A meetup shrouded in mystery

Two days after Unknown's research day, it was time to return to class. Kage and Unknown have just arrived at school two minutes before class starts. Kage, with Unknown on the back, safely parks his motorcycle in the parking lot of the school. Both of them hop off the bike and start running to class.

"Aye, Kage, you know we wouldn't be running if you didn't take five years to pick me up!"

"Oh, shut up! I was busy this morning!"

"Oh, really doing what!?"

"Umm"

Kage thinks back to this morning when he was in bed, sleeping through his alarm that was playing jiggling music.

"Don't worry about it; just know I was doing something important!"

"You're such a fucking liar!"

"Tch, less talking, more running, damn it!"

"Aye, don't change the subject!"

With about ten seconds left on the clock, Kage and Unknown arrive at class, thankfully.

"We made it!"

As Kage and Unknown celebrate their arrival, they look to the board where Mr.Mink is.

"Welcome to class, you two. I'm glad you could arrive on time. Today's a special day, so take a seat so we can start the lesson."

"Right!"

As both of them walk to their seats, they notice that Selena, Akira, and Paul are present. Unknown looks over to Wayne's seat and notices that it's empty.

"I guess Wayne and Lex aren't back yet."

Both of them take their seats, and Mr.Mink starts his lesson.

"Today I will be teaching you all about the Snachro Zone."

Everyone looks at Mr.Mink with a face of interest.

"Yeah, I know this is kind of different, but trust me, it will all make sense after the lesson is finished. Now to start this lesson, can anyone tell me what makes the Snachro zone so special?"

Selena raises her hand in eagerness.

"Yes, Selena!"

"What makes the Snachro Zone so special is the massive body of water it has."

"Correct as always, Selena, that fact right there is the reason why in the war between the four zones, Snachro Zone was the most feared. No one could come onto their land since every city was surrounded by a big body of water. The Grava zone might have had more materials to work with, but during that entire war, the Grava zone couldn't get near the Snachro zone without many casualties."

Selena raised her hand before Mr.Mink could continue his sentence.

"Yes, Selena!"

"Does this lesson have something to do with that discussion with Mr.Alex?"

"We will get into that later, Selena, after the lesson."

"Oh alright!"

"Now to continue the lesson!"

As class one learns about the Snachro Zone, Grava City gets a visitor at the Grava City police station. The police station's automatic door opens, and at it is a 5'6 beautiful dark-skinned woman with gray hair wearing a buttoned white shirt alongside a gray skirt. The woman looks like she's in her twenties. The woman walks over to the front desk and starts talking to a police officer at the desk.

"Oh hello officer I came to speak to a man named Luthor."

The police officer looks up and instantly starts blushing.

"Oh, um, our head detective. I think he's somewhere around here."

"Oh really? Could you call him up here for me?"

"Yes, of course, ma'am!"

The officer picks up his walkie-talkie.

"Hello, can Detective Luthor come up to the front desk right away?"

"You know you're pretty cute for such a young police officer."

The police officer's face fully turns red from the lady's compliment.

"Oh, really...thank you. You know you're really cute too!"

The mysterious woman moves closer to the police officer, which causes him to blush out of control.

"Umm, umm...Can I help you?"

"Hehe, silly boy, I'm way out of your age range since I happen to be fifty-six in a few months."

"Huh???"

The woman starts to laugh hysterically with an evil expression on her face.

"???"

She grabs the police officer by the hair and slams his head on the desk, causing him to get knocked out cold.

"Tch, whatever you want, it better be good, Luthor."

The woman looks behind her and sees Luthor holding a gun to the back of her head.

"Of course, I have a good reason for you being here, but you can't cause any trouble since you're a feared legend."

"Oh right, I am a feared legend. Can you remind me what they named me again?"

Luthor stares at her intensely as she asks her question.

"They named you the Exploiter for all your specific

crimes around the four zones."

"Yeah, and you should know by now that in any situation you put me in, I always have the advantage. Even if the strongest being in the universe were to be behind me, I would still be at an advantage!"

Exploiter starts to smile sadistically.

"Go ahead, please pull the trigger! Go ahead and humor me!"

"Tch if you wish."

Luthor pulls the trigger, but instead of a bullet coming out of it, a foam bullet comes out and bounces off the back of Exploiter's head.

"What the hell is this?"

"Hehe, too late for questions."

Exploiter turns around, kicks Luthor to the ground, and instantly pulls out a gun with a silencer on it.

"I can't have you setting me up, so I came to the police station earlier and replaced all the bullets in the station with bullets that look and feel real, but when shot out of guns, they are revealed to be made out of foam. I told you that no matter what you do, I'll always have the advantage. Now I'm sure next time you'll listen to me and let me decide on our meet-up time and place."

Exploiter walks to the front desk and pushes the knocked-out police officer out of the seat. She takes a seat and puts her gun on the desk, pointing toward Luthor.

"Now go ahead and tell me what you called me here for. Oh, and you can get up now."

"Straight to the point as usual. The reason why I called you here today is because I need to look into a case from a few months ago."

"Oh, okay, and let me guess you put your all into figuring it out yourself but then ran into a brick wall."

"You guessed it!"

Luthor gets up and, out of his coat pocket, grabs the same card he found after his run-in with Nisugi. When he shows her the card, she flinches at the sight of Nisugi's picture.

"Wait, do you know this woman? If you do, I need some information!"

"No, I have no idea who she is. When I saw her, I thought I knew her, but I was mistaken."

"Oh, okay, but what I wanted to focus on is this."

Luthor points to the back of the card. She looks to where he pointed and sees an icon that says L.T.O.

"Are you telling me you're trying to find out about this icon?"

"Yes, it seems to be an organization of some sort."

"I'm going to tell you this right now, Luthor: you don't want to look into this any further."

"So you do know about this? I knew you were the right person to call! Please, you have to help me out with this!"

"Did you not just hear what I just said? Looking into this further will not end well."

"That is for me to worry about; you should be happy that I haven't put you in jail yet."

"Yeah, only if you could. Where is my money?"

"Tch, how could I forget?"

Luthor pulls out about two thousand dollars and slams them on the table. Exploiter looks at the money with a face of dissatisfaction.

"I'm going to need you to double my money this time."

"What, but that's not your usual price?"

"Well, for this specific request, I need double."

"Tch, this must be important information that you're giving me."

"Are you going to give me the money or not?"

Luthor pulls out another two thousand dollars and slams it on top of the first stack of cash.

"There's your money now. Please give me the information I need. I'll pay more if needed!"

"Tch, desperate son of a bitch."

Exploiter pulls out a phone and starts typing on it.

"I just sent you the location of a place that will help you find what you're looking for. It's encrypted, but I'm sure you can crack the code to it."

Luthor looks at his phone to confirm that he got the message.

"Alright, I got your message. I'll crack the code later. You can go ahead and leave now. I know you don't want to be in one place for too long."

"Hey Luthor"

"???"

"I'm telling you right now that you don't want to chase after this organization."

"I suggest you don't worry about me and worry about the situation you're always in."

"Tch whatever, there is no point in talking to you; just remember my words."

"???"

"You will die."

Exploiter gets up and walks out of the police station.

"I wonder what that woman is on about. Well, it's time to end this case once and for all.

Chapter 44 end