The Seven Failures 1

The scrawny man who won the bonus race leads us through the forest just outside of the factory area. I thought we'd be travelling for some time but just after a few minutes, our feet find the railroad tracks that lead to our destination.

"Man, I've been buttering up that old motherfucker for a while but you come along and triggered the quest for me," Eleanor muses while kicking the pebbles along the tracks.

"Was it that hard to trigger quests?" I ask. "Don't you just have to walk up to them?"

"It's not like one of those ancient games you play, Devon. These NPC's are as nasty and difficult as people," she replies.

I should ask Sher about this later. The only AI I know that can act like a human is Monica. If these NPC's have the same intelligence as her, I shudder to even think of the consequences of that. As I ponder these things, we arrive at a very peculiar sight. Horatio said that they lived in a crack house so I was expecting a dilapidated shack in the middle of the tracks. But this house is nothing but! It's a gated structure with decorations that you'll only see in a rap music video. I could see the rhythmic strobe lights through the windows and I could hear the faint beat of party music.

"This is the place!" the man announces. "My job's here is done," he says and sprints away.

Eleanor and I look at the running man with confusion. Where the fuck did he just drop us off to? Thinking that it's best to see this for ourselves, we carefully enter the property. We check the door and seeing that it's unlocked, we let ourselves in. And holy shit. The mixing smells of weed, alcohol, and sweat immediately hit us like a sledgehammer. The beat of the music is deafening and sea of dancing bodies makes it really hard to navigate through this.

"Where do you think they would be?!" I yell in an attempt to cut through the noise.

"Probably upstairs!" she points to the extravagant-looking stairs where two bouncers are posted. "Looks like the VIP section's up there!"

"How are we gonna get past them though?!"

"Just follow my lead!"

We make our way to the stairs and sure enough, the bouncers stop us.

"Woah there missy and co. Upstair's for the important folk. Go on along and enjoy the music downstairs," he says with an air of arrogance as he waves us away.

Eleanor shows the coin that Horatio gave us and tosses it up. Then, when the bouncers track the coin, she socks them both in the nose with one swift motion and catches the coin as it lands.

"What the fuck?!" I yell.

Immediately, the other bouncers come toward us as the guests shriek in horror at the sight of two bloodied bouncers.

"The cops are here!" one guest yells which sends everyone in a panic.

While the stampede is flowing out of the house, we make our way upstairs and see a few people escape from the windows. Of course, the guards eventually surround us but Eleanor immediately wears her witch garb and blasts them away. Now, fire is added to the chaos and everyone start to panic even more. Well, almost everyone. As we search upstairs, we see one peculiar room through a transparent window. In there, seven short, stocky men carouse with some women. I look closely and see one of them snort an entire line of white powder on the table. They seem to be oblivious with what's happening outside.

"Father, should I apprehend them?" Jimmy asks.

I look at Eleanor. "You wanna burn them up or should I take this one?"

She shudders. "I don't even wanna enter that room," she replies.

I nod at Jimmy and he immediately rushes through the locked doors and invades the space on the other side of the glass. The women panic and immediately run off while the seven men could barely orient themselves before Jimmy bashes them with its shield and hammer. Swift and merciless, it dispatches them one by one. Then, finding some belts and pieces of fabric, it ties them up with aggressive vigor.

Eleanor whistles in approval. "Damn, Devon. Didn't think you'd make such a beast of a doll."

"Haha thanks," I reply. "It's still nothing compared to your bear though."

She pats me on the back. "You'll get there," she reassures me. "Now, time to interrogate these druggy fuckers."

[Minutes passed]

We line them up on the couch downstairs. All the guests and guards already left and Eleanor also destroyed the party machines so the house is a smoldering, quiet mess.

*Splash*

Eleanor uses a nearby alcohol bottle to wake the seven up.

+

[User: Eleanor Uses Skill "Purifying Flames"]

[All status ailments are being purged from your body]

+

Meanwhile, a warm blanket of crimson flames wrap around all of us. I don't notice any difference in me but the seven look more alert than they were once before.

"Who are you?!" one of them, a man with light blonde beard, yells out with his gruff voice. He struggles a bit when he realizes that he's tied up and adds, "Are you the cops?"

"No, we're not," Eleanor responds. "We're much worse."

"Ooookay, " I interject. "She's just joking fellas. We're not the cops and we're not here to do you harm."

They confusedly look at each other and their injuries.

"Well... not too much harm," I admit. "In any case, Horatio sent us here since he told us that you could help us out."

The same man scoffs. "So, you engineers or something?"

"Adventurers," Eleanor chimes in. "We're here to see if you motherfuckers are experimenting with magic."

All of them smirk. Then, the blonde man says, "Name's Maurice. And yeah, my brothers and I are working on something like that."

+

[Quest Complete]

[Received: Quest Line Continuation, EXP]

[Congratulations! You are now level 11]

+

I guess we verified that the rumors were true. I thought we'd be interrogating them more but I guess this works too.

"You're Sinter and Horatio's students right?" I say excitedly.

Then, all of them avoid my eyes and murmur amongst each other.

"W-was I wrong?" I follow.

Maurice smiles wryly. "No, you're not wrong," he says with a sigh. "It's just ... we weren't called their students for a long time so we kinda don't know how to respond."

Eleanor slams her foot on the wooden table which makes us all jump.

"We're not here to talk about your past," she says impatiently. "We're because Horatio told us you could teach us something!"

Maurice now has some fear in his eyes and says, "L-look scary lady. I like rough play and in a normal day, we wouldn't hesitate to help you if you just gave us some cash."

"Normal day?" she growls. "Why? What's going on."

Then, a somewhat thinner member of the seven interjects, "O-o-ur l-lab's b-been c-compromised."

The rest of them shushes him harshly but it's too late. We are already sinking our teeth into this.

"Oh?" I grin while Jimmy brandishes his hammer by my side. "Do tell us more."