Let's Go China

"He truly has an ability to see into the future."

A blinding and unignorable moment of eye contact. Angjayre jerked her head left, a curtain of red hair flowing wavering before trodding back to her cushy leather seat.

"Now if I could go back to fixing our defense systems, please."

"Are you sure?" Reta asked.

"Yes, now that coding won't do itself so let me go."

"Are you super sure?" Reta queried.

All that responded to her statement was the flicker of blue-holographic light. Pueris hid all emotions from his face and held down a sigh of relief. The shallow silence was usurped by Shraldr and his resentful bellows.

"Well, It's clearly not a very accurate fore-sight ability if it thinks I would EVER lose to him even in a vision. One could even say it lies, and that it might be lying about the event of the ship too."

Rockfish sighed.

"The point is that there's a threat now. Okay? Anyways coding genius go do your stuff."

Rockfish traced the best options from here on out.

"If one of us could actually die then that's a real threat. If Herculainz and Murge are on this ship then I don't know if we're even getting paid half as much as we should be getting. I mean, we've never even had a confrontation with either and they've defeated groups far more notorious than us."

A sly and slippery male voice cut in.

"But we're hiding right now. Ready to strike at any moment of weakness."

A glimmering blue holograph represented a lanky figure. Long and poorly cut acid-green hair covered in murky patches of dark-forest green was set upon a pale face.

Two acid eyes matched his hair and he wore crocodile-scale attire.

He seemed irritated by the statement from Rockfish as his mouth irked right once again.

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm confident that the 8 of us can take on the 2 of them fairly freely. There's no need to feel uneasy. Unless you're just scared and that's fine. Just don't try to change my mind with your unnecessary emotions."

"Because I think this mission is still of the highest priority."

Or is it? I just want to have purpose. I'm not as commited as I was back then... I was so much younger and now that I've seen the end, I don't even know if I can change it.

Reta's figure flashed the brightest for a moment.

Reta's figure seemed perplexed as he spoke out.

"That's a strong argument, Veleno however there is far more to consider than power matchups."

Soon arguments began to sprout across the board.

The mere idea of facing the world's strongest heroes numbed the skin of many Villains present.

Some were cowardly and cautious whilst others were outright fools.

But the point is, no solid ground could be found. No matter how far into the sea of words the Villains sailed through.

It was then that Pueris' voice which had been long lost emerged once more.

"There is a chance to strike elsewhere with comparable rewards."

All flickers stagnated. Eyes turned to Pueris through hollow screens.

Pueris rolled his shoulders back calmly.

"Within Suzhou China, there is a Jewel that's going to be sold in an Auction. This Jewel can do many things but most notably is its sheer energy supply that could power a small country for a few decades. Thus, it is in high demand. Since I assume we don't want to spend valuable funds to acquire this, there is a way to get it for free."

"And that is thanks to the wonderful art of..." Pueris' eyes lit up as he spoke.

"Stealing."

Nods passed through the concentrating holograms.

"This Auction only has -B- Rank Heroes protecting it as there will be a private -S- Rank Hero conference in China only known to a select few. This Auction is of such importance that it couldn't be moved forwards and the owners expect the -S- Rank Heroes to arrive. But they never will. I have seen to it through my Force Control that permits the future."

"All we have to do is go there, take the jewel, and vanish. This task should be easy enough if we all go at once. There will be a few -S- Rank Heroes around the areas of the auction just for surveillance purposes but they're nothing you guys can't handle. As long as we all go to get the Jewel, we can maintain a fighting force, a communication force, and a task force. With these 3, the plan should be simple and smooth. Once the jewel is acquired, Rockfish can instantly return to base. From there it can either be sold or utilized. The choice would be entirely ours."

"Is this appealing to any of you?"

A hologram stuttered.

"How can we trust any of this? I can't trust a villain with the appearance of the boy who also speaks uncannily."

Veleno's cut-throat voice emerged. His crocodile-skin jacket unzipped itself as he made himself more comfortable.

Pueris merely shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"Ask Angjayre if you can trust me if you're that paranoid of me. I fear no suspicion."

Veleno grumbled in a slouch.

"Do it."

Angjayre had drooped shoulders as she left the comforts of her leather chair once more.

She placed two fingers around her eyes once more.

Two golden rings soared through the air before vanishing into the shadow domain engulfing the room.

"He can be trusted. That much has been told."

Shrarld snarled through his holograph.

"I just want to get some blood up my nose."

Reta's image flashed twice.

