Chapter 14: Adora

Neo and Charlotte stare at the woman with the black cat on her shoulder, stunned by her beauty.

"No, no. That's okay, ma'am," Charlotte flashes her an embarrassed smile, snapping out of her stupor.

"You can call me Adora. It's just that this game caught my attention, and especially surprised me when I saw Kayn in it!" explains Adora.

She glances at Neo, only to find him staring at the cat.

"Do you want to pet her?" she raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, please! I just don't um─" starts Neo.

"It's okay, she is very friendly. Come on, Haco," says Adora as she gestures towards Neo.

The cat jumps off her shoulders and walks towards a stiff Neo, nuzzling against his legs.

"Don't worry, she won't bite," remarks Adora, amused at Neo's frozen state.

"Just stroke the top of her head and her neck gently. Make sure you don't approach her with your hand up. First, lower your hand to her head, and then approach her from there," she instructs as she watches the interaction.

Neo follows her instructions and starts petting the cat, watching in fascination as the cat starts purring happily.

Charlotte watches as a huge smile grows on Neo's face.

. . .

"By the way, do you mind if I play a game?" asks Adora.

"Yeah, of course! Here, you can take my place and play against Neo," Charlotte hands her the controller and moves to the side.

Adora and Neo browse through the character selection menu as Charlotte observes them.

Just as Adora passes over one of the options, Charlotte's body stiffens, and she feels her heart sink.

"Sha─" the word almost slips out, but she purses her lips.

"Neo, I'll go to the restroom real quick. Make sure you stay here," says Charlotte, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Yeah, I will!" he assures.

"Yeah, no. I don't trust you after all. You are like a child, wandering off so easily," sighs Charlotte.

She looks at Adora, "Adora, sorry to bother you but can you please keep an eye on him until I come back? And make sure he doesn't go anywhere. I'll be back as soon as possible,"

Adora locks her eyes with Charlotte as a moment of silence passes through them. Charlotte maintains the eye contact and goosebumps erupt on her skin.

"Of course! I'll make sure he doesn't go anywhere. If he tries, I'll just break his legs," smiles Adora, looking at them innocently.

Neo and Charlotte freeze and stare at her in disbelief.

"I'm joking, of course!" says Adora, still smiling at them.

"Alright, thank you!" Charlotte takes off, leaving the both of them behind.

She quickly reaches the restroom and washes her face, looking at the mirror. Her hand goes to her pocket, and she pulls out the vial of pills Zahtan handed to her. She looks down at the vial in contemplation.

Charlotte opens the vial with a weak heart and shakes out a pill on her palm, closing her fingers around it, she brings it close to her mouth, only to stiffen up.

She puts the pill back into the vial and goes to the trash can and opens it. The trash can leads out to the abyss. Charlotte holds her breath as her fingers hang the vial over the trash can.

. . .

Charlotte washes her face and looks in the mirror again before heading out of the restroom, the vial of pills secure in her pocket once again.

She sees four other people spectating the game as she walks back and joins them to watch Adora and Neo play.

The cat climbs back on Adora's shoulders, nudging her shoulder repeatedly.

Charlotte notices that Neo locks in Kayn this time.

"She is in trouble! He picked Kayn!" she hears one of the spectators say.

"Oh no, this is quite troublesome! I don't want to fight him! I guess I have no other choice," Adora looks at the screen worriedly and scrolls to find a character. She picks the one Neo played in the first round and locks him in.

Neo looks at her in confusion, "What? Why him? He has no special abilities, just normal punches, and kicks," he explains.

Adora says nothing as the game begins.

Neo doesn't do anything as he lets Adora get familiar with the game. He watches as she clicks buttons and combinations, getting used to the controls.

"I see, then if I do this . . . " mumbles Adora, clicking a button combination and Charlotte watches as her character performs his Ultimate Move.

The character does something no one sees coming.

Charlotte stares at the screen in bewilderment.

He . . . he started talking?!

Once he's done talking, Neo's character walks off the screen.

All of them watch in disbelief as the screen flashes the words: DAKI; THE FIRST TWIN, WINS

"This game isn't as accurate as I thought it to be. He is much more adorable in real life! Oh well," says Adora, looking at the screen.

"Once more!" exclaims Neo, wanting another chance to win.

The game goes back to the character selection menu and Adora looks at Neo with a smile and looks back at the screen to start browsing.

Charlotte watches as Neo picks the character named Daki and sees Adora scroll until she reaches a character they've never seen before.

The character . . . can't be seen. There is no face, no body, and no name. It appears to be just a white glitch and the name appears to be a bunch of glitched out questions marks and symbols.

Feeling uneasy, Charlotte glances around at everyone, finding similar looks of confusion on their faces.

Is this the random selection option? Wait, no. That isn't what the random selection option looks like, I've seen it before, and it wasn't like this at all.

"What's that?" questions Neo.

"Let's find out," says Adora as she presses the select option.

. . .

The game freezes.

Spark! Crack!

The machine sparks and Neo yelps as Adora grabs him and pulls him back, narrowly missing the spark.

