gregor,” she says holding the Keystones from a chain in her hands, the recovered Heart of Ares and new Heart of Apollo. She tosses the Heart of Ares to Klein, “I'm going to assume you're fine with yours?” She asks me, pointing to the Heart of Artemis.

I nod my head, and we begin walking.

“So, why don't you start from the top?” I ask, walking beside Jen.

“Okay, so Mom's really upset. I was too, but she took it really bad.”

“Really?”

“Dude, you have no idea. She stopped going to work.”

“That bad?” Athena asks.

“She doesn't take things like this well...uh...”

“My username is Athena.”

“Right...Athena.”

“And I'm Klein,” he says, walking just slightly closer towards her. I see her walk slightly closer towards me and I grin.

“Hello...anyway, so I had to pick up a job, and everything was so tough. That is, until Jake...” she stops at the mention of Jake.

“What? Did something happen?” I ask.

She breathes in and out slowly, “Y-Yes, but I'm not there yet.”

We reach the stone-tiled outskirts of Novus Callus once more.

“Jake came to the house in the dead...of night.” She falters. “He said we should go investigate Adata and Technodome, that maybe we could find something to help.”

“And?” I ask.

“We sneaked into Jake's father's office, that's where we found the address for where Adata headquarters are located.”

“How would this Jake's father know that?” Athena asks.

“He's the chief of police for Colorado,” Jen answers.

“Chief Carroway?” Klein asks.

“Yes, do you know him?” I ask.

“Of him, never met the man directly,” he says.

“Well, so we traveled to the building that Adata used to work in, turns out they were located in Denver.”

“Denver? That can't be possible,” I say.

“There were papers there about Elysium and everything. I don't know where everybody who works there is now, I think they might be in hiding.”

“They better fucking be, because when we get out of here they better be hiding real nice and quiet. They better hope they don't come across me,” Athena says.

“There was this huge gate in front of the building, so Jake had to boost me over, he was going to find his own way in. At this point...I kind of went in by myself, I honestly don't know what I was thinking.”

“That doesn't sound very safe,” Klein says.

“The building was still standing, but everything around it looked decimated. And I don't know what came over me, it was like...some magnetic force pulled me, willed me into the building. There I met this man named Jay. He used to work for Adata, until all of this, that is. He even had this super-powered liquid called Radical-9.”

“Yeah? Is he how you got in here?”

“Not there yet, hold on,” she says. “Okay, so get this, our father used to work for Adata.”

“What? Really?” Athena asks, turning to me.

“So about this Jay, are you sure you can trust him?” I ask.

“What?”

“Are you sure he's simply not just working for Jack Adata?”

“I don't believe he is, he's working hard now to try and get us out from the outside. He's got visual display on us, on the whole game, practically, and is working on overriding the server to take control from Jack.”

“And what about Jake? What happened to him?”

“He...He thought I might've gotten hurt inside and called his father. When he showed up, he...he shot Jake.”

“What?!”

“Jake was begging him to help get inside, to get me out. Then he took out his service pistol and shot him and dragged his body off in the car he'd arrived in. Jay said that the police are in Jack's back pocket, that's how he's able to get away with all of this,” Jen says, holding back the tears.

“I'm so sorry, it must have been awful to watch,” Athena says.

“I'm more interested in hearing about what you said before, something about your father?”

“Klein, can't you see she's mourning right now?” I call out to him.

“Sorry,” he says, holding his hands up.

“No, it's fine...I need to keep my head up. I'm going to stop this guy. I don't know how far back this goes, but I don't care. He fucked with my family, he fucked with Jake. Now it's time we take it back to him, that's the Cress way, right Andy?”

I look her in the eyes and see my sister, but at the same time I see determination, a fire. Her tiger blood is boiling.

Klein looks to me with a sudden realization, his eyes go wide, a smile crosses his face, “That's right, your real name is Andy! Almost forgot in all of this confusion!”

“Yes, yes, my name's Andrew. Call me Andy, or Dex, or whatever.”

“I think it's nice,” Athena says.

“Please don't tease me,” I say, holding back a smile.

“Aw, you know I'm just joking, right?”

“Am I the only one who put is actual name as his username? Jeez, people these days,” Klein laughs, smirking and putting his hands to his sides.

“I'm waiting for you to tell me your real name is Eustice or something like that,” I say.

“Or Duncan,” Athena says.

“My name isn't Eustice or Duncan, thank you, it actually is Klein.”

“Alright, fair enough,” I say.

We reach the inn. Klein is the one to step forward seeing as he is the one with all of the gold here. He steps back to us once he has finished speaking with the clerk, “Okay, I got two rooms,” he begins.

“I'm rooming with Klein,” I say immediately.

“D-Damn, boy, you going to give me a second to finish?” He says, laughing.

“I think that should be good, it can give us some time to know each other,” Athena says.

“Yeah, I'm so sorry to keep you guys all here, I haven't slept in lord knows how long.”

“No, it's fine. We don't want to keep going on like this, we all need to be on our A-Game if we're going to be getting out alive,” I say.

“Right,” Athena says.

“Okay, thank you all.”

We retire to our respective rooms, Klein and I are on the second floor, Jen and Athena have a room on the third floor.

I step into the room, it looks a tad different from the one on the third floor I'd stayed in last time, but only because the bed is on the other side of the room.

It is a large king size mattress.

“I don't have much gold to spend, so I felt this was the easiest solution,” Klein begins. “Let's just both try to...uh, keep to our own side?”

“Have you never slept in the same bed with another dude before?”I ask.

“Not particularly, no.”

“It's not too weird, I used to have this friend I'd hang out with a few years back. He only had one bed in his room so we'd share. It's not like you're doing anything,” I say.

“I don't know, it just weirds me out,” he says.

“Sitting in bed with another dude isn't gay. Even if it is, who the hell cares?” I ask.

“I do,” Klein says.

“Alright, alright, fine. If you don't want to so bad you can sleep in the bed. I'll take the floor,” I say.

“You don't have to do that, bro.”

“Dude, it's fine. Just...don't say anything about any of that stuff to my sister, I'm tolerant myself, but she'll rip you a new one if she hears you saying anything bad,” I say.

“Noted.”

I nod my head and take a spot on the carpeted-floor. It's not too bad, but it pales in comparison of the bed.

“So, about your father working for the guys who made this game...”

“There's nothing to say. That Jay guy must've been lying,” I say.

“Right...” Klein says, and he says no more on the subject.

I let myself daze off into a cloud of nothingness. Not now.