Sky City of Mystery

After a sheepish explanation from Saigo, Zoey understood how Serena had been captured by him, and the circumstances that led to their current state of events.

From the footage that Zoey could see through the Eves and her map, Serena had locked herself into what seemed to be some sort of control hub. Zoey had yet to figure out what exactly it controlled, but chances were that it would be bad for her and her crew.

While Zoey was trying to figure out what her next step should be, her commlink beeped again.

"Zoey, its Athena. We've located the Rellen sister, and a potential safe area where you can gather everyone."

"Got it! Are you in any trouble?" Zoey asked as she looked at their location with her map.

"No trouble, but we might go after the sister… Her brother here seems to want to see her." Athena replied.

Zoey frowned when she heard that. She still did not fully trust Markus.

"Be careful OK?" she warned quietly before Athena disconnected with a carefree "Later!"

Taking a breath and looking over her interface one more time, Zoey started working with incredible speed, her fingers a blur as she manipulated the display, sending out orders to the various groups she had been guiding.

She was directing everyone to group up on the surface of the city were Athena had just called her from. There was an open area there with a solid structure that looked to be defensible, and could act as a temporary base for them.

Each group had leaders appointed by seniority, and the different squads and teams that Zoey had formed from her volunteers before were the key to getting everyone to safety. Of course, Eve and her abilities was a crucial element in all this. Without Eve, they would be at the mercy of the city's mind-melting corridors and maze-like structure, not to mention the traps that seemed to be everywhere.

The problem Zoey had now was that she was still missing people. Her signal pulse had already covered the entire city twice, but there were still Eves unaccounted for. She could only assume that the Eves were in a place where the signal could not penetrate, like the trap that Max had been stuck inside, or just as bad, they weren't on the city at all.

Zoey was concerned about the missing people, but right now she had to focus on the ones that she could save.

Before long, the orders had been sent and the people were moving, following the various paths set out by Eve on their way to the surface. Zoey had made sure to designate the safest paths she could find, and she had provided alternate routes as well if something happened on the way there.

She on the other hand, was not planning on heading to the surface right away. Her plan was to go to where Serena had caused trouble to examine the place further. There was only so much her interface and the Eves could tell her from here. In the meantime, she had asked Saigo and a few of his warriors to stay and watch where Serena was while Ssaul took their group to the surface.

One she was done with sending instructions and making sure that everyone was moving, she gently woke up Max. He handled the disturbance to his rest rather well, blinking at Zoey a few times before standing up, looking at her with an unfathomable look in his eyes.

"How do you feel?" Zoey asked him softly, a little worried about the after-effects of his sudden increase in power.

"I'm OK," he replied after a moment.

Despite his assurances, Zoey still gave both of them a good pulse from her Mittra Regen Rune array.

"Good, let me know if you feel any different from normal alright?" she asked as she stood up as well.

Max nodded in response, reassuring Zoey a little. She resolved to ask him more about what had happened to him in that trap he had been inside once they had more time, but they had to get moving.

Before they headed out, Zoey looked to where the brunette had been to see what she was doing, only to discover that she had disappeared! Strangely, Zoey had not noticed her leaving nor her absence. She quickly sent out a warning to her teams via Eve, telling them to be on the lookout for the strange woman. Zoey did to think she was going to be a threat to her people, but it always paid to be safe.

Finally, Max and Zoey headed out, with Zoey leading the way through the machinery-lined hallways and rooms filled with mechanical assembly structures. This was the first time Zoey was getting a look at the city with her own eyes, and she was very interested in this place and what purpose it had served for its creators.

The Gothic style of architecture was still very much present on the inside, just as she had seen on the outside of the city during the approach, but the architecture was merged and melded together with the mechanical systems and perforated by copious pipes and machinery that seemed to run through every structure that they passed through with no apparent rhyme or reason behind any of it.

In truth, Zoey was having a hard time understanding the purpose behind any of the machinery that she was seeing, and she was an engineer by trade! She was able to identify that the entire system ran through the use of gears and hydraulics powered by oil.

But that did not explain the enormous electromagnetic interference being generated by the city. Magic power did not produce electromagnetic interference, so where was it coming from? In order to produce that amount of interference, the amount of electricity alone would be enough to power half a country!

Zoey planned on finding out eventually. The secrets of this city would be revealed to her before long.