"Everyone, get away!" instructs Adora, authority dripping from her voice.

They all start moving away from the machine as it catches on fire and watch as it self-explodes.

The machine seems to be completely busted.

Charlotte walks to Neo to check up on him.

What the hell was that?! It wasn't even the actual pilot but just a character in the game!

"Are you alright?" Adora asks Neo.

"Yeah, but what the hell was that?" he asks.

"I guess the machine disintegrated when I selected that character,"

"But, why?"

"Aw, man. I really wanted to try that game out!" complains one of the spectators.

"Neo, we should leave before we get caught up in a mess," suggests Charlotte.

"Go where?" he asks.

"Let's go up to the second floor after playing a few other games I want you to try,"

"Oh! Mind if I tag along? I am new to this place as well honestly and would like some help navigating and seeing some of the games too!" requests Adora with a smile.

"Ah . . ." Charlotte stops, seemingly paralyzed.

She looks at Neo, who looks at the cat and then back at her.

Charlotte looks down on the ground, thinking.

. . .

She then looks up at Adora as her eyes widen.

"Alright!" she says finally, smiling at Adora.

"Great, but do you mind if I go and deliver a small something to someone first? You guys go on ahead,"

"Need any help getting there?"

"Oh no, it's okay! I have notes on what paths to follow. Plus, it's a bit private and it won't take that long! Around thirty minutes will do," assures Adora.

"Alright then. Let's meet in the center area after thirty minutes! Here, I'll tell you where it is from here, and let's exchange numbers just in case,"

"Cool! See you then," says Adora, and with her cat perched on her shoulder, the three go their separate ways.

Adora walks at a quick pace to the location she wants to go to.

She then enters a narrow street.

. . .

Four figures follow shortly after.

"It's getting more difficult to see, she might get away at this rate!" whispers one of the figures.

"Looks like we lured the rats in successfully," says a voice from the dark.

"Crap! Run!" orders one of them.

"Have your way with them, but be as quiet as possible," continues the voice.

The four figures turn around and start heading out to the exit, running towards the light. But they see something standing there, blocking their path is a black cat.

"Haco," commands the same voice.

The cat suddenly starts growing in size, claws bearing out extremely sharp and fangs growing to make it easier to bite down. The cat transforms into a full-grown black panther in front of their eyes, her mouth releasing steam. They watch in horror as her eyes glow and her fangs catch on fire.

The group of figures take out their guns, and before one of them can fully aim at Haco, she's already in front of them, pouncing on one of them immediately and using her claws to rip his head off.

She jumps into the air instantly as the remaining three start firing at her, but they miss their shots because she is too fast for them.

"You two! Get out! I'll distract the panther!" shouts one of them.

But he fails to pay attention to the others beside him as he focuses on the incoming panther. Haco shoots a large fireball from her mouth, and he barely dodges it. The instant he looks at her direction again, he freezes in fear as she's right in front of his face and can do nothing as she tackles him down.

"Shoot her! What are you guys doing?!" he demands looking up, thrashing under the panther. Only to find both of his partners unconscious on the ground.

"Good job distracting him, Haco," praises Adora.

Thud.

The view on Adora's face goes upside down and then back to normal as the man's head moves.

. . .

"What a mess," sighs Adora, walking to the exit of the path and pushing a brick that closes the path, concealing the narrow street.

She then walks to the bodies and looks at them. She crouches down next to one of them and starts searching him, discovering a recording camera and a microphone, and what seems to be a tracking device.

She frowns.

So troublesome.

She shakes her head and starts collecting all the microphones and cameras from the four bodies and puts them in a bag.

"I need to act fast. Haco, call some of your friends, please," she requests, looking at Haco.

Haco roars lowly and four cats crawl out of the shadows.

Adora attaches a tracking device on each of the four, making sure it's in a place where they can get rid of it by themselves.

"Haco, tell them to keep going down this narrow street slowly, and then to walk together for a while on the main road before getting rid of the device and running away,"

Haco growls, conveying her message and the cats get going.

Adora pushes a brick and a fake wall opens up, she drags the bodies inside and ties them up securely before closing the wall and cleaning up the blood.

Haco returns to her normal cat form and jumps atop the closed wall.

"Clear?" asks Adora.

Haco meows at her and Adora pushes a brick, their exit opening up again.

"Had to take a whole detour just to get rid of them, good thing you warned me about the four of them back at the machine Haco, you've earned yourself an extra treat!"

Haco meows and nuzzles her, settling on her shoulders once again.

. . .

"Finally, I'm here!" exclaims Adora, entering a souvenir shop filled with a few customers, she looks around as she walks up the counter.

"I am here to deliver package number two for him," she informs the operator, showing him a ticket.

"Yes, ma'am. One second," he says before calling out someone's name loudly. A person comes out from the back of the store, and he speaks to him in code language.

"Follow him, please. He will lead you," he informs her.

She does as told and follows the man downstairs, to a place that seems to be the base of operations.

"Adora! Long time no see!" says a voice from the dark.

"Indeed, it has been," she says as a figure emerges.

"Daki,"