The Witching Hour Part III

"There is so much we need to tell you and prepare you for," Aka said with her younger female voice.

Adam grunted in pain on his shoulder.

"But first we need to do something with that," Aka acknowledge it, "Panka, can you do something about it?"

"I think Katar is more suitable for the job," Panka said, "he's… human…"

Aka let the words of Panka hung in the air for a while, then, "Very well. Katar?"

"Let me see what I can do," Katar answered her. Katar sounded like a very effeminate soft-spoken man or a lady who tried really hard to sound masculine. He couldn't decide what. Katar's cube then grew brighter and slowly spun on its diagonal angle.

Adam's pain was slowly fading away the more Katar spun. It healed him.

"What are you?" he said finally.

Fee answered him, "we are the avatar of The Goddesses here on earth,"

"More like caged essence of them here on earth," Aka interrupted him.

"What?" Adam felt like he was going crazy.

"Ogrario trapped the essences of each Goddess in his plates. This is why They couldn't be directly involved with human affairs, like they used to do, before Ogrario's time," Tri said.

"Is it because of anger?" Adam asked.

The cubes floated silently as if they tried to find something to say to that. Finally, Aka said, "anger?"

"Yes," Adam said, "Ogrario lived and possibly created the plates around a century ago, right after Amalgamada. The Plague."

The cubes appeared to wait for his elaboration, so he did.

"I don't know. But you said that you are the essences of the Goddesses being trapped in art pieces, and from the look of it, it was to limit the power of the Goddesses."

"You can't assume his intention," Aka said, "the limitations of the Goddesses are the result of what he did, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was what he was set to do."

"True," Adam argued, "it's just a possibility. There is no way we can ask him now that he's been dead for a hundred years."

The cubes fell silent. Adam eyed each of them. Even if he couldn't read any faces because they were just floating glowing cubes, he could pick up signs of emotional turmoil based on the length of silences. He was eager to know the answer to his next question.

"What? You're saying there is a way to talk to him?"

"You assume so much, Catalyst," Aka answered coldly.

"He's an investigator, Aka," Fee said, "he probably couldn't help it."

"Sorry," Adam interrupted, "a 'catalyst'? That's what the twin androids referred to me when I arrived. What was it all about?"

Another silence.

"And if you are the avatar of the Goddesses, why there are five of you, instead of four?"

Another silence.

Adam sharply inhaled and exhaled, "all right, fine. Don't answer me. Keep feeding me useless half-truths and mysteries and see how it goes. I'm here to meet the Mayor and you have to tell me where are you putting him."

"Adam," Fee said, "we will eventually tell you, but this is not the time. You have to do something quickly and explain it all to you now will waste our time."

"Yes, well, you guys pretty much already waste my time here," Adam stood up, "Katar… thank you for… whatever you were doing to my arm. I'm going to find the Mayor myself. You guys keep on floating…," he walked passed them to the other double door at the other end of the room. He wondered why he was even bothered to give the objects, however magical they were, a time of his life. He had a mission here, and talking to those cubes didn't seem to further his mission.

Hell, they were probably another type of android he never heard of before, being thrown at him to slow him down.

"He's in his private office," Aka said from behind him, "follow the hall, second door on the right."

Adam turned around, bowed his head to her general direction, and said, "thank you."

As he was opening the double door, he heard a sizzling voice behind him, followed by a faint "you're too late". The cubes settled back to their plate forms. He pondered for a couple of seconds whether or not he should bring the plates along with him, since they were evidence and still considered as missing. But he decided finally to leave them there. They were in the safest place for them to be. He'd think about them later after he found the Mayor.

He followed Aka's instruction and knock on the second door on the right side of the corridor, "Mr. Mayor? Mr. Mayor?"

He tried the knob, it was locked.

"Mr. Mayor! Are you inside?" he placed his one ear at the surface of the door to try to hear something.

A muffled groaning sound. There was somebody inside.

"Mr. Mayor? Is that you? Wait I'm gonna try to get inside!" Adam stepped backward and produced his blaster, "Stay away from the door! I'm going to shoot the door!"

He did.

Inside, he found the chunky body of the Mayor laying on the ground. He wasn't tied. Adam thought that somebody pacified him and then locked him in his own office, but from the lack of struggles, he assumed now that the Mayor just collapsed inside his own office after locking himself in.

As if he was afraid of something.

"Mr. Mayor! Are you okay?" he rushed to the Mayor's side and immediately feel his neck pulse. It was still beating, albeit irregularly.

"Save… "the Mayor whispered.

"What? What happened to you? Are you okay? I will call the hospital!"

"No!" the Mayor said while grabbed Adam's wrist to stop him to reach for his terminal, "it's already too late… You need to save… them…"

"Save who?" Adam insisted.

"The Callisto…" the Mayor said, struggling with every word.

"The… Callisto? The terrorist?"

"No…" the Mayor inhaled, "the… plates…"

"They are called 'Callisto'?"

The Mayor could not answer anymore. It was the moment Adam realized a very thin layer of red mist floated around ten centimeters from the floor.

"Fuck. The gas," he tried to lift the Mayor so that his head would be far from the floor, but it was hard to do since the man was thick, "come on, Mr. Mayor. We have to get you out of here. It's too dangerous to stay. Just hang in there a little bit longer. Can you walk?"

"No…" the Mayor said, "it's supposed to be like this. I'm too late. The APD was too late. It's done. He's coming…"

"What are you talking about? Who is coming?"

But then the Mayor rattled, with a tiny bit of blood splashed from his nostrils. He was poisoned with the same gas that took the lives of Marco and all of those people at the gallery. He put down the Mayor's body slowly back on the floor.

'Save the Callisto,' he wondered. He needed to save the plates. From whom? Who is coming? He ran back outside, headed back to the big room where he left the five plates.

The room was now warmer, and to his horror, he couldn't find the plates on the sofas.

Somebody took them.

Then all the power went down, plunged him into a terrible sudden darkness.

A male voice, "ah so here you are, with the Callistos."

"Who's there?" he tried to activate his terminal's light, but he couldn't. He was trembling.

"I'm the Prophet, Catalyst," he said. Again with the 'catalyst' thing. The voice continued, "it was an honor to finally meet you."