"So, are we all fine with this plan?"

Another chorus of nods ran up and down the holograms.

Reta clapped his hands twice, in joy.

"Well then, I'll see you all in 2 weeks."

"In Suzhou China, where we can discuss the plan without error."

There were no goodbyes.

Just a stream of blue lights being snapped out into the darkness.

As if thumbs were plummeting down on the spotlights of blue in a heavy instant, they all disappeared one by one.

Shrarld's eyes belittled Pueris for a short moment before vanishing too.

And then the room was in complete darkness.

Pueris might've thought that the shadow realm had prevailed over the resort, but those were foolish thoughts of a Pueris from another time.

"Well."

Rockfish stood up unmotivated and tired.

"I'll be taking a much-needed break. If you need anything, just go to the med-bay and ask E0 the robot. They have the entire database on their back."

The door swung open revealing rays of swooping faint white light.

"Cheerio."

And now it was just Angjayre and Pueris in the room.

Pueris looked at where she ought to be whilst still in the constraints of his leather chair.

They both looked childish in the oversized leather chairs.

"Why'd you lie to all of them?"

Angjayre's ghastly grim yellow eyes were blazing in the darkness.

"What are you talking about?" Her voice slung out instantly.

"I know what those eyes of yours told you."

Pueris met with the two yellow eyes in the shadow of discomfort.

"I cannot see the future."

"So why did you say that I could truly do so?"

Angjayre's eyes quivered.

"Because- because, I really, really despise boat trips. I get sea-sick really quick, and I saw there was no bad intent so I simply capitalized on the moment."

A sigh shot out.

Pueris bounced from his chair and headed for the door.

"Same old... same old." Two light mutters retreated from his tongue.

He had planned for Angjayre's selfish desires to get in the way of the group's ideals, knowing her hatred of water and unnessecary fighting made her easy to use to sway the group away from the trip.

It was truly the same world that he had once been blessed with. And he couldn't really say he hated it all.

Soothing himself through a small whistle chorus, Pueris strolled towards the cafe located near the med bay.

It was empty and the only servers were entirely black robot, with eyes of vivid white. They moved in tiny mechanical jolts that mimicked life, but never achieved it. As soon as Pueris sat down, he felt his shoulders grow tense. Pueris looked around instantly in a stupor.

"Hey." The voice belonged to Rockfish.

He sat directly behind Pueris. His back was turned and he was playing with some cards. Shuffling them, rather. Rockfish had lost most of his cheer from earlier. It had been replaced by workplace professionalism and an odd level of strangerism.

"You sure do know your stuff, for a completely random backstreet Villain who got in a few fights and got a bit of a name. You might know a bit too much. And that might be a bit of a problem."

Rockfish pointed to his phone stubbornly.

"Or so I'm told..."

Pueris looked back blankly.

"Take a seat."

Pueris followed along silently.

Feeling the awkwardness solidifying, Rockfish set the rules straight. He wasn't enjoying this either.

"Now I'll tell you what's gonna happen, Pueris."

"You can either answer all of my questions truthfully."

Rockfish raised his eyebrows cynically.

"Or you can end up in the middle of Africa in 2 minutes."

"Credited to my Osmo-Port."

Pueris gave his usual shrug.

"I don't know, Rockfish."

"Won't I be teleported back in another 2 minutes if I say the line"

"I love the Osmo-Port."

Rockfish almost stood up immediately from shock but kept himself down, merely shuffling his cards solemnly. His eyes bulged out, curses ran under his breath. How much did this kid know?

"How do you know that."

His voice felt suffocated.

Pueris tapped the top of his head twice.

"I told you. I can see the future. Therefor, I've seen you use this ability many times. You go everywhere with it, unless you are out of energy or are in a horrible state of mind."

Rockfish let out a sigh of anxiety.

"God. I really hate this."

His voice was so low that Pueris' ears couldn't translate even a letter.

"Look Pueris."

Rockfish put his cards away in a hurry.

"I was ordered to ask one question."

Pueris nodded calmly.

"Do you know of the relationship between Red Rebellion and Booksmart?"

Pueris had no clue why such a random question had emerged.

"No?"

Rockfish left whilst tucking his chair in, resulting in Pueris becoming alone in no more than 2 seconds.

"Thank you for your time."

Left puzzled and alone Pueris watched as Rockfishes' figure left. Pueris let out a chilly breath.

"Well, I guess now it's just free time until Suzhou China."

"If they trust me that